Summary: The war of the sexes, like any war, needs leaders and followers. Using a military-style competition between male and female test subjects, this program examines the different ways in which men and women exercise power, set goals, construct hierarchies, and perform teamwork. A chain of command, incorporating clearly defined roles and responsibilities, quickly materializes among the male...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Packing the trunk, finding the right road, parking in a tight spot-are these masculine tasks, best accomplished with a man's mechanical aptitude and spatial reasoning? This program resists broadly brushed stereotypes, but does identify disparities in the ways men and women operate machines, manipulate tools, focus on tasks, and navigate. Accompanying two teams as they race to organize and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Looks, personality, intellect, bank account-the reasons for attraction can't be predicted. Or can they? This program investigates ways that men and women evaluate potential lovers and life partners, and shows how male and female criteria may be more similar than many think. Creating a relaxed, club-like setting in which a small group of singles meet, flirt, and discuss their goals, the program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The horrors of World War II are the subject of this episode. We’ve been told all our lives that this war was our greatest triumph, the moment when the forces of light - the Western democracies and the Soviet Union - prevailed over the forces of darkness, the Nazis and the other Axis powers. It was a conflict that began in Europe in September 1939 and ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why do girls demonstrate greater reading and writing ability than boys? Is the female brain hardwired for faster verbal development? Should men let women do the talking? This program studies language differences between the sexes and explores the possibility that many communication skills are gender-specific. Following two teams of well-educated adults as they undergo a crash course in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: When asked to describe birth from a baby's perspective, a group of women talk about fear, elation, and other feelings-while their male counterparts summon only physical sensations. What causes such a contrast? This program explores the divergent emotional tendencies of men and women, throwing gender differences into bold relief through spontaneous theatrical exercises and expert commentary....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This final episode describes the Cold War as a continuation of the “war of the world” in which millions died in proxy wars conducted by the two superpowers. World War II may have been the central act of an epic struggle between rival empires, but the Cold War continued the turbulence that marked the entire 20th century as the most violent period in history. The end of the Cold War led to great...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This first episode posits that economic volatility, ethnic conflict and empires in crisis combined to spawn the 20th century’s bloodiest conflicts. This led to the rise of the brutal regimes of Germany, Japan and Russia, the “age of genocide” and a preoccupation with racial purity. It gives an excellent work up to the 20th century in conflict. Spanning Asia and Europe, it portrays the human...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Koran strictly forbids charging, earning, or incurring interest-a tenet that has kept the Islamic world from fully participating in global financial systems. But, thanks to a range of innovations, the ban is now seen as a building block in many of Asia's emerging economies. Visiting bustling commerce centers in Malaysia and Bangladesh, this program reports on the growing significance of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Longevity may or may not come from one's family tree-but with the help of science, could it one day be "inserted" into our genes? This program looks at research in genetic modification that might help extend human life spans. Spotlighting recent DNA experiments on the C. elegans worm, the program also describes longevity studies in mice, mollusks, and fungi-all of which shed light on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: By refining and expanding on the work of the founders of criminology, today's forensic scientists link crime victims to perpetrators in ways that almost defy belief. In this program, Professor Matile of France's Museum of Natural History; Professor Evenot, expert in odontology; and noted anthropologist Professor Perrot discuss the ways in which microscopy, entomology, dental records, and facial...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Once a case goes to trial, evidence is put to its greatest test as it undergoes the scrutiny of cross-examination. In this program, Professors Leriche and Cassiman, genetics experts, examine the ability of lucomalakite green to obtain DNA samples from minute quantities of bodily fluids and discuss the RFLP and PCR tests used to analyze them. In addition, the value of serology-forerunner of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: How well do we understand the neurology of learning? Why does the brain's ability to learn diminish as we age? Can science find a way to extend brain "fitness," even for the very old? This program addresses those questions as it describes important medical experiments and studies. Topics include the central role of nerve cell connections in learning and cognitive development; cerebral...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Before detectives set foot on a crime scene, forensic scientists must first painstakingly glean every bit of evidence. In this program, Professor Margot of the Forensic Science Institute of Lausanne describes advances in criminal science. New technology has made it possible to capture footprints with Mylar and static electricity rather than plaster; to cause fingerprints on a shell casing to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Are exercise and smart eating the best tools for staying youthful and attractive? Or is there a third ingredient in the fountain of youth-namely, clinical adjustments to the body's chemistry, perhaps with drugs derived from other creatures' hormones? This program examines the subject of hormone therapy and its link to longevity studies. Outlining the role hormones play in sexual attraction, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The execution of the Romanovs, in 1918, marked Russia's irrevocable shift from a monarchy to a communist state. The destruction of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, signified the collapse of that state and its Marxist ideology. This gripping, highly realistic program cinematically dramatizes the events of these two historic watersheds: indelible emblems of the birth pains and death throes of the Soviet...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: As cuts in federal and state funding continue to erode support for public school fine arts programs and field trips, opportunities for children to experience the visual arts, music, dance, and theater are disappearing. In this documentary, Kerry Bennington, of the Krasl Art Center, and other concerned experts trace the evolution of the arts in America and enter into the debate over whether the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Thanks to the efforts of dedicated visionaries, there is an intergenerational learning experience spreading across the country. This fine arts forum invites the creators and supporters of outstanding school and community programs to take center stage. Together they share the positive impact the programs are having on students and the public at large, promoting art education and helping to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The end of World War II brought a desolate European landscape with two countries and two ideologies in an epic face-off. Sir David Frost and noted historian Michael Beschloss examine a multitude of essential topics and events of the period, including the roots of the Cold War, the early challenge to Truman, the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War and the spread of "red scare" paranoia, the arms race...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the midst of the trauma of the Vietnam War, a U.S. diplomatic strategy evolves that begins the unraveling of the Soviet Empire. This program on the Cold War of the 1970s and 80s, hosted by David Frost and featuring historian Michael Beschloss, focuses on such key events and tactics as detente, the manipulations that sparked Middle East tensions between Soviet-supported Egypt and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: More than 10 million people around the world live with cancer pain, which can persist even after successful treatment. This program presents case studies of cancer survivors who have confronted ongoing, debilitating pain; it also features commentary from experts and highlights pain therapies-those available today and those on the horizon. Dr. Gail Cooney of the Hospice of Palm Beach County,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: With no lack of people willing to cash in on smuggling drugs into the U.S., reducing user demand is the key to unraveling America's drug problem. In this ABC News program, three recovering teenage substance abusers candidly reflect on their experiences with drugs. Topics include how they deceived their parents for years at a time, stole money from family and friends to pay for their habits,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: In 1971, President Nixon declared war on cancer, envisioning a cure within five years. What mechanisms-financial, political, and medical-did his announcement set in motion? Are we any closer to winning the war? This program takes on those questions, examining milestones in cancer research and studying forces outside the scientific world that have driven or hindered anti-cancer efforts....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: For decades, the medical establishment has focused on producing pharmaceutical weapons to fight cancer-but some scientists are disillusioned with that approach. This program looks at developments in late-20th-century cancer research, showing how environmental and dietary studies have become marginalized. Biostatistician John Bailar laments conventional wisdom, calling for more preventive...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006