Islam
Smith discovered Islam as an adult, and became enamored with Islamic conceptions of order, justice, mercy, and compassion. He still prays five times a day as Muslims do. The Sufis opened the doors of Islam to Smith. Through their trance-inducing dan...
Free Speech for Sale: A Bill Moyers Special
When it comes to today’s important public policy issues, the opportunity to be heard depends on whether you can afford it. In this program, Bill Moyers and key legal and public interest advocates examine how industries with deep pockets use their ...
Challenging Hispanic Stereotypes: Arturo Madrid
Arturo Madrid’s ancestors made a home on American soil before the Mayflower arrived, but strangers still ask him, "And where are you from?" Weary of always being perceived as "the other," he has devoted himself to challenging the stereotypes that ...
Christianity and Judaism
Because we are removed from spirituality today, Smith believes we find it difficult to understand the true meaning of Christianity. Smith explains that Christianity wouldn’t have existed if its “spirit had not been real and dense and palpable an...
A Personal Philosophy
This program summarizes and distills what we have learned about the great religions in this series. Smith’s lifetime of experience and study helps him to go beyond the differences between each tradition. He shows how the cultivation of virtues val...
Bill Moyers Journal: Mortgage Mess
Focusing on the subprime mortgage crisis, this edition of the Journal travels to Cleveland, Ohio—the heart of the nation’s mortgage meltdown. Correspondent Rick Karr examines the state of Slavic Village, where more than 1,000 homes stand vacant ...
Confucianism
Born in China of missionary parents, Huston Smith learned about Chinese language, culture, and religion while growing up near Shanghai. Smith explains how the intertwining of opposites is key to understanding the great religions of China—Confucian...
The Politics of Addiction
The story of how our society meets the challenge of translating what scientists, doctors, counselors, and recovering addicts have learned into rational public policy is complex and sometimes contradictory. This program looks at Arizona’s struggle ...
August Wilson: Writing and the Blues
Everyone has to find his own song, says Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, and he found his in the blues. From music and literature he has shaped a philosophy of life and some of the country’s most compelling dramas, including Ma Rai...
The Hijacked Brain
Aided by powerful new diagnostic tools, scientists are making dramatic discoveries about how addiction affects the brain. In this program, Moyers goes into the laboratory to follow researchers engaged in charting an “image of desire” in the brai...