American Masters: Creative Spark

Dr. Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, which some suggest will crack the final code toward understanding the universe.

Comedian Maria Bamford sits down to discuss her disarming approach to comedy.

Noah Baumbach ("Marriage Story") talks about how and why he makes movies.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage talks about the origin of her Broadway play, “Sweat."

Actor, writer, and director Ethan Hawke discusses formative projects from his career.

Academy Award-winning actress Lee Grant (“Shampoo,” “In The Heat of the Night,” “Valley of the Dolls”) sits down with American Masters creator Susan Lacy for an in-depth conversation about her upbringing, surviving years on the Hollywood blacklist during the McCarthy era, and her career as an actress and documentary filmmaker. ...

Academy Award-winning writer and actor Tarell Alvin McCraney talks about his semi-autobiographical play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” and the Academy Award-winning film “Moonlight” that followed. He discusses the centrality of Florida to his work, and the importance of building a sense of community above all else. McCraney’s recent ...

In 2019, Joy Harjo became the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States. She joins us from her hometown Tulsa, Oklahoma to talk about the responsibilities that come with this honor and the importance of representing rich Native American storytelling traditions. She talks about the transcendent nature of ...

Best-selling author R.O. Kwon writes with an empathy that can attract religious and non-religious readers alike. She talks about her debut novel, “The Incendiaries,” a fierce story that deals with faith, loss and fanaticism, and describes how her own loss of faith in high school, and the grief that followed, ...

One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Mark Rothko’s signature style helped define Abstract Expressionism. After a screening of the new American Masters documentary, Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Rothko’s daughter and son, Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher ...