The Bambir is a rock band from Gyumri, the Armenian “city of artists.” The band was founded during the Soviet Union in the late ’70s, and it’s now in its second generation. Some of the current band members are the children of those who started the band. They remain one of the most popular bands in Armenia. The Bambir’s sound is a mix of traditional Armenian folk music, rock and other genres. 

Balneário Camboriú is known as Brazil’s Dubai for the rows of skyscrapers that line the beachfront. It’s home to the three tallest buildings in Brazil. But there’s another city that Balneário Camboriú seems to be increasingly emulating: Orlando, Florida, for its theme parks.

Despite their fraught relationship, Armenia and Azerbaijan are engaged in peace talks. In Armenia, though, many people are not happy with how things are going. In the capital Yerevan, a clergyman has become the face of the Armenian opposition.

Japan’s rural population has been in decline for decades. That’s caused many towns to close schools for lack of students. But residents in the village of Takigahara transformed a former nursery school into a different kind of community gathering place.

In China’s southern province of Yunnan, a community known as the Bai expresses itself mostly by singing. And they have a song for everything: from history lessons to mourning to flirting. Host Marco Werman speaks with National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek, who also discusses the early 20th century Austrian-American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock, who traveled through this same region of western China.