For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Maria Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the power of the sun. She designed and built the world's first successfully solar-heated modern residence and identified a promising new chemical that, for the first time, could store solar heat like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues - all men - at MIT. Despite these obstacles, Telkes persevered and, upon her death in 1995, held more than 20 patents. She is now recognized as a visionary pioneer in the field of sustainable energy. An unexpected and largely forgotten heroine, Telkes was remarkable in her vision and tenacity - a scientist and a woman in every way ahead of her time. Her research and innovations from the 1930s through the '70s continue to shape how we power our lives today.

For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Maria Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the power of the sun. She designed and built the world's first successfully solar-heated modern residence and identified a promising new chemical that, for the first time, could store solar heat like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues - all men - at MIT. Despite these obstacles, Telkes persevered and, upon her death in 1995, held more than 20 patents. She is now recognized as a visionary pioneer in the field of sustainable energy. An unexpected and largely forgotten heroine, Telkes was remarkable in her vision and tenacity - a scientist and a woman in every way ahead of her time. Her research and innovations from the 1930s through the '70s continue to shape how we power our lives today.

Discover how three Black diplomats broke racial barriers at the US State Department during the Cold War. Asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home, they left a lasting impact on the Foreign Service.

Over 100 years before the COVID-19 pandemic set off a nationwide wave of fear and anti-Asian sentiment, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco's Chinatown unleashed a similar crisis. The death of a Chinese immigrant in 1900 would have likely gone unnoticed if a medical officer hadn't discovered a swollen black lymph node on his groin - evidence of bubonic plague. Fearing the city would become the American epicenter of the disease, health officials drew on racist pseudoscience to cover up the threat and protect San Francisco's burgeoning economy. As the outbreak continued to spread, public health officer Rupert Blue became determined to save his city. He established ties to Chinatown and ultimately proved that throngs of flea-infested rats-rather than the "foreign" habits of the Chinese-were the real reason the disease persisted. Based on David K. Randall's "Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague" and directed by Li-Shin Yu.

In February 1939, more than twenty thousand Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a "Pro-American Rally." As images of George Washington hung next to swastikas, a series of speakers railed against the "Jewish controlled media" and called for a return to a racially "pure" America. The keynote speaker, a man named Fritz Kuhn, was the head of an organization known as the German American Bund. The rally was huge demanding the largest police presence to date for any event in New York City history but it was the culmination of a movement that had been brewing for years. Nazi Town USA will tell the largely unknown story of this organization that had chapters across the country and represented what experts believe was a "very real threat of fascist subversion in the United States." Organized into 70 different districts, the Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Life in some of the largest camps - including Camp Siegfried in Long Island, Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin, and Camp Nordland in New Jersey -will be brought to life through extensive archival footage, photographs, and ruins that exist to this day. The Bund's embrace of "Americanism" raises thorny issues - from questions of free speech to declarations of "America First" - that we continue to wrestle with to this day.

In February 1939, more than twenty thousand Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a "Pro-American Rally." As images of George Washington hung next to swastikas, a series of speakers railed against the "Jewish controlled media" and called for a return to a racially "pure" America. The keynote speaker, a man named Fritz Kuhn, was the head of an organization known as the German American Bund. The rally was huge demanding the largest police presence to date for any event in New York City history but it was the culmination of a movement that had been brewing for years. Nazi Town USA will tell the largely unknown story of this organization that had chapters across the country and represented what experts believe was a "very real threat of fascist subversion in the United States." Organized into 70 different districts, the Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Life in some of the largest camps - including Camp Siegfried in Long Island, Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin, and Camp Nordland in New Jersey -will be brought to life through extensive archival footage, photographs, and ruins that exist to this day. The Bund's embrace of "Americanism" raises thorny issues - from questions of free speech to declarations of "America First" - that we continue to wrestle with to this day.

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 tells the little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina's largest city in 1898 -- the only coup d'etat in the history of the US. Stoking fears of "Negro Rule," self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington's democratically-elected, multi-racial government. Dozens of Black residents were murdered, and thousands were banished. The story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed for decades until descendants and scholars began to investigate. Today, many of those descendants -- Black and White -- seek the truth about this intentionally buried history.

In February 1939, more than twenty thousand Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a "Pro-American Rally." As images of George Washington hung next to swastikas, a series of speakers railed against the "Jewish controlled media" and called for a return to a racially "pure" America. The keynote speaker, a man named Fritz Kuhn, was the head of an organization known as the German American Bund. The rally was huge demanding the largest police presence to date for any event in New York City history but it was the culmination of a movement that had been brewing for years. Nazi Town USA will tell the largely unknown story of this organization that had chapters across the country and represented what experts believe was a "very real threat of fascist subversion in the United States." Organized into 70 different districts, the Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Life in some of the largest camps - including Camp Siegfried in Long Island, Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin, and Camp Nordland in New Jersey -will be brought to life through extensive archival footage, photographs, and ruins that exist to this day. The Bund's embrace of "Americanism" raises thorny issues - from questions of free speech to declarations of "America First" - that we continue to wrestle with to this day.

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 tells the little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina's largest city in 1898 -- the only coup d'etat in the history of the US. Stoking fears of "Negro Rule," self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington's democratically-elected, multi-racial government. Dozens of Black residents were murdered, and thousands were banished. The story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed for decades until descendants and scholars began to investigate. Today, many of those descendants -- Black and White -- seek the truth about this intentionally buried history.

In February 1939, more than twenty thousand Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a "Pro-American Rally." As images of George Washington hung next to swastikas, a series of speakers railed against the "Jewish controlled media" and called for a return to a racially "pure" America. The keynote speaker, a man named Fritz Kuhn, was the head of an organization known as the German American Bund. The rally was huge demanding the largest police presence to date for any event in New York City history but it was the culmination of a movement that had been brewing for years. Nazi Town USA will tell the largely unknown story of this organization that had chapters across the country and represented what experts believe was a "very real threat of fascist subversion in the United States." Organized into 70 different districts, the Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Life in some of the largest camps - including Camp Siegfried in Long Island, Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin, and Camp Nordland in New Jersey -will be brought to life through extensive archival footage, photographs, and ruins that exist to this day. The Bund's embrace of "Americanism" raises thorny issues - from questions of free speech to declarations of "America First" - that we continue to wrestle with to this day.