Drawing upon eyewitness accounts, including interviews with Weaver’s daughter, Sara, and federal agents involved in the confrontation, Ruby Ridge is a riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia movement.

PBS and American Experience present an inside look at the new film RUBY RIDGE, a detailed look at the deadly 1992 standoff in northern Idaho between the federal government and the Weaver family. Drawing upon eyewitness accounts, including interviews with Weaver’s daughter, Sara, and federal agents, RUBY RIDGE is a riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia.

Telling the story of what happened on Ruby Ridge in 1992—when a standoff between the Weaver family and the federal government turned deadly—took a great deal of investigation and trust. In this Scene Breakdown, director Barak Goodman explains how he combined never-before-seen footage shot by the marshals on the ground, with surveillance footage, and original interviews.

OKLAHOMA CITY traces the events — including the deadly encounters between American citizens and law enforcement at Ruby Ridge and Waco — that led McVeigh to commit the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. With a virulent strain of anti-government anger still with us, the film is both a cautionary tale and an extremely timely warning.

OKLAHOMA CITY traces the events — including the deadly encounters between American citizens and law enforcement at Ruby Ridge and Waco — that led McVeigh to commit the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. With a virulent strain of anti-government anger still with us, the film is both a cautionary tale and an extremely timely warning.

PBS and American Experience present an inside look at the new film OKLAHOMA CITY, which explores how a series of deadly encounters between American citizens and federal law enforcement—including the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco—led to the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. Streaming now at pbs.org.

In 1995, the aerial image of the Murrah Federal Building after the Oklahoma City bombing stunned America. In this Scene Breakdown, Director Barak Goodman discusses the decision to open the documentary with this image, and how the film connects the dots between the 1995 bombing, and earlier events at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

During the stand-off between federal agents and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in 1993, people gathered on a hill roughly three miles away to see what was happening at the compound. One of those drawn to Waco was a 24-year-old Army veteran named Timothy McVeigh.

It was Boston — a city of so many firsts — that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its citizenry to construct America’s first subway.

It was Boston — a city of so many firsts — that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its citizenry to construct America’s first subway.

Bringing to life the story of an engineer and a massive construction project from more than 100 years ago is a challenge. Filmmaker Michael Rossi takes viewers behind-the-scenes of the production of Race Underground, the story of building America’s first subway, in Boston.

In this co-production with Retro Report, we visit the MBTA’s Signal Shop, where workers maintain the equipment that keeps the trains on track.

The creation of the Boston subway system — the country’s first — is the subject of the new American Experience film, The Race Underground. It’s also one of our nation’s oldest startup success stories. To explore that angle, we turned to Scott Bailey, managing director of MassChallenge Boston.

In 1963, the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring—which some called the most controversial book of the year—put the nation and world on alert to the dangers of overuse and misuse of chemical pesticides—in particular, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, better known as DDT.

Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When Silent Spring was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides.

Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When Silent Spring was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides.

Bob Purifoy joined Sandia National Laboratories as an engineer in 1952, and later became its leading advocate for nuclear weapon safety. Bill Stevens was an engineer who served as the first head of Sandia’s nuclear safety department. Both men were shocked when they realized how vulnerable the nation’s nuclear weapons were to accidents.

“The whole reason I sat out there was to prevent anything from happening. That's what deterrence was about. But deterrence is worthless if you don't demonstrate that you are willing to do it.” Lieutenant Allan Childers was a deputy commander of the Titan II Missile Combat Crew. He was on duty the night of the accident in Damascus, Arkansas.

The 2017 season premieres on January 10, 2017, with Command and Control, a chilling, minute-by-minute account of the long-hidden story behind one of America’s most dangerous nuclear accidents. An new portrait of Rachel Carson (January 24), which illuminates the life of the scientist whose writings revolutionized our relationship to the natural world, and the first subway — Race Underground.

A chilling nightmare plays out at a Titan II missile complex in Arkansas in September, 1980. A worker accidentally drops a socket, puncturing the fuel tank of an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead in our arsenal, an incident which ignites a series of feverish efforts to avoid a deadly disaster.