The God Delusion • 2006 • episode "S1E1" • The Root of All Evil

43:03

On January 1947, Al Capone, the most notorious gangster in America is dead at the age of 48. After serving ten years prison sentence Paul Ricca takes his place alongside Tony Accardo as co-head of The Outfit, which is making more money than before thanks to the numbers racket. In order to hide their profits, the answer is a growing city in the middle of the Mojave Desert where gambling is legal—Las Vegas, Nevada. But for the mafia from Chicago it is difficult to get into the gambling paradise of Las Vegas, because the New York mafia is already there. But it turns out to be a well-organized partnership. The leadership around Tony Accardo expands rapidly and finances the construction of new casinos in the city. The money for this is provided, among others, by the boss of one of the country's largest unions, Jimmy Hoffa. But the connection flies.

S1E7 • The Making of the Mob: Chicago • 2016 • People

76:42

Marco Polo: World's Greatest Overland Explorer? Or World's Biggest Liar? Perhaps no land journey in human history is more famous than Marco Polo's legendary 24 year trek across Asia. But was it all just a big lie? As described in his 1299 book, the peripatetic Venetian merchant encountered such wonders as the "singing sand dunes" of Dunhuang, China, "mountains of salt" in present-day Afghanistan, and the glories of the Mongol court of Kublai Khan. Generations of Europeans were spellbound by Polo's account, yet in recent years some scholars have questioned its authenticity. National Geographic Photographer Mike Yamashita sets out to visually document one of the greatest overland journeys ever made: the 24-year odyssey of Marco Polo. 700 years ago a young Venetian set out on what was to become one of the most influential journeys ever made. His adventures took him well beyond the boundaries of the known world of Persia to a land that was almost completely unexplored - the mysterious Middle Kingdom. But ever since he returned there were those who doubted Marco Polo. Did he really see what he described in his legendary book, 'Description of the World' or did he merely describe what others told him. In this film, Mike Yamashita follows Marco's book from the lofty heights of the Pamir Mountains to the fabled city of Xanadu in Mongolia. In so doing he attempts to unravel some of the age old mystery: Did Marco Polo really go to China? In the course of this incredible journey Mike stumbles onto a nomadic Kazak wedding in Aksai and investigates the controversy of the Great Wall - why did Polo never mention this in his famous travelogue "The Description of the World"? And why did he never mention tea or chopsticks? Yamashita talks to noted Chinese historian Professor Liu Yingsheng about these and many other Polo conundrums. In Yunnan province, he visits the bound feet women, and travels to inner Mongolia to film the famous herds of the Mongolian horsemen. As Yamashita reaches Xanadu he ponders on how Polo became a trusted confidant to the Khan and spent 17 years in his service. What sights he must have seen. But did he? The mystery slowly but surely reveals itself.

2022 • People

47:10

The final episode starts with the death of Kim Jong Il and the rise of the new leader of North Korea — his son, Kim Jong Un, taking power at the age of 28.

S1E4 • Inside North Korea's Dynasty • 2018 • People

46:40

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar leads a horrific war against his own country until a team of politicians and police end his reign of terror.

S1E1 • Drug Lords • 2017 • People

93:36

On November 5, 2001, Dr. Andrew Bagby was murdered in a parking lot in western Pennsylvania; the prime suspect, his ex-girlfriend Dr. Shirley Turner, promptly fled the United States for St. John's, Canada, where she announced that she was pregnant with Andrew's child. She named the little boy Zachary. Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne, Andrew's oldest friend, began making a film for little Zachary as a way for him to get to know the father he'd never meet. But when Shirley Turner was released on bail in Canada and was given custody of Zachary while awaiting extradition to the U.S., the film's focus shifted to Zachary's grandparents, David & Kathleen Bagby, and their desperate efforts to win custody of the boy from the woman they knew had murdered their son. What happened next, no one ever could have foreseen…

2008 • People

112:42

Against all odds, African-American chemist Percy Julian became one of the great scientists of the 20th century. The grandson of Alabama slaves, Percy Julian met with every possible barrier in a deeply segregated America. He was a man of genius, devotion, and determination. As a black man he was also an outsider, fighting to make a place for himself in a profession and country divided by bigotry—a man who would eventually find freedom in the laboratory. By the time of his death, Julian had risen to the highest levels of scientific and personal achievement, overcoming countless obstacles to become a world-class scientist, a self-made millionaire, and a civil-rights pioneer.

NOVA PBS • 2007 • People