CBSN: Originals

CBS News correspondent Mireya Villarreal travels to the Tohono O'odham reservation, which straddles 75 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. This little-seen corner of Arizona is an area rife with drug traffickers, coyotes and migrants looking to enter the U.S. Members of the Tohono O'odham tribe who live here have managed to keep their culture alive in spite of an international border that bisects their ancestral land and separates families on either side. But they fear the wall will destroy it.

More than 700,000 Rohingya men, women and children have been ejected from Myanmar's Rakhine state, and now huddle in an enormous refugee camp in Bangladesh -- the biggest in the world. The fear that stoked this ethnic cleansing was inflamed by a surge in affordable new technology, and the social media platforms that came with it quickened the spread of dangerous propaganda.

CBSN Originals traces the beginnings of a new women's movement in the American South.

America's border is seen by many as the dividing line between a fearful past and a safer, better future. CBSN Originals followed Iranian migrant Shahab as he crossed the jungle passes of the Darién Gap, and now joins him once again as he enters America. Having risked life and limb to reach the United States, his future is no less uncertain.

More than 30 years ago, Robert Swan became the first man to walk to both the North and South Poles. In 2017, he found himself back on the ice, trekking 600 miles across Antarctica with his son, Barney. But this time, the duo set out to complete the first-ever expedition to the South Pole using solely renewable energy. Their mission: prove that if these technologies can work in the harshest environment on Earth, they can work in our everyday lives. Along the way, they faced unexpected obstacles that threatened to claim Barney's limb -- and Robert's life.

Mohammad Shasho's family left Aleppo in 2013, telling their children they were taking a prolonged vacation. That "vacation" was an evacuation prompted by Syria's eight-year-old civil war, and it became a permanent exile. In a film produced by BYkids, we see the Syrian crisis through the eyes of a young refugee filmmaker.

In the world of cryptocurrency, money is power, sparking a gold rush wherever energy is cheap and abundant. A booming cryptocurrency mining industry is disrupting a small town in Washington state.

Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico devastated - almost 3,000 people died in its wake, towns were left without power or water for months, and hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans left, many never to return. David Begnaud returns to Puerto Rico for CBSN Originals to examine the impact of that exodus and what the future holds.

Across America, waves of foreign invaders are taking over. Introduced through human error or carelessness, invasive species like the Burmese python, lionfish and Asian carp have thrived at the expense of native species critical to a delicate natural balance that supports ecosystems and livelihoods. CBSN Originals explores whether it's too late to tip the balance back in our favor.

In Japan, a rapidly aging population and declining birth rate are creating a crisis. Without enough people to fill jobs and care for the elderly, could robots step up to fill the gap? Could they even become, as some robotics engineers hope, "better than human?" CBSN Originals takes you into the heart of Japan's looming population collapse, and examines the robot solutions they hope will preserve their unique culture.

The climate cycles that have driven mass extinctions, are shortening and becoming more severe. The species that can adapt to environmental changes survive, while others simply die off. CBSN Originals travels to the Galapagos Islands, a living laboratory in the crosshairs of climate change, to see if nature can outrun and outsmart climate change?

CBSN Originals travels across three continents tracing a little-known revenue stream sought by North Korea, in which artistic propaganda helps them circumvent sanctions and keep foreign money flowing.

Professional, competitive video game playing—the phenomenon known as esports—has seen double digit growth for much of the past decade. With a massive following, many say it will soon become an official Olympic event. Throughout the U.S., high schools are launching competitive gaming clubs, and even some colleges are offering scholarships to top players. It’s a dream come true for professional esports players—traveling the world and paid salaries to play video games full time for a living. But as money continues to pour into the industry, the pressure on these young pros—many still in their teens—is leading to early burnout from high stress, repetitive stress injuries, and grueling practice schedules. In this episode of CBSN Originals, we follow pro esports players Doublelift (League of Legends) and Space (Overwatch) as they compete for glory, get an inside look at what it takes to be pro, and explore the risks many are taking to stay at the top.