by Thinus Ferreira
The award-winning journalist Mariana Van Zeller is back in a gasp-inducing second season of Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller on Thursday nights on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220) at 21:00.
In the new 10-episode second season she infiltrates the world of black-market plastic surgery, romance
scams, white supremacy, stolen cars, outlaw motorcycle clubs, marijuana and
meth.
Each episode follows Mariana as she works her
way inside a different black market or global trafficking network.
Here she meets the players and learns the business, all in an effort to understand the
inner workings of the world’s multitrillion-dollar shadow economy, as she ventures into places rarely seen, helping people understand how trafficking networks operate.
TVwithThinus sat down with Mariana Van Zeller to ask her more about the second season on National Geographic.
We're exactly the same age and I saw that you applied to do your master's degree in journalism in New York and you didn't get accepted and then you actually got on a plane and flew to New York to go and see the lecturer.
They were so impressed, they allowed you to study. What advice do you have for young people, students in high school maybe considering a career in journalism?
Mariana: I think persistence. I think it was the first big, journalism lesson I learnt, and it has helped me tremendously - that persistence pays off.
You're right - I didn't get in the first year, I didn't get in the second year.
The third year I flew to New York and knocked on the dean's door and then once I graduated from Columbia University as a freelance journalist, I would send story ideas.
I would email them and then I wouldn't hear back. So then I would call and if I didn't hear back I would go so far as even travelling and knocking on doors, trying to get my stories done and sold.
To this day, with Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller, it's all about persistence. We're trying to get access to these incredibly dangerous and secretive worlds with a lot of people out there who don't want us to get that access.
Without persistence, we just wouldn't have a show, so that's my number one lesson for any journalist out there: If you are persistent and determined, you'll be able to achieve your dream.
How has the Covid-pandemic and the global shutdown - since you actually filmed during the global lockdown - how did that change black markets and illegal trade?
Mariana: We started filming in June 2020 - so right at the beginning of the pandemic.
What we realised as soon as we hit the ground was that there had been an explosion in black markets - not only the traditional black markets such as guns and drugs, but also new black markets that grew out of the pandemic. Something that's had a big rise during the pandemic is "romance scamming".
We realised that Trafficked is even more relevant now than ever.
Whenever there's an economic downturn and people don't have ways to feed their families, they turn to black markets and that is happening and did during the pandemic and is happening now. So it's more relevant than ever to do a show like Trafficked.
'No matter how far to the edges
of our society you travel,
you will still find people
that are like us'
As a journalist little in life still surprises me and I'm sure you can say the same. What maybe is there that found or still find surprising about smuggling behaviour?
Mariana: The fact that it often happens right around the corner from your house and in plain sight.
We have filmed so many scenes for different episodes of Trafficked that are so close to my house - and in places that I have been before and didn't even know was existing.
One of the episodes we filmed for the black market weed episode here in California, we filmed on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles- out in the open they were operating this sort of wholesale of illegal weed and cars coming in and buying weed to be shipped all over the country.
It was really amazing to see how open this was and how widespread.
There's often this incredible hopelessness and shocking circumstances in which these black markets operate.
When viewers watch Trafficked, it already helps because people become aware of the problems but I'm wondering how do you personally keep going and not get demotivated? And how do you keep the show from becoming maybe too dark - or do you want it to be disturbing?
Mariana: No.
If you watch the show, you'll notice that the message is definitely not dark and depressing - that the message is actually quite positive and hopeful.
The fact that the people that you meet on the show - these black market operators, the people that at first you consider criminals and the outlaws and traffickers - that they're actually a lot more like us than we know and that we'd like to admit.
No matter how far to the edges of our society you travel, you will still find people that are like us - that are redeemable and that are relatable. That is a pretty amazing thing.
It really has given me a much more positive view of the world because it's not unreachable.
It's not unattainable. It's not impossible to change. It's possible to connect with them. And if I'm able to connect, then I'm able to make out viewers care, and if they care, it's much more likely they'll be willing to make some changes and a positive impact on the world.
'A lot of these people operate in worlds
where there's complete impunity'
How do you go about to try and win criminal's trust?
Mariana: It is very difficult. It's the hardest part of the job for myself and my team.
We get a "yes" for every dozens and dozens of "no's". I do think at the end of the day people who do agree to talk to us - it's a combination of ego - these are the best people doing what they do, and sometimes not even their families know and we give them an opportunity by disguising their identity to boast about it.
Then there's impunity. A lot of these people operate in worlds where there's complete impunity and they don't really see a downside in speaking to an internationally recognised brand like National Geographic.
And then lastly, it's a very human characteristic, this need to be understood that I think we all share.
I approach every subject matter and every person I meet with empathy and I tell them that I'm not here to judge you, I'm here to listen to you.
You mentioned National Geographic so I'll just ask that now. What aspect of Trafficked do you think that you wouldn't have been able to do, or that you think you can do, because of the backing of National Geographic?
Mariana: Yeah, all of it.
I think all of it. The brand National Geographic is associated with exploration of the world and gaining access into places that people have never been before. I think that is exactly what Trafficked is about.
Trafficked is about uncovering the darkest, most hidden corners of the world and being able to do so with a brand like National Geographic that is not only recognised around the world but is trusted, is pretty incredible.
I know that that is the reason why so many doors open up to us.
I wanted to ask you, not just in Trafficked but in your career so far you most certainly would have experienced some of the very best of humanity but also the very worst that we as humans are capable of. What do you make of mankind and society?
Mariana: Well, I have a very deep understanding that the world isn't black and white.
There's a lot of beautiful colours in-between - it's not shades of grey as is usually the saying. It's really beautiful colours. There is something that connects us all. There's a lot more that unites us.
We have a lot more similarities than we have differences no matter who we're talking about in the world.
My mission as a person - and hopefully the message from Trafficked - is to always inspire people to try and look for those similarities instead of the differences and to try and figure out a way that we can connect.
Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller season 2 is on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220) on Thursdays at 21:00
