The Documentary Podcast

US foreign policy in five doctrines

25 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Looking back at five big US foreign policy shifts from the Monroe doctrine in the 19th Century to the post-9/11 strategies of the Bush doctrine in the...

Protest in the age of the 'Kill Switch'

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the face of widespread protests, the Iranian government ‘switched off’ the country’s access to the internet on 8th January. In Uganda, prior ...

Living in Greenland

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Described by Donald Trump as “a giant piece of ice,” the world’s largest island has found itself at the centre of global attention. The presiden...

Daughters of thunder

23 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In small towns and rural areas across the south of the United States traditional family churches have long been key guardians of black culture, memory...

Bonus: Introducing: The History Bureau

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft turns out to be flawed? The History Bureau revisits the defining stories of ou...

Greece: Rescuers on Trial

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a case with profound implications for European migration policy, two dozen former volunteer humanitarian workers have been on trial on the Greek is...

Black girlhood in photos and writing

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Black girls performing in a parade on the streets of Chicago and playing in the surf at Martha's Vineyard offer a glimpse of what it is like, growing ...

New elements

18 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What does it take to make something which has never existed on Earth before? The search for element 120 on the periodic table has begun at the Lawrenc...

Kenyans lured to Russia's frontline

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Kenyan authorities recently reported that 200 of their citizens are fighting for Russia in the war in Ukraine. Many of them have reported that they tr...

Surviving an avalanche

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the past few days there have been a number of deaths on ski slopes in the Alps and, in recent months, hikers in Greece, climbers in Italy’s Dolom...

Eternal horizons

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

*** This programme contains graphic descriptions of body mutilation *** In the Nepalese Himalaya, one of the world’s rarest and most spiritually pro...

Stories from the New Silk Road: The Bering Sea

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1867, the US government bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars. At the time, critics questioned the value of purchasing such an inhospi...

Putin's foreign fighters

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

*** This programme contains very strong language *** Over the past year, BBC Eye has followed the journeys of young men from Syria, Egypt, and Yemen w...

The Netherlands: 10 new cities?

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

'Start by lighting a candle every morning.’ In other words, pray. That’s the advice on one social media platform to those looking for a rented pro...

Bianca Raffaella: A world of blurred vision

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Bianca Raffaella is a partially sighted painter based in Margate. Working entirely by touch and memory, her flower and figure paintings emerge from a ...

Looking for No Man's Land

11 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have spread to every corner of the globe, transforming ecosystems and reshaping landscapes. Is there anywhere left on Earth that is unaffected ...

Taraneh: Iran's defiant actress

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A recent BBC Persian documentary, Taraneh, has recieved millions of views online. It features an Iranian actress who is considered an icon in the coun...

Life in Venezuela

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

After the dramatic US military operation that saw Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife taken from the country and placed in a New York pri...

Living side by side: Morocco’s Jews and Muslims

09 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Relations between Jews and Muslims in Morocco have historically been strong unlike elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East. Although now relativ...

Returned to sender

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Clint Buffington is a hunter. He hauls his trophies back to his lab, covers himself in PPE and studies each specimen with pathological scrutiny. Howev...

World Questions - Greenland

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a programme which first aired in November 2025, Jonny Dymond chairs a debate about the future of Greenland. Leading Greenlandic and Danish politic...

Persian poetry and politics

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How poetry is used by Persian-speaking leaders to build legitimacy and shape the political narrative. Across Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, millio...

South Africa and the fight against TB

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, TB is humanity’s oldest contagious disease. It has become something of an afterthought in rich nati...

Ismo Leikola

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We follow the Finnish comedian Ismo Leikola—known simply as Ismo—as he performs in both English and Finnish. We explore his distinctive brand of i...

The power of nostalgia and a first kiss

04 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Nostalgia. That sentimental feeling of the past. Memory is a powerful thing and we tend to look back on our firsts fondly. Your first phone, your firs...

Afghanistan's love poetry princess

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Poetry about love between a man and a woman was banned by the Taliban in September 2025. For many Afghans, poetry is something which is very much a pa...

Living in space

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The first crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) 25 years ago. Since then, almost three hundred people from some 20 nations have visite...

Astronauts and the future of space exploration

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The first crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) 25 years ago. Since then, almost 300 people from some 20 nations have visited the orbi...

Two Families from Sarajevo

02 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Born into a Bosnian Muslim family, Salih Hardaga grew up knowing that his family had done a very courageous thing. During the Nazi occupation of Saraj...

Kibera Ballerinas

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ballet, a centuries-old form of European dance, is flourishing in one of Africa’s largest informal settlements. In Kibera, Kenya, we follow aspiring...

Four Months in Gaza

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A raw and intimate perspective on the terror, anger, and hope of living through war.As bombs hit ever closer to her home in central Gaza, Hanya Aljama...

When Christian nationalists come to town

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

People in Gainesboro, Tennessee, have some new neighbours. A conservative developer has bought land just outside the tiny rural Appalachian town, with...

Haroon Mirza: Creating a sculpture with light, sound and video

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following his time at Cern, Haroon Mirza has been creating a major installation based on his research there. The piece, made with his collaborator Jac...

BBC correspondents' look ahead to 2026

28 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

James Coomarasamy speaks to BBC correspondents around the world about the people and places, trends and technology that they are going to be keeping a...

Not-so-golden weddings

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gold prices have reached record highs this year, resulting in changes in buying habits, investment patterns and traditional customs. For the Fifth Flo...

Why I chose to adopt

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Actress Jennifer Aniston sparked controversy recently when she said that, despite years of unsuccessful fertility treatment, she is not interested in ...

The lord and dance: Michael Flatley

26 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Flatley is the most famous Irish dancer in the world, rising to stardom for his leading roles in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Colm Flynn ...

The gift of science

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our present to you is the science of gifts. First, we investigate the health benefits of donating blood, and find out about the predator sharing a fea...

Bonus: 2025 in conversations from The Interview

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

2025 on The InterviewIn 2025, the BBC launched The Interview, bringing you the best conversations from across the BBC. People shaping our world from a...

Argentina's elusive big cats

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After decades of extinction, wild jaguars are once again roaming in Northern Argentina. It has been at least thirty five years since a wild jaguar cub...

In the Studio: Michael Symmons Roberts' Christmas Card Poem

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a tradition among poets to write a poem to put inside the Christmas cards they send. So, the BBC World Service has commissioned one speciall...

United In Space – How we built the ISS

21 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Personal tales of bravery, tragedy, daring and triumph, United in Space unveils the remarkable story of one of humanity’s greatest ever feats – bu...

Living in fear on South Africa's farms

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In February, American President Donald Trump signed an executive order which said that South African Afrikaners - descendants of mainly Dutch settlers...

BBC OS Conversations: Jewish Australians on the Bondi Beach attacks

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Australian government says it will crack down on hate speech following the deadly shooting that targeted a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach. People ...

Close encounters with an avalanche

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It is peak season for avalanches in the northern hemisphere and three survivors share their experiences of being cuaght up in one in the US and Pakist...

Prayers through the checkpoints

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine being able to see your place of worship, but not be able to reach it. For many Palestinian Muslims in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusale...

Elephant politics

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Botswana is home to about a third of Africa’s remaining savanna elephants, over 130,000. But it is a burden as well as a blessing. It puts pressure ...

Introducing The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As the USA and Soviet Union race for supremacy in the 1960s, Premier Khrushchev sizes up his rival, President John F Kennedy. Presenters Max Kennedy a...

Stolen brides of Kazakhstan: The fightback

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In plain sight, in a modern city, a colleague offers to drive you home after work. How would you respond? One woman in Kazakhstan accepted the lift on...

Jim Henson's Creature Shop: Back to Fraggle Rock

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sean Allsop goes behind the scenes inside the legendary Jim Henson's Creature Shop in New York, where fabric and materials bring life to characters be...

A makeover for Syria's interim leader?

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One year after the fall of Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has undergone a significant image makeover. He's regul...

Somalis in America

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump says Somali immigrants in the US should “go back to where they came from.” The President’s comments come after allegations of large...

The divine gift of sex

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sex therapist Dr Rica Cruz is on a mission to destigmatise sex in the deeply Catholic Philippines. As a practising Catholic herself, she believes sex ...

Delivering medical support to those in need

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How do you get vital medical support to those most in need?

The struggle of Israel's peace movement

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

wo years ago a group of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists stood almost alone in Israel in calling for a ceasefire, as Israel launched a massive o...

Anna-Karin Karlsson: Sunglasses made for icons

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From a quiet forest outside Stockholm to the world’s most glamorous runways, Swedish designer Anna-Karin Karlsson has built one of fashion’s most ...

Steel from shipwrecks

07 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In recent years component parts of historic shipwrecks have started to disappear, with reports of mysterious vessels and scavengers floating around. T...

Reporting the Nigerian School Kidnappings

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

More than 300 children were kidnapped from a school in the Western Nigerian village of Papiri in November, but in the aftermath, accounts of the kidna...

Australia’s under-16 social media ban

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From 10 December, Australian children under 16 will be banned from most social media platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. The ...

The mosque for Bangladesh’s transgender women

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On the banks of the Brahmaputra River, a remote village in northern Bangladesh serves as a sanctuary for the hijra (transgender) community, a once-rev...

Made in Russia: The Kremlin’s economic rebrand

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How Moscow is working around international sanctions: promoting self-sustainability, elevating Russian brands and deepening trade with friendly countr...

From rocks to riches

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Meteorites are pieces of space rocks, which having survived a fiery journey through the atmosphere, land on the earth’s surface. No-one knows the ex...

Joana Vasconcelos: Mask of mirrors

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos is renowned for her large-scale sculptural pieces which have featured in galleries across the world. She has u...

Young and stateless

30 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to belong nowhere? Across the world, millions of people are denied citizenship and live without a country to call their own. It is e...

Ireland's new alcohol warning

30 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ireland has become the first country in the world to introduce labels linking alcohol with cancer and liver disease. Some producers began re-labelling...

What is the 'Shadow Fleet'?

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Around one fifth of the world's oil tankers now belong to the 'shadow fleet', more than a thousand ships which Russia uses to skirt sanctions and - in...

Brain fog and perimenopause

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

BBC Tech Editor Zoe Kleinman was about to go live on TV to explain a global outage affecting dozens of websites and apps. Millions would be watching, ...

Twin spirits: A lost bond that lives in dreams

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Claire grew up in a multi-faith household that often looked beyond traditional beliefs for solutions. At 17, everything changed when her mother discov...

What is the 'Russian cultural code'?

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why the traditional kokoshnik headdress is en vogue in Russia, and how it has become a poster image for the Kremlin’s vision of national identity. W...

Stemming the tide in Normandy

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Coastal erosion has become a serious problem for many seaside communities, no more so than in Normandy, in north-west France, where rising sea levels,...

Inside India's war on Maoists

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For nearly 60 years, the Indian government has been fighting a violent group of Maoists in the country. They are followers of the late Chinese leader,...

Raising children on a warming planet

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Another round of global climate talks is taking place at the COP30 summit, but some are questioning whether there is much point to these gatherings. W...

Navigating faith on the road

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Canada is home to thousands of Sikh truck drivers, crossing North America in cabs that double as kitchens, bedrooms and places to pray. In a single we...

China’s global spending spree

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

China has been on a giant global shopping spree. Since 2000, Chinese state banks have fuelled investments and acquisitions at a surprisingly rate - so...

Fifty years since Franco: Spain, the valley and a troubled legacy

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, Spain continues to feel its way towards an accommodation between its once-warring factio...

The Shiralee: D'Arcy Niland's 1955 Australian western

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Shiralee is a 1955 novel by D'Arcy Niland, telling the story of a wandering swagman on a journey through the Australian outback, accompanied by hi...

'No justice, just kills’

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 19 November 2005, US Marines killed 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, many of them women and children. The incident led to the longest US war crimes i...

Film director Gurinder Chadha

16 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is the inspiration behind Gurinder Chadha's new film Christmas Karma. Scrooge becomes Mr Sood, a miserly businessma...

The COP 30 summit and the climate change frontline

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 30th COP climate summit is under way in the Brazilian city of Belém. BBC World Service Environment Correspondent Navin Singh Khadka has been cove...

Changing religion for love

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How difficult is it to stay together when you have different religious faiths? US Vice President JD Vance spoke recently about his interfaith marriage...

Finding my true self through Druidry

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a teenager, Mhara was struggling with her gender identity and sexuality. She felt completely alone. But finding books about witchcraft and Druidry ...

Ukraine's Colombian soldiers

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From jungle guerrilla warfare to frozen trenches: why did they leave and will they ever return? The story of the Colombian soldiers choosing to fight ...

The Chinese Cryptoqueen

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Between 2014 and 2017 thousands of ordinary Chinese people handed their money over to a company that promised them fabulous riches by helping them to ...

Chef Yoshifumi Yamaguchi

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Exploring the culinary artistry of chef Yoshifumi Yamaguchi , a visionary bridging Kyoto and Kampala. As co-founder of Cots Cots, an artistic Japanese...

The great hunger: Stalin's famine in Kazakhstan

09 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Few people outside Kazakhstan know of the famine that destroyed nomadic life in the 1930s, and left more than a third of the population dead or displa...

Does Kruger deserve a park?

08 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kruger national park in South Africa is one of the most well known nature reserves in the world. But the legacy of Paul Kruger, who the park is named ...

Mamdani’s New Yorkers

08 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Immigrant, Muslim and self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani is also, at 34, the city’s youngest mayor in a century. Famed for his cha...

Kai Höss: My grandfather, the Commandant of Auschwitz

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a cinema in south-west Germany an audience is gathered to watch an Oscar winning film, Zone of Interest, about the life of Rudolf Höss, Commandant...

In the shadow of the railway

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After years of Chinese investment in Africa, the West is fighting back. Through the Lobito Corridor project, the US and European countries are investi...

Striking gas in Bolivia

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In July 2024, Bolivia discovered the Mayaya Centro-X1 gas field, its largest find in nearly 20 years. With an estimated 1.7 trillion cubic feet of res...

The real ‘Yellowstone’: A battle for the cowboy way of life

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ranches, rodeos and public land. This is the story of a surprising battle raging in the American West, and the unlikely coalition it’s forged. Ne...

Lara Dizeyee's Kurdish couture

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kurdish designer Lara Dizeyee is preparing a couture collection for Milan Fashion Week. Dizeyee fled Iraqi Kurdistan as a child, grew up in the US, an...

What’s behind the war in Sudan?

02 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Blood spilled in Sudan's el-Fasher massacre is visible from space. What led to the latest dark turn of events that took place after the Rapid Support ...

How Russian AI targets news organisations

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Networks of bots - automated social media accounts - have been found to be targeting European elections including, in the last year, those in Moldova,...

Women share stories of losing their hair

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Something unusual happened recently at the Miss USA beauty contest: Miss Nevada, 22-year-old Mary Sickler, walked on stage without any hair. She had l...

The right thing: Confronting my abuser

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

***This programme contains references to sexual abuse which some listeners may find upsetting*** For decades, Larry Nassar was the doctor for the wome...

Jihadists and AI

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How Jihadists wrestle with the question: to use or not to use. The allure of this powerful tool and the damage they fear it could inflict on their ima...

Bonus: Cyber Hack - Evil Corp

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They steal billions: Cyber Hack investigates the alleged cyber gangs and the heists and hacks they’re accused of carrying out. No one is said to be ...

David Harewood: Return to Othello

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The espionage TV series, Homeland, brought David Harewood international fame but he is also known as the first Black actor to play Othello at the UK’...

'Looking American' to avoid deportation

25 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Drone surveillance, sign language and 'looking American' are all suggestions that Brazilian immigrants are making to each other as ways to avoid being...