GLOBAL SPIRIT is a unique television series that investigates philosophical and existential issues of the 21st century, tracing the eternal, yet still evolving human quest for meaning, truth and wisdom.The 12-part series brings together ancient wisdom traditions, with the perspectives of world religions and modern science to help viewers define who we are as human beings, and explore how this affects our relationships with our families, communities, environment and the world at large. Weaving compelling filmed segments with informed, engaging studio conversations, GLOBAL SPIRIT offers an intimate, discovery-filled viewing experience. Presented by composers and musicians Carlos and Cindy Santana and hosted by writer and spiritual seeker Phil Cousineau, the series brings together a rich mixture of philosophers, writers, scientists, religious and spiritual teachers, and practitioners of a wide range of faiths and traditions. GLOBAL SPIRIT gives viewers an opportunity to discover how people of various perennial philosophies around the world think, believe and address life’s core, eternal questions. While shedding new light on different dimensions of faith, belief and identity, each one-hour program serves to promote understanding, tolerance and respect for different traditions and world views. airs Wednesdays 3-4 a.m. beginning 11/27

• #201 – Love, Fear & Beyond – While most people consider the opposite of “love” to be something related to the English word, “hate”, this program explores the oppositional relationship between love and fear, featuring guitarist and spiritual practitioner Carlos Santana, drummer-composer Cindy Blackman Santana and authors and therapists Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. and Diane Cirincione-Jampolsky, Ph.D. Mixing exciting concert footage with deep conversation, this unique program highlights the more selfless dimensions of love and the pain and suffering of fear and isolation, to ultimately provide powerful glimpses of what is here called “the beyond,” a transcendent relationship with oneself, and with all of life.
• #202 – The Pilgrimage Experience – For thousands of years people of every tradition have embarked on long, difficult and often costly journeys to sacred places in search of various benefits, from health or material well-being to a spiritual renewal. But why do millions of pilgrims endure such hardships? What are they ultimately in search of? This episode utilizes compelling film footage from pilgrimages to India and Peru, and brings together Peruvian anthropologist Zoila Mendoza and renowned travel writer Pico Iyer. These guests, together with host Phil Cousineau, shed light on various dimensions of this timeless ritual, which is an important part of most, if not all religions and spiritual traditions.
• #203 – The Power of Community – This Global Spirit episode explores the powerful role that intentional communities have played for many hundreds of years in supporting the well-being, growth and transformations of many individuals. The program visits two contemporary communities to witness their most important practices, and to access their potential to transform consciousness and catalyze positive societal change. The program features Zen Buddhist Abbot Roshi Joan Halifax of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, N.M., and Christian youth activist Adam Bucko, who heads the Reciprocity Foundation, which has become a sanctuary for homeless youth in New York City. Both guests bring considerable compassion and many useful insights as they apply their traditions, their experiences and their hearts to work with young LGBT and other communities of need in the U.S.
• #204 – Inside Sacred Texts – This Global Spirit episode explores the powerful role that intentional communities have played for many hundreds of years in supporting the well-being, growth and transformations of many individuals. The program visits two contemporary communities to witness their most important practices, and to access their potential to transform consciousness and catalyze positive societal change. The program features Zen Buddhist Abbot Roshi Joan Halifax of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, N.M., and Christian youth activist Adam Bucko, who heads the Reciprocity Foundation, which has become a sanctuary for homeless youth in New York City. Both guests bring considerable compassion and many useful insights as they apply their traditions, their experiences and their hearts to work with young LGBT and other communities of need in the U.S.
• #205 & #206 – not scheduled
• #207 – The Art of Living and Dying – Our most basic understanding of life is in many ways determined by our understanding of death. While to some, death is an end in itself, to others it is the final test of faith in the existence of a God or of an afterlife. This program presents a powerful conversation between dedicated spiritual leaders in the end-of-life movement, meeting for the first time. Harpist, singer and lay Benedictine Therese Schroeder-Sheker, founder of the Chalice of Repose Project, joins Frank Ostaseski, the Zen Hospice Project co-founder and current director of the Metta Institute, to explore how a less fearful and more conscious relationship to death can radically shift our experience of life.
• #208 – Rumi and the Sufi Path of Love – How did a 13th century Sufi mystic from Central Asia become the most widely read poet in the United States? Why did UNESCO declare 2007 as “the year of Jalaluddin Rumi”? This “Global Spirit” program brings together two distinguished studio guests from different cultural traditions: Sufi sheikh Kabir Helminski of the Mevlevi Sufi tradition, and Iranian filmmaker and multi-lingual website host Parisa Soultani, who presents portraits of Rumi “lovers” from her “gathering of lovers” project. This program mixes knowledgeable, in-depth conversations with evocative film segments from Turkey, Iran and the USA to explore the depths of Rumi’s poetry and teachings. Host Phil Cousineau explores questions such as: What does Rumi’s poetry and message have to offer to raising religious tolerance in today’s world?What does Rumi’s perspective offer to discussions of extremism? What is Rumi’s concept of divine Love or “Iskh”? and How is this love similar or different than what other great teachers, such as Jesus taught?
• #209 – Sacred Ecology – This program explores the natural world as an access point to the sacred. With global warming on the rise and the number of animal species now declining at alarming rates, this program asks if we humans are trapped in a never-ending destructive cycle fed by our ever-increasing desires. Or do our most serious environmental problems stem in part from our very concept, or understanding of “self”? Eco-philosopher and Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy meets global ecologist, anthropologist and filmmaker Michael Tobias to explore some of the most basic existential questions: How do we see “ourselves” amongst the wider family of earth’s inhabitants? Are our human notions of ‘ecology” or of “the sacred” blind to nature’s fundamental laws and truths?
• #210 – The Call of Wisdom – The ancient Greeks believed there was another dimension beyond logic and reasoning and they called it Sophia, or wisdom, which they believed to be the ultimate good. In Eastern traditions, wisdom is often synonymous with the Truth, as in “the true nature of existence, ” available only to those who can see beyond the ephemeral, the ever-changing. This program examines the true nature of wisdom, how it is recognized, and why our survival today as a species and a planet may depend on it. The program features Jean Shinoda Bolen, an author, Jungian analyst and activist, and Roger Walsh, a professor of psychiatry, philosophy and anthropology. These two engaging guests come together for the first time to discuss this rich topic and address a range of important questions such as: Are we now as a species, headed for wisdom or catastrophe?

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With 40 percent of all plastic products used only once, plastic pollution is considered one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals globally. This program explores what’s being done about our extensive appetite for damaging single-use plastic. Traveling from Boston to Seattle — and reporting from the Pacific shores of Costa Rica to the rocky beaches of Easter Island –PBS NewsHour’s reporting team uncovered not only the extensive environmental damage plastic has already caused, but also innovations and solutions in plastic management. airs 11/27 at 10 p.m.

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When did World War II begin? Americans might say December 7, 1941-the day the Japanese Imperial navy attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For Europeans, it was September 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. But in China, people will tell you a different date-August 13, 1937, the start of the Battle of Shanghai. That day, after what is called the “century of humiliation,” including six years of repeated “incidents” initiated by the Japanese military, China at last “stood up.” Shanghai was the most international city in Asia, with a large foreign population, so at the time of the military conflict, it was headline news around the world. Based on the book Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtzeby Danish author Peter Harmsen, SHANGHAI 1937: WHERE WORLD WAR II BEGAN introduces key figures in the conflict, chronicles how the battle unfolded over the course of three months, and explores the aftermath and years of war that followed. SHANGHAI 1937 incorporates rarely seen archival footage as well as interviews with author Peter Harmsen, military historian Edward Drea and professor of modern Chinese history Hans Van DeVen, in addition to two Chinese experts on this subject: Su Zhiliang, Ph.D. of Shanghai Normal University, and Ma Zhendu, director of the Second Historical Archives of China. The film also includes vivid recollections of men and women, such as Ronald Morris, Liliane Willens and Patricia D. Silver, who experienced these events as foreign children living in Shanghai. airs 11/28 at 4-5 a.m.

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Do you remember your first carousel ride? Wendy Kirbey does, and when her hometown needed an economic boost she had an idea: build a carousel, from scratch, using old world craftsmanship. See how this idea transforms the community when a group of dedicated volunteers come together to design, hand carve and paint all of the animals needed to complete what many believe will be one of the most beautiful carousels ever created.  11/27 at 2-3 a.m.

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Roughly one in five people lives with learning and attention issues (LAIs) like ADHD and dyslexia, yet many of those who live with LAIs feel alone. They’re not. In a new hour-long special, ROADTRIP NATION shares inspiring stories of struggle, self-acceptance and success. BEING YOU, follows the transformative journey of three young people-Stephanie, Noah, and Nicole-as they travel cross-county to find others who, like them, learn differently and have used that difference to build lives doing what they love. Along their journey, they meet with diverse individuals living with LAIs, including entertainer Howie Mandel, Eye to Eye co-founder and chief empowerment officer David Flink, and Attention Deficit Disorder Association president Evelyn Polk Green, and discover that these individuals are not only coping, but thriving. Many credit their learning and attention issues as the driving forces that shaped their success. ROADTRIP NATION: BEING YOU showcases powerful stories that will inspire all viewers to believe that their individual circumstances can be positively used to define their own roads in life. airs a.m. 11/25 at 1-2

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