The Dark Truth of the Panama Canal
Johnny Harris Johnny Harris
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 Published On Oct 9, 2025

Why the world is fighting over the Panama Canal
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The Panama Canal is the crossroads of the world. Trump’s threat to annex this engineering marvel throws Panama in the global spotlight. I traveled to the canal to hear what Panamanians have to say and investigate the unique and diverse communities that grew in its wake

Special thanks to:
Sol Lauria
Marixa Lasso
Jaime Trayano
Esteban Cheung
Joshua Caleb Villalta Batista
Enesto Polanco
Vielka Lewis
Dan Usher

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-- VIDEO CHAPTERS --
0:00 Intro
2:33 How it Works
6:31 Origin Story
14:12 People of Panama
19:18 The Canal Zone
25:03 Rising Resentment
33:28 Trump Awakens Old Ghosts
37:31 Conclusion

AI Disclosure: Occasionally, we use AI to create some of the imagery in our videos, which our (very talented) animators then spend weeks developing into what you see in the final video. When AI is used to generate any imagery that may appear onscreen, we'll add this to the video description. We're learning as we go about AI usage and transparency, and appreciate your thoughts.

About:
Johnny Harris is an Emmy-winning independent journalist and contributor to the New York Times. Based in Washington, DC, Harris reports on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe, publishing to his audience of over 5 million on Youtube. Harris produced and hosted the twice Emmy-nominated series Borders for Vox Media. His visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways.

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