Season 2 · Episode 1 — The Afghan Money Pit & the Pacification of Rio
The U.S. has spent nearly $100 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, the most spent on any country in history. But John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, has found that much of that money has been wasted and misused, and has even fallen into the hands of the Taliban. Shane Smith heads to Afghanistan for a tour of American taxpayer dollars gone down the drain. Rio de Janeiro is working hard to remedy its reputation as a drug and murder capital in time for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics. The Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE) has been charged with pacifying the slums (favelas), but BOPE's military occupation of increasing numbers of favelas has been criticized as heavy-handed. Some corrupt members of the BOPE, together with ex-police, have formed militia gangs of their own and are controlling many favelas by sinister means, openly extorting, torturing, killing and making criminals disappear. Still, there are hundreds of favelas, untouched by pacification, that remain under the control of drug gangs who act with complete impunity. Ben Anderson looks behind the picturesque façade of Rio's marketing campaign to reveal the dark underbelly of the city.
Season 2 episodes
E1The U.S. has spent nearly $100 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, the most spent on any country in history. But John Sopko,…
E2Greenland recorded its highest temperatures ever in 2013. Though some say that's not cause for concern, the equivalent of three Chesapeake…
E3David Choe examines the scrap metal trade in America and Suroosh Alvi explores the effects of drone strikes in Afghanistan.
E4'A Syria of Their Own' - Thomas Morton goes to the frontline of the battle for a Kurdish state to follow the story of Syria's forgotten eth…
E5'Terrorist University' - Dagestan is Russia's hotbed for Muslim extremism; Shane Smith heads there to follow in the footsteps of Boston Mar…
E6Rocky Mountain High: Impact of legalized marijuana in Colorado; North Korean Defectors: The struggles of North Korean defectors relocating…
E7“The Pink Gang Rebellion” - The brutal details of a 2012 gang rape on a Delhi bus focused international attention on India’s rampant rape i…
E8As humanity’s appetite for energy grows exponentially, the extraction industry scrambles to the most remote regions on Earth to satisfy dem…
E9Shane Smith heads to Louisiana to report on the lasting effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Then, Ben Anderson goes deep into Houth…
E10Investigating the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan; veterans struggling with mental illness and addiction.
E11"Heroin Warfare" (correspondent: Suroosh Alvi) - Since the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, heroin production in the region has skyrocketed,…
E12"Surveillance City" (correspondent: Vikram Gandhi) - Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest and drug-ridden cities in the country, and it…