Frans Hals (1582-1666) was a portrait painter with a unique style, admired for its originality and vivacity not only by the Impressionists but also by artists like van Gogh or Picasso. Very little documentation of his life exists today, so this film uses the thorough contemplation of his canvases as the key to his story. Works by the landscape artists and still-life painters of his time help to illustrate the age in which he lived. The programme furthermore...

"In the seventeenth century some of the most advanced painting in Europe was produced in the Netherlands. Rembrandt dominated the radical progress of painting in Amsterdam, and Vermeer did so in Delft. Frans Hals led the vanguard in Haarlem where he painted some of the most animated, individualized portraits of the era, or of any era, for that matter. Now, Steven Nadler has produced the first biography of this elusive Dutch artist to be published...

A beloved Viking saga and masterpiece of historical fiction, The Long Ships is a high spirited adventure that stretches from Scandinavia to Spain, England, Ireland, and beyond. 
Frans Gunnar Bengtsson’s The Long Ships resurrects the fantastic world of the tenth century AD when the Vikings roamed and rampaged from the northern fastnesses of Scandinavia down to the Mediterranean. Bengtsson’s hero,

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Why do so many world-changing insights come from people with little or no related experience? Charles Darwin was a geologist when he proposed the theory of evolution. And it was an astronomer who finally explained what happened to the dinosaurs. Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples how we can turn the ideas we discover...

The perfectly pampered world of Fuddles comes screeching to a halt when Puddles, a new puppy, joins the family, and Fuddles schemes of ways to get rid of him and return to his charmed life.

New York Times best-selling author and primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. New York Times best-selling author and primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. Mama's Last Hug opens with the dramatic farewell between Mama, a dying fifty-nine-year-old chimpanzee matriarch, and biologist Jan Van Hooff. This heartfelt final meeting of two longtime friends,...

Five experts (Frans de Waal, David Goldberg, Nile Green, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Carol Padden) examine the notion of "community" from different perspectives, and the role it plays in our day-to-day lives.

An anthropologist, rabbi and historian give their view on the "New Atheist" movement, relating how best to achieve a constructive dialogue between the religious and the secular.