The Best Episodes of VICE

Rocky Mountain High: Impact of legalized marijuana in Colorado; North Korean Defectors: The struggles of North Korean defectors relocating to South Korea.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“Assad's Syria” - Isobel Yeung travels through regime-controlled Syria to see how Assad prevailed and to find out what might happen next in his crippled country. “Cost of Climate Change” - In the face of a scientific consensus, and with the Trump administration ushering some climate deniers into the highest levels of government, Shane Smith follows the money to see the true economic stakes of decades of denial.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Families and doctors are rewriting the rules as they decide when and how to start medical intervention before transgender youth hit puberty. Gianna Toboni explores this emotionally charged and rapidly evolving issue with trans youth and their parents in the midst of that intense process.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“When the Earth Melts” - VICE Correspondent Ben Anderson travels across the Arctic to examine the devastating impact of thawing permafrost--and the astonishing solution that might keep it frozen. “Displaced” - VICE Correspondent Gianna Toboni follows the journey of refugees journeying across the Mediterranean Sea who have been left in limbo due to the tightening borders of an increasingly nationalist Europe.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

"Black and Blue" - VICE correspondent Cord Jefferson reports from St. Louis, one of America's most dangerous cities, to hear from activists and police officers alike about race and policing. "Our Bionic Future" - VICE's Wilbert L. Cooper travels to Zurich to see the first ever bionic Olympics and discovers a host of technologies that are expanding what it means to be human.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Toboni travels the college sports landscape, meeting with athletic directors, coaches, sports marketing minds and the players themselves to see the role money plays in amateur athletics today.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“Fast Food of Arabia” - Gianna Toboni travels to Kuwait, now one of the most obese countries on the planet, to witness the health effects on a country deep in the throes of an unlikely obsession with U.S. fast food. “Nollywood” - Thomas Morton explores the explosive productivity of Nigerian cinema, from DIY horror movies to big budget blockbusters, by becoming a Nollywood actor himself.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“Medical Détente” - VICE correspondent Gianna Toboni travels to Cuba to witness potential treatments and cures that flourished in the country's biotech industry despite the decades-long US embargo. “Bananas” - VICE heads to the heart of banana country in Latin American and the Philippines to see the devastating effects of the disease and to investigate what the loss of the banana would really mean besides a less colorful lunchbox.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“The Politics of Terror” - VICE examines the rise of Europe’s far right, and the hyper-charged climate fueling nationalist ideologies across the continent. “End of the EU?” - Shane Smith travels to the home of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to discuss why the populist message resonates across the continent, how the left fails to grasp populist anger, and the need for a unified response to rebuild Syria.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“Future of Firearms” - With the political landscape fundamentally changed, the firearms industry, and gun rights advocates, are looking for new ways to expand upon their 2nd amendment rights and the bottom line -- with some surprising results. VICE takes a closer look at the future of firearms in America. “Russia 'Wins' Climate Change” - Climate change is causing catastrophic changes to our planet, but it may be an economic blessing for Russia. As the Arctic ice melts, petroleum and mineral resources are more accessible, shipping lanes are opening up and the frozen Siberian tundra could become arable. In fact, the Russian government and people seem to be welcoming the warming temperatures. And with America pulling out of the Paris Agreement, perhaps this is a glimpse into our own future.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“Cyber Supremacy” - Ben Ferguson travels to Tel Aviv to find out how Israel is on its way to becoming the world's top cyber superpower. “Japan Rising” - VICE sends Gianna Toboni to Tokyo to see the consequences of Japan's rising nationalism.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Isobel Yeung travels to Turkey as the country heads to the polls in a nationwide referendum that grants Erdogan unprecedented power.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“Show of Force” - VICE travels to North Korea during the annual Day of the Sun celebrations as global tensions reached a fever pitch. As North Koreans celebrated the 105th birthday of their country's founder, Kim Il-sung, correspondent Charlet Duboc seeks to learn firsthand how its citizens are reacting to the escalating crisis. “Return to Somalia” - VICE correspondent Gianna Toboni heads to Mogadishu to witness the fight to save the country during an increase of al-Shabaab attacks.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Filipino journalists risk their lives while reporting on the president's brutal war on drugs; journalist Carl Bernstein discusses press freedom; in spite of the deadly war, rangers fight to protect Congo's endangered species and natural resources.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“The Pink Gang Rebellion” - The brutal details of a 2012 gang rape on a Delhi bus focused international attention on India’s rampant rape issue. Inept law enforcement, the social stigma associated with rape, and a patriarchal social structure have allowed sexual assaults to plague Indian women. Delhi’s police department has vowed to hire more female officers and set up a help desk, but these measures are hardly a solution. Rapes in Delhi doubled in 2013, and as bad as it is in Delhi, the Indian countryside is even worse. Instead of investigating rape cases, rural police officers often ignore victims and their families. But one woman, Sampat Pal, has galvanized a group of rural women into the Gulabi Gang, or Pink Gang, to combat the injustice of sexual assault. Gelareh Kiazand heads to rural Indian to investigate the issue and embed with this revolutionary gang. “Genetic Passport” - From 1949 to 1989, the Soviet Union, determined to prepare for nuclear warfare, detonated more than 450 nuclear bombs in an area of Kazakhstan known as the Semipalatinsk Test Site. For hundreds of thousands of Kazakhs, radiation not only surrounded them, but became part of their DNA. In an effort to curtail the birth of a new generation of deformed children, a Kazakh doctor recently tried to implement a mandatory “genetic passport” allowing people to know if their genes were damaged by radiation. Thomas Morton goes to Kazakhstan to learn more about this controversial initiative.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

As humanity’s appetite for energy grows exponentially, the extraction industry scrambles to the most remote regions on Earth to satisfy demand. In the undeveloped Melanesian country of Papua New Guinea, America’s Exxon Mobil has staked its claim to a $19 billion dollar liquid natural-gas project expected to start production in late 2014. Vikram Gandhi heads to Papua New Guinea to investigate. Over in Texas, Thomas Morton investigates the climate catastrophe, and discovers firsthand the local responses, which often involve reaching out for divine intervention.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

"Heroin Warfare" (correspondent: Suroosh Alvi) - Since the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, heroin production in the region has skyrocketed, making the country the number-one producer by a large margin. Though Iran, Afghanistan's neighbor, is an ultraconservative country, Afghan heroin flowing across the border has actually caused Iran to have the worst heroin use problem in the world. Suroosh Alvi gets a rare look inside Iran to meet the suffering heroin addicts, and see how the country is coping with the illegal drug trade. "The Coldest War" (correspondent: David Choe) - With the polar ice caps shrinking due to global warming, new trade routes are being exposed, along with billions of dollars' worth of natural-resource reserves. This is prime real estate and the five nations bordering the Arctic are readying themselves to fight for it. David Choe heads north to witness NATO forces participating in the largest polar military exercise in history. The problem is that there's one non-NATO country that already considers itself rightful owner of the region: Russia. With Vladimir Putin's recent military annexation of Crimea, there's a definite possibility its aggressions will boil over, returning the international community to precarious Cold War footing.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

“Taking Back Iraq” - Aris Roussinos embedded with Iraqi forces on the road to Mosul as they began their assault on Islamic State's last stronghold in Iraq. "Lost Generation" - Isobel Yeung travels to Iraq to see what the future looks like through the eyes of the youth.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Emmy-nominated actor Michael Kenneth Williams embarks on a personal journey to expose the root of the American mass incarceration crisis: the juvenile justice system.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Basketball Diplomacy: VICE makes history on a trip to North Korea to play hoops and meet with "supreme leader" Kim Jong-un.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

VICE founder Shane Smith takes an in-depth look at the future of how we make and use energy, and how we can meet growing demand as we cut carbon emissions.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Isobel Yeung travels to the feedlots, farms and slaughterhouses where our meat is made, to see the true costs of our burger habit. Vikram Gandhi reports from California's once-abundant farmland and the heart of Sao Paulo's reservoir system to assess the depths of the water shortage crisis, and what can be done to reverse it.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

To find out the government's real capabilities regarding digital surveillance, and whether any of us can truly protect our sensitive information, VICE founder Shane Smith heads to Moscow to meet the man who started the conversation, Edward Snowden.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Krishna Andavolu delves into the cutting-edge world of 3D-printing, meeting the scientists and entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of manufacturing, material science, and even space exploration. Scientists are closer than ever to finding life beyond Earth so VICE sent Nuclear physicist Taylor Wilson to explore one of our civilization's most haunting questions: Are we alone?

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Assassination Nation: Political assassinations in the Philippines; The Killer Kids of the Taliban: Taliban-supported child suicide bombers in Afghanistan.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A