Stories by Daniel Hautzinger

In his work at the TODAY show, Mike Leonard says that "not one place I went to or person I met was what I thought it would be. So at a time when so many generalizations are being made about groups of people, it’s important to hear stories of people who aren’t being heard from.”

Articulate with Jim Cotter is a new arts and culture show airing on WTTW Prime that spotlights everything from a maker of extravagant hats to a 92-year-old pianist who studied with Rachmaninoff. Explore some digital highlights from the show. 

50 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson created a federally funded public broadcasting system to "enrich man's spirit." PBS has produced a wide range of programs since then. Learn a little bit about the history of some of your favorites.

An apocalyptic storm puts everyone in an ominous mood and traps all the Durrells inside, including Larry, who's at home suffering from the mumps. Things get worse when Aunt Hermione arrives with a psychic friend who offers to hold a seance.

From a Swedish immigrant who planted the majority of trees in Chicago after the Fire to two separate brewers, a lucky friend to a developer who rebuilt his home three times, the people who gave their names to Chicago streets have some fascinating stories.

Helen Macdonald turned to hawking for solace when her father died, chronicling her grief in the award-winning book H is for Hawk. Now she's training her first goshawk since then on Nature. She spoke to us about the meanings give to animals and more.

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were brilliant students from affluent, respected families who had everything going for them – so much so that they felt they had to prove their superiority by murdering a fourteen-year-old boy in the "crime of the century."

Despite difficulties involving its creation and lukewarm reviews at its premiere, The Nutcracker has become perhaps the most popular ballet in North America. Its path to success on this continent runs through Disney, San Francisco, and CBS.

Louisa is having a mid-life crisis. She's feeling old, now that Larry has moved out and taken up with a beautiful young woman and Sven supposedly has a youthful girlfriend. Gerry has been assigned a stodgy new tutor, and Leslie has taken up photography. 

In the Joffrey Ballet's new Nutcracker,  the main characters aren't wealthy but instead are working class immigrants living on the grounds of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair before it opens. How did the Joffrey reinvent a holiday classic?

Zany as they seem, the family and friends in The Durrells in Corfu are based on real people: a naturalist, a famous novelist, a polymath. Meet some of the illustrious Durrells and the other characters they met during their real-life stay in Corfu.

Michael Kirk discusses his new Frontline investigation, Putin's Revenge, which looks at Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election and what drove Putin to order it. "The ideology of Putin right now is survival of Putin," Kirk says.

Larry's first novel has just been published in England, but no one in his family has read his book, driving a rift between him and especially his mother. Louisa tries to improve as a parent by organizing a reading and finding Gerry a tutor. And everyone gets drunk.

For a brief period, the new Apple Store off the Chicago River looked like a giant Macbook. What other buildings take inspiration from objects, in subtle or outrageous ways? Discover examples from the blatant to the futuristic and inspired.

Need a quick and easy but flavorful dinner? Try this recipe for Burmese Chicken from Christopher Kimball's Milk Street, in which you're saved the time of marinating by using an aromatic paste of lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and shallots.