Professor Jerry Brotton reveals that maps are far more than neutral guides to places: they are expressions of the societies that create them and powerful instruments for shaping territory, belief and authority. Beginning with some of the earliest known maps, he traces how cartography evolved from marking land and ownership to serving kings, empires, scientists and governments. From Henry VIII’s coastal surveys and the Cassini family’s scientific breakthroughs to the drawing of modern national borders, the series shows how maps can define who controls land, who belongs where and even how entire peoples understand the world around them. Across the three episodes, presented here together in a single uninterrupted video, the journey moves from ancient and medieval worldviews to imperial expansion and the digital age. Brotton explores religious maps, Aztec symbolism, Victorian attempts to classify societies, the politics behind projections of the globe, and the rise of Google Earth and data-driven mapping. He then follows the mapmakers and explorers who turned distant lands into targets for conquest and profit, from Ptolemy and Columbus to Walter Raleigh and the trading empires that followed. The story ends in the Arctic, where new maps are once again being used to stake claims over oil, gas and minerals, proving that even in the twenty-first century, cartography remains inseparable from power, plunder and possession.
In the final two episodes, Stanley Tucci ventures into some of Italy’s most rugged and surprising landscapes, discovering how geography carves flavor into every bite. In a windswept sheep country, he grills mutton over open flames, savors French-influenced Sunday traditions, and traces the sweet, centuries-old origins of confetti, revealing how history and terrain combine to shape unexpected culinary treasures. It’s a journey where the land itself becomes the secret ingredient. The adventure continues in Lazio, where Tucci explores the powerful connection between countryside and capital. From Roman pizza to Ariccia’s legendary porchetta, from rustic fish soup to tender spring lamb, each dish reflects a cuisine rooted in simplicity yet elevated by elegance. These episodes celebrate the authenticity of regional food, showing how tradition, landscape, and community come together to define what it truly means to eat Italian.
On July 25th, 2020, people all over the world filmed their lives and shared their stories to be part of a documentary film. When all the submissions were tallied, the filmmakers had received over 300,000 videos from 192 countries. The result is a stirring film about love, death, heartbreak, and hope that looks beyond geography and circumstance to explore what connects us as humans.
In 1799, the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt embarked on a perilous journey of discovery across South America. It would take him to the deepest jungle near the Orinoco and to the heights of the Andes. His aim was twofold: to conduct the first scientific survey of South America and to discover how the natural world actually works — at a time when most scientists believed that the world was created less than 6,000 years ago. He later became a leading scientific figure and champion of the abolitionist movement in the US. This extremely visual docudrama follows Humboldt’s extraordinary path. Travelling in Humboldt’s footsteps is historian Andrea Wulf, whose book on Humboldt became a worldwide bestseller. For good reason, since Humboldt’s ideas on the planet’s fragile web of life are as important today as they were 220 years ago.
Our planet has amazing power, and yet that's rarely mentioned in our history books. This series tells the story of how the Earth has influenced human history, from the dawn of civilisation to the modern industrial age. It reveals how geology, geography and climate have been a far more powerful influence on the human story than has previously been acknowledged. A combination of epic story telling, visually stunning camerawork, extraordinary locations and passionate presenting combine to form a highly original version of human history" In the first episode professor Iain Stewart explores the relationship between the deep Earth and the development of human civilisation. He visits an extraordinary crystal cave in Mexico, drops down a hole in the Iranian desert and crawls through seven-thousand-year-old tunnels in Israel. His exploration reveals that throughout history, our ancestors were strangely drawn to fault lines, areas which connect the surface with the deep interior of the planet. These fault lines gave access to important resources, but also brought with them great danger.
This episode explores the palaeogeography of Earth over millions of years, and its impact on the development of life on the planet. Tyson starts by explaining that the lignin-rich trees evolved in the Carboniferous era about 300 million ago, then explains on the nature of plate tectonics that would shape the landmasses of the world and the asteroid impact that initiated the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, leaving small mammals as the dominate species on earth. Earth's landmasses are expected to change in the future and postulates what may be the next great extinction event.
Across the three episodes, presented here together in a single uninterrupted video, the journey moves from ancient and medieval worldviews to imperial expansion and the digital age. Brotton explores religious maps, Aztec symbolism, Victorian attempts to classify societies, the politics behind projections of the globe, and the rise of Google Earth and data-driven mapping. He then follows the mapmakers and explorers who turned distant lands into targets for conquest and profit, from Ptolemy and Columbus to Walter Raleigh and the trading empires that followed. The story ends in the Arctic, where new maps are once again being used to stake claims over oil, gas and minerals, proving that even in the twenty-first century, cartography remains inseparable from power, plunder and possession.