The Documentary Podcast
Episodes
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...
Marina Tabassum: Designing London's Serpentine Pavilion
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum won the commission to create the 25th Serpentine Pavilion – a temporary summer structure for London’s Kensin...
The shooting of India’s biggest hip hop star
26 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sidhu Moose Wala was one of the most famous Punjabi rappers in the world. A devout Sikh, he wore a turban and prided himself on his farming roots. But...
The hidden pain of fibroids
26 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Oscar winning film star Lupita Nyong'o revealed on Instagram her decade long struggle with uterine fibroids it attracted almost a million likes. ...
Rāgas and Redemption: Alam Khan’s Spiritual Legacy
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to inherit a sacred tradition? Alam Khan was born into one of the most revered lineages in Indian classical music - his father, Ali ...
The battle for Bangladesh: Eye Investigations
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In July 2024 Bangladesh was rocked by protests. They were sparked by anger at widespread corruption, and the reinstatement of a quota system that rese...
Vancouver's mental health crisis
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On 26 April 26, this year, 11 people were killed after a car was driven into a crowd at a street festival in Vancouver. Dozens more were injured, maki...
Wynton Marsalis: The sound of democracy
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz trumpeter and bandleader Wynton Marsalis, one of America’s greatest l...
The mystery of the ‘tula boy’
19 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1953, a South Korean child was smuggled into Colombia in a duffle bag, or ‘tula’ in Spanish. He was adopted and re-named Carlos Arturo Gallón,...
Landmines
19 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hidden landmines and other devices left behind from wars are present in nearly 70 countries and territories, according to the military alliance Nato. ...
Escaping North Korea
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
North Korea is considered one of the most secretive countries in the world. It is officially an atheist state. The ruling party sees religion as a thr...
Returning Germany’s stolen skulls
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1900, German colonial officers executed 19 Tanzanian leaders, including Akida Kiwelu, and shipped their skulls to Berlin for scientific study. Thou...
Myanmar’s Scam Centres
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Observers are calling this possibly the biggest human trafficking event in modern times. Hundreds of thousands of people recruited – usually under f...
Anatomy of a scene
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For over 25 years Antonia Quirke has made programmes and written articles about film. After a chance comment during an interview, she was offered a sm...
Dying for a transplant
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, British-Nigerian comedian Emmanuel Sonubi suffered from a near-fatal heart failure whilst on a comedy tour of Dubai. He had a condition calle...
The Romanians choosing life in the hills
12 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A growing number of Romanians, including some celebrities and the country’s former prime minister Dacian Cioloș, are moving to the countryside. The...
Why it's good for men to talk
12 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across the world, there’s often a stigma when it comes to men discussing their emotions. “We’re taught here as men that a man shouldn’t cry,”...
France’s new Christians
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The number of adults getting baptised in France has tripled in the last three years. Why are so many more adults joining the Church in France? We meet...
Ark of the dry lands
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers in Morocco are developing dry-land agriculture at ICARDA (the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas). It is home...
Bonus. World of Secrets: The Killing Call
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sidhu Moose Wala explodes onto the Canadian music scene. His sound is a fusion of two worlds - hip-hop with the poetic language of rural Punjab, where...
Re-homing France’s immigrant workers
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
France’s last foyers – housing for immigrant workers – are set for demolition. But some current residents are worried about what they’ll lose....