Frontier Men: The Forbidden Island
The Slow Newscast
Alice Sandelson
4.6 • 894 Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last year, a YouTuber attempted to reach an uncontacted tribe on the remote island of North Sentinel, an area that is out of bounds for everyone else on the planet. His bid for content may have been audacious, and illegal, but it’s just the latest in a long line of misguided foreigners attempting to make contact. But do these individuals represent the greatest threat to the tribe? And what do we as a planet stand to lose if contact is made?
Reporter: Xavier Greenwood
Producer: Madeleine Parr
Additional production: Ada Barumé
Artwork: Blythe Walker Sibthorp
Sound design: Dominic Delargy
Editor: Matt Russell
Clip Credits: NBC News, News 10 and News9 Live
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Observer. |
| 0:06.0 | Hello, you're listening to the slow newscast from The Observer. |
| 0:13.0 | This week we're talking about exploring, but not the usual type, not the sort where you climb a mountain or cross a desert with nothing but yourself |
| 0:22.3 | and the landscape to stop you. My colleague Xavier Greenwood is looking at something much more niche, |
| 0:29.4 | a dangerous trip, not done for the record books, but for YouTube. An adventure where the only thing |
| 0:36.4 | broken is likely to be the law. It's called Frontier |
| 0:40.6 | Men, the Forbidden Island. I hope you enjoy the show. I went alone. Mishka Polyakov set sail under the cover of darkness. |
| 0:57.0 | Just him and an inflatable dinghy, which he bought from Amazon, beating its way through a vast expanse. |
| 1:04.0 | The most common way to get there is usually you bribe fishermen or something like it, but I didn't want to involve others. |
| 1:11.9 | We're in the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of India, a swirl of monsoons and tropical |
| 1:17.6 | cyclones. It's no place for a man with a small outboard motor and a bitter food. |
| 1:24.8 | But the danger, some would say foolishness, is the point. |
| 1:29.2 | Well, I wouldn't say I was scared. Once you're in the water, you have your plan, you have |
| 1:34.3 | your idea of what you're going to do, and at that point it's just execution. |
| 1:39.9 | Months of preparation have gone into this. Mishka Polyakov has flown out to India. |
| 1:45.1 | He studied the seas. |
| 1:47.0 | He's meticulously chartered a course. |
| 1:50.3 | Then, on the 29th of March 2025, it's go time. |
| 1:57.1 | He begins his journey from South Andaman Island, roughly 850 miles southeast of mainland India. |
| 2:04.6 | Then, heads west, around 30 miles, into an uncertain future. |
| 2:10.7 | I was in the water about like midnight, 1 a.m. |
| 2:15.1 | The darkness makes things scarier. |
... |
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