The Documentary Podcast
Episodes
India's forbidden love
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when religious extremism and honour killings have been dominating the political and social discourse, we take a look at the issues surroundi...
Will AI kill development?
06 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Goldin asks if robotisation will prevent poorer countries taking the traditional route to prosperity. Since World War Two, nation after nation has...
Nepal Fights Foreign Paedophiles
04 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hunting western paedophiles is a priority for a new police unit tasked with safeguarding children in Nepal. Mired in poverty and still recovering from...
Will China and America go to war?
03 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Will the growing competition between China and the United States inevitably lead to military conflict? One leading American academic created huge atte...
Not #MeToo, I'm French
02 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 2016 when #MeToo spread around the world, thousands of women followed in France using the hashtag #balancetonporc (expose your pig). Some criticise...
Unrest in Ukraine’s Little Hungary
28 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Eastern Ukraine has been under assault from Russian backed rebel forces for the past five years, but few have heard of a smaller conflict, which could...
The Romanian Wave
27 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Romanians are the second largest foreign nationality in the UK. Why did they come and will they stay? One politician famously once said he "would not ...
Where are you going? - London
26 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine Carr talks to people on the move in London. From the American who left her young children on the other side of the Atlantic, and the Russian...
RoboLife
24 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mariko Oi has young children starting school in Singapore, where robots are increasingly being used in education, and ageing parents back in her home ...
The crypto factor: the winners and losers in virtual investment
21 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You can't take money with you when you die.... or can you? In this episode of Assignment the stranger than fiction story that's the latest cryptocurre...
India and how it sees Britain
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Neil MacGregor visits different countries to talk to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as memb...
Where are you going? - Belfast
19 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One question – Where are you going? – reveals hidden truths about the lives of strangers around the world. In this new series, with Brexit fast ap...
Can you murder a robot?
17 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A couple of years ago a cute little robot was sent out to hitchhike, to prove how well humans and robots could get on. It was an exercise in trust, an...
Abandoned in the Amazon
14 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When a light aircraft carrying two families from local Indian tribes disappeared over the Amazon recently, relatives scoured the rainforest for weeks,...
Canada and how it sees Britain
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Neil MacGregor visits different countries to talk to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as memb...
Where are you going? - Cardiff
12 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Cardiff in early February is freezing cold but the people have a warm welcome. Catherine Carr meets strangers in the city of Cardiff to find out what ...
The Slumlords of Nairobi
10 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Nairobi’s slums, more than 90% of residents rent a shack from a slum landlord. These so-called slumlords have a less than shining reputation in t...
The Church of Denmark abuse scandal
07 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How did a priest of the Church of Denmark manage to sexually abuse children for a decade without being detected? Gry Hoffmann investigates the case of...
Nigeria and how it sees Britain
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Neil MacGregor visits different countries to talk to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as memb...
Where Are You Going? - Glasgow
05 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With Brexit fast approaching, Catherine Carr talks to people on the move in Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast and London. Are the people she meets downcast, d...
We Intend to Cause Havoc
02 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of independence an explosive music scene gripped the southern African country of Zambia. Mixing western rock 'n' roll with traditional sou...
Empty Spain and the Caravans of Love
28 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How does a lonely, Spanish shepherd find love when single women have left for the city? Antonio Cerrada lives north of Madrid, in the heart of what’...
Egypt and how it sees Britain
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Neil MacGregor visits different countries to talk to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as memb...
Hearing me
26 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
(This programme contains audio effects that may cause discomfort to people living with hearing conditions. There is a modified version of this program...
The Miracle of St Anthony's
24 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 1960s, parole officer Bob Hurley became basketball coach at St Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. In the years that follo...
Malawi: Life After Death Row
21 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Byson expected to be dead long ago. Now in his sixties, he was given a death sentence quarter of a century ago. But instead of being executed, he’s ...
As the World Sees Britain: Germany and how it sees Britain
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Neil MacGregor visits different countries to talk to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as memb...
George Weah: The footballing president
19 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
George Weah, former World Footballer of the Year and star of AC Milan, Chelsea and Monaco, was elected president of Liberia in a landslide victory jus...
Can we fix it? The inside story of match fixing in tennis
14 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, law enforcement officials in Spain said they had broken up a major match fixing ring in tennis. The Guardia Civil said 28 players competin...
The Trumped Republicans
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Republican insider Ron Christie discovers how Donald Trump's presidency is changing his party. Trump arrived in the White House offering a populist re...
So where are the aliens?
12 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Vulcans, Daleks, Martians, Grays - our culture is pervaded by alien beings from distant worlds – some benevolent…most not so much. In our galaxy a...
The Ballads of Emmett Till
10 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
**Some listeners may find parts of this programme upsetting** Emmett Till, fourteen and black, was put on the train from Chicago by his mother Mamie i...
The Pledge
07 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On college campuses across the United States, students die every year as a result of “hazing” - sometimes violent and dangerous rituals designed t...
My Brexit Dilemma
06 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Adrian Goldberg is a BBC reporter. His father was German and came to the UK on Kindertransport just before the start of the Second World War. For Adri...
Sweeping the World
05 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Sweeping the World, award-winning poet, Imtiaz Dharker presents a reflective evocation in words, sound and music of the broom in many cultures. Whe...
The Politics of Mongolian Hip Hop
02 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
MC Dizraeli hears how Mongolia’s massive hip hop scene is shaping the country’s future. He finds surprising lyrics that dispense moral advice, wor...
Japan's Elderly Crime Wave
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Elderly pensioners in Japan are committing petty crimes so that they can be sent to prison. One in five of all prisoners in Japan are now over 65. The...
Solving Alzheimer's: Living and Dying with Alzheimer's
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the Netherlands, people with dementia can legally chose euthanasia but the debate is going back and forth there. When can dementia patients consent...
Songs from the Depths of Hell
27 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Aleksander Kulisiewicz spent six years in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, imprisoned soon after the Nazi invasion and their attempted destruction of...
Closing Uganda’s Orphanage
24 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Uganda is a country that has seen massive growth in the number of ‘orphanages’ providing homes to children, despite the number of orphans there de...
Solving Alzheimer's: The Trillion Dollar Disease
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dementia is now a trillion-dollar disease, and with the numbers of patients doubling every 20 years, the burden will fall unevenly on developing count...
The Assassination - Part Two
20 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It is one of the world's great unsolved murders. Ten years ago, Pakistan's most prominent politician, a woman people would form human chains to protec...
France, Algeria and the battle for truth
17 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
President Emmanuel Macron has recently done something unusual for a French President – he made a declaration recognising that torture was used by th...
Africa’s Drone Experiment
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While the idea of retail giants like Amazon dropping parcels from the sky via drone may be a long way off, in East Africa momentum is building over th...
Solving Alzheimer's: Fear and Stigma
15 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Few of us will escape the impact of Alzheimer’s Disease. The grim pay-back from being healthy, wealthy or lucky enough to live into our late 80s and...
The Assassination - Part One
13 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, Benazir Bhutto, a woman people would form human chains to protect from assassins, died in a suicide blast. The intervening years have b...
Balkan Border Wars - Serbia and Kosovo
10 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Old enemies Serbia and Kosovo discuss what for some is unthinkable - an ethnic land swap. This dramatic proposal is one of those being talked about as...
Cuban Voices
08 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ordinary Cubans reveal what their lives have really been like under Castro’s socialism and, more recently, its transformation into a more capitalist...
From the Ground Up
05 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Central African Republic is one of the least developed countries on earth. Years of conflict have left hundreds of thousands of people displaced. ...
The Brazilian Footballer Who Never Was
03 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At 12, Douglas Braga arrived in Rio de Janeiro, a wide-eyed boy, ready to live out the Brazilian dream and become a professional footballer. At 18, he...
New York's Flower Market: Things my Father Loved
01 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New York’s historic 28th Street flower market opens early. The sidewalk is a rush of colour by 5am, packed with cheerful yellow sunflowers, frothy l...
Childish Gambino: This is 2018
30 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In May 2018 the American actor and singer Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) released what has been described as “the most talked about music vide...
Armenia: Return to a Town that Died
27 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty years on from the 1988 earthquake in Armenia, what’s happened to the devastated town of Spitak? Rescuers from all over the world came to help...
Christmas with Melania
25 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Melania Trump is the second foreign-born First Lady and Donald Trump’s third wife; an ex-model, 24 years his junior, who once posed pregnant in a go...
Carols of the Times
23 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From the age of eight, Bob Chilcott sang with the world renowned King's College Choir in Cambridge. Every Christmas Eve the choir gather in the chapel...
DNA, Me and the Family Tree
20 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Where do you come from? Tracing your ancestry in the USA is one of the most popular hobbies along with gardening and golf. TV is awash with advertisin...
Spy Ship: The Capture of the USS Pueblo
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It was a brazen and violent attack by North Korean forces on an American ship sailing in international waters, leading to the death of one sailor and ...
Congo: A River Journey
15 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A journey in sound along the mighty Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This adventure transports you to the heart of the country on the ...
China's Hidden Camps
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
China is accused of locking up as many as a million Uighur Muslims without trial across its western region of Xinjiang. The government denies the clai...
Stories on the Rocks
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Somaliland’s rich archaeological heritage was practically unknown 15 years ago. Now thanks to Dr. Sada Mire, Somali archaeologist and author, mediev...
When you tire of tech
11 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Our lives are consumed more and more by the online world whether it be for entertainment or every day activities. For some people it becomes too much ...
India's battle with online porn
09 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Access to pornography though mobile phones has been sudden and widespread in India: some say way too sudden for a conservative society, and blame this...
Inside Burundi’s Killing Machine
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
An investigation into the 'killing machine' of one of Africa's most repressive and secretive countries. Three years ago there was widespread unrest in...
Vicky Phelan: The Woman who Changed Ireland
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This is the story of Vicky Phelan, a mother of two from Limerick, Ireland. Vicky has cancer of the cervix and in 2017 she was given just six months to...
Radio La Colifata
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How is a radio station in an Argentinian psychiatric hospital changing the way people view mental illness? Radio La Colifata - slang for loon, or craz...
A Stark Choice for Cambodia's Surrogates
29 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In a Cambodian hospital, a group of terrified new mothers nurse tiny babies under the watch of police guards. They're surrogates, desperately poor wom...
Migrants Mean Business
28 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kim Tserkezie explores how migrants have used their entrepreneurial skills to become part of British communities, and finds out whether the experience...
The Surrogates Club
27 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Canada many women volunteer to give birth to a stranger's child and do not get paid in return. Under Canadian laws, gestational surrogates receive ...
Reporting Women
25 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Women make up roughly 50% of the world but is the media reporting the issues that matter to them? Do women want to hear more debate around taboo subje...
The Carnival: 50 Years in St Pauls
24 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Narrated by Bristol’s first poet laureate Miles Chambers, from costumes to sound systems this tale looks at the history of the St Pauls Carnival, me...
Nigeria's Patient 'Prisoners'
22 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nigerian patients held in hospital because they can’t pay their medical bills.In March 2016, a young woman went into labour. She was rushed to a loc...
The Number One Ladies’ Landmine Agency
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We follow a unique group of Sahrawi women working alongside the world’s longest minefield, the 2,700km sand wall or berm built by Morocco across the...