The Psychedelic Drug Trial: A Cure for Depression?
Channel: BBC Earth (DStv 184)
TX Time: 20h00
Genre: Documentary, Science
The Psychedelic Drug Trial has exclusive access to a ground-breaking new trial at Imperial College London.
The trial sees, for the first time ever under controlled conditions, a psychedelic drug tested head-to-head against a standard antidepressant as a treatment for depression.
The film follows a pioneering team of scientists and psychotherapists, led by Professor David Nutt, Dr Robin Carhart-Harris and Dr Rosalind Watts, as they compare the effects of psilocybin (the active ingredient of magic mushrooms) with an antidepressant (an SSRI called escitalopram) on a small group of participants with clinical depression.
This is scientific research at its most cutting edge.
With over seven-million people being prescribed antidepressants each year in England alone, this drug trial is an important milestone in understanding a completely different treatment for depression.
Filmed over 16 months, this film explores both the immediate and long-term impacts of the trial on the lives of participants.
It investigates whether psychedelic drugs combined with psychological support could help tackle one of the biggest medical challenges faced today and what it takes to conduct research in uncharted scientific territory.
We meet a paediatric nurse who has been off work for 10 months due to depression and a café owner who has been struggling with his mental health for over two decades.
There's also an artist who feels her depression has taken away her sense of agency and a photographer ready to embrace a new alternative treatment.
How do psychedelic drugs measure up against the industry-standard antidepressants that have been popular since the 1990s?
The empirical results of the trial are explored alongside the participants' powerful lived experience.
Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord
Channel: Netflix South Africa
TX Time: 10h00
Genre: Documentary, True Crime
Max S. reveals how he built a drug empire from his childhood bedroom in this story that inspired the series How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast).
In February 2015, Maximilian Schmidt, known online as Shiny Flakes, was arrested for selling approximately 4.1-million Euros worth of drugs - from his childhood bedroom.
Using his own website shinyflakes.com and the German postal service, at 19 years old he ran an international drugs empire by himself - selling one tonne of drugs over 14 months.
It's one of the largest cybercrime cases known in Germany, and the police still don't know where most of the money is.
In this documentary, Maximilian tells his story.
Million Dollar House Hunters Australia
Channel: The Home Channel (DStv 176)
TX Time: 18h30
Genre: Reality
Very few of us have a big budget to spend on a house.
On Million Dollar House Hunters Australia, we meet the select few who have money to burn on high-end real estate.
In each episode, hosts Kris Smith and Nadia Bartel take couples on a tour of three luxury homes.
From tennis courts to roof-top pools these homes have it all, and these house hunters have the money, the eye for detail and a hankering for ultimate luxury.
In the series premiere: We meet house hunters Gill and Paul, who are searching for a million dollar property in Benowa Waters on the Gold Coast.
Power 5
Channel: e.tv
TX Time: 22h00
Genre: Drama
Season 5 picks up with James "Ghost" St. Patrick in a dangerous alliance with his former drug partner and brother-in-arms Tommy Egan and mortal enemy Kanan Stark.
As Ghost mourns the death of his daughter Raina, he searches for vengeance and throws himself into his work, reaching new, professional heights.
But with this newfound publicity, his quest for blood threatens to dismantle his legitimate legacy.
Ghost is blind to new enemies and, as the Feds grow closer to unmasking his true identity, Ghost must remain vigilant toward those wanting to take him down for his past criminal enterprises.
Top Secret UFO Projects: Declassified
Channel: Netflix South Africa
TX Time: 10h00 (all episodes)
Genre: Documentary Series
Though claims of extraterrestrial encounters have long been dismissed, many believe the existence of UFOs is not just likely, but a certainty.
This documentary miniseries features the most recent and detailed information to examine the most famous top secret projects whose aim was to observe, analyse and evaluate all credible hints of extraterrestrial presence on Earth.
It will show investigations of those hints which quickly became irrefutable proof of the existence of alien entities that observe us and whose technology is vastly superior to ours.
These top secret programs recently declassified expose shocking facts about realised extraterrestrial contacts.
Never Too Small
Channel: The Home Channel (DStv 176)
TX Time: 19h30
Genre: Docu-Reality, Home Improvement, Documentary Series
Growing populations and land scarcity are squeezing our cities, and around the world people are turning to more affordable and smaller homes.
Never Too Small sits down with award-winning designers and architects to break down their tiny homes, micro apartments, cabins and more, revealing how urban design and architecture will shape how we live, how we work and how we socialise in the future.
Never Too Small explores the experimentation and self-expression on the path to perfecting design, travelling across the globe in search of the best small spaces.
Each episode explores a new theme, from preserving historic buildings, sustainability in rural areas, to life in the most densely populated cities in the world – speaking to the architects themselves as they transform small spaces into homes.
Designed well, no space is ever too small.
Pray Away
Channel: Netflix South Africa
TX Time: 10h00
Genre: Documentary
Ex-leaders and a survivor of the so-called "conversion therapy" movement speak out about its harm to the LGBTQ+ community and its devastating persistence.
In the 1970s, five men struggling with being gay in their Evangelical church started a Bible study to help each other leave the "homosexual lifestyle".
They quickly received over 25,000 letters from people asking for help and formalised as Exodus International, the largest and most controversial conversion therapy organisation in the world.
But leaders struggled with a secret: their own "same-sex attractions" never went away.
After years as Christian superstars in the religious right, many of these men and women have come out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start.
Focusing on the dramatic journeys of former conversion therapy leaders, current members and a survivor, Pray Away chronicles the "ex gay" movement's rise to power, persistent influence and the profound harm it causes.