The Documentary Podcast
Episodes
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...
Bangladesh's clothing conundrum
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many Western fashion brands source garments from Bangladesh, a country with a long history of producing affordable clothing. The industry suffered a d...
In the Studio: The Aquatics Centre, Paris Olympics 2024
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In September 2017, The International Olympic Committee announced that a century after France last hosted the Olympics in 1924, the games would be retu...
BBC OS Conversations: Race in France
08 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
France has questions to answer around inequity and its approach to policing. It follows days of violent protests after the fatal shooting in Paris, du...
Heart and Soul: A new generation of Nigerian royalty
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah Ajala, a Nigerian-British broadcaster explores the new generation of chieftaincy and royalty in Nigeria. She takes a closer look at some of the...
What's happened to Iraq's Yazidis?
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, militants of the Islamic State group set out to destroy the ancient, minority Yazidi community of northern Iraq. Thousands were murdered, tho...
Wagner's revolt: The world takes stock
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Russia's once shadowy private military company Wagner hit the headlines around the world when the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ordered his men...
In the Studio: Shezad Dawood
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The British artist, Shezad Dawood is known for his colourful textiles and multimedia artworks, often featuring music and VR to explore issues such as ...
BBC OS Conversations: What do Russians and Belarusians make of the Wagner Group?
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Following the Wagner group march on Moscow, we hear from Russians and Belarusians.
Heart and Soul: Nick Cave on grief, faith and music
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The songwriter, poet and author, Nick Cave has a conversation about grief, faith and the spirituality of music with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justi...
The Organ Harvesters
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Assignment tells the story of a young street trader from Lagos who ended up at the heart of an organ harvesting plot involving a senior Nigerian polit...
Biniam Girmay: Africa’s new cycling hero
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On 1 July 2024, Biniam Girmay made history as the first black African rider to win a stage of cycling’s biggest race: the Tour de France. After a ha...
In the Studio: Matthew Xia
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
***This programme contains racially sensitive language and themes that may be upsetting.*** Matthew Xia is a theatre director and Olivier award-winnin...
BBC OS Conversations: Survival
24 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Race against time rescue stories have been among the dominating international headlines in the past couple of weeks. There was the missing sub in the ...
Heart and Soul: Windrush at 75
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Prof. Robert Beckford interviews Barbara Blake-Hannah the UK’s first black news reporter who returned to Jamaica after just eight years after coming...
South Korea: A room with a view
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s like living in a cemetery.” Jung Seongno lives in a banjiha, or semi-basement apartment in the South Korean capital Seoul. Last August par...
The monkey haters
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There is disturbing material, including descriptions of violence and torture of monkeys, from the start of this programme.There's a horrific and distu...
In the Studio: Wayne McGregor
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wayne McGregor is a choreographer and director whose future-focused, multi-award-winning works take inspiration from technology, literature and visual...
Controlled and connected: 50 years of the cell phone
18 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fifty years on from the first mobile phone call, this programme examines how the device has revolutionised the way we lives our lives. It was 1973 whe...
BBC OS Conversations: Air pollution
17 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hundreds of wildfires are burning across Canada, almost half are classed by officials as ‘out of control’. Their immediate impact is the destructi...
Heart and Soul: Swiss Christians and conversion therapy
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a debate raging in Switzerland over a potential nationwide ban on so-called conversion therapy. We meet Christians whose lives the procedure...
Catching a Pervert
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An investigation by BBC Eye exposes the men profiting from an ugly business of sexual assault for sale.We find websites selling thousands of videos of...
Swan's head, tiger's roar
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Producer Steven Rajam travels to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar to meet some of the women challenging convention, tradition and history at home and...
In the Studio: Ada Limon
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the Studio follows US poet laureate Ada Limón as she crafts an original poem dedicated to Nasa’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon....
BBC OS Conversations: India train crash
10 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The collision between three trains in the state of Odisha claimed more than 280 lives and left more than 1000 people injured. We bring together a volu...
Heart and Soul: America's relief mission
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The work of Florida's Baptist Relief responding to climate events like Hurricane Ian and floods in Kentucky - in support of people whose lives have be...
Ukraine: The men who don’t want to fight
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For more than 15 months the Ukrainian armed forces have held out against the superior numbers of the Russian invasion force. But not every Ukrainian m...
Yellowstone: The first national park
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1872, Yellowstone became America and the world's first national park. Alongside erupting geysers, bubbling hot springs, canyons, and bison herds, w...
In the Studio: Ken Loach
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Old Oak will be Ken Loach's last feature film and Sharuna Sagar was granted exclusive access behind the scenes of this landmark movie. She joins t...
BBC OS Conversations: Mount Everest
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 70 years since a New Zealand mountaineer and his Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer guide reached the highest point on Earth. There have been cel...
Heart and Soul: The ‘living saint’ who hid a mystical sex sect
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jean Vanier changed Richard and Hazel’s lives. He founded the L’Arche movement – a global network inspired by Christian teaching – where peopl...
Myanmar’s war in the air
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Russia is supplying the Myanmar military with advanced fighter jets and training their pilots how to use them in a war against their own people. More ...
Metaleurop : A stain on France
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For years the people of Evin-Malmaison in north-east France have lived and brought up children in a town which is dangerously polluted. The Metaleurop...
In the Studio: Alberta Whittle
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alberta is an award-winning Barbadian-Scottish multi-disciplinary artist whose work encompasses drawing, digital collage, film and video installation,...
BBC OS Conversations: Living with ADHD
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The exact cause is unknown, but the mental health condition ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) affects millions of lives around the world...
Heart and Soul: Evangelical or political Christianity?
26 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One of the founding principles of the United States is that religion and politics, church and state, are separate. Yet today in America religious beli...
Germany’s forests under threat
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Drought and hotter summers are killing Germany’s spruce forests. They’re a staple of the timber industry but are proving unable to cope with the c...
Global dancefloor: Salvador
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Brazil has one of the highest rates of trans and gender-diverse homicides in the world, and almost three-quarters of people killed each year are eithe...
Global dancefloor: Beirut
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Frank McWeeny heads to Beirut to meet the nightlife community behind the Grand Factory club, and explores how underground culture here survives even d...
Beirut: Life in the unliveable city
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is it like to live through the collapse of your country, in a city you love and cannot bear to leave? Lina Mounzer is a writer and translator liv...
In the Studio: Lawrence Abu Hamdan
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lawrence Abu Hamdan is an artist and forensic investigator of sound. He describes himself as a 'private ear’, listening to, with and on behalf of pe...
Iraq: Generation Invasion
21 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years after the US-led invasion, four young Iraqis recall life under foreign occupation and share their hopes and fears for the future. Sheddin...
Introducing The Explanation
20 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On a mission to make sense of the world. A new podcast, with hosts John Simpson and Claire Graham. Episodes released weekly from 20 May 2023.
BBC OS Conversations: Long Covid
20 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest figures suggest that nearly seven million people have died due to Covid - although the true figure is l...
Heart and Soul: The emerging Muslim 'manosphere'
19 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Britain, the growth of Islam is being driven by a younger population, born and brought up in the United Kingdom. This includes BBC reporter Rahil S...
Hard times in the Big Easy
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
New Orleans is the murder capital of the United States: researchers into 2022’s crime figures say it suffered more homicides per capita than any oth...
Bonus: The Lazarus Heist
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing season 2 of an original podcast about hackers and North Korea. They’re back - in fact the criminals never went away. Season 2 begins at ...
In the Studio: Sir Lenny Henry
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Lenny Henry's new one man show - August in England gives an insight into the lives impacted by the Windrush scandal. In 2017, thousands of legal r...
Generation Change: Battling for a sustainable environment
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Babita Sharma meets young people from around the world working to fight climate change, including a Kenyan engineer who has designed a solar powered f...
Generation Change: Equality in science and technology
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Megha Mohan talks to young people working to diversify science, technology, engineering and maths - fields that will be crucial to the future of our p...
Generation Change: Tackling taboos around organ donation
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Babita Sharma talks to young people who are trying to save lives by tackling taboos around organ donation in countries including India and the UK. She...
Generation Change: Fighting hunger
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Babita Sharma meets young people trying to solve global food problems, including a Lebanese man who worked to feed people after the deadly bomb blast ...
BBC OS Conversations with Russians
13 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In recent days, Russia staged its annual Victory Day military parade, celebrating the defeating of Nazi Germany during World War Two, which ended in 1...
Heart and Soul: Ticket to Taiwan
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cindy Sui discovers how the Chè-lâm Presbyterian Church in central Taipei has been helping Hong Kong activists who have fled to Taiwan since the int...
Searching for my son
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the chaos following Turkey’s devastating earthquake in February, Omar was separated from his son Ahmed after both were pulled alive from the coll...
In the Studio: Kevin Kwan
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians, has made Los Angeles his home. The city is rich with art, fashio...
BBC OS Conversations: Escaping from Sudan
06 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The fighting between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces started around three weeks ago. Since then, the UN estimates that mo...
Heart and Soul: Will the real Shaman stand up?
05 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
According to the national census, the number of British people who say they follow Shamanism as a religion has risen twelvefold in the space of 10 yea...
Kenya's Free Money Experiment
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of Kenyan villagers are being given free cash as part of a huge trial being run by an American non-profit, GiveDirectly. Why? Some aid organ...
The making of King Charles
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Charles III waited a very long time to become King. Since his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, he filled his life with activity, pursuing deepl...
In the Studio: Tinuke Craig
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The acclaimed British theatre director, Tinuke Craig embarks on her opera debut at the English National Opera with Blue, a tale of police violence in ...
The day I met the King
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
People from all over the globe remember their meetings with King Charles III over the years. They include Dr Joe McInnes who took the former Prince fo...
BBC OS Conversations: Fentanyl in the United States
29 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fentanyl is a potentially deadly synthetic opioid. The other month, a drug enforcement official in the country described it as the single deadliest dr...
Heart and Soul: The Church's slave plantation, part two
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Robert Beckford explores the Christian understanding of reparations. He speaks to Christians in Barbados who say reparations from the Church...
Laos: the most bombed country on earth
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
50 years after the last US bombs fell on Laos, they’re still killing and maiming. In an effort to stop the march of communism, between 1964 and 197...
Miss Marple returns
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Agatha Christie is the world's most translated author, with her work being available in over 100 languages. And one of her most beloved characters, Mi...
After the earthquake: Turkey’s election
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We travel to Turkey's Anatolian heartland to find out whether the region which helped propel President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power in the early 2000...
4. Murder in Mayfair: The home front
23 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“He’s a coward, he’s not a man.” Martine’s mum passes judgement on Farouk. A final push for answers takes Nawal to Yemen and Norway. And que...
3. Murder in Mayfair: The flight
23 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“He won’t wake up...I think he’s dead.” What Farouk did in the hours after Martine died and the bridges he burned to get away. Nawal’s inves...
2. Murder in Mayfair: Martine
23 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends panic when "street-smart" Martine fails to come home. Her family scrambles to help as a surprise move on Facebook makes something “click” ...
1. Murder in Mayfair: Finding Farouk
23 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The hunt for the suspected killer of 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen, whose body was found buried under rubble in a London basemen...
Caught in Sudan's conflict
21 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
To live in Sudan is to have experienced violence, protest, dictatorship, political instability and upheaval. But the scale of fighting during the last...
Heart and Soul: The Church's slave plantation, part one
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What are the consequences of the Church of England's historic slave plantations in Barbados today? Theologian Robert Beckford considers why and how th...
Leaving Sri Lanka
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Record numbers are fleeing the island in the wake of a brutal economic crisis – perhaps one in twenty five Sri Lankans left last year alone. Some 30...
Introducing: Murder in Mayfair
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Coming soon: The hunt for the suspected killer of 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen, whose body was found buried under rubble in a L...
The hidden caste codes of Silicon Valley
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sam, Harsha and Siddhant are tech workers of Indian descent, who all say they have experienced discrimination in corporate America. They are not being...
In the Studio: Erica Whyman: Directing Hamnet
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Maggie O’Farrell’s historical novel Hamnet was published in 2020 to great critical acclaim, winning the Women's Prize. It tells the story of a gif...
The ghost ship
15 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the Persian gulf, a powerful storm appears to sink an oil tanker, prompting a dramatic Royal Navy rescue. But six weeks later, the same tanker caus...
BBC OS Conversations: Living with multiple sclerosis
15 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A ground-breaking new medical trial has begun in the UK aimed at slowing the progress of multiple sclerosis. The Octopus trial is looking into whether...
Heart and Soul: Sikhism’s lost song
14 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the heyday of the Sikh Empire, Kirtan (Sikh hymns) were performed using stringed instruments such as the sarangi, rabab and taus. The rich, complex...
Gran Chaco - Paraguay’s vanishing forest
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Gran Chaco Forest is Latin America’s second largest ecosystem. It is a mix of hot and arid scrublands, forests and wetlands, part of the River P...
In the Studio: Telling the John Hume story
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Beyond Belief: The Life and Mission of John Hume is a new musical drama about the Irish politician who was one of the architects of the Northern Irela...
Deep Waters: Container ships
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Container ships are the monsters of the seas - the very biggest are almost half a kilometre long and piled high with up to 20,000 huge boxes. At any o...
Deep Waters: Sanctions and the new 'dark' fleet
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shipping has long been one of the most opaque of global industries. Now many operations in the oil sector, which accounts for nearly a third of all se...
Deep Waters: The hidden world of global shipping
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bulk carriers are the ships that keep the modern world going - like the MV Raeda and the MV Olivian Confidence carrying grain from Ukraine to Turkey, ...
OS Conversations: Guns in America
07 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Funerals have been taking place for victims of the latest mass shooting in the United States. Six people – including three children aged 9 – were ...
Heart and Soul: Clergy in cartel land
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mexico has become the most dangerous country in the world to be a Catholic priest. In the past 15 years, 50 were killed in narco-related violence. And...
Vienna: Getting housing right
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Affordable housing is in widespread crisis. Many cities around the world have failed to build enough houses with good design and make living in them a...
In the Studio: Nikita Gill
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The poet Nikita Gill has written several volumes of poetry, and enjoys engaging poetically with her audience using social media. Her work often explor...
Being gay in Africa
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s illegal in around 30 countries in Africa to be in a same-sex relationship and recently there’s been political debate in places such as Uganda...
Heart and Soul: Purity to nudity
31 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gwen was brought up as a strict evangelical Christian. She was taught that women needed to control the way they dressed and acted to control the behav...
Finland’s uneasy relationship with its neighbour
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How has Finland survived so long as an independent European country, up close to Russia, its aggressive neighbour? Over the decades it’s learnt to ...
Deep Waters: The hidden world of global shipping
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bulk carriers are the ships that keep the modern world going - like the MV Raeda and the MV Olivian Confidence carrying grain from Ukraine to Turkey, ...
Iraqis and the consequences of the Iraq War
25 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2003, the United States led an invasion of Iraq that would topple Saddam Hussein's regime, but would have far-reaching consequences for the n...
My hijab or my sport
24 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It took Salimata Sylla three hours to get to the away fixture she was due to play with her basketball team mates from the Parisian suburb of Aubervill...
Killer drug: Fentanyl in the US
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is destroying lives all over the United States. Manufactured illegally and at a huge profit by drug cartels in Mexico, i...
Blind faith: Do genetic eye disease ‘treatments' work?
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
BBC journalist Ramadan Younes investigates the world of genetic eye disease ‘treatments’, where some practitioners claim to cure the incurable. Li...
Can technology save democracy?
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The storming of the Brazilian Parliament and Congress by the supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro came almost two years to the day that D...
A choice of horrors
18 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the disastrous war in Iraq, the lesson seemed clear: the West should never intervene in foreign conflicts. But then came the Syria...
Asian-Americans
18 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Everything Everywhere All at Once ensured it was a historic night at the Oscars. And in doing so it put a spotlight on Asian Americans. The film, whic...