All Episodes

A Brief History of the Future: Making the World A Better Place
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A Brief History of the Future: Making the World A Better Place

What does the future hold for humanity? Given the many crises in the world today, it would be easy to give a negative answer. In A Brief History of the Future, however, director Andrew Morgan and presenter Ari Wallach explore the challenges facing humanity and how people are responding to them positively, in big and small ways. Andrew joins Matthew Sherwood to discuss his film and its vision of how the history of the future could be greater than the future of the past.

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Mining Appalachia: Preserving the Story of King Coal
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Mining Appalachia: Preserving the Story of King Coal

King Coal is a meditation on a world that is dying, and on another that is taking its place. Set in Appalachia, in the US, this “part documentary, part fable” explores what the end of the age of coal means to the people who have for 200 years lived under its influence. King Coal’s director, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, herself from Appalachia, joins Matthew Sherwood to discuss her film, which aims to preserve the memory of a time, place, and people who will one day fall silent forever.

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Transforming the Planet: Discussing the Human Footprint
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Transforming the Planet: Discussing the Human Footprint

No species has influenced, altered, and dominated the world quite like humanity. Human Footprint, a new PBS docu-series directed by Nate Dappen and Neil Losin, explores how we have changed planet earth and what our actions say about us. Nate and Neil join Matthew Sherwood to discuss this important new series. Through them, we meet snake hunters, duck calling competitors, and lizards who are able to rapidly adapt to their environment. We also discover how the earth has in its turn influenced humanity.

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Reimagine Wildfire: An Elemental Threat That We Can Control
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Reimagine Wildfire: An Elemental Threat That We Can Control

The world is getting hotter and fires more destructive. In Elemental, Trip Jennings explores how a wildfire destroyed the Californian town of Paradise in just a matter of hours. With the help of experts, Native Americans, and more he goes on a journey to understand how fires happen, and what we can do to stop them. For, as he tells Matthew Sherwood, fire presents a problem that can, in some cases, be solved by each one of us in as little as a weekend. All we have to do is decide to take action.

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