Laura Ling visits a native tribe in Brazil's Amazon forest.
Methamphetamine is a bad drug. Most people know this. The Current Vanguard team looks at how the forces of globalization-technology, international networks, and transportation have transformed this once obscure pharmaceutical into a global epidemic.
As scientists warn of an alarming decline in ocean resources, Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua where the depletion of lobsters is forcing local divers to take ever greater risks to earn a living.
Central Americans account for an increasing percentage of illegal immigrants in the US. Mariana van Zeller joins immigrants from Central America on the perilous and sometimes deadly journey to El Norte.
Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to one of the most unstable regions in the world - Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. She investigates what's behind the growing number of kidnappings and attacks in Africa's largest oil producer and the US's fifth largest energy supplier.
Current's Christof Putzel investigates a growing movement in Russia where neo-Nazi groups are brutally attacking immigrants and spreading their hate by posting violent videos online.
Current's Mariana van Zeller heads to the Brazilian Amazon to search for the fabled Kambo frog, one of many organisms that could hold secrets for modern medicine. But are other potential cures being lost before they can be discovered?
California State Prison at Corcoran is a maximum security facility that houses some of the most violent inmates in the country. Laura Ling reports on the complex power plays taking place behind bars as various prison gangs vie for power.
Current's Adam Yamaguchi goes to otherworldly Madagascar, an island struggling to flourish after bouts with environmental suicide.
What's the true price of love? Current Vanguard Journalists head to Colombia and Sierra Leone to explore the unromantic stories behind two symbols of love.
Turkey, with 70 million people, the majority of them being Muslim, has long been seen as a leading example of western values co-existing with Islam. To achieve that, Turkey has enforced an extreme separation of religion and government, even to the point of banning the wearing of the traditional Muslim headscarf by government employees and university students.
China is building megacities like this at a pace and scale the world has never seen before. Chongqing has 12 million people and counting. It's part of the central government's plan to bring some of China's economic boom to its impoverished interior province where three out of four Chinese live. Vanguard takes you on a whirlwind tour of the city---from inside a cramped boarding house where migrant workers to inside a starter apartment of China's new class of yuppies; from inside ancient, crumbling teahouses to gleaming new car factories.
The Pan-American Highway goes from Alaska to Argentina--except for a 60 mile gap in the lawless jungles of southern Panama. Jael travels to the end of the road and beyond to see what stops South America from entering North America.
By next year, more than half the world's population will for the first time in history be living in cities. Current Vanguard's Mariana van Zeller tours Lagos, Nigeria, the world's fastest-growing "Megacity."
Poverty and underemployment drive much of the population out of the Philippines, where the number one export is people. There are about 11 million overseas Filipino workers around the world who send back over $20 billion in remittances a year, which keeps the Philippine economy afloat...sort of. This is a look at those families left behind and those longing to leave. Their destination? Anywhere.
Vanguard's Mariana van Zeller travels to the "Saudi Arabia of Ethanol", and has a few drinks while she's at it.
Take a trip to an electronic wasteland in Southern China. Here, much the world's electronic waste ends up. The crude process of recycling this e-waste can have serious health and environmental consequences.
As the 21st Century begins as the Age of Drought, a look at three places--Florida, China, and Nevada--where dryness has gone big. In Florida, the world's most famous swamp, the Everglades, has been turning into a salt flat. In China, vast problems with water pollution have been compounded in some areas by problems of having no water. And Nevada's Lake Mead, once the largest reservoir in the world, now is given a 50% chance of drying up completely in the next dozen years.
Is the US already at war with Iran? In "America's Secret War", Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to the Iraq-Iran border to investigate claims that the United States is supporting militant groups that are attacking Iran. In the rugged Qandil mountains, she meets with up with anti-Iranian guerillas who have been launching deadly raids against the Islamic Republic. A good percentage of the fighters are women, and Mariana accompanies a small group of them through what many believe has become the frontline of the US's secret war with Iran.
Global warming is having a greater impact in the Arctic than anywhere else in the world. Greenland, the cold, harsh land that defeated the mighty Vikings is now facing a force that may destroy its defining feature -- ice. But while Greenland's melting ice sheet may mean chaos for the rest of the world, Adam Yamaguchi finds Greenlanders have some surprising reactions to this climatic upheaval.
The 18-34 year-old demo is one that grew up on great wealth and what we're facing could be the first real financial jolt we've seen. Sixty-five percent of college seniors plan to live with their parents after they graduate. When you consider that they also have an average of three credit cards and 73 percent will graduate with student loan debt, that makes sense. From a college student who has no savings, to a recent graduate trying to move out of his parents' house, to young people who are trying to stay afloat living on their own, this half-hour takes a look at the personal side of our economic crisis.
In "Chinatown, Africa", Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Angola to investigate China's rapidly growing presence in Africa. While many welcome China's investment, others see reason for concern. Chinatown, Africa is revealing look at a growing superpower's adventures abroad.
Laura Ling follows several young inmates out of prison and into the often losing battle to keep from going back in. With a record two million Americans behind bars, hundreds of thousands of inmates are released on parole every year, and most of them end up going back to prison. Laura takes us through the entire system, from the moment of release, to the first days out of freedom, to the struggle parolees have to resist going back to the lifestyles that originally put them behind bars.
Japan, the world's second largest economy, is facing a demographic crisis that will shrink the population dramatically. The Japanese aren't having babies, and the country won't accept immigrants to help bolster the population. But Japan may have a unique solution --- Robots!
The debate on gun control rages on in the US. Kaj Larsen investigates the issues of guns and crime in America, from the gun nirvana of Knob Creek, Kentucky to one of the most dangerous cities in the country, Camden, New Jersey.
While the families of 9/11 victims want the Guantanamo Bay detention camps to remain open, President-elect Barack Obama and many other critics believe the military prison is a failure of the American government. After working for a year and a half to arrange media access to the camp, Adrian Baschuk reports from the controversial detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Vanguard producer Cerissa Tanner takes us to the streets of Oakland, CA where teen prostitution is on the rise as drug dealers shift from selling dope to selling young women. **Hot SexXxy Young** is an intimate portrait of the girls caught up in the trade. Ashley, a 14 year-old who "is tired of having sex with all these men," wants out, but Aisha and Mercedes, both veterans of Oakland's streets, explain that leaving prostitution isn't that easy.
Once the ultimate globalization success story, the island of Saipan now faces one of the fastest economic collapses in history. After suffering a harsh history of military struggles as well as a temporary economic boom after becoming a U.S. commonwealth, the island now stands devastated. Scores of factories remain empty, rotting shopping centers litter the country, and former factory workers turn to the sex industry for survival. Adam Yamaguchi visits Saipan to document the rise and sudden collapse of a tiny piece of America.
Ruthless drug cartels in Mexico are battling against each other and against the government for control of the drug trade. 2008 was the most violent year in Mexico, with around 6,000 drug-related murders. 2009 looks like it could be even worse. And there are fears that Mexico's narco-violence could spread north of the border into the U.S. In this one-hour Vanguard report, Laura Ling travels to the border towns of Juarez and Tijuana, Mexico where drugs gangs are fighting for control of the drug routes into the United States. Ling also goes to the city of Culiacan in Sinaloa State, a region that's known as the birthplace of narco-trafficking in Mexico. Despite the 40,000 federal troops that are patrolling cities across Mexico, violence is increasing and the methods of killings are becoming even more brazen and grotesque. Ling speaks with gun dealers in El Paso, Texas and U.S. officials about the illegal smuggling of weapons into Mexico--90% of the weapons seized in Mexico have been traced back to the U.S. She examines the culture of corruption and lack of public trust in a police force that has become known for working with the cartels.
Vanguard correspondents Christof Putzel and Kaj Larsen first ventured to Somalia in the summer of 2006 during a brief period of fragile stability. They discovered that peace reigned in the capital for a few weeks after 15 years of bloody civil war in what the world labeled a failed state. Shortly after they left the country, however, Ethiopian forces backed by US air power invaded Somalia to drive the ruling Islamic Court Union out of the capital, Mogadishu. Somalia plunged back into war. Threatened by renewed violence and devastating poverty, countless Somalis once again fled their homes in search of peace and security. Tens of thousands try to escape in small boats across the dangerous Gulf of Aden. As Christof and Kaj found on a return to the region, many don't make it, and those who do face an uncertain future in the vast, alien desert of Yemen.
During the boom years, no place in America boomed more than Las Vegas. But when the economy collapsed, Vegas fell hard. Laura Ling tours the wreckage of Sin City, from unemployed strippers and half-built, abandoned casino projects, to hospitals turning away cancer patients and ambulances, to one of the few remaining boom industries--evicting people.
As American manufacturing went into decline, factories rose in China, and it quickly became the manufacturing center of the world. In some ways, China's workers were our employees, since they were making stuff for us. That is, until our economy collapsed. Adam Yamaguchi travels to China to look at how we've outsourced our unemployment.
For young Americans, the U.S. recession is a major bummer on our bank accounts and future. Where can we look to for advice? Enter Argentina, a country that went through its own economic crisis in 2001, and where we might be able to learn a thing or two -- even if it is 5,000 miles away from Wall Street.
Correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to South Florida, the "Colombia of prescription drugs", to expose a bustling pill pipeline that stretches from the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale to the rolling hills of Appalachia. "The OxyContin Express" features intimate access with pill addicts, prisoners and law enforcement as each struggles with a growing national epidemic.
Vanguard Correspondent Adrian Baschuk travels to the last remaining Communist state in the western hemisphere to see how hard life really is there and investigates whether or not there exists any possibility of regime change.
Deep in a remote Cambodian rainforest, criminals are setting up illegal factories to produce safrole oil, the raw ingredient for ecstasy. Adam Yamaguchi joins armed forest rangers on a search and destroy mission.
Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka to see how the Tamil Tigers, one of the world's most lethal and influential terrorist organizations, were finally defeated.
Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel takes a behind the scenes look at the adult entertainment industry, examining its history and impact on the ever-changing face of new media.
Contributor Janet Choi goes inside a California state prison to investigate contraband smuggled inside the cells, and how cellphones are the new security threat.
Criss-crossing America to uncover some of the trend lines in warfighting technology, Kaj Larsen investigates the issue of remote control warfare.
Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel travels to southern Italy to investigate how Europe's growing appetite for cocaine is funding the growth of West African crime syndicates and fueling a turf war with Italy's largest mafia organization, the Camorra.
Correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Uganda, where many question whether the growing influence of American religious groups has led to a movement to make homosexuality a crime punishable by death. As an anti-gay movement spreads across the continent, gay Africans and their families face an increasingly uncertain future of isolation, imprisonment or even execution.
Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to South Dakota to examine the statistic that one in three Native American women will be raped in her lifetime.
Vanguard correspondent Adam Yamaguchi travels to India, Singapore and Indonesia to understand why people don't use toilets and what's being done to end the practice of open defecation.
Correspondent Mariana van Zeller explores the dark side to the sport's global popularity, what has been called "the new slave trade."
Correspondent Kaj Larsen investigates the alarming rise in the number of soldiers who have been traumatized by war and are now accused of bringing the violence home. Of the more than 2 million men and women who have served in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as many as a third of them may now have post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. A growing number of these vets are being charged with violent crimes, and Kaj travels to prisons and mental health facilities in Arizona, Colorado and Oregon to hear their stories.
Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel traces the journey of a small town kid from Alabama to Somalia, where as part of Al-Shabaab he is now recruiting young Muslims from the west to wage jihad overseas.
Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel travels to the U.S./Mexico border to investigate one of the most contentious issues in America today: immigration. Meeting with "coyotes," the hired smugglers who offer to take immigrants across the border for a fee, Putzel learns the methods used to evade border patrol and the dangers they face on the journey. Arrest and deportation are inherent risks, but the lack of water and scorching temperatures of the desert crossing are far more deadly. Those who do make it safely across the border face tightening immigration laws and an increasingly hostile public. Putzel ultimately crosses the border with a migrant and coyote.
Correspondent Mariana van Zeller investigates how and why OxyContin has fueled a new heroin epidemic in and around Boston.
Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel heads to Indonesia, where he exposes Big Tobacco's successful and deadly expansion into that country, and observes the stage being set for a David vs. Goliath battle, as a small, underfunded group of concerned advocates battle Big Tobacco and a government drunk on profits and denial.
Adam Yamaguchi, a ravenous sushi consumer since childhood, examines the cost of the world's insatiable appetite for raw fish, namely the Bluefin tuna.
Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller investigates Brazil's bold new initiative to transform Rio de Janeiro's dangerous slums (called favelas) before the country hosts the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
Vanguard correspondent Adam Yamaguchi goes undercover to investigate China's lucrative black market for tigers and tiger parts, including the business of Asian zoos and breeding centers.
Mariana van Zeller explores the personal stories of just some of the more than 2 million college students who are also illegal immigrants and facing uncertain futures as they prepare to graduate.
Students attend a public high school outside Boston dedicated to serving drug-addicted teenagers.
Christof Putzel reports from Juarez, Mexico, where US guns are fueling deadly drug wars.
Adam Yamaguchi examines the rise of Islamophobia across the US and UK, and a new, aggressive network of anti-Muslim alarmists.
Americans increasingly seek medical care overseas, because they can’t afford it at home. Adam Yamaguchi investigates medical tourism.
Christof compares how US cities deal with weed. It’s high times in LA, while NYC cracks down on low-level pot offenses.
Vanguard's "Two Americas" takes a ground-level survey of the growing economic disparity in America, profiling a month in the lives of two families in very different income brackets.
Christof Putzel moves into Zuccotti Park to explore the Occupy Wall Street movement from the inside. Produced by Brent and Craig Renaud.
Mariana van Zeller explores the fastest growing sport in America - Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). MMA is now a billion-dollar industry, watched by millions on national TV. But increasingly, amateurs are stepping onto the mat and drawing blood. Mariana meets male and female cage fighters to understand why they love this violent sport. And she spends time in a church run by "The Fight Pastor," who ministers a flock of young men who fight for Jesus.
Self defense or getting away with murder? “Vanguard” returns tonight as Christof Putzel examines controversial “stand your ground” laws in America.
In this excerpt from “Vanguard,” correspondent Christof Putzel speaks with Billy Roper, a leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Roper now resides with his family in Harrison, Ark., considered an epicenter for the modern-day Klan. Putzel briefly traces the evolution and history of the Klan in Harrison, and interviews Roper about why he decided to move there, and his plans for keeping the town a white majority.
More and more bee colonies are no longer able to survive the winter. At the beginning of 2012, German beekeepers lost a quarter of their population. The reasons for this were mites, viruses and probably pesticides. Are bees threatened with extinction? It has not come to that yet, but more and more bee colonies are no longer able to survive the winter. At the beginning of 2012, German beekeepers lost a quarter of their population. The reasons for this were mites, viruses and probably pesticides. According to a recent EU report, so-called neonicotinoids are suspected of poisoning bees. The EU Commission would therefore like to ban the pesticides for two years. But the manufacturers, which include Bayer in Leverkusen, do not want to let their lucrative business with neonicotinoids be ruined.
The lives of 32 kids who spend each day and night texting. They compete for a chance to earn the title of World's Fastest Texter.
Journalist Laura Ling provides harrowing details of how she and producer Euna Lee were apprehended and held in North Korea while on assignment covering human trafficking in Asia. Personal accounts, letters and never-before-seen footage from Ling, Lee and producer Mitch Koss reveal the team's experiences at the center of a widely publicized international standoff.