Botswana will be part of a historic television moment whenPole to Pole with Will Smithpremieres on Wednesday, 14 January 2026 on National Geographic (DStv Channel 181). Announced by MultiChoice Botswana, a Canal+ company, the highly anticipated series marks a five-year, seven-continent expedition led by the Academy Award-winning actor. Filmed over 100 days and spanning 26,000 miles, the series sees Smith confronting extreme environments while searching for answers to life’s biggest questions, a journey inspired by his late mentor, Dr.
Allen Counter. One of the most powerful episodes for Southern African audiences unfolds in Botswana’s Kalahari Desert. Here, Smith immerses himself in the culture and resilience of the San people, one of the world’s oldest hunter-gatherer communities.
Guided by San man Kane Motswana, Smith joins a traditional hunt, learning how ancestral knowledge has enabled survival in one of Earth’s harshest landscapes. The episode offers an intimate portrait of resilience, climate adaptation and deep respect for nature, framed by the vastness of the Kalahari and the spirit of the Okavango region. “This journey was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” Smith said in a statement.
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“Traveling pole to pole has not only changed the way I see our planet, it’s changed the way I see myself.” Across the series, Smith skis Antarctic icefields, faces fears in the Amazon, treks Himalayan villages in Bhutan, and dives beneath Arctic ice, all alongside scientists and local experts. For Botswana, the episode is more than a television moment. It is global visibility rooted in authenticity, a rare opportunity for international audiences to encounter the country’s people, knowledge systems and landscapes through lived experience rather than spectacle. Pole to Pole with Will Smithpremieres on National Geographic (DStv Channel 181) on Wednesday, 14 January 2026, airing weekly as a seven-part docuseries.
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