Dec 08 Watch 6:30 In 'The Crown,' a portrait of a royal marriage under pressure By PBS News Hour Going behind the palace walls, the ambitious Netflix series "The Crown" aims to capture the long reign -- and private dramas -- of Queen Elizabeth II. The new second season gives viewers a deeper look at the public-private dynamic of… Continue watching
Dec 08 Watch 3:16 It can be really uncomfortable to talk about abortion. Here's why we should By Brit Bennett When you write a novel about abortion, says author Brit Bennett, you will have a lot of conversations with strangers about abortion. It’s made her realize how rarely we talk about it as a human experience. What if we approached… Continue watching
Dec 07 Watch 5:40 Award-winning 'Far From the Tree' is teen tale of adoption and long-lost family By PBS News Hour What makes a family? Blood? Circumstance? Closeness? In author Robin Benway's "Far From the Tree," she tells the story of three siblings who are put up for adoption as babies, and grow up without knowing each other exists. Benway, who… Continue watching
Dec 07 Watch 2:52 Poet reflects on America where 'an angry man can shoot a teenager' By PBS News Hour For Major Jackson, poetry is a vehicle of exploration. His poem "Stand Your Ground" responds to Florida's law that was famously invoked in the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old boy. Jackson gives his Brief But Spectacular take on leaving… Continue watching
Dec 04 Thousands are missing in Syria. A new exhibit bears witness to their absence By Jennifer Hijazi When Mansour Omari was released from Syrian prison in 2013, he carried precious cargo in the folds of his shirt. Sewn into his clothes were five worn pieces of cloth containing the names of his 82 cellmates, carefully inscribed using… Continue reading
Dec 04 His wife worked at Sandy Hook. Now this poet is helping start a conversation about gun violence By Alison Thoet The shooting “changed our lives that day, and we became activists.” In a new collection, 54 poems address gun violence in America. Continue reading
Dec 03 Watch 7:23 Documentary gives new glimpse at Jane Goodall's early research By Christopher Booker, Connie Kargbo The 1965 film “Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees” documented the early months of Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Africa. Now, unseen footage from the making of that film will appear in the documentary “Jane,” which revisits Goodall’s… Continue watching
Dec 02 Watch 5:46 This duo plays rock 'n' roll using only two cellos By Phil Hirschkorn, Melanie Saltzman Two musicians are using the cello to play contemporary rock music, drawing millions of YouTube views and filling concert halls. Stjepan Hauser, from Croatia, and Luka Sulić, from Slovenia, are both classically trained and form the band 2Cellos, which has… Continue watching
Dec 01 Watch 3:17 Binge-watching can't be good for you -- but is it really that bad? By PBS News Hour To binge or not to binge? Like many of us, with so many TV and streaming options these days, actress Annabelle Gurwitch struggles with falling into the black hole of epic, auto-loading TV and miniseries marathons. How is it different… Continue watching
Nov 30 How giving away free books became a Baltimore institution By Michael Boulter It’s a four-room warehouse where anyone can walk in, take as many books as they want and walk out. There’s no cash register and no clerk, just rows and rows of free books for anyone who wants them. Continue reading