la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la la ♪ [ boat engine ] ♪ >> anthony: last fair to say i was at a turning point in my life. i promised some people i'd come back, and i am back. my life has changed a lot. how much have their lives changed? ♪ ♪ kuala lumpur. happy to be here, but brimming with mixed emotions. surrounded by all the sights, smells and flavors i remember so well. this is where a wandering soul, such as myself, can dive right in and get some of that straights chinese food i've been missing. first order of business -- dinner. been on a plane for like, i don't know, it was long. very long. saw like five mark wahlberg films. i can't tell you how excited about the prospect of getting some black pepper crab, some char kuey teow, and some pork related noodles. and a regional beverage. reasonably cold. i don't even know what this is. i love you, noodles. don't want to get all heavy and philosophical at this point. like why i'm here, what my mission is, what i expect to find. basically retracing my steps and all that -- we'll talk about that later. right

la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la la ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> darren: salama.he years i've let a lot of extraordinary landscapes recede into a blur outside my windows. i've looked, maybe seen, maybe noticed, then gone. we all carry different experiences inside us. we see things differently, don't we? madagascar. exotic unspoiled paradise? or microcosm for the end of times? antananarivo -- tana for short. madagascar's crowded, chaotic capital city. how are you doing man? base camp. >> darren: wow, that's quite a rain. i don't know. i'm not sure i can be, uh, in front of the camera. [ laughter ] >> anthony: yeah, just ignore 'em. >> darren: i'm so used to, like, controlling everything. >> anthony: darren aronofsky -- director of the films "pi," "requiem for a dream," "the wrestler," "black swan," and, as it would turn out, sort of appropriate to our location, "noah." he asks me if he could go along on a trip with us. i said, "where do you want to go?" so, madagascar. i knew almost nothing about it. i knew it was animated film that i've seen many times with my dau

la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la la ♪ >> anthony: do you smell that?e, incense, the far-away smell of something? is that pork grilling over charcoal? vietnam. it could be no place else. [ bicycle bell dings ] ♪ [ horn honks ] >> anthony: listen to me. listen to me. there is no other way to see this city, hanoi, than from a motorbike or a scooter. to do otherwise would be to miss it all. [ horns honking ] ♪ >> anthony: it is one of the great pleasures of my life to join the river of people rushing through the streets. ♪ [ horns honking ] ♪ >> anthony: vietnam. it grabs you and doesn't let you go. once you love it, you love it forever. i've been coming here since 2000, the first time i'd been in this part of the world, and it's held a special place in my heart and my imagination since. i keep coming back, i have to. [ bells ding ] vietnam has changed since last time i was here. it's changing every minute. [ horns honk ] but some things, for now, anyway, remain theame. important things, like this stuff. that's going to be good. bún oc. first meal in hanoi

la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la la ♪ >> anthony: the runway is frozen seahony: the airport shuttle -- ivan the terra bus -- a "road warrior"-looking behemoth that takes us slowly towards our destination. >> bus driver: we're driving ivan. 40-feet long 67,000 pounds, 23 years old, made out of good canadian steel. sometimes the heat actually works. this year it does. >> anthony: it's no short hop to antarctica, and no easy thing to see it the way it should be seen. the last un-[ bleep ] up place on earth. >> bus driver: here we are. try to get plenty of rest and enjoy the antarctic. >> anthony: mcmurdo station, the largest u.s. base on the continent. the hub, supply and support center for everything we do here in antarctica. the pursuit of pure science. it ain't pretty. it looks like a mining camp, but look closely and you notice things like the total absence of liter, not a single cigarette butt. it's one of the most carefully regulated communities on the planet, and it is a community. a tightly knit, highly organized, very odd subculture of just under 1,000

, la, la, la, ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, sha, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪ >>> anthony: pittsburgh each with it's own rights, and rituals. a patchwork of cultures that took shape over a century ago. back then, the city was a beacon of hope and possibility for people from all over the world, offering the promise of work, prosperity, a new life. pittsburgh could have been another company town gone to beautiful ruin. but something happened. the city started to pop up on lists of the most livable places in america. it became attractive to a new wave of people from elsewhere looking to reinvent themselves and make a new world. and so we find ourselves asking the same questions we ask in other cities in transition. are the new arrivals, new money, new ideas saving the city, or cannibalizing it? who will live in the pittsburgh of the future? and will there be room for the people that stayed true, stuck with it their whole lives? ♪ >> anthony: oh man, i'm very happy about this. sausage and peppers, one of my favorite things. all right. >> anthony: bocce, the ancient game of kings. throw th

, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ >> chris: wire himack in the seat. clip show time again. >> anthony: and we know how enthusiastic i am about clip shows. just love 'em. no, actually, i hate them. >> chris: and i have some questions. >> anthony: i'm looking forward to this like my last colonoscopy, which if you're over the age of 50, you should have done regularly. >> chris: this is a special clip show. this isn't just your normal, "oh, let's talk about what we did last year." this is your greatest hits of the past nine seasons. >> anthony: so this is like a "celebrating our 100th show or some milestone like that?" >> chris: no, this is -- there are -- it's only 72 episodes. >> anthony: okay, so, we're celebrating 72 episodes. that seems kind of like a random number, but whatever. >> chris: if you look back on those seasons, distill what it has meant for you. >> anthony: little clips -- you know, much like clip show, unspooling in my head. you know, it's mostly a blur with occasional moments coming into focus. i just, i don't feel i'm c

, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la,, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ history. "the secret war." there were three intelligence officers, key players in this secret war, who depending on who you talk to were either greatly loved, or greatly feared and despised. anthony poshepny, also known as tony po, had an extensive paramilitary background as a former marine and cia officer. bill lair, a texan and world war ii vet, was an influential cia case officer. vint lawrence was recruited right out of princeton, even though he was an art history major. they succeeded, at first, in impeding the flow of communist north vietnamese arms and troops on the ho chi minh trail. but by the end, they were arming children. what happened here, presumably in the cause of freedom of democratic western values, resonates still. an estimated 30% of the bombs dropped on laos failed to detonate. these and other uxo's remain in the ground and continue to take lives, and limbs. >> anthony: when you get off the plane -- >> james: yes. >> anthony: what's the first sort of recognizable smell tha

, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la,, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ >> anthony: the war.50 caliber in the tower next door is wrapped up, and attended by one sleepy guard. the main enemy today is not the soldiers, guerrillas, fighters, and suicide bombers of the l.t.t.e., but the black crows who hover ominously over the breakfast buffet on the veranda. a man with a slingshot patrols the lawn, driving them away with an occasional shot. [ traffic sounds ] colombo, the capital city of sri lanka. unlike the last time i came here, nearly a decade ago, this south asian island of nearly twenty million, does not feel on lockdown. there are no longer the military checkpoints and heavy equipment, sandbags, or barbed wire in between the airport and the center of town. there's a new, democratically elected government, voted in by a coalition of former adversaries. everywhere you look; construction, expansion, new hotels, foreign money; something that looks a lot like hope. hundreds of thousands of dead and missing later, the country is at peace, and we can go where we want. hopefully

, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, ♪ ♪ >> anthony: it's all you see on tv these days that libya is in fact functioning at all. but it is. the fountains across from the corniche are operating. traffic works. kind of. >> man: [yelling] >> anthony: at the radisson, club sandwiches arrive on time in the lobby. the occasional flash of camo and a security scanner are really the only discordant notes. >> man: don't. don't. he don't want to take the video. >> man: yeah, oh, they don't. okay. >> anthony: inside the old part of the city, men slaughter a camel, while a girl records it with her ipad. [ speaking arabic ] >> anthony: no? okay. he said no. kids are setting off fireworks in the medina. incoming. tomorrow is the prophet muhammad's birthday. and people who have not known freedom for nearly 50 years are ready to celebrate. ♪ >> anthony: martyr's square is filled with families, kids, teenaged skater boys, and hotshots on motorcycles. it's wild. and almost giddily happy. [ speaking arabic ] [ laughter ] >> anthony: oh, man. young men in the ca

, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, ♪ >> nebil: addis ] ♪ >> anthony: admit it. you hear the name ethiopia and you think "starving children with distended bellies." you think dust and famine and despair so awful, you frankly don't want to even think about it anymore. but take a look. addis ababa, capital city of ethiopia. a cool, high altitude, urban center that will both confirm and confound expectations. fueled largely by direct foreign investment and a returning ethiopian diaspora eager to be part of the new growth, things are changing in addis. it's one of the fastest growing economies in the world. it's not the first time the place has gone through a growth spurt. in the 1950s, emperor haile selassie, known as "the king of kings," embarked on a similar program of massive public works. this was supposed to be the legacy of ethiopia. the future. but the next time ethiopia found itself in the headlines, it was for this. and for many of us, that was the end of the story. so i'm looking forward to this week. >> marcus: i can't wait to sh

, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la ♪ >> anthony: the french ne side, but the terrifying swiss on the other. they're close, too close for me, a a man with an nuerotic childhood fear of alpine vistas, yodeling, even cheese with holes in it. but my friend eric requires payback. i have in recent adventures with him been unkind. he grew up in mountains like this. he's an expert skier. this is like home to him. so i thought it was only fair that he get a chance at payback. i am not a graceful skier. but i am an enthusiastic one. and that's what you come here for in winter and early spring. some of the best slopes on earth. also cheese apparently, lots of cheese. >> ski shop worker: i just take your size. >> anthony: yes. >> ski shop worker: okay, bend your knees. what do you think? >> anthony: yeah, they feel good. they feel good. >> ski shop worker: feel good? >> anthony: yeah. you learned to ski in, what, in the pyrenees, right? >> eric: yeah. >> anthony: i learned to ski in new jersey. >> eric: ahh, it's the same. >> anthony: yeah, that's what i u

, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ >> anthony: singaporeking it's a giant ultramodern shopping mall. an interconnected, fully wired air conditioned nanny state, where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. and those things are kind of true, especially if you read the papers or the carefully motored internet. you look around the litterless streets where everything seems to work just fine, just fine, and you think, or you can be forgiven for thinking, "gee, maybe a one party system is just what we need." you look at all the social problems and ethnic strife, street crime, drugs that singapore has managed to avoid, and you could think, "is this the life we want?" it ain't my system. it's not the world i want. but damn, it has its appeal. ♪ >> lady wearing purple: hi, this is singapore. hope you like it. >> anthony: jam-packed in between the carefully feng shui'd architecture, the skyscrapers and office blocks are rich, deep, very old and deliciously funky remnants of the old world. chinese, indian, malay, and a culture that still cherishes

, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ hue, in centralen before. but it's still vietnam, with all the things, the smells, the sounds, the details i love so much. first night in country, it's like sliding into a warm, deeply comforting, familiar bath. i've been all over vietnam, a place i feel a special connection to. my first love, a place i remain besotted with, fascinated by. so back in vietnam. one of my favorite places on earth and, uh, all of the things i need for happiness. low plastic stool, check. tiny little plastic table, check. oooh. something delicious in a bowl, check. in this case a local specialty, com hen, clam rice. sweet, meaty little local clams out of their shells, tossed with a wild swirl of mung beans, white rice, spicy green chilies, crunchy roasted peanuts, fried pork rind, and cilantro. and a similar variation with rice noodles. that fish sauce with chilies in it, and ooh! that'll just singe your eyebrows off. let's throw some chilies in. hit with some hot clam broth, and you're on your way. i'm back. back in viet

, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ >> archival voicess driving a growth in consumption. this is where the real power is -- china! ♪ >> anthony: if you live in manhattan, like i do, and you think you live in the center of the world, this place, shanghai, will confront you with a very different reality. turn down a side street -- it's an ancient culture. the centuries-old mix of culinary traditions, smells, flavors. a block away, this. an ultra-modern, ever-clanging cash register, levels of wealth, of luxury, the sheer volume of things and services unimagined by the greediest, most bourgeois of capitalist imperialists. the city is split by the huangpu river, a tributary of the yangtze, into the older section, which features the bund, and the newer, built-up section of pudong. the one thing i know for sure about china is that we'll never know china. it's too big, too old, too diverse, too deep. there's simply not enough time. that's, for me, the joy of china -- facing a learning curve that impossibly steep. the certain knowledge that even i

, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ >> jim harrison:aybe not. time is a mystery that could tip us upside down. yesterday i was seven in the woods. a bandage covered my blind eye. sixty-eight years later i could still inhabit that boy's body. i start thinking about a time in between. it is the burden of life to be in the ages without seeing the end of time. ♪ >> anthony: next time you turn off a news cycle filled with shouting bobble-heads, convinced that america is devolving into a moronic inferno, questioning the greatness of your nation, maybe you should come here. here are your purple mountains majesty. this is the landscape that generations of dreamers, despots, adventurers, explorers, crackpots, and heroes fought and died for. it's one of the most beautiful places on earth. there is no place like it. montana. many have come to claim their piece over the years but before the prospectors and explorers there were the plains indians. the absaroka have been master horsemen since they adopted spanish-introduced mustangs in the 18th centu

shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world, i felt the rain getting colder ♪ sha la la, sha la la la, sha la♪ >> anthony: lagos, nigeria's mega-city. one of the most dynamic, unrestrained and energetic expressions of free market capitalism and do it yourself entrepreneurship on the planet. >> kadaria:when you have a place of 20 million people, they have to eat. they have to wear clothes. they have to do all sorts of things. i mean lagos is a testament to the resilience and to the ingenuity of the nigerian spirit. >> anthony: buy, sell, trade, hustle and claw. make your own way, any way you can. >> kadaria: nobody does any one job in this country. >> anthony: is that what they say? you have to have three hustles. >> kadaria: yes. you see people making watches from scraps. there are people who make shoes. i'm wearing something that's made by a nigerian. i provide my own water. i provide my own power because i have a generator. i have an invertor. there's an energy in lagos, the hustle and the bustle. >> man on the street: hi julia. here's your boy anthony -- >> anthony: with a ridiculously ove

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ shah la la la lab ♪ sha la la la lane could be forgiven for thinking it's a giant ultramodern shopping mall. the interconnected flf wired air-conditioned nanny state where everything is beautiful, and nothing hurts. and those things are kind of true. especially if you read the papers or the carefully monitored internet. you look around the litterless streets where everything seems to work just fine, just fine. and you think -- or you could forgiven for thinking gee maybe a one-party system is just what we need. you look at all the social problems and ethnic strive, street crime, drugs that singapore has managed to avoid and you could think, is this the life we want? it ain't my system. it's not the world i want. but, damn, it has its appeal. >> hi this is singapore. >> jam packed in between the carefully architecture yur abthe sky scrapers and office blocks are rich deep very old and deliciously funky remnants of the old world. chinese, indian, may lay and the culture that still cheeritious the good thing. >> what's you

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