Mini-docs

Scapegoating immigrant groups in times of disease outbreak has a long history.

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are the icons of an ideological split among today’s Democrats, echoing a similar split in the Republican party of 1964.

Scientists warn that to slow climate change, we need to change how we farm and what we eat.

Coronavirus has public health officials scrambling to put quarantines into effect. The 2014 Ebola outbreak may have some lessons.

Oscar night, long a showcase for Hollywood glamour, has also become a platform for film stars to pitch a rainbow of political causes.

Political memes are being deployed to share opinions, similar to how editorial cartoons were used in the past – but with one important difference.

How can a president continue to govern with an impeachment trial looming? President Clinton and President Trump adopted very different strategies.

Sexual harassment. Discrimination. Workplace inequity. Google’s employees demonstrated against unfair practices. But has anything changed?

Breaking with party unity can be costly. In the 1950’s, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine faced backlash after she condemned Joseph McCarthy, a fellow Republican.

For many boxers, once the punches stop, the real fight starts.

As self-driving cars move closer to becoming a reality on our streets and highways, can engineers create software able to predict human behavior and keep pedestrians safe?

President Donald Trump has long been a critic of childhood vaccines – but then he suddenly changed course, urging parents to vaccinate their children.

Sean Graves was told he would never walk again after being shot during the attack at Columbine High School. This is the story of what happened next.

Twenty years after Columbine, we examine the impact the attack has had on today’s youths – and how the media has more recently shifted its coverage of school shootings.

While abortion is often cited as the motivation behind evangelical Christians becoming politically active in the 1970s, there’s another little-known reason that involves the IRS and segregated schools.

It started with one request. A friend’s sister was pregnant and suicidal. Before long a clandestine group called Jane was created to help women in Chicago with illegal abortions.

Accusations by Professor Christine Blasey Ford against Judge Brett Kavanaugh in his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, have us looking back at Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony in the hearing of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

After surviving four heroin overdoses, Heather Wetzel hopes she can stay clean for her daughter.

On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown became the first ever so-called “test-tube baby.” Her birth was one of the biggest media stories of the 20th century, and she became famous just by being born.

A tragic bridge collapse in Miami echoes a similar event in Minnesota over a decade ago, one of the first signs of America’s growing infrastructure problem.

As police have become more militarized, the role of SWAT teams has morphed – from use in emergency situations to fighting the drug war.

Kitty Westin shares the story of her daughter, Anna, who killed herself after struggling with anorexia for years.

As America’s jazz icon, Louis Armstrong was seen as a smiling, easygoing entertainer. But in 1957, he invited controversy by speaking forcefully on behalf of his fellow African Americans, putting him in a position familiar to many Black athletes today.

Today, there are approximately 100 tribes in the Amazon rainforest that have not interacted with the modern world. A hundred years ago, there were many more. Co-produced with PBS, American Experience, we look at the delicate situation these tribes find themselves in.

NFL players have been derided for injecting politics into the country’s favorite sport. But, when convenient, America has also celebrated black athletes for acting as political emissaries.

During his campaign, Donald Trump vowed not to cut to entitlements, but then reversed himself saying he would, and additionally would turn more control over to the states. We take a look at what happened to another entitlement, welfare, when the states took over.

With the Trump administration’s move to end a commission investigating flaws in forensic science, Retro Report looks at the history of one now-challenged method: hair analysis.

Did you know, the origins of the Pilates workout stem from WWI? Learn more about the fitness regimen Joseph Pilates developed in a British internment camp in this collaboration with PBS, American Experience.

We’ve teamed with PBS’ American Experience to take a look back at Freeman Dyson, who explored whether interplanetary space travel could be made possible by harnessing the power of a nuclear bomb.

“The equipment ranges from the early 1900s to up to date present time.” Our collaboration with PBS, American Experience takes a look at the Boston “T” – the oldest subway in America.

Wireless power seems cutting edge, but it was actually pioneered more than 100 years ago by Nikola Tesla. We’ve teamed up with the American Experience to explore how Tesla’s technology is being used today.

Has the government done enough to stop housing discrimination?

Twenty years ago, welfare reform was signed into law, promising needy families a path out of poverty. This is the story of Tianna Gaines-Turner, a former welfare recipient, who still struggles to make ends meet.

The early science of hallucinogens in the 1950s and ’60s was “kind of a Wild West free-for-all.” For more info on the science of spiders and drugs, visit www.drpeterwitt.com.

Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax’s son explains what life was like in a household where D&D took center stage.

Why Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Díaz says playing Dungeons and Dragons was a revolution.

More than 50 years after Kitty Genovese’s murder became a symbol of urban apathy, her partner, Mary Ann Zielonko remembers Kitty’s life and impact.

The robotics team from M.I.T recovers from disaster at the robot Olympics.

Wondering what the Hillary Clinton/superpredator brouhaha is all about? Here’s the cliff notes…

More than 40 years ago, Pierre Sprey set out to build the ultimate fighter jet.

Is there a hidden cause of obesity? A professor at Stanford thinks the answer might lie with the 100 trillion microbes living in our bodies.

Does exercise really make you lose weight? One scientist went to Africa and found an unexpected answer.

How did food companies get us to crave their products? They discovered the “bliss point.”

The curious origin of a political metaphor.

He’s been called the most dangerous man in football. Not for what he’s doing on the field – but what he’s saying off of it. A new series of original Retro Report short docs produced for Facebook.

Every so often, Congress holds a hearing on the perils of pop culture. The “peril” has evolved from comic books, to rock and hip hop music, to violence in video games, but the proceedings follow a script.

Cartoonist Al Jaffee has been causing mischief at MAD Magazine for decades and at 94-years-old, he’s as irreverent as ever. A new series of Retro Report short docs produced for Facebook.

Pinball was illegal? Really?

Flavia Battistiol has turned to social media in hopes of being reunited with the sibling who disappeared in 1977, when the military junta ruled Argentina.

The story of one man’s search for his identity after his parents disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship.

A mini-doc about the anatomy of a shaken baby case from the perspective of defense attorney Adele Bernhard.

The pediatric neurosurgeon who first identified shaken baby syndrome has a surprising take on the very syndrome he’s credited with discovering.

On the heels of a national measles scare, Google announced that it is refining its search results for hundreds of medical conditions to show only vetted resources and web sites.