Why do some people rise to power and others do not? Why do we fall in love — not just with romantic partners but with friends and strangers? How has our need to share beliefs built human culture? National Geographic will seek to answer these big questions and many more with new series The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman, premiering Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 9/8c on National Geographic. From the creators of the critically acclaimed series The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, this expansion of the network’s hit franchise once again finds Freeman taking viewers on a global journey to meet with people from different cultures whose lives are shaped in surprising ways by different fundamental forces, this time exploring themes that unite us all. The series will premiere globally in early 2018 on National Geographic in 171 countries and 45 languages.

At a time when global events seem to be driving cultures apart, The Story of Us aims to reveal the common humanity that lies inside each one of us. Each of the six hourlong episodes will explore a single fundamental force or topic: freedom, peace, love, social division, power and rebellion. Along the way Freeman meets and speaks with powerful world leaders, ordinary people with extraordinary stories and everyone in between. “

Among those Freeman speaks with on his journeys:

Albert Woodfox (“The March of Freedom”), one of three prison inmates put in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary in April 1972 after the killing of a corrections officer. He was kept in solitary confinement for more than 43 years until his conviction was overturned in 2014. He was finally released in 2016.