Documentary / Biography

National Geographic separates fact from fiction to discover the real science behind climate change, the melting ice caps and why the intensity of tropical storms has increased by 50% in the past 30 years.

Journey to the heart of the forests depicted in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book for an unprecedented look at one tigress's struggle to raise her cubs and survive in the wild. From high atop an elephant's back the safest way to see these fierce creatures...

Follow the largest carnivore that walks the earth, the great Kodiak bear, down ancient feeding trails, up salmon-rich rivers - even into a den where a mother nurses her newborn cubs. You'll watch cubs learning to fish, bears gorging in berry-laden fields, and a...

Explore an often inescapable nightmare of nature that's much more common than most of us realize. Witness actual footage and re-creations of successful and tragically failed rescues. Learn life-saving survival tips when you are knee-deep and sinking fast.

Accomplished adventurer and author Jon Bowermaster discovers a new Vietnam from the sea and guides an intimate tour of this intriguing country. More than a travelogue, Descending the Dragon is a personal look into the heart of this sea-loving nation, its hopeful spirit and...

A forensic breakthrough leads scientists back to the scene of a 5,000 year old murder on a glacier high in the European Alps. As three possible motives emerge, the story of the Iceman's violent death illuminates the origins of conflict in the Copper Age.

Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs on earth. Stronger, purer and easier to get than ever before, heroin is attracting a whole new breed of addict. Dangerously pure, the newest forms of heroin can be snorted or smoked, rather than injected, attracting...

Women are being incarcerated in record numbers--and the majority of women in prison are mothers. Since mothers are often the primary or sole caregivers to their children, their incarceration can destroy a family. Lisa Ling sets out to understand what life is like for...

The most celebrated and magnificent flying machine ever built, Hindenburg was a luxury liner in the sky. Stretching 804 feet in length and lifted by seven million cubic feet of hydrogen, the legendary German airship was a stunning technological masterpiece. Including rare, never-before-released footage,...

Cross the threshold of the final frontier as mankind embarks on the greatest adventure of all time: space travel. From heroic space pioneers to modern-day cliff-hanger missions, it's a thrilling look at humanity's quest to conquer space. Be there with astronaut Michael Foale as...

Go on an action-packed adventure through the high Alps, to the battlefields outside of Rome, and uncover the story of the great warrior and brilliant military strategist, Hannibal Barca. As one of the greatest military commanders ever known, he would challenge the impossible and...

Host John Bowler travels across America to meet amateur inventors who are making amazingly weird things and to help them to improve one of their creations in 48 hours.

What if a man-or a woman-could strap on a mechanical suit...an "exoskeleton..." and then leap a tall fence? Or toss a car off a cliff? Or carry hundreds of pounds for miles? Or rescue a trapped victim? Or help a paraplegic simply walk again?...

National Geographic joins an international team of scientists on a mission to unlock the hidden secrets of Mt. Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The scientists' mission: to collect a fresh sample from the deadly yet mesmerizing lava lake...

National Geographic's critically acclaimed series Locked Up Abroad, takes viewers inside firsthand accounts of capture, imprisonment and pure terror. Combining revealing personal interviews with dramatic re-enactments, each episode focuses on one extraordinary situation, recounting the brutality, the bravery and, in some cases, the bad...

Cannibalism has long been considered a dark chapter in man's history. Yet we think of it only as isolated occurrences. Now a Neolithic burial pit in Germany, found filled with expertly butchered human remains, challenges those assumptions. Archaeologists have never seen anything like it...

In Papua New Guinea, there are people who may be the last on Earth with living memory of a practice most of the world believes to be long vanished human mummification. In a search for the last mummy made in the region, a National...

Go behind the scenes with three ingenious filmmakers as they re-create large-scale historical events with a green screen, everyday items, and plenty of imagination. Making History thrusts us into historical events from around the world, using awesome digital re-creations to capture the experience from...

With exclusive access to one of the most important discoveries of modern times, National Geographic chronicles the amazing story of how an amateur metal-detecting enthusiast discovered a gold hoard dating back a millennium, and valued at over $5 million. The importance of the discovery...

In September 2007, record-breaking aviator Steve Fossett went missing somewhere over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, sparking the biggest peacetime search and rescue operation in the history of the United States. Over the ensuing days and weeks, reports would surface of a half dozen...

Locked Up Abroad tells the true stories of unsuspecting travelers embarked on what they thought would be fun-filled vacations only to barely make it home. Combining revealing interviews with dramatic re-enactments, each episode recounts an extraordinary situation and the unfortunate luck and, in some...

In the city that never sleeps, one architect's dream for a greener future has been realized. National Geographic provides an exclusive look at the design and construction of an eco-friendly marvel: One Bryant Park, set to be the second tallest building in New York...

Amid the clamor of technological and economic success, a reverence for age, custom, and tradition endures in Japanese culture. The honorable title, "Living National Treasure", is the highest award that can be achieved in the Japanese arts. Some seventy master craftsmen and performers are...

Over the centuries, explorers traded tales of a lost civilization amid the dense Amazonian rainforest. Scientists dismissed the legends as exaggerations, believing that the rainforest could not sustain such a huge population until now. A new generation of explorers armed with 21st-century technology has...

Scientists have long debated one of the greatest mysteries of science. What caused the mass extinction of mammoths around 13,000 years ago? A look at science in the making, National Geographic follows a team of investigators as they assemble one theory for what might...

Once thundering trains bridged all the world's continents...helping to settle new lands and unite distant cultures. In Love Those Trains you'll celebrate their majesty past and present...even taking a first-class seat aboard the Orient Express!

Explore the ruins of the most highly developed civilization in the jungles of Mexico and Central America that mysteriously collapsed more than a thousand years ago. You'll hear the startling story of the kingdom's downfall and witness ancient rituals re-enacted on sites where they...

More than three years in the making, Lions of the African Night reveals the savage secrets of Africa after dark. As night descends on the bushveld, a pride of 30 lions begins its nightly search for prey. Baboons snuggle in tree tops, big-eyed apes...

The history of aviation may never be the same. Forty years before the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, frantic inventors and engineers rushed to create steam-powered flying machines that they hoped would decide the fate of the Civil War. Mark Ragan, author and...

As evident from 9/11 and more recent terrorist attacks, New York City is a top target number for international terrorists. National Geographic embeds with New York's finest, the New York Police Department, for an in-depth look at the terror task force responsible for defending...

Tokyo: orderly...modern...and seemingly safe. But this vast neon city hides a dark secret. For the millions who live here, it's something you don't see every day, and you may never encounter it face to face. For people on the inside, however, nothing could be...

Crimes Against Nature follows an international taskforce of cops and environmental activists from the U.S., Thailand, and Australia on a mission to investigate and bust into the illegal animal trade. The hotspots for wildlife trafficking are at the center of a perfect storm of...

Anyone, at any time, can fall victim to nature's raging furies. Around the globe, hurricanes, tornadoes, and typhoons strike without mercy and often without warning. In the last century, more than half a million lives were lost to the violent forces of cyclones, tropical...

The largest reptile on earth is lurking in the rivers of Australia's Northern Territory. A master predator, each year this cunning croc is tested by nature's harsh extremes and must battle for dominance with its own kind. Using high-speed cameras and infrared technology, National...

In a land reduced to sand and water, every day is a struggle for survival. But one animal has conquered these two elements: Crocodiles have learned to thrive. Meet Croc Boss, the heavyweight champion of the Crocodile Ganglands. He rules by sheer size and...

Airplane Commercial airplanes are commonly used by travelers across the world, but how do these fantastically complicated machines work? Eric Stromer does the unthinkable, cutting into a Boeing 727 passenger jet for a never-before-seen look at airplanes, from the inside out. He dissects various...

For the first time in the history of space exploration, scientists spotted and tracked an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. About the size of a truck, the asteroid slammed into the Nubian Desert in Sudan, in nearly the exact spot and only...

Twice each day, the rising tides of North America's Atlantic coast bring life to millions of exotic creatures. Journey through this incredible universe revealed by stunning aerial and underwater photography and discover how seemingly harmless sea stars, rays and sea horses attack their prey....

Journey to the tiny island of Siarau on the northwest coast of Borneo, where a tidal mangrove forest survives. Caught between land and sea, the forest and its creatures have adapted in bizarre ways to the daily flooding of their habitat. Tree roots grow...

Bush piloting in the Congo, a country crippled by 30 years of war and famine, may be one of the world's most hazardous professions. Brave men and women risk life and limb to transport cargo to this remote region of the world. Landing strips...

Meet the Johns family, one of Manhattan's most prominent Gypsy families. In each episode of this new series, cameras document their efforts to preserve Gypsy customs amid the vices of the city, while upholding their family's power in the community and expanding their psychic...

Airplanes are the lifeblood of Alaska, transporting critical supplies and rescuing the lost and injured in areas where roads don't reach. But violent weather and extreme terrain make these the most dangerous skies in the country, and bush pilots often go beyond the call...

Follow DEA agents on their quest to track down and bust narco-submarines in one of the most violent regions of Colombia.

It may have been one of the most cataclysmic geologic events of the last 60 million years which shaped America as we know it today. The narrow, 400-mile-long Isthmus of Panama, once buried below the sea, rose up and connected North and South America....

With a host of problems threatening the earth's surface, is underwater living a viable alternative? Meet the scientists who believe that permanently submerged colonies are not just possible, but imminent. National Geographic follows the scientists as they tackle the hypothetical challenge of housing 100...

In a remote Chinese desert, archaeologists have unearthed mummies that are thousands of years old, many with Indo-European features such as blond hair and blue eyes. Where did they come from? Dr. Spencer Wells, National Geographic explorer-in-residence and director of the National Geographic Genographic...

The idea that a building's walls will stand up seems as safe a bet as gravity's pull or the sun's rising. Most of us don't worry much about whether our apartments, offices, supermarkets, or schools are going to collapse on us as we go...

Explore the miraculous potential and frightening possibilities of genetic cloning as National Geographic's cameras reveal the history, controversy, and cutting-edge developments of a scientific breakthrough capable of literally changing the destiny of the human race. Witness the remarkable effects of the cloning revolution, from...

Sex tourism may be one of Thailand's most profitable industries. Many of the foreign men who enter the country as tourists come for sex the demand is high, and the market is massive. Servicing this demand are women trafficked from all over the world,...

Travel through the ages to witness the advancement of life on Earth from the big bang and the earliest life-forms, to artificial intelligence and human cloning. Follow a team of scientists on an exciting expedition to uncover the secrets of the Oviraptor dinosaur. Find...