"Rebels" profiles two 21st-century magnates who have built bridges to different communities and countries through today's dominant American exports: information and entertainment.

Russell Simmons has created a multimillion-dollar empire and an international following through rap music and hip hop culture, once the sole province of inner-city America. And Ted Turner turned a lens on the world with CNN, a 24-hour news station launched in 1982 -- and destined for failure, predicted most news executives. But like all innovators, he didn't listen to the naysayers.

"If you've got an innovative idea," Turner says in They Made America, "and the majority does not pooh-pooh your idea, then you must not have a very good idea."

Innovators profiled in "Rebels":

Ted Turner introduced the world to the world with 24-hour electronic news.

Russell Simmons created a cultural movement in fashion, movies, comedy, poetry, television -- and social action. He's the marketing maestro of hip-hop.

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