Ken Burns

Explore the acclaimed filmmaker's more recent work in new interviews with Burns and his colleagues. Featuring excerpts from Country Music, Muhammad Ali, Benjamin Franklin, The U.S. and the Holocaust, The American Buffalo, The Vietnam War and others.

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Lauren Caspian is public radio's third most popular host. He's a well-meaning, hypocritical nimrod, just like you and me. He's also a stop motion puppet. Each episode follows the making of an episode of Lauren's show In the Know, in which Lauren conducts in-depth interviews with real world human guests. Lauren collaborates with a diverse crew of NPR staff. They are also puppets and nimrods.

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In his new film, Spirit of Golf, photographer and documentary filmmaker Christopher Felver traces his personal 20-year odyssey in search of the essence of the “auld Scots game.” Inspired by Michael Murphy’s book, Golf in the Kingdom, he travels to many of golf’s historic, fabled courses: St Andrews, Pebble Beach, Augusta National, among others. He interviews many of the game’s great champions and more than a few colorful characters, who are asked the question, “What is the spirit of golf?” We hear from Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, the wonderfully unique Moe Norman, Kathy Whitworth and Nancy Lopez, and notable teachers such as David Leadbetter, “Butch” Harmon and commentators Herbert Warren Wind, Jack Whitaker, and Jim Nantz. All the answers are marvelously diverse, funny, and poetic… just like the game itself.

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In THE UNMAKING OF A COLLEGE, students at Hampshire College confront a new president's underhanded attempt to shut down their school and discover that a powerful institution is bullying an inexperienced administration into giving up the independence of one of the most experimenting colleges in the United States. A raucous ode to democracy in action, this film evokes the courage required to stand up to power at a time when many liberal arts colleges are failing.

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It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the world's problems. It's harder to pinpoint the systems responsible for creating them. In this series, Jon Stewart brings together people impacted by different parts of a problem to discuss how we come up with change.

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In-depth interviews with the biggest names in sports, entertainment, and popular culture, and discussions led by Bob Costas that addresses the most topical issues in sports.

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Explore the filmmaker’s life and career in interviews with colleagues, friends and Burns himself. The importance of place emerges as a theme as he reflects on his own geographic touchstones, from the Brooklyn Bridge to small-town New Hampshire.

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Here For A Good Time tells the story of Hampshire College, a tiny liberal arts school in Western Mass with a reputation for really knowing how to party.

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The first documentary portrait of fashion icon Ralph Lauren, reveals the man behind the icon and the creation of one of the most successful brands in fashion history.

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Actor Courtney B. Vance hosts this special celebrating Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s work with focus on his five quintessential documentary series about American, African and African American history for PBS.

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Join author, activist and commentator Margaret Hoover for a public affairs talk show that delivers a civil and engaging contest of ideas among the brightest minds and voices from across the ideological spectrum.

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Stephen Colbert brings his signature satire and comedy to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the #1 show in late night, where he talks with an eclectic mix of guests about what is new and relevant in the worlds of politics, entertainment, business, music, technology, and more. Featuring bandleader Jon Batiste with his band Stay Human, the Emmy Award-nominated show is broadcast from the historic Ed Sullivan Theater.

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Life is really tough for Julie Kessler and Billy Epstein, two thirty-something aspiring comics living and working in New York City. While their friends and acquaintances move on to find success and love, they continue to struggle with careers and relationships, getting more bitter by the day.

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Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns sits down with OETA's Dick Pryor to discuss his latest documentary, "The Dust Bowl,' upcoming projects, and the thrill of filming America's history.

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After Jay Leno's second retirement from the program, Jimmy Fallon stepped in as his permanent replacement. After 42 years in Los Angeles the program was brought back to New York.

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Burns’ Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit, a documentary film produced to honor the 150th anniversary of the landmark act signed by Abraham Lincoln. This act preserved Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

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Plimpton! tells the story of writer, editor, amateur sportsman and friend to many, George Plimpton. Using Plimpton’s own narration – along with thoughts and stories from friends, family and contemporaries – the film is a joyful celebration of a life lived fully, richly, strangely, and, at times, a life that is hard to believe was actually lived by just one man.

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Obstetrician/gynecologist Mindy Lahiri tries to balance her personal and professional life, surrounded by quirky co-workers in a small medical practice in New York City.

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Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

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A history of the origin of National Baseball Hall of Fame and its first induction ceremony in 1939.

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Baseball's Seasons is a documentary series on MLB Network. Each episode takes a look at a season in the history of Major League Baseball. It first aired January 7, 2009 in the first week of the network's existence. Like a lot of the network's other original programming, Baseball's Seasons airs during baseball's offseason.

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Explore the vitality, history and significance of the craft movement in the United States and its impact on our nation's rich cultural heritage. Capturing the beauty, creativity and originality of craftsmanship, the show highlights artists and explores the inter-relationship of what they do, how they do it and why they have chosen a life of creating art.

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From the masters who create the mind-bending diversions to the tense competition at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Patrick Creadon's documentary reveals a fascinating look at a decidedly addictive pastime. Creadon captures New York Times editor Will Shortz at work, talks to celebrity solvers -- including Bill Clinton and Ken Burns -- and presents an intimate look at the national tournament and its competitors.

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The Colbert Report is an American satirical late night television program. It stars political humorist Stephen Colbert, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Colbert Report is a spin-off from and counterpart to The Daily Show that comments on politics and the media in a similar way. The show focuses on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits.

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The Tim McCarver Show is a syndicated sports show hosted by Tim McCarver featuring interviews with athletes, coaches, managers, authors, and sportscasters, from every type of sport.

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The Tony Danza Show was a daytime variety talk show that premiered on September 13, 2004 in syndication and was distributed by Buena Vista Television.

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This biography, shown on American television as part of the PBS "Great Performances" series, examines the life works of one of Hollywood's most celebrated animators, Chuck (Charles M.) Jones. He is best known for Warner Brothers cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe LePew. Included are plenty of behind-the-scenes descriptions of how an animated film is made, and (best of all) many clips from Chuck's cartoons.

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ABC Daytime's morning chatfest, currently featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Ana Navarro discussing the most exciting events of the day. Hot topics in the news, the best experts in their field, celebrity interviews and general entertainment are all part of The View.

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The World's Fakest News Team tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and pop culture.

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Stepping into the late-late slot vacated by David Letterman, Conan O'Brien stars in a show that far outdoes its competition in sheer strangeness. Along with the celebrity interviews and musical numbers typical of late-night talk shows, this program make frequent use of odd walk-on characters and frequent "visits" from celebrity guests.

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David Letterman uses mature humor to appeal to his audience in this weeknight series, which gets its music from a house band led by Paul Shaffer. Among the show's most-famous segments are the Top Ten List and Stupid Pet Tricks, the latter of which subsequently led to an additional recurring segment called Stupid Human Tricks.

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Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.

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ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program, currently hosted by George Stephanopoulos.

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In hour-long, in-depth explorations, CNN hosts examine extraordinary individuals, unexpected events and controversial subjects through interviews, stories, images and videos.

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America's popular television News magazine in which an ever changing team of CBS News correspondents contribute segments ranging from hard news coverage to politics to lifestyle and pop culture.

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The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

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Henry David Thoreau helped define modern environmentalism and nonviolent resistance, yet his life has been obscured by myth. The author of Walden and Civil Disobedience, he was brilliant but flawed, idealistic but opinionated. A writer, scientist and activist, his words resonate urgently with today’s challenges as humanity looks for ways to live in harmony with nature—and each other.

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Henry David Thoreau helped define modern environmentalism and nonviolent resistance, yet his life has been obscured by myth. The author of Walden and Civil Disobedience, he was brilliant but flawed, idealistic but opinionated. A writer, scientist and activist, his words resonate urgently with today’s challenges as humanity looks for ways to live in harmony with nature—and each other.

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The American Revolution was at once a war for independence, a war of conquest, a civil war, and a world war, fought by neighbors on American farms and between global powers an ocean or more away. It impacted millions from Vermont’s Green Mountains to the swamps of South Carolina, from Indian Country to the Iberian Peninsula. In defeating the British Empire and giving birth to a new nation, the American Revolution turned the world upside-down. Thirteen colonies on the Atlantic Coast united in rebellion, won their independence, and established a republic that still endures. The American Revolution will present the story of the men and women of the Revolutionary generation, their humanity in victory and defeat, and the crisis that they lived through.

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This two-part, four-hour documentary delves into the world of a 15th-century art titan and unravels his journey while shedding light on his lasting impact on future generations.

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Each winter, approximately 200 bison are transferred to tribal nations around the country. The film follows Jason Baldes, an Eastern Shoshone and a member of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, as he leads historic transfers of bison from Denver, Colorado to his Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, and from a Nature Conservancy Preserve in Illinois to the Menominee in Wisconsin, communities which will maintain their bison herds to supply a healthy food source and cultural touchstone to their tribal citizens for eternity. The film explores what living among the bison once again means for Native people—today and for future generations.

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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.

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Americans consider themselves a 'nation of immigrants', but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolds in Europe, the U.S. prove unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate refuge seekers. Through riveting firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors who as children endured persecution, violence and flight as their families tried to escape Hitler, this three-part documentary series delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America. Did the nation fail to live up to its ideals? This is a history to be reckoned with.

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First-person accounts from young people ranging in age from 11-27 about living with mental health conditions.

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Explore the revolutionary life of one of the 18th century’s most consequential and compelling personalities, whose work and words unlocked the mystery of electricity and helped create the United States.

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Muhammad Ali brings to life the iconic heavyweight boxing champion who became an inspiration to people everywhere.

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The visionary work and the turbulent life of Ernest Hemingway, one of the greatest and most influential writers America has ever produced. Interweaving his eventful biography with carefully selected excerpts from his iconic short stories, novels, and non-fiction, the series reveals the brilliant, ambitious, charismatic, and complicated man behind the myth, and the art he created.

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“The Gene: An Intimate History” brings vividly to life the story of today’s revolution in medical science through present-day tales of patients and doctors at the forefront of the search for genetic treatments, interwoven with a compelling history of the discoveries that made this possible and the ethical challenges raised by the ability to edit DNA with precision.

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The history of the East Lake Meadows public housing project in Atlanta and the people who lived there from 1970 to its demolition in 2000, with special emphasis on the activism of Eva Davis asserting the rights of the tenants.

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Explore the transformative power of education through the eyes of a dozen incarcerated men and women trying to earn college degrees – and a chance at new beginnings – from one of the country’s most rigorous prison education programs.

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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.

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The Mayo Clinic tells the story of a unique medical institution that has been called a "Medical Mecca," the "Supreme Court of Medicine," and the "place for hope where there is no hope." The Mayo Clinic began in 1883 as an unlikely partnership between the Sisters of Saint Francis and a country doctor named William Worrall Mayo after a devastating tornado in rural Minnesota. Since then, it has grown into an organization that treats more than a million patients a year from all 50 states and 150 countries. Dr. Mayo had a simple philosophy he imparted to his sons Will and Charlie: "the needs of the patient come first." They wouldn't treat diseases...they would treat people. In a world where healthcare delivery is typically fragmented among individual specialties, the Mayo Clinic practices a multi-specialty, team-based approach that has, from its beginnings, created a culture that thrives on collaboration.

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In 1854, noted American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau published his influential book 'Walden; or, Life in the Woods' about his attempt to live self-sufficiently in his cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, MA for two years.

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An immersive 360-degree narrative telling the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. Featuring testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides.

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Join an American couple’s courageous mission in 1939 to help refugees escape Nazi-occupied Europe. Over the course of two years, the pair will risk their lives so that hundreds can live in freedom.

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The documentary series aims to reshape the way the public sees cancer and strip away some of the fear and misunderstanding that has long surrounded it. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, paternalism and misperception.

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Chronicles the lives of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part, fourteen hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century, from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to Eleanor’s death in 1962.

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Burns’ Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit, a documentary film produced to honor the 150th anniversary of the landmark act signed by Abraham Lincoln. This act preserved Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

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The Central Park Five talk about what the film means to them, how they met Sarah Burns, and what the screenings have been like.

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Chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the Great Plow-Up, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

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In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, this is the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.

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The history of the rise, rule and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the entire era it encompassed (1920-33). After nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve the lives of all citizens by protecting individuals, families and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse; but paradoxically it made millions of people rethink their definition of morality.

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This two-part sequel to the 1994 series Baseball continues the story of America's national pastime from the early 1990s to 2010. This transformational period leads off with the 1994 players' strike. Other key developments and milestones include the increasing dominance of Latino and Asian players who truly turn the game international; skyrocketing profits; the Red Sox' historic World Series victory; the astonishing feats of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds; and the revelations about performance-enhancing drugs that cast a shadow over many athletic accomplishments.

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In an age of globalization and deregulation, a cataclysmic strike over money and power brings baseball to the brink; dazzlingly talented Latin players transform the sport; Cal Ripken becomes baseball's new Iron Man; and Ken Griffey, Jr. and Barry Bonds are simply dazzling. The Braves dominate the National League while the Yankees build a new dynasty. As home run totals soar, sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa smash one of the game's most hallowed records. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, players on every team must make life altering decisions about how far they are willing to go to succeed.

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Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - “The National Parks: America's Best Idea” is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.

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The story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns. The war touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America and demonstrated that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.

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The story of Jack Johnson, the first African-American boxer to win a title and his struggle to live as a free man.

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Largely considered to be the greatest American author, Mark Twain is celebrated in this exhaustive documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns.

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Jazz is a ten part series that explores the evolution – and the genius – of America’s greatest original art form, focusing on the extraordinary men and women who could do something remarkable – create art on the spot. Jazz celebrates their profoundly enduring, endlessly varied, and infinitely alluring music in the context of the complicated country that gave birth to and influenced it, and was in turn transformed by it.

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The little-known story of one of the most compelling political movements and friendships in American history.

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Frank Lloyd Wright tells the story of the greatest of all American architects. Wright was an authentic American genius, a man who believed he was destined to redesign the world, creating everything anew. Over the course of his long career, he designed over eight hundred buildings, including such revolutionary structures as the Guggenheim Museum, the Johnson Wax Building, Fallingwater, Unity Temple and Taliesin. His buildings and his ideas changed the way we live, work and see the world around us. Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural achievements were often overshadowed by the turbulence of his melodramatic life. In ninety-two tempestuous years, he fathered seven children, married three times, and was almost constantly embroiled in scandal. Some hated him, some loved him, and in the end, few could deny that he was the one of the most important architects in the world.

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Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery tells the remarkable story of the entire Corps of Discovery – not just of the two Captains, but the young army men, French-Canadian boatmen, Clark’s African-American slave, and the Shoshone woman named Sacajawea, who brought along her infant son. As important to the story as these many characters, however, was the spectacular land itself, and the promises it held.

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