The Documentary Podcast Podcast
Hear the voices at the heart of global stories. Where curious minds can uncover hidden truths and make sense of the world. Documentary storytelling from the 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 conflict in the Middle East to the advance of AI, 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 share how news stories are shaping their lives.
Episodes to download
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The Hackers of Siberia
Tue 9 Jan 2018
Intellectuals banished to an inhospitable land created a pool of talent and creativity
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Black and Proud in Brazil
Thu 4 Jan 2018
How black Brazilians are asserting their rights thanks to a controversial education law
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Sarah Marquis, Explorer
Tue 2 Jan 2018
In a classic Aboriginal walkabout, Sarah fished, foraged and gathered food from the wild
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Taming the Pilcamayo
Thu 28 Dec 2017
A journey up the 'suicidal' Pilcomayo river that separates Paraguay from Argentina...
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Leo Houlding, Rock Climber
Boxing Day 2017
How a hallucinogenic ceremony led to an attempt to climb Cerro Autana in Venezuela
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Mugabe's Last Days
Christmas Day 2017
Robert Mugabe stepped down after four decades in power, the transition took just ten days
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Your Life in a Cup of Coffee
Christmas Eve 2017
Fortune-telling via Turkish coffee grounds, a practice popular across the Middle East
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Russia's Exit Dilemma
Sat 23 Dec 2017
Stay or go? Lucy Ash explores the choice facing Russia’s brightest and best
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Thirty-Three Ways to Dispel a Chinese Mistress
Fri 22 Dec 2017
There are 33 ways to dispel a mistress according to one of China's top love detectives.
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Tanya Streeter: Free-Diver
Tue 19 Dec 2017
Tanya Streeter’s remarkable dive – on just one breath of air – to the depth of 160m
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Who Killed the Circus?
Sun 17 Dec 2017
America’s longest running circus, Ringling, Barnum and Bailey, is closing after 146 years
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Art for the Millions
Sat 16 Dec 2017
The Great Depression and how the US government used the arts to uplift national spirit
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Daphne and the Two Maltas
Thu 14 Dec 2017
A brutal killing, an unsolved murder and the divided island of Malta
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Afghanistan Calling
Wed 13 Dec 2017
How former Afghan child refugee Dr Waheed Arian is breaking medical boundaries
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Make America Great Again
Tue 12 Dec 2017
Why is the word America such a controversial one outside of the US?
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The Odyssey of General Anders' Army
Sun 10 Dec 2017
Many thousands of Polish people took a chance to escape Soviet gulags by joining an army
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Return to China
Thu 7 Dec 2017
Kati goes to meet her biological parents for the first time since she was abandoned
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Neurolaw and Order
Wed 6 Dec 2017
How young offenders and the US legal system are being reformed through neuroscience data
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The Face of China
Tue 5 Dec 2017
What Chinese magazines and their readers tell us about culture and politics in China
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The CIA's Secret War in Laos
Sat 2 Dec 2017
A son uncovers his father's double-life as a CIA spy in a covert mission in 1960s Laos
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Symphony of the Stones
Sat 2 Dec 2017
How our ancient forebears made music and how ancient sites affected sounds of their time
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Pride, Passion and Palestinian Horses
Thu 30 Nov 2017
A love for Arabian horses unites Israelis and Palestinians
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Offence, Power and Progress
Wed 29 Nov 2017
Is taking offence on social media over-sensitivity or a force for progress?
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Stockfish
Tue 28 Nov 2017
How did stockfish - cod that is dried in Norway’s cold air - became a Nigerian staple?
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The Tula Toli Massacre
Thu 23 Nov 2017
The chilling story of a massacre of Rohingya muslims in a small village in Myanmar
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Blind Man Roams the Globe: Christchurch
Wed 22 Nov 2017
Life in Christchurch, New Zealand, as it recovers from two earthquakes
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Europe's Illiberal Democrats: Poland
Tue 21 Nov 2017
Is Poland sliding towards autocracy or just on a different, democratic path?
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The Judgement on Mladic
Thu 16 Nov 2017
Mark Urban examines the impact General Mladic had on the lives of thousands of people
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Blind Man Roams the Globe: Berlin
Wed 15 Nov 2017
The sounds and smells of Berlin experienced through the senses of a blind man
