Retro Report on PBS

Humans are wary that robots could replace them. So what can we learn from the legendary chess match between a supercomputer and Garry Kasparov?

Strict prescription drug safety regulations in place today resulted in part from the devastating consequences of a pill prescribed during pregnancy that was originally thought to be harmless. F.D.A. safety guidelines were developed after thalidomide left a trail of severe birth defects. Today, it has become a case study for rising drug prices.

We hear a lot about fake news these days, but New Yorker magazine humorist Andy Borowitz wants to talk about another widespread phenomenon: no news. Every day on TV we’re assaulted with the empty news calories, the Pringles potato chips of news. But who was the evil genius behind this maddening trend?

Uncover crime evidence pulled from DNA websites. See how drug rules stem from a pill’s side effects. Learn.how a screen addiction cure is rooted in the past and why Americans are ambivalent about robots. Andy Borowitz objects to “no news.”

Parents worry about the latest video games, like Fortnite. A generation ago, Dungeons and Dragons was the game that seemed like a menace. But in a surprising twist, its role-playing strategies are now seen as a counterbalance to the problem of screen addiction.

DNA information that is available on genealogy websites is doing more than satisfying curiosity. Data collected from consumer DNA tests is helping the police to close cold case files, including a long-unsolved murder from the 1980s. But their use to solve cold cases is raising new concerns about privacy protection.

Social media’s power over consumers is not by chance, it is by design. Theories pioneered decades ago by B.F. Skinner lie at the root of today’s multi-trillion-dollar “attention economy."

Andy Borowitz, the New Yorker magazine humorist, has come up with a simple solution to the political ads that litter our TV landscape. His short comedy videos cap every episode of Retro Report on PBS, a new series that shines a light on today by uncovering the past.

When N.F.L. players starting with Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police mistreatment of African-Americans, their actions ignited an uproar over injecting politics onto the playing field. Their protest had surprising ties to the silent black-power salute by two sprinters at the 1968 Olympics.

Social media’s addictive power is by design. Colin Kaepernick’s protest has ties to 1968. Women on Wall Street fought harassment decades before #MeToo.  Pythons threaten the Everglades. Andy Borowitz wants to treat political ads like cigarettes.

The #MeToo movement is shedding renewed light on sexual harassment at work and the long history of arbitration agreements.