The Documentary Podcast
Episodes
My Forgotten War
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Turkey hosts the largest population of refugees and asylum seekers in the world. These include around 3.6 million Syrians, who fled there during the w...
In The Studio: Carol Morley
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Carol Morley is known for films like The Falling, Dreams Of A Life, and her most recent work, Typist Artist Pirate King.Her next movie is an adaptatio...
BBC OS Conversations: Palestinian losses
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The fighting and funerals in the Israel and Hamas war are constant. Thousands have been killed.The number of fatalities don’t tell the real stories ...
Heart and Soul: Finding Falun Gong
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been more than two decades since the Chinese government launched a crackdown on Falun Gong. The spiritual group claims practitioners face mass ...
Assignment: Taught to fear - corporal punishment in the classroom
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Kenya, corporal punishment in schools has been banned for over twenty years, yet young students are being beaten by their teachers on a daily basis...
The Raspberry Visa
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The ‘Raspberry Visa’ is the colloquial name given to the Portuguese passport that workers picking berries in Western Portugal can apply for after ...
In the Studio: Kieran Stanley - Designing a Zoo
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Zoo designer Kieran Stanley has created some of the world's most impressive spaces to care for animals ranging from the Indian rhinoceros to the giant...
BBC OS Conversations: Jewish-Palestinian couples
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Observing the suffering on both sides of the Israel and Gaza war, are couples and families around the world in which individuals with Jewish and Pales...
Heart and Soul: The New York Supreme Court's first female Hasidic judge
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Freier was 30 when she started her training to be an attorney, and many people told her she was making a mistake. Growing up in an ultra-orthod...
Assignment: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Russian Theatre
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tatiana Frolova wasn’t born to be a theatre director. She grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s in a cut-off part of a closed country, the Soviet Far East...
Africa's urban future: What next?
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Faced with the ever-quickening pace of urbanisation, what is the future for Africa's swelling cities? Experts predict that Africa could be home to for...
In the Studio: PAC NYC
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
September 2023 sees the opening of PAC NYC – the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York. It’s the final building in the new piazza, situated ...
Other people's children
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mothers from all over the world leave their families in search of economic opportunities elsewhere – and they often end up working as nannies, which...
BBC OS Conversations: Teenagers in Gaza and Israel
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In recent days, there have been warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza amid continual bombardment. In Israel, the discovery of bodies continue...
Understand: Israel and the Palestinians
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A guide to the history and context of the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Katya Adler and guests explain the key players an...
Heart and Soul: My journey beyond death
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Following a dramatic train accident, David Ditchfield was dragged under a speeding train in Cambridgeshire and nearly lost his life. As he lay in hosp...
Assignment: The village versus the mine
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A village in northern Portugal is fighting to prevent what could be the first large scale battery grade lithium mine in Europe from going into operati...
Africa’s Urban Future: South Africa
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Apartheid may now be long buried politically but in and around South Africa’s main cities it has left a visible legacy. Those entrenched historical ...
In the Studio: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf takes us behind the scenes of the making of Kandahar, his film about life in Afghanistan that captured the world's ...
Special: My Indian Life
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“I’m in love with the mountains.” A special episode from Kalki Presents: My Indian Life. Savita Kanswal was an inspirational climber, who had sc...
BBC OS Conversations: Israel and Gaza
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is an historical conflict with decades of bloodshed but the unprecedented violence of the past week has thrown the crisis into unknown territory....
The Cultural Frontline: How Disney redefined animation
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It has been 100 years since a young animator sold his first film series, called Alice Comedies, to a distributor. Without knowing, he was starting wha...
Assignment: America’s hidden histories
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s more than 150 years since the end of the American Civil War. But the replacement of a monument dedicated to the Confederate Commander Robert E ...
Africa's urban future: Tanzania
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Wooldridge and Tanzanian development worker Mary Ndaro report on the opportunities and challenges for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial centre...
In the Studio: Anton Skrypets
09 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stay Online is the first film about the full-scale war in Ukraine. Young producer Anton Skrypets tells Antonia Quirke about the dangers and challenges...
BBC OS Conversations: Fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh
07 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is at the centre of one of the world’s longest running disputes that goes back more than 100 years. The latest con...
Heart and Soul: Young Catholics on the Francis revolution
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Pope Francis has launched the biggest consultation in the history of the Catholic church. Since the process started three years ago, millions of Catho...
Gabon’s dark football secret
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gabon is football crazy and it’s the dream of most young footballers to play internationally. But, in 2022 a long serving coach for youth national t...
Africa's urban future: Ghana
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is the future for Africa's rapidly swelling cities? The stretch of nearly 1,000 km between Abidjan and Lagos, is by 2100 projected to be the larg...
Will the unicorns of the sea fall silent?
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The term “narwhal” derives from the old Nordic for “nár + hvalr”, meaning corpse + whale, which, for these animals, is quickly becoming proph...
In the Studio: The visitors
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After its award winning premier in 2020, a new production of The Visitors by Indigenous playwright Jane Harrison sees us on the eve of colonisation. T...
October 1973: The war that changed everything
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is a war with many names - The Yom Kippur War, the Ramadan War, the October War. What is clear 50 years after it was fought is that it was a confli...
BBC OS Conversations: War and fatigue in Ukraine
30 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Winter is approaching once again in the war and, for all the combat in the summer, the situation remains largely unchanged for both Ukrainian and Russ...
Heart and Soul: The Hare Krishna MC
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jake Emlyn’s musical talents were once hailed by international pop star Robbie Williams, who mentored the young English rapper. It lead him to featu...
Germany: Jail for fare-dodging
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Germany you can go to prison for travelling on public transport without a ticket. It’s estimated that 7,000 people are serving a jail sentence fo...
Donor babies: A question of identity
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For many people around the world, donation of sperm or an egg can be the difference between becoming parents and not. But while this donation can make...
In the Studio: Ken Loach: The Sequel
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The shooting starts on The Old Oak and Sharuna Sagar is there to witness Ken Loach's unique style of directing. Throughout his career from Kes to The ...
BBC OS Conversations: The floods in Libya
23 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Storm Daniel delivered 300 times more rain than expected onto the north-east coast of Libya, causing two dams to burst and water up to 30 meters high ...
Heart and Soul: Poland's nuns lifting the veil
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when a Catholic nun in Poland chooses to leave her religious community? Nuns are rejecting their orders after experiencing what they now ...
How a war has changed a Norwegian town
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kirkenes, in the far north-east of Norway, once thrived on its close ties with neighbouring Russia. All that changed after the invasion of Ukraine. No...
Cricket and the maidens
19 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2023, the first season of the Women’s India Premier League, the world’s second most valuable cricketing league, behind only the men’s I...
In the Studio: Vhils
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is a Portuguese artist, known for his striking huge murals that have appeared on city walls from Brazil and the US, to Seneg...
Bonus: The Explanation
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is a war crime? How is it different to a crime against humanity and genocide? And who holds those responsible to account? Find out in this bonus ...
Remembering Buthelezi
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The BBC's Audrey Brown looks back at the life of South Africa's Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who died earlier in September aged 95. He played a v...
BBC OS Conversations: The earthquake in Morocco
16 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The earthquake struck in a region of the High Atlas Mountains. Its force destroyed entire villages and could be felt across the country, and even in n...
Heart and Soul: Faith, terrorists and mercy at Guantanamo Bay
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Jennifer Bryson interrogated suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists at the infamous Guantanamo Bay. She worked at the detention centre in Cuba for two years...
Missing in Syria
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are one hundred thousand missing Syrians, according to the UN, who’ve been detained or have disappeared since the beginning of the uprising in...
Building power: India’s new parliament
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Prime Minister Narendra Modi describes India’s new parliament as a reflection of the “aspirations and dreams” of all Indians. But the huge trian...
In the Studio: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh is one of Ireland's leading screen costume designers - working on such productions as The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Jimmy's...
Inside an autistic mind
10 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Science journalist Sue Nelson shares her personal journey to better understand a condition that affects millions worldwide. Inside her autistic inner ...
BBC OS Conversations: Climate change in Africa
09 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Africa causes little damage to the climate but tends to feel the brunt of changing weather patterns. That was the debate in recent days as Kenya’s c...
Izabela in the forest
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hear the marvellous sounds of Europe's last primeval forest, Białoweiza, in an immersive experience rich with all kinds of bird song and animal sound...
Surviving Greece's migrant boat disaster
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
n the early hours of 14th June, a heavily overcrowded, rusty fishing trawler carrying as many as 750 migrants capsized off the coast of Greece. The pa...
Slovakia divided
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Slovakia may be a small country, but its upcoming elections could have a big impact across Europe and beyond. One of the strongest supporters of Ukrai...
In the Studio: Robyn Weintraub
04 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Robyn Weintraub is a leading crossword designer who writes clues and fills in cells for the New York Times, famous for its challenging daily puzzles. ...
BBC OS Conversations: American voters
02 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US elections for the next president are not until November 2024, but the campaigning for votes is underway. And it’s two familiar faces who seem...
Heart and Soul: My sex work and my faith
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Aaliyah grew up a devout Muslim but now makes adult content for the online service OnlyFans. She’s often pictured wearing a hijab. Aaliyah is her st...
Singing Morocco's new identity
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gnawa music is a Moroccan spiritual musical tradition developed by descendants of enslaved people from Sub-Saharan Africa. It combines ritual poetry w...
A new term in Myanmar
29 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On 1st February 2021, a coup d'état began in Myanmar where the National League for Democracy was deposed by Myanmar's military. Students studying at ...
In the Studio: France's Rugby World Cup kit
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The French national team are known throughout the sporting world as "les bleus" because of their iconic kits, which echo the blue of the French nation...
BBC OS Conversations: Migrating from Africa
26 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
More than 60 people are currently feared lost at sea after trying to escape Senegal by boat for a better life in Europe. According to the UN, Africa a...
Heart and Soul: 60 years since ‘I have a dream’
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Baptist minister Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his "I have a dream" speech on 28 August 1963 to crowds of over 250,000 in Washington DC as part o...
Belize's blue bond
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2020 Belize was broke. Again. This small, climate-vulnerable, Central American nation is home to the western hemisphere’s longest barrier reef. A...
Back to school: Supporting neuro-divergent students through LARP
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Neurodivergent students learn, think, and process information differently than their neurotypical peers. Because of this, they often face unique chall...
In the Studio: Nicola Benedetti
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
World famous violinist Nicola Benedetti starts her new job as Director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Anna Bailey follows her as she enters ...
The famine at the edge of the ocean
20 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Madagascar is experiencing its worst famine for over 30 years. With successive years of drought, this began in the country’s deep south but as succe...
BBC OS Conversations: The fires in Hawaii
19 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than a century. On the Hawaiian island of Maui, block after block of the seaside town of Lah...
Heart and Soul: German, soldier, Jew
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After the horrific role played by the German military in the Holocaust, arguably the last place you would expect to find a Jew would be in the German ...
Zimbabwe's worker exodus
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing their country, looking for work in the West, especially in the United Kingdom.Last year Zimbabwe was the ...
Directing disability
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 15 years that Jordan Hogg has been a TV director, he has never worked with another disabled director. Whilst 18% of the population has a disabi...
Did big tech know I was gay before I did?
15 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Ellie House is bisexual. But before she had even realised that, it felt like big tech had already worked it out, with sites like Netflix an...
In the Studio: Christopher and Tammy Kane
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fashion designers and brother and sister duo, Christopher and Tammy Kane have been trendsetters in the fashion world since 2006. They’ve dressed cel...
The Engineers: Lunar exploration
13 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are returning to the moon for the first time in over 50 years. The multi-national mission is called Artemis and involves the most powerful rock...
BBC OS Conversations: Football in Saudi-Arabia
12 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A new season of the Saudi Pro League is underway, now featuring some of the biggest names in football. Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kan...
Heart and Soul: Moscow vicar returns home
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Rev Malcolm Rogers has been in charge of the most extraordinary church. St Andrews looks like an ordinary British Victorian church, but amazing...
When Wagner came home
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tens of thousands of Russian criminals – murders, rapists, robbers – were recruited from prisons by the mercenary group, Wagner, to fight in Ukrai...
Female founders: Green tech in the blue economy
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Subsistence fishing employs hundreds of millions of people around the world. It’s an enormous business worth trillions of dollars. It’s also a dir...
Inside Afghanistan's secret schools
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2022, seven months after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, second level education was banned for girls, leaving around 1.1 millio...
In the Studio: Ajay Chowdhury
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Indian-born crime fiction author, Ajay Chowdhury, is writing the fifth instalment of his Detective Kamil Rahman series, set between India and the ...
Beats, rhymes and life: Hip-hop at 50
06 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
DJ and writer Lynnée Denise marks hip-hop’s 50th year by speaking to leading names about the music, the art and the creativity of this global cultu...
BBC OS Conversatioms: Living through a coup
05 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Niger has been the focus of international and diplomatic attention over the past week after its democratically elected president was removed from powe...
Heart and Soul: Online spiritual communities
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A doctor in New York, Anjoli has been longing for a space to practise spirituality within a like-minded community, but she does not want to go to her ...
Returning to Romania
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of people left Romania after it entered the EU in 2007. They were haemorrhaging doctors at such a rate they had to shut entire hospitals and ...
A billion batteries
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fourteen-year-old Sri Nihal Tammana is on a mission to prevent billions of batteries going to landfill. After watching devastating fires cause by disc...
Invading the past: Russia and science fiction
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Science fiction flourished from the earliest days of the Soviet Union. A rare space to explore other realms and utopian dreams of progress. But with t...
In the Studio: Sophie Hannah
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The crime writer Agatha Christie remains the best-selling novelist of all time even though her death was almost 50 years ago. Her fictional detective ...
Women writing Zimbabwe
30 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Look at any fiction prize recently and odds are that you will find a Zimbabwean woman nominated, be it Tsitsi Dangaremba, NoViolet Bulawayo or Petina ...
BBC OS Conversations: Women in sport
29 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Women’s World Cup is underway and global attention is once again on women in sport. Host James Reynolds brings together Preeti Singh, a national...
Botswana: Living with elephants
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The battle to keep the peace between people and elephants in northern Botswana. The earth’s largest land mammal, the elephant, is an endangered spec...
Song of the bell
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The world's most followed religion is changing rapidly. Hannah Ajala explores how church bells travelling from Italy to Nigeria herald Africa's new ro...
In the Studio: SO - IL and Ben Lovett: The architects of music
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Brooklyn-based architectural practice SO|IL's have garnered a reputation for crafting exquisite arts spaces. They are joined by musician Ben Lovett, o...
BBC OS Conversations: Surviving a heatwave
22 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of people around the world have been living under heat advisories due to record hot temperatures. The exceptional heat is being felt across E...
Heart and Soul: America’s atheist street pirates
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On a busy street in Los Angeles a group of people in yellow vests are holding a ladder against a lamppost. Up the ladder, 34-year-old Evan Clark is ri...
Tunisia’s democratic dream
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tunisia’s democracy is being dismantled by a president who claims he’s saving it from anarchy. Parliament has been dissolved, scores of judges sac...
Kew Gardens: Botany and the British empire
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, Kew Gardens was the flash point for a lesser known British imperial project – the collection of plants from colonised nations for pol...
In the Studio: Gregory Doran
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Acclaimed and award-winning Shakespearean, Gregory Doran, has directed every play in Shakespeare’s First Folio except Cymbeline. For him it’s one ...
Women's football: Passion versus profit
16 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Euros 2022 saw the Lionesses finally ‘bring it home’ - the excitement and crowd numbers showed there was a huge demand for women’s football....
BBC OS Conversations: Living with rising prices
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Prices almost everywhere are going up, which means most of us have less money to spend. At the heart of it is inflation, the rate at which prices are ...
Heart and Soul: Future shaman
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As a shaman, Sipa Melo is the beating heart of tribal faith and culture in a remote corner of north-east India, tucked in the shadow of the Himalayan ...
Speaking for themselves
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kaaps is a language widely spoken in the bleak townships of Cape Town, South Africa. It’s often denigrated as a lesser form of Afrikaans – the la...