Episodes

• Extreme Collectors

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  From Viktor's collection of baby skeletons to Jim's 'Noah's Ark' with 550 live animals, discover how some collectors' passions cross the line.

  Next Showing

  Wednesday 27 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Private Passions

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  Liliane takes her human puppy for a walk in the park while Matt and his fiancée share an unusual fetish for skintight body suits known as zentai.

• Ugly

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  Standards of beauty differ across cultures, but it seems human beings may possess a preference for symmetrical faces. In Texas, an electrical accident leaves Dallas's face grossly disfigured.

  Next Showing

  Thursday 28 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Nasty Jobs

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  From house cleaners in Minneapolis to trash miners in Guatemala, the filth nobody wants around is an everyday sight for these workers.

  Next Showing

  Friday 29 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Strange Passions

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  Sexual healer Des outlines the details of his therapy and a piano teacher has a fetish for balloons - he's collected 65 000 of them.

• Weird Weddings

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  In Jamaica, nine couples wed in the nude. In California, two dogs marry and Indian pimps plot violence when a mass wedding threatens their trade.

  Next Showing

  Saturday 30 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Changing Gender

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  Ashley and Tony appear to be a regular, happily married couple, except for one thing – when they met, she was a man and he was a woman.

• Extreme Bodies

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  When people go to extremes with body modification, they provoke fear and disbelief - Elaine has over 8 000 piercings, while Mary has horn implants. In Japan, 'bagelheads' inject their foreheads with saline.

• Devils and Demons

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  Covering exorcism rituals from around the globe, including five teenage devil-destroyers from Arizona and an elaborate ceremony in Colombia.

• Strange Syndromes

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  Revealing truly bizarre body issues, from a woman who can't put on weight to a young man whose body is huge on one side and skinny on the other.

• Old Enough?

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  Sometimes childhood is complicated - a teenage girl wants to become a man, while nine-year-old Stavros Grillis has been at the wheel of high-performance race cars since he was five.

• Weird Collections

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  Collecting can be a harmless hobby, or it can become an obsession. We meet the extreme collectors whose lives, relationships and livelihood have been impacted.

• Bizarre Burials

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  Explore the alternative ways various societies deal with death and burial rituals as we lift the lid on this taboo.

• Odd Couples

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  We examine unconventional relationships, from a woman who's in love with a man three times her height to a marriage made up of three partners.

  Next Showing

  Wednesday 20 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Secret Lives

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  We look into the lives of individuals leading a double life with unsettling and surprising secrets, from a woman who pretends to be paraplegic to a millionaire who lives on the streets.

  Next Showing

  Tuesday 19 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Freaky Remedies

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  Delve into the darker side of medicine as we reveal unorthodox remedies across the globe – from extreme detox to Shamanic animal sacrifice.

  Next Showing

  Friday 22 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Strange Behavior

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  Each has a condition they can not control, yet society treats them as taboo -four people talk frankly about their mental disorders and disabilities in this touching documentary.

  Next Showing

  Sunday 24 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Extreme Fighting

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  Test the boundaries of acceptable violence, as we visit a goat-killing family in Bolivia, a cage fighter in Florida and a Dambe boxer in Nigeria.

  Next Showing

  Thursday 21 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Teen Sex

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  From 13-year-old mums-to-be in Australia to the controversial Kreung tribe in Cambodia, we reveal differing global attitudes to teenage sex.

  Next Showing

  Tuesday 26 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Booze

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  From Labor Day weekend parties in Arizona to binge-drinking resorts in Spain, alcohol shapes lives in ways that can be heartbreaking and deadly.

  Next Showing

  Monday 25 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Living with the Dead

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  From skull cleaners in Oklahoma to Madagascans who routinely move the remains of the dead, meet the people who surround themselves with death.

  Next Showing

  Saturday 23 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Beauty

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  In a youth-obsessed Western culture, some feel the need to obsessively diet, exercise and partake of beauty treatments or plastic surgery. However, some have taken these to fatal extremes. In Paris, we'll meet a young model with extreme anorexia, so fixated on her weight that at 55 pounds she died from the disease. In Texas, a woman feels the need to continually increase her breast size, all the way to a triple K cup. And a woman in Australia has a corset sewn into her flesh because she beli

  Next Showing

  Wednesday 13 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Role Play

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  Explore the line where fantasy and reality blur. In California, meet a grown man role-playing ' as an adult baby, complete with diaper, pacifier and customized baby furniture to make his fantasy life more real. In Japan, a champion kick boxer has a passion for dressing up as female animation characters in the boxing ring. A Floridian father divides his time between his real life and a virtual life online populated with avatars ' engaging in cybersex with his virtual family.

  Next Showing

  Thursday 14 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Addicted

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  Delve into the lives of those haunted by addiction. Meet a 15-year-old South Korean boy in rehab because he's hooked on video games. It's an addiction shared by millions of Koreans, even spurring the government to intervene with a specialized rehab facility. In California, a woman is addicted to anonymous sex ' meeting countless partners in parking lots to satisfy her insatiable appetite.

  Next Showing

  Friday 15 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Hoarders

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  In every city, there are hoarders. A Florida woman shares her house with nearly 400 pigs, as they continue to multiply. In Pennsylvania, a man's obsession with vinyl records has driven him to collect around two million records, with thousands more purchased every month. In England, we meet a male hoarder whose apartment is filled with clutter piled three feet high, and a female hoarder forced out of her home due to her inability to throw items away.

  Next Showing

  Saturday 16 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Prison Love

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  Love behind bars with some of the most dangerous criminals on earth. In Texas, an inmate in solitary confinement gets married with the help of a radio host as surrogate groom, while the prisoner listens over the radio. In California, a pregnant woman has a white wedding at the county jail, with a glass wall separating the couple as they say their vows. In Tennessee, a man serving life for murder marries a woman he met over the Internet, but the marriage has little hope of being consummated.

  Next Showing

  Sunday 17 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Make Me Beautiful

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  Love can come in many different ' and bizarre ' forms. In Washington State, we meet a man with 'objectum sexual,' who has an emotional, romantic and often sexual attraction to his car, named Vanilla. In Germany, we'll introduce you to the founder of the Objectum Sexual International Forum, who is in a loving relationship with the Berlin Wall. And we'll meet a married couple in California whose concept of monogamy has an odd twist ' she works as a professional sex surrogate.

  Next Showing

  Monday 18 December at 23:30 CAT

  On National Geographic

• Strange Love

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  For many people a relationship means a man and a woman in love and legally married. But for some, this kind of bond is not enough. Human relationships can bring safety, security and love… but sometimes they can also be taboo. In Australia a couple stay faithful by having sex with strangers. In poverty stricken Nepal love is lost when a seven year-old child is sold as a bride. In the United Kingdom a man defies one of his country's strictest taboos by marrying seven women. And in the United States we witness a relationship that is hardly human at all when a man falls in love with a sex doll.

• Strange Love

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  Discover the darker side of human relationships, from a man in the USA who is in love with a sex doll to a British man with seven wives.

• Drugs

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  It is a truism in most modern societies: Drugs that treat are good; drugs that transport are taboo. The more "progress" a culture makes, it seems, the more rooted it becomes in the practical-and the less willing to allow the spiritual journeys that drugs can offer. We take a trip from traditional acceptance to modern rejection, exploring how these drugs are used in ancient cultures and why they are prohibited in modern ones. In Peru we join Las Juarengas healers who battle demons with the help of San Pedro, a drug that transports them to another realm and gives them the power to mend broken lives. In Mexico, where peyote is illegal for most citizens,...

• Healers

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  The ability to heal others is highly prized in all cultures. We esteem the healers and put our faith in them. But the sources of their power can be mysterious, and often the treatment requires not just faith, but a leap of faith. We follow three healers who derive their strength from what other cultures might consider illegitimate or unproven sources. In Bolivia, a Karawallan shaman obtains his ability from mountain spirits, who channel human ills into the unfortunate frame of a guinea pig. A Native American healer calls on the knowledge of his ancestors and confronts a sick woman with a very distasteful treatment plan, one that requires she drink...

• Food

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  What makes a food taboo? Every culture has its own tastes, often developed from what's available. To others their choices of sustenance can seem downright horrifying. We take a spin around the globe in search of food taboos, some hilarious, others deadly serious. In Borneo we meet the durian, the world's only taboo fruit. In Los Angeles we meet an entrepreneur who's trying to convince skeptical Americans to eat more bugs. In Thailand we visit a restaurant where people eat deadly cobras-and drink their blood. In Japan, we watch as a first-timer takes his first bite of fugu, a poisonous blowfish. And in Africa, we encounter a tribe that is preparing...

• Bloodsports

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  Throughout their history, humans have retained a fascination with violence. In times of peace, we satiate that craving through our sports. Cockfighting is popular in many parts of the world, but is legal in only three U.S. states. In Mexico, the bloodsport of bullfighting has evolved into a form of art, with a deadly finish. And in Bolivia, once a year people gather in a central square and pound each other until blood flows. Whether the violence is animal on animal, human against beast or human versus human, each sport taps into some hidden corner of our common heritage.

• Evil Spirits

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  The presence of evil is felt in every human society. When bad things happen to good people, some cultures blame the devil and throw up their hands in surrender. But others have developed ways to take on evil directly. In Brazil, shamans vie to influence over 200 spirits that have the power to do good or evil. A man has the ability to cast evil on others; his counterpart is a woman with the ability to take away the evil. In Africa, a family's ancestors play a major role in what happens to them-and sometimes an exorcism is required. And in the Philippines, the dominant Catholic faith doesn't stop a booming market for freelance exorcists, whose primary...

• Voodoo

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  Every culture's religion is taboo somewhere, but voodoo seems like the ultimate outcast. Why? Because it incorporates scary practices like possession and black magic-and because voodoo is to religion what jazz is to music. Unlike the more monolithic religions, which encourage conformity, voodoo is constantly absorbing influences and individual interpretations. Starting in Benin as a means of tapping into spirit powers, it moved across the ocean to Haiti, where it adopted new influences from slavery and Catholicism. In Venezuela, beloved historical figures have the power to possess the living. From its essential form to one of its most complicated...

• Marriage

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  It's an eternal bond, the essence of family. In most parts of the world, the idea of marriage is confined strictly to one man and one woman, the basic formula for propagating the species. But in some cultures, marriage has broader meanings. In India, it's not uncommon for children as young as 10 years old to wed, then go home and live with their parents until they're old enough to live together. In Africa, polygamy is still the norm in many countries. And in parts of Europe, despite opposition from religious groups, same-sex marriage is on the rise. We follow two same-sex couples embarking on the path to marriage. One country permits the marriage;...

• Witchcraft

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  If you had magical powers, how would you use them? To get rich? Or to put a hex on an enemy? In the modern world we tend to dismiss witchcraft and witches as fantasies, but in many cultures magic is alive, and its practitioners are admired and feared. In Mexico we follow an anthropologist who didn't believe in the dark arts, until he was confronted with a mystery that only witches could solve. In Zimbabwe we meet a "witch cleanser," who travels from village to village identifying witches and forcing them to demonstrate their powers. And in England, we see an entire town come to seek the help of Wicca practitioners on the only day they emerge together....

• Sexuality

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  We are all defined by our gender, male or female, from the day we are born. In many cultures, crossing from one side to the other, even temporarily, is taboo. We plunge into the lives of people living in the gray area of sexuality. In Albania, we follow a group of "sworn virgins," women who have completely discarded their female identities and become men. In Thailand we follow a man who has chosen to change his sex through surgery. And in India we meet Mona, a representative of "the third sex," a eunuch who is shunned by society and yet provides sex advice to local housewives. By seeing the world through these characters' eyes, we challenge our...

• Death

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  It is the ultimate unknown, and it awaits us all. Death is an ever-present factor in life, and a culture's method of dealing with the dead can tell us a lot about the lives of its people. In Varanasi, India, "untouchables" burn hundreds of bodies out in the open every day. In the United States, entrepreneurs make their living off the dead, selling their parts or their stories for entertainment. And in Indonesia, a dead relative demands an elaborate funeral that can bankrupt the survivors. While some aspects of each story might seem taboo, they all show us how the dead serve the living.

• Tattoo

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  Indelible art on the skin is common in many cultures. As a form of independent expression it is usually benign. But when tattoos serve as an emblem of clan membership, they literally draw the borders between the acceptable and the taboo. In Borneo, tribal tattoos are essentially copyrighted; wearing one that belongs to another tribe could prove fatal. In Benin, where skin tones are darker, cultures resort to scarification that could appear terrifying to outsiders, but is essential in defining their community. And to women in Norway and England, tattoos are banners of self-expression that can spread across their entire bodies. In the elemental...

• Rites of Passage

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  Passing from one phase of life to the next can be a slow, gradual process. Or it can happen suddenly, in sometimes shocking ways. Cultures around the world push people into the next phase with practices that can seem taboo. In the American Midwest, the Apache tribe maintains a grueling four-day ordeal that thrusts young girls into womanhood. In South Africa we follow the painful journey of a boy becoming a man, a process that begins with a rough circumcision. And in the United States, families regularly move their oldest relatives into nursing homes-a practice that horrifies other cultures. These journeys illustrate the differences between the...

• Tests of Faith

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  All religions make demands on practitioners for the blessings they impart. But some people go to extreme lengths to prove their faith. In the Philippines, Easter is a celebration of suffering, not redemption, and every year some believers crucify themselves to expiate their sins. In New Guinea, to ensure a good yam harvest, the spirits insist that young men tie vines to their legs and jump off a cliff-a leap of faith that can turn deadly. And in Greece, a pagan ritual adopted by some Greek Orthodox believers requires the faithful to dance across burning coals and dip their fingers in boiling oil. These taboo practices all display a common human...