“Two American Families 1991-2024″ a new film directed and produced by Tom Casciato & Kathleen Hughes and featuring journalist Bill Moyers, has just premiered on the PBS Frontline series. Filmed over a 34-year period, the film follows two Milwaukee families — one Black, one white — on a journey through America’s low-wage economy after their breadwinners’ layoffs from well-paying factory jobs. The New York Times called the film “a knockout documentary” and continued, “At a time when so much documentary television feels generic, disposable and even straightforwardly pointless, this is both a master work unto itself and a glaring reminder of what is largely absent in television narrative nonfiction.”

The Thousand Roads Podcasts features Tom’s conversations with other documentary filmmakers, along with educators and observers of the scene. Season One focusses on the intersection of documentary film and journalism, and features conversations with Julie Cohen & Betsy West, Dawn Porter, Yoruba Richen & Brad Lichtenstein, Robert Greene, June Cross, Jennifer Tiexiera & Camilla Hall, David Siev, Byron Hurt, Natalie Bullock Brown, Brian Newman, Tia Lessin & Carl Deal, Carrie Lozano, and Caty Borum. Season One was supported by a fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Special thanks also to Jax Deluca.

Nashville’s Tommy Prine joins Tom Casciato on PBS Newshour for a great conversation about doubt, tragedy, his father John Prine, and the ultimately triumphant journey that led to Tommy’s debut album, This Far South.

Kentucky blues artist Nat Myers joins Tom Casciato on PBS NewsHour to talk about growing up with the blues, the poetry of Charlie Patton and Tommy McLennan, his debut album “Yellow Peril” and how playing the blues keeps the blues away.

Singer/songwriter Aoife O’Donovan joins Tom Casciato on PBS NewsHour to talk about growing up on music, what it means to be a folksinger, and the deep emotional connection she feels to Springsteen’s acoustic classic.

Musician Peter One joins Tom Casciato on PBS NewsHour to discuss his extraordinary musical journey from Ivory Coast to Nashville, and how he blends the cultures of both his new album “Come Back To Me.”

Musician/scholar Jake Blount joins Tom Casciato on PBS NewsHour to talk about the history of Black stringband music as well as his recent album, The New Faith, which tackles climate change even as it maps out what you might call the future of tradition.

Singer/Songwriter Beth Orton joins Tom Casciato on PBS NewsHour to talk about the struggles of her youth, becoming a parent, and finding her way to making her latest album, Weather Alive, described by Pitchfork as “the best work of her career.”

Indie music’s extraordinary Bartees Strange joins Tom Casciato on PBS NewsHour to discuss his unique background, inspirations like TV On The Radio and The National, plus his breakthrough album “Farm To Table.”

Guitar picker extraordinaire joins Tom Casciato on PBS NewsHour to talk about growing up on strings, living with alopecia, and taking her music way beyond bluegrass.