Van Zeller’s New National Geographic Series Trafficked

With her new National Geographic series Trafficked Mariana van Zeller visibly and tangibly places her life and safety on the line for the sake of transporting viewers to the heart of underground criminal enterprises. Sometimes seeing her deliver on that promise can be downright unsettling. All you need to do is scan her face to comprehend what’s at stake when, say, a scam artist who has surrounded himself and her with masked men strapped with pistols admits that he considered robbing her and her crew after they met at their agreed upon clandestine meeting.

Some of this is for show, certainly; this is still television we’re talking about. When Trafficked dives into the world of underground crime, it is fascinating. When it makes the reporter’s bravery central to the story, it takes on a tabloid newsmagazine feel.

Trafficked explores eight criminal enterprises largely happening in plain sight, including phone scams, fentanyl production, counterfeiting, steroid abuse and prostitution. The reporter sits with the men and women who makes these calls and discusses how they do it, how much money they make from it, and most pertinently, why they do it. If you didn’t have better options, what would you do?

But I don’t want to see him die in the process. This episode also takes place in van Zeller’s backyard, since she finds most of her sources in Los Angeles. This episode doesn’t tell us much that the average Dateline or Frontline viewer doesn’t already know about the business of illicit sex work.

By and large van Zeller refrains from making the participants in these criminal networks completely sympathetic. There’s the biochemist in Mexico cooking black market fentanyl who insists that none of the product he makes has ever killed anyone. There are the phone scammers who reframe their acts of fraud as reparations.

Who Is The Host Of “Trafficked With Mariana Van Zeller”?

‘I always protect the identity of the people who speak to us, I promise you that,” Mariana van Zeller assures the many people who talk with her and who assure her, in return, that they could be killed for doing just that. With all due respect to the host of “Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller,” viewers might imagine themselves needing more than a persuasive correspondent’s vow of confidentiality before they’d put their lives on the line the way people do here. But one Peruvian counterfeiter offers what might be an explanation for all the show’s black-marketeers: The same appetite for risk that got him into his business in the first place is compelling him to get in front of the camera.

In her eight-part National Geographic series (which does globe-hop, for those wondering about the connection), she engages with fentanyl dealers in Mexico, phone scammers in Jamaica, financial fraudsters in Tel Aviv—and those Peruvian counterfeiters, who according to the show are providing 60% of the phony currency on the U.S. market. In Jamaica, the business of phone scams (“You’ve just won $43 million! !”) has overtaken the drug trade, though some of the tactics remain the same: Ms. Van Zeller looks genuinely shocked when a well-armed scam lord reveals he was going to rob her and her crew, before he decided he liked her.

What Is Mariana Van Zeller’S New Series On National Geographic Called?

In just eight episodes of her new series on National Geographic, “Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller,” we watch the acclaimed investigative journalist talk to counterfeit money makers in a Peruvian strip mall, walk into the jungles of Mexico to have a talk with cocaine dealers, and learn about underground steroid experimentation in the quiet suburbs of Sacramento. “I’ve always been attracted to the underworld,” van Zeller told IndieWire, ever since her first story as a journalist saw her moving to Syria at the start of the Iraq war. Close is an understatement; van Zeller is in the thick of the action throughout every episode and she thinks part of that might have to do with the fact that the worlds she’s walking through are often exclusionary to women.

Van Zeller said the world of investigative journalism is one where women can thrive particularly well. “We are more powerful, as women, doing this kind of reporting. The need for empathy is important, especially considering van Zeller’s goal is to show how black markets are not created in a vacuum but as part of a series of systemic breakdowns in a country, and the world, at large.

Van Zeller explains that talking to a self-proclaimed pimp who plies his trade on the streets of Los Angeles — “15 minutes from my house,” according to the journalist — was certainly a struggle. National Geographic/Muck Media Once she started diving deeper into the man’s life, though, learning about the conditions of his upbringing and his lack of opportunities caused her to reevaluate her thinking. Many of the heroes in his neighborhood were pimps themselves.

“By criticizing and closing our eyes to it, are we going to change anything in the world,” she said. At the end, the counterfeiter told van Zeller to prepare “to see amazing things tomorrow.” “I called National Geographic immediately,” she said.

The counterfeiters ended up ghosting van Zeller and her crew. In the episode focused on gun trafficking, van Zeller and her crew spent all day with a group of sicarios (hitmen) in order to understand their day-to-day routine. “We ended up going to see their gun bunker, where they keep all their weapons and didn’t realize a few of them had been snorting cocaine all day,” van Zeller said.

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Which Season Of “Trafficked With Mariana Van Zeller” Was Renewed For A Third Season?

National Geographic has renewed “Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller” for a third season ahead of its second season premiere, which comes Dec. 1 at 9 p.m. Additionally, the network ordered three new unscripted series: “Life Below Zero: First Alaskans,” “The 7 Toughest Days on Earth” and “Appetite for Adventures.” The second season of “Trafficked” was produced amid the COVID-19 pandemic and consists of 10 new episodes; the third season will begin production this fall.

In Season 2, those businesses include romance scams, a meth superhighway, California’s marijuana black market, a stolen car smuggling route, outlaw motorcycle gangs, black market plastic surgery, supremacy, and more. “Filming a whole season of ‘Trafficked’ during a global pandemic was extremely challenging, but there’s been an explosion of black markets over the past year, and I think we all quickly realized that this series has become more relevant than ever,” said van Zeller. ”With this second season, we’ve managed to dive even deeper and gain even more access into underworld networks around the world.” The series is produced by Muck Media with van Zeller, Darren Foster and Jeff Plunkett executive producing alongside Nat Geo’s Bengt Anderson.

Similar to how the flagship series focuses on daily hardships of living off of the land (and water), the new series will showcase the same harsh conditions but be dedicated to how the native peoples of those Alaskan locations live. The show will feature their customs and cultures on-screen and also boasts cultural consultants and native crew members on the production as well. “Life Below Zero: First Alaskans” will begin production in September.

“The 7 Toughest Days on Earth” centers on Dwayne Fields, an explorer who became the first Black British citizen to “conquer the magnetic north pole.” The new series will follow him as he’s dropped into extreme locations around the world for a week at a time. His mission in each is to lead himself and his small film crew to an extraction point.

The show is produced by Nutopia, and executive producers from that company are Jane Root and Sam Bagnall, while Chris Kugelman is executive producer on behalf of Nat Geo. With roots in the American South, Cason will be looking to cook comfort food over an open flame, learning local customs and infusing the spirit of their location into each new dish. “Appetite for Adventure” begins production in October.

For National Geographic, Lauren Thompson is an executive producer, while Renner and Eyres are also attached. Cason is represented by The Burke Management Firm. “The talent at the center of each of these series have unique voices and perspectives that will undoubtedly inspire the explorer in all of us.”

What Year Did Mariana Van Zeller Move To New York City To Attend Columbia University School Of Journalism?

Mariana van Zeller moved to New York City in August 2001 to attend Columbia University School of Journalism. “I did the live report,” says van Zeller, “and afterward I was excited that I’d been able to do it. It was in that moment I decided that I needed to understand why an event like this happens; I needed to contextualize what was happening, and I realized that I wanted to do more investigative and longform journalism.

VALENTINA VALENTINI: When you tell the story of knocking on the door of the dean’s office, I feel like that is like a metaphor for your entire career. For example, in terms of access for Trafficked, it’s the most difficult access I’ve ever attempted. When people tell me that it’s impossible, that’s when I know that this is what we need to do.

VV: How has Covid-19 has affected the show and your work in general? MVZ: We have Covid protocols in place now where everybody on the team has to wear masks and we’re tested almost weekly. The trafficking world has grown exponentially since the beginning of Covid.

MVZ: It’s hard to empathize while also knowing what the impact of what they’re doing has on our daily lives. How can I humanize this person while knowing what they’re doing is taking away life? VV: Why do you think these criminals want to let you into their world?

VV: And do you have any ideas of how to stop this massive world of criminal trafficking? MVZ: More opportunities need to be created. More often than not, it’s that these people don’t have the opportunities to advance their lives and their means in any other way.

If there were other opportunities, I don’t think anyone would choose this life.