Finding Your Roots: Season 4
Season 4 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Finding Your Roots Season 3.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 4 Progress Shield
The Impression
Oct 2, 2017
Join Larry David and Bernie Sanders, who learn they have more in common than they thought.
Unfamiliar Kin
Oct 10, 2017
Guests: Carly Simon, Christopher Walken, and more. In this episode, three guests each learn about a grandparent whose real identity and background had been a mystery to them. Along
Puritans and Pioneers
Oct 17, 2017
Guests: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and William H. Macy. Three mainstays of modern-day Hollywood discover family legacies that predate the United States itself.
The Vanguard
Oct 24, 2017
Guests: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ava DuVernay and Janet Mock. Three guests who have helped to redefine Black America in the last decade find their identities challenged as they learn abou
Immigrant Nation
Oct 31, 2017
Guests: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd and John Turturro. In this episode, three guests explore the tremendous challenges faced by their immigrant forebears.
Black Like Me
Nov 7, 2017
Guests: Bryant Gumbel, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Suzanne Malveaux. Three African-American guests delve deep into their family trees, discovering unexpected stories that challenge our ass
Children of the Revolution
Nov 14, 2017
Guests: Lupita Nyong’o, Carmelo Anthony and Ana Navarro. Three guests explore how their family trees were shaped by political turmoil and violence, discovering sometimes unexpected
Relatives We Never Knew We Had
Nov 21, 2017
Guests: Gaby Hoffmann and Téa Leoni. Two guests whose lives have been shaped by family mysteries are introduced to biological ancestors they never knew they had thanks to genetic d
Southern Roots
Dec 12, 2017
Guests: Questlove, Dr. Phil and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Three guests of disparate backgrounds dig into their Southern roots, where slavery and its aftermath shaped families both bl
Funny Business
Dec 19, 2017
Guests: Amy Schumer and more. Guests who have found fame mining their family stories for comedy learn about ancestors who overcame immense suffering.