Faces of America on PBS with Yo-Yo Ma and Kristi Yamaguchi

What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Building on the success of his series African American Lives (called by the New York Times “the most exciting and stirring documentary on any subject to appear on television in a long time,”) and African American Lives 2, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. again turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans. Each guest will undergo dense genotyping to trace their father’s line, mother’s line and their admixture (that is their percentages of European, Asian, Native American, and African ancestry). Among the people interviewed are cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Olymipic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi. Their segments offer fascinating and insightful looks at their background. Check out the clips.

Faces of America premieres nationally Wednesdays, February 10 – March 3, 2010 from 8-9 p.m. ET on PBS.

Faces of America trailer