Sunday 8pm FINDING YOUR ROOTS – Documentary/History - Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr. continues his quest to "get into the DNA of American culture." In each episode, celebrities view ancestral histories, sometimes learn of connections to famous/infamous people, discover secrets, and share the emotional experience with viewers.
NO LAUGHING MATTER - Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shows comedians Seth Meyers, Tig Notaro and Sarah Silverman that their family trees are filled with people whose struggles laid the groundwork for their success. Gates also reveals to each one news of an unexpected DNA cousin.
9pm H20: THE MOLECULE THAT MADE US – Documentary/Science – A dramatic look at how water underpins every aspect of our existence. Earth is alive because of water, and humanity's relationship with this simple molecule is everything.
CRISIS - Examines how the planet’s changing water cycle is forcing us to change our relationship with water. An increasingly, globalized agricultural industry has become expert at turning precious water reserves into profit, “mining” water faster than it can be replaced. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, controversial Chairman Emeritus of Nestle, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe says, “.... the water issue is more urgent than the climate issue.” In its conclusion, the series revisits locations with the people holding candles in the darkness, and hope emerges that the water crisis is solvable.
10pm NOVA: GREAT CATHEDRAL MYSTERY - Documentary/Science - Using period tools and techniques, bricklayers build an experimental mini-Duomo to try to determine how Filippo Brunelleschi built the dome that crowns Florence's great cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
The dome that crowns Florence's great cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore - the Duomo - is a masterpiece of Renaissance ingenuity and an enduring source of mystery. Still the largest masonry dome on earth, it is taller than the Statue of Liberty and weighs as much as an average cruise ship.
Historians and engineers have long debated how its architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, kept the dome perfectly aligned and symmetrical as the sides rose and converged toward the center. More than four million bricks could collapse at any moment - and we still don't understand how Brunelleschi prevented it. To test the latest theories, a team of U.S. bricklayers will help build an experimental "mini-Duomo" using period tools and techniques.