Zeke Spector Is Not Afraid

The "mysterious vaping illnesses" seemed to disappear as soon as they came. But what caused these illnesses and should we still be afraid of vaping? VICE producer Zeke Spector goes down the rabbit hole, retracing the story to investigate if the hype was media hyperbole or a legitimate concern in this series premiere of "Should You Be Afraid."

On this episode of "Should You Be Afraid," producer Zeke Spector heads to "anarchist jurisdiction" of Portland, Oregon searching for this elusive group that have allegedly been burning the city down for more than 100 straight days. Over the last few years, the political movement of "antifa" has become the media's favorite boogeyman. Conspiracy theories abound claiming they're financially backed by left-wing billionaires to train "super soldiers" with an intent to kill conservatives.

On this episode of "Should You Be Afraid?" producer Zeke Spector heads to the Canada-US border hunting for both the murder hornet and the truth behind the hype. In May, headlines that the Asian Giant Hornet had been discovered in the Pacific Northwest of North America seemed to double down on the chaos that had engulfed the year 2020. Colloquially known as the "murder hornet," the news inspired both memes and facepalms.

For VICE's Zeke Spector, putting a piece of tape over the webcam was just good practice; one never knows who may be looking in. But with the seemingly endless amount of digital meetings for work and family hangouts, Zeke had become somewhat complacent putting back on the tape after every use. So he was absolutely terrified when he received an email that claimed it had been recording him in a compromising situation and would release the video to all his contacts unless he paid a ransom in Bitcoin.

Facebook has long been the "cool" social media platform outlasted its peers from the mid-2000's. It was the central hub for a whole generation to meet, plan events, and archive their youths. But somewhere along the way, Facebook turned into a toxic, political wasteland filled with hate speech and disinformation. How did this platform go from an innocuous social networking site to tearing apart the social fabric of society? VICE producer Zeke Spector goes down the rabbit hole to ask if we should be afraid of Facebook.

Sperm rates have been declining in Western countries for the past half century. VICE producer Zeke Spector sets out to see what's causing the trend, if we should be afraid, and how many sperm he has left.

The collapse of society is coming. It’s inevitable. That is at least if you’ve read all the headlines about climate change, war, insurrection, nuclear tensions, the dying oceans, falling sperm counts. It’s a lot to handle. Zeke Spector travels to the Ozarks to meet with a religious prepping community to see what it takes not to be afraid of the world.