EPISODE 1 & 2: ISIS

With Islamic State­inspired terror attacks striking Western nations across the globe, the world has become sharply attuned to this new extremist threat that’s gaining sovereign territory in the middle east.

As ISIS began claiming land in the destabilized regions of Iraq and Syria in
2014, VICE gained exclusive access to the Islamic State. Journalist Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks with IS, where he was able to document life within the new caliphate more intimately than any other journalist has been able to do.

He is the first and only journalist to get this kind of access.

EPISODE 3: YOUNG AND GAY PUTIN’S RUSSIA

When all eyes were on the Sochi Olympics last year, the unignorable issue of Russia’s state­sponsored homophobia bubbled to the surface and captured the mainstream’s attention.

Under Putin’s watch, “gay propaganda” has been legally banned, which has led to a depressing rise in assaults and murders against LGBT Russians.

In this documentary, VICE UK’s Milene Larson heads to Russia to meet with gay Russian youth and investigate the issue of homosexuality in one of the world’s most controversial and repressive countries.

EPISODE 4: KARACHI

Karachi is an enormous city in Pakistan, home to over 17 million people, and an alarming amount of violence. The police force is weak, and the city is overrun with so­called “target killers” who make their living off of assassinations.

In 2014 alone, nearly 3,000 people were violently killed in the city of Karachi. 100 of which were police officers.

In this documentary, VICE co­founder Suroosh Alvi heads to Karachi to investigate Pakistan’s most violent city.

EPISODE 5: KROKODIL

The world’s most dangerous drug is
Krokodil, a variant of Heroin that’s homemade and sweeping through Siberia.

The destructive drug is named after the Russian word for crocodile­­because it turns its users’ skin hard and scaly, before eventually rotting it away.

In this documentary, VICE UK’s Alison Severs heads to Siberia to investigate Krokodil herself. Warning: Some of the content is intense, graphic, and disturbing.

EPISODE 6: SAKAWA BOYS

The underground economy of internet scamming has exploded in Ghana, where West African Juju priests have converted their traditional ceremonies into training exercises for young people looking to scam money from Americans and other westerners.

The practice is called Sakawa, and its become such a popular mode of fraud in Ghana that Sakawa has spawned its own culture of clothing, music, and film. All about scamming Westerners online.

Here, VICE’s Thomas Morton heads to Ghana to cover the explosion in popularity of Sakawa, meet some of the scammers themselves, and get a sense of who’s really training them to steal. This is weird, freaky business.

EPISODE 7: CONGO

The computers, cell phones, cameras, and video game systems that keep boredom away in the first world are inextricably connected to conflict mining in the Congo, one of the world’s most violent countries.

Coltan is a conflict mineral that’s been connected to more than 5 million deaths in the Congo since 1990, and it powers the electronic devices that fuel our modern world.

In this documentary, VICE co­founder Suroosh Alvi heads to the Congo to investigate Coltan mining and the conflict surrounding it. He meets the child laborers and warlords at the core of this costly battle.

EPISODE 8: BRIDE KIDNAPPING

In rural Kyrgyzstan, men kidnap women off of the street who they want to marry, and force them to become their wife. It’s a brutal practice that’s still going on in 2015. As many as 40% of Kyrgyzstan’s women have been married off this way.

The people of Kyrgyzstan claim it’s an ancient custom, but it’s been making a big comeback since communism fell in their nation.

VICE’s Thomas Morton heads into the rural Kyrgyzstan countryside to investigate this disturbing phenomenon.

EPISODE 9: NORTH KOREAN LABOR CAMPS

North Korea is arguably the most insane place on Earth, and VICE has visited the Hermit Kingdom several times.

When VICE discovered the North Korean government was exporting its own people into Siberian labour camps as a way to monetize their population, they went to try and meet some of these laborers themselves.

In this documentary, VICE co­founder Shane Smith heads deep into the Siberian wilderness to visit a North Korean labor camp. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t exactly greeted with open arms.