Filmmakers expose the multi-billion-dollar black market for exotic reptiles

The brief

Filmmakers Eric Goode and Jeremy McBride join Joe Rogan to expose the dark, multi-billion-dollar global wildlife trade and the bizarre subculture of exotic reptile collecting featured in their new HBO docuseries, Monsters of God.

The exotic reptile market functions as a highly lucrative black market that frequently overlaps with international drug smuggling, driven by obsessive collectors seeking rare, dangerous, and often highly illegal species.

Pop culture trends have fueled a massive trade in invasive species like green iguanas and Burmese pythons, leading to severe ecological crises in vulnerable ecosystems like the Florida Everglades.

The filmmakers detail the extreme dangers of the trade, from the critical scarcity of antivenom for rare venomous snakes to the notorious history of figures like Mario Tabraue, a reptile collector with a past of drug smuggling.

As rare turtles and endangered animal parts command luxury prices as status symbols in Asia, conservationists face immense challenges trying to protect global ecosystems from human greed and ecological disruption.