The everyday objects that built America. How stuff as simple as a shovel, a birdcage, a drill bit, a railroad spike, and a video camera linked a nation from coast to coast and accomplished massive feats of engineering like the Hoover Dam, the Erie Canal and the skyscraper.

The U.S. Transforms itself from colony to superpower with the help of an engineering marvel: the gun. Trace the evolution of weapons technology as it shapes our history, from the colonial era Long Rifle to the high-powered Browning M2 Machine Gun and beyond.

The American Mafia is one of the biggest and most lucrative secret societies in America's history. At its height, mob bosses made hundreds of millions a year in illicit business. Go inside the secret stash that reveals the story of their bloody rise to power, and the decades-long war with law enforcement that led to their downfall.

The secret accomplices in America's most shocking crimes are everyday objects that you'd never suspect, from the handmade ladder that made tragic headlines to the clip-on tie that's the last witness to the DB Cooper mystery heist.

This episode looks at eight of America's richest people, from John Jacob Astor to John Paul Getty to Warren Buffet. What drives some people to amass great fortunes and how do they do it? Is it a lust for money or is it the thrill of the game that gets them out of bed each morning? And once they've achieved their wealth, how do they live? Eight objects reveal the secret lives of America's billionaires.

It's the decade best remembered for big hair, big phones and big personalities. But go beyond the fluff and you'll find a decade that impacts us still today. An 18 month-old baby will forever change television news. One single phone call will ignite a technological revolution. And a video game character causes Americans to alter how we spend our free time. Pick up your Rubik's Cube and put on those leg warmers, it's time to re-examine the decade that changed everything--the 1980s.

The series kicks off with a look at the changing size and shape of the Average American. When our country was born, America was the tallest country in the world, and we held onto that title until the 1950s. Today, we've plummeted to number nine in the world rankings. But we are, however, distinguishing ourselves in a different way: in the past 100 years, America's average waistline grew from a size 26 to a size 34...and we are now among the fattest people in the world. When and why did we stop getting taller and start getting wider.

Where oh where does the time go? Would you believe that today we are spending nine years and nine months of our lives on the sofa, five years on the Internet, and only three months of our lives having sex? This episode investigates our free time; where it goes and how to make more of it.