Inside the mind of Adolf Hitler
Psychological profiles of criminals and foreign adversaries are a regular part of modern law enforcement and intelligence-gathering. At the height of World War II, however, creating a profile of the enemy - detailing as much as possible about his ch...
How to kill a human being: methods of execution
Is a humane and painless execution method possible, and if so, would death penalty proponents support its use? Or is pain the whole idea? Examining what many see as the cruelty of current procedures, this program searches for a viable alternative. E...
Power of art: Bernini
Although rendered in stone, the sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini convey a sense of weightlessness perhaps unequalled in the history of Western art. This program illustrates Bernini's nearly miraculous ability to turn marble into a vessel of raptur...
Power of art: Caravaggio
Backed by a Church struggling to connect with the faithful, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio painted images imbued with physical immediacy and in-your-face drama. As this program shows, there was a trade-off: Caravaggio's biblical scenes frequently...
The day we learned to think: the evolution of language and cognition
Was there a "big bang" in human language and cognitive development, or did speech and abstract thought evolve slowly - perhaps across 200,000 years or so? Surveying prehistoric burial sites and other archaeological finds, including what might be the...
Battle of the brains: the case for multiple intelligences
For decades, IQ tests have been the gold standard for measuring intelligence. But is one standardized test really adequate for every taker? This program advocates a different approach, creating an array of unusual challenges to assess brainpower and...
Rotavirus
GlaxoSmithKline's new rotavirus vaccine can potentially save children across the globe from fatal diarrhea. This program guides viewers through the medicine's development process, and examines the highly unconventional way it is being distributed - ...
How many people can live on planet earth?
Thirst, starvation, claustrophobia - all three await the whole of humanity, if global population and consumption rates continue unchanged. This program explores the looming crisis in practical terms, measuring as accurately as possible our planet’...
The final hour: the end of life - and the death of religion?
Key figures either directly or tangentially connected to the progress of atheism - the Baron d'Holbach, Thomas Paine, Jeremy Bentham, Charles Darwin, George Jacob Holyoake, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Marx - are profiled in this program as Jonathan Mill...
Power of art: Rothko
Life, death, heroism, tragedy - subjects that, until the latter half of the 20th century, propelled the canon of Western art. How do the abstractions of Mark Rothko figure in that tradition? Are they, in a sense, its swan song? This program depicts ...