Documentaries |
|
Listening to the ArcticBroadcast Nationally in Summer, 2019  When you hear those statistics that tell you the oceans are warming or the glaciers are melting or it’s hotter or it’s colder and you wonder: Where do those numbers come from? This is where: From scientists measuring precisely what’s happening in the Arctic and what it could mean for all of us. In this program, from the National Science Foundation, we go to the top of the world to meet scientists who are trekking over glaciers, diving into Arctic oceans, and engineers building brand new tools to figure out what’s going on up there, how it might change, what its impacts might be – on the Arctic and the rest of the globe…and find solutions. |
|
The Rules of Life Broadcast Nationally, Summer, 2017 What causes Alzheimer’s Disease? What causes cancers to form? Can we make jet fuel and plastics out of germs? To get these answers scientists are working hard to uncover the rule book that governs every aspect of every living thing on Earth, from the molecular scale to the entirety of Earth’s ecosystems. Produced in association with the National Science Foundation. Listen here:
|
|
Explorers of the Brain
This program takes audiences to the front lines of research in brain science, to meet a dozen leading scientists and engineers working to bring us closer to a fundamental understanding of how and why the brain does what it does. Produced in association with the National Science Foundation. Listen here: |
|
The Mind of the Innovator
Broadcast Nationally, Spring 2012 We’re told almost daily that we need innovation; that it drives prosperity and economic growth and is the engine of job creation. We hear about these innovations all the time. But do we ever stop and wonder where the innovation comes from? What fosters it? How we keep it flowing? In this program we tell the stories of some of real-world change-makers, examine just where their big ideas come from and demonstrate exactly how innovators cultivate an environment of curiosity and experimentation. Listen Here:
|
|
“We Were on Duty”
Broadcast nationally in September 2002 A first-person oral history of the September 11th attack on the Pentagon. One Hundred Eighty Four people died at the Pentagon while hundreds more crawled through choking smoke and over burning wreckage to safety. But because the Pentagon attack was dwarfed by the tragedy at the World Trade Center, America has yet to hear the stories of the valiance and tenaciousness of the Pentagon employees; about the horrendous physical and psychic toll the attack has taken on them and their families — and about how they have overcome and are moving on. This hour-long program tells these stories in the voices of the people who lived them. Without narration. Many of these survivor stories are devastating. Many are inspirational. And as America looks to move forward from the trauma of 9-11, they offer important lessons. Listen here
|
|
Race and the Space RaceAired Nationally, February 2010
In the early 1960s, the segregated heart of the old Confederacy was chosen as the base for new agency, NASA. Hear the stories of people whose lives soared from the cotton fields to the launch pad. Listen Here: |
|
Rocket Girls and Astro-nettesBroadcast nationally in 2010
Voted 2011’s Outstanding Documentary by American Women in Radio and Television Stories of women struggling in the ultimate “Man’s World,” NASA in the 60s and 70s. Hear from the first women scientists and engineers, the first women astronauts and from women who, in 1961, were told they would be astronauts. Listen here
|
|
“Rocketing Ahead”
Broadcast nationally in 2010 How the Democrats rode Sputnik to the White House in a campaign that forever changed science, technology and academia in America. Listen here |
|
“Sustainability”
Broadcast nationally in 2009 Part of the “Global Challenges” series, produced for the Purdue University College of Engineering. No question there’s plenty of bad news when it comes to the environment. But in this program we hear about scientists and engineers who are working, right now, on some of the tools we hope will lift us out of our environmental malaise. |
|
WAMU at 50
Broadcast Fall 2011 WAMU-FM went on the air in October, 1961. This program looks back at 50 years, exploring how the station moved from a 7-hour-a-day obscurity to an institution vital to our civic life. We look at the station’s legacy, its prominent personalities and how it has interacted with the Washington, DC community. |
|
