From Australia to Korea to the U.S. … a plethora of lifestyles and behaviours exposed. A woman who lives with 400 pigs at home. A 15-year-old teenager in rehab, for playing video games non-stop. A man who finds pleasure in dressing up as a baby. A criminal so in love, he gets married over a radio show. And a man who would like to have sex, with his car. To some people, practices like these reflect deeply held beliefs or deliberate lifestyle choices. But to others, they may seem grotesque, unhealthy or… rather; Taboo.

National Geographic Channel’s (NGC) popular series Taboo returns for a new season beginning Saturday, 1 October at 21:00. The series takes viewers on a journey beyond their comfort zones and across cultural borders to explore addictions and lifestyles that are acceptable in some cultures but forbidden, illegal or reviled in others. Each hour-long episode examines one topic from a variety of cultures and perspectives, often venturing into closed worlds rarely seen. The new season of Taboo moves beyond the jungle and extreme practices to reveal the various obsessions of people around the world, including addiction, hoarding and living fantasy lives.

Episodes include:

Taboo: Make me Beautiful
In a youth-obsessed Western culture, some feel the need to obsessively diet, exercise and partake of beauty treatments or plastic surgery. However, some have taken these to fatal extremes. In Paris, we’ll meet a young model with extreme anorexia, so fixated on her weight that at 25 kilograms she died from the disease. In the U.S., a woman feels the need to continually increase her breast size, all the way to a triple K cup. And a woman in Australia has a corset sewn into her flesh because she believes in body modification and physical pain as a way of reaching beauty. What is the motivation behind these extreme — even taboo — quests for beauty?

Taboo: Role play
Explore the line where fantasy and reality blur. In California, meet a grown man role-playing … as an adult baby, complete with diaper, pacifier and customized baby furniture to make his fantasy life more real. In Japan, a champion kick boxer has a passion for dressing up as female animation characters in the boxing ring. A U.S. father divides his time between his real life and a virtual life online populated with avatars — engaging in cybersex with his virtual family.

Taboo: Addicted
Delve into the lives of those haunted by addiction. Meet a 15-year-old South Korean boy in rehab because he is hooked on video games. It is an addiction shared by millions of Koreans, even spurring the government to intervene with a specialized rehab facility. In California, a woman is addicted to anonymous sex — meeting countless partners in parking lots to satisfy her insatiable appetite. We’ll see a “shopaholic” in Australia. With over $100,000 in debt, he is still driven to 24-hour department stores in the middle of the night to buy more.



Taboo: Hoarders
In every city, there are hoarders. A U.S. woman shares her house with nearly 400 pigs, as they continue to multiply. Also in the U.S., a man’s obsession with vinyl records has driven him to collect around two million records, with thousands more purchased every month. In England, we meet a male hoarder whose apartment is filled with clutter piled one metre high, and a female hoarder forced out of her home due to her inability to throw items away.

Taboo: Prison Love
Love behind bars with some of the most dangerous criminals on earth. In the U.S., an inmate in solitary confinement gets married with the help of a radio host as surrogate groom, while the prisoner listens over the radio. In California, a pregnant woman has a white wedding at the county jail, with a glass wall separating the couple as they say their vows. And finally, a man serving life for murder marries a woman he met over the Internet, but the marriage has little hope of being consummated.

Taboo: Strange Love
Love can come in many different — and bizarre — forms. In the U.S., we meet a man with “objectum sexual,” who has an emotional, romantic and often sexual attraction to his car, named Vanilla. In Germany, we introduce you to the founder of the Objectum Sexual International Forum, who is in a loving relationship with the Berlin Wall. And we meet a married couple in California whose concept of monogamy has an odd twist — she works as a professional sex surrogate who has slept with more than 900 men.

Taboo is produced by Beyond Entertainment Limited for the National Geographic Channel. For Beyond Entertainment Limited, executive producers are John Luscombe and Martyn Ives. For the National Geographic Channel, executive vice president of content is Michael Cascio.

Visit www.natgeotv.com/taboo for more information.