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PODCAST

The Documentary Podcast

BBC World Service

Hear the voices at the heart of global stories. Where curious minds can uncover hidden truths and make sense of the world. The best of documentary storytelling from the BBC World Service. From China’s state-backed overseas spending, to on the road with Canada’s Sikh truckers, to the front line of the climate emergency, we go beyond the headlines. Each week we dive into the minds of the world’s most creative people, take personal journeys into spirituality and connect people from across the globe to

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

22:59

Why I chose to adopt

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/27

Actress Jennifer Aniston sparked controversy recently when she said that, despite years of unsuccessful fertility treatment, she is not interested in adopting a baby. Instead, she wants “my own DNA in a little person.” Four women from India, the US and UK share their experiences of trying to have children by several different routes. Sometimes, their choices bring judgement. Imogen, in the UK, always wanted to adopt, yet family and friends wondered why going "down the IVF route” was not an option.

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26:28

The lord and dance: Michael Flatley

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/26

Michael Flatley is the most famous Irish dancer in the world, rising to stardom for his leading roles in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Colm Flynn travels to meet Flatley at home, where he reflects on the highs of his remarkable career and the personal experiences that shaped his outlook on life and faith.Born in Chicago to Irish parents, Flatley grew up surrounded by music, dance, and the values of hard work and perseverance. His groundbreaking performance in Riverdance at the Eurovision Song

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26:29

The gift of science

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/25

Our present to you is the science of gifts. First, we investigate the health benefits of donating blood, and find out about the predator sharing a feast of food in the Arctic. We are then joined in the studio by physicist Dr Krishma Singal from Rice University, who unravels the soft-matter physics and brilliant engineering potential of knitting. Next, we discuss the reputation of piranhas, enquire about the uniqueness of our sneezes, and break down how salting roads makes them safer in the

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26:59

Bonus: 2025 in conversations from The Interview

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/24

2025 on The InterviewIn 2025, the BBC launched The Interview, bringing you the best conversations from across the BBC. People shaping our world from all over the world.This special episode for The Documentary features three of the most compelling conversations from The Interview across the year. Senior politicians are held to account by experienced BBC journalists, who also bring a unique and personal insight to the conversation, with a behind-the-scenes take on each encounter that took place.US

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26:44

Argentina's elusive big cats

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/23

After decades of extinction, wild jaguars are once again roaming in Northern Argentina. It has been at least thirty five years since a wild jaguar cub was spotted in this dry and dusty part of Argentina. But in August 2025, a baby appeared on the chocolatey-brown banks of the River Bermejo. Its existence was a great success for the team from Rewilding Argentina, a non-profit foundation that started reintroducing these magnificent beasts here in 2019. But it has not been easy: hunting is still a

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26:00

Michael Symmons Roberts' Christmas card poem

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/22

There’s a tradition among poets to write a poem to put inside the Christmas cards they send. So, the BBC World Service has commissioned one specially from the poet, dramatist and novelist Michael Symmons Roberts, whose Christian faith is important to his identity and work. But his art is not a direct expression of this, and instead he follows the poet Emily Dickinson’s instruction to "tell all the truth but tell it slant". Michael has just become a grandfather, so feels keenly the happiness of the

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49:31

United In Space – How we built the ISS

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/21

Personal tales of bravery, tragedy, daring and triumph, United in Space unveils the remarkable story of one of humanity’s greatest ever feats – building a home among the stars – the International Space Station.Celebrating 25 unbroken years of humans living in space, former international director of the UK Space Agency, Dr Alice Bunn charts how nations put aside differences to create the ultimate symbol of human ingenuity and collaboration – a space station orbiting our planet that has been home to

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26:29

Living in fear on South Africa's farms

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/20

In February, American President Donald Trump signed an executive order which said that South African Afrikaners - descendants of mainly Dutch settlers who arrived in the 17th Century - could be admitted as refugees in the USA as they were "victims of unjust racial discrimination". President Trump’s move to prioritise the resettlement of white South African farmers reignited global controversy when he referenced what he has described as a “genocide” against white farmers. Thousands of South Africans

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23:17

Jewish Australians on the Bondi Beach attacks

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/20

The Australian government says it will crack down on hate speech following the deadly shooting that targeted a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach. People had come together to celebrate Hanukkah when two gunmen opened fire, killing fifteen people.Australia’s new laws aim to target those who spread “hate, division and radicalisation". In our conversations, Jewish Australians discuss their personal experiences of antisemitism in Australia.“You see the arson, you see the graffiti, you see the protests, you

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26:30

Prayers through the checkpoints

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/19

Imagine being able to see your place of worship, but not be able to reach it. For many Palestinian Muslims in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, stricter Israeli security measures, rising tensions with settlers, and movement restrictions introduced after the 7 October attacks, have made access to mosques increasingly challenging. Reporting from Hebron and East Jerusalem, Emily Wither explores how these pressures are reshaping the spiritual lives of worshippers living at the heart of one of

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26:29

Elephant politics

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/18

Botswana is home to about a third of Africa’s remaining savanna elephants, over 130,000. But it is a burden as well as a blessing. It puts pressure on local communities, and the cost of conservation is huge. Climate change means elephants are moving into new areas in their search for water and in some parts of this sparsely populated country there are more elephants than people. Jo Dwyer travels to northern Botswana, where safari-based tourism helps drive the economy. Elephants bring in the

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38:13

Introducing The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/17

As the USA and Soviet Union race for supremacy in the 1960s, Premier Khrushchev sizes up his rival, President John F Kennedy. Presenters Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the superpower leaders, explore their rise to power - one wealthy, smooth-talking and Harvard educated, the other a hardened Soviet war leader from a peasant family. As they prepare to meet for the first and only time as world leaders, the stakes could not be higher: they are fierce rivals in the race to build ever

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27:49

Stolen brides of Kazakhstan: The fightback

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/16

In plain sight, in a modern city, a colleague offers to drive you home after work. How would you respond? One woman in Kazakhstan accepted the lift only to find herself kidnapped or ‘stolen’ as a bride. She got away, rescued by the police, but for many Kazakh women kidnap leads to marriage. Human Rights lawyer Khalida Azhigulova reckons that thousands of women are forced into marriage each year in Kazakhstan, including many who are abducted. Some women even find that a wedding has already been

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29:58

Jim Henson's Creature Shop: Back to Fraggle Rock

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/15

Sean Allsop goes behind the scenes inside the legendary Jim Henson's Creature Shop in New York, where fabric and materials bring life to characters beloved around the world. Sean joins the team as they work on their famous franchise Fraggle Rock, a series which started in the mid-80s. They're currently creating human-size walk-about characters for a brand new live show. Creative supervisor Jason Weber and the team work through costume fitting, sculpting, and go through archives to make the perfect

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26:28

A makeover for Syria's interim leader?

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/13

One year after the fall of Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has undergone a significant image makeover. He's regularly seen playing basketball or pool on social media and his posts are amplified by a network of government-backed influencers. BBC Monitoring's Samia Hosny has been watching and reflects on what this PR campaign is saying – and what it isn't. The special administrative region of Macau on the south coast of China is sometimes referred to as the Las

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23:20

Somalis in America

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/13

Donald Trump says Somali immigrants in the US should “go back to where they came from.” The President’s comments come after allegations of large-scale fraud in Minnesota's social assistance programme, implicating several Somali immigrants. Trump has repeatedly criticised the community saying he does not want Somali immigrants in the United States and that their country is “no good for a reason.” In our conversations we bring together three Somalis who have made their homes in Minnesota. We also

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26:30

The divine gift of sex

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/12

Sex therapist Dr Rica Cruz is on a mission to destigmatise sex in the deeply Catholic Philippines. As a practising Catholic herself, she believes sex is a divine gift and should be intertwined with faith rather than in conflict. Using social media to advocate for this, she earned a strong following which led to her own TV programme, Private Convos with Doc Rica. But that show was banned by the country’s broadcast TV regulator, the MTRCB. Jay Behrouzi speaks with Dr Cruz about her fight for better

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23:46

Surgery in a backpack

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/11

In some places, the nearest safe operating room can be hours or even days away. We find out about a portable operating theatre called SurgiBox that fits in a backpack and inflates in minutes, creating a safe surgical environment for operations almost anywhere. We meet the co-founder of the start-up behind it and see it put to the test, and speak to a surgeon who has used it to save lives far from a hospital. We also hear from Field Ready, whose engineers in Syria are using 3D printing to bring

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29:10

The struggle of Israel's peace movement

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/09

Two years ago a group of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists stood almost alone in Israel in calling for a ceasefire, as Israel launched a massive offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks of 7th October 2023. Emily Wither returns to hear how the lives of these activists have changed. She explores whether their message of peace and coexistence is breaking through at a time when societal divisions are deeper than ever.The group Standing Together, known for their matching purple t-shirts,

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29:36

Anna-Karin Karlsson: Sunglasses made for icons

The Documentary Podcast ·

2025/12/08

From a quiet forest outside Stockholm to the world’s most glamorous runways, Swedish designer Anna-Karin Karlsson has built one of fashion’s most distinctive eyewear brands. Her bold, sculptural glasses and sunglasses are worn by Beyoncé, Snoop Dogg, Madonna and Elton John – yet their inspiration comes from a quiet life surrounded by trees and animals. Cultural journalist Anna Åkerlund steps inside Karlsson’s world. We discover how the designer blends fantasy with craftsmanship, and challenges the

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2,337 results

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