Beyond Good and Evil

December 7, 2011 6:23 PM

[A Descent Into the Heart of Darkness]

[A Descent Into the Heart of Darkness] Wrap-Up w/o Shane Smith

Joe Rogan interviews VBS.TV co-founder Shane Smith about his experiences documenting:

• Child Cannibalism, Naked Warfare, and the Tupac Shakur Army in Liberia.
• Billy the Fish & the North Korean slaves in Siberia duped into working in a replica of North Korea.
• The Deepest Parts of the Congo
• Heavy Metal in Baghdad
• Drunk in Chernobyl Hunting Radioactive Wolves
• Bangkok Lady Boys and the Muay Thai Transgender champion Parinya Charoenphol
• Ghetto Doll Brothels
• The Rebels of Libya

Other topics include Mitt Romney's grandfather helping create polygamist colonies in Mexico, radioactive ghost towns in Japan, having sex with eels, 2.5 week-long traffic jams in China, the Pirate Stock Exchange, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and much more regarding the absurdity of the human condition.


The interview is also available on iTunes

posted by lemuring (10 comments total)

Shane Smith is so awesome I hope I am equally as fearless and curious when I am his age.

And I just tried to look up how old he is to discover he doesn't have a wikipedia entry. Why? I don't know, but I suspect he's been deleting it himself. Awesome.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:45 PM on December 7, 2011

Joe Rogan is a funny comedian, but as an interviewer talking about current affairs he barely rises above the discourse of a stoned frat boy.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:22 PM on December 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

I would give this specific interview a listen before discounting it altogether, KokuRyu.
posted by lemuring at 7:30 PM on December 7, 2011

It's pretty interesting, but is the only takeaway from Liberia that it's a depraved, debased failed state full of cannibals?
posted by KokuRyu at 7:34 PM on December 7, 2011

I think the message was more universal with Liberia. I got the impression that Shane and Joe felt that, rather than being something that was unique to Africa, Liberia was an extreme of the human condition. Given the right circumstances, Liberia could be anywhere on Earth. How much separates the -civil- human being in a Western metropolis from the life of General Butt Naked in Liberia?

Only circumstances.
posted by lemuring at 7:50 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Good article about the Siberian labor camps full of NK nationals.

From 1994.
posted by graftole at 8:07 PM on December 7, 2011

Dark Tourism.
posted by stbalbach at 8:08 PM on December 7, 2011

Why not also mention successful 2011 elections, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Sirleaf's peace prize?
posted by KokuRyu at 8:12 PM on December 7, 2011

This is important journalism, because it's raw. It definitely has a point of view, like all journalism (in spite of the Holy Grail of "objective journalism"). This stuff should find it's way into more mainstream exposure.
posted by Vibrissae at 9:52 PM on December 7, 2011

But mixing cryptozoology (a dinosaur that doesn't exist? a giant chimp?) with cannibalism seems rather weird.

I might also add that there has been a significant amount of reporting on Liberia and the Congo over the past 15 years. Nobody pays attention, that's all.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:08 PM on December 7, 2011