Jurassic Web (3/7)

Large corporations that bought the first IBM computers wanted to boost their productivity and show off how modern they were. But the slow processing time left programmers with hours and hours of free time to be as creative as they wanted. And that's how they created a programme that could make the machine sing. <br /><br />

Song In the Machine

The IBM 1401, the only computer in the world with a song dedicated to it

In the 1960s some nerdish kids figured out how to hack phone lines in the USA, creating a playful shared space to meet up and chat. But this would soon attract the attention of the authorities.

Phone Phreaks

In the 1960s some nerdish kids figured out how to hack phone lines in the USA, creating a playful shared space to meet up and talk. But this would soon attract the attention of the authorities.

Jurassic Web (1/7)

As countercultures emerged in the United States in the 60's, the mimeograph, an archaic and totally outdated machine, became the tool of choice for young people to bypass government censorship and disseminate revolutionary ideas, create communities, and share fanfiction. This was the 1960s internet.

The Galaxy of Fanzines

The mimeograph, an archaic and totally outdated machine, became the internet of the 1960s 

Jurassic Web (2/7)

Large corporations that bought the first IBM computers wanted to boost their productivity and show off how modern they were. But the slow processing time left programmers with hours and hours of free time to be as creative as they wanted. And that's how they created a programme that could make the machine sing.

As the youth of America takes to the streets to protest against Vietnam, the Nixon presidency decides to invest heavily in computer networks in American campuses. But computer science students would use these proto-social networks against the government.

The Angry Network

As the youth of America takes to the streets to protest against Vietnam, the Nixon presidency decides to invest heavily in computer networks in American campuses.

Jurassic Web (4/7)

In the early 1970s information technology was still in the hands of big industry and the military. But a collective of geeky hippies in San Francisco wanted to change that by creating an open network for sharing just about anything.

Flower Hackers

Jurassic Web (5/7)

The arrival of the personal computer is the beginning of a real communications revolution that will transform our lives. Connecting these new computers to a telephone line created the world’s first free networks.

The Geeks Awaken

Jurassic Web (6/7)

When France launched the Minitel in the 1980s, it created the largest social network the world had ever seen. The first French hackers wanted to use the Minitel to make a free network.  

The Minitel Underground

Jurassic Web (7/7)

Jurassic Web - A Prehistory of Social Media

Shining star, control freak, creative genius, and sex symbol. Prince was a diamond with many facets. Tape shows you why.

Tape: Prince

Sting was an ecologically-conscious yogi hipster before it was even a thing. He's always been fighting for our right to enjoy a better future than the one we are making for ourselves. Perhaps a strange mission for someone with punk musical roots?

Tape

Sting was an ecologically-conscious yogi hipster before it was even a thing

Sting

In Kyiv's Closer Club, Ukrainians are trying to preserve a bit of normality in wartime. In the past, dance fans from across Europe made the pilgrimage to the Ukrainian capital's legendary techno nights. Every December, the Black Factory Night takes place, and this winter is no different. If there’s a blackout, they’re got generators at the ready.

Blackout

In Kyiv's Closer Club, Ukrainians are trying to preserve a bit of normality in wartime as the country experiences blackouts.

Tracks East

More than 10 million people in the world are behind bars with half of the world's prison population in Russian, Chinese or American jails. In the United States, where the prison population has risen sharply in recent decades. Artists are sounding the alarm: Jay Z, Denzel Curry and Meek Mill are calling for judicial reform.

More than 10 million people in the world are behind bars with half of the world's prison population in Russian, Chinese or American jails. 

Tracks: Planet Prison

Ronja von Ronne explores different types of relationships and questions the nature of love and our search for it. Can love exist between two people, or between three? And what of our love for ourselves, or indeed the unconditional love we hold for our pets?

Love! But how?

Ronja von Ronne explores different types of relationships and questions the nature of love.

Streetphilosophy

Back in the early 1990s Madonna’s provocative sexual persona was seen as a threat to the Catholic Church.

TAPE

Madonna

Meet Olivier Latry, the organist of the famous Notre-Dame in Paris: one of the most prestigious organist gigs in the world. Join him on an exciting musical and historical journey to the heart of the organ.

Meet Olivier Latry, the organist of the famous Notre-Dame in Paris

The Organ of Notre Dame

Ayn Rand was a survivor of Communism, and as a result, her writings fiercely advocate uncompromising individualism. Her high profile fans include Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Angelina Jolie.

Ayn Rand, Capitalism Guru

Ayn Rand was a survivor of Communism, and as a result, her writings fiercely advocate uncompromising individualism

Gymnastics

In Ukraine, long-distance love is the new normal. Indie pop icon Ingret Kostenko had a meteoric rise to fame until the Russian invasion forced her to flee to Germany. The man she loved was a soldier at the front and she went home regularly to see him. This separation is the inspiration for Ingret’s music.

Love in Wartime

Ukrainian Indie pop icon Ingret Kostenko is in a long-distance relationship with a soldier, the inspiration for her music.

Bonuses and Extracts

Discover more

France’s President Emmanuel Macron forced through an unpopular reform of the country’s pension system – and the French aren’t having it. We travel to Romania to find out about a possible law to ban gambling adverts, and look at how to protect Europeans from addictions.

France’s pension reform / Gambling / Photography

Protests erupt across France in response to the government’s pension reform bill, and we explore gambling across Europe.

ARTE Europe Weekly

At once seductive and dangerous, historical myth and male fantasy, the femme fatale represents both erotic promise and a death trap to the male observer. Conceived at the end of the 19th century in the works of Gustave Moreau, Franz von Stuck and Lovis Corinth, the femme fatale was completely reinvented in the 20th century by many female artists.

Seductive and dangerous, the figure of the femme fatale in art was completely reinvented in the 20th century.

The Femme Fatale in Art

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049. This well-documented portrait of the Chinese president gives an unprecedented insight into his politics and shows how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

A portrait of the Chinese president giving an unprecedented insight into his politics and showing how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

The New World of Xi Jinping

Many governments and organisations are wary of their employers using the social media TikTok. Does the Chinese company really serve Xi Jinping’s regime?

TikTok: A Chinese Threat?

Mapping the World Essentials

Highly influential indie rockers from Boston, famous for such tracks as Debaser and Where is my mind perform in Paris as part of a European tour for their latest album Doggerel.

Legendary and highly influential indie rockers perform in Paris as part of their European tour.

Pixies - Live at the Paris Olympia

At first glance, it's an image of innocence. A motherly milkmaid pouring out the milk in a kitchen, preparing snacks from our childhoods. But there's actually far more to her than meets the eye.

The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer

A famous image that at first glance looks totally innocent, but is in actual fact full of innuendo

Look but Don't Touch

Tensions between Moldova and Russia are escalating over the breakaway region of Transnistria, an investigation on how prepared Europe is for another summer of wildfires, and a report from the Dissident Club in Paris.

Tensions in Moldova / WildFires in Europe

Tensions between Moldova and Russia are escalating with street protests and controversy over Russian secret documents.

The decisive moment in 1618 that triggered the Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants and changed the course of European history.

The decisive moment in 1618 that triggered the Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants. 

The Defenestration of Prague

Lyubov, which means love in Russian, is 80 years old and lives alone on the shores of Lake Baikal. She bears witness to this wonder of nature and possesses and unbreakable bond with the world’s deepest lake in Siberia. Her life here is hard, especially in winter, but she would not live anywhere else.

On the shores of Lake Baikal, an old woman lives alone in a beautiful place that is dear to her heart.

The Old Woman and the Lake

An exclusive investigation into the Russian paramilitary organisation Wagner, headed by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. 2,500 documents were leaked from Prigozhin’s servers by anti-Putin hackers, shedding light on this secretive group of mercenaries, a key element in the war in Ukraine.

Data Sources

An exclusive investigation into the Russian paramilitary organisation Wagner, headed by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. 

The Prigozhin Papers

A look at how we are getting better at managing and conserving water supplies in drier parts of our planet like southern Spain, Israel and the desert city of Las Vegas.

Water

 A look at how we are getting better at managing and conserving water supplies in drier parts of our planet like southern Spain, Israel and the desert city of Las Vegas.

Good News From Our Planet

Working her way out of poverty as a sex worker all while supporting her family in Romania. That’s Andrada’s goal. She speaks confidently and openly about her work in a red-light district in Germany’s Ruhr region.  
This programme by German channel ARD is part of The European Collection, a joint initiative of European public media (ARD, ARTE, France Télévisions, SRG SSR and ZDF), coordinated by ARTE.

Portrait of a sex worker in the Ruhr region, Germany.  

Hard Life – I sell sex for money

In El Salvador, gangs have terrorised the country for decades. But when Nayib Bukele was elected president in 2019, becoming the youngest head of state in Latin America, he vowed to take back control from the gangs by installing a state of emergency.

El Salvador: The coolest dictator in the world?

When Nayib Bukele was elected president in 2019, he vowed to take back control from the gangs by installing a state of emergency.

ARTE Reportage

Eclectic American singer-songwriter Ben Harper performs from his latest album, 2022’s Bloodline Maintenance. Filmed at Ground Control in Paris.

Ground Control

Eclectic American singer-songwriter Ben Harper performs from his latest album, 2022’s Bloodline Maintenance.

Ben Harper

Music director of the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cristian Măcelaru takes his musicians on a tour of his homeland, Romania. A tour stopping in Timişoara, his hometown. On the programme: The Piano Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms with soloist Simon Trpčeski.

Concert from the European Capital of Culture 2023

Conductor Cristian Măcelaru and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne perform Brahms and Klaus Lang in Romania.

Cristian Mācelaru in Timişoara

“You can let yourself go and give up, or you can keep fighting.” That is Daniel’s motto. After many years spent incarcerated and homeless, he is now a magazine salesman and is managing to get by.

This programme by German channel ARD is part of The European Collection, a joint initiative of European public media (ARD, ARTE, France Télévisions, SRG SSR and ZDF), coordinated by ARTE.

Better than prison. Portrait of a street magazine seller.

Hard Life – I spent half my life in prison

The new Windsor agreement between the EU and the UK is hoped to improve relations and solve the Northern Ireland issue.

Northern Ireland: Windsor Agreement

Mustafa is 28 years old and grew up in the Ratingen-West district in Düsseldorf, his “hood”. It’s an area with high unemployment rates and is home to people from many different nationalities, both a melting pot and socially deprived. Mustafa now runs a kiosk in the middle of the district, on Berliner Platz. Between high-rises, friendships and poverty, we discover his life.
This programme by German channel ARD is part of The European Collection, a joint initiative of European public media (ARD, ARTE, France Télévisions, SRG SSR and ZDF), coordinated by ARTE.

Portrait of a kiosk owner in a socially deprived area of Düsseldorf, Germany.

Hard Life – I work in the middle of the ghetto

Far from the metropolitan centre of Tel Aviv, Sderot show another side of Israel. One with high-levels of social deprivation and strong support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s controversial judicial reforms.

Sderot - The Other Israel

Far from the metropolitan centre of Tel Aviv, Sderot is a different Israel with strong support for Netanjahu and high levels of social deprivation.