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Episode 3: asset-mezzanine-16x9

Episode 3

Miss Austen

Through her feverish delirium, Cassandra guards Jane's letters from Mary Austen. As she drifts in and out of consciousness, she relives the dramatic events of her youth. Once better, Cassandra takes drastic action to secure Isabella’s future.

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Episode 8

Call the Midwife

The challenges of midwifery hit close to home when a Mother and Baby Home is evacuated. Nancy’s wedding plans take a surprising turn, and Sister Catherine takes her First Vows.

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Yellow Face

Great Performances

Enjoy Tony winner David Henry Hwang’s comedy starring Daniel Dae Kim as an Asian American playwright who protests “yellowface” casting in the musical “Miss Saigon” only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play.

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The Lifegivers

Bugs That Rule the World

The world’s essential pollinators – bees, moths and butterflies – bring color to the world and put food on our plates. Far from fragile, they’re hardy creatures living complex lives, featuring physical transformations and mind-blowing migrations.

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Ultimate Crash Test: Impact

NOVA

Car safety experts just pulled off a first-of-its-kind remote controlled multi-vehicle pile up. Now investigators are put to the test as they analyze the data and look for insights into driver behavior and vehicle design.

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The End of the Beginning

Marie Antoinette

Amid the revolution’s advance, Marie Antoinette struggles to support Louis’s rule. When he succumbs to depression, she bravely steps up to rule in his place, proving she is the last man standing—ready for whatever comes next.

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Great Performances at the Met: Tosca

Great Performances

Lise Davidsen stars in the title role alongside Freddie De Tommaso in his company debut as her lover Cavaradossi with Quinn Kelsey as the chief of police Scarpia. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

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And So It Begins

Independent Lens

And So It Begins follows the Philippines’ turbulent 2022 presidential race, with the son of ousted former dictator Ferdinand Marcos waging a combative social media campaign against his more progressive opponent, incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo. Following it all is independent journalist and Nobel-winner Maria Ressa, with an eye toward the specter of increasing autocracy.

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Alberta - Canada’s Changing Heartland

Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana

In Canada’s heartland, Alberta, Pati dives into cowboy culture and learns how thriving immigrant communities in Edmonton and Calgary are reshaping the Canadian identity.

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Free For All: The Public Library

Independent Lens

Free For All: The Public Library tells the story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea happen. From the pioneering women behind the “Free Library Movement” to today's librarians who service the public despite working in a contentious age of closures and book bans, meet those who created a civic institution where everything is free and the doors are open to all.

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Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer's

Independent Lens

Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer’s is an intimate portrayal of three families confronting the unique challenges of Alzheimer’s and how this progressive neurodegenerative disease transforms roles and relationships. Whether it's a partner caring for a loved one or an adult child shifting into being their parent's caregiver, these stories show how families evolve when a loved one is diagnosed.

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Aging in America: Survive or Thrive

Aging in America: Survive or Thrive

Aging in America: Survive or Thrive, narrated by Martin Sheen, is a one-hour documentary that celebrates the promise of increased longevity while addressing crucial and unprecedented public policy challenges. Using Dr. Robert Butler’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, Why Survive? as a guide, the film explores critical topics such as ageism, healthcare, economic insecurity, and Alzheimer’s disease.

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Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On

Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On

Amid rising antisemitism around the world and 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Simon Schama traces the historical road of horror that culminated in the death camps. From Lithuania to Poland, the Netherlands and, finally, Auschwitz, Schama confronts the enormity of the Holocaust as both historian and 80-year-old Jew, to understand how it happened and in the hopes of never again.

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WE WANT THE FUNK!

Independent Lens

WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul, and early jazz roots, to its rise into the public consciousness. Featuring James Brown's dynamism, the extraterrestrial funk of George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic, transformed girl group Labelle, and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, the story also traces funk's influences on both new wave and hip-hop.

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Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse

American Masters

Explore the work of cartoonist Art Spiegelman and the impact of his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, about his parents’ survival of the Holocaust. A defender of free speech, Spiegelman has spoken out as book bans spread across the country.

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Austin City Limits Celebrates 50 Years

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits Celebrates 50 Years honors the fifty year-legacy of the longest-running music television series in history with live performances by diverse artists, vintage archival clips, interviews, and a special tribute from Dolly Parton.

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Revolutionary War Weapons

NOVA

How did a ragtag army defeat the most powerful army in the world to win American independence? Discover the key military technologies that helped propel the colonies to victory, from the Brown Bess musket to the world’s first military submarine.

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Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act

American Experience

The emotional and dramatic story of the decades-long push for equality and accessibility that culminated in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. A story of courage and perseverance, the film highlights the determined people who literally put their bodies on the line to achieve their goal and change the lives of all Americans. From AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

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LIZA: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story

American Masters

Take an intimate look into the life of Liza Minnelli, best known for her Oscar-winning role in Cabaret. Following in the footsteps of her mother Judy Garland, Minnelli used her boundless raw talent to build her own legacy in showbiz.

Boundary Stones: D.C. Area History Shorts

Hostage Standoff at the DC Jail: Shirley Chisholm and the 1972 Jail Uprising: asset-mezzanine-16x9

Hostage Standoff at the DC Jail: Shirley Chisholm and the 1972 Jail Uprising

Boundary Stones

On October 11, 1972, a group of inmates in cellblock of the DC Jail in Washington, DC, took several guards hostage, sparking a jail uprising. DC Corrections Director Kenneth Hardy and a Washington Post reporter attempted to negotiate an end to the standoff, as well as future Mayor Marion Barry and DC Delegate Walter Fauntroy. All were unsuccessful. And then Shirley Chisholm arrived.

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How Fairfax County Second Graders Made Medical History in the Fight Against Polio

Boundary Stones

On April 26, 1954, second graders at Franklin Sherman Elementary in McLean, Virginia kicked off the nationwide trials of Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. Called the biggest medical experiment in U.S. History, the much-publicized trials were a turning point in the fight against a disease that had terrified families for decades.

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Smokey Bear Was a Real Bear Who Had His Own Zipcode in Washington, DC

Boundary Stones

In 1950, an orphaned bear cub was rescued from a wildfire in New Mexico and brought to Washington to live at the National Zoo. Named "Smokey" after the popular Forest Service character, the cub became a real life advocate for fire prevention and got so much fan mail that the U.S. Postal Service gave him his own private D.C. zipcode.

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When the President Commuted to the Oval Office from Alexandria, VA

Boundary Stones

After Richard Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford found himself in uncharted territory. When Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, the White House was not yet ready for him. So, for the first 10 days of his Presidency, Ford commuted to the Oval Office and his suburban neighborhood home in Alexandria, Virginia became the unlikely epicenter of American politics.

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A Black Arlington Neighborhood was Destroyed to Build the Pentagon

Boundary Stones

In 1941, the U.S. was preparing for World War II. Residents of Queen City, a tight-knit Black neighborhood in Arlington, watched in awe as nearly 15,000 workers erected the Pentagon on a plot of federally-owned land next to their community. Some had enlisted, while others worked for the federal government. But then the government came for their shops, their churches and even their homes.

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Did the Hope Diamond Curse a Washington, D.C. Family?

Boundary Stones

According to legend, the Hope Diamond has a centuries-old curse and brings disaster to everyone who possesses it. But that didn't deter Washington, D.C. socialites Evalyn Walsh McLean and her husband Ned. After they bought the diamond from the Cartier Jewelry Company in 1911, Evalyn proclaimed, "Bad luck objects, for me, are lucky." For the next 36 years, fate would test that theory.

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The 1939 Alexandria Library Sit In Opened a New Front in the Civil Rights Movement

Boundary Stones

On the morning of August 21, 1939 five young African American men entered the segregated public library in Alexandria, Virginia and asked for library card applications. They were denied and sat down to read in silence. When the police arrived to arrest the protesters, it touched off a legal fight — and demonstrated the power of a new tactic to defeat Jim Crow.

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St. Elizabeths Hospital Tested a Piece of Mussolini’s Brain for Dementia. Then, They Lost It

Boundary Stones

After Benito Mussolini’s execution in 1945, American psychiatrist Dr. Winfred Overholser of St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital had a hunch that some medical condition might have to been to blame for the dictator’s extreme behavior. So he had samples of his brain sent to Washington, D.C., so that he could examine them. And then, one of the samples went missing.

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When Mobsters Kidnapped D.C.’s Godfather of Gambling

Boundary Stones

In the 1930s, Jimmy “The Gentleman Gambler” Lafontaine made millions running the largest casino between New York and Florida from the D.C./Maryland line, despite the fact that gambling was completely illegal. But the city loved him, the police were in his pocket and business was booming — until the mob wanted in on the action.

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He Sold Booze To the Powerful During Prohibition — and Then Exposed Them

Boundary Stones

George Cassiday, an unemployed army veteran from Southeast Washington, D.C. known as "The Man in the Green Hat," kept spirits flowing on Capitol Hill for 10 years. Despite the 18th amendment, he filled 25 orders per day for hard-drinking representatives and even had an office in the House Office building. But after he got in trouble with the D.C. police, Cassiday decided to expose his customers.

“The Exorcist” was Based on an Actual Maryland Exorcism. Here’s what REALLY Happened: asset-mezzanine-16x9

“The Exorcist” was Based on an Actual Maryland Exorcism. Here’s what REALLY Happened

Boundary Stones

Did you know that “The Exorcist,” one of the most famous horror movies of all time, was based on a real DC-area exorcism? The 1949 exorcism allegedly took place in PG, Maryland, and inspired “The Exorcist” author and producer William Peter Blatty while he was a student at Georgetown University. But some of the details in this famous case of demonic possession don't add up.

A Sting Operation Used the “Mafia” to Fight Crime in D.C. Did it Work?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

A Sting Operation Used the “Mafia” to Fight Crime in D.C. Did it Work?

Boundary Stones

In 1976 D.C. police dressed as caricatures of Italian mafisosos and bought millions in stolen goods from local thieves. They called it "Operation Sting," and soon police across the country were launching "sting operations" of their own. But not everyone was so enamored with the tactic, especially the communities it was being used to target.

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Fired for Being Gay, Frank Kameny Ran for Congress

Boundary Stones

When Frank Kameny was fired from his job with Army Map Service in 1957 because he was accused of being homosexual, he could've gone quietly. Instead, he fought back, founding LGTBQ rights organizations and launching a longshot campaign for Congress in 1971.

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The D.C. Nine: The Catholics Who Became Convicts to Stop the Vietnam War

Boundary Stones

On March 22, 1969, a group made up mostly of Catholic priests, nuns and seminarians broke into the Washington office of Dow Chemical Company, a company then synonymous with the production of napalm. What the activists did next — and the criminal trial that followed — created a firestorm of controversy, raising questions about the Church, the war effort, and the limits of non-violent protest.

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A “One Man Crime Wave” Came to a Stunning End in 1980... It's Impacts Remain

Boundary Stones

On December 5, 1980, renowned Washington, D.C. cardiologist Dr. Michael Halberstam was shot during a burglary at his home. Bleeding heavily, the doctor jumped in his car and ran over his assailant while driving himself to Sibley Hospital, where he died. The odd chain of events was just the tip of the iceberg in one of the strangest true crime stories in D.C. history.

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Meet the D.C. Woman Who Lived In a Glass House Atop Anacostia's Big Chair

Boundary Stones

In the late 1950s, D.C.'s Curtis Brothers Furniture Store partnered with Bassett Furniture, which built the World's Largest Chair – a 19.5 foot tall, 4600 pound Duncan Phyfe -- and installed it outside their showroom in Anacostia. Then, they built a glass apartment atop the chair and convinced 19-year-old Lynn Arnold to live there in plain view, 24-7.

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Thomas Jefferson’s 1235-Pound Religious Freedom Cheese

Boundary Stones

If you lived in Washington, DC on New Years Day of 1802, you may have noticed a giant wheel of cheese arriving at the White House — a gift to President Thomas Jefferson from a Massachusetts church. But this enormous cheese hadn't traveled hundreds of miles for purely celebratory reasons; no, this cheese had a message about religious freedom in the United States.

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How Mary Church Terrell Beat Jim Crow in D.C. Restaurants

Boundary Stones

In the 1940s, civil rights activists discovered that the key to ending segregation in D.C.’s restaurants might be hiding in plain sight at the library. Civil Rights researchers discovered two old D.C. laws which made it a crime for restaurants to refuse service based on race. As Jim Crow tightened its grip, the laws had faded from memory but Mary Church Terrell was determined to bring them back.

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100 Years Ago, a D.C. Physician Launched the First Anthrax Attack on the U.S. from His Basement

Boundary Stones

Uncover the shocking story of Dr. Anton Dilger, a D.C. physician who secretly waged germ warfare on American soil during World War I. From his home in Chevy Chase, Dr. Dilger cultivated deadly bacteria and passed vials of germs to German operatives who used them to poison horses and mules bound for battlefields in Europe. It was the first instance of modern biological warfare.

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Koreagate: Tongsun Park’s Cash Bribes and Congressional Corruption

Boundary Stones

Tongsun Park operated one of the most exclusive Washington social clubs of the 1960s and 70s, rubbing shoulders with generals, members of Congress, even US presidents. All the while, he was on the payroll of a Korean spy agency, giving millions of dollars in gifts to elected officials. Park was charged with multiple felonies, the House opened up a massive investigation and then... nothing.

Classical Score

The WETA Classical blog brings you the latest in classical music news, must-hear events around town, and lifestyle stories to accompany your love for classical music. Check back often for new posts from your favorite on-air hosts and the WETA Classical team!

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Community Impact

Since 1961 WETA has been a trusted partner in the D.C. community — a local touchstone for free, quality educational programming and activities. 

Boundary Stones

Boundary Stones

Boundary Stones spotlights local history in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and northern Virginia, uncovering compelling stories that have shaped or impacted our community over the years.

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WETA Arts

WETA Arts celebrates the visual and performing arts in the D.C. area. This magazine-style program presents a variety of stories, profiles, and discussions, introducing emerging and established artists alike.

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WETA Metro Livestream

Featuring PBS favorites with local flair, WETA Metro provides an additional public television resource for viewers in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

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WETA UK Livestream

British television at its best, around the clock, seven days a week. Watch live now!

Telly Visions

Telly Visions

Telly Visions is your British television and culture destination. Stop by for all the latest news on your favorite British dramas, mysteries and comedies — along with episode recaps, actor profiles, and more!

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