Plot Synopsis

EXPLORER relaunched in Fall 2016 as a one-hour, weekly magazine/talk hybrid series that investigates, inspires and drives the conversation on current events and topics that matter most to the planet. Anchored in a studio in New York City before a live audience and guided by well-known British TV and radio personality Richard Bacon, the show blends in-depth interviews, roundtable discussions and field pieces from award-winning correspondents, including Bryan Christy, Ryan Duffy, Francesca Fiorentini, Jena Friedman, Justin Hall, Billie Mintz, Tania Rashid, Tim Samuels, and Baratunde Thurston. Taking on topics ranging from the ongoing battle with ISIS to climate change and the aftermath of natural disasters, this series showcases the high caliber of journalism that has made National Geographic the most recognizable brand on the planet for generations. The premiere episode of this relaunched version of EXPLORER tells stories of death. Featured segments include one about a town in Indonesia where people keep their dead at home until they can afford a proper funeral; a panel about death with comedian Larry Wilmore, writer Chuck Klosterman and undertaker Amy Cunningham; a segment on the Hanford Nuclear Reactor, where workers have been cleaning up nuclear waste for 72 years and counting; a one-on-one studio interview with environmental activist Erin Brockovich; and piece about a librarian in Timbuktu who moved books and artifacts to protect them from al-Qaida. After a 2.5-month break, EXPLORER returned with new episodes on Monday, March 6, 2017 at 10pm ET/PT on Nat Geo. In the mid-season premiere, "Human vs. Animal," EXPLORER examines Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte's controversial war on drugs that has left countless people dead in the streets. In studio, guest host Aasif Mandvi sits down with legendary journalist Ted Koppel to get his unique perspective on everything from fake news to cyberattacks. And the episode also looks at the unexpectedly ancient history of "grillz."

Premiering Monday, November 12, 2018 at 10pm ET/PT on Nat Geo Channel, the new, 13-episode season of EXPLORER follows new host Phil Keoghan, as he treks to far-flung regions to meet with National Geographic Explorers on the front lines of groundbreaking scientific, technological and historical discoveries. The new season features impact-filled documentary stories covering a variety of topics, including cloning, our nation's nuclear threat, spectacular Mexican ruins, imposing whale sharks and the downside of DNA testing. Correspondents featured this season come from several professional fields, ranging from journalists and filmmakers to esteemed scientists and researchers:
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On Thursday, May 19, 2022, Nat Geo premieres "The Deepest Cave," a new installment of EXPLORER Renowned caver Bill Stone is on a lifelong quest to go deeper beneath the earth than any human has ever ventured. Deep in the unexplored depths of Cheve Cave in Mexico, his goal is to set a new world record by finding a passage beyond a depth of 7,208 feet, proving once and for all his theory that Cheve is the deepest cave in the world. The expedition has been compared to climbing Everest -- but in reverse. The three-month underground journey is a dangerous and highly technical adventure through over 12 miles of tight, twisting passages. The pressure to conquer the cave will push Bill and the team to the absolute limits of survival and sanity.

The new season of EXPLORER also features "The Last Tepui." An elite climbing team is on a mission to deliver 79-year-old biologist Bruce Means to the top of a Guyanese tepui, a mystical "island in the clouds," in search of undiscovered species completely new to science. National Geographic Explorer Mark Synnott teams up with climber Honnold in his first notable climbing project since "Free Solo," local biologist and climber Fuco Pisani will help Means in his life's quest to search for new species which he hopes will be the proof that this amazing "lost world" must be preserved. Directed by National Geographic photographer and climber Renan Ozturk and documentary filmmaker Taylor Rees, Synnott will lead a trek from a remote indigenous village, hacking a trail through uncharted jungle beneath towering waterfalls spilling down from the clouds. Once they reach the towering -- over an estimated 1,300-foot -- sheer wall of rock, Means must put his life in the hands of the climbing team as Honnold will take the lead to rope up the untested rock -- a climb he believes is more dangerous and filled with more unknowns than his world-famous free solo up Yosemite's El Capitan -- and lay anchors that will be used to hoist the scientist inch by inch to the top. If successful, Means will finally complete his lifelong quest to prove the tepuis are an undiscovered "Galapagos" of unique species that must be protected.