PBS Videos

Why Worms, Beavers and Pigs are Nature's Best Engineers - May 4, 2026 - PBS

Watch more of this series: https://to.pbs.org/3QDMaGE

Scientists said it would take a hundred years. It took ten. See how three unlikely species — worms, beavers, and pigs — brought a depleted English landscape roaring back to life, including one behavior at Knepp that nobody saw coming.

"Wilding" tells the story of a young couple that bets on nature for the future of their 400-year-old estate. The couple battles entrenched tradition, and dares to place the fate of their farm in the hands of nature.

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More about Wilding

Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book by the same title, WILDING tells the story of a young couple, Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree, who bets on nature for the future of their failing, 400-year-old estate.

The couple finds that their land and soil, once fruitful and full of life, has been decimated by decades of plowing and chemicals used in the modern farming industry. They discover the land needs a complete overhaul that can only be done by letting it go back to its ancient, natural processes and introducing ancient wildlife species that once roamed there freely. Ripping down the fences, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a mix of animals both tame and wild, in the hopes that their beloved family estate can return once again to its former glory and more, showing the audience what the enchanting and ancient countryside of England should be. The film documents this grand experiment which became one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe.

Meet the Poet Who Found Her Voice on Yelp | Cindy Tran: From Here to Here | In The Making - April 30, 2026 - PBS

Official Website: https://to.pbs.org/3Jhh29L | #AmericanMastersPBS

Poet Cindy Tran creates works that bridge personal memories and shared experiences, reflecting on childhood, parental expectations, and societal stigmas around an Asian-American identity.

Cindy Tran: From Here to Here

Directed by Xinyan Yu

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In the Making

What happens when an artist holds up a mirror to the world? "In the Making" is a documentary shorts series from @americanmasters and @FirelightMediaNYC that follows emerging cultural icons on their journeys to becoming masters of their artistic disciplines. The new season focuses on eight artists across a variety of disciplines whose work explores and influences American culture today.

Nathanael Greene, Daniel Morgan and The Battle of Cowpens | The American Revolution - April 28, 2026 - PBS

Official website: https://to.pbs.org/amrevpbs | #AmericanRevolutionPBS

Nathanael Greene is dispatched to the South to replace the disgraced Horatio Gates. Despite being outnumbered, Greene divides his army and gives Daniel Morgan command of a portion of his force. Morgan, a master tactician lures the British into a trap at the Battle of Cowpens, resulting in a decisive Patriot victory and forcing the British to retreat to Virginia.

Help your students understand the Battle of Cowpens and the significance of Nathanael Greene’s leadership and strategic plan during the Southern Campaign of 1780-81 with this free, curriculum-aligned teaching resource from PBS LearningMedia: https://gopbslearningmedia.org/NathanaelGreene

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION | A Film By Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt

An expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States of America, the film follows dozens of figures from a wide variety of backgrounds. Through their individual stories, viewers experience the war through the memories of the men and women who experienced it: the rank-and-file Continental soldiers and American militiamen (some of them teenagers), Patriot political and military leaders, British Army officers, American Loyalists, Native soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free African Americans, German soldiers in the British service, French and Spanish allies, and various civilians living in North America, Loyalist as well as Patriot, including many made refugees by the war.

The Revolution began a movement for people around the world to imagine new and better futures for themselves, their nations, and for humanity. It declared American independence with promises that we continue to strive for. The American Revolution opened the door to advance civil liberties and human rights, and it asked questions that we are still trying to answer today.

The film, narrated by Peter Coyote, includes the first-person voices of nearly 200 individual historic figures, read by a cast of actors, including Adam Arkin, Jeremiah Bitsui, Corbin Bleu, Kenneth Branagh, Josh Brolin, Bill Camp, Tantoo Cardinal, Josh Charles, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Keith David, Hope Davis, Marcus Davis-Orrom, Bruce Davison, Leon Dische Becker, Alden Ehrenreich, Craig Ferguson, Morgan Freeman, Christian Friedel, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Michael Greyeyes, Jonathan Groff, Charlotte Hacke, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Lucas Hedges, Josh Hutcherson, Samuel L. Jackson, Gene Jones, Michael Keaton, Joe Keery, Joel Kinnaman, Tracy Letts, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Josh Lucas, Michael Mando, Carolyn McCormick, Lindsay Mendez, Tobias Menzies, Joe Morton, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Jon Proudstar, Matthew Rhys, LaTanya Richardson, Liev Schreiber, Chaske Spencer, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep, and Yul Vazquez, among others.

Benedict Arnold Turns Traitor and Defects to the British | The American Revolution | PBS - April 23, 2026 - PBS

Official website: https://to.pbs.org/amrevpbs | #AmericanRevolutionPBS

General Washington discovers that Benedict Arnold has defected and planned to surrender West Point – and the men stationed there – to the British. Arnold accomplished miracles on the battlefield and felt that he did not receive due recognition. The spy who turned Arnold traitor is caught and hanged. However, Arnold escapes and takes command of a British regiment known as the American Legion.

Bring the story of Benedict Arnold into the classroom and encourage students to analyze his story to better understand how we remember historical figures with this free, curriculum-aligned teaching resource from PBS LearningMedia: https://gopbslearningmedia.org/BenedictArnold

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION | A Film By Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt

An expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States of America, the film follows dozens of figures from a wide variety of backgrounds. Through their individual stories, viewers experience the war through the memories of the men and women who experienced it: the rank-and-file Continental soldiers and American militiamen (some of them teenagers), Patriot political and military leaders, British Army officers, American Loyalists, Native soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free African Americans, German soldiers in the British service, French and Spanish allies, and various civilians living in North America, Loyalist as well as Patriot, including many made refugees by the war.

The Revolution began a movement for people around the world to imagine new and better futures for themselves, their nations, and for humanity. It declared American independence with promises that we continue to strive for. The American Revolution opened the door to advance civil liberties and human rights, and it asked questions that we are still trying to answer today.

The film, narrated by Peter Coyote, includes the first-person voices of nearly 200 individual historic figures, read by a cast of actors, including Adam Arkin, Jeremiah Bitsui, Corbin Bleu, Kenneth Branagh, Josh Brolin, Bill Camp, Tantoo Cardinal, Josh Charles, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Keith David, Hope Davis, Marcus Davis-Orrom, Bruce Davison, Leon Dische Becker, Alden Ehrenreich, Craig Ferguson, Morgan Freeman, Christian Friedel, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Michael Greyeyes, Jonathan Groff, Charlotte Hacke, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Lucas Hedges, Josh Hutcherson, Samuel L. Jackson, Gene Jones, Michael Keaton, Joe Keery, Joel Kinnaman, Tracy Letts, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Josh Lucas, Michael Mando, Carolyn McCormick, Lindsay Mendez, Tobias Menzies, Joe Morton, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Jon Proudstar, Matthew Rhys, LaTanya Richardson, Liev Schreiber, Chaske Spencer, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep, and Yul Vazquez, among others.

How Henry David Thoreau Lives on in the Present | PBS - April 21, 2026 - PBS

Watch the full three-part film: https://to.pbs.org/hdt2026

On May 6th, 1862, Henry David Thoreau passes away peacefully at age 44 from tuberculosis. His work continues to inspire generations to live in the present, experiment, and get excited about the experiment of being alive. Thoreau offers us these messages, but it's up to us to open the book and read.

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Henry David Thoreau | A Film by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers

He has been called the patron saint of the environmental movement and the father of nonviolent resistance. His best-known work, Walden, is considered a masterpiece and figures on every list of essential American books. His essay “Civil Disobedience” has inspired activists and reformers from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., to Colin Kaepernick and Greta Thunberg. He was a writer, a scientist, a seeker of truth, and a fighter for maintaining our nation’s first principles.

Yet our knowledge of Henry David Thoreau is incomplete, outdated, and often inaccurate.

In this modern historical documentary, the mythical Thoreau – the secluded hermit in the woods at Walden Pond, the outlier, the prophet – will give way to the human Thoreau: social; genial; inquisitive; an exacting scientist and charismatic speaker; an individual with flaws, self-contradictions, and misjudgments that prove his humanity and hold a mirror to our own.

Henry David Thoreau is the first nationally broadcast biography of this American original at a time when his wisdom is sorely needed. The film explores his most far-reaching and forward-thinking ideas: justice for all human beings, the health of our planet and the species it sustains, the quest for a meaningful life, the importance of standing up for one’s beliefs in the public square. Tracing those concepts into the 21st century will demonstrate how ideas – when taken off the page and truly lived – can change the world.

The series explores his thoughts on people marginalized by society—Native peoples, African Americans, and women. His experiences with them, and how he wrote about them, reveal the complexities of race, gender, and the roots of inequality, offering a clearer view of our shared history. Combined with his reflections on the natural world, or “wildness,” his work shows how nature and the fight for justice are deeply connected.

Executive produced by Ken Burns and Don Henley, directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, produced by Julie Coffman, Susan Shumaker, and co-producer Cauley Powell, and written by David Blistein.

The film draws on a rich collection of archival materials, newly filmed cinematography in Concord and beyond, and interviews with scholars, writers, and environmentalists. Among the people featured in the film are Pico Iyer, Douglas Brinkley, Lois Brown, Kristen Case, Laura Dassow Walls, Clay Jenkinson, Robin Kimmerer, J. Drew Lanham, Bill McKibben, Michael Pollan, Rebecca Solnit, and more.

The series is narrated by George Clooney and voices are provided by Ted Danson (Ralph Waldo Emerson), Tate Donovan (William Ellery Channing), Jeff Goldblum (Henry David Thoreau), and Meryl Streep (Lidian Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Mary Merrick Brooks, and Maria Thoreau).

Was the Boston Massacre Actually a Massacre? | Lucy Worsley Investigates - April 20, 2026 - PBS

Watch more: https://to.pbs.org/4gY7q1J | #LucyWorsleyPBS

What really happened at the Boston Massacre? Lucy Worsley uncovers how King George III's military crackdown on Boston ignited the American Revolution, and how a war of propaganda shaped history's first draft.

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More about: Lucy Worsley Investigates

Lucy Worsley re-investigates some of the most dramatic chapters in British history. She uncovers forgotten witnesses, re-examines old evidence and follows new clues. For over two decades, Lucy Worsley OBE served as the Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces in the U.K. She's the author of popular books about Jane Austen and Queen Victoria as well as the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling biography of Agatha Christie. She is the host of dozens of PBS specials and series including LUCY WORSLEY INVESTIGATES, LUCY WORSLEY’S HOLMES VS. DOYLE, AGATHA CHRISTIE: LUCY WORSLEY ON THE MYSTERY QUEEN, LUCY WORSLEY’S ROYAL MYTHS AND SECRETS, and many others.

The Hidden Crisis Alpine Sheep Herders Are Facing | Our New World - April 18, 2026 - PBS

Watch more of this series: https://to.pbs.org/4ceIT8W

In the French Alps, shepherds faces changing mountains with melting permafrost. With 1,000 sheep to guide and wolves lurking in the trees, every step upward is a fight for survival. Will they make it?

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More about "Our New World"

What world will we live in tomorrow as climate change reshapes the Earth? Our planet has many surprises in store. This film reveals Nature's astonishing adaptation abilities, and how we humans can become a supporting force.

His Family Played Before Emancipation. He Never Forgot. | In The Making - April 16, 2026 - PBS

Official Website: https://to.pbs.org/3Jhh29L | #AmericanMastersPBS

Enter the world of trumpeter, composer, educator, and storyteller Lani B. Supreme (Jelani Akil Bauman) as he carries forward a musical legacy that began with his great-great-grandfather before emancipation. Driven by his family’s craft, Bauman’s music celebrates Black creative expression.

Lani B. Supreme: Legacy

Directed by Sabaah Folayan

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In the Making

What happens when an artist holds up a mirror to the world? "In the Making" is a documentary shorts series from @americanmasters and @FirelightMediaNYC that follows emerging cultural icons on their journeys to becoming masters of their artistic disciplines. The new season focuses on eight artists across a variety of disciplines whose work explores and influences American culture today.

The Civil War's Lost Massacre | Full Episode | Secrets of the Dead | PBS - April 15, 2026 - PBS

Watch more: https://to.pbs.org/3mHxfbj | #SecretsDeadPBS

Originally a supply depot for Union forces in Kentucky, Camp Nelson became the site where 10,000 Black soldiers trained in the Civil War. But in the war’s last months, these soldiers were attacked by bitter Southerners. Their remains have never been found, and a team is dedicated to finding them to memorialize their service and heroism.

The Civil War's Lost Massacre | Secrets of the Dead

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Secrets of the Dead on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretsofthedead

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Secrets of the Dead

Part detective story, part true-life drama, @secretsofthedead unearths evidence from around the world, challenging prevailing ideas and throwing fresh light on unexplained events.

Henry David Thoreau's View of Indigenous Culture | PBS - April 14, 2026 - PBS

Watch the full three-part film: https://to.pbs.org/hdt2026

Throughout his life, Thoreau had been fascinated by Indigenous culture. As he and a friend set out on another excursion to Maine, he hires Joe Polis as a guide. Polis is a Penobscot leader, and throughout the trip, he teaches Thoreau about the Penobscot culture, language and way of life. Thoreau leaves Maine with a deeper appreciation for what it means to live in your native ground.