Akin to the ‘recommended books’ rack at your local bookstore, here are our picks for great videos and programs from PBS and Thirteen/WNET–all online. Let us know what your favorites are too!

An infrastructure megaproject, Boston’s Big Dig carved out new highway tunnels/routes to ease downtown traffic congestion. The project was greenlit in 1982, but construction didn’t start until 1991. On December 31, 2007, and costing over 14.6 billion dollars, the Dig was finally done. Read/watch more…

After four decades of fly-by probes, orbiters, landers, and rovers, the quest for life on Mars is as tantalizing as ever. NOVA goes behind the scenes of the latest NASA missions to the Red Planet to reveal new clues about Mars. Watch now.

How is the star film composer of Hollywood’s Golden Years virtually unknown to moviegoers today? The name Franz Waxman doesn’t usually ring a bell, but the movies he worked on—“Philadelphia Story”, “Rebecca”, more…are classics. Read more about this composer’s life and work.

Last week’s Foreign Exchange with Daljit Dhaliwal featured an in-depth interview with the Pakistan ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani. He speaks about Pakistan’s relationship with India, the Mumbai attacks, and much more. Watch.

On December 30, 1924: Astronomer Edwin Hubble announced he believed he had confirmed the existence of other galaxies, through his research examining the Andromeda system. Read more about Hubble from WNET and WGBH:
Hubble’s Law
Hubble’s Work
Hubble’s Bio

Two episodes of Worldfocus this week have been dedicated to covering the situation in Israel and the attacks on Hamas on the Gaza Strip, the deadliest in decades. Worldfocus covers the military, healthcare, and diplomatic situations. Program 1, Program 2

One of Eartha Kitt’s last interviews was conducted by Washington Week’s Gwen Ifill for the Historymakers program “An Evening With Eartha Kitt” (airs on Thirteen in March 2009). You can listen to an mp3 of the interview at Newshour, or see a video excerpt. Ms. Kitt passed away on Christmas, 2008.

This week, a former managing director at Standard & Poor’s speaks out on U.S. television for the first time about how he was pressured to compromise standards in a push for profits. Surprising new revelations about the economic debacle, watch NOW.

Thirteen.org spoke to composer John Adams about audience reactions to his opera ‘Doctor Atomic’, the tension inherent to the creative process–whether in science or art, and opera’s role in contemporary culture. ‘Doctor Atomic’ airs Dec. 29 at 9:00 pm. Read interview…