In bold documentary style, Retro Report looks back at the major stories that shaped the world using fresh interviews, analysis and compelling archival footage. Produced by Retro Report for The New York Times.
Carl Sagan and other Cold War scientists once feared that a nuclear war could plunge the world into a deadly ice age. Three decades later, does this theory still resonate?
What the legendary matches between supercomputer Deep Blue and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov reveal about today’s artificial intelligence and machine learning fears.
The artificial heart became a media sensation in the 1980s as it both raised hopes and spread controversy. Today, its impact on medical science is still playing out in surprising ways.
The dramatic controversy surrounding the 2000 presidential election led to sweeping voting reforms, but opened the door to a new set of problems that continue to impact elections today.
For decades the United States has been on a quest to perfect stealth technology, but development of the F-35 fighter jet shows just how complicated dreams can become.
In the 1970s, frustration over heroin related, urban crime led to the War on Drugs. Today, heroin is back. But the users, and the response, are very different.
In 1982, fans tuned in for a fight which left one young boxer dead. Today, with concerns about the toll of football on the rise, is America’s favorite game nearing its own inflection point?
Offended by lyrics they deemed too sexual and violent, Tipper Gore and Susan Baker campaigned to put warning labels on albums in 1985. Years later, warning labels have ended up in unexpected places...
Estela de Carlotto has spent nearly four decades searching for her grandson, one of the 500 babies who disappeared after their mothers were taken by the military regime in Argentina in the 1970s.
In Germany, it’s Pegida. In Greece, Golden Dawn. And in France, it’s the National Front. Fueled by fear, Europe’s far-right political movements are gaining momentum. A New York Times documentary.
The conversations between a young woman in rural Washington State and a British man with ties to radical Islam may provide clues about how ISIS recruits new members around the world.
As his dreams crashed into Egypt’s social and political turmoil, Islam Yaken left his friends, family and a life of guilty pleasures for religious extremism, jihad and the Islamic State.
See how monkeys teach manners, elephants show empathy and ants imitate water in ScienceTake, combining cutting-edge research from the world of science with stunning footage of the natural world in action.
The Murray Crayfish is so sensitive to changes in its environment that researchers in Australia can track it to asses the health of rivers and streams.
The Venus flytrap, a plant that eats insects, will clamp its leaves shut only after trigger hairs are tripped two times within about 20 seconds. Even without nerves, it counts electric impulses tha...
It’s not just Einstein’s universe. It’s your universe too. From the cosmic affairs desk, Dennis Overbye takes you on scenic tours through the Milky Way and beyond.
Op-Docs is the editorial department's section for short, opinionated documentaries, produced by independent filmmakers and artists with wide creative latitude, covering current affairs, contemporary life and historical subjects. Submissions are welcome http://nyti.ms/1tVbq78.
In this dramatization of transcripts from a legal deposition, lawyers grapple with a plaintiff’s bizarre testimony about the destruction of his chicken’s pasture.