Why do some people rise to power and others do not? Why do we fall in love – not just with romantic partners but with friends and strangers? How has our need to share beliefs built human culture?
National Geographic seeks to answer these big questions and many more with The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman.
From the creators of The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, this expansion of the channel's franchise once again finds Freeman taking viewers on a global journey to meet with people from different cultures whose lives are shaped in surprising ways by different fundamental forces, this time exploring themes that unite us all.
The series premieres globally this month on National Geographic in 171 countries and 45 languages.
At a time when global events seem to be driving cultures apart, The Story of Us aims to reveal the common humanity that lives inside all of us.
Each of the six hour-long episodes will explore a single fundamental force or topic: freedom, peace, love, social division, power and rebellion.
Along the way, Freeman meets and speaks with powerful world leaders, ordinary people with extraordinary stories and everyone in between.
Among those Freeman speaks with along the way:
Albert Woodfox, one of three prison inmates put in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary in April 1972 after the killing of a corrections officer. He was kept in solitary confinement for more than 43 years until his conviction was overturned in 2014. He was finally released in 2016.
Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, whose people have been able to make peace after a horrific civil war. Freeman also meets with a Tutsi who has reconciled with the Hutu who killed her family.
Joshua Coombes, a hairstylist from London who began a global social movement called #DoSomethingForNothing, which encourages people to carry out everyday small acts of kindness. For Coombes, that meant offering free haircuts to the homeless to help give them back their dignity.
Megan Phelps-Roper, a prominent member of the Westboro Baptist Church before leaving in 2012. Since then, she has become an advocate for people and ideas she was once taught to despise – especially the value of empathising with people across ideological lines.
President Bill Clinton, who discusses what it is like to bear the weight of wielding great power, both in the United States and around the world.
| CHANNEL |
National Geographic Channel (DStv 181) |
| PREMIERE |
14 January 2018 |
| TIMESLOT |
Sundays, 20h05 |
| REPEATS |
Mondays, 21h00 / 22h35 |