For more than a decade, renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has helped to expand America’s sense of itself, stimulating a national conversation about identity with humor, wisdom, and compassion. Professor Gates has explored the ancestry of dozens of influential people from diverse backgrounds, taking millions of viewers deep into the past to reveal the connections that bind us all.

Rags to Riches

Premiered April 14, 2026
Rags to Riches

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the family trees of actor Kate Burton and media mogul Barry Diller—two people who grew up in comfort, thanks to ancestors who did not. Moving from shtetls to coal mines to orphanages, Gates and his guests learn stories of extraordinary sacrifice and explore a profound question: what do we inherit from people whose lives were unimaginably more challenging than our own?

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