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Playlist Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Meet One of the Genealogists Who Tracks Down Ancestors on ‘Finding Your Roots’

Daniel Hautzinger

Nick Sheedy spends hundreds of hours digging through records and paper trails to discover the ancestors of guests on Finding Your Roots. “You want to have a feeling that you belong and that there’s a community out there that belongs to you," he said of the interest in genealogy.

The Importance of Some of Chicago's Notable Black Churches

Daniel Hautzinger

Black churches in Chicago have played host to speakers from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Frederick Douglass to Barack Obama while supporting civil rights and social justice, as well as their own spiritual communities.

The Significance of the Black Church Throughout America's History

Daniel Hautzinger

"We need to realize how intertwined the Black church is with the birth of other institutions," says a Chicago theologian. "It’s like a human being: it has incredible beauty, brokenness, blessedness, all of that mixed together."

WTTW at the Chicago Humanities Festival 2019

Daniel Hautzinger

The Chicago Humanities Festival is an ideal series of events for PBS viewers: authors and speakers both popular and academic, wide-ranging topics, both serious and light-hearted discussions. Here's a rundown of the several programs with connections to WTTW.

Watch Bernie Sanders and Larry David Find Out They're Related

Daniel Hautzinger

Larry David and Bernie Sanders have a lot in common, enough that David has played the senator and former presidential candidate on Saturday Night Live. But on Finding Your Roots, they discovered they're closer than they knew. Watch their reactions. 

How Genealogists Find Your Roots

Daniel Hautzinger

Genealogy is now a multi-billion dollar business centered in Salt Lake City. Why has it grown so rapidly? What does tracking down ancestors involve? How has it changed in the past decades? And why Salt Lake City? A genealogist from Finding Your Roots answers.
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