Away Days Podcast: Reporting from the Underbelly

Today is the finale of the Away Days podcast. We hear from one of the mountain pass street racers about why he’ll only race a Honda Civic, and talk to the Away Days co-founder about the terror of Kanjo. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we discover the Across Racing team, who take us all the way up a secret mountain pass for a race. Usually they'd ride the Kanjo, but the police are after them... Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystv  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We go to meet the head of one of Osaka's best known underground racing crews. What we didn't know, is that he's allegedly involved in a notorious organized crime thing. This makes things tricky, and we see access slip through our fingers... for now. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We travel to Japan to find out how the next generation of illegal street racers are dodging police and keeping their counterculture alive. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our final episode of the Favela Government chapter shows first hand the cycle of never-ending-violence in Rio's favelas. People we met are dead, sewers are wide open, and the gang war continues to keep civilians living in fear. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Security in the favelas is impoverish young men with guns, who’re untrained and unscrupulous. We went on patrol with these armed foot-soldiers at the higher, more impoverished levels of the shanty town. There we saw a different side to the favela, one of precarious living and environmental degradation. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We want to see what life is like for the civilians of the favela. So far we've only been around armed foot-soldiers and serious gang members. What we find in the heart of the favela is more incredible than we ever expected. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Red Command is Brazil’s oldest gang. Inside the shanty towns they control, there’s no police, no government, no rule of law. Street justice only. We spent a week with Red Command to see how a gang takes on the role of a government. Welcome to the favelas… Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After almost two years of working on access and devolving our project on the underground scene of No Rules fighting, an entryway into King of the Streets finally opens up. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We travel to a German border town to attend a hidden underground fight club in the heart of the underworld. Biker gangs, drug dealers, and hooligans all brush shoulders to watch the first ever female No Rules fight… Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We travel to the south of France to see if a new clandestine No Rules fight club is the real deal. The underground fighters who’ve supposedly set this one up claim it’s in the most luxurious city in France—Cannes.  Either we’ve been trolled or the No Rules scene really is spreading everywhere… Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the world of ‘No Rules’, a new underground fighting subculture where anything goes. Biting, head stamping, eye gouging, hair pulling, elbows, headbutts—it’s all allowed. These fights are fought on concrete, with no gloves, and no rounds. It’s non-stop organized ultraviolence, and we’ve been allowed to see it first hand… Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Away Days Podcast is an episodic documentary series focused on unreported stories from the fringes of society.  Journalist Jake Hanrahan, the host and creator of Away Days, has spent the last 10 years embedded in places he’s not meant to be. With unique access and a straightforward style of on-the-ground reporting, the listener will be taken deep into the places they didn’t know existed. Watch Away Days documentaries at youtube.com/@awaydaystvSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.