D.C.) WETA-TV (Television station : Washington
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English
Description
How does the brain work, why does it break down, and how can it be healed? In section one of this intriguing program, doctors from Harvard Medical School and other eminent institutions study the chronic psychological stress of modern living in light of the innate fight-or-flight mechanism. In section two, a pioneer in brain imaging technology and experts from Massachusetts General Hospital and MIT describe revolutionary imaging techniques and their...
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English
Description
Every year it becomes more apparent that mental and physical health are closely intertwined. This program, hosted by noted journalist Garrick Utley, presents research on the link between depression and disease, the brain's role in athletic performance, and the treatment of chronic pain. Experts from the National Institute of Mental Health, Harvard Medical School, The Salk Institute, and elsewhere share their remarkable findings on topics such as the...
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English
Description
This program explores a variety of life-and-death situations to illustrate the spectrum of highly controversial ethical decisions made on a daily basis in modern American medicine. Hosted by ABC News medical correspondent George Strait, and featuring noted authorities such as health-care economist Uwe Reinhardt, the program takes an in-depth look at the decisions that underlie the use of health-care dollars. When is life support provided and stopped?...
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English
Description
The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, The Vietnam War, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides -- Americans who fought...
Language
English
Description
Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. COUNTRY MUSIC features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part series...
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English
Description
By April of 1944, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt have occupied the White House for more than eleven years. The President is secretly convalescing in South Carolina from a recently diagnosed bout of congestive heart failure while the war rages overseas and his family is under press scrutiny at home. Despite his failing health, FDR has ambitious postwar plans for his country: to see the horrific struggle through to victory, and then to bring the United...
7) California
Language
English
Description
Itinerary includes the desert oasis Palm Springs, Lost Angeles, Big Sur, the Sierra Nevada Mts. and the Giant Redwoods of Humboldt County.
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English
Description
Tells the story of the most important expedition in American history, led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Includes the stories of the young army men, French-Canadian boatmen, Clark's African-American slave, and the Shoshone woman named Sacagawea who went with them.
9) The Balkans
Language
English
Description
Globe Trekker Zay Harding visits the Balkan countries of former Yugoslavia: Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Starting in Kosovo, Zay explores the capital city Pristina before traveling the following day to Gazimestan, a memorial to a war that took place between Serbians and Turks in 1389. Zay moves on to Serbia to attend a traditional farming festival outside the Kalenic Monastery and visit the capital Belgrade.
10) Thomas Jefferson
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English
Description
Examines the life of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence.
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English
Description
The dramatic story of America’s national mammal, which sustained the lives of Native people for untold generations, being driven to the brink of extinction, before an unlikely collection of people rescues it from disappearing forever. Ken Burns recounts the tragic collision of two opposing views of the natural world––and the unforgettable characters who pointed the nation in a different direction.
12) Mark Twain
Language
English
Description
Recounts Mark Twain's life told primarily through his own words. Includes interviews with Hal Holbrook, Arthur Miller, William Styron and many others.
14) Prohibition
Language
English
Description
Prohibition is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed. The culmination of nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating...
15) The War of 1812
Language
English
Description
A two-hour documentary looking at this important historic event from several perspectives, the American, Canadian, British and Native American. The program will have some limited but very well done reenactments and major historians, authors, and experts.
Language
English
Description
Traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years. Using archival photographs, first-person accounts of historical characters, personal memories and analysis from more than 40 interviews, the series chronicles the steady addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them and save them from destruction.
17) Muhammad Ali
Language
English
Description
Examines the life of Muhammad Ali in and out of the boxing ring, covering his ties with the Nation of Islam, his political postions, including his refusal to be drafted during the Vietnam War, his role as a symbol of Black masculinity, and life after boxing.
18) Baseball
Language
English
Description
The complete Emmy Award-winning story of America's national pastime from master storyteller Ken Burns is now fully restored in high definition! Baseball spans the quest for racial justice, the clash of labor and management, the immigrant experience, the transformation of popular culture and the enduring appeal of the national pastime.
Language
English
Description
In Fall 1959, James Lawson offered free evening classes on nonviolent action to university students in Nashville with the goal of training and preparing them to desegregate the city's business district. Lawson had spent three years in India learning about Mohandas Gandhi. Now he guided his students in a study of both the history and practice of nonviolent methods--to prepare them for their "sit-ins" at downtown stores. Lawson's guidance helps the...
Language
English
Description
Renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. weaves together genealogical detective work with cutting-edge DNA analysis to trace the ancestry of a diverse array of trailblazing public figures. The result is a captivating cross-section of history, illustrating that diversity is both America's strength and its constant.