During the first half of the twentieth century in Chicago, if you wanted to hear wild, brilliant, outré, ideas, you went to Washington Square Park, across from the Newberry Library. That was where everyone from writers to revolutionaries to quacks stepped up on to soapboxes to debate and speechify before a crowd that often included a young Louis Terkel, better known as Studs. In the second half of the century Studs would create his own public forum, carrying on conversations with everyone from factory workers to film directors on his WFMT radio show, which ran for 45 years. And now, in the early twenty-first century, that legacy of sharing and discussing bold ideas is reborn with a new podcast, Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing, which launches Friday, October 5 and will continue to release new episodes the first Friday of each month.

The new program draws on the vast library of recordings in the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, recently digitized and opened to the public, with the idea that “voices from our shared past can teach us a few things about history and maybe make us learn some things about our own time,” as Ewing puts it in the show’s introduction. Archival interviews between Studs and extraordinary figures such as James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry are paired with Ewing’s own interviews and ruminations on the same themes in an effort to bring the insights of the past into the present.

Ewing, a multi-talented sociologist and writer, is the perfect companion to Studs. Like him, she’s a diehard Chicagoan, a talented conversationalist, and a wide-ranging thinker. Plus, as Katie Klocksin, the producer of Bughouse Square points out, Ewing is “an intellectual with a social justice orientation that she doesn’t try to hide, like Studs, though she’s too humble to describe herself that way.” And Ewing is a longtime admirer of Studs – her mom even had a mug with Studs’s face on it.

In Bughouse Square, Ewing carries on Studs’s legacy by both commenting on his interviews and continuing them in the present day with people in our own time. The first episode features Studs’s extraordinary 1962 interview with James Baldwin paired with a conversation between Ewing and the writer and activist Darnell Moore. Shel Silverstein, Lorraine Hansberry, and Younghill Kang are all on the docket for coming episodes, along with the contemporary figures author Adam Mansbach, professor Dr. Imani Perry, and novelist Min Jin Lee.

The immersion of the creators of Bughouse Square in Studs’s programs and voice is so deep that Klocksin has even begun dreaming about him: she, Ewing, and Studs all sit around a table, discussing programs for the podcast and ideas that come up. “It feels like a collaboration with him,” Klocksin says. Which is probably exactly what Studs would want: curious, sympathetic conversations, continuing across every boundary, even time.

The Durrells in Corfu airs Sundays at 7:00 pm and is available to stream. Read our recap of the previous episode here.

After the debacle of Leslie’s three girlfriends meeting each other, you would think it would be easy to get rid of them, but Daphne still thinks they’re dating, despite Leslie having decided he prefers Dionisia. He doesn’t know how to break up with her, so Larry advises him to do it by letter. Larry also suggests that Louisa talk to Leslie about contraception, since her characteristic British politesse may have obscured the lesson when she originally gave it to him.

It’s good advice, but comes too late. Daphne’s father appears at the Durrell house while Leslie is gone, demanding that Leslie marry his daughter – she’s pregnant.

This distressing revelation is quickly followed by more upsetting news. Aunt Hermione, newly glowing with life and a changed attitude, has died in her sleep. Corfu’s painfully direct undertaker does not make this any easier to take. As Hermione’s body is pulled away on a horse cart, Louisa takes Leslie on a walk to tell him he will soon be a father. He says it couldn’t have been him; they only slept together one and a half times, and anyway, he doesn’t love her; he has chosen Dionisia. This defensiveness only further upsets Louisa.

Both Margo and Larry prove useless at slaughtering a goat for Aunt Hermione. Photo: Joss Barratt for Sid Gentle Films & MASTERPIECE Since Hermione loved lamb, the Durrells decide to celebrate her by slaughtering one of their goats (close enough). Leslie refuses to do it, though, so first Larry slices off the tip of his thumb in the attempt and then Margo loses the goat. Unable to look it in the face while she shoots it, she blindfolds herself (great idea) – and Gerry, newly vegetarian out of an unwillingness to kill animals, sneaks in and pulls the goat to safety.

Perhaps Margo will be more successful in planning a memorial service. Unfortunately, she’s not sleeping well, since Aunt Hermione died in her bed and she fears that it’s still haunted – the impression of a body keeps showing up in the freshly made bed. Not that more sleep would have made her memorial any less odd: she urges everyone to sing along to Hermione’s favorite song, Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Three Little Maids,” and shrieks out an attempt at a traditional Hawaiian lament while wearing a black veil. Other attendees offer more conventional eulogies.

Margo has turned to Zoltan, her Turkish former boyfriend who has been trying to win her back, to slaughter the goat. But as the Durrells return home from the memorial service, they find him sobbing while holding a goat. He couldn’t kill it – and it was the wrong goat anyway. He may not have succeeded, but his weakness has once again endeared him to Margo, in a way that faking a broken arm so that he could be examined by her with Theo’s new x-ray machine (which he tried) did not. Being a rich young man, Zoltan buys both a slaughtered goat for the Durrells and a new, un-haunted bed for Margo. Turns out the indentation in the old bed was just a prank by Larry the whole time.  

While Margo mends her relationship with Zoltan – maybe; time will tell – Leslie tries to take an interest in Daphne, the soon-to-be mother of his child. But the circumstances aren’t making things easy. After Larry’s suggestion that Daphne might be lying , Leslie asks her to go to the doctor to both check on her health and confirm the pregnancy. While waiting there, however, he remembers that he has to go to Aunt Hermione’s memorial service, and so misses the actual appointment. He then feels terrible for distrusting Daphne and apologizes to her – but it’s still a difficult relationship.

Louisa and Larry are leaving behind the rest of the family to escort Hermione's body back to England to be buried. Photo: Joss Barratt for Sid Gentle Films & MASTERPIECE

Leslie’s loss of Dionisia, who breaks up with him upon hearing the news of Daphne’s pregnancy, doesn’t help. Nor does Daphne’s father’s eagerness to see Leslie and Daphne married, even if it needs to be at gunpoint. Despite the threat, Leslie refuses to marry Daphne – he’ll support her and the child, but he doesn’t love her, so he won’t marry her.

Leslie is soon to lose the emotional support and advice of older members of his family at this trying time, as both Louisa and Larry are escorting Aunt Hermione’s body back to England to be buried.

Gerry has his own reckoning with death and the brutality of the circle of life, beyond Aunt Hermione’s passing. He has spent hours observing a wall teeming with insects and small animals, watching their behaviors and interactions. Two of his favorites, a gecko and a praying mantis, finally have a showdown – and the gecko horrifies Gerry by violently killing and eating the mantis. Such is life, and death.

Poldark airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous episode here.

Ross and Demelza are strolling along a country road with their children when a large stagecoach labeled “Falmouth-London-Cornwall-Truro” rumbles by. “How far is London?” asks young Jeremy. “Feels like the end of the earth,” replies Demelza, with a plaintive glance at Ross. Foreshadowing?

Cut to a pallid Hugh Armitage, languishing in bed at his uncle Falmouth’s estate; his headaches are worsening and he asks Dwight for stronger drugs. Dwight, always the voice of reason, is more interested in investigating a cure. As Dwight cannot guarantee to Falmouth that his nephew will be recovered by next week’s Parliamentary election, Falmouth will find another doctor who can.

Ross, always dashing around on a horse. Photo: Mammoth Screen for BBC and MASTERPIECE

Ross, Demelza, and the villagers are preparing for the St. Sawle’s Day festival as Caroline and Dwight arrive. Armitage has been left to the mercies of another doctor, Dwight tells Ross and Demelza, which is the kiss of death on this show. But no matter, Dwight continues, grinning meaningfully at Caroline…he will be occupied with “other patients, some closer to home.” Reluctantly, Caroline announces an upcoming “Enys-Penvenen offshoot.” Jubilant embraces all around, although Caroline, flippant as usual, insists, “Of course I don’t want the brat.” Nobody believes her, and Dwight and Ross head off for a celebratory drink. Caroline, for her part, recruits Demelza for a mysterious mission, Lucy-and-Ethel style.

At the fest’s wrestling arena, Drake and Sam are taunted by the hulking brute Tom Harry as Sam’s hopeless crush Emma watches. Tom Harry challenges Sam to a wrestling match; Emma hints that she might give Sam’s church (and presumably, Sam) a chance if he competes and wins. Sam impulsively accepts. The onlookers are worried – Sam has never wrestled and Tom Harry outweighs him by at least 40 pounds (and will undoubtedly cheat).

Over tea, Caroline and Demelza agree that George must be booted from Parliament, and that if Armitage won the seat he would be kept away from Demelza. How to kill these two birds with one stone? This: Caroline has also invited Bassett to tea, and shortly thereafter, to both mens’ surprise and discomfiture, they are joined by his archrival Falmouth, as Caroline pretends to have foolishly confused the dates. The two Lords initially butt heads, but the ladies cleverly ply them with brandy and steer the conversation toward their mutual distaste for George. Will Bassett and Falmouth bury the hatchet and band together to unseat him?

Caroline and Demelza scheme to remove George from Parliament and keep Armitage away from Demelza. Photo: Mammoth Screen for BBC and MASTERPIECE

George is reluctantly lunching at the pub with Ossie as Ross and Dwight dine at a nearby table. George attempts to bait Ross with the news of Sam’s upcoming wrestling match, proposing a wager on the result; Ross agrees – the loser’s share will go to Truro’s new hospital. As he leaves, George can’t resist lording his Parliamentary status over Ross – not a smart move.

Armitage is having serious misgivings as the pompous Dr. Choake unpacks a daunting arsenal of medical torture devices, outlining a treatment plan of “blistering, purging, vomiting, poulticing, and bleeding.” Later, Falmouth is horrified to find his nephew glazed over, covered in leeches, and sporting new pepperoni-like spots all over his chest, as Choake prepares to drill into his skull. Alarmed, Falmouth hastily summons Dwight again.

Ross serves as Sam’s wrestling coach; after an arduous practice session, an achy Ross soaks in a hot bath and Demelza flirtatiously helps him “wash.” One thing leads to another...

Caroline and Demelza make an effective team – and soon they'll be able to have their children play together, since Caroline is expecting. Photo: Mammoth Screen for BBC and MASTERPIECE

On St. Sawle’s Day, seemingly the whole town assembles to watch Sam take on Tom Harry. Sam wins the first bout, but in the second, Tom Harry illegally gouges Sam’s eyes with his thumbs, besting him. Sam appears to have the upper hand in the deciding bout, until Tom Harry whispers that Sam is “welcome to Emma’s soul” as he’s “already had her body.” Sam, distracted, is taken down hard and loses the match. Tom Harry celebrates his win by getting completely wasted, whereupon a grossed-out Elizabeth prevails upon George to fire him once and for all. Morwenna wanders off by herself and has a brief conversation with Drake, but they are rudely interrupted by Ossie.

Dwight, baffled by Armitage’s quick decline (could he really be dying of a broken heart?), has sent for Ross and Demelza. He and Ross leave Demelza alone at Armitage’s bedside, where Armitage slips her one last poem. Falmouth takes Ross aside and, as Armitage is clearly unfit, asks him to run for George’s seat. After conferring with Demelza, Ross reluctantly agrees. Back home, Demelza is reading Armitage’s poem when she is interrupted; Ross later finds and reads it.

Dining with George, Cary, and Elizabeth, Ossie gleefully blurts out the news that George’s opponent will not be Armitage, but Ross. Predictably, George is apoplectic. He, Elizabeth, and Cary scheme to influence the electors, many of whom have outstanding loans at George’s bank.

Ross always finds more ways to annoy George, like running for his seat in Parliament. Photo: Mammoth Screen for BBC and MASTERPIECE

Demelza is back at Armitage’s bedside as everyone else convenes for the Parliamentary vote. Falmouth nominates Ross for the seat as an inscrutable Bassett watches. As the electors orally cast their votes, it looks to be a landslide in George’s favor until Bassett steps forward and votes for Ross. The tide turns, and to everybody’s surprise, Ross is elected by one vote. Shocked, George, Cary, and Elizabeth furiously decamp. Later, a somber Falmouth congratulates Ross on his victory, breaking the news that Armitage has died.

Emma seeks out Sam to set the record straight – Tom Harry lied, she’s still a virgin, and she’s going away for a year to work as a servant in Bassett’s household. Perhaps they’ll meet again after that. Sam promises to wait.

Ossie is once again sucking on the toes of his bored prostitute, and afterward, he bumps into his former flame Rowella; it turns out that she was mistaken – she wasn’t pregnant with his child after all. As Ossie seethes over the hush money she extorted from him, Rowella leaves…with a seductive glance that suggests her manipulation of him isn’t over.

Caroline attempts to console grief-stricken Demelza, who later returns home to Ross. They attempt to achieve some closure over the Armitage affair. Gently, Ross reveals that, against all odds, he won the election. On the same rural lane where the episode began, Ross bids Demelza and the children goodbye and boards the coach for London to take his seat in Parliament. What has he gotten himself into?

The Great American Readairs Tuesdays at 8:00 pm. Explore the list, vote for your favorite book, and find more author interviews, quizzes, and features at wttw.com/read.

It's "one of the most powerfully written books I've ever read in my life." That's how John Callaway introduced Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family when Haley appeared on WTTW's Callaway Interviews in 1976 shortly after he had published the epochal, blockbuster novel that would soon become a compelling TV miniseries. Haley had started his writing career while serving in the Coast Guard, eventually becoming their chief journalist. He then wrote for magazines and achieved nationwide fame for The Autobiography of Malcolm X. 

But Roots, which relates the story of Haley's ancestors beginning with Kunta Kinte, an African sold into slavery in the eighteenth century, was Haley's biggest accomplishment. It was wildly popular, spending 22 weeks at the top of The New York Times Best Seller List; the 1977 TV miniseries attracted record-breaking audiences. It inspired widespread interest in African and African American history as well as genealogy, and it won Haley a special Pulitzer Prize. 

Watch Haley describe the origins of the book and how he became interested in writing the narrative of his family in his 1976 interview with Callaway here:

And listen to how Haley struggled to write the slave-ship passage in Roots despite going to great ends, before eventually feeling that he was worthy of telling this story:

The Durrells in Corfu airs Sundays at 7:00 pm and is available to stream. Read our recap of the previous episode here.

The Durrell house in Corfu may usually be a zoo, but now it’s also a sty. Louisa is away in England with Larry to oversee Aunt Hermione’s burial, which means the house has been left to Leslie, Margo, and Gerry. Needless to say, it’s a mess.

But then Larry is also in a wild living situation. He has been invited to stay with some bohemians in London, not least among them the libertine author Henry Miller, who has a penchant for wandering the house naked. It’s Larry’s heaven. “At last, people like me,” he sighs.

Louisa doesn’t feel the same way. She’s stuck staying in Dorset with some cousins who are as dreary as the weather. After Larry misses Hermione’s funeral because he’s enjoying himself too much in London, Louisa decides to follow his lead and shows up at the door of the flat where he’s staying. Durant, Larry’s host, promptly invites her to stay there, too.

She quickly ingratiates herself with the artists by making up exotic tales of her travels and life in Corfu. The artists are especially enamored with the gaudy necklace she borrowed from amongst Hermione’s things. Durant in particular is taken with Louisa, plying her with absinthe late into the night. Larry warns his mother about Durant’s intentions, but she shrugs him off – until Durant asks her to his room. She demurs, stumbles to her own room, and locks the door.

The next day, her cousins call the flat to speak to Louisa about the necklace but she is out, looking for another place to stay so that she can avoid Durant. When she returns, he promises to behave, and she takes him at his word and decides to stay.

Margo attempts to get Spyros to move past his prejudice against Turks. Photo: Joss Barratt for Sid Gentle Films & MASTERPIECE Soon, more visitors arrive at the flat: Louisa’s cousins have swallowed their dislike of London and traveled there to find Hermione’s necklace, as it’s quite valuable. Unfortunately, Louisa has misplaced it – last she knew, Durant was wearing it. But she can’t find it when she searches his room, dodging his attempts to get her in bed all the while. Returning to her waiting cousins, Louisa tells them she left the necklace at the bank and will pick it up tomorrow. As they’re heading out the door, Durant invites them to stay as well. Penny-pinchers that they are, they accept, in order to save on train fare.

Louisa frantically searches for the necklace overnight and has all but given up when, the next morning, Henry Miller wanders into a conversation between her and her cousins while wearing it – and nothing else. Luckily, Louisa warns her cousins to cover their eyes before they see anything. She takes the necklace and stands outside for a while, pretending to go to the bank, then returns it to her cousins. After that debacle, she’s ready to return home to Corfu.

Larry doesn’t want to accompany her. He finally feels at home amongst these artists, and he has fallen for one of them, a striking painter. But when she unveils a portrait she made of him (actually a glass of water), then asks him if Louisa is sexually available, Larry suddenly feels out of place. Maybe Corfu is better for him.

What have the rest of the Durrells been up to back on that sunny Greek isle? Louisa forbade Margo from continuing her rekindled relationship with Zoltan until Louisa returned – she doesn’t want another unexpected pregnancy in the family – but Margo has been secretly seeing the Turk and getting money from him. Spyros is trying to prevent these escapades, especially since he harbors a deep-seated, and reciprocated, prejudice towards Turks. Margo tries to get Spyros and Zoltan to move past their ethnically based animosity, and slowly makes progress by forcing them to spend time together.

Gerry is also on a crusade: to prevent the Corfu residents from abusing their donkeys. He tries to hand out pamphlets but is brushed away by Greeks who decry his English presumption. When he sees a farmer whipping his donkey, Gerry intervenes, and the farmer simply abandons the animal – it’s old and worthless anyway. Gerry takes it to be x-rayed, afraid that it has a broken leg and will have to be put down. But the leg is fine – so the Durrells have another new pet.

Leslie has taken it upon himself to protect the home, having heard rumors of a dangerous gang roaming the island. He rigs up some rifles in his bedroom window and puts up a “Danger” sign outside the house. A Corfu policeman, impressed by his nerve, invites him to join the island’s police force. It’s the perfect job for Leslie, but he fouls up his chances when he hears rustling outside the house one night and accidentally shoots the hand of Zoltan, who was sneaking up to be with Margo.

Leslie despondently confesses his accident to the police, but they dismiss it as no big deal. Tell that to Zoltan. But Leslie is still on track to become a policeman, an aspiration he eagerly shares with Louisa and Larry when they return. To their surprise, the house is spotless. How did the younger Durrells manage to clean the house before their mother returned? Easy: stuff everything into Larry’s room.

Poldark airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous episode here.

It’s autumn 1797, and Ross is delivering his maiden speech in the House of Commons. We watch his progress as six months’ worth of letters fly back and forth between him and Demelza – she keeps him apprised of her activities in Cornwall, and he emphasizes how much he is depending on her to oversee things while he tries to save the world.

At the quay as she reads Ross’s latest missive, Demelza sees Drake, and as the pretty young Rosina Hoblyn passes by, Demelza tries, pretty blatantly, to play matchmaker for her brother. Drake is amused, but not buying – he is still fixated on Morwenna.

Cousin Verity and her young son Andrew are visiting George and Elizabeth; George, still bitter over losing his seat in Parliament to Ross, is scheming to find a way back. At the mine, Ross’s salt-of-the-earth crony Tholly cheerfully ignores Dwight’s medical advice as he canoodles with his mistress, the widow Crocker. Demelza arrives, and we learn that Caroline is very near her time, and that a crisis at the mine urgently needs Ross’s input. The miners feel he has abandoned them; Demelza denies it.

The next day, as Ross reads Demelza’s letter, his patron Lord Falmouth advises him not to put public service before his wife and family. With that, Ross departs for Cornwall.

At Nampara, Demelza is hosting Verity, Dwight, and a pregnant-to-the-max Caroline. As the children noisily play, Caroline feels unwell, and she and Dwight quickly depart.

Verity is visiting George with her young son. Photo: Mammoth Screen for BBC and MASTERPIECE

Cut to the vicarage, where Morwenna is also playing with her young son John Conan. The fearsome Lady Whitworth, Ossie’s dragon of a mother, has arrived to make a bad situation infinitely worse. Imperiously, she demands to know why Morwenna hasn’t engaged a governess, and also the whereabouts of Ossie…

…who is in the coach with a weary Ross and other travelers on their last leg from London. To Ross’s discomfort, Ossie whines about his finances and angles for another parish (and its living). Ross clearly wishes he were anywhere else.

George meets with a notorious libertine, Captain Monk Adderley, who agrees to use his influence as a sitting, if lazy and disengaged, Member of Parliament to help George regain his seat…but it will cost him.

Demelza is feeding the lambs when at long last, Ross comes galloping into view on his horse. Their long separation has made things awkward between them, but Prudie and the children, at least, are thrilled to see him. That night, Ross is concerned that Demelza is still grieving over Armitage. Angrily, she assures him she is not, but does he believe her?

Rowella, dissatisfied with the hovel she shares with her new husband Arthur Solway, surveys the hole in her stocking and the leak in the roof and sends Ossie a note – she has some books that belong to him, she says – he should come and fetch them while her husband is out. He gets her message during yet another standoff with an icy Morwenna about his “conjugal rights,” and he beats a path to Rowella’s door. Rowella, her feet on full display, subtly hits Ossie up for more money.

Cut to Dwight and Caroline’s bedchamber, where an elated Dwight has just delivered their baby, a girl they name Sarah. He hands his wife the “most perfect creature [he’s] ever seen” and, flippant as always, Caroline supposes she “must learn to tolerate her.” Clearly, though, they are both besotted.

Still stewing over losing his seat in Parliament to Ross, George has hatched a new plan to gain power. Photo: Mammoth Screen for BBC and MASTERPIECE

Early the next morning, Ross heads to the beach for a swim. There, he unexpectedly encounters Dwight (shirtless alert!), who gleefully informs his friend of Sarah’s birth. At the mine, Sam, Zacky, and Tholly, with some obvious resentment, report to Ross that the existing lodes have dried up and they have been trying to come up with a plan. As it turns out, Ross has one: he will spend the summer in Cornwall helping his crew excavate a heretofore-untapped part of the mine in search of a new lode. The miners are appeased.

Ossie pays a visit to a bedridden Nat Pearce, who confesses to Ossie that he speculated with – and lost – a considerable sum belonging to depositors in Pascoe’s Bank (George’s competitor), where Ross also has all of his savings. Ossie (so much for a priest’s discretion!) spills the beans to George, who devises a plan to incite a run on the bank once Pearce dies, with the goal of wiping out Ross. George also decides that, since he can’t unseat Ross, he will buy a borough and with it, his own seat in Parliament. To that end, Adderley advises George to host an extravagant reception for all the area’s movers and shakers.

At Nampara, the Poldarks, Sam, Drake, and the Enyses are all admiring little Sarah, when Rosina, who been sewing for the children, is just leaving. Demelza, still matchmaking, inveigles a reluctant Drake into walking Rosina home. Could she be any more obvious?

Caroline and Dwight are dressing for George’s soirée when Dwight notices something amiss with the baby. He carries her over to the window to examine her face in the light. Caroline, joking at her mirror, hopes that Sarah “won’t grow up to be a spoiled brat.” Dwight, careful to reveal nothing, is clearly thinking she might not grow up at all.

Verity is delighted to see Geoffrey Charles again, who is now a teenager. Photo: Mammoth Screen for BBC and MASTERPIECE Cut to George’s party in full swing; the sleazy Adderley arrives, as does Verity, who is delighted to see her cousin Geoffrey Charles. Dwight, on the other hand, is grim and preoccupied; oblivious, Caroline happily drags him onto the dance floor.

Meanwhile, Ross wanders down to the beach, where he discovers Sam and Drake frantically trying to prevent Tholly from being beaten to death by a gang of thugs; according to Drake, Tholly’s paramour Mrs. Crocker is not a “widder,” but married. Ross leaps into the fray and the bullies are soon driven off. Everyone thinks the unconscious Tholly is dead, but miraculously he comes around. At the local tavern, they all get pleasantly sloshed and Tholly resolves to find a woman who is actually available. Ross, feeling no pain, can’t resist lurking outside George’s party, where he finds a friendly Elizabeth. Adderley intervenes, and he and Ross take an instant dislike to each other. Back inside, a triumphant George boasts to Elizabeth that he has secured a borough “for the asking.”

Late that night in the silent darkness as Caroline sleeps, a troubled Dwight is scrutinizing baby Sarah’s face in the moonlight. What is wrong with her?

At Nampara, Ross and Demelza have an honest discussion about Armitage, hopefully putting the affair behind them at last. Ross gifts Demelza with an exquisite pair of earrings, after which they put the kitchen table to good use. (Or start to…the rest is left to our imagination.)

WTTW, in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and Kartemquin Films presents a FREE screening and Discussion of Keep Talking. Keep Talking follows four Alaska Native women fighting to save Kodiak Alutiiq, an endangered language now spoken by less than 40 remaining fluent Native Elders. Their small community travels to remote Afognak Island to start teaching kids Alutiiq. At the camp, Sadie, a troubled teen, is inspired to begin learning the language and dances of her ancestors. Over the next 5 years the women overcome historical and personal traumas to find joy and hope in the revitalization of their cultural heritage.

Join us at the Chicago Cultural Center for a free screening of the film, and discussion.

Find our streaming recommendations for the previous month here.

Do you ever wish you could binge-watch your favorite PBS programs? If you’re a member you already can; if not, it’s easy to join. With WTTW Passport, members can watch a huge library of PBS and WTTW programming on-demand on any streaming device. To learn more about WTTW Passport, check out our dedicated site. You can activate or sign up for Passport here.

Each month we’ll bring you a few Passport picks. With Halloween coming up, here are some spooky shows to get you in the spirit, from fictional to real mysteries, tombs to ruins.

American Masters – Edgar Allen Poe: Buried Alive

What better way to celebrate Halloween than with the master of the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe? This American Masters, starring Denis O’Hare as Poe, dives into the life of the inventor of the detective story and examines the mysteries and misrepresentations surrounding him.

Death Comes to Pemberley

Jane Austen may not be known for her mysteries – but this two-part Masterpiece adaptation of P.D. James’ novel picks up after the events of Pride and Prejudice, when a murder has occurred on the eve of Pemberley’s annual ball. Your beloved Austen characters are here, but romance is no longer the main thing on their mind.

Secrets of the Dead

There’s a lot to choose from in this series: King Tut, Van Gogh, ancient Mexican cities, terracotta warriors. If you love mysteries but wish they had a bit more fact, this series is perfect: it like a detective story about misunderstood or little-known real-life events.

NOVA: Secrets of the Sky Tombs

More secrets from the past, but this time viewed through NOVA’s scientific lens. Investigate along with researchers as they explore the Himalayas in search of traces of the earliest settlers of those remote mountains. Search through artifacts and tombs for evidence of the belief systems of those peoples.

Climbers excavating and photographing the Samdzong Sky Tombs in Upper Mustang, Nepal.Photo: Liesl Clark

Ancient Invisible Cities

They may not be spooky, but the ancient buildings, ruins, and architecture of Cairo, Athens, and Istanbul are magnificent. Using 3D scanning technology, Ancient Invisible Cities reveals some of the hidden layers of history in this legendary metropolises and explores the stunning achievements of the civilizations that have lived in and built them.

Autumnwatch New England airs Wednesday-Friday, October 17-19 at 8:00 pm, and will be available to stream. 

New England is famous for its brilliant fall colors, which attract visitors from around the country. Mid- to late October is the peak season for foliage, but that's not all that changes around this time: it's also a season for harvesting, carving pumpkins, and spotting wildlife. Autumnwatch New England brings you into the heart of New England with live and same-day footage over three nights, October 17-19, to show the magnificence of the season in real time. Hosted by PBS's Samantha Brown and the BBC's Chris Packham, it will also include such experts as A Chef's Life's Vivian Howard; a Native American museum director; moose, monarch butterflies, and great white shark experts (yes, there are great white sharks off the coast of New England); and a plant physiologist. Get a taste of what you could see with stunning photography here:

Roughly 82,800 moose can be found in New England though they do not reside in Rhode Island. Photo: BBC

An autumn road in the White Mountains National Forest region of New Hampshire. Photo: Getty Images

Turkeys were once wiped out from New England in the 1800s but have made their way back with successful wildlife restoration efforts. Photo: BBC

'Autumnwatch' not only explores wild nature, but also traditions such as the harvesting of cranberries. Photo: PBS/BBC

Autumn mist on a small pond in Plymouth, Massachusetts, during the peak autumn foliage season in the Myles Standish State Forest on the South Shore. Photo: Getty Images

'Autumnwatch' will reveal the nocturnal routines of New England animals like bobcats. Photo: BBC

New Haven, Connecticut in fall. Photo: Getty Images

Photographer and filmmaker Kim Smith will be on hand to discuss monarch butterflies, which fly through New England on their migration every fall. Photo: PBS/BBC

American black bears hibernate up to seven months, but some remain active during winter months in lower elevation areas. Photo: BBC

The Great White Shark population has grown in Cape Cod in recent years where they remain for the summer before migrating south to winter in Florida, and sometimes the open Atlantic. Photo: BBC

Mount Katahdin in Maine. Photo: Getty Images

Check, Please!airs Fridays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream.

When Alpana Singh moved to Chicago in 2000, she recalls going to the same buzzy new restaurant here some eight times in a single year. “Now you can go to a perfectly delicious, fabulous restaurant, but you may not make it back for two years,” she says. “It’s not to say you didn’t like it – there are just so many other places you need to go to.”

It’s a striking example of how much the food scene has changed in Chicago and the world in the eighteen years since Singh came here at the age of 23 to run the wine program at the renowned fine-dining institution Everest. And it’s not just the number of restaurants: it’s also how people learn about, share, and approach food now, with social media and the proliferation of food publications, apps, and programming. “How we choose our restaurants has changed,” she says. “Now it’s almost like a sport.”

"How we choose our restaurants has changed," Singh says. "Now it's almost like a sport." Photo: WTTW/Ken Carl So as Singh returns as host of WTTW’s Check, Please! on October 26, she’s doing so in a vastly different landscape from when she first took the job, back in 2003, or even from when she left the show and was replaced by Catherine De Orio in 2013. Not that she ever left the food world; she has simply changed and evolved along with it. Back when she first joined Check, Please!, she was simply the youngest woman ever to pass the rigorous Master Sommelier exam. Now, she is also a restaurateur three times over, a member of Choose Chicago’s board of directors and the Illinois Restaurant Association’s advisory council who helped bring the James Beard Awards to Chicago, and even a possible political candidate – she seriously considered running for Cook County Commissioner last year. (She has also served as Lettuce Entertain You’s Director of Wine and Spirits.)

“I know a lot more sitting here at 41 than when I started at 26,” she says. “I’ve eaten a lot more food, I’ve traveled to a lot more countries. You can’t replace time and experience. Operating a restaurant of my own, I get it now when I meet restaurant owners: that tired look in their eyes, but also the passion. And I understand that really more than anything they want people to have a great time at their restaurant, and how disappointing it is for them when people don’t.”

Singh is still involved with her newest restaurant, Evanston’s Terra & Vine, but cut ties with her previous ventures The Boarding House (now closed) and Seven Lions last year, and she hopes to bring that restaurateur perspective to Check, Please!“Anywhere that I can insert a little tidbit that can help a viewer at home have a better experience, it just bridges that gap between what the restaurant wants to do and what you experience,” she says. “For instance, to advise someone with a dietary restriction that calling ahead really helps from the restaurant’s perspective.”

She also wants the show to reflect the way younger people approach food now, incorporating commentary about Yelp reviews, the suitability of a restaurant’s lighting for photography, and researching menus online. “I’m most excited about reaching out to a new generation of PBS viewers,” she says. “Kids are so much savvier now. I didn’t have Thai food until I was 20; my 15-year-old niece knows like six different Thai places. She’s got her list of restaurants that she wants to go to. And when she met Rick Bayless for the first time, I thought she was going to pass out: that was more exciting than Cardi B for her!”

"What is food? It’s the sharing of a culture, and I think we need that more than ever right now," Singh says. Photo: WTTW/Ken Carl

But Check, Please! doesn’t only feature the hot new places appealing to Instagrammers and Snapchatters, which Singh cites as a strength. “Given that there’s always buzz around the next new thing, what I love about the show is that we do restaurants that have been around for decades. They’ve just stood the test of time, and we need to be reminded of them. People have literally raised their children in those restaurants and now their kids are going with their own kids. And then they become cool!”

It’s that sense of a shared past, of family, of eating with other people, that Singh most loves about food and is pleased to find in food-loving kids now. “Generation Z are such incredible gatekeepers of authenticity,” she says. “They really want to experience the wholeness of it. They want to go to places like Little Village and eat Mexican food, they want to go to Albany Park and have Middle Eastern food, they want to go with their diverse groups of friends and be able to eat like their friends do. I find it so comforting to know that we have this entire generation that wants to make sure we always have those things and that ability. That’s an incredible lesson that I’ve picked up from them, that this is a privilege.

“Nothing will teach you more about a culture than eating the food. Because what is food? It’s the sharing of a culture, and I think we need that more than ever right now. Food opens the door to conversation, and we can’t accomplish anything without conversation, we can’t accomplish anything if there’s a wall. Food really speaks to our shared humanity, and it brings home this notion that we’re really not that different: we all love good food. How lucky are we that we can experience all that in this city?”

Christopher Kimball's Milk Street airs Saturdays at 4:00 pm.

Singapore is renowned for its street foods and open-air food markets (the first thing the protagonists of Crazy Rich Asians do when arriving in Singapore is go eat at one of these markets), and one popular dish that has even made its way to the United States by way of Thai restaurants is chicken satay: charred chunks of meat on a skewer served with a peanut sauce. It is traditionally cooked over coals, but Christopher Kimball's Milk Street has come up with an ingenious trick to allow you to make it with your broiler, without any dangerous smoking or flare-ups. 

Singapore Chicken Satay

In Singapore, satay—thin strips of boldly seasoned and skewered meat—is cooked quickly over long beds of hot coals. The skewers are flipped frequently to ensure even cooking and plenty of delicious charred bits at the edges. It typically is served with a thin vinegar-based sauce that includes a scant amount of peanut butter and chopped peanuts for flavor and texture. In our recipe, the skewers are broiled on a wire rack set over a baking sheet lined with foil and sprinkled with 1 cup of kosher salt. The salt absorbs the fat when drips hit the pan, thereby preventing the fat from smoking. 

Note: Don't marinate the chicken for more than 3 hours or it will be too salty. And don't substitute chicken breasts. Under high heat, they dry out and easily overcook. 

Start to finish: 35 minutes, plus marinating

Servings: 4

Ingredients

For the chicken:
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
6 medium garlic cloves, finely grated
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tbsp toasted peanut oil
2 tbsp ground turmeric
4 tsp ground cumin
Kosher salt
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut lengthwise into 1-inch-wide strips

For the sauce:
1/4 cup boiling water
1 tbsp creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp toasted peanut oil
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 medium garlic clove, finely grated
2 tsp chili-garlic sauce such as Sriracha
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 cup finely chopped salted dry-roasted peanuts

Directions

1. To prepare the chicken, in a large bowl, combine the ginger, garlic, sugar, oil, turmeric, cumin, 1 tbsp salt, and 1/2 cup water. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then stir in the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

2. To make the sauce, in a medium bowl, whisk the boiling water and peanut butter until smooth. Whisk in the soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar, then set aside. In a small skillet over medium, heat the oil, ginger, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the chili-garlic sauce and turmeric, then cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Whisk the garlic mixture into the soy mixture. Reserve 1/4 cup for basting the chicken. Cover and refrigerate the remaining sauce for serving.

3. About 30 minutes before skewering and cooking the chicken, remove the sauce from the refrigerator. Stir in the chopped peanuts. Heat the broiler with a rack about 4 inches from the element. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and spread 1 cup salt in an even layer over it. Set a wire rack in the baking sheet over the salt and mist with cooking spray.

4. Drain the chicken in a colander. Thread 2 or 3 pieces of chicken onto each of eight 8-inch metal skewers, evenly dividing the meat and pushing the pieces together, but not tightly packing them. Evenly space the skewers on the wire rack.

5. Broil the chicken until beginning to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Flip the skewers and continue to broil until the second sides begin to brown, another 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush each skewer with 1 to 2 tbsp of the reserved sauce. Continue to broil until well-charred, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from the oven once again, flip the skewers and brush with another 1 to 2 tbsp of the reserved sauce. Continue to broil until the second sides begin to char and the chicken is cooked through, another 2 to 4 minutes. Serve with the dipping sauce.