Susan Bellows

This episode follows Kennedy into the White House, offering fresh assessments of the successes and failures of his tenure. In 1961, the most challenging issue facing the new administration is the spread of communism and continuing Cold War fears. Only a few months into his first term, Kennedy launches the Bay of Pigs invasion, an unmitigated disaster that teaches him a powerful lesson. Nikita Khrushchev proves a stubborn foe, and Kennedy takes a stand...

The Iran hostage crisis involved 52 American diplomats, Marines, and civilians held by force at the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. Unfolding like a political thriller, see how hostages' personal lives were torn apart and scrutinized through publicity, correspondents risked their lives to discover the truth about Iran, and military forces attempted to rescue the victims.

Discover how the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco.

Author Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological work challenges assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had been defined by the field in the 19th century. She gained renown in the Harlem literary circles, but Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their...

In the early 20th century, researchers made a thrilling new claim: they could tell whether someone was lying by using a machine. Popularly known as the "lie detector," the device was extolled as an infallible crime-fighting tool. Instead, the lie detector became an apparatus of fear and intimidation. The Lie Detector is a tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.