Stories by Daniel Hautzinger

The PBS Kids show Nature Cat is produced in a small office park in a Chicago suburb by the four-person team of Spiffy Pictures. Explore the process of creating an animated children's show - it involves Skype and comedians from Saturday Night Live - and learn about the origins of Nature Cat.

Season 4 of The Great British Baking Show begins airing on PBS on Friday, June 16. There's a fresh batch of bakers - an aerospace engineer, a garden designer - ready to take on the challenges of Mary and Paul. Meet them all here!

The executive producer of a new IMAX film about a naturalist integral to the theory of evolution talks about Bates's contribution and the importance of science education and film's use in it.

Sample some of the writers who will be appearing at Printers Row Lit Fest this weekend, through interviews on Chicago Tonight and My Chicago. Gillian Flynn, Rita Dove, Amy Dickinson, NPR's Scott Simon and more are all here!

June 7 marks the centenary of Gwendolyn Brooks. The renowned poet was the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize and Poet Laureate of Illinois from 1968 until her death in 2000. Hear her read two of her poems in this WTTW program from 1966.

JFK's friend Frank Sinatra organized a star-studded gala for the new president's inauguration in 1961, but unforeseen circumstances prevented the performances of Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Gene Kelly, and others from being broadcast - until now.

In The American Epic Session you can see Taj Mahal, Jack White, Nas, Bettye LaVette, The Avett Brothers, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, and more record on equipment from the 1920s, with all its warmth and challenges. Meet some of the musicians here.

The Edgewater Beach Hotel played host to weddings, big bands, scandals, and celebrities like Nat King Cole and Bette Davis during its heyday. Experience some of the "Magic by the Lake" in this episode of Chicago Stories.

Happy National Doughnut Day! Try a Showstopper recipe for Apple Toffee Doughnuts from season 1 of The Great British Baking Show, courtesy of Richard. 

China, Havana, the Pacific, Alaska - PBS explores them all during the Summer of Adventure. Take a sneak peek at the upcoming shows, which follow caribou in the Arctic Circle, a photographer's quest to document every species in captivity, and more.

American Masters Chef's Flight is over, but you can still stream the documentaries and catch up on our posts with recipes, interviews, features and more about these four icons of American cuisine.

NOVA: Poisoned Water investigates what caused the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. "Our water infrastructure is more fragile and more vulnerable than we realize,” says filmmaker Llewellyn Smith. 

American Epic "is musical to tell this story of what’s wonderful about America because music is perhaps America’s greatest gift to the world," says filmmaker Bernard MacMahon. 

Today is John F. Kennedy's centenary. 34 years ago, WTTW's John Callaway hosted a discussion on the legacy of the 35th president of the United States on the twentieth anniversary of his assassination. 

In 1984, WTTW hosted a discussion of the Vietnam War with a group of veterans and four Steppenwolf Theatre actors playing soldiers onstage, including Gary Sinise. Revisit it here.