Television

Self-shot stories explore the meaning and state of the American dream. From the desire for homeownership to ambitions for higher ed or career success, they show the hard work, opportunities and barriers that come with pursuing this ideal today.

The story of how crisis and tragedy prepared Joe Biden to become America's next president. Those who know him best describe the searing moments that shaped President Elect Biden and what they reveal about how he will govern.

Experience the hostile and bitter cold ecosystems of the Alps, shaped by snow blizzards and avalanches.

Louis Armstrong arrives in New York from Chicago where, during a brief stay with the Fletcher Henderson band, he amazes his fellow musicians and teaches the city to swing. A blues craze, spearheaded by Bessie Smith, takes the nation by storm. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, the first great white jazz artist, eventually plays for bandleader Paul Whiteman, whose blending of classical and jazz traditions comes to epitomize jazz for many Americans. This episode also traces the childhood of Benny Goodman, whose musicianship catapults him out of the slums of Chicago; and Goodman's eventual rival, clarinetist Artie Shaw, who also escapes ghetto life though jazz. Clarinetist Sidney Bechet takes his fiery music to Europe, and singer Ethel Waters brings a new kind of artistry to American popular song. Jelly Roll Morton advances the art of jazz composition, and Duke Ellington begins his incomparable career as the pre-eminent composer in jazz history. The episode ends with Louis Armstrong's teaming with pianist Earl Hines in l928 to make a series of pivotal recordings that culminate in the masterpiece "West End Blues."