Stream now with KPBS Passport on KPBS+ / Watch Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV
On this episode, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes guests Claire Danes and Jeff Daniels on a journey through primal scenes from America's past-leading all the way back to an infamous witch hunt.
Season 9 highlights the genealogical backgrounds and ancestral stories of prominent guests that helped to define who they are today. The season features actors Jamie Chung (LOVECRAFT COUNTRY), Brian Cox (SUCCESSION), Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”), Claire Danes (HOMELAND), Jeff Daniels (AMERICAN RUST), Viola Davis (“The Woman King”), David Duchovny (THE X-FILES), Richard Kind (“Inside Out”), Joe Manganiello (TRUE BLOOD), Tamera Mowry (THE REAL), Edward Norton (“Fight Club”), Julia Roberts (“Ticket to Paradise”) and Danny Trejo (“Machete”); pop star Cyndi Lauper; comedians Carol Burnett and Niecy Nash; athlete and sportscaster Tony Gonzalez; journalists Jim Acosta and Van Jones; activist Angela Davis; and statesman Jeh Johnson.
At the center of it all, guiding every discovery, is host and executive producer Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.
Gates remarks, “I am deeply proud of this series—and especially this season. I think it is so important today to show what we have in common, as Americans, and as human beings, despite our apparent differences. The stories we find in our guests’ family trees demonstrate—repeatedly— that we are a fundamentally blended nation that draws strength from our diversity.”
Assembling the extensive family trees and ancestral narratives alongside Dr. Gates are DNA expert CeCe Moore (chief genetic genealogist for Parabon Nanolabs and host of ABC’s “The Genetic Detective”) and genealogists Nick Sheedy and Kimberly Morgan, who together have solved hundreds of mysteries and reconnected innumerable lost relatives over the past two decades.
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Credits: A production of McGee Media, Inkwell Media, Kunhardt Films and WETA Washington, D.C. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the writer, host, and executive producer. Dyllan McGee and Peter Kunhardt are executive producers. John F. Wilson is the executive producer in charge for WETA. Bill Gardner is the executive in charge for PBS. Sabin Streeter is the senior producer. Natalia Warchol is the series producer. Hannah Olson is the consulting producer. Deborah Clancy Porfido is the supervising producer. Kevin Burke is the producer. Robert L. Yacyshyn is the line producer. Sabin Streeter and Krista Whetstone are directors.
