Nominated for an Oscar® in the Live Action Short Film category, The Letter Room follows an empathetic corrections officer (Oscar Isaac) who finds escape in the deeply personal letters written to an inmate on death row. Co-starring Alia Shawkat.
On stage he makes crowds laugh with his hilariously biting musings. Off stage, comedian Gastor Almonte talks about how his comedy is rooted in his immigrant roots, parenthood, and his beloved neighborhood of East New York.
New Orleans lore collides with dark magic in this horror anthology series. Created by Coodie & Chike and starring Chad Coleman, PJ Morton and Omar Dorsey, these “Twilight Zone”-style tales expose chilling corners of the Big Easy.
To us they’re mundane objects, but to them they’re priceless. House on Fire asks individuals to save one thing if their house were ablaze. The items they choose tell entire stories about culture, identity, and the true value of material possessions.
Heather Havrilesky is a successful author, essayist and humorist best known for her advice column “Ask Polly." In this episode, she tells us why she’d choose to save her childhood teddy bear (and self-described “ally”) if her house was burning down.
Woodburn, OR is an agricultural town with a large Latinx population. In this episode, residents choose items that tell their immigrant stories and seemingly banal objects that they can’t live without.
Cascade Locks, OR is a scenic town that was narrowly saved from a forest fire in 2017. This episode explores how almost losing everything changes one’s relationship to property and possessions.
Happy Valley, OR is a storybook upper middle-class suburb known for being safe. Here residents reflect on the importance of maintaining that sense of safety through their material possessions.
Dignity Village and Kenton Women's Village, OR are self-run communities for previously homeless people. Being homeless has given some residents a uniquely profound perspective on material possessions.
Few hobbies require the technical skills of railway enthusiasts. Get to know the niche world of Garden Rail Magazine and its impassioned community, who find focus, therapy, and camaraderie in the hobby of running large-scale trains outdoors.
The devastating power of tornadoes is undeniable, but have you ever wondered why the Bible Belt and Tornado Alley overlap? Meet survivors, meteorologists, and everyday people whose experiences with tornadoes have confirmed their belief in the Divine.
A lyrical portrait of a devout Amish woodworker who begins to question his faith. When Kenneth is excommunicated from his insular community, he must find a new purpose in life without God.
What happens to a property after it’s been marred by tragedy? Can it be revived or will it be forever stigmatized? “Distressed real estate” expert Randall Bell shows us what has become of four infamous sites around the US steeped in trauma.
In these documentary portraits inspired by Racquet Magazine, Darius Clarke Monroe examines the role of racquet sports in American culture and sheds light on the unexpected communities, obsessions, and passions built around tennis and handball.
When Mark Kuhn decided to build a homemade tennis court, he never imagined it would become popular or take on such profound significance. The All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club started out as a family project and grew into a beloved public court for his community. But after his family experienced an unthinkable tragedy, it became a very private outlet for healing. Today, it remains a fitting memorial that still conjures many happy memories for Mark.
Built by and for its community, the Maravilla handball courts in East LA have provided an outlet for healthy exercise for almost a century. But they’re so much more than just an athletic space. Amanda Perez gives us a history lesson on the courts, which span back to 1928 and have come to represent the neighborhood’s rich Chicano heritage. Since then, multiple generations have upheld the historic landmark as a sacred site where people can be themselves.
He was crazy about tennis, she was drawn to his passion. Together, they built a life running the South Oxford Tennis Club in Brooklyn from 1981 to 1997. Now Richard and Ann Northern are sharing their favorite memories from those days, from his Tennis Hotline show, to building the courts with their own hands, to having their own wedding at the club, which kicked off a decade and a half of love, labor, and rackets.
This intimate portrait of a tennis instructor is like a meditation on finding strength and peace through the ritual that is bringing ball to racket. She’s tough as nails when she’s training her students, but in her personal life, she’s grieving her mother’s health and old age. The only thing that recenters her is practicing her serve. When she’s on the court, she finds her breath again and transforms into the formidable athlete and instructor that most people see.
Get a glimpse at the future of health and rehab through five individuals testing out groundbreaking new technology and programs. Judging by their stories, the future is bright.
An intimate look at four rising musicians from Chicago and the common issues that young Black women artists have to overcome both in a male-dominated music industry and a marginalizing society, from racism to physical expectations to sexual trauma.
Seven billion people. One act. Infinite ways to do it. Everybody eats, but that’s where the similarities end. With the power to influence cultures, industries, and personal ambitions, eating is a direct entry point into understanding humanity
Jollof rice is a widely celebrated staple dish in both Nigeria and Ghana, but who does it better? In this seriously heated cook-off, Chef Segun of Nigeria and Chef Barbara of Ghana will each make a convincing case for their country’s version.
Sisterhood is more than skin deep. Half-sisters Jazmin and Timeisha are both proud to be Black, but having different skin tones means being impacted by prejudice in different ways. But they share one identical trait: they’ve got each other’s backs.
A great way to earn money or a pyramid scheme? Both Carly and Roberta sold clothes for controversial MLM (multi-level marketing) company LulaRoe, but see why one calls it a healthy outlet and one became an anti-MLM advocate.
He lost nothing and fled. She lost everything and stayed. After surviving the 2018 Woolsey fire, record exec Damon Dash and lifelong Malibu resident LisaJo McGee developed very differing views on the value of home.
With a sound that’s like Erykah Badu meets Little Dragon and an eclectic style, Jean Deaux is poised for breakout success. She revisits her first open mic stages, opens up about a trauma, and reveals how she resists fear.
Akenya, 26, is a quadruple threat: singer, pianist, composer, and arranger. After overcoming a lonely childhood, health issues, and every form of marginalization, she’s now working with Grammy-nominated artists and ready to release her own album.
At 22, singer Christian has already won the respect of Chance the Rapper, but it hasn’t been an easy road. On the South Side, she dealt with redlining; in Freeport, she faced open racism. Now the preacher’s daughter is taking on the music industry.
Shortly after releasing her mixtape, “RETROGRADE,” rapper, teacher, and tarot card reader Jasmine (aka J Bambii) talks about the roots of her anxieties and how music has helped her heal and learn to accept herself.
In 2007, a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. The majority of them were in Norris Hall. Today, the building has been transformed into a center for peace studies, which Randall Bell calls a “textbook” way to revive a tragedy site.
The mere mention of Jeffrey Dahmer’s name sends chills, so imagine being his neighbors. In this case, the stigma was so strong that the building had to be destroyed. But according to Randall, that should have been just the beginning.
The Flight 93 memorial site turned a common field into a national landmark, but not before the landowner demanded a hefty sum for the property increase. Was he profiting off of tragedy or just fighting for fair compensation? Randall Bell explores.
Occupying the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the National Civil Rights Museum honors his legacy by continuing his work. But it’s more than a memorial; it’s a catalyst for ongoing change.
Technology is enabling paralyzed individuals to have more options than ever. Sergio, a quadriplegic, trades his mouthstick for an app that allows him to paint using simple facial movements.
The era of relying on opioids is over. Virtual reality technology is enabling individuals with injury-induced paralysis like Woody to reduce chronic pain through simulating movements with VR limbs.
Technology is enabling paralyzed individuals to have more options than ever. Sergio, a quadriplegic, trades his mouthstick for an app that allows him to paint using simple facial movements.
Like many seniors in the US, Betsy has chronic health issues but not the finances to treat them, until she found TIPS (Telehealth Intervention Program for Seniors). Now she has help, and a new family.
After an accident left him wheelchair-bound, Robert turned his life around with the help of ReWalk, a cutting-edge robotic exoskeleton. A revealing look at how much our bodies rely on walking.
Birders aren’t the only folks with expensive lenses and their heads angled upwards. In this very special episode, Jason heads to California to meet another group of flight obsessives: the plane spotters and aviation photographers of LAX.
It had to be a peregrine falcon. In this episode, Jason visits a tattoo shop in Forest Park, Georgia, for his first experience getting inked. As he goes under the needle for a beautiful rendering of his favorite bird, Jason opens up about one of most difficult periods of his life.
Jason meets up with celebrated novelist and passionate birder Jonathan Franzen in Chicago, where they spot one of North America's rarest songbirds and discuss how Franzen’s impressive personal bird count (around 4,600 species!) influenced his views on climate change.
Jason meets the keen-eyed members of the Ohio Young Birders Club—one of the first youth birding groups in the country—and finds out what it’s like to be a teenage bird nerd.
Jason visits New York’s AMNH, where collections manager Paul Sweet gives him a special, behind-the-scenes look at one of the largest avian assortments in the world, which includes specimens of the extinct passenger pigeon, as well as parrots, owls, and Jason’s favorites, peregrine falcons.
Jason’s younger brother, Jeffrey, is also a birder, and when they head to Central Park together, their competitive instincts get triggered. In the midst of spotting turkey vultures and cedar waxwings, the duo discuss their “spark” birds and compare notes on what it’s really like to bird while black.
In this premiere episode, Bronx native and bird-lover Jason Ward visits Central Park—“the best place in North America to see migrating birds”—where he joins thousands of warblers and compares the unique sound of a rose-breasted grosbeak to the squeak of rubber soles on a basketball court.
Jason takes a visit to the Wild Bird Fund, an organization that works to rehabilitate thousands of injured birds every year, where he meets a Common Loon, an American Kestrel and accompanies a WBF staffer on a trip to release a group of pigeons back into the wilds of New York City.
What do house sparrows and predatory NYC real estate developers have in common? In this episode, acclaimed actress and Brooklyn resident Lili Taylor and Jason talk birding, acting and defense of one’s home turf.
He’s from the East Coast. They’re from the West Coast. In this episode, Jason teams up with two Audubon colleagues from the LA area for an excursion outside the city and frank conversations about their experiences of birding while brown.
Migration isn’t for the faint of heart. In Cape May, New Jersey, Jason witnesses songbirds battling howling winds, meets a team of migration researchers who outfit birds with high-tech GPS trackers, and gets up close and personal with the highly secretive yellow-billed cuckoo.
So. Many. Birds. Jason throws himself into the joyful mayhem of New Jersey Audubon’s Fall Festival at the Cape May Bird Observatory, where he meets birding legend Pete Dunne and a married couple who moved into a van to become full-time, mobile birders.