Seasons & episodes
S33 · E2Voice of Freedom 2021-02-15 · 55 min
Explore the fascinating life of celebrated singer Marian Anderson. In 1939, after being barred from performing at Constitution Hall because she was Black, she triumphed at the Lincoln Memorial in what became a landmark moment in American history.
S33 · E3The Blinding of Isaac Woodard 2021-03-30 · 55 min
In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind.
S33 · E4American Oz 2021-04-19 · 55 min
The life of author L. Frank Baum, creator of the classic novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," which has inspired films, books and musicals.
S33 · E5Billy Graham 2021-05-17 · 55 min
Explore the life of one of the best-known and most influential religious leaders of the 20th century. An international celebrity by age 30, he built a media empire, preached to millions worldwide, and had the ear of tycoons, presidents and royalty.
S33 · E6Sandra Day O'Connor: The First 2021-09-13 · 55 min
Discover the story of the Supreme Court’s first female justice. A pioneer who both reflected and shaped an era, she was the deciding vote in cases on some of the 20th century’s most controversial issues—including race, gender and reproductive rights.
S33 · E7Citizen Hearst (1) 2021-09-27 · 55 min
William Randolph Hearst builds the nation’s largest media empire by the 1930s. Born into one of America’s wealthiest families, he used his outlets to achieve unprecedented political power, then ran for office himself.
S33 · E8Citizen Hearst (2) 2021-09-28 · 55 min
William Randolph Hearst continued his rise to power and expansion into Hollywood. The model for Citizen Kane, he had a decades-long affair with actress Marion Davies, built an enormous castle at San Simeon, and forever transformed modern media.
S34 · E1Riveted: The History of Jeans 2022-02-07 · 55 min
The fascinating and surprising story of the iconic American garment. They’re more than just a pair of pants — America’s tangled past is woven deeply into the indigo fabric. From its roots in slavery to the Wild West, youth culture, hippies, high fashion and hip-hop, jeans are the fabric on which the history of American ideology and politics are writ large.
S34 · E2The American Diplomat 2022-02-15 · 55 min
Discover how three Black diplomats broke racial barriers at the US State Department during the Cold War. Asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home, they left a lasting impact on the Foreign Service.
S34 · E3Flood in the Desert 2022-05-03 · 55 min
Explore the 1928 dam collapse, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, who had ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing water to the city via aqueduct.
S34 · E4Plague at the Golden Gate 2022-05-24 · 113 min
Discover how an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900 set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco. This new documentary tells the gripping story of the race against time by health officials to save the city from the deadly disease.
S34 · E5Taken Hostage (1) 2022-11-14 · 112 min
Part 1: Revisit the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, through stories of those whose ordeal riveted the world.
S34 · E6Taken Hostage (2) 2022-11-15 · 112 min
Part 2: Revisit the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, through stories of those whose ordeal riveted the world.
S35 · E1The Lie Detector 2023-01-03 · 53 min
Discover the story of the polygraph, the controversial device that transformed modern police work, seized headlines and was extolled as an infallible crime-fighting tool. A tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.
S35 · E2Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space 2023-01-17 · 112 min
Meet the influential author and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Also a trained anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean — reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms.
S35 · E3Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History 2023-02-20 · 52 min
Monopoly is America’s favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society. But behind the myth of the game’s creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing.
S35 · E4The Movement and the "Madman" 2023-03-28 · 82 min
Discover the story of the 1969 showdown between President Nixon and the antiwar movement. Told through firsthand accounts, the film reveals how movement leaders mobilized disparate groups to create two massive protests that changed history.
S35 · E5The Sun Queen 2023-04-04 · 52 min
Scientist Mária Telkes dedicated her career to harnessing the power of the sun. Though undercut and thwarted by her male colleagues, she persevered to design the first successfully solar-heated house in 1948 and held more than 20 patents.
S35 · E6Casa Susanna 2023-06-27 · 97 min
In the 1950s and ’60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe place to express their true selves.
S35 · E7The Busing Battleground 2023-09-11 · 113 min
The Busing Battleground viscerally captures the class tensions and racial violence that ensued when Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal desegregation order.
S35 · E8The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools 2023-09-12 · 107 min
When the Supreme Court issued an order to fully and immediately desegregate schools in October 1969, Leland Mississippi finally met the demand put forth in the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision. In the fall of 1970, a group of children entered school as part of the first class of Black and white students who would attend all 12 grades together.
S35 · E9The War on Disco 2023-10-30 · 51 min
The War on Disco explores the culture war that erupted over the rise of Disco music. The hostility came to a head on July 12, 1979, when a riot led by rock fans broke out at “Disco Demolition Night” during a baseball game in Chicago
S36 · E1Nazi Town, USA 2024-01-23 · 53 min
The story of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group which in the 1930s had scores of chapters across the country, representing what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. They held joint rallies with the KKK and ran summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery, melding patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism.
S36 · E2Fly With Me 2024-02-20 · 113 min
The story of the pioneering women who changed the world while flying it. Maligned as feminist sellouts, “stewardesses,” as they were called, were on the frontlines of a battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace.