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Airdate: The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman speaks with powerful world leaders & ordinary people about the human culture we all share.

Tonight National Geographic premieres The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman.

The 6 part series which debuts globally today, addresses questions such as: Why do some people rise to power and others do not? Why do we fall in love – not just with romantic partners but with friends and strangers? How has our need to share beliefs built human culture?

“Talking with three presidents and two Nobel Peace Prize winners and travelling to remote regions of Africa and Central America was a memorable experience for me. It was an incredible global journey to understand how human culture has taken on so many remarkable forms,” said Freeman.

From the creators of critically acclaimed series The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, this expansion of the hit franchise again finds Freeman taking viewers on a global journey to meet with people from different cultures whose lives are shaped in surprising ways by different fundamental forces, this time exploring themes that unite us all.

At a time when global events seem to be driving cultures apart, The Story of Us aims to reveal the common humanity that lives inside all of us. Each of the six hour-long episodes will explore a single fundamental force or topic: freedom, peace, love, social division, power and rebellion. Along the way, Freeman meets and speaks with powerful world leaders, ordinary people with extraordinary stories and everyone in between.

Among those Freeman speaks with along the way:

Albert Woodfox (“The March of Freedom”), one of three prison inmates put in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary in April 1972 after the killing of a corrections officer. He was kept in solitary confinement for over 43 years until his conviction was overturned in 2014. He was finally released in 2016.

Paul Kagame (“The Fight for Peace”), the president of Rwanda, whose people have been able to make peace after a horrific civil war. Freeman also meets with a Tutsi who has reconciled with the Hutu who killed her family.

Joshua Coombes (“The Power of Love”), a hairstylist from London who began a global social movement called #DoSomethingForNothing, which encourages people to carry out every day small acts of kindness. For Coombes, that meant offering free haircuts to the homeless to help give them back their dignity. 

Megan Phelps-Roper (“Us and Them”), a prominent member of the Westboro Baptist Church before leaving in 2012. Since then, she has become an advocate for people and ideas she was once taught to despise – especially the value of empathising with people across ideological lines.

President Bill Clinton (“The Power of Us”), who discusses what it is like to bear the weight of wielding great power, both in the United States and around the world.

8.30pmWednesday October 11 on National Geographic Australia.

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