History

The daughter of singer Lena Horne, Buckley who chronicled her family's history from enslavement to becoming a part of the Black bourgeoisie. She died July 18. Originally broadcast in 1986.

Reagon, who died July 16, was one of the powerful singers who helped galvanize the civil rights movement in the 1960s as a member of the Freedom Singers quartet. Originally broadcast in 1988.

The award-winning playwright talks about his provocative Slave Play, which earned 12 Tony nominations. A new HBO documentary chronicles the making of the production. Originally broadcast June 2023.

Oyelowo plays a formerly enslaved man who went on to become one of the nation's first Black Deputy U.S. Marshals in the Paramount+ series Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Oyelowo also produced the series.

Journalist Alexia Fernández Campbell says some freed men and women were given titles to land following the Civil War — but after President Lincoln's death, the land was taken back.

"My early '70s New York is dingy and grimy," the Pulitzer Prize-winning author says. Whitehead's sequel to Harlem Shuffle centers on crime at every level. Originally broadcast July 24, 2023.

In his memoir, Small Acts of Courage, Velshi traces his family’s journey, from India to South Africa — where his grandfather crossed paths with Mahatma Gandhi — to Kenya, Canada and the U.S.

Nguyen and his family fled their village in South Vietnam in 1975. Now his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has been adapted into a series on HBO and MAX. Originally broadcast in 2016.

There's a new four-part documentary about Jon Bon Jovi's life and career called "Thank you, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story." Bon Jovi is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first album and a new album will be released in June called "Forever."

In his new book, Minority Rule, Berman connects the debates and compromises of the country's founders to contemporary politics. He says the founding fathers created a system that concentrated power in the hands of the elite and that today, institutions like the Electoral College and the Senate — designed as a check against the power of the majority — are having much the same effect.

Coppola, who died April 12, was an assistant art director on the 1963 film Dementia 13 when she met, and soon married, its director, Francis Ford Coppola. Originally broadcast in 1992.

During his decades-long career, MacNeil reported on the Kennedy assassination, the Cuban missile crisis and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He died April 12. Originally broadcast in 1986 and 1995.

Sixteen years after "Food, Inc.," investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, along with bestselling author Michael Pollan, are back with "Food, Inc. 2," a sequel to the documentary that sparked a national conversation about the economic, environmental, and health impacts of our industrialized food system. "Food, Inc. 2" focuses on corporate consolidation, which Schlosser reports gained steam during the pandemic.

Lance's new book, Chamber Divers, is about research conducted by scientists at University College London before and during World War II — including protocols for operating the miniature submarines used on scouting missions in advance of D-Day.

Sue Bird, the greatest point guard in women's basketball history. She retired in 2022 from the WNBA. A new documentary about her called "Sue Bird: In The Clutch" is available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, and Wolf On Demand.

Peter Pomerantsev co-founded a project recording Russian atrocities in Ukraine to combat Russian disinformation. His new book profiles a WWII propagandist who targeted the Nazi regime.

Molly Ringwald grew to fame representing Gen-X teen angst in '80s films like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. But her early success led to a career predicament: Ringwald says she went from playing teens in the '80s to "mom purgatory" — playing supportive mothers and entirely skipping what she calls the "sexy aunt" roles. In the new Ryan Murphy series, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Ringwald plays Joanne Carson, ex-wife of talk-show host Johnny Carson.

In a new podcast series from WNYC and the History Channel, journalists Kai Wright and Lizzy Ratner take us to New York in the mid-'80s, when the HIV virus first took root - so new, it didn't even have a name.

The Shangri-Las mixed a tough image with songs about teen love. Weiss, who died Jan. 19, left the group in the late '60s, and released her fist solo album in 2007. Originally broadcast in 2007.

Psychedelic science began much earlier than you may think - back in the 1920s and '30s. At the center of that research was Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, and her third husband, Gregory Bateson, one of the most controversial anthropologists of his time. That early history is covered in the new book by my guest, Benjamin Breen. The book is called "Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, The Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science".