50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26 @ 6:00PM

For decades, folk music fans have tuned in to their radios for an annual Thanksgiving ritual: listening to Arlo Guthrie‘s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.” The 18-minute song is an epic piece of storytelling and now, 50 years on, it’s being commemorated in a nationwide concert tour and Thanksgiving PBS television special.

Arlo Guthrie joins Here & Now‘s Meghna Chakrabarti to explain why “Alice’s Restaurant” remains so popular among its fans, and why so many people regard it as an anti-Vietnam War song when he sees it primarily as a song against stupidity.

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EINSTEIN’S BIG IDEA

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 @ 11:00PM

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In “Einstein’s Big Idea,” NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905, including the completion of his special theory of relativity, his identification of proof that atoms exist, and his explanation of the nature of light, which would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among Einstein’s ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous.

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INSIDE EINSTEIN’S MIND

SATURDAY, JUNE 1 @ 11:00PM

On November 25th, 1915, Einstein published his greatest work: general relativity. The theory transformed our understanding of nature’s laws and the entire history of the cosmos, reaching back to the origin of time itself. Now, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s achievement, NOVA tells the inside story of Einstein’s masterpiece. The story begins with the intuitive thought experiments that set Einstein off on his quest and traces the revolution in cosmology that is still playing out in today’s labs and observatories. Discover the simple but powerful ideas at the heart of relativity, illuminating the theory—and Einstein’s brilliance—as never before. From the first spark of an idea to the discovery of the expanding universe, the Big Bang, black holes, and dark energy, NOVA uncovers the inspired insights and brilliant breakthroughs of “the perfect theory.”

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JAMESTOWN’S DARK WINTER

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27 @ 11:00PM

Jamestown, Virginia. The site of the first permanent English colony the Americas settled in 1607 and the home of the archaeological site “Historic Jamestowne” today. It has long been speculated that the harsh conditions faced by the colonists during the winter of 1609, often referred to as the “starving time,” might have made them desperate enough to participate in the unthinkable, and perhaps even commit murder to do so.

Secrets of the Dead: Jamestown’s Dark Winter follows archaeologists and forensic anthropologists as they excavate the early American colony to uncover a dark secret hidden for more than 400 years.

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AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

In the early 17th century, a small group of religious radicals embarked from England to establish a separatist religious community across the Atlantic Ocean in the New World. William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Plantation for more than 30 years, wrote the definitive history of the early colony, from the early formation of a separatist Protestant sect in England to a colony in the New World whose hard-fought success after a decade would trigger a massive influx of colonists throughout New England.

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MIMI AND DONA

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 @ 8:00PM

What happens when love runs out of time? For 92-year-old Mimi, who has spent much of her life caring for 64-year-old Dona, her daughter with an intellectual disability, it means facing the inevitable — the likelihood that she will not outlive her daughter and the need to find her a new home. Filmmaker Sophie Sartain, Mimi and Dona’s granddaughter and niece, respectively, captures the quirky and deeply connected mother-daughter duo at their most poignant crossroads.

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THE MARK TWAIN PRIZE

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

The special features a star-studded cast of Murphy’s friends and colleagues, including top entertainers and comedians Dave Chapelle, Kathy Griffin, Arsenio Hall, Brittany Howard, George Lopez, Sam Moore, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Nealon, Trevor Noah, Jay Pharoah, Joe Piscopo and Chris Rock. The 2015 program pays tribute to the humor and accomplishments of the comedy icon.

Eddie Murphy is the most commercially successful African-American actor in the history of the motion picture business and is one of the industry’s top-five box-office performers overall.

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OCEAN GIANTS

VOICES OF THE SEA

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 8:00PM

Whales and dolphins conjure a deep sense of wonder in us that’s hard to explain. From the Arctic to the Amazon, this groundbreaking three-part series goes on a global expedition with world-renowned underwater cameramen, Doug Allen (Planet Earth) and Didier Noirot (Jacques Cousteau’s cameraman), as they capture spellbinding footage of these marine mammals. Ocean Giants looks at how cetaceans hunt, mate, and communicate, and follows scientists as they strive to uncover new insights about these animals.

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WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20 @ 9:00PM

This Week on Washington Week: How the Paris Terror Attacks are Reshaping the Strategy to Defeat ISIS, Homeland Security, Refugee Policy and the 2016 Campaign

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