The Documentary Podcast

When Shiraz calls

21 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A personal account of day-to-day life in Iran told through the conversations of two Iranian sisters – one in the UK, the other in the Iranian city o...

Introducing: Focus on Africa - Electric vehicles: fixing Africa's fuel crisis?

20 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Kenya is the latest African country to increase fuel prices citing the US-Israel war with Iran. While announcing one of the steepest pump price increm...

Victim or Accomplice? The Story of Jeffrey Epstein’s Pilot Girlfriend

19 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Nadia Marcinko, originally Marcinková, was born in Slovakia and met Jeffrey Epstein as an 18-year-old model. Later, she became a successful aircraft ...

Thomas Keneally: What’s next for the Schindler’s List author?

18 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Naylor visits the Booker Prize-winning author Thomas Keneally in his home in Sydney, Australia, to see how he writes his latest book. He gives ...

Introducing: CrowdScience - What keeps the universe in balance?

17 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Listener Ndanusa in Ghana, is gazing up at the stars, and wondering what keeps our universe in balance? Ndanusa knows a thing or two about the stars, ...

How Belarus silenced its free press

16 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Until the end of March this year, BBC News Russian was the only source of independent reporting in Belarus, where journalism has been suppressed. Arou...

Hantavirus nearly killed me

16 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It’s just over six weeks since the ship, MV Hondius, left Argentina for a cruise visiting remote islands in the South Atlantic. A month later, three...

Speaking from the Heart

15 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Anna was just 25, and newly married living near Oxford when she suffered a massive stroke, caused by a tumour in her heart. It initially left her lock...

An animal exodus

14 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Natural History Museum of London is getting ready to move 28 million of its precious specimens to a new state-of-the-art home. Imagine moving tens...

Introducing: Not By The Playbook - Why it is never too late

13 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

First, the story of Mike Flynn whose remarkable resilience and incredible fitness helped achieve his goal to play college football at the age of fifty...

Return to Khartoum: War, loss and hope

12 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Since 2023, Sudan has been engulfed by a brutal civil war. More than 150,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. The war began a...

Mika Obanda: Mosaic art

11 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Mika Obanda creates vibrant mosaics using egg shells in his Kenyan studio. He gets the eggshells from local hotels and paints them after cleaning and...

Searching for Soldier Dad: Ep 1. Love story

10 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why don’t I have a father? Cathy is 10 years old when she starts asking questions. The secret her mum Maggie is forced to reveal changes everything....

A 93 year old president gets a deputy

09 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

At 93, Paul Biya is the oldest head of state in the world. In June he will have been the leader of Cameroon for 44 years and is currently serving his ...

Sir David Attenborough

09 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As Sir David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday, we bring together conservationists and film-makers to discuss the impact of his long career, ...

Befriending the man who killed my family

08 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Thirty years after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, some convicted perpetrators are returning to the communities they once devastated. Felin ...

Russia's 'nyet' to the internet

07 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Kremlin’s pursuit of a “sovereign internet” has raised fears of a digital Iron Curtain. After months of mobile internet shutdowns, Russian a...

13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II: What’s next for Nasa's Artemis mission?

06 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Artemis II astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, reflects on the mission, adapting to life back on Earth after journeying to the far side of the Moon, and looks a...

Serbia: Under The Canopy

05 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Eighteen months ago, the renovation of the railway station in Serbia’s second biggest city, Novi Sad, led to a tragic accident. A substantial concre...

Artist Joan Eardley

05 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Scotland, from 1940 to 1963, the artist Joan Eardley produced a cache of monumental seascapes, landscapes, and poignant portraits. When she died ag...

For the love of dogs

03 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Mityana is a bustling regional town in central Uganda, where motorbikes are king. Here an online con operation flourishes in plain sight. Armed with s...

Mapping Epstein's global connections

02 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The personal correspondence, photographs and papers of the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein have been released to the public ...

My social life as a wheelchair user

02 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine being dressed up for a night out with friends and being thrown out of a bar because your wheelchair is considered a fire hazard. When 18-year-...

A church without Walls

01 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pastor Jane Codrington grew up in a conservative faith environment before leaving the institutional church to found We Are Church - a community for th...

Atomic crossroads: Poland's nuclear future

30 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Forty years after Chernobyl, Poland aims to open its first nuclear power plant. Shortly after the disaster, only 30% of Poles supported nuclear power....

In Our Time: The Mariana Trench

29 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Mar...

Driving Against Net Zero

28 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Is defence of the petrol car and liberated motoring becoming the new battleground for Europe’s populist parties? Chris Bowlby visits one of the home...

Neha Vyaso: Crafting consent in Bollywood

27 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

*** This programme contains scenes of a sexual nature and discussion of sexual assault, including child sex abuse *** Neha Vyaso is one of the most s...

Introducing: The Climate Question: China's green energy revolution

26 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

China is installing solar panels and wind turbines so fast that its greenhouse gases emissions may now have peaked. If this trend is confirmed, it wou...

Inside the Mugabe dynasty

25 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe died in 2019, but in the years before and since his death, his three children with his former wife, Grace, con...

Meet the preppers

25 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“Stockpiling peace” preppers share their experiences

Faith and revolution in the Philippines

24 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Forty years ago, a Filipino soldier serving under Ferdinand Marcos Sr, was ordered to attack civilians opposing the corrupt regime. After wrestling wi...

Under the influence of AI

23 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

AI is an ever-growing part of our everyday life through apps like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude that are becoming part of everyday life. But what happens ...

Introducing Searching for Soldier Dad

22 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared, leaving the children and their mothers without support...

In Iceland's Defence

21 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Iceland is an island of great beauty and even greater strategic importance. Its position in the Greenland Iceland UK Gap, the gateway between the Arct...

The Last Dance Floor in Chernobyl

20 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The untold story of a young couple falling in love and getting married against the backdrop of disaster. Serhiy first laid eyes on Iryna under the swi...

Patti LuPone: Taking the stage at Carnegie Hall

19 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Patti LuPone – three-time Tony and two-time Grammy Award winner – has long reigned as one of Broadway’s most formidable leading ladies. In this ...

Counting the soldiers dying for Russia

18 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year and armies on both sides have faced massive losses. Authorities in Ukraine regularly ...

Experiences of miscarriage

18 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Losing a child during pregnancy is a subject that is not often talked about but can be traumatic and, in some cultures, even lead to feelings of shame...

Jamaica: Shaken, not broken

17 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From historic buildings linked to emancipation to tiny village chapels, Jamaica is home to the world’s highest density of churches. The Caribbean Is...

Back to books: Sweden’s digital backlash

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sweden, once a global poster child for digital education, is changing course. The Nordic nation previously championed a screen-first approach; laptops...

Surviving my daughter's killing

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When 19-year-old Ann from Florida, US, was shot by her boyfriend in 2010, her family were thrust into a nightmare, one that meant taking the agonising...

Pakistan: Hospitals putting children at risk of HIV

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Outbreaks of HIV have become regular occurrences in Pakistan. And too frequently it is the children who suffer. In the city of Taunsa, for example, ch...

Helping prisoners become better parents

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An innovative scheme in Scotland is helping dads in prison become better parents. Myra Anubi visits Barlinnie jail in Glasgow to meet the prisoners ta...

British Queen Elizabeth II's century of fashion

12 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The late Queen Elizabeth II often wore the colours of Commonwealth countries she visited - helping to spread "soft power". Outfits from each of her 10...

Bringing India's daughters back home

11 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In India, official figures suggest that one in three women experience domestic violence. In 2023, police registered over 130,000 cases of marital abus...

Hopes for a 'fragile' Middle East ceasefire

11 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The week began with a threat from US President Donald Trump that a ‘whole civilisation would die’, and it ended with peace talks. We bring togethe...

Your questions answered about Artemis II and space travel

10 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Four astronauts have travelled further from Earth than anyone ever before. It is part of the Artemis II mission, which saw humans go to the Moon for t...

Freddie’s second verse

10 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Freddie was once signed to a major record label. He appeared in high-production music videos and looked set for fame. But the pressure and pace of tha...

The battle for Hungary

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Viktor Orban faces a high-stakes showdown as Peter Magyar takes him on in one of Europe’s most consequential elections in years. A former ally-turne...

The Extractor

08 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

***Contains descriptions of scenes which some may find upsetting*** Hilik Magnus is Israel’s foremost search and rescue specialist. He has performed...

Albania: Land, money and the sea

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Albania has had many different faces over the last hundred years. Once ruled by the Ottomans, it became a kingdom before turning into a totalitarian c...

Chef Rodolfo Guzman: Chilean summer menu

06 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pink tomato ice cream decorated with edible poppy flowers feature on the summer menu created by chef Rodolfo Guzman for his celebrated Santiago restau...

Growing up black in a white family – the truth behind my birth

05 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

M People star Andrew Lovell’s home life hid a terrible – yet beautiful – secret. It would take him decades to find out the truth. At the height ...

The woman fighting IS in Somalia

04 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The global activities of the Islamic State group are now believed to be run from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in the north-east of Somalia, ...

Surviving a shark attack

04 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Shark attacks on humans are rare, but they are slowly on the rise in Australia where all our guests are from. In this episode, they share the terrifyi...

God, grief and the chatbot

03 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When Megan Garcia travelled to Rome, she carried with her a mother’s grief. At the Vatican she met the Pope and asked him to pray for her son Sewell...

The Saltmakers

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In India's Gujarat state lies the Little Rann of Kutch, a sprawling salt marsh desert where temperatures soar to 50 degrees Celsius. This harsh landsc...

Inheritance Samsung: 1. My kingdom for a horse

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, the heir to South Korea’s biggest company is facing jail, leaving it with an uncertain future. After 80 years of business, how did Samsung ...

India’s Shadow Children

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Stephanie was brought up in France in a French family, but her birth parents are Indian – she’s an intercountry adoptee. In the 1980s and 1990s t...

Kubra Khademi: Art of strength and survival

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On a busy street in Kabul, a young artist steps into traffic wearing a steel sculpture she has shaped around her breasts and buttocks. She calls the p...

Elana Meyers Taylor: A 20-year journey to gold

29 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Elana Meyers Taylor became the oldest-ever winner of an individual Winter Olympic gold medal when she won the women’s monobob event in Milan-Cortina...

80 years of the BBC Russian Service

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The BBC's Russian service marks its eightieth anniversary this week.  In eight decades, it has grown from a short wave radio service to a multimedia...

Bombings in Lebanon

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Lebanon’s citizens are again caught under fire. As many as a million people are displaced as they search for a place of safety and there are fears o...

Deaf Umrah

27 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Islamic religious practice is deeply entwined with sound, from the call to prayer to memorising the Quran; learning to recite the holy text is very mu...

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest~serving PM

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest serving prime minister. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the year after the State of Israel was founded. One ...

Madagascar: From famine to hope

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Lying off the south-eastern coast of Africa, Madagascar has been pushed into crisis by a deadly combination of climate change, poverty and environment...

Billion dollar babies

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Eels are a popular food in parts of Asia, but they can’t be commercially bred in captivity. Coupled with trade bans to protect the highly endangered...

The Romeros: Developing digital games

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Brenda and John Romero are towering figures in modern game development, creators whose work has shaped how millions of players experience digital worl...

Is the revolution in Cuba over?

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Cuba is facing one of its most severe humanitarian crises in decades.For years, Cuba relied heavily on oil from Venezuela. Those supplies have largely...

Nepal - “Shot like enemies”

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Nepal has just held a historic election — one that has toppled the old political guard and swept a new generation of leaders into power, many backed...

Bangladeshi newspapers attacked by mob

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On 18th December 2025, the offices of two of Bangladesh's biggest newspapers, The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, were surrounded by mobs, attacked and se...

Navigating the Strait of Hormuz

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed by Iran for more than a fortnight, preventing vital supplies of oil and gas from leaving the Middle E...

Can yoga be Christian?

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Yoga is an ancient practice with its roots in Hinduism. It originated over 5,000 years ago in northern India, but for many, has now evolved from a spi...

Iran's media at war

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The war in Iran through the eyes of the Islamic Republic, and how Tehran’s restrictions on information went full throttle. The Global Jigsaw looks u...

Hope and fear: India's space revolution

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

India is revolutionising its approach to space exploration. Science journalist Alok Jha follows preparations for the country’s first human spaceflig...

How to spend billions – fast: Carney’s Defence Deadline

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has given his generals and admirals an unusual command: spend money. Lots of it. Quickly. For years, it was ...

Mariam Issoufou: Designing a museum

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Architect Mariam Issoufou has always been very ambivalent about museums: "Who decided that the only way to look at art is inside this intimidating, gr...

How the Oscars went international

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On Sunday, many of the film industry’s biggest stars will gather in Los Angeles for Hollywood’s biggest night: the 98th annual Academy Awards.Loom...

Europe's night train renaissance: Still on track?

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Night trains are making a comeback, once again connecting Europe’s cities with the promise of green, serene and iconic journeys. Just a decade ago, ...

Iran war: What's life like inside Iran?

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The United States and Israel have now been at war with Iran for two weeks, since 28th February. In that time, there have been over 1200 civilian death...

Iranians in London

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Five Iranians join host James Reynolds in the Naroon Persian restaurant in central London to share their experiences. In our conversation over dinner,...

The naked monks

13 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why would someone live publicly nude for their faith? In parts of India, Jain monks belonging to the Digambara sect permanently renounce all possessio...

The women of IS: Part three

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What next for the Syrian detention camps and their residents? After the fall of the so-called “caliphate”, tens of thousands of women and children...

The women of IS: Part two

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What next for the Syrian detention camps and their residents? After the fall of the so-called “caliphate”, tens of thousands of women and children...

The women of IS: Part one

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What next for the Syrian detention camps and their residents? After the fall of the so-called “caliphate", tens of thousands of women and children f...

Ukraine: The war behind the war

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

No one wants to do Major Serhiy Laziuk’s job. He travels from house to house in Lviv, western Ukraine, bringing families news of their loved ones a...

Graffiti across continents

08 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Bright geometric shapes make the graffiti work of Kenyan artist Wise Two really stand out. Michael Kaloki tracks how his bold style is evolving as he ...

Inside Russia’s ‘Youth Armies’

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The "Yunarmiya" or 'Youth army' is a movement that was founded in January 2016 by the Russian government. In total, more than 1.8 million children in ...

Iranians in London

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Five Iranians join presenter James Reynolds in the Naroon Persian restaurant in central London to share their experiences. In our conversation over di...

Leaving Isis: Is redemption possible?

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, Tareena Shakil, then 24, made a decision that would change her life forever. She secretly left the UK, telling her family she was on holiday,...

Forty-eight hours in Isfahan

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Eyewitnesses from a city in Iran describe how armed forces loyal to the Islamic regime killed countless protesters in a lethal crackdown on demonstrat...

Namibia’s hydrogen superpower dream

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A near-pristine desert wilderness on southern Africa’s remote Atlantic coast in Namibia could host a huge green hydrogen development, raising hope f...

Can Syria’s Kurds save their women’s revolution?

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For 14 years, while Syria was divided by civil war, Kurds in the north-east of the country tried to build a new democratic society, with equality for ...

Kwan Pun Leung: The image creator of nature

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Shan Ng follows acclaimed Hong Kong and Taiwan cinematographer Kwan Pun Leung as he creates a new music video, Fragile Love. Known for his work on lan...

Rewriting a revolution

01 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On 25 February 1986 the Philippines, Asia’s oldest democracy peacefully took control of its destiny. Ferdinand Marcos, a democratically elected pres...

Will Venezuela ditch Chavismo?

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the 3rd of January this year, Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro, was removed from office by a US military intervention. He was flown to the Uni...

Living with Tourette syndrome

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When the film I Swear won three Bafta awards, what happened at the ceremony prompted a much bigger story and wider discussion. The film portrays the l...

When music became a prayer

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Concert pianist Yirui Weng, 32, grew up in a communist, atheist family in China, where religion played no part in her life. Music, however, always did...

Ukraine’s defiance, four years on

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This week marks four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since WW2.Ukraine ha...