Bright Now!

1 season available

Short stories about science and tech, history, global issues, and the personalities at the center of it all.
Amazon Is Burning
S1 E1

Analysis of the cause of the Amazon's devastating fires, how they might impact the climate and whether the environment will be able to recover.

Coffee Buzz
S1 E2

Experts reveal what makes specialty coffee taste the way it does.

African Animal Rescue
S1 E3

The staff of South Africa's Manyoni Private Game Reserve passionately care for some of the world's most exotic and endangered wild animals, from treating elephant foot infections to testing cheetahs for tuberculosis.

New Firefighting Tech
S1 E4

Cutting-edge technology is used to fight wildfires to save lives and property.

Tiny House: Living Off the Grid
S1 E5

Documentary about tiny house living.

Modern Stone Age Family
S1 E6

Documentary about eating meat.

Capturing Woodstock
S1 E7

Exploring how the music festival documentary film "Woodstock" was made with producer Dale Bell.

Skinny Genes
S1 E8

The genetics of weight loss.

Message From Space?
S1 E9

The Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, home of the world's largest steerable radio telescope, has been receiving a mysterious signal from deep space.

Parasites!
S1 E10

Parasites carry a bad reputation, but are an essential part of healthy ecosystems throughout the world; learn how these unappreciated species are part of our ecology and evolution.

School for Whales
S1 E11

A family of sperm whales in the Indian Ocean.

Hacking Our Microbiome
S1 E12

New science reveals what 40 trillion non-human microorganisms hosted by each person do and how understanding them can help people live healthier lives.

Saving Venice
S1 E13

One of the world's largest and highest profile civil engineering works tries to save Venice, Italy, from inundation.

Ketamine: From Street Drug to Lifesaver
S1 E14

The 50-year-old anesthetic ketamine might be a new tool for fighting depression and suicide.

Super Sea Slugs
S1 E16

Colorful nudibranchs, or sea slugs, have a remarkable range of adaptations to survive in the ocean, from stinging cells to harvesting the power of the sun, spraying sulfuric acid and turning their bodies into drift nets.

Veggie Power
S1 E17

Doctors, chefs and nutritionists explain how going green with fresh ingredients and flavors in daily meals will improve health.

The Science of Cute
S1 E18

The biological benefits of cuteness.

Predicting a Pro
S1 E19

Professional scouts are compared to high-tech tools used to evaluate youth baseball players.

Rebirth of an Underwater Forest
S1 E20

Balancing the ecosystem of kelp forests, which harbor a greater diversity of plants and animals than almost any other ocean community.

Berlin Wall Revisited
S1 E21

Footage of people's everyday lives on both sides of the Berlin Wall before it fell Nov. 9, 1989.

Explosion of Life
S1 E22

Life blooms in unexpected ways in California, from desert wildflowers to jellyfish colonies off Monterey.

Sailing to the Stars
S1 E23

Missions lay the groundwork for solar sails space travel technology.

Octopus Encounters
S1 E24

Observing alien-like octopuses in the Pacific Ocean, from a feeding frenzy at the bottom of the sea to a mother tending thousands of eggs.

Bear Cub Rescue
S1 E25

Casey Anderson, who was once faced with the decision of leaving an orphaned grizzly bear cub to die in the wild or saving it, is faced with making that same decision again.

Search for Japan's Lost Supersub
S1 E26

The archeology of shipwrecks.

Path to the Pros
S1 E27

The science of sports and athleticism.

The Wright Brothers: Bravery
S1 E28

Ohio bicycle mechanics Orville and Wilbur Wright change the world by flying the world's first successful airplane in 1903.

Secret Underwater Planet
S1 E29

Underwater photographer Peter Kragh explores the coast of California and reveals some of the most spectacular life found under the sea.

Chungungo: The World's Smallest Otter
S1 E30

Nature documentary about otters.

Growing up Hadza
S1 E31

Our earliest ancestors, before developing agriculture as a source of food, formed what is considered hunter-gather societies. The Hadzabe of Tanzania are considered one of the last of these tribes on the planet. How do they pass down the knowledge of this way of life to the next generation?

Tastes Like T-Rex
S1 E32

A look at whether science can be used to alter chicken embryos to resemble a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Antarctica Science Below Zero
S1 E33

Nature documentary about the continent of Antarctica.

Last American Slave Ship
S1 E36

The search in the swamps of Alabama for the final ship to bring slaves to the United States.

Pompeii: Behind the Scenes
S1 E38

A sneak peek at the cutting-edge science and sophisticated production techniques featured in the special "Pompeii: Disaster Street."

Raising a Genius
S1 E39

The science of creating and educating a genius may be bring contributions to society.

Can You Learn to Be Funny?
S1 E41

Surprising new insights into what it takes to be funny.

Crisis on Apollo 13
S1 E42

On the 50th anniversary of Apollo 13, Cmdr. Jim Lovell and NASA engineers recall the ingenuity and superhuman efforts that turned a potential space flight disaster into an extraordinary fight for survival.

Bay of Crocs
S1 E43

People try to save the unique Cuban crocodile from extinction.

The Mystery of U-455
S1 E44

A mysterious World War II wreck discovered off the coast of Italy by archeologists could be the wreck of the U-455, the last missing German U-boat.

Five Submarines Against the Nazis
S1 E45

The forgotten ships that made possible the liberation of France during World War II.

Saving Tokyo
S1 E46

The ambitious projects under development to save Tokyo, the most populated urban zone on the planet that is built on a fault line, and threatened by flooding and several active volcanoes.

Fire Ant Invasion
S1 E47

A fire ant colony can contain up to 40 million ants, all of which defend their territory.

Lionfish: Alien of the Sea
S1 E48

Since the 1980's, the lionfish has conquered massive territories within the ocean.

Wolves and Tanks
S1 E49

Nearly a century after disappearing from its natural habitat, the German wolf makes a comeback that might be attributable to an unlikely ally: the military.

Night at the Aquarium
S1 E51

A glimpse at what happens at zoos and aquariums behind closed doors.

The Shark Whisperer
S1 E52

Shark expert Jim Abernethy conducts stunning, cage-free dives with the ocean's greatest predators to demonstrate they are not mindless, man-eating monsters.

Preparing for Hurricanes
S1 E53

The SUrge-STructure-Atmosphere INteraction facility, or SUSTAIN, will help scientists at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science better understand the complex interactions between a hurricane and the ocean below it.

Insect Apocalypse
S1 E55

Investigating the cause of an alarming decline in insect populations that could devastate all life on Earth and whether anything can be done to stop it.

Engineering a Pro
S1 E56

The next generation of major league baseball stars are using cutting-edge science and technology to drive their performance to unprecedented heights.

America's Wildest Cat & Dog Rivalry
S1 E57

Wildlife tracker Tyler Johnerson explores the deadly rivalry between native mountain lions and reintroduced wolves in Yellowstone National Park.

Flavor Evolution
S1 E58

Despite people's obsession with flavor, taste is the most overlooked sense; surprising new discoveries change the understanding of taste, and how it has evolved to keep people alive.

The Race to Forecast Weather
S1 E59

Explaining how weather forecasts have become so reliable with advancing technologies.

First in the Sky
S1 E60

Modern-day balloonists re-create the first crossing of the English Channel, which took place Jan. 7, 1785.

Beyond Cold
S1 E62

Examining human survival mechanisms that modern science is only beginning to understand.

Saving the World's Most Endangered Cat
S1 E68

Scientists and conservationists make efforts to save the Iberian Lynx, widely regarded as the world's most endangered cat.

Aliens in the Pond
S1 E69

A look at the tiny insects with incredible capabilities that are locked in a struggle to survive in the surface film of most lakes and ponds.

Women with ADHD
S1 E70

For decades, it was thought that ADHD primarily affected boys and men, but new research reveals the impact the disorder can have on women, leading to effective treatments for millions who may be suffering in silence.

The Road to Florida
S1 E71

U.S. Route 1 transforms Florida forever.

Bright Now: Mother of the Everglades
S1 E73

The history and wildlife of Lake Okeechobee, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the United States, and the source of life for South Florida's magnificent Everglades.

Catching Florida's Apex Predator
S1 E74

Top trappers working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission go to battle against dangerous alligators lurking in the lush lakes and canals of Palm Beach.

Monkey Island
S1 E75

In 1938, an American researcher captures 500 macque monkeys and brings them to an uninhabited Caribbean island to study the primate population roaming free in a giant open-air laboratory.

Locust Swarm
S1 E76

Scientists and citizens armed with cutting-edge technology battle swarms of locusts devouring everything in their path from Africa to India.

Shipwrecks: U-576
S1 E77

A team of maritime archaeologists descend 700 feet off the coast of North Carolina in search of the U-576, a German submarine that went down in a historic 1942 battle.

From the Frontlines of COVID-19
S1 E78

Author David Quammen predicted the coronavirus pandemic nearly a decade ago in his best-selling book, "Spillover" now, he shows us how the same remote Montana lab that spawned his work, is on the front-line to combat COVID-19.

The Birth of Mar-a-Lago
S1 E79

The history of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, built in Florida in the 1920s by Majorie Merriweather Post, who hoped one day that it would become a winter White House.

The Sweet & Sour of Florida Sugar
S1 E80

"Muck City" Florida is one of the biggest sugar-producing regions on the planet, but the traditional practice of cane field burning at harvest is sparking a heated debate.

Blockchain Revolution
S1 E81

Examining whether blockchain technology is safe as it sweeps the globe, moving from high-flying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to more traditional sectors of the economy.