Unreported World - Season 21 / Year 2020
Season 21 / Year 2020
Episodes
Schoolgirl Pin-ups
Marcel Theroux meets the Japanese schoolgirls seeking pop stardom performing for mostly older male fans. A cultural quirk, or is something more sinister going on in the Japanese music industry?
Trump's Housewives
As Donald Trump fights for re-election, his campaign is particularly targeting white women voters. Filmed prior to the coronavirus pandemic and the killing of George Floyd, Karishma Vyas travels to California to meet the `TradWives", a growing movement of US women who idolise Donald Trump, and have put him at the heart of their anti-feminist, traditional family values as they work to get him re-elected. This is despite the fact that women have often borne the brunt of the President's political and personal barbs.
Swarm Hunters
Sahar Zand reports on the adverse impact of locusts across Kenya and neighbouring countries, which are devouring crops and threatening millions with starvation. Filmed before the UK went into lockdown, she visits Kenya, on the trail of immense swarms of the insects - the biggest for 70 years. In a country in which agriculture provides a livelihood for more than 80 per cent of the population and where over a million people live on the edge of hunger, even a small swarm can eat the same amount of food in a day as 35,000 people, threatening millions with starvation and economic collapse.
Nirvana for Sale
Filmed before lockdown, Marcel Theroux reports from Thailand on the controversial Dhammakaya movement, which has millions of followers around the world. Dhammakaya claims its a force for good - updating Buddhism for the modern world, but critics say it's a money-obsessed cult. The movement believes in reincarnation and there's a big focus on making donations to pave the way to Nirvana, with offering boxes and cashpoints enabling the faithful to donate. Its founder, Abbot Dhammajayo, is in hiding following allegations that the sect has laundered £25million of stolen money, which he denies.
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