The Documentary Podcast

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....

Max Kidruk: Imagining the future in a science fiction trilogy

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How do you imagine the future if you are a science fiction writer living in the present with your country at war? That is the challenge and dilemma fo...

Is the Taliban’s war on drugs working?

05 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Afghanistan used to produce more than 80% of the world's opium, the key ingredient for the drug heroin. When the Taliban took over, they banned poppy ...

Undocumented migrants in the USA

05 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump campaigned hard on illegal immigration ahead of the presidential election and promised voters a major crackdown if they backed him. Since...

Verses for women: Egypt’s Quran reciters

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Salma El-Wardany meets young women in Egypt using their voices to amplify their faith – drawing inspiration from the long tradition of female Quran ...

Diabetes in Pakistan: A nation's struggle

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

British-Pakistani pharmacist turned comedian Lubna Kerr hears from doctors, sufferers, and experts as she explores Pakistan’s growing diabetes crisi...

Arthur Ashe: More than a champion

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An inspiration, a politician, a pioneer on and off court - these just some of the words used to describe Arthur Ashe, who became the first African-Ame...

Sri Lanka: The X-Press Pearl disaster

01 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, a huge container ship, the X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank off the coast of Sri Lanka, releasing hazardous materials, toxic chemicals and ...

What next for Poland?

29 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why are Poland's young voters turning to the right? With his veto powers, Poland’s president-elect Karol Nawrocki could halt the pro-EU government o...

Who's Poland's new president?

28 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Poland’s president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, is a right-wing historian, an amateur boxer and a fan of Donald Trump. What will his presidency mean for t...

Iranians living in the USA

28 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following the recent bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites by the United States, we talk to Iranians living in the US about their thoughts as they watch e...

Praise You: A forgotten love letter to black men

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

DJ Fatboy Slim’s Praise You is a song you might have heard in a Hollywood movie or danced to in a club - to this day, it is still his biggest hit. B...

Inside the US trans military ban

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One of the first executive orders that President Donald Trump signed in his second term of office stated that being transgender is incompatible with t...

Pride month special

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From the BBC World Service podcast Witness History, this is a special episode to mark June as Pride Month. We are looking back at some of the major mo...

One week in Gaza

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The daily realities and private thoughts of a young woman living through war. Every morning, Hanya Aljamal sees the same man from her balcony. “He...

Joachim Trier: The making of Sentimental Value

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We go behind the scenes with director Joachim Trier as he makes the follow-up to his international hit The Worst Person In The World. Producer Stephen...

Ukrainian life under Russian occupation

22 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Currently about a fifth of Ukraine is under Russian occupation. Olga Malchevska of the BBC News team has spoken to 3 people from different cities in t...

Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast 2025

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the 70th anniversary of this unique BBC radio programme aimed at just a few dozen listeners: The team of scientists and support staff isolated ...

Iranians and Israelis

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since Israel launched its attack on Iran, targeting the country’s nuclear capabilities, air strikes by both sides have killed and injured people in ...

Reworking a future: Buddhist revival in Mongolia

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cambridge anthropologist David Sneath is in Mongolia to find out how Buddhism continues to make a comeback after years of persecution under Communism....

The copper kingdom

19 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The world is electrifying, and central to our decarbonisation drive is copper. The red metal is second only to silver as the best conductor of electri...

What’s Iran’s IRGC?

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds force and the Basij militias are back in the news due to the conflict between Israel and Iran. What ar...

Could your colleague be a North Korean in disguise?

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Recently several videos from recruiters on LinkedIn have gone viral. The videos appear to show recruiters conducting routine job interviews over a vid...

The Ketamine trail

17 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ketamine was designed as an anaesthetic but its use as a recreational drug is growing fast, particularly among young people. In the UK, it’s doubled...

Amoako Boafo: Creating space to celebrate Blackness

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo has attracted global fame for his bold and sensual portraits. He paints bodies and faces using his fingertips instead...

Australia's extinction crisis

15 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Roughly a third of all global mammal extinctions in the last 500 years are thought to have occurred in Australia. At least 34 species have gone extinc...

The TV drama that shocked the Arab world

14 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, the Egyptian TV drama Lam Shamseya aired across the Arab world. It tackled sensitive topics, including child sexual abuse, and spar...

Female influencers

14 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After the fatal shooting in Pakistan of a teenage social media influencer, Sana Yousaf, we bring together female influencers around the world to share...

Pulpit to palace

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2022, the senior pastor of The Redeemed Christian Church of God - Jesus House Parish, Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye, resigned from his position at a ...

The tyre scandal

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every year the UK produces around 50 million tyres for disposal. They are supposed to be sent for recycling. Instead, big money is being made by diver...

No, there isn’t a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 12 May, 59 Afrikaners arrived in Washington to receive “refugee” status. At a press conference, President Trump said he had acted because Afrik...

Balochistan - the women of the vanished

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the last two decades thousands of men have disappeared in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest region. Activists and some of their families accuse the...

Auntie Flo: Making plants dance

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Brian D’Souza, aka Auntie Flo, is a Scottish musician, DJ and sound recordist who has played at some of the biggest festivals and clubs around the w...

Why does Moldova matter to Putin?

07 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Moldova is a country torn between pro-Western and pro-Russian factions. In September this year, Moldovans will vote for a new leadership, and pro-Euro...

How life is changing in Syria

07 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For well over a decade, civil war blighted the lives of Syrians, as rebel forces battled against former President Bashar al-Assad and his brutal regim...

The future of the Alawites

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the Assad regime’s fall in Syria, thousands of Alawites, a minority Shia sect historically linked to the former regime, have fled to ...

The Global Jigsaw: Netanyahu’s media squeeze

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Israeli government’s push to transform the media landscape has been described by critics as a “hostile takeover” that poses a threat to pres...

Russian informers: Hunting the enemy within

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Informers are playing a key role in helping the Russian government silence dissent, now one victim has turned detective to uncover their persecutor’...

Assignment: What future for Assad’s army?

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The former rebels who now rule Syria dismantled the old regime’s security forces as soon as they came to power last December. Overnight, half a mill...

In the Studio: Designing Conclave

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Production designer Suzie Davies reveals the secrets behind Conclave, and how she managed to build the Sistine Chapel in a film studio in Rome. And ex...

The three babies mystery

01 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On a cold night in January 2024 a dog walker finds a baby in a bag in east London, UK - a foundling. She is named Elsa, after the Frozen character. Re...

Russia's 'grey zone' war

31 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Grigor Atanesian from BBC Russian joins us to discuss the theories around 'grey zone' warfare techniques and if, why, and how Russia is deploying them...

BBC OS Conversations: Israelis discuss the war in Gaza

31 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas and recent warnings of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, have led to a ratcheting up of pressure on Israel, not just...

Heart and Soul: Portugal's Surf Church

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the coastal city of Porto, Portugal, a unique spiritual community is making waves, literally. The Surf Church, led by Brazilian-born pastor and avi...

The riddle of Iranian cinema

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Iranian-American film-maker Maryam Keshavarz explores a world of creativity under restriction, where film-makers find ways to speak despite censorship...

BBC Trending: Print and shoot - The spread of 3D-printed guns

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A growing number of incidents have highlighted the dangers of 3D-printed ‘ghost guns’, untraceable firearms that can be assembled at home with the...