# Vanguard (TV series)

Vanguard is a television documentary series that was broadcast on the now defunct Current TV television network. Vanguard reported on such issues as the environment, drugs, and the effects of globalization and conflict.
The focus of most Vanguard episodes is to explore and immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents conduct interviews with affected people, and the regions involved are usually led by a guide and translator who facilitate access. Since Vanguard's subject matter often involves exposés about organized crime, drug trafficking, and armed revolts, the correspondents can face significant danger because of their reporting due to unstable political or security situations.
Vanguard has received some of the media industry's highest honors for journalism, including the 69th Annual Peabody Award, given for excellence in electronic media, and the 2010 Television Academy Honor, which recognizes "achievements in programming that present issues of concern to our society in a compelling, and emotional and insightful way." Vanguard has also been awarded the 2009 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and the 2009 Livingston Award, and has been nominated four times for a News and Documentary Emmy Award and also for a Sports Emmy Award.
Vice president of the Vanguard journalism unit Laura Ling and her colleague Euna Lee were detained in North Korea after they allegedly crossed into North Korea from the People's Republic of China without a visa. They were subsequently pardoned after former U.S. President Bill Clinton flew to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong-il. They were producing a piece for Vanguard at the time of their detainment, as shown in a Vanguard episode titled "Captive in North Korea."
In April 2012, Current announced that it would produce six new episodes of Vanguard. However, according to their own Facebook page, apparently only two episodes were created in season 6 before the Vanguard series was ended, falling 4 episodes short of their originally announced plan. The Vanguard homepage and blog, a section of Current TV's website, were also ended when the Current TV website was shut down.
In 2013 Al Jazeera Media Network bought Current TV and, after several months, created Al Jazeera America. The new channel took what remained of Vanguard's team and merged them into Al Jazeera's investigative unit and the America Tonight team. Christof Putzel continues on at Al Jazeera America as a correspondent on the investigative reporting series America Tonight'."

## Episodes
### Season 1

| Episode Number | Episode Title | Correspondent | Description |
| 1 | A Day With the Tribe | Laura Ling | Brazilian tribe |
| 2 | The Meth Trail | Christof Putzel | Methamphetamine in the gay community |
| 3 | Diving Too Deep | Mariana van Zeller | Depletion of lobsters in Nicaragua |
| 4 | Death Train | Mariana van Zeller | Illegal immigrants from Central America |
| 5 | Rebels in the Pipeline | Mariana van Zeller | Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta |
| 6 | From Russia With Hate | Christof Putzel | Growing Neo-Nazi movement in Russia |
| 7 | Elixir of the Toxic Frog | Mariana van Zeller | The Kambo frog could hold secrets for modern medicine |
| 8 | Prison Power Play | Laura Ling | Prison gang politics |
| 9 | Saving Madagascar | Adam Yamaguchi | Environmental issues in Madagascar |
| 10 | Blood Roses and Deadly Diamonds | Mariana van Zeller | Unromantic truth behind two symbols of love |
| 11 | Scarf Wars | Laura Ling | Extremes of enforcing separation of church and state in Turkey |
| 12 | Lost in Democracy | Christof Putzel | Bhutan |
| 13 | City on Steroids | Adam Yamaguchi | Chongqing |
| 14 | End of the Road | Jael de Pardo | Pan-American Highway |
| 15 | Lagos la Vida Loca | Mariana van Zeller | Lagos, Nigeria |
| 16 | Destination Anywhere | Tracey Chang | Emigration from Philippines |
| 17 | World's Sugar Daddy | Mariana van Zeller | Ethanol in Brazil |
| 18 | Pollution to Protest | Laura Ling | Electronic waste |
| 19 | World Without Water | Adam Yamaguchi | Droughts in China, Florida, and Lake Mead |

### Season 2

| Episode Number | Episode Title | Correspondent | Description |
| 1 | America's Secret War with Iran | Mariana van Zeller | Alleged secret war |
| 2 | The Great American Detour | Lauren Cerre | American youth |
| 3 | Modern Day Pirates | Kaj Larsen | Malacca |
| 4 | I Heart Global Warming | Adam Yamaguchi | Greenland |
| 5 | Maxed Out | None | Economic crisis |
| 6 | Chinatown, Africa | Mariana van Zeller | Chinese in Africa |
| 7 | Getting Out of Prison | Laura Ling | Parolees |
| 8 | Japan: Robot Nation | Adam Yamaguchi | Loss of employment to robots |
| 9 | Fully Automatic America | Kaj Larsen | Guns in the US |
| 10 | The Most Controversial Jail in the World | Adrian Baschuk | Guantanamo |
| 11 | Hot SexXxy Young | Cerissa Tanner | Underage prostitution |
| 12 | Battle of Saipan | Adam Yamaguchi | Economy |
| 13 | Narco War Next Door | Laura Ling | Mexican drug gangs |
| 14 | Beach of Death | Christof Putzel & Kaj Larsen | Somalia conflict |
| 15 | Lost Vegas | Laura Ling | Recession in Las Vegas |
| 16 | Outsourcing Unemployment | Adam Yamaguchi | Recession in China |
| 17 | Thank You, Recession | Tracey Chang & Lauren Cerre | Argentine Recession |

### Season 3

| Episode Number | Episode Title | Correspondent | Description |
| 1 | The Oxycontin Express | Mariana van Zeller | Pain killer trade in Florida (won 2009 Peabody Award) |
| 2 | Cuba: Waiting for a Revolution | Adrian Baschuk | Communism in Cuba |
| 3 | Forest of Ecstasy | Adam Yamaguchi | Cambodian rainforest |
| 4 | Sri Lanka: Notes from a War on Terror | Mariana van Zeller | Tamil Tigers |
| 5 | Porn 2.0 | Christof Putzel | New media and adult entertainment |
| 6 | Prison Contraband | Janet Choi | Smuggling contraband into prison |
| 7 | Remote Control War | Kaj Larsen | Technology and war |
| 8 | Cocaine Mafia | Christof Putzel | Cocaine in southern Italy |

### Season 4

Special - Captive in North Korea (Interview with former Vanguard VP Laura Ling)
| Episode Number | Episode Title | Correspondent | Description |
| 1 | Missionaries of Hate | Mariana van Zeller | Anti-gay bill in Uganda |
| 2 | Rape on the Reservation | Mariana van Zeller | Sexual assaults on Native American reservations |
| 3 | The World's Toilet Crisis | Adam Yamaguchi | Open defecation in Southeast Asia |
| 4 | Soccer's Lost Boys | Mariana van Zeller | Football trafficking |
| 5 | War Crimes | Kaj Larsen | Rise of PTSD among war veterans |
| 6 | American Jihadi | Christof Putzel | American-born Somali terrorist Omar Hammami |
| 7 | Life and Death on the Border | Christof Putzel | Illegal crossing of the US/Mexico border |
| 8 | Marijuana Wars Part 1 | Adam Yamaguchi | Mexican drug trafficking organizations growing marijuana in the US |
| 9 | Marijuana Wars Part 2 | Adam Yamaguchi | Taking down low-level planters and high-level financiers |

### Season 5

| Episode Number | Episode Title | Correspondent | Description |
| 1 | Gateway to Heroin | Mariana van Zeller | OxyContin and heroin in Boston |
| 2 | Sex, Lies, & Cigarettes | Christof Putzel | "Smoking Baby" and Big Tobacco in Indonesia |
| 3 | Sushi to the Slaughter | Adam Yamaguchi | The cost of sushi to bluefin tuna |
| 4 | City of God, Guns, & Gangs | Mariana van Zeller | Transforming Rio de Janeiro's slums for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics |
| 5 | Tiger Farms | Adam Yamaguchi | Black market tiger trading |
| 6 | This (Illegal) American Life | Mariana van Zeller | Personal stories of illegal immigrants living in America |
| 7 | Recovery High | None | A New England high school which helps students struggling with addiction |
| 8 | Arming the Mexican Cartels | Christof Putzel | The gun-fueled drug war in Juarez, Mexico |
| 9 | Islamophobia | Adam Yamaguchi | Islamophobia's rise in the US and the UK |
| 10 | Under the Knife Abroad | Adam Yamaguchi | Medical tourism in India, Mexico, and Barbados |
| 11 | The War on Weed | Christof Putzel | The enforcement of marijuana laws across the United States |
| 12 | Two Americas | None | A month in the lives of two American families at different ends of the economic spectrum |
| 13 | The 99 Percent | Christof Putzel | The Occupy Wall Street movement |
| 14 | Cage Fighting in the USA | Mariana van Zeller | Mixed Martial Arts' growth as a sport in America |

### Season 6

| Episode Number | Episode Title | Correspondent | Description |
| 1 | Arming the Mexican Cartels | Christof Putzel | Investigating the trafficking of guns into Mexico from the United States. |
| 2 | The 99 Percent | Christof Putzel | Camp out with the crowd of Occupy Wall Street. |
| 3 | Showdown in Klan Town | Christof Putzel | Explore the modern-day Klan in the city of Harrison, Arkansas. |
| 4 | The Right to Kill: Stand Your Ground USA | Christof Putzel | Go behind the headlines of "Stand Your Ground Laws" in the USA. |