GLORIA: A LIFE
FRIDAY, JUNE 26 @ 10:00PM
Experience a unique interpretation of feminist icon Gloria Steinem’s life told by an all-female cast starring Emmy Award winner Christine Lahti and directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus.
Category Archives: Program Highlights
THE NATIONAL PARKS
AMERICA’S BEST IDEA
THE EMPIRE OF GRANDEUR (1915-1919)
THURSDAY, JUNE 25 @ 10:00PM
In the early 20th century, America has a dozen national parks, but they are a haphazard patchwork of special places under the supervision of different federal agencies. The conservation movement, after failing to stop the Hetch Hetchy dam, pushes the government to establish one unified agency to oversee all the parks, leading to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Its first director, Stephen Mather, a wealthy businessman and passionate park advocate who fought vigorously to establish the NPS, launches an energetic campaign to expand the national park system and bring more visitors to the parks. Among his efforts is to protect the Grand Canyon from encroaching commercial interests and establish it as a national park, rather than a national monument.
NOVA
AUSTRALIA’S FIRST 4 BILLION YEARS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 @ 10:00PM
How did life storm the beaches and dominate planet Earth? Ancient Australian fossils offer clues. Host Richard Smith introduces Earth’s forgotten pioneers in a time when four-legged animals walked onto dry land, with the planet poised for disaster.
PREHISTORIC ROAD TRIP
WE DIG DINOSAURS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 @ 8:00PM & 12:00AM
Cruise with Emily into the Cretaceous, when astonishing creatures like T. rex dominated the planet. But what happened to these tremendous animals? And how did other life forms survive an apocalyptic asteroid crash into Earth 66 million years ago?
FRONTLINE
OPIOIDS, INC.
TUESDAY, JUNE 23 @ 8:00PM & 12:00AM
The story of a drug company that pushed opioids by bribing doctors and committing insurance fraud. With the Financial Times, FRONTLINE investigates how Insys Therapeutics profited from a fentanyl-based painkiller 50 times stronger than heroin.
TONI MORRISON
AMERICAN MASTERS
SATURDAY, MARCH 4 @ 6:00PM
American Masters — Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am is an artful and intimate meditation on the legendary Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author that examines her life, her works and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career. From her childhood in the steel town of Lorain, Ohio, to ’70s-era book tours with Muhammad Ali, from the front lines with Angela Davis to her own riverfront writing room, Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics and colleagues on an exploration of race, America, history and the human condition as seen through the prism of her own literature.
INDEPENDENT LENS
PIPE DREAMS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 20 @ 8:00PM & 12:00AM
In this excerpt from Pipe Dreams, talented young organists competing in the intense Canadian International Organ Competition (CIOC) in Montreal practice, practice, practice, and even do physical workouts. Anything to get ahead of the competition, including bringing out their inner craziness, for what is widely regarded as the Olympics for organ music.
NOVA
AUSTRALIA’S FIRST 4 BILLION YEARS
AWAKENING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14 @ 11:00PM
Hidden in the red hills of Australia are clues to the mysteries of Earth’s birth, how life arose and transformed the planet into the world we now live in. Travel with host Dr. Richard Smith to see the first scenes of the great drama of life on earth.
ROYAL MYTHS & SECRETS
LUCY WORSLEY’S
ROYAL MYTHS & SECRETS
ELIZABETH I, THE WARRIOR QUEEN
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26 @ 6:00PM & 10:00PM
Join Lucy Worsley for an exploration of how Elizabeth I’s image as a warrior queen, created by a series of myths and secrets about her victory over the Spanish Armada, shaped British national identity for centuries.
GREAT PERFORMANCES
ANN
FRIDAY, JUNE 19 @ 10:00PM
Enjoy a powerful and revealing look at legendary, larger-than-life Texas governor Ann Richards, who enriched the lives of her followers, friends and family, in this critically acclaimed play written by and starring Emmy Award winner Holland Taylor.