This grant supports the production and broadcast of two new technology-themed documentary films by American Experience, the long-running, award-winning history series produced by Boston television studio WGBH and distributed nationally on PBS. The first documentary, Black Death at the Golden Gate, looks at the scientific and social challenges posed by the threat of rampant disease through the true story of the outbreak of Bubonic Plague that hit San Francisco around 1900. Efforts to contain the disease were hampered by poor understanding of disease transmission, perceived threats to the city’s economic interests, and racially-biased assumptions about the nature and spread of the disease, as well as by an earthquake that roiled the city in 1906. The second documentary, The St. Francis Dam Disaster, tells a cautionary tale of one of the worst American civil engineering disasters, the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in March 1928, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, the loss of millions of dollars, and the end of the career of pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer, William Mulholland. Occurring in a period when the control of water via massive engineering projects was transforming the American west, the disaster inspired a renewed emphasis on safety in dam siting and construction, including at the nascent Hoover Dam.

This grant provides funding to American Masters for the research, production, and broadcast of a 90-minute documentary about the life, work, and impact of Dr. Anthony Fauci, The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for almost 40 years, Dr. Fauci has become an international celebrity and the face of science and reason in responding to COVID-19, advising the government and educating the public about the virus, the nature of pandemics, and how best to protect ourselves individually and as a society. In revisiting the long arc of Fauci’s career and his role in combatting HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, and COVID-19, the documentary promises to shine a light on Fauci’s professional evolution, the political and social forces that shape epidemic responses in the United States, and the evolution of vaccine development, clinical drug trials, and public health policy. The documentary will air in 2021 as part of a PBS strand focusing on health issues.

This grant provides funding for bestselling author Steven Johnson and historian David Olusoga, working with Nutopia, an award-winning TV production company, to produce and broadcast Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer, a four-part television series that will examine the COVID-19 pandemic in light of the past 300-year history of public health. Scheduled to air on PBS in the spring of 2021, each episode will juxtapose COVID-19 with one aspect of medicine and public health that has played a central role in increasing life expectancy over the past 100 years. Episode one explores our growing ability to prevent the spread of illness through the use of variolation and vaccination. Episode two explores the role of analyzing and mapping data—the science of epidemiology—in improving societal health outcomes. Episode three focuses on the surprisingly recent invention of penicillin and other medicines that combat illness directly. The final episode looks at the scientific and regulatory innovations that promote public safety and healthy behaviors.