Focus on Africa

Focus on Africa Podcast

The biggest African news stories, ad-free

$3.99/mo or $39.99/yr after trial

Three essential stories to round off your working day. Explaining the big topics and news from Africa, the people behind them, plus an African perspective on global stories. Hosted by Audrey Brown. Five days a week, ready by late afternoon, Monday to Friday.

Shows with Subscription Benefits

  • The day’s top stories from BBC News. Delivered twice a day on weekdays, daily at weekends.

  • It was the biggest gold discovery in history…until it wasn’t. In 1995, Canadian mining company Bre-X announced to the world it had found a significant amount of gold deep in the jungles of Indonesia. Stock prices soared as investors worldwide fought to stake their claim. But when Bre-X’s chief geologist mysteriously fell from a helicopter over the jungle, the story of the billion dollar discovery began to unravel. Nearly three decades later, no one has ever been held accountable. Now, host Suzanne Wilton takes listeners from the jungles of Indonesia to small town Alberta, Canada, to investigate what really happened and find out more about the man behind the biggest goldmine fraud of all time. Produced for the BBC World Service and CBC by BBC Scotland Productions. Please note, this series contains references to suicide and has some graphic content.

  • If you've ever yelled at someone on social media about, say, cancel culture or mask-wearing, then you are a soldier in the culture wars - those everyday battles for dominance between conflicting values. The acclaimed writer and podcaster Jon Ronson has seen friends swallowed up in them to the extent that it's ruined their lives. Jon was curious to learn how things fell apart, and so he went back into the history of the culture wars to find some of the origin stories: the pebbles thrown in the pond, creating the ripples that led us to where we are today. He had no idea what he'd find, but he's uncovered some extraordinary people and the strangest, yet most consequential tales.

  • NEW Season 3: The Apartheid Killer. All the victims were black and the youngest was just 12 years old. Some relatives are still searching for the graves. During a three-year bloodbath in the 1980s, at least 39 people were killed in the South African city of East London – by one person. After years of investigation, we’ve tracked him down. He killed so many, he lost count. It has been 30 years since the white supremacist apartheid regime crumbled. The unresolved trauma of this time has cast a long shadow across a nation. In piecing together this story, the new season of World of Secrets exposes the disturbed past and racial injustices of South Africa itself. This is a BBC World Service investigation. World of Secrets is the BBC podcast about the stories they don’t want told. Delve into a World of Secrets – major BBC global investigations and gripping storytelling. Holding the powerful to account and exposing scandals around the world. These are our previous seasons: Season 2: The Disciples. The cult of Nigerian prophet TB Joshua. A story of miracles, faith and manipulation, told by people from around the world, who gave up everything for one of the most powerful religious figures of the century. Lured by TB Joshua’s claimed healing powers, and the promise that one day they could be like him, they live as disciples in a guarded Lagos compound, cut off from family and friends. Season 1: The Abercrombie Guys. An investigation into claims of sexual exploitation made against the former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch. He and his British partner were accused by several men, recruited for sex events they hosted around the world. #WorldofSecrets

  • The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Greg Jenner brings together the best names in comedy and history to learn and laugh about the past.

  • Muscle Men is season one of Extreme, the BBC podcast that knows no limits. Each action-packed season tells the story of people who've pushed themselves to the very edge of what's physically or mentally possible - and in doing so, have changed the world... 1980s Los Angeles. A young, amateur bodybuilder named William Dillon comes to California in search of the supersized American dream - to get absolutely jacked. But beneath the smell of sweat, pulsing disco beats, and the rhythmic clank of weights, there's a secret. Many of the bodybuilders and gym rats he meets are using steroids to achieve their pumped up physique. And if that's what it takes to make it big, Dillon's willing to do it too. But not only that, he's smart. He recognises there's money to be made from selling the promise that you can get ripped, quick. Dillon, along with the cult hero of the steroid underground - the 'steroid guru' Dan Duchaine - and David Jenkins, a Scottish Olympic medallist with a nose for business, will launch the largest illegal steroid dealing ring the USA had ever seen. As steroid use grips small-town gym-goers, pro bodybuilders and elite athletes, the cops, legislators and the world of international sport scrambles to crack down. Historian, podcaster and fitness expert Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, presenter of hit podcast Welcome To Your Fantasy, reveals how the rise of America's fitness and gym-culture through the 20th century collided with the unregulated availability of steroids in the 1980s, transforming the way we see our bodies, and the lengths to which we'll go to in the pursuit of perfection. Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Producer: Caroline Thornham Assistant Producer: Mo Ahmed Editor: Katherine Godfrey Production Manager: Cheree Houston Sound Design and Mix by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson Original Music by SilverHawk Executive Producer: Max O'Brien Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

The biggest African news stories, ad-free

$3.99/mo or $39.99/yr after trial

4.6
out of 5
53 Ratings

About

Three essential stories to round off your working day. Explaining the big topics and news from Africa, the people behind them, plus an African perspective on global stories. Hosted by Audrey Brown. Five days a week, ready by late afternoon, Monday to Friday.

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