The Great Betrayal • 2005 • episode "S1E3" • The Mafia

5:01

Population statistics are like crystal balls -- when examined closely, they can help predict a country's future (and give important clues about the past). Kim Preshoff explains how using a visual tool called a population pyramid helps policymakers and social scientists make sense of the statistics, using three different countries' pyramids as examples.

TED-Ed • People

98:43

Mikhail Gorbachev helped to shape the 20th century, being the architect of glasnost and perestroika. His actions brought down the Berlin Wall, giving countries of the former Soviet Union a chance to break away and be free. But while to many in the west he remains a hero, in his own country Gorbachev is condemned for destroying the Soviet empire. This film is an intimate portrait of the former Russian leader in his final years, before his death in August 2022, living alone in an empty house outside Moscow and carrying the burdens of his past.

2022 • People

46:40

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar leads a horrific war against his own country until a team of politicians and police end his reign of terror.

S1E1 • Drug Lords • 2017 • People

59:30

How did a poor boy from a tiny flat in St Petersburg become one of the world's most powerful leaders? Admired by Trump and feared by his rivals, on the eve of his almost certain re-election as president of Russia, this film reveals the story of Vladimir Putin's extraordinary rise to power - from a lowly KGB colonel to Boris Yeltsin's right-hand man and ultimately his successor. There are revelations from Putin's inner circle at the Kremlin, including former confidante Sergei Pugachev, who helped Putin to power before falling from favour. Chess master Gary Kasparov recounts his failed attempt to stand against him and oligarch Mikhail Khordokovsky, who was jailed and stripped of his wealth, speaks of the consequences of experiencing the wrath of Putin. The programme also hears from former home secretary Jack Straw, who recalls Putin's first encounter with Tony Blair - the leader Putin apparently attempted to model himself on. Straw wryly observes that the two are 'very similar'. Former foreign secretary William Hague entertained Putin during the London 2012 Olympic Games and bonded over a shared love of judo - but later found himself unable to influence the decision made to invade Crimea.

2018 • People

90:29

The extraordinary and dramatic story of Gertrude Bell, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day. She shaped the modern Middle East after World War I in ways that still reverberate today. More influential than her friend and colleague Lawrence of Arabia, Bell helped draw the borders of Iraq and established the Iraq Museum. Using never-seen-before footage of the region, the film chronicles Bell's extraordinary journey into both the uncharted Arabian desert and the inner sanctum of British male colonial power. With unique access to documents from the Iraq National Library and Archive and Gertrude Bell's own 1,600 letters, the story is told entirely in the words of the players of the day, excerpted verbatim from intimate letters, private diaries and secret communiques. It is a unique look at both a remarkable woman and the tangled history of Iraq.

2017 • People

86:25

An investigation into the incident in August 2020 when Russia's opposition leader Alexei Navalny was taken ill during a flight to Moscow, having been poisoned. While world leaders struggled to get Navalny the treatment he needed, investigative journalists began to piece together what had happened, finding that not only was Navalny poisoned by a Russian security service hit squad, but that they had been following him for several years while developing new variants of the banned chemical weapon Novichok - previously used in the attack in Salisbury.

2021 • People