Summary: This program features Freeman Dyson, an elder statesman of the scientific community whose ideas are so original in scope that his colleagues coined the term "Dysonian" to describe any highly imaginative idea. Joining him are astrophysicist Sara Seagar, a rising star in planetary system research who studies large extra-solar planets; John Bahcall, a pioneer in neutrino astrophysics and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Using the illness of Michael J. Fox as a springboard, this program theorizes that most Parkinson's cases are the result not of heredity but of viral attacks and environmental toxins that severely damage the substantia nigra, the "gearbox of the brain." Fox, Oliver Sacks, neurologists from The Parkinson's Institute and The University of British Columbia, and others share insights drawn from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: During the 16th century, a new breed of thinker arose, equal parts philosopher and scientist, that threw off the received wisdom of the past and started afresh. In this program, Paul Guyer, of the University of Pennsylvania; Rutgers University's Colin McGinn; and Princeton University's Kwame Anthony Appiah and Daniel Garber address the major philosophical currents of that era-and the explosive...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Technological advances are rapidly redefining the news industry-and raising critical ethical concerns. Is the Internet's ability to deliver instant news and to track audience behavior resulting in lower news standards? And is TV news blurring the line between hard news and infotainment? In this two-part NewsHour program, syndicated columnist Richard Reeves; former broadcaster Marvin Kalb, of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Christian Science with Phil Davis of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, in Washington, D.C. Topics of discussion include milestones in the life of founder Mary Baker Eddy, the main principles of Christian Science, Christian Science reading rooms, the solution-based journalism of The Christian Science Monitor, and the application of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: For biologist Mark Winston, bees aren't just insects. Their behavior, as well as their physical characteristics, sheds light on the interconnectedness of all life. This program presents an overview of Winston's distinguished career while focusing on his most recent activities-specifically, passing on his extensive knowledge to the next generation of entomologists. Having identified nine queen...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Months after his arrival, WCNC-TV news director Keith Connors feels he has assembled a winning team, but beneath the surface the newsroom family is riven by tensions. Promotions and demotions cause the reporters to question their director's motives. One reporter openly rebels after having to cover a story he felt was beneath him. Connors experiences the isolation of leadership's tough decisions...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In response to pressure from the station management for higher ratings, WCNC-TV news gets a reformatted program, a new anchor, and a new emphasis on breaking stories, especially in crime coverage. Once again, ethical conflicts arise as news director Keith Connors and his reporters try to determine how much information regarding an ongoing murder case they can air without jeopardizing the police...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The banking industry is turning Charlotte, North Carolina, into a boomtown; for WCNC-TV news, the city's growth brings its share of problems. Veteran reporter Bea Thompson became the city's first black female TV news journalist 22 years ago. Now on the verge of being fired, she touches off a protest that escalates into picketing and boycotts. News director Keith Connors and general manager Rick...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: During this episode of New York: A Documentary Film, filmmaker Ric Burns explores how the post-World War I economic boom, the rise of consumer culture, and the birth of new mass media industries fueled the convergence of an incredible array of human and cultural energies, ending with the stock market crash of 1929 and the construction of the Empire State Building. In just over a decade, New...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: When news director Keith Connors goes home to Ashtabula, Ohio, for Christmas, he is struck by the contrast with booming Charlotte and realizes why he left to cover news in other people's communities. His former reporter, Bea Thompson, made the opposite bargain, forsaking opportunities elsewhere to serve the city in which she grew up. After Connors orchestrates his news team's coverage of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: During this episode of New York: A Documentary Film, filmmaker Ric Burns documents how the dramatic events that followed the Crash of ’29 fueled the greatest financial depression in American history and plunged the city and the nation into economic gloom. In little more than ten years, immense new forces were unleashed in New York, from the Depression itself to the New Deal, which permanently...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: This episode of New York: A Documentary Film details New York's enormous growth as a booming commercial center and multi-ethnic port, and the mounting tensions that set the stage for the nation's bloodiest riot. Filmmaker Ric Burns examines how New York City swelled into the nation's greatest industrial metropolis as a massive wave of German and Irish immigration turned the city into one of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
View online at AVOD
Summary: When a wave of bomb threats hits Charlotte's schools, newly hired WCNC-TV news director Keith Connors reins in his reporters while the competition rushes to air with misinformation. Connors loses the big story but hopes he is building viewer trust. The station confronts a different ratings dilemma when several white families sue to overturn the city's landmark 1971 school busing plan. As...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Marcela Serrano's first novel won the Literary Prize in Santiago and her second book won the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz prize, awarded to the best Hispano-American novel written by a woman. In this program, Marcela Serrano-clearly on the upward path to international renown-assesses the diverse concerns that have influenced her life and her work, including the elimination of apartheid and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Marcela Serrano's first novel won the Literary Prize in Santiago and her second book won the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz prize, awarded to the best Hispano-American novel written by a woman. In this program, Marcela Serrano-clearly on the upward path to international renown-assesses the diverse concerns that have influenced her life and her work, including the elimination of apartheid and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this episode of New York: A Documentary Film, Ric Burns turns to the period when greed and wealth fueled an expanding metropolis, even as politics and poverty defined it. Now the spotlight shines on the growth, glamour, and grief of New York during America's giddy postwar “Gilded Age.” Exploring the incomparable wealth of the robber barons and the unabashed corruption of political leaders,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
View online at AVOD
Summary: This episode of New York: A Documentary Film begins by identifying the key themes that shaped New York's history: commerce and capitalism, diversity and democracy, transformation and creativity. Filmmaker Ric Burns charts the development of the city founded by the Dutch as a purely commercial enterprise, first as New Amsterdam, a freewheeling enclave of trade and opportunity; then as the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this episode of New York: A Documentary Film, filmmaker Ric Burns explores the turbulent and often harrowing years from 1945 to 2003. Emerging from the Depression and the Second World War as the most powerful metropolis on Earth, New York soon confronted urban woes of unprecedented proportions, and fought for its very existence. In exploring the social, economic, and physical forces that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this episode of New York: A Documentary Film, filmmaker Ric Burns follows the city into the 20th century in the wake of an extraordinary wave of immigration and the birth of the skyscraper. As New York spilled into the new century, the extraordinary interplay of capitalism, democracy and transformation surged to a climax. During a single generation, over 10 million immigrants arrived in New...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: Despite its horrific destruction, Hurricane Katrina gave New Orleans educators the opportunity to reinvent a school system that wasn't working. This program chronicles the first official year of public school in New Orleans after the storm and the transition to the widespread use of charter schools in the city. Focusing on predominantly African-American schools, the film examines the situation...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This chapter of the acclaimed series New York: A Documentary Film provides a powerful portrait of the events leading up to and following the 2001 terrorist attacks on September 11, reaching back to when the idea of a “world trade center” was first conceived and the towers were constructed. Filmmaker Ric Burns explores the physical, economic, and symbolic aftermath of the 9/11 attack - and what...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
View online at AVOD
Summary: Transitioning from ancient Jewish narratives to the emergence of the Jesus story, this program follows theologian Robert Beckford as he studies the authorship of the Gospels and subsequent New Testament books. Beckford's itinerary stretches from Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the Turkish ruins of Ephesus, then westward to Rome, London, and Bible-Belt America-underscoring the textual evolution that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: On August 29th, 2005, a catastrophic hurricane named Katrina made landfall on the Gulf coast of the United States. When the skies finally cleared, the survival of New Orleans hung in the balance. In the wake of this devastating event, as Americans continue a dialogue about the future of one of the nation's most distinctive cities, PBS American Experience presents New Orleans, a provocative...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006