It’s January 5, 1982, and the central American state of Panama is playing host to one of the most extraordinary narco summits in history. Hosting the pow-wow is Manuel Noriega, chief of Panamanian military intelligence and just a year from siezing its control. Pablo Escobar, head of what will become the feared Medellin Cartel, is there too.
But even these cr ... Show More
Feb 17
The First Gangster Kingpin of New York
Monk Eastman ruled the depraved streets of turn-of-the-century Manhattan with fists and absolutely zero regard for human life, commanding an army of 1,200 thugs who terrorized the Lower East Side. At the height of his power, he was pulling cash from every racket you could think o ... Show More
1h 3m
Feb 10
The OG Yakuza Godfather, Kazuo Taoka
Orphaned and kicked out of work, Kazuo Taoka was an unlikely candidate to become one of postwar Japan’s most important characters. But by combining violence with a talent for legitimate business and corruption, the immaculately-suited gangster would lead the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza ... Show More
1h 2m
Mar 2018
“Cocaine Godmother” - Griselda Blanco
Griselda Blanco was born in Colombia on February 15, 1943. By age 11, Griselda committed her first of many murders. We follow her rise to becoming one of the first infamous leaders of the 1970’s drug trade. Between cold-blooded killing and drug overdoses, many died at the hands o ... Show More
43m 57s
Aug 2024
The Backstory: Pablo Escobar: Drugs, blood, and $30 billion
Maybe you’ve seen Sicario, Scarface, Narcos, or Blow, but they have nothing on the bloody and intense real-life story of Pablo Escobar, the king of cocaine. Starting out as a kid in the slums of Medellin, Columbia, he went on to run the Medellin drug cartel in the 70’s, 80’s, and ... Show More
8m 14s
Aug 2025
74. The Hunt for Pablo Escobar: Rise of a Drug Lord (Ep 1)
Colombia in the mid-20th century was a place of beauty and bloodshed - where jungle mountains sheltered rebels, the cities were ruled by oligarchs, and outlaw legends became folk heroes. Into this world stepped Pablo Escobar. Charming, calm, and calculating, he would become one o ... Show More
58m 56s
Aug 2025
77. The Hunt for Pablo Escobar: The Medellin Cartel vs Colombia (Ep 4)
By the autumn of 1989, the hunt for Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel was intensifying. With the US military and intelligence agencies now directly involved, a new, more aggressive phase of the War on Drugs had begun. Join Gordon and David as they explore how Escobar, facing ... Show More
50m 52s
Aug 2025
75. The Hunt for Pablo Escobar: The War on Drugs (Ep 2)
In the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar reinvented himself. He was no longer just the man who could smuggle tonnes of cocaine into Miami - he was the successful businessman, the philanthropist, the proud family man. To the poor, he built homes and football fields. To the powerful, he o ... Show More
56m 9s
Feb 2025
543. Death in the Amazon: Aguirre, the Wrath of God
“Anyone who even thinks of abandoning this mission will be cut up into a thousand pieces…I am the wrath of God!”
At the height of the age of exploration, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, one story in particular gripped the imagination of European colonialists: El Do ... Show More
1h 7m
Sep 2025
79. The Hunt for Pablo Escobar: Killing the Cocaine King (Ep 6)
In the final months of 1993, the hunt for Pablo Escobar reached a fever pitch. On the run and isolated, Escobar is under immense pressure from both the Colombian search bloc and the shadowy death squad, Los Pepes. But it is his family, now targeted and in danger, that becomes his ... Show More
56m 53s