Urban Living

When she was a child, Kate Humble wanted to be a nomad. Living in some of the world's most remote wildernesses, cheek by jowl with nature, seemed like such a wildly romantic existence.

Discover modern railways and colorful local lines in Chiba Prefecture, just a stone's throw from Tokyo. We start on "Japan's doorstep", at Narita Airport, riding the Shibayama Line into Chiba City and glide through the sky on the Chiba Urban Monorail, the world's longest suspended railway. Then we cross the prefecture on the Kominato Line, passing stations and bridges built more than 90 years ago, meet the people who saved the Isumi Railway from closing, and finally arrive at a menagerie of trains.

Stephen Hawkings Science of the Future investigates the very latest game changing innovations. Each episode takes one area of progress and sends five top scientists out to actively test the inventions and breakthroughs that are driving it. The team explore human upgrades, the virtual world, bio-mimicry, high-tech emergency responses, and more. Featuring a wide range of examples, from advanced robotics and breathtaking digital actors, to cutting edge smart homes and electronic brain stimulation, the series reveals how science is delivering astonishing improvements to all our lives.

In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492. Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city.

Crash Test World is all about BIG ideas. In each episode, Kari Byron discovers how history, technology, culture and people come together to make their world - and ours - a better place.

Meet the experts who make the Smithsonian Gardens a stunning living museum year-round. See how our horticulturists work tirelessly to overcome urban conditions and freezing temperatures. Learn how all gardeners, from amateur to seasoned, can use their secrets to make their own gardens grow.

World's Wildest City is a unique natural history series set in the Brazilian city of Manaus. Surrounded by the largest rainforest in the world, Manaus is a wild frontier where people share their lives with thousands of weird, wonderful and deadly creatures. Each episode follows different exotic species adapting to city life, and the wildlife experts on call 24/7 for animals struggling to survive in the urban jungle.

Presenter Lucy Cooke sets out to explore the phenomenon of seagulls, foxes, squirrels and badgers which are now living in our towns and stealing our food. Starting in the seaside resort of St Ives in Cornwall, Lucy witnesses for herself the seagulls that will swoop from 50 metres and steal a sandwich out of your hand. At the height of the summer season there are as many as 15 snatches a day from tourists. With the help of bird experts, Professor Graham Martin and Steven Portugal, Lucy sets up a range of tests and GPS tagging to discover exactly what makes the seagulls such good thieves.

Discover the remarkable ways animals of all shapes and sizes are adapting to make the most of opportunities in the newest and fastest changing habitat on the planet - our cities.

This exclusive video collection is jam-packed with the gritty best from noted New York filmmaker Richard Kern. His sexually-charged work has been alternately dismissed as “violent” and “offensive” by the mainstream press, but embraced by the underground as the perverse standard. Says Kern, “I've tried it all: crime thrills, drug thrills, sex thrills. Nowadays, I get most of my thrills by offending people with my films. I don't even have to be there. I can sit far away and think, “Someone's watching my video right now and thinking, Yeeughh!”