Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard, was the most notorious pirate of his day. At the height of his rein, he commanded a fleet of four ships and a crew of 400 men. They were ruthless seafaring raiders who terrorizing vessels in American waters. In 1718, Blackbeard even blockaded the city of Charleston, crippling its economy. Eventually he was caught and beheaded by a posse from the Royal Navy. Now, 300 years later, a marine archaeology team believe they have found his sunken flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, off the North Carolina coast. The remains of the shipwreck are helping solve the most enduring mystery surrounding the infamous pirate captain – did he accidentally run his ship aground, or was it a deliberate plot to betray his crew and cheat them out of their share of the plunder?

THIRTEEN’s Secrets of the Dead: Blackbeard’s Lost Ship premieres nationally, Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).

More than five centuries ago, Michelangelo Buonarroti was the darling of the Catholic Church. The Papacy commissioned him to create many of its most important pieces, including the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. He spent his life glorifying the Church, etching Catholic ideals into masterpieces that defined religion for the masses. Yet when he died, his body was secretly shepherded off to Florence, and the Church was denied the opportunity to honor him with a grand funeral in Rome. Historians have long wondered about the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, but now, art historian Antonio Forcellino believes he has pieced together evidence of a deep rift between the Church and the esteemed artist. The cause: Michelangelo’s belief in Protestant ideals, and his involvement with a clandestine fellowship trying to put an end to the decadence and corruption of the Clergy and reform the Church from within.

THIRTEEN’s Secrets of the Dead: Michelangelo Revealed premieres nationally, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). The film deconstructs the puzzling discrepancies between the sculptures Michelangelo created and the way he described them, revealing an intricate effort to carve his own beliefs into stone, while protecting himself from the wrath of a powerful Cardinal who viewed him as a heretic. Actor Liev Schreiber (CSI, upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine) narrates.

In the 1970s, female East German athletes came from nowhere to dominate international sport. But behind their success lay a horrifying secret. Doping for Gold reveals the truth behind the biggest state-sponsored doping program the world has ever known, creating a timely perspective on today’s many sports drug scandals.

A Firefly Production for Thirteen/WNET New York and ITVS International in association with Five, Channel Four International and History Channel (UK).

In the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, the world took notice as East Germany, a relatively small country with few previous Olympic wins, triumphed with an impressive 40 gold medals. The women’s swim team alone won 11 of 13 swim events, an unprecedented feat. U.S. swimmer Wendy Boglioli describes her opponents performance at the Montreal Olympics, “They were very strong women; they were very fast; we thought they were machines. Here (we) were, four of America’s best athletes ever put together on a team, and every single day the East German women were winning every, every event.”

The secret to their success would not come to light for decades: a state-sponsored doping program. Under the auspices of East Germany’s elite sports federation, headed by Manfred Ewald and monitored by the Ministry of State Security (known as Stasi), the government used doping as part of a deceptive master plan to secure international prestige through success in sports. Girls as young as 12 were recruited from across the country, and without their knowledge, were regularly administered untested steroids and male hormones as part of their training. Ultimately, Olympic gold came at a disturbing price for many of the German athletes, specifically side effects ranging from male-type hair growth and deepened voices to liver and heart disease, depression, infertility, miscarriages, and even death.

The systematic doping began in 1974 when Party leaders met with the East German Sports Performance Committee to decide how best to guarantee gold medals and international glory. What they came up with was “state plan theme 14-25.” The protocol was based on the work of chemists and pharmacologists at a secret lab in Leipzig. A pill, known as Oral Turinabol, was given to the athletes to bolster their hormones. Oral-Turinabol, or O-T, was an anabolic steroid derived from testosterone. More than 3,000 Stasi moles within the sport system monitored scientists, coaches, and even athletes who secretly reported every move they and their colleagues made. The web of informers meant the athletes had to be wary of what they said – probing questions or dissent were immediately and harshly punished. Produced by the state-run pharmaceutical company, Jenapharm, it was given to the most promising athletes.

O-T and other anabolic steroids increase muscle mass and hasten recovery time, allowing athletes to train harder and build up more strength. And because they are similar to testosterone, they have a greater impact on women, who have less real testosterone in their bodies to begin with. Many of the girls had barely reached puberty when they began receiving the hormone pills. Their parents, too, were kept in the dark. East German swimmer Katharina Bullin describes the before and after of the drug use, “Drips, injections, pills, it was all normal (during training). Nothing strange about it and I wouldn’t have known what to ask because I wasn’t skeptical at all. I didn’t start to look like a man overnight, it happened gradually. I wasn’t really aware of it myself but it was obvious to everyone else. And whether I wore a dress or a skirt, make up or jewelry, it got worse and worse. They called me a transvestite or gay, and it shocked me.”

By the 1980s, steroid use was growing throughout the sports world, and scientists were fighting a constant battle to catch up with ever-more-sophisticated doping techniques. At the Pan American games in 1983, organizers asked West German scientists to set up a lab to test for illegal drug use. It was the first time a large number of positive tests became public. Steroids were becoming pervasive, and all athletes were affected. But while the opportunity to use performance-enhancing drugs was present, there were differences between the East German methods and everybody else’s. Doping in the GDR was different from the doping in the West of the world but it was also different from the doping in other parts of the East. It was German, it was orderly, it was bureaucratic, it was written up.

Since the beginning of the Olympic games in Ancient Greece, athletes have taken major steps to become better, faster and stronger than their competitors. Egyptians ingested the ground rear hooves of the Abyssinian mule to improve their performance and Greek athletes ingested mushrooms for their performance-enhancing properties.

Today, the use of performance-enhancing substances in sports have come to be known internationally as “doping,” and pertain to the use of drugs by athletes to have a competitive edge, and include any substance, either natural or synthetic, foodstuff or supplement, legal or illegal, that when introduced to the human body gives the user a competitive advantage, according to the CASA National Commission on Sports and Substance Abuse.

The list of performance-enhancing drugs is fairly extensive, according to Dr. Gary Wadler, who serves on the committee that determines The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) banned substances list. Some of the most common drugs used among the elite athletes—the ones we worry about the most, include anabolic steroids, human growth hormones (hGH) and Erythropoietin (EPO), he said. For CASA’s 2000 Report “Winning at any Cost: Doping in Olympic Sports,” Dr. Wadler identified their known side effects, but he says that many of the side effects of these drugs are still unknown.

Anabolic Steroids: Physiological/Adverse Effects

The anabolic steroids used by athletes are synthetic derivatives of the male sex hormone testosterone. Athletes use steroids to achieve increases in muscle mass and strength and/or to improve recovery from training by decreasing tissue breakdown. Anabolic steroids act by binding to specific receptors inside a cell to enhance or inhibit the expression of specific genes. Adverse effects of steroid use include: liver tumors, testicular atrophy, development of abnormal breast tissue in males and masculinizing effects in females (increased body hair, deepening of voice).

Human Growth Hormones (hGH): Physiological/Adverse Effects

Growth hormone is a peptide hormone secreted by the pituitary gland. The release of hGH is controlled by many factors including diet, exercise, nutrition, drugs and various biological feedback mechanisms. Growth hormone appeals to athletes who are trying to increase their lean body mass and shorten recovery time, but to date there are no well-controlled studies of hGH demonstrating actual improvements in strength and endurance. Side effects that have been reported include headache, enlargement of the adenoids with snoring and further growth of hands, feet and face.

Erythropoietin (EPO): Physiological/Adverse Effects

EPO stimulates bone marrow stem cells to produce red blood cells, which in turn transport oxygen from the lungs to all organs of the body, including the muscles and enhances aerobic power. EPO found its way into sports as an alternative to blood doping, the practice of intravenously infusing blood into an individual in order to induce an elevated red blood cell count and increase their total aerobic power by increasing the transport of oxygen to their working muscles. The abuse of EPO raises both the red blood count and the thickness of the blood, which can stimulate the effects of certain blood diseases and raise the possibility of stroke and heart attack.

The athletes are not using them for therapeutic purposes. They conjure up their own craziness and use them in massive quantities. A normal dose may be 10, and they may take 100 or 1000. They also combine the drugs, one on top of another – term known as “stacking,” Dr. Wadler said.

Doping has definitely been around for a while, but today it seems like you can’t follow the Olympic Games without seeing some sort of drug scandal. While there used to be a lack of any effective mechanism to police the use of banned substances in the Olympics, sports governing bodies, such as WADA, are cracking down on doping. Before the iconic opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, 12 cross-country skiers including two Americans and a former gold medalist from Germany were suspended for failed blood tests. The athletes were suspended five days each for elevated levels of hemoglobin, the red blood cell that increases endurance. The test results raised the possibility of blood doping with synthetic hemoglobin to increase oxygen in the muscles. Just last year, Olympic track star, Marion Jones, was stripped of the record five medals she won in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, after she admitted to having used steroids.

“You have to view this as giving yourself a disease,” said Dr. Wadler. “In the ’80s, I reported a series of deaths from EPO. The cyclists, all in their 20s, ‘mysteriously’ died after taking EPO.”

One of the problems that still remains is that there is no solid evidence on doping in the Olympics and how many athletes actually use [performance-enhancement] drugs-all of the evidence is anecdotal, according to Sue Foster, CASA’s Vice President and Director of Policy Research and Analysis. But, there are enough reports and tests to show that it’s a serious health and safety issue, she said.

The stakes are so high for the athletes to be number one, and there’s so much money fueling the competition, that the athletes are willing to risk their health – and even their lives. In fact, half of all Olympic athletes surveyed during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta admitted that they would be willing to take a drug – even if it would kill them eventually – as long as it would let them win every event they entered five years in a row, as reported by Sports Illustrated.

The mentality of winning at any cost still persists today, according to Dr. Wadler. “Athletes live in a world of invincibility and denial. They’ll hear me say it’s dangerous, but their risk-reward ratio is so distorted that they disregard the risk even if it means shortening their life.”

Related Links and Resources:

• FAUST’S GOLD: Inside the East German Doping Machine by Steven Ungerleider, Ph.D. (St. Martin’s Press)
• Dr. Steven Ungerleider GDR Collection in Honor of Professor Werner Franke and Brigitte Berendonk – Archive of documentation pertaining to East German doping, housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin
• The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University — A Report by The CASA National Commission on Sports and Substance Abuse “Winning at Any Cost: Doping in Olympic Sports”
• Scientific American, “The Doping Dilemma”
• Science Daily, “Mice Can Sense Oxygen Through Their Skin” — A look at new experiments involving EPO
• BBC News, Olympic Challenge — A Frontline Scotland piece investigates
• International Herald Tribune, “Gene that hides doping poses predicament for testers”

WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY
ANDY WEBB

EDITOR
ANDY WEBB

ONLINE EDITOR
ENGE GRAY

DUBBING MIXER
GREG GETTENS

AUDIO MIXER
ED CAMPBELL

ADDITIONAL CAMERA
ALEX WEBB
ANDREI ERASTOV

UNDERWATER CAMERA
HOWARD CLOWES

ART DIRECTOR
ALEX WARD

GRAPHICS
Z-DEPTH
CHRISTOPH HORMANN

HEAD OF PRODUCTION
SARAH SAPPER

PRODUCTION MANAGER
ELAINE FOSTER

PRODUCTION COORDINATORS
ELEANOR HARRIS
HELEN LEWIN

ASSISTANT PRODUCERS
CRISPIN GREEN
SOPHIE COOPER

COSTUME DESIGNER
SARAH NICHOLLS

MAKE UP ARTIST
HANNAH PHILLIPS

ARCHIVE
HAROLD AGNEW
JOHN R. ALDERMAN
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
FOOTAGE FARM
BUYOUT FOOTAGE
HOUGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
GLEN CURTISS MUSEUM
INTERSTUDIOS, ASSOCIATION OF ARMY FILM, RUSSIA

SERIES OPEN AND ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS

DESIGNERS
DAVID CHOMOWICZ
BOBBY CHANG
ADAM HELFET-HILLIKER
CURTIS STILES
RAFAEL TRUJILLO
FELICIA VAN OS

SERIES OPEN AND ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS

PRODUCER
MARGI KERNS

EDITOR
JAY SLOT

MUSIC
JIM HEFFERNAN
MICHAEL MONTES

PROJECT MANAGER
JULIE SCHAPIRO THORMAN

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
CURTIS STILES

EDITOR
MICHAEL WEINGRAD

SERIES PRODUCER
STEPHANIE CARTER

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
DAN CHAMBERS

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
JARED LIPWORTH
WILLIAM R. GRANT

A BLINK FILMS PRODUCTION FOR THIRTEEN IN ASSOCIATION WITH ZDF, ARTE, ZDF ENTERPRISES GMBH, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS, CHANNEL 5 AND WNET.

THIS PROGRAM WAS PRODUCED BY BLINK FILMS AND THIRTEEN, WHICH ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS CONTENT.

© 2011 BLINK FILMS AND WNET

1952 Summer Olympics – Helsinki, Finland

• The Soviet Union competes in its first Summer Olympic Games. Concerned that Cold War rivalries would lead to violence, East Bloc athletes are housed in a separate Olympic village from their western competitors. Video of the opening ceremonies below:

• The German Democratic Republic (East Germany), formed three years earlier in Soviet-occupied Germany, is denied its request to compete. Between 1956 and 1964, East and West Germany are required to pool their athletes and compete under the same banner.

1956 Winter Olympics – Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy

• The Soviets make a commanding Winter Games debut by collecting more medals than any other nation. The Soviet ice hockey team dethrones the Canadians and foreshadows the dominance it will enjoy between 1964 and 1992.
• Meanwhile, the Americans emerge as a figure skating power when Tenley Albright and Hayes Alan Jenkins take gold medals in the men’s and women’s competitions. Video below:

1956 Summer Olympics – Melbourne, Australia

• The People’s Republic of China becomes the first nation to boycott the Olympic Games, objecting to the participation of Taiwan under the name “Formosa.”
• The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland also boycott the games in response to the Soviet invasion of Hungary.
• With tension between the Soviets and Hungarians high, fistfights erupt during a water polo match between the two nations. One player leaves the pool bloodied. The incident earns the nickname, “Blood in the Water.” Video below:

• An Australian named John Ian Wing suggests that, during the closing ceremony, instead of entering with their national teams, athletes ought to enter as a large group representing global unity, a tradition that continues today.

1966 European Track and Field Championships – Budapest, Hungary

• Rumors circulate that top athletes from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are actually men disguised as women. In response, competition officials launch “sex tests” to verify that no men attempt to compete in women’s competitions.

1968 Summer Olympics – Mexico City, Mexico

• East Germany competes under its own banner for the first time.
  

1972 Summer Olympics – Munich, Germany

• The Munich games will be forever remembered for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and one policeman, but sporting controversy occurred too. During a US – Soviet basketball match, confusion about whether a time-out had been called between free throws causes officials to add 3 seconds to the end of the game. The US leads by a point, but the added time allows Soviet Alexander Belov to catch a cross-court pass and drain the winning lay-up. Video below:

• East Germany becomes an elite sporting nation, collecting 66 medals – only the Soviets and the Americans win more at 99 and 94 respectively – putting the GDR ahead of host nation and bitter rival, West Germany.

1973 World Aquatics Championships – Belgrade, Yugoslavia

• The East German doping program is put to the test; GDR women win 10 of 14 gold medals, setting 8 world records. East German officials set their sights on the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

1976 Summer Olympics – Montreal, Canada

• Now at full throttle, the East German doping program helps the small nation of 17 million win 90 Olympic medals, including 11 of the 13 possible gold medals for women’s aquatic events. Once again, only the Superpowers – the Soviets and Americans – collect more.

1980 Winter Olympics – Lake Placid, New York

• “Do you believe in miracles?” For the American fans who watch a ragtag team of amateur and collegiate-level hockey players topple the invincible Soviet juggernaut – a team that had crushed the NHL All Stars earlier that year – the answer is, “Yes!” The Americans go on to win the gold medal. Sports Illustrated later names the “Miracle on Ice” the greatest sporting moment of the 20th Century. Video below:

1980 Summer Olympics – Moscow, USSR

• After the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, the Carter administration exerts tremendous pressure on the US Olympic Committee’s House of Delegates to vote for an Olympic boycott. The vote to boycott passes by more than 2 to 1, and the United States, along with 64 of its allies – including Canada – do not attend the games. It is the largest boycott in Olympic history.

1984 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles, USA

• The Soviet Union and 14 of its East Bloc allies refuse to compete, citing safety concerns for its athletes. Most agree the Soviets stage the boycott in retaliation for the US-led boycott of the Moscow games four years earlier.
• The Los Angeles games were also notable for being the first privately funded Olympics, earning a profit of $250 million – perhaps a more appropriate reason for the Communist boycott than unfounded safety concerns.

1988 Summer Olympics – Seoul, South Korea

• After South Korea denies North Korea’s bid to be a joint Olympic host, the North withdraws its athletes from all competitions.
• Eight years after the USA’s impossible victory over the Soviet hockey machine, the Empire strikes back, defeating the traditionally dominant American basketball team, 82-76. After the games, the International Amateur Basketball Federation voted to allow NBA players to compete in the Olympics, and during the next Olympic cycle, the Dream Team was born. Video below:

1992 Summer Olympics – Barcelona, Spain

• With the Cold War over, the former Soviet Union competes as the “Unified Team,” although its competition winners accept their medals with the flags and anthems of their home countries.

WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY
STEVEN R. TALLEY

EDITOR
GLEN MOLESWORTH

CAMERA
SCOTT PRESTON
BRIAN MCCLATCHY
PETE WINTER
MIKE ELWELL
CHRIS TERPSTRA

GRAPHICS
DONALD FERNS
DAVID BATSON
KARSTEN SCHNEIDER

ORIGINAL MUSIC
BRUNO BARRETT-GARNIER

ASSISTANT PRODUCER
KATIE BROCKIE

SOUND
BRENT NAZAROFF
TIMO SEIDEL
RUSS MICK
JACK MORRIS
CRAIG MULLIS

ONLINE EDITORS
JAY SLOT
MICHAEL WEINGRAD
STU MOFFATT
FRANK LODGE

SOUND MIXER
ED CAMPBELL

SOUND EDITOR
ERROL SAMUELSON

ASSISTANT PRODUCER, CHINA
FELIX FENG

PRODUCTION MANAGER
SUZANNE LLOYD

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
NIKKI STIRLING

SERIES OPEN AND ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS

DESIGNERS
DAVID CHOMOWICZ
BOBBY CHANG
ADAM HELFET-HILLIKER
CURTIS STILES
RAFAEL TRUJILLO
FELICIA VAN OS

SERIES OPEN AND ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS

PRODUCER
MARGI KERNS

EDITOR
JAY SLOT

MUSIC
JIM HEFFERNAN
MICHAEL MONTES

SPECIAL THANKS:
ZHANG BINBIN
ALEXANDER GRILLPARZER
FELIX HORN
SUN JIE
DR. INGEBORG KADER
MELINDA LEE
MARKUS MONREAL/SCYTEC
MUSEUM FÜR ABGÜSSE KLASSISCHER BILDWERKE MÜNCHEN
NEC NEW ZEALAND
GAO PING
SUSAN RAY
STEPHEN SELBY
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
KELEN TUTTLE
WANG WEILIN

ARCHIVE
ABSOLUTELY WILD VISUALS
BEIJING YUANCHUN MEDIA CO
LUIGI CHIESA
FREER GALLERY OF ART
NATURAL HISTORY NEW ZEALAND LTD

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
CURTIS STILES

COORDINATING PRODUCER
STEPHANIE CARTER

PROJECT MANAGER
JULIE SCHAPIRO THORMAN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, NHNZ
ANDREW WATERWORTH

EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE OF PRODUCTION, NHNZ
MICHAEL STEDMAN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
JARED LIPWORTH

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
WILLIAM R. GRANT

© 2011 WNET.ORG PROPERTIES LLC.

A NATURAL HISTORY NEW ZEALAND LTD PRODUCTION FOR THIRTEEN IN ASSOCIATION WITH WNET.ORG AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL.

THIS PROGRAM WAS PRODUCED BY NATURAL HISTORY NEW ZEALAND LTD AND THIRTEEN,
WHICH ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS CONTENT.

In 2009, a team of marine archaeologists carrying out a sonar survey of the seabed around the Italian island of Ventotene made an astonishing discovery. The wrecks of five ancient Roman ships were found in pristine condition. Remarkably, much of the cargo remained exactly as the ancient Roman crews had loaded it, suggesting that these ships had not capsized but had gone to the bottom of the sea intact and upright. What happened to these ancient ships? What were they carrying and why had they traveled to this remote, rocky island in the first place? The team is returning to Ventotene to investigate the wrecks, with the blessing of the Italian government.

The island where this ‘graveyard’ of ships was found holds significance in ancient Roman history: Planned as a vacation retreat, the island became a prison when Emperor Augustus banished his daughter there. The massive underground galleries that supplied the villa with water can still be explored today. Their walls are covered in the original Roman plaster. Were the ships carrying supplies to this island of exiled misery? Lost Ships of Rome follows the team as they explore the sites in detail, salvage artifacts and piece together the history of the ships and why they were lost at Ventotene two thousand years ago.

A Windfall Films production for THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG and National Geographic Channel.

Narrator: LIEV SCHREIBER
Producer/Director: ROBERT HARTEL
Executive Producer, Windfall Films: IAN DUNCAN
Executive in Charge: WILLIAM R. GRANT
Executive Producer: JARED LIPWORTH

© 2010 WNET.ORG Properties LLC and Windfall Films.

Dr. Timmy Gambin: Maritime Archaeologist

Roberto Rinaldi: Diver
Roberto is a leading Italian underwater cameraman and deep diving expert. Roberto has been in the business for over 25 years and has travelled the oceans of the world – some of them in company of legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau.

Dr. Annelise Freisenbruch: Historian
Annelise is a British classicist who trained at Cambridge University. She is an expert on the role of women in ancient Rome and is the author of “Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power and Politics in the Roman Empire.”

PRODUCTION

Dr. Robert Hartel: Producer/Director
Rob is a biochemist who entered the world of TV after completing an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College in London. Rob’s storytelling skill, combined with a visual sensibility honed by a decade at Windfall Films, has allowed him to produce and direct a number of high profile documentaries, such as Big, Bigger, Biggest, Generals at War, Mummy: The Inside Story, Men of Iron, and Bioterror Alert – as well as the award-winning Dambusters and My Brilliant Brain.

Ian Duncan: Executive Producer
Ian Duncan spent four years at the BBC before leaving in 1987 to form Windfall Films with David Dugan and Oliver Morse. He has produced films across different genres – science, natural history, arts, documentary features and drama. These have won many awards including a Banff Rocky, an RTS award, a Cable Ace, a Chicago Gold Hugo, an Emmy, the Grand Award at New York Festivals, and awards at Jackson Hole and Missoula Wildlife film festivals.

William R. Grant: Executive in Charge
William R. Grant is director of history, science and nature at WNET.ORG, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW 21 in New York. He joined WNET in 1995 after 12 years at WGBH in Boston, where he was managing editor of Frontline and executive editor of Nova. At WGBH he also served as executive producer of Living Against the Odds and Made In America?

At WNET.ORG, Grant is in charge of one of a documentary production department which brings to national broadcast programs in the areas of natural history, science, history, business, travel, and other topics. While at WNET.ORG he has also been executive producer of Innovation and Going Places and numerous miniseries, including America on Wheels, Savage Skies, Savage Earth, Savage Seas, Knife to the Heart, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, On the Trail of Mark Twain, The American President, In Search of Ancient Ireland, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Slavery and the Making of America, African American Lives, The Supreme Court 1, Looking for Lincoln and the continuing series Secrets of the Dead. He has been responsible, as executive in charge of production, for Nature, one of public television’s most watched continuing series, and the miniseries Savage Planet, Secrets of the Pharaohs, Warship, Africa, 1900 House, Frontier House, Manor House, The Secret Life of the Brain, Colonial House, Texas Ranch House, Warplane, Ground War and the Human Spark.

Prior to joining WGBH in 1983, Grant was for 14 years a reporter and editor at two of the nation’s largest daily newspapers – the Detroit Free Press and the San Francisco Chronicle, where his work won numerous awards. In 1979-80 he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2005 was named to the University of Kentucky’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

Programs produced under his supervision have won 13 national News and Documentary Emmy awards, including one for the 2005 series Slavery and the Making of America, and one for the 2004 series DNA, and six George Foster Peabody awards, including one for the 2002 series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

Jared Lipworth: Executive Producer
From 2007 to 2010 Jared Lipworth was director of science programs at WNET. In addition to Secrets of the Dead, he executive produced Ground War, Curious, The Human Spark, and The Mysterious Human Heart, which won a 2008 Emmy for Science, Technology, and Nature programming.

Prior to becoming executive producer and then director of science programs, Lipworth was the series producer for the department’s technology series, Innovation. He also served as series producer for Warrior Challenge, Secrets of the Pharaohs, the Emmy Award-winning Frontier House and The Secret Life of the Brain, Warship, Taxi Dreams, Echoes From the White House and Savage Planet. Additional credits at THIRTEEN include post-production producer for The American President and 1900 House and production assistant for Savage Seas, On The Trail of Mark Twain, The Great Balloon Race and Stories of Lupus.

He is currently the executive producer of science and nature at National Geographic Television.