Frontline Season 32, Episode 1: To Catch a Trader

Secret State of North Korea

FRONTLINE shines a light on the hidden world of the North Korean people, revealing how ordinary citizens are resisting one of the world’s most oppressive regimes.

54 min

Syria's Second Front / Children of Aleppo

Three years in to Syria’s civil war, rebel forces aren’t just fighting the Assad regime. They’re also vying for control against a group known as ISIS. FRONTLINE correspondent Muhammad Ali — a Syrian native himself, and one of only a few reporters to make it safely into, and then out of, Syria’s northern front in recent months — delivers a gripping report from inside a country in turmoil. A startling portrait of everyday life in a war zone, through the eyes of children.

Generation Like

Thanks to social media, today’s teens are able to directly interact with their culture — artists, celebrities, movies, brands, and even one another — in ways never before possible. But is that real empowerment? Or do marketers still hold the upper hand? In Generation Like, author and FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff (The Merchants of Cool, The Persuaders) explores how the perennial teen quest for identity and connection has migrated to social media — and exposes the game of cat-and-mouse that corporations are playing with these young consumers. Do kids think they’re being used? Do they care? Or does the perceived chance to be the next big star make it all worth it?

Secrets of the Vatican

Secrets of the Vatican tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict papacy — and illuminates the extraordinary challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, root out corruption, and chart a new course for the troubled Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers.

TB Silent Killer

Tuberculosis was once thought to be a disease of the past. But with virulent new drug-resistant strains emerging faster than ever, TB — passed simply by a cough or a sneeze — is the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease on the planet. In TB Silent Killer, FRONTLINE presents an unforgettable portrait of the lives at the pandemic’s epicenter.

Solitary Nation

With extraordinary access, award-winning producer and director Dan Edge (Inside Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown, Kill/Capture, The Wounded Platoon) takes you to the epicenter of the raging debate about prison reform. Solitary Nation brings you an up-close, graphic look at a solitary confinement unit in Maine’s maximum security prison.

Prison State

There are roughly 2.3 million people behind bars in the U.S., with a disproportionate number coming from a few city neighborhoods. More than two years in the making, Prison State takes an intimate look at the cycle of incarceration in America, and one state’s effort to reverse the trend.

United States of Secrets (1)

The history of the National Security Agency's unprecedented surveillance program is investigated.

United States of Secrets (2)

The role of Silicon Valley in the National Security Agency's surveillance program is explored.

The Battle for Ukraine / Syria: Arming the Rebels

FRONTLINE draws on personal and dramatic footage to reveal the deep-seated hatreds between right-wing Ukrainian nationalists with historic ties to the Nazis and violent pro-Russian separatists vying for control of the country. FRONTLINE finds Syrian rebel fighters who say they’re being secretly armed and trained by the United States.

Omarina's Story / Separate and Unequal

When FRONTLINE first met Omarina Cabrera back in 2012 for the documentary Middle School Moment, she was a struggling student at Middle School 244 in the Bronx. Today, she’s excelling at an elite prep school in New England. In part two of our July 15 hour on education, class and race in America, FRONTLINE revisits Omarina as part of our continued examination of a groundbreaking program to stem the dropout crisis in America’s high-poverty schools. Sixty years after the Supreme Court declared separate schools for black and white children unconstitutional, school segregation is making a comeback. What’s behind the growing racial divide in American schools — and what’s the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education?

Losing Iraq

In a special developing report, FRONTLINE examines the unfolding chaos in Iraq and how the U.S. is being pulled back into the conflict. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and military leaders, the investigative team behind The Lost Year in Iraq, The Torture Question, Endgame and Bush’s War traces the U.S. role from the 2003 invasion to the current violence — exploring how Iraq itself is coming undone, how we got here, what went wrong and what happens next.

Hunting Boko Haram / Ebola Outbreak

When the radical Islamist group Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls in April, it sparked international outrage and worldwide pressure to #BringBackOurGirls. But now, FRONTLINE investigates evidence that in the fight against Boko Haram, members of the Nigerian military and state-sponsored militias have been committing atrocities against suspects, many of them innocent civilians. FRONTLINE travels to the epicenter of the Ebola crisis to find out how and why the outbreak has spiraled out of control — and to track the fight to contain the virus’s deadly spread. With special access to teams fighting Ebola in Sierra Leone, FRONTLINE, in collaboration with the Channel 4 foreign affairs series Unreported World, brings you an up-close, on-the-ground look at how and why the outbreak is endangering civilians and health-care workers, overwhelming hospitals and getting worse.

The Trouble with Antibiotics

FRONTLINE investigates the widespread use of antibiotics in food animals and whether it is fueling the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance in people. Also this hour: An exclusive interview with the family of a young man who died in a nightmare bacteria outbreak that swept through a hospital at the National Institutes of Health.

The Rise of ISIS

FRONTLINE investigates the miscalculations and mistakes behind the brutal rise of ISIS. As part of a special FRONTLINE series, correspondent Martin Smith reports from Iraq on how the country began coming undone after the American withdrawal and what it means for the U.S. to be fighting there again.

Firestone and the Warlord

What are the costs of doing business in a war zone? On Nov.18, 2014, FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate the relationship between Firestone and the infamous Liberian warlord Charles Taylor. Based on the inside accounts of Americans who ran the company’s Liberia rubber plantation, and diplomatic cables and court documents, the investigation reveals how Firestone conducted business during the brutal Liberian civil war.

Stickup Kid

What happens when we lock up juvenile offenders in adult prisons? “Stickup Kid,” a FRONTLINE digital exclusive, tells the story of Alonza Thomas — sent to adult prison in California at age 16 — and how spending over a decade behind bars impacted him.