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Finding Your Roots | Season 5

Professor Gates
McGee Media/Ark Media
/
PBS
Host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with journalist Ann Curry while taping Finding Your Roots.

Tuesdays, Jan. 8-29, 8pm on WKAR-HD 23.1 | Watch as these people find their family history and culture. 

The acclaimed series returns with Professor Gates exploring the mysteries, surprises and revelations hidden in the family trees of popular figures. This season features an array of celebrated guest who are cultural trailblazers with fascinating family stories. 

The roots of these guests cover the globe — from Samoa, Nigeria, Taiwan and Sicily to Iran, Ireland, India and Cuba — and almost everywhere in between. Their family trees are filled with compelling characters — slaves and kings, artists and entrepreneurs, abandoned children and missing parents, revolutionaries, soldiers, and a constant flow of ordinary individuals who did remarkable things, laying the groundwork for their successful descendants. Each episode weaves together these stories, gleaned from cutting-edge DNA analysis and old school genealogical detective work. Highlights include a search for Andy Samberg’s biological grandparents, the discovery of Michael Strahan’s deep European ancestry and the solution to a mystery that has plagued Ann Curry’s family for her entire life.

Season Five includes the following episodes:

  • “The Stories Encoded In Our DNA” with Andy Samberg and George R.R. Martin
  • “Mystery Men” with Michael K. Williams and Felicity Huffman
  • “Truth Tellers” with Christiane Amanpour, Ann Curry and Lisa Ling
  • “Dreaming of a New Land (Between Worlds)” with Sheryl Sandberg, Kal Penn and Marisa Tomei
  • “Freedom Tales” with S. Epatha Merkerson and Michael Strahan
  • “Into The Wild” with Laura Linney, Michael Moore and Chloe Sevigny
  • “Roots in Politics” with Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan
  • “The Eye of the Beholder” with Marina Abramovic, Alejandro Innaritu and Kehinde Wiley
  • “No Laughing Matter” with Tig Notaro, Seth Meyers and Sarah Silverman
  • “All in the Family” with Joe Madison, Dr. Gates’ personal DNA story and “The Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings” STEM Camp

 

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