November 25, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

Unlike last Thanksgiving, which fell in the depths of the pandemic, the creation of vaccines means many of us can gather more safely with our loved ones this holiday. We heard from people across the country about the ways they're celebrating this year and what they're most grateful for.

While California is experiencing a record drought, driven in part by climate change, the initial spark for many wildfires often comes from utility equipment and power lines. And fire investigators are now looking into whether the utility company PG&E was behind the nation's largest fire so far this year. KQED's Lily Jamali reports.

Most families gather on Thanksgiving hoping that politics is not on the menu. And this year is no different. James Davison Hunter, an author and executive director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, joins Amna Nawaz to discuss polarization in the U.S. and how to lower the temperature.

When journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Evan Osnos moved back to the U.S. in 2013 after working abroad for 10 years, he was struck by the anger and fear seeping into American political culture. He recently spoke with Judy Woodruff about the reasons he set out to understand why the country had changed. It's the focus of his latest book,"Wildland: The Making of America's Fury."

In our news wrap Thursday, Germany became the fifth European nation to pass 100,000 deaths as the Czech Republic declared a 30-day emergency and France announced stricter mandates. Also, millions of Americans celebrated Thanksgiving Day with a return to traditions, President Biden met with U.S. Coast Guard members, and Native American activists held an annual day of mourning in Plymouth, Mass.

It's been three months since the U.S. withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, but America's involvement there didn't begin after Sept. 11, 2001. It began decades earlier, after the Soviet Union invaded that country in 1979 and the U.S. began working with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to counter its rival's influence. Nick Schifrin spoke with one of the key architects and partners in that effort.

An exhibition many have called "the art show of the year" are now on display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It includes a collection of masterworks by Titian, which have not been seen together in more than 400 years. Special correspondent Jared Bowen, of WGBH, takes a look as part of our arts and culture series, "CANVAS."