THE VACCINE WAR

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1 @ 8:00PM

Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots–some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6–and follow alternative vaccination schedules advocated by gurus like Dr. Robert Sears. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. And some advocacy groups, like Generation Rescue, argue that vaccines are no longer a public health miracle but a scourge; they view vaccines as responsible for alarming rises in certain disorders, including ADHD and autism.

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HAMLET

THURSDAY, APRIL 29 @ 12:00AM

Shakespeare’s immortal “To be, or not to be” takes on a whole new meaning (and medium) as classical stage and screen actors David Tennant and (recently-knighted) Sir Patrick Stewart reprise their roles for a modern-dress, film-for-television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) 2008 stage production of Hamlet. The production will be presented on PBS by the Great Performances series tonight!

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MY LAI

MONDAY, APRIL 26 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

What drove a company of American soldiers — ordinary young men from around the country — to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? Were they “just following orders” as some later declared? Or, did they break under the pressure of a vicious war in which the line between enemy soldier and civilian had been intentionally blurred? AMERICAN EXPERIENCE focuses on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities, and then bring them to light.

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Small Island

SUNDAY, APRIL 25 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

Born into a broken home and an impoverished life in Jamaica, Hortense (Naomie Harris) longs for a fulfilling life in England; one with a fine house and a doorbell. The door of opportunity swings open, and Hortense is married and on her way to the promised land of post-war Britain. Steadfast dreams are soon tested by hard realities as Hortense and her husband Gilbert (David Oyelowo) face racism and poverty. In the small-minded country, their only saving grace is Queenie (Ruth Wilson, Jane Eyre).

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FRIDAY, APRIL 23 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

There is no single way to build green. Green Builders takes a wide-ranging look at a variety of approaches and levels of commitment and at the individuals who have helped turn green building theory into reality. These individuals are not just builders and designers; they’re teachers and homeowners, corporate leaders and academic specialists, leaders of institutions and universities as well as renegade inventors. From The Willow School to PNC Bank to the first solar-hydrogen home called The Hopewell Project, people talk about why they made the move to go green, what the challenges were, and how their project has fared. In most cases, one finds that a green building project has more to do with smart planning and a mindset change about energy use than expensive technologies or consumer sacrifice. Innovation helps, and there are plenty of innovations included in Green Builders that are making green technology effective and affordable. Geothermal storage, wind farms and extensive solar array systems are examined in the program. As the stories in the documentary demonstrate, it is crucial for us to change our perspective on how we build, recognizing the wasteful impacts of the traditional mode of building and operating our structures, and realizing the environmental and economic benefits of building green. Only then will the green building movement be successful.

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FOOD, INC.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli ” the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

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The Big Energy Gamble

TUESDAY, APRIL 20 @ 6:00pm & 9:00pm

As he takes office on January 20, 2009, President Obama must deliver on an ambitious campaign pledge to fight global warming. He need look no farther than California, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is already leading the way with a dramatic and controversial program to slash carbon dioxide emissions and promote energy efficiency. In this program, NOVA explores the pros and cons of California’s bold approach, which could be adopted nationwide during the Obama administration.

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EARTH DAYS

THURSDAY, APRIL 22 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

It is now all the rage, but can you remember when everyone in America was not “Going Green”? AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s Earth Days looks back to the dawn and development of the modern environmental movement through the extraordinary stories of the era’s pioneers — among them Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, biologist/Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich, Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, Apollo Nine astronaut Rusty Schweickart, and renewable energy pioneer Hunter Lovins.

Widespread concern about the environment in America was on the rise in the early 1950s after a small group of scientists began to document the impact of our technology on the Earth’s ecosystem. Within a decade it seemed to many Americans as if the post-war dream of a better world brought about through science, technology and economic growth — the American dream — was turning into an unfathomable nightmare. The post-war economic boom had fueled industrial expansion, and the Interstate Highway program had encouraged mass migration to the suburbs, but emissions from new vehicles and production factories clogged the skies, and cities around the country experienced “smog episodes.”
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14 @ 6:00PM & 9:00PM

In this primetime special, Sesame Workshop presents personal stories about coping with the death of a parent. Katie Couric joins Elmo and his furry friends to model communication between adults and children. They’ll also offer thoughtful suggestions and strategies that help the whole family.

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The Ever Expanding Universe

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5 @ 10:00PM

n this two-hour special, NOVA examines how a simple instrument, the telescope, has fundamentally changed our understanding of our place in the universe. What began as a curiosity “two spectacle lenses held a foot apart”ultimately revolutionized human thought across science, philosophy, and religion. “Hunting the Edge of Space” takes viewers on a global adventure of discovery, dramatizing the innovations in technology and the achievements in science that have marked the rich history of the telescope. This tale of human ingenuity involves some of the most colorful figures of the scientific world”Galileo, Kepler, Newton, William Herschel, George Hale, and Edwin Hubble”leading up to today’s colossal telescopes, housed in space-age cathedrals or orbiting high above the Earth. Now, at the center of an international space race, a new generation of ever-larger telescopes is poised to reveal answers to longstanding questions about our universe”and, in turn, to raise new questions.

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