S1 E1 • A Day With the Tribe

Laura Ling visits a native tribe in Brazil's Amazon forest.

Première diffusion : 19 avril 2006

S1 E2 • The Meth Trail

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.

Première diffusion : 13 mars 2007

S1 E3 • Diving Too Deep

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.

Première diffusion : 12 avril 2007

S1 E4 • Death Train

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.

S1 E5 • Rebels in the Pipeline

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.

Première diffusion : 10 mars 2007

S1 E6 • From Russia With Hate

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.

S1 E7 • Elixir of the Toxic Fog

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?

S1 E8 • Prison Power Play

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.

S1 E9 • Saving Madagascar

Current's Adam Yamaguchi goes to otherworldly Madagascar, an island struggling to flourish after bouts with environmental suicide.

S1 E10 • Blood Roses and Deadly Diamonds

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.

S1 E11 • Scarf Wars

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.

S1 E13 • City on Steroids

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.

S1 E14 • End of the Road

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.

S1 E15 • Lagos la Vida Loca

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."

S1 E16 • Destination Anywhere

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.

S1 E17 • World's Sugar Daddy

Vanguard's Mariana van Zeller travels to the "Saudi Arabia of Ethanol", and has a few drinks while she's at it.

S1 E18 • Pollution to Protest

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.

S1 E19 • World Without Water

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.