CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh Reports in “The Wired Rainforest” for The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper
EPISODE PREMIERES SUNDAY, MAY 4 AT 8PM ET/PT
NEW YORK, NY – (April 28, 2025) – The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, a five-time Emmy® Award-winning CNN Original, returns with a rare glimpse at a world deep in the Amazon jungle as it gets its first experience of the internet. “The Wired Rainforest” with CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh premieres Sunday, May 4 at 8pm ET/PT on CNN.
In a remote corner where the protected indigenous lands of Brazil meet the volatile borderlands of Peru, Paton Walsh embeds with a group of activists as they introduce space-based internet via Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite dishes to the indigenous Kanamari community for the first time. The full force of a technology that over decades has transformed every part of Western life is suddenly unleashed on this village – with all the benefits and dangers that come along with it.
“We were taken aback by how fast these communities realized the damaging nature of the internet on their lives,” said Paton Walsh. “Yes, the jump from their time-honoured ways to an online world was huge. But they wasted no time in realizing there had to be an off button to keep their kids safe – something the urban world doesn’t really see yet. It was a remarkable learning experience. I am old enough to remember a world without cellphones, and seeing that sense of calm – the ability to be still and disconnected again – really hammers home how much our lives have been accelerated and invaded by a technology we now all depend on for nearly everything.”
As Paton Walsh watches the transformative effect on village life as the young quickly take to WhatsApp, Facebook and especially a Chinese Tiktok-like app called Kwai, he also bears witness as the elder community members try to control the internet’s seductive grasp on its youth by switching it off. Paton Walsh also observes the benefits of being online, as they can report illegal fishermen who poach on their protected lake, prohibited loggers and miners. The team also fly over gold miners as they ravage the rainforest, leaving a trail of devastation in which little natural can survive.
The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper is a collection of unique and immersive single subject, one-hour episodes from CNN’s Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning longform storytelling team showcasing character-driven stories, special interviews, and investigative deep dives featuring reporting from CNN’s anchors and correspondents. The series is executive produced by Susan Chun. Paton Walsh and director of photography Brice Laine previously reported for The Whole Story on the two-time Emmy® Award-winning “The Trek: A Migrant Trail to America” and “Elephant vs. Man” in Sri Lanka.
The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper will stream live for pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps on Sunday, May 4. “The Wired Rainforest” will also be available on demand beginning Monday, May 5 to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps, and Cable Operator Platforms. Past episodes of The Whole Story are available to stream on demand now on Max.
The Whole Story is also available as a CNN Audio showcast. Visit CNN.com/audio or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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The CNN Originals group develops, produces and acquires original, long-form unscripted programming for CNN Worldwide. Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent, CNN Originals and creative development, oversees the award-winning CNN Originals portfolio that includes the following premium content brands: CNN Original Series, CNN Films, CNN Flashdocs, and CNN Studios. Since 2012, the team has overseen and executive produced more than 60 multi-part documentary series and 70 feature-length documentary films, earning more than 120 awards and 450 nominations for the cable network, including CNN Films’ first Academy Award® for Navalny. Acclaimed titles include the Peabody Award winning and 13-time Emmy® Award-winning Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown; five time Emmy® nominee, Apollo 11, directed by Todd Douglas Miller; Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid directed by Matt Tyrnauer; Emmy® nominated Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico; the Emmy® Award-nominated “Decades Series”: The Sixties, The Seventies, The Eighties, The Nineties, The 2000s, and The 2010s, executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman; The Last Movie Stars, directed by Ethan Hawke about the lives and careers of actors and humanitarians Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman; the Emmy® Award winning Little Richard: I Am Everything, directed by Lisa Cortés; Luther Vandross: Never Too Much, directed by Dawn Porter; The Many Lives of Martha Stewart; Primetime Emmy® and duPont-Columbia Award-winning, RBG, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen; See It Loud: The History of Black Television, executive produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter; Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight in partnership with the BBC; the Producers Guild Award and three-time Emmy® Award-winning Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy; This is Life with Lisa Ling; BAFTA nominee and Directors Guild Award winner, Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle; the five-time Emmy® Award-winning United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell; the American version of the long-running UK comedy series, Have I Got News For You, hosted by Roy Wood Jr; and the five-time Emmy® Award-winning The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper. CNN Originals can be seen on CNN, the CNN Original Hub on Max and discovery+, the CNN Originals FAST channel, and for pay TV subscription via CNN.com, CNN apps and cable operator platforms
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