*This video originally aired on the VICE News YouTube Channel in 2017
VICE Impact
In our new series, Outliers, VICE explores worlds beyond the economic mainstream, meeting people who’ve chosen unusual and sometimes radical relationships to money, commerce and capitalism. For our first episode we headed to Virginia, where a cluster of communes thrives in rural, conservative Louisa County. [Originally by US]
*This video originally aired on the VICE News YouTube Channel in 2017
*This video originally aired on the VICE News YouTube Channel in 2017
updated 3 years ago
*This video originally aired on the VICE News YouTube Channel in 2017
Ted Jacques enrolled his son, Brandon, in what he thought was the "best treatment center money could buy"—A Sober Way Home in Prescott, Arizona—in February 2011, not long after Brandon's mother, Kim, discovered the 20-year-old sprawled out and unconscious on the bathroom floor. He had just sucked down a red Solo cup filled to the brim with Crown Royal, and the booze sent him reeling to the ground. It didn't help that Brandon's belly was likely empty from forced vomiting. Kim rapidly unlocked the door after hearing the sound of her son's body smack the linoleum. The shower was still running, Brandon's eyes had rolled into the back of his head, and blood was trickling out of his mouth. It was a horrifying wake-up call, but just one of the many wrenching episodes related to Brandon's years of bulimia and alcoholism.
This video originally aired on VICE in 2014.
We've seen how drones can be a crucial asset to search and rescue operations, but Iran's RTS Lab has taken an entirely new angle. RTS's Pars drone carries a payload of life preservers that can be delivered to a drowning swimmer far faster than a lifeguard. As we saw in testing in the Caspian Sea, the drone can also work at night, using bright lights, biothermal sensors, and a built-in camera to stream video to rescuers on shore.
The concept works well, and it's an excellent example of how powerful drones—which are cheaper and easier to use than just about any other aerial delivery vehicle—can actually be. Here in the US, where the FAA remains steadfast in its desire to squelch the nascent commercial drone industry, this Iranian drone built of Chinese parts sets an example of what can be done when we set our eyes to the skies to do good.
This video originally aired on VICE in 2012.
But upon arriving in the US, instead, trans migrants often find a dangerous life plagued by the threat of detention and continued discrimination. VICE goes to Arizona and Los Angeles to meet one of the most vulnerable populations in America, and the trans women already living in the US working hard to create sanctuary for them.
This video originally aired on VICE Life in 2019.
Located in California’s Central Valley, the city is a hub for many major highways and is surrounded by vast farmlands. And while now, most meth is smuggled from Mexico, the valley was once an ideal location for meth manufacturing labs in the 1990's.
Today, methamphetamine is the number one threat for the Central Valley Drug Task Force, and, because latinos make up half of Fresno's population, they are also being affecting by this epidemic.
VICE's Paola Ramos traveled to Fresno to explore the history, factors and the ongoing relationship between the Latino community and methamphetamine use.
This video originally aired on VICE in 2019.
This video was filmed before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the 2016 presidential election, Antifa has become a staple at alt-right and Trump-related rallies that often result in violence. VICE met up with a few members of Philadelphia's "Black Bloc"—the term used for a collection of autonomous Antifa organizations—to find out more about their ideology, tactics, and individual reasons for participating in this high-risk form of activism.
This video originally aired on VICE in 2017.
We visited Jehu Garcia, a DIY Powerwall builder and enthusiast, and the folks at EV West in Southern California as well as the University of Michigan Battery Lab to see just how DIY Powerwalls can power your home, your car, and even the rest of your neighborhood.
*The video originally aired on MOTHERBOARD in 2017
Motherboard went to Svalbard, Norway to see the vault, located deep inside a mountain, in person.
*This video originally aired on VICE in 2018
*This video originally aired on VICE in 2014
The cough syrup, often of the brand BronCleer, is imported illegally from South Africa, and is sold on every street corner, in bars, school yards and on busses for as little as $3 a bottle.
We meet current and former users, as well as the NGOs pushing the government to open up rehabs, to find out why cough syrup has become the drug of choice for so many young Zimbabweans.
This documentary was produced with help from DanChurchAid, and originally aired on VICE in 2019.
Alkaline hydrolysis, a greener alternative to burial or flame-based cremation, uses a combination of water and potassium hydroxide to decompose bodies. It doesn’t require burial space, uses 1/12 the energy of traditional cremation and doesn’t produce toxic gases or air pollutants. Motherboard spoke to Terry Regnier at Mayo Clinic to find out more about the process.
Now, scientists and designers are looking to an unlikely source that they hope will eventually replace plastic when it comes some of these everyday material uses- they're looking to fungus.
By culturing fungi in a variety of ways, we can now more and more kinds of plastic products mimic, but without the disadvantages. Mold materials can be discarded after use without worry, because they are completely broken down by nature.
In this episode of Upgrade, Motherboard dives head first into the R+D world surrounding the development of fungi as a viable replacement for plastic, and the people who hope it can lead to a better and more sustainable future.
*This video originally aired on MOTHERBOARD in 2015