Hunting Warhead is coming back, but first: Real talk on high-risk reporting

June 5, 2025·48 min·4 clips

Ian Urbina opens his hotel door to a dozen armed militia who beat him and accuse him of espionage in Libya.

The feed opens with another CBC voice. A Bookends promo touches on writing, an astronaut, and Chris Hadfield before Damon steps in with a quieter update. Hunting Warhead is coming back. He says listeners are still lighting up the feed years after the 2019 series, and that something new is coming in early 2026. Then the tone drops. The conversation turns to Ian Urbina and the danger of reporting on militias, detention, and crimes at sea. Urbina does not smooth it out. He remembers a plan being set in motion, then being taken from a hotel while badly hurt and still hooded. The details come slowly. The rest of the team, he says, were abducted in a coordinated assault after trucks rammed their car in an intersection. They ended up at the same facility. Maya was placed alone, Pierre and Joe were put together, and Urbina was kept in isolation. Waiting did not feel empty. He says he was fairly convinced the militia would kill them, though small administrative details gave him a strange bit of hope. The threat does not stay in one room. By the end, the conversation has moved toward fishing vessels, captive labor, processing networks, militias, arms trafficking, and documented murders. Damon identifies Urbina as the host of The Outlaw Ocean and founder of the Outlaw Ocean Project. The promotion is restrained. Season two of The Outlaw Ocean is dated for June 4th, while Hunting Warhead leaves its own return set loosely for early 2026.

As heard by us

A sober return that pairs a comeback announcement with the grind of hard reporting.

Damon opens with a plain, no-frills handoff: he thanks listeners, says Hunting Warhead is coming back, and reminds them why the reporting landed so hard in the first place. It works because it does not overstate the moment.

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Why you'd press play

You get a clear look at what high-risk reporting really costs.

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