{"id":24422,"date":"2026-01-14T10:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T02:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T07:31:44","slug":"behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scenes of\u00a0Pole to Pole with Will Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

In National Geographic\u2019s latest series, Pole to Pole with Will Smith<\/em>, the eponymous actor goes on a journey traversing the globe from the South Pole all the way to the North Pole, hitting every single continent along the way. Taking inspiration from his late mentor, Dr. Allen Counter, to explore life\u2019s big questions, Smith learns more about the Earth and about himself as he is accompanied by a range of explorers, scientists and local experts.<\/p>\n

From the medical uses of tarantula venom to the value of linguistic documentation to ways to mitigate climate change with microbes, the lessons learned would not have been possible without Smith\u2019s open, receptive personality and his willingness to engage with the research and missions he took part in.<\/p>\n

Richard Parks, a polar athlete and the first person of color to reach the South Pole solo, who led Smith on an expedition across Antarctica to a research station and the most southern point of the globe, says, \u201cWithin moments of meeting him, it became very, very clear how important this was to him. I was just blown away by his warmth, his curiosity, his \u2018generousness.\u2019 It became very clear to me that this was important to him. What I didn\u2019t know at the time was that his friend and mentor, Dr. Allen Counter, was the inspiration behind the series. But it was obvious to me that there was something bigger than him, that he was a conduit for something else. And it is very clear to me that he was entirely committed to being a conduit for others to see themselves in our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venomologist and Nat Geo Explorer Bryan Fry reiterates the same sentiment after having led Smith into the Amazon, where they\u00a0\u201cmilked\u201d a tarantula to collect its venom for scientific testing and discovered a new species of anaconda. Smith\u2019s receptiveness to every experience is \u201cwhat allows the science to come naturally because the whole premise of the show is that fish-out-of-water idea where you\u2019re sporty and athletic and up for anything, but it\u2019s all still new. By virtue of experiencing the newness, the science should naturally flow, but it takes a certain kind of personality to be that springboard. He\u2019s just the absolute perfect vehicle for that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith \u201cwas like a sponge on multiple levels,\u201d adds Dr. Mary Walworth, a linguist specializing in remote languages who Smith joins in the South Pacific to help document an island language at risk of going extinct. \u201cHe really understood what I was trying to convey\u2014this idea that language isn\u2019t just a tool for communication, but it\u2019s this anchor to so many parts of ourselves and our human history. He got that immediately. It was a pleasure to see him light up and interpret that for general audiences in such an amazing way.\u201d<\/p>\n

And \u201cI put him to work,\u201d she continues. \u201cI made him my research assistant, and he was awesome at it. His ear and the way he asked questions during the documentation sessions, the way he repeated back certain sounds, was really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the series has plenty of natural humor and entertainment thanks to Smith\u2019s personality, its ultimate aim is to encourage people \u201cto be engaged with their ecosystem and aware that the choices [they] are making have an impact,\u201d\u00a0says polar ecologist and Nat Geo Explorer Allison Fong. In the series, Smith joins her on a trip to the North Pole, where they dive under the ice cap to collect world-first scientific microbe samples that may help create greener energy.<\/p>\n

Fry notes that the Nutopia-produced series is a way to encourage people to look at certain things\u2014like spiders and snakes\u2014differently. \u201cI like to take that commercialization approach to being an advocate for conservation, where, if you put it into the terms of money and saving lives, people will be like, Alright, I still detest the animals, but I see the point of keeping them around,\u201d he says, pointing to the classic example of Captopril, a common high blood pressure drug that is a modified snake toxin. \u201cIt still has a $15 billion to $20 billion market share a year nowadays, which very few 50-year-old drugs are able to do. It\u2019s up there with aspirin for its social, medical and economic impact.\u201d He hopes that explaining this in the series will give viewers a greater appreciation for snakes, spiders and other venomous creatures.<\/p>\n

For Walworth, \u201cbeing able to share about language and human connection was one of my aims and something I\u2019d like to continue to do. But when it comes to language as a core, what I hope people take away from it is that it\u2019s not\u00a0just<\/em>\u00a0a tool for communication. Languages are like living archives, and they tell us big stories about individuals but also our collective selves as a species.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fong says, \u201cI hope the series, especially my episode, gives people an idea and an awareness that we\u2019re connected, that microbes are these amazing things, that the world is a place that we can live in and on because of microbes and how they\u2019ve shaped our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the most inspirational thing about the series for me is Will\u2019s courage to be vulnerable in his experience of Antarctica,\u201d Parks says. \u201cThere are a number of ways that we could have done it, but Will wanted to immerse himself in this continent, in this environment, and I think that authenticity shines through, and it\u2019s a powerful tool to allow people to see themselves in our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if the series encourages even one single viewer to go out and explore and appreciate their local environment, it will have done its job, he adds.<\/p>\n

The first two episodes of\u00a0Pole to Pole with Will Smith<\/em>\u00a0have debuted. Two episodes will air each Tuesday, with the finale broadcasting on Nat Geo on February 3. It is also available to stream on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In National Geographic\u2019s latest series, Pole to Pole with Will Smith, the eponymous actor goes on a journey traversing the globe from the South Pole all the way to the North Pole, hitting every single continent along the way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":24423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,69],"tags":[1009,12039],"class_list":["post-24422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-features","category-top-stories","tag-national-geographic","tag-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBehind the Scenes of\u00a0Pole to Pole with Will Smith - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the Scenes of\u00a0Pole to Pole with Will Smith - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In National Geographic\u2019s latest series, Pole to Pole with Will Smith, the eponymous actor goes on a journey traversing the globe from the South Pole all the way to the North Pole, hitting every single continent along the way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-14T15:06:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-16T07:31:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/01\/NationalGeographic-PoletoPolewithWillSmithPOSTER-0126.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/\",\"name\":\"Behind the Scenes of\u00a0Pole to Pole with Will Smith - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-14T15:06:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-16T07:31:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/behind-the-scenes-of-pole-to-pole-with-will-smith\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Behind the Scenes of\u00a0Pole to Pole with Will Smith\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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