Video | Faces of America

Video

Keeping cultural connections alive
Queen Noor talks about special cultural traditions that keep her tied to her Arabic roots.

The King and I
Queen Noor tells Henry Louis Gates, Jr. about how she met her future husband, King Hussein of Jordan.

Love during wartime
Dr. Oz tells the story of how his grandfather and grandmother met and married in Turkey, before World War I.

Islam and identity
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. asks Dr. Oz about how his Muslim faith affects his sense of self, and Dr. Oz talks about the role of religion in his native Turkey.

Deciding to be a doctor
Dr. Oz reveals why he decided to join the field of medicine when he was seven years old.

Learning English the hard way
Dr. Oz tells the story of how his father worked as a doctor in Cleveland despite not knowing any English, and the importance of the immigrant work ethic.

What “home” means to me
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. asks Yo-Yo Ma what he hopes to learn about his family history, and what idea of "home" means to him.

Returning to China
Yo-Yo Ma talks about the first time he visited China as an adult, and what he learned about the way cultures interact and inform each other.

What’s in a name?
Yo-Yo Ma reveals the origin of his unusual first name.

The trip that changed everything
Yo-Yo Ma tells a story about how his childhood visit to New York City changed the course of his family's life forever.

Texan pride
Eva Longoria talks about what it was like to grow up as a "Texican," and a unique Texas cultural tradition.

Land disputes on the Western frontier
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. reveals the Longoria family's struggles to protect their land from encroachment by Anglo settlers in 19th-century Texas.

About the Program

What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Harvard scholar turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans — professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander, chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, novelist Louise Erdrich, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, actress Eva Longoria, musician Yo-Yo Ma, director Mike Nichols, Her Majesty Queen Noor, television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, actress Meryl Streep, and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.

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Corporate funding is provided by The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson & Johnson.

Additional funding is provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Atlantic Philanthropies, and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.