Les Stroud's Beyond Survival

Culture Series / 1 Season

Survival expert Les Stroud journeys around the globe to unearth the secrets of how remote Indigenous tribes have lived in the wild for thousands of years. Les travels to places such as Madagascar and the Kalahari Desert to learn new survival skills from the few remaining Indigenous tribes around the world. Increasingly under threat, the traditional way of life for these tribes is changing quickly.

Get Cascade PBS Passport to watch

Donate to watch

The Mentawai Shamans of Indonesia Part 2

S1 E120 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Les prepares to hunt with a bow and poison arrow. Being tattooed by a Shaman using traditional techniques allows him to prove his intention and commune with animal spirits. Forced deeper into the jungle as hunting grounds diminish, the Mentawai call on the earth to provide, believing their singing of shamanic songs attunes their souls and connects them to nature.

Donate to watch

The Mentawai Shamans of Indonesia Part 1

S1 E119 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Tribes living in the most remote regions are being threatened by oil exploration, mining and logging, disturbing the natural world. The Mentawai Islands lie to the West of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. Les journeys 9 hours from the island of Siberut, navigating log-jammed river systems and shallow waters, followed by a trek on foot into the heart of the island, arriving at the Mentawai tribe.

Donate to watch

The Q'ero - Descendants of the Incan High Priests Part 2

S1 E118 / 26m 45s / TV-PG

Masked in costume, surviving the night on the glacial edge earns the Ukuku the right to break a piece of ice from the mountain’s edge and return to base camp carrying this frozen holy water back to their communities. They pay homage to the Spirit of the Mountain of Sinkara and ask for protection and prosperity through the year. Catholic influences are also interwoven into indigenous rites.

Donate to watch

The Q'ero - Descendants of the Incan High Priests Part 1

S1 E117 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Joining 80,000 indigenous Andeans making a pilgrimage to the holy site of Qollorit’i, 16,000 ft up Mt. Sinkara, Les has been granted a welcome by the Ukukus, the Spiritual Warriors of the Inca Tradition. Traveling to the summit at 17,000 ft, he’ll be the first Westerner and only person in history to film the ancient Inca rituals performed by over 200 Ukuku on the edge of the glacial sheet.

Donate to watch

The Amazon Shamans of Peru Part 2

S1 E116 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Traveling by plane, bus, boat and finally on foot, Stroud reaches the home of the deeply spiritual Huacharia Tribe, an indigenous culture still embracing ancient practices. Wearing bark clothing, subsisting on wild plants, fruits, and fish, the tribe views everything through the lens of a connection to the natural world. Stroud receives the Tobacco medicine through an ancient initiation ceremony.

Donate to watch

The Amazon Shamans of Peru Part 1

S1 E115 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Traveling by plane, bus, boat and finally on foot, Stroud reaches the home of the deeply spiritual Huacharia Tribe, an indigenous culture still embracing ancient practices. Wearing bark clothing, subsisting on wild plants, fruits, and fish, the tribe views everything through the lens of a connection to the natural world. Stroud receives the Tobacco medicine through an ancient initiation ceremony.

Donate to watch

Survivors of the Future Part 2

S1 E114 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Pond Inlet faces its greatest challenge: climate change. As ice slowly recedes from the North, the Inuit diet of seal and arctic charr is being threatened. Stroud joins on a hunt but sudden trouble forces the team to build their own igloo for protection. Using techniques honed by their ancestors, the Inuit, who now opt for modern tents, construct a refuge for this unexpected overnight stay.

Donate to watch

Survivors of the Future Part 1

S1 E113 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Starting out on Baffin Island in rural Nunavut, Canada, Stroud visits the small Inuit community called Pond Inlet. By integrating modern technologies with ancient practices, the Inuit have managed to maintain their culture in the punishing environment. Even with modern sleds replacing dogsleds, a search for Caribou requires a trip of 24 hours deep into the tundra.

Donate to watch

The Seed Ceremony Part 2

S1 E112 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

In the remote village of Tsihalagna, Four Shamans of the Antanosy tribe initiate Stroud into a sacred ceremony. The Shamans, or ‘Ombiasas’, guide Les as he enters a trance-state induced by smoking a plant mixture made from ramy, the sap of a Canaria plant, mixed with ombi (cattle) fat. Here he seeks guidance from his ancestors and insight into the lives of Africa’s only island people.

Donate to watch

The Seed Ceremony Part 1

S1 E111 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

The Southern tip of the island of Madagascar boasts more ecosystems than any other place on the planet. In the remote fishing village of Ejijiky, 33kms south of the nearest town, Les reaches the Antandroy tribe who practice traditional fishing techniques and net weaving. He joins a fishing excursion with tribesmen and witnesses how overfishing and plastic pollution are affecting their livelihood.

Donate to watch

The Hewa and the Hidden Secret Ceremony Part 2

S1 E110 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Never before photographed or filmed, Stroud returns to the wilds of Papua New Guinea with special permission to travel three days on foot through the jungle to carry out the ‘Cumoutin’ ceremony himself with the guidance of the Hewa. Les will participate in the full honoring ceremony, including ingesting Beetlenut before a village of 800 locals.

Donate to watch

The Hewa and the Hidden Secret Ceremony Part 1

S1 E109 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

The Hewa who adorn their huts with skulls, were thought to be headhunters; In actuality, it is a memorializing tradition that returns the skull to the home of the dead’s relatives. Hewa burial is upright, allowing the head to be more easily retrieved two years after death and then returned to the family home following a memorial ceremony including ingesting Beetlenut, a mild mental stimulant.

Donate to watch

The Devil Dancers of Sri Lanka Part 2

S1 E108 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

No Westerner has ever been filmed participating in the ancient ritual known as the Devil Dance. Thought to both ward off evil spirits and create a link between worlds, the all-night healing ceremony involves masked dancers imitating demons. Traditional priests practice the ritual both to heal and gain insight from spirit guides, but globalization is encroaching on this cultural practice.

Donate to watch

The Devil Dancers of Sri Lanka Part 1

S1 E107 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Les Stroud journeys to the coast of Sri Lanka to explore survival methods post–Tsunami including the famed ‘stick fishing’ where Stroud learns to build and stand and fish from a single pole over the ocean. Stroud also travels to the interior to hunt and survive alongside a group that has only been living outside of the caves since the mid-80s. The Vedas.

Donate to watch

The Sea Gypsies of Malaysia Part 2

S1 E106 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Poverty-stricken, the Bajau have large families. 12+ people share one room stick huts that poke from the ocean floor like spindly legs on rickety tip-toe. Les will learn how to catch sea cucumber learning the dangerous art of compression diving, and examine life in an area of the world where starfish aren’t your friends, sea urchins rule the ocean floor, and jellyfish leave more than a sting.

Donate to watch

The Sea Gypsies of Malaysia Part 1

S1 E105 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Les explores the spiritual, cultural and physical survival of the Bajau. They belong to no country; their allegiance to the sea. They have called the waters of Borneo home for over 200 years and they live, eat, and socialize entirely in a small boat or small ocean stilted hut. Les fishes and makes shelter of braided palm leaves and machete shorn wood.

Donate to watch

The Bushmen of the Kalahari Part 2

S1 E104 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

The Kalahari San practice the ritual of the trance dance as a direct communion to the spirit world, the souls of the Bushmen journeying through space and time to the world of the Ancients to gain insight and healing for their day-to-day survival, individually or for the community at large. Les is the first Westerner to participate in this physically and mentally exhausting three-day trance.

Donate to watch

The Bushmen of the Kalahari Part 1

S1 E103 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Les travels for two days to reach the San Kalahari tribe and is accepted into the tribe itself. Follow him as he learns the delicate and deadly art of making poison arrows for hunting, tracking porcupine, hiking the great sand dunes of the Kalahari and gathering honey from desert bees.

Donate to watch

The Zulus of South Africa Part 2

S1 E102 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

A female African Shaman - the Sangoma - puts Stroud through a series of rituals to determine where his inner ailments lie. This is achieved through physical scarring and the ingestion of extremely bitter, nausea-inducing herbal medicines. Permanent body markings emphasize fixed social, political and religious roles.

Donate to watch

The Zulus of South Africa Part 1

S1 E101 / 26m 46s / TV-PG

Stroud travels to South Africa to immerse himself in the indigenous culture of the Zulus to explore traditional hunting, deadly stick fighting, and tribal rituals. Stroud meets up with a deadly cobra, a common threat in the everyday life of the Zulu people. A cow is slaughtered in celebration of a marriage where the groom’s family offering falls short of the bride’s family expectation.

Supported by