The Best Episodes of American Experience Season 36

#1 Fan Favorite
7.6/10(225 votes)
#1 - Nazi Town, USA
S36:E11/23/2024
The story of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group which in the 1930s had scores of chapters across the country, representing what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. They held joint rallies with the KKK and ran summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery, melding patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism.
Director:Peter Yost
Writer:Peter Yost
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Director:Peter Yost
Writer:Peter Yost
7.7/10(128 votes)
#2 - Fly With Me
S36:E22/20/2024
The story of the pioneering women who changed the world while flying it. Maligned as feminist sellouts, “stewardesses,” as they were called, were on the frontlines of a battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.2/10(78 votes)
#3 - The Cancer Detectives
S36:E33/26/2024
The untold story of the first-ever war on cancer and the coalition of people who fought tirelessly to save women from cervical cancer: a Greek immigrant, Dr. George Papanicolaou; his intrepid wife, Mary; Japanese-born artist Hashime Murayama; Dr. Helen Dickens, an African American OBGYN in Philadelphia; and an entirely new class of female scientists.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.9/10(101 votes)
#4 - Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal
S36:E44/22/2024
The dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families. In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.0/10(75 votes)
#5 - The Riot Report
S36:E55/21/2024
When Black neighborhoods across America erupted in violence during the summer of 1967, President Johnson appointed a commission to determine what happened, why it happened, and what could be done to keep it from happening again. The bi-partisan commission’s final report offered a shockingly unvarnished assessment of American race relations that would doom its finding to political oblivion.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
6.9/10(66 votes)
#6 - The American Vice President
S36:E610/1/2024
The American Vice President explores the little-known story of the second-highest office in the land, tracing its evolution from a constitutional afterthought to a position of political consequence. Focusing on the fraught period between 1963 and 1974, when a grief-stricken and then scandal-plagued America was forced to clarify the role of the vice president, the film examines the passage and first uses of the 25th Amendment and offers a fresh and surprising perspective on succession in the executive branch.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown