The Documentary Podcast

Compassion fatigue

31 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Compassion fatigue has long been an issue for people in the medical and humanitarian professions. People often enter those worlds because of a desire ...

Coronavirus: Vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minorities

30 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of people across the world are currently being vaccinated against Covid-19. Black, Asian and Latino groups have been the hardest hit by the f...

The exiles: Hong Kong at a crossroads

28 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over a year ago, two young men who met over the internet as Hong Kong was gripped by months of pro-democracy protests. They shared a common interest i...

Donald Trump and me

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In one of America’s reddest states, Idaho, local Republicans reflect on Donald Trump’s rise to the White House. What were their hopes for the most...

Voices from the Ghetto

24 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Codenamed Oyneg Shabbat (Joy of the Sabbath), a team of 'researchers' wrote and collected documents detailing life and death inside the ghetto. The se...

President Biden: Call for unity

23 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The new US President Joe Biden inherits a deeply divided country - whether by politics, race or religion. We hear from evangelical Christians in Ohio ...

Lisa Montgomery: The road to execution

21 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa Montgomery’s crime was an especially abominable murder: In 2004 in the small mid-West American town of Skidmore, she strangled an expectant mot...

President-elect Joe Biden

19 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On Wednesday, 20 January Joe Biden will be sworn in as America’s 46th president of the United States, after scoring a record-breaking victory on his...

My viral video and me

17 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Colm Flynn tracks down the internet's original viral video superstars and reveals how becoming an online sensation changed their life. So many people ...

Coronavirus: Young widows

16 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Each Covid-19 death has a tremendous personal impact on loved ones. Host Nuala McGovern talks to three women who have lost their husbands to the disea...

Social influencers and the perfect body

14 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the age of social media and the selfie, the perfect look is everything. That's what online influencers tell their followers. Some are also happy to...

The digital human: Sacred

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sacred objects and places are often imbued with memories - memories we cherish, which define who we are. Aleks Krotoski asks if technology can be a co...

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The California senator has made history in three ways – as the first woman, first black person and first person of Indian origin to be elected as vi...

Coronavirus: Intensive care

09 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As vaccines begin to be administered in several countries, many places are experiencing worrying rises in cases and deaths from Covid-19. One effect i...

Libya's Brothers from Hell

07 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amid the anarchy of post-Revolution Libya, seven brothers from an obscure background gradually took over their home town near Tripoli. They're accused...

The Digital Human: Ghoul

06 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Violent content online has rightly been condemned, yet while we criticise those facilitating the supply we rarely talk about the demand. Aleks Krotosk...

Donald Trump: The political record

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What is Donald Trump’s political and policy legacy? Nada Tawfik explores how four years of the Trump presidency has challenged US policy conventions...

Donald Trump: The man

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump was the businessman and TV show host who became the 45th President of the United States, with huge power and resources at his fingertips....

Coronavirus: Forgotten voices

02 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Host Nuala McGovern checks in with two so-called Covid-19 ''long-haulers'', who are still enduring symptoms several months after catching the disease....

BBC correspondents' look ahead

01 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There were times in 2020 when the world felt like an out of control carousel and we could all have been forgiven for just wanting to get off and to wa...

Breakthrough: The race for the Covid vaccine

01 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Kevin Fong talks to the people who have seemingly achieved the impossible and created a coronavirus vaccine in a matter of months. Speaking to the ...

Searching for Wisdom in Lagos

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A young woman is desperately searching for her brother in Lagos. On the night of 20th October, Nigerian soldiers opened fire at a peaceful demonstrat...

The Digital Human: Subservience

30 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Aleks Krotoski finds out if how we treat our subservient robots impacts how we treat one another. As with any new invention, domestic robots illuminat...

The Hindu bard

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1914 a 19-year-old Indian student caused a sensation when she was awarded the top prize - the bardic chair - at the 1914 University College of Wale...

Revolution of the senses

27 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Four radio producers present intimate stories of people across Europe, revealing the effect of Covid 19 on their experience of touch, sight, sound, sm...

Coronavirus: Surviving the pandemic

26 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After hearing so many incredibly moving stories since the pandemic was first declared, we’ve decided to return to some of those people to hear how t...

The Digital Human: Messiah

23 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why do so many of us treat Silicon Valley billionaires like our new messiahs? For some, people like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and engineer Elon Mus...

Warrior elephant guardians

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In a remote part of Northern Kenya, former Samburu warriors have become elephant keepers, rescuing and raising baby elephants in what’s thought to b...

Coronavirus: Spikes and Santas

19 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We are in the biggest holiday season for large parts of the world but many countries are experiencing a rise in Covid cases. It’s worrying for those...

Darfur: A precarious peace

17 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After 17 years of conflict costing 300,000 lives, a peace agreement offers new hope to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region. It comes as UNAMID, the Unite...

Don't Log Off: Opportunity

16 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alan hears stories from people who’ve transformed their lives and are helping others to do the same against the backdrop of the pandemic. He speaks ...

Coronavirus: Vaccines, frustrations and hope

12 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two doctors in Nairobi tell host Nuala McGovern why conditions for health workers in Nairobi are leading to calls for a strike. They include rising de...

Syria's soldiers of fortune

10 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The bitter war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasian region of Nagorno Karabakh may have come to an end, but the business of fighting may co...

Don't log off: Grounded

09 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Dein searches for the nspiring and moving stories of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent. Today, airline pilot Peter i...

Belarus across the barricades - part two

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For 100 days and counting protesters are calling for an end to the 26-year long rule of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. Poet Valzhyna Mort records fi...

Back down to Earth

05 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Since November 2000, humans have been living in space on the International Space Station (ISS). Although the ISS is a remarkable engineering achieveme...

Coronavirus: Vaccine approved

05 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nuala McGovern talks to Kerry. She has muscular dystrophy and has been shielding, or isolating, at home in England since March. We also hear from Dr J...

Me and my trolls

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Internet trolls are harassing and bullying people like never before. That’s according to research carried out in the UK which found abuse rising as ...

The state of the planet

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of a crucial year in the battle to control climate change, presenter Lucy Hockings is joined by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He is...

Don't Log Off: Searching for hope

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changed world. Inspiring and moving stories of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on ...

Belarus across the barricades - part one

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lucy Ash explores the world of the security forces that keep Lukashenko in power, peeling back the ubiquitous balaclavas to find the men and women ben...

100 Women: Women in power

29 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Ann Sieghart asks what it takes to be a powerful woman and what holds so many back. Sexism, appearance and encouraging fathers are all up for dis...

Coronavirus: Festive celebrations

28 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The arrival of winter for many countries brings the threat of increased infections as people gather indoors to escape the cold. It’s also a time for...

The Mapuche – fighting for their right to heal

26 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group – a population of more than 2 million people. And, they are fighting for their right to heal. The...

Don't Log Off: Resilience

25 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the pandemic Alan Dein has been hearing inspiring and moving accounts of how people’s lives have been transformed by the pandemic. Today,...

100 Women: The mushroom woman

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of Chido Govera aka The Mushroom Woman. It is a story about her home, Zimbabwe. And it is also a story about mushrooms. It never sho...

Coronavirus: Mental and physical toll

21 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Women in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil reveal the frightening effect of the pandemic and lockdowns on women in Latin America. Many are living with their ag...

Martinique: The poisoning of paradise

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned.” That’s how many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean island that, to tourist...

The five-day election

18 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Philippa Thomas hears from voters across the United States on the agony and ecstasy of waiting for results of the unusually protracted presidential el...

Obesity crisis In Thai temples

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Obesity is a growing problem in Thailand. As the country becomes more affluent, its citizens are working more and cooking less which means that they a...

Blood lands

15 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At dusk on a warm evening in 2016, two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South African farmhouse. The frenzy that follows will come to haunt a com...

US election: A test of democracy

14 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Joe Biden is the projected winner of the race to be the next president of the United States. Donald Trump, however, refuses to concede the election an...

The burning scar

12 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, a product found in everything from shampoo to soup; in the last two decades vast areas of for...

India's missing children

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In India, a child goes missing every eight minutes. BBC South Asia Correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan meets the family of one of those children and fol...

US election: Divided nation

07 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The US election has amplified political and racial divisions across the nation, so how do voters feel about the splits in their society?Host Nuala McG...

Sicily’s prisoner fishermen

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Eighteen fishermen from Sicily are in jail in Benghazi, accused of fishing in Libya’s waters. And in this part of the Mediterranean, rich in the hig...

Missing and murdered: America’s forgotten native girls

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Native American women are trafficked, murdered and raped at five to ten times the national rate of other American women. The figures are gruelling. Ea...

US election: Race and policing

31 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the presidential election campaign nears its conclusion, another American city witnesses protests for racial justice after police officers shoot de...

US election: Socially distant

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of the US presidential election on 3 November, two socially distanced views of the pre-election political landscape of America, explore differen...

China's rocket man

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Qian Xuesen is widely celebrated in China as the father of the country’s rocket programme, and the man who kick-started its exploration of space. Ch...

Fighting together in Korea

25 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Seventy years ago tens of thousands of North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Over the next three years one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th C...

US election: Trucking and farming

24 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nuala McGovern speaks with truck drivers and farmers in the United States as they share their thoughts on how their lives and livelihoods have been un...

The British and their fish

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By the middle of the 20th century, the English town of Grimsby was the biggest fishing port in the world. When the catch was good “fishermen could l...

A perfect match

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Thirteen years ago, journalist Ibby Caputo underwent a bone marrow transplant in the US to treat an aggressive form of leukaemia. Because she is of No...

The TikTok election

18 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

TikTok has become one of the political stories in the run up to the US elections, exposing America's distrust of China. But its users and influencers ...

The Response USA: The return

17 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As an election approaches in America, we return to a unique experiment which took the temperature of the USA after the surprise election of Donald Tru...

US election: Losing your job

17 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Our conversations reflect the impact Covid-19 has had on the US economy and on people’s jobs and wellbeing. We hear from a cook in northern Californ...

Reza's story

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A death-defying migrant's story... Said Reza Adib was a TV journalist in Afghanistan. In 2016, about to break a story about the sexual abuse of childr...

Dyslexia: Into adulthood

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Stella Sabin, who has dyslexia herself, looks at the impact of the condition in adult life, and asks what difference does it make to know the name of ...

Spitfire stories

11 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1940, in two factories in Southampton, one of the most iconic planes of World War Two was being painstakingly assembled, piece by piece. ...

US election: Testing positive for Covid-19

10 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The President of the United States is recovering from Covid-19, after a week when the world watched him leaving hospital briefly in a motorcade to wav...

Portland, prisons and white supremacy - part two

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The second part of this two-part documentary continues the story of Portland, Oregon and its struggle with white supremacists.Portland has a reputatio...

Dyslexia: Language and childhood

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Toby Withers who is dyslexic himself, reveals the challenges of learning English, with all its inconsistent rules and odd spellings. He talks to the s...

US Election 2020: Trump and coronavirus

05 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the US and there are more than 7 million confirmed cases. President Trump, whose appro...

Portland, prisons and white supremacy - part one

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Portland, Oregon, has a reputation as one of the United States’ most liberal and tolerant cities. Since the death of George Floyd, it has been at th...

Songs of the Humpback Whale

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Songs of the Humpback Whale was released in 1970 and went multi-platinum, becoming the best selling environmental album of all time. But it also becam...

What has Nobel done for the World?

27 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Brilliance is a must to win a Nobel Prize, but is that the only requirement? What else does it take to become a laureate? Ruth Alexander tells the sto...

Coronavirus: Back to normal in Wuhan?

26 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is life like now in the Chinese city where Covid-19 was first detected? Officials have declared Wuhan virus-free. Lots of people have been sharin...

Poland's gay pride and prejudice

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A number of small towns in Poland have been campaigning against what they call 'homosexual ideology'. Local authorities in the provinces have passed r...

Coronavirus: Friendships during lockdown

19 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Covid-19 is affecting our relationships - some are better, others are more challenging. A jewellery designer in India and a lawyer in the United State...

The trouble with Dutch cows

17 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Netherlands - small and overcrowded - is facing fundamental questions about how to use its land, following a historic court judgment forcing the s...

The shepherd and the settler

16 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Muhammad is a Bedouin shepherd in a remote corner of the West Bank called Rashash. His family has been herding sheep and goats in Rashash for 30 years...

Remembering those lost to Covid-19

11 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It is six months since the outbreak of a new coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Very few lives around the world have not been affected by Cov...

South Africa moonshine

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Pineapple beer is the universal homebrew in South Africa and pineapple prices trebled when the government imposed a ban on the sale of alcohol and tob...

Accused of hacking the Pentagon

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Seven years ago in a sleepy English village a doorbell rang. In that moment, Lauri Love’s life changed completely. Lauri was arrested at the door. H...

Why India is mad for motorbikes

08 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is behind the deep-seated and increasing passion for motorcycling in India?The hosts of the podcast Biker Radio Rodcast, explore what drives the ...

BBC OS Conversations: Covid-free nations

07 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Vanuatu, Micronesia and the Solomon Islands are among a handful of nations that have no registered coronavirus cases. Yet, despite this enviable statu...

Naziha Syed Ali: Pakistan’s fearless female reporter

03 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Naziha Syed Ali has made a career out of investigating sometimes scandalous abuses of power in her native Pakistan. Publishing in the count...

Rulebreakers: A beautiful prison

02 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Greenland has been detangling its colonised relationship with Denmark since World War Two. Along the way, each state service and law needs to be rewri...

The Soviet Feminist Army

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Soviet women spreading ideas on women’s equality in Afghanistan They were highly trained, focused on their mission and dedicated to their goal o...

Coronavirus: Children with special needs

30 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Children around the world are starting to return to school after months of absence because of the coronavirus pandemic. Nuala McGovern talks to Unathi...

August in Minsk

29 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

August in Minsk tells the story of the popular uprising in Belarus this August; a fast-changing revolt against the Soviet-style regime of Alexander Lu...

Hugh Sykes: Reporting from the frontlines

27 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hugh Sykes has reported for the BBC since the 1970s and has travelled far and wide to witness some of the most significant events of our age. Here, in...

Rulebreakers: Veteran on the tracks

26 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There is a secret map passed down from hobo to hobo. You can’t buy it in stores or download it online but if you’re lucky enough to get a copy you...

Red State refugees

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

President Trump has dramatically reduced the numbers of refugees arriving in the United States, vowing to protect native-born Americans’ interests. ...

BBC OS Conversations: Covid-19 'long-haulers'

23 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Thousands of people across the globe are experiencing a worrying cycle of Covid-19 symptoms months after recovering from the disease. Four of the so-c...

Barbara Demick: True stories from North Korea

20 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

North Korea and Tibet are two of the most tightly-controlled societies on earth, and as a consequence their peoples are often misunderstood by the wor...

Rulebreakers: How I disappear

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Japan, if you want to disappear from your life, you can just pick up the phone and a ‘night moving company’ will turn you into one of the count...

Vaccines, money and politics

18 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sandra Kanthal looks at what strategies are being put in place to transport a vaccine to countries around the world, who will be the first in those co...

BBC OS Conversations: Addiction during a pandemic

16 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nuala McGovern considers alcohol and drug addiction relapse during the pandemic. We hear from two men, in Kenya and the United States, about how they ...