VICE News

Jake Burghart joins Shane Smith to talk through Vice’s infamous North Korea trip. They discuss what went wrong behind the scenes, the surreal moments with Dennis Rodman, and how the trip unfolded in ways no one expected. Jake shares his take on the challenges of filming in North Korea, the absurdity of the situation, and how it all came together, unfiltered and unexpected. It’s a quick dive into the story behind the story.

In this episode of VICE Inside, Shane Smith talks with longtime VICE producer Alex Chitty about their reporting in Iran and the unpredictability of working there. They recall coming face to face with senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and attempting to turn it into an interview. Shane and Alex reflect on the gap between the official narrative and everyday life in Tehran, and what didn’t make it into the final cuts.

In this episode of VICE Inside, as trials tied to the brutal Assad regime begin this week, Shane Smith sits down with former VICE correspondent Isobel Yeung to look back on their reporting in Syria and the experience of working there. They revisit moments from Aleppo and Damascus, where active frontlines and everyday life existed side by side — and reflect on the strange disconnect between what was happening on the ground and what people were allowed to say on camera. Isobel shares what it was like reporting under constant oversight, navigating government minders, and trying to capture reality inside a system built to control the narrative — along with what didn’t make it into the final cuts. A conversation about memory, perspective, and the lasting impact of reporting from a place defined by conflict and contradiction.

In this episode of VICE Inside, Shane Smith sits down with longtime VICE producer Alex Chitty to look back on their reporting in Venezuela — from its most chaotic years to a very different reality today. They revisit some of VICE’s most infamous shoots, including a trip embedded with cocaine traffickers moving product through West Africa — a story that became legendary during VICE’s early, anything-goes era. Shane and Alex reflect on filming in Caracas when it was the murder capital of the world — covering riots, tear gas, and violent street clashes — and compare it to returning more recently, where parts of the country felt almost unrecognizable. They also touch on the strange legacy of those early years, from parody to perception, before turning to what might come next for Venezuela after recent political changes. A conversation about risk, memory, and how both a place and the people reporting on it evolve over time.

In January last year, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told the US military to "accelerate like hell" in the use of AI, robots, & autonomous systems. Now, just over 100 days later, we're on the ground in Morocco, where AI-powered "robotic forces" are working alongside human soldiers as part of African Lion, the US military's largest exercise on the African continent.

When we think about the War on Drugs, we tend to picture police kicking down doors or busting dealers on the street. But these days, the drug war is just as much about huge networks of surveillance, data analysis and digital espionage. And this spying isn’t just being carried out by the cops. Made by Proton, Data War is a series investigating the hidden battles shaping our digital world from mass surveillance and cybercrime to the fight for privacy and human rights online. As governments, corporations and criminals battle for control of our data, the series reveals why digital freedom, personal privacy and the tools we use to protect ourselves have never mattered more. In this episode we’re looking at how Mexican drug cartels are hacking US law enforcement, monitoring entire cities through their CCTV system – and importing cutting edge military technology from the world’s deadliest war zone.

Inside North Korea, every piece of technology is built for surveillance and control. This is Red Star OS, the regime’s custom operating system that secretly embeds metadata watermarks into files, allowing authorities to trace them back to the original computer. The control doesn’t stop there. North Korean smartphones are heavily restricted, the country operates its own isolated intranet called Kwangmyong filled with state propaganda, and software like “Red Flag” reportedly captures screenshots from devices every few minutes for security monitoring. In North Korea, being caught with outside media can lead to prison camps, forced labor, or even execution.

In this episode of VICE Inside, Shane Smith sits down with longtime VICE producer Alex Waterfield to revisit one of the most consequential stories VICE ever covered: China's militarization of the South China Sea. From chartering a plane to document China's artificial islands to receiving warnings from Chinese forces, they discuss the reporting behind a documentary that explored one of the world's most dangerous geopolitical flashpoints. Shane and Alex also reflect on the surprising aftermath of the film, including HBO's decision not to air the documentary, and what it revealed about China's growing influence around the world. Along the way, they revisit other unforgettable stories from the region, from remote Bitcoin mining operations to the strange realities of reporting inside a rapidly changing superpower. A conversation about journalism, great-power competition, and why many strategists believe the South China Sea could become the center of the next major global conflict.

Teenage hackers stole millions, brought Las Vegas casinos to a standstill, hacked some of the world's biggest companies and then turned on each other. In this episode of Data War, we investigate The Com, the loose online community behind groups like Scattered Spider, LAPSUS$ and ACG. From SIM swapping and ransomware to kidnappings, swatting and extremist networks, this is the story of how a generation of hackers grew into one of the world's most dangerous criminal networks.

Shane Smith and Andrew Callaghan sit down with the anonymous creator behind Explosive Media, the Iranian team whose AI-generated LEGO videos became one of the most viewed and controversial media phenomena of the recent Iran-Israel conflict. With a team of fewer than ten people, their videos reached hundreds of millions of viewers and sparked debate about propaganda, AI, meme culture, and the future of information warfare In this rare interview, the creators explain why they chose LEGO animation to depict war, how a team of fewer than ten people reached hundreds of millions of viewers, and why they believe modern conflicts are increasingly fought through algorithms, social media, and information warfare rather than traditional media alone.

Who actually controls the biggest secret in modern history? For decades, UFOs were treated as conspiracy theories, fringe science, or tabloid fodder. Today, senators, intelligence officials, military officers, and even presidents are publicly discussing unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). What changed? This week, Shane sits down with filmmaker Dan Farah, director / producer of the explosive and highly credible documentary, The Age of Disclosure, which brought about this change and reveals an 80-year cover-up of the existence of non-human intelligent life. The film is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video. They discuss the impact of the film, the growing push for government disclosure around UAPs, the role of defense contractors, congressional investigations, declassified documents, and the battle currently unfolding inside Washington over what the public should know.