The Documentary Podcast

Living with motor neurone disease

25 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Former England ruby captain Lewis Moody recently revealed he had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), and our conversations give an insigh...

The right thing: A deal with God

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

***This programme contains references to imprisonment, child abandonment and references to suicide which some listeners may find upsetting*** Since th...

G-Land: Surf and spirits

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Off the coast of Java, Indonesia, lies G-Land, one of the world’s most legendary surf breaks, framed by a dense forest that was once home to the now...

The last cowboys

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Truck drivers are often seen as symbols of freedom and independence. But how free is life on the road today, when the watchful eye of the system is al...

Bonus: The Global Story - A Gazan journalist's diary

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Reporting on the war in Gaza has only been possible because of the work of Palestinian journalists, because the Israeli government will not let foreig...

Carl Brandon Strehlke: My search for the 15th Century artist Beato Angelico

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Art historian Carl Brandon Stehlke is a world expert on the great 15th Century Florentine painter Fra Angelico, and this is his dream project: a histo...

A people’s history of Gaza

19 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The back-story of Gaza, from the 1940s to the 2010s, told through the personal experiences of a wide variety of ordinary people - a teacher, a smuggle...

Reporting the impact of  the Gaza ceasefire

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following the ceasefire in Gaza, this week has seen the release of hostages and prisoners on both sides and the beginning of the return of the remains...

Families in Israel and Gaza share their stories

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After two years and two days of war in Gaza, Israel and Hamas have agreed the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire. In our conversations, families i...

Mamdani New York

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Zohran Mamdani catapulted on to New York’s political scene this summer when he captured the Democratic nomination to run for Mayor this fall. A youn...

Fighting on two fronts

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

More than a third of Ukraine’s scientific institutions have been damaged or destroyed by Russian bombing. Many scientists have either fled the count...

Sabotage by smartphone

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ukrainian teenagers are being recruited online to carry out sabotage against their own country in return for cryptocurrency, and for some the conseque...

Drugs, Overdose, Hope - North Carolina and Nevada

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Drug overdose has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Fentanyl – a synthetic opioid mass produced in Mexico and smuggled across the border –...

Alexey Seliverstov: Bionic birdsong

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How fixed is the borderline between human music and the sounds of nature? That is a question that guides the work of Los Angeles-based composer Alexey...

Brazil's Miracle: an Indigenous disaster

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During the Brazilian military dictatorship, the Krenak indigenous people were banned from speaking their language, imprisoned in reformatories and for...

Tackling loneliness in India

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

India is known for its close knit families and communities, but modern work practices mean more and more people are living far from home, and sufferin...

Trump and autism: People affected speak out

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

President Donald Trump recently addressed what he described as the “horrible crisis” in autism, and rapid rise in reported cases over the last two...

Searching for hope as a hostage in Gaza

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After two long years President Trump has announced a ceasefire agreement which should see the remaining hostages returned home in exchange for the rel...

Global dancefloor: Saigon

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Frank McWeeny heads to the dancefloors of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) to uncover what Vietnamese alternative culture looks and sounds like today. With 7...

The biker gang ‘securing’ deadly Gaza aid sites

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We have identified seven members of an anti-Islamic biker gang who oversaw security teams at aid sites for starving Palestinians, run by the controver...

Bolivia’s Cholitas – From Outcasts to Icons

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With their pleated skirts and bowler hats the “cholita” women are a common sight in Bolivia’s administrative capital La Paz. They’re often fro...

Stephen Jones’ hats: A party on your head

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After growing up in the north of England British milliner Stephen Jones went on to become a pioneering British hat maker working in Paris. He has been...

Nuclear tensions in the Middle East

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The narratives and the doctrines built on ever-growing suspicions and fears that are once again stirring the Middle East. Russia’s invasion of Ukrai...

The Kremlin’s reporter

04 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pavel Zarubin has access to President Putin that other journalists can only dream of. He interviews him regularly, and travels around the world cover...

Conversations from a year in Gaza and Israel

04 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We look back over the past 12 months of the conflict between Israel and Hamas through the conversations we have recorded. It is almost two years since...

Orthodoxy or death: The fight for Mount Athos

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

**This programme contains discriminatory language** On Greece’s Mount Athos, the most holy site in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, lies a rift in the...

Powering Nigeria

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

According to the World Bank, more than 80 million people in Nigeria still lack access to electricity, making it the country with the largest energy ac...

Deepfaking disability

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A growing industry of content creators is teaching people how to make money from AI models, promising quick profits. Their strategy: steal content, al...

Haitians living in fear in the Dominican Republic

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Dominican Republic is the Caribbean’s number one tourist destination. Last year 11 million visitors came here, many enjoying the five star resor...

Emilia Wickstead: London Fashion Week

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Inspiration for Emilia Wickstead’s luxury fashion brand comes from her childhood home in New Zealand, her adolescence in Italy’s most fashionable ...

Bonus: The Global Story

28 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can Apple cut ties with China? Apple is promising to make more products in the US, backed by a $600bn investment over the next four years. But after d...

Social media influencers and politics

27 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when social media influencers join forces with politicians to promote their messages? Around the world political parties are switching f...

Living with the threat of drone attacks

27 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are now more Russian drone attacks on Ukraine than ever before in the conflict. On some nights, hundreds are targeted at the country. In one rai...

Finding my Sikh faith against the odds

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Harj Gahley is a Sikh who began gambling when he was just 23. What started as a ‘fun’ night out with friends at a casino spiralled out of control,...

Bonus. 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can Nasa build the most complex flying machine in space history? The plan is to create a permanent human presence in space.It’s Spring 1969 - two mo...

Goodreads’ ‘unfair’ rating problem

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

BBC Trending investigates how negative ‘pre-read’ and pre-publication Goodreads ratings are leaving writers - and readers - mystified. Goodreads i...

‘A new foe’: Conscripting women in Denmark

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Denmark is eyeing up the military threat from Russia – and dramatically increasing the numbers in its national service. Now, 18-year-old girls are f...

Lesia Khomenko: Art and war

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Artist Lesia Khomenko left Kyiv with her daughter the day after the Russians invaded Ukraine – leaving her husband and all of her artwork behind. Sh...

Will a fugitive oligarch sway Moldova’s election?

20 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 28 September, Moldova’s parliamentary election will be closely watched by leaders in both the EU and Russia.Ilan Shor, a fugitive oligarch on the...

A radio lifeline for Afghan women

20 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Women in Afghanistan are unable to access education, and getting medical help is difficult. But a radio station in the Panjshir Valley is trying to ge...

Charlie Kirk and free speech

20 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The shooting of conservative US activist Charlie Kirk has intensified what was already a bitter divide between those who found him inspiring, and thos...

Digital Dolittles: Talking to the animals?

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Digital technology has transformed the science of bioacoustics - the ways we hear and record animal life in the deep oceans, through the earth and in ...

The social lives of bacteria

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our bodies are filled with bacteria that have rich social lives and, just like people, these microbial neighbours and families do not always get along...

Faith on the Russia-Ukraine frontline

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian army personnel have been killed since the Russian invasion of their country. Russian casualties could be as high as 250...

Kenya: A Battle For Gen Z

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past year, Kenya has been rocked by anti-government protests. What started as a demonstration over proposed tax increases soon turned into a ...

Jon Foreman: Art that goes out with the tide

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jon Foreman is a Land Artist. He creates work in natural spaces using natural materials like stones, sand, leaves and driftwood. Known for his mesmeri...

Decoding China’s doublespeak

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How the Chinese Communist Party gets lost in translation and whether it’s accidental or intentional. “The Belt and Road Initiative”, “communit...

Who's behind Europe's largest rare book heist?

13 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The University library in Tartu, in Estonia, is a large brutalist complex, surrounded by concrete water fountains and futuristic steel sculptures. But...

Would you want to live until 150?

13 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During an unguarded conversation between President Putin and President Jinping in Beijing, the Chinese leader suggested that scientific developments m...

Selling misleading fertility hope

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The global fertility supplements industry has an estimated worth of over 2 billion dollars, and it’s growing. Some experts have raised the alarm aro...

Tequila with the bat man

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rodrigo Medellin loves bats. The Mexican conservationist has been obsessed with the often maligned creatures for over six decades. As a child, he kept...

My blessed boy: The millennial saint

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How does a seemingly ordinary boy prove to be so extraordinary that he’s given a halo by the Catholic Church? Saint Carlo Acutis was just 15 years o...

Saving Gaza's past

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The history of Gaza dates back more than 5000 years. In antiquity, it was a key port on the Mediterranean coast. Assyrians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, By...

Kharkiv: Love in a warzone

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past year, BBC Eye has documented life in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, helping to capture the deeply personal stories of those l...

MAST: Architecture on water

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rising sea levels and a worldwide shortage of buildable land make the prospect of floating buildings and infrastructure more beneficial than ever. MA...

Colombia's cocaine submarines

06 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Deep inside the Colombian Amazon hi-tech submarines are being built. When it comes to making the cocaine trade more profitable, there’s nothing narc...

Grey divorce

06 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s plenty of chat on social media about so-called ‘grey divorce’. But are older people around the world really splitting up in record numbe...

Blessed with bread

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

To Italians, bread is life. With 250 varieties across the country, it’s eaten with almost every meal. Its importance speaks to national values of co...

Germany's timber detectives

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On the outskirts of Hamburg, Dr Gerald Koch is surrounded by wooden objects - chairs, board games, paint brushes - ready for inspection. His team of s...

Floods hit Texas, then came the cloud talk

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

BBC Trending: Why are some Americans yelling at clouds?On 4 July, just hours after flash floods hit the US state of Texas, killing more than 130 peopl...

Galicia’s wild horses in peril

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Europe’s largest herd of wild horses, in north-west Spain, is under threat. Numbers have halved in the last fifty years. Now around ten thousand wil...

The Delacorte Theater

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Delacorte Theater, home to New York's beloved free outdoor Shakespeare performances in Central Park, has undergone an $85 million refurbishment. N...

Paul McCartney: Beatles and beyond

31 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs celebrates the life and legacy of Sir Paul McCartney, from his Liverpool roots to Beatlemania and beyond. It is a journey...

Scammed, robbed, traumatised – life after war for Russian soldiers

30 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Russian soldiers were told that they would be the country's 'new elite' by President Putin. But many of them have reported being robbed and scammed ou...

Surviving the floods in Pakistan

30 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Many parts of Pakistan have been experiencing intense rainfall in recent weeks. Since June, at least 800 people have been killed, homes and businesses...

Digitally preserving Armenia’s Christian heritage

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the ancient Yererouk Basilica in Armenia, near the border with Turkey, young engineers are using 3D digital technology to scan every part of the bu...

Student Predator: Surviving Zhenhao Zou

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, Chinese student Zhenhao Zou was jailed for 24 years for drugging and raping ten women in the UK and China. He has been described by...

The Facebook grifters making money off AI Holocaust victims

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Early June, the Auschwitz Memorial posted a warning about AI-generated Holocaust victims flooding Facebook. BBC Trending has since tracked several ...

Suing 'Alligator Alcatraz': Immigration in the US

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

President Trump has called illegal immigration an “invasion” and what has followed is a huge rise in the arrest and detention of migrants. Some ha...

Adeju Thompson: Taking fashion label Lagos Space Programme to the world

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Adeju Thompson, the founder and creative director behind the Nigerian fashion label Lagos Space Programme, attempts to establish the label on the glob...

Bonus: Lives Less Ordinary presents, Hold Fast!

24 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The incredible true story of how The Avontuur was locked down at sea for 188 days during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 15 people on board. The journey b...

Mud wrestling and tent pegging: Africa’s unusual sports

23 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We take a look at some of the more unusual sports practiced on the African continent. Kelvin Kimathi recently travelled to Uganda where a muddy versio...

Ukrainians at war and their hopes for peace

23 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While US President Donald Trump spearheads efforts to halt the conflict in Ukraine, Russian drones and missiles continue to kill and injure civilians,...

Gaudí: God’s architect

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In one of his final official acts before he died, Pope Francis put Antoni Gaudí, Spain’s most famous architect, onto the path to sainthood. Gaudí'...

White Coats v the White House

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Science journalist Roland Pease asks whether the rounds of cuts, reorganisations and political strong-arming in US science can be weathered, and how t...

Dan Meis: Designing Everton Football Club's new stadium

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The inaugural premier league football match at Everton’s much anticipated new stadium will kick-off on 23 August 2025, as the home side play against...

Europe’s migrant crisis: the truck that shocked the world

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 2015 tens of thousands of people left their homes in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq in the hope of finding a safe haven in Europe. The j...

The Herds: Life-sized puppets flee climate change

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A vast herd of life-size puppet animals travel from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, to flee the effects of climate change. Following their inter...

Ghost cities FC

17 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Qarabag FK is not only a refugee football club but also the most successful team in Azerbaijan. Located in Baku, they originally hail from the 'ghost'...

Comedians and Afghan weddings

16 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, they introduced many controversial measures, including a ban on music. How do people celebrate s...

Messages from Sudan's war

16 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Few people in Sudan have been left untouched by the civil war. More than 150,000 people have died, 12 people million have been forced to leave their h...

The president’s path: Trump’s Latino base

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump will not be on the ballot in next year’s midterm elections, but his policies will be put to the electoral test. Sumi Somaskanda, Courtn...

Birding the gender gap

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During the annual World Series of Birding in New Jersey, US, teams compete to see who can identify the most bird species in 24 hours. For team Galbatr...

Mo Salah: Egyptian king

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mo Salah is one of Egypt's biggest and highly influential footballing icons. John Bennett visit his home village of Nagrig to meet the people who help...

Tajikistan’s last, lonely hyenas

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, conservationists in Tajikistan assumed that the striped hyena – a shy, less vocal cousin of the spotted hyena – was extinct there. Bu...

Yoko Nishina: Japanese calligraphy

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yoko Nishina likes to use black Japanese Sumi ink in her calligraphy work because of the variety of colours , from blues through to browns. Craftsmen ...

Has Ghana's ‘Year of Return’ been a success?

10 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Back in 2019, Ghana’s then president sent out an invitation to people with African heritage to come to Ghana. It was called the Year of Return - a c...

Why are Chinese micro-dramas so popular?

09 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Secret billionaire husbands, blood-thirsty vampire lovers and being reborn as your great-grandmother: these are some of the outrageous plotlines that ...

Israelis and the war in Gaza

09 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israel faces growing international pressure to end the war in Gaza. But on Thursday night Israel's security cabinet approved plans to expand military ...

Freddie’s second verse

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Freddie 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 that li...

The Engineers: Exploring the human

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Engineering has moved inside the body to innovate like never before. In neuro-science, brain implants can provide ‘psychic’ communication for peop...

New Zealand: Heading across the ditch

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand citizens, particularly young professionals and graduates, are leaving the country in record numbers. Most are heading across the Tasman Se...

Waiting for my Dad - Ukraine's children of the missing

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A pioneering summer camp for Ukrainian children with missing parents.According to the Ukrainian government more than 70 thousand people are missing in...

Luke Jerram: A good yarn

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Luke Jerram creates spectacular art installations all over the world. He reached millions of people with his work Play Me, I’m Yours, inviting anyo...

Why a South Korean church bought a village in Paraguay

02 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Puerto Casado is a remote village in Paraguay, in South America. It’s not dissimilar to many other rural towns in the area: red-brick houses, small ...

Hunger in Gaza

02 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israel faces growing international isolation over the shocking images of starvation in Gaza. Although Israel says there are no restrictions on aid del...

Bergen-Belsen: Among graves, we were born

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany was the only camp liberated by the British Forces in April, 1945. Prior to that, over 50,000 people were m...

Controlling nature's data

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Could AI cure cancer using nature's DNA? A London tech firm, Basecamp Research, harvests genetic information from organisms and microbes around the wo...

The JNIM branch of al-Qaeda

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The JNIM branch of al-Qaeda is one of the world's deadliest jihadist groups. It has firmly planted its flag in the Sahel. Sub-Saharan Africa has emerg...

Can Greenland go it alone?

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Until this year Greenland rarely made the international news and probably only the islanders themselves took much time to contemplate their future. Bu...