The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper

CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh returns with an examination of the rapidly growing doomsday prepper movement in North America.

Once considered a fringe movement, preparing for disasters and long-term emergencies has become increasingly mainstream, with an estimated 20 million Americans now identifying as preppers and the community expanding to include younger and more diverse followers. In this hour, Paton Walsh embarks on a months-long journey across North America to explore both the survival tactics and mindset behind prepping. Drawing on his 25 years of experience covering conflict and its aftermath around the world, he puts his own survival skills to the test, immersing himself in the worlds of those preparing for a range of catastrophic scenarios.

"It is extraordinary how the world of prepping suck you in to its emotions – that fish antibiotics, crossbows and ferro rods suddenly feel like something you need to have under the bed at home," Paton Walsh said. "But its mainstream emergence is all a very real reflection of how vulnerable people feel – in the climate emergency, political eruptions, and sense of endless war – to the omni-crisis around us. One thing I learned was the stereotype of going it alone in the woods is still a bit nuts. You are going to need other people when the world as we know it ends."

Along the way, Paton Walsh explores a converted nuclear missile silo in Kansas, transformed into a luxury survival bunker. In the mountains of Colorado, he visits a survivalist community designed to shelter more than 100 people in the event of a collapse. And on a remote island off the coast of Mexico, he learns the fundamentals of wilderness survival, from building shelter and starting a fire to finding water and food.

CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper returns with on-the-ground reporting from Nepal on the devastating floods that struck with almost no warning. 

In the aftermath of the disaster that devastated communities along Nepal's mountainous river valleys, Cooper reports from the heart of the destruction, documenting the race to find survivors and the immense challenges facing rescue teams. The hour follows search and rescue crews navigating treacherous terrain, collapsed roads and bridges, and tunnels filled with mud and debris as they search for hundreds of workers believed to be trapped at hydropower projects along the Trishuli River.

The hour examines what made the flooding so devastating and why communities across the Himalayas face growing risks. Cooper explores Nepal's rapidly changing landscape, including the growth of settlements and infrastructure in vulnerable river valleys, the country's hydropower boom, and the increasing instability of glaciers and high-altitude terrain.

CNN Senior National Correspondent Ed Lavandera returns with a month-long embed inside a rural hospital in Hettinger, North Dakota, examining the workforce challenges facing the facility and the community it serves.

In this hour, Lavandera gets rare access to see firsthand what it takes to keep West River Hospital running in a remote community, serving patients across 20,000 square miles spanning three states. With more than 40 open positions, the hospital struggles to recruit workers willing to relocate to the area, making immigrant workers an increasingly vital part of its workforce. Lavandera follows doctors, nurses, and other staff through their demanding days, meeting Filipino nurses and laboratory technicians who are helping fill critical roles at the hospital.

"The people you will meet in our report will stay with you forever. This hour is a reporting journey that captures how a diverse group of Americans and immigrants are working together to serve this southwest North Dakota community. But it really tells a bigger story of how rural America finds itself on the front lines of the immigration debate. I'm thrilled to share this unique perspective with our viewers," said Lavandera.

The episode follows several hospital workers both on the job and at home, exploring what brought them to the United States and why they chose to build lives in rural America. Lavandera also examines the broader debate over immigration and the American workforce, speaking with local residents and Republican State Representative Keith Kempenich about the changing face of the community, the need for immigrant workers, and the concerns around assimilation.

CNN Senior Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan returns with an examination of how, a decade after MAGA remade the right, President Trump's second term has tested the movement's faithful, from the Iran war and the Epstein files to the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's death.  

In this hour, O'Sullivan travels across the country, revisiting people and communities he's followed for years, from die-hard loyalists to a new generation moving even further to the right. With access built over years inside MAGA communities, O'Sullivan asks whether the movement's loyalty to Trump can survive his second term.

"From Tucker Carlson to Marjorie Taylor Greene, some of the president's loudest supporters have turned on him this year. Many in the MAGA base don't know where to turn or who to trust. We ask what comes next for the Republican Party in a post-Trump world," said O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan speaks with Ashley St. Clair, a former MAGA influencer and the mother of one of Elon Musk's children; James Fishback, a far-right political activist and former gubernatorial candidate in Florida; Gen Z streamer Sneako, a social media personality; and the prominent Trump ally Laura Loomer, along with other voices from across the political right. Together, they reveal a movement in flux, shaped by the contradictions of the online world where millions engage in politics, and raise the question of what comes next for MAGA.