Documentary
Historian James Burke continues his journey through random historical connections that together have shaped our world and provide important clues to our future.


James connects the dots between Napoleon’s toothpick and the Nielsen TV ratings to see how scientists have built the quantum computer – a data-processing machine so powerful that it can predict the future.

James jumps in the sensory deprivation tank with a man who took LSD with dolphins to discover how syphilis in the French aristocracy kicked off a journey to the nanofabricator–a machine that can build anything you wish for, molecule by molecule, for free. What will that mean for the value of things?

James opens a cabinet of curiosities to discover how the French Revolution, wallpaper, and NORAD brought about the rise of big data – and a world where humans finally merge with the internet.

Dog pee, the Polaroid camera, and rocket fuel lead us to a future where AI is indistinguishable from human intelligence. If we can’t tell machines and people apart, what will that mean for humanity?

A cup of coffee in the 18th century takes James to the pioneering woman who discovered the structure of DNA, and a future with genetically engineered people. Will we want to be Super-Human?

How did a journey that began thousands of years ago with the Inca and the potato, connect to a mad scientist in a castle, and German beer, then bring us to the brink of a future with clean, limitless energy? And what will that future mean for humanity?

Cast

The specter of drug trafficking haunts Europe. Struggling with ultra-violent criminal groups that control the vast majority of cocaine trade, European police forces are overwhelmed. The epicenter of all this trafficking: the Netherlands. A nation at the forefront of international trade and drug policy. This two-part film delves into the origins of European drug trafficking through the unique history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This is the story of a power struggle between two men - one fictional, and one real. In one corner is the master of crime – the greatest detective who never lived, Sherlock Holmes. In the other is writer, physician and spiritualist leader Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lucy Worsley explores the extraordinary love-hate relationship between author and creation.

At the end of the 16th century, Dutch subjects revolted against legitimate Spanish rule. What starts with the discontent of a minority grows into a war that will last more than a lifetime. From Groningen to Brussels, from Den Briel to Groenlo, the battle erupts everywhere. And often that struggle has a strangely modern appearance. Terrorism, propaganda, executions, radicalization, shock and awe; all themes that can easily be found in the war that was fought from 1568 to 1648. In a 7-part television series, the NTR will bring the stories about the 80-year war that can be found all over the country from September 28, every Friday at 9.05 pm on NPO 2. And Hans Goedkoop oversees the battlefield with experts.