from: Jared Lipworth, Executive Producer, Secrets of the Dead

Michelangelo Revealed premieres May 13 at 8pm on THIRTEEN.

First Robert Langdon had Da Vinci’s Code to deal with. Now, in his latest fictional adventure, he is off fighting for his life and tracking down a powerful underground brotherhood attempting to bring down the Catholic Church. Popes die, Cardinals are captured, and Robert teams up with a pretty Italian woman named Vittoria to decode secret messages carefully hidden in ancient symbols.

Sounds like a perfect summer blockbuster.

Also sounds eerily similar to our latest episode of Secrets of the Dead. Read More …

A few of the presentations at the upcoming NYC World Science Festival are closely related to upcoming on-air programs or series that will be presented on PBS by THIRTEEN. Tickets are on sale now (and last year most of the ticketed WSF events sold out ahead of time).

To Be Human
The discussion called “To Be Human” is related to our upcoming The Human Spark program (coming Fall 2009), with some of the same participants and a similar topic.
Though many animals display cooperative behavior, human cooperation is distinct. Alan Alda hosts E.O. Wilson, Sarah Hrdy and other leading evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and humanitarians as they examine the origins and evolution of human cooperative behavior. Read More …

from: Robin Edgerton, editor, Thirteen.org

We wanted to do special for Earth Day here at THIRTEEN, so we looked for the biggest fish we could find: the first environmental tv series, Our Vanishing Wilderness which was produced for THIRTEEN back when we were NET, National Educational Television. We’ve also started a new mini-site, Green Thirteen, where we’ll be putting environmental content both new and old, both print and video.

Our Vanishing Wilderness

It starts with a book. Husband and wife team the Grossmans (Shelly was a nature photographer, Mary Louise a nature writer) published it in 1969. It has the air of a textbook, a coffee table book, and a natural history all in one. Also titled Our Vanishing Wilderness, it examined some of the threats to the natural environment, particularly in the US. (It must have been fairly popular, because used copies are common). In transferring to television, the production team made the material more political and particularly topical, yet still beautifully filmed. Read More …

from: Jared Lipworth, Executive Producer, Secrets of the Dead, on Blackbeard’s Lost Ship

There’s been a lot of talk about pirates these last few months, and other than brave action by an American captain and a remarkable effort by three elite Navy snipers, little of it has been good. It amazes me that in this day and age, with all our high-tech monitoring, weaponry and vessels, the world’s shipping infrastructure can be held hostage by a bunch of terrorists in tiny boats.

What’s even more strange is that we look at today’s pirates as evil, lawless villains, yet we’ve somehow come to glorify and mythologize the pirates of the past, even calling their heyday the “golden age” of piracy. Read More …

Thirteen is airing programs spotlighting the environment throughout April. Through series such as NOVA and Nature, learn about the current state of the environment and the factors and issues surrounding it. And also catch Planet Forward, a new interactive show about our energy future, which premieres April 15. Read More …