Believe in Magic

Season 6: The Bad Guru. A yoga school in London. A guru running from the police. How did Miranda get sucked in? Also: Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods. Women accuse Mohamed Al Fayed of rape. And: The Abercrombie Guys. Investigating sexual exploitation claims against the former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch. Delve into a World of Secrets: the global investigations podcast from the BBC. Uncovering stories around the world and telling them, episode by episode, with gripping storytelling. Latest season: The Bad Guru. A yoga school in London. A guru running from the police. How did Miranda get sucked in? Journalist Cat McShane investigates the international yoga movement headed by Gregorian Bivolaru, the spiritual guide arrested by French police in November 2023 and charged with human trafficking, organised kidnapping, rape and organised abuse of weakness by members of a sect. “Nobody joins a cult. You just get sucked in,” says Penny, the mother of a university tutor from London. In 2017, Penny’s daughter Miranda joins a yoga charity with studios in London and Oxford. The classes make Miranda feel amazing and the people make her feel loved. “There was this sense that these people cared,” says Miranda. But as Miranda becomes more deeply involved with the international yoga movement that her group in London is part of, her mother Penny starts to worry. “When she rang us, she'd be speaking in very hushed tones,” says Penny. Miranda has fallen under the spell of guru Gregorian Bivolaru. She joins thousands of his followers from around the world on a free holiday at a coastal resort in Romania. It’s part of a search for spiritual enlightenment which will see her driven through Paris blindfolded and doing sex work in Prague. This series includes explicit sexual content and strong language. Previous seasons of World of Secrets: Season 5: Finding Mr Fox. Investigating a plot to smuggle around a hundred millions of dollars’ worth of drugs from Brazil to Europe and the miscarriage of justice that followed. But where is the man Brazilian police believe to be at the centre of it all? Season 4: Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods. Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed – then owner of Harrods, one of the most famous shops in the world – is accused of rape and attempted rape by women who worked for him. Now they refuse to be silenced any longer. 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. They were killed during a three-year bloodbath in the 1980s, in the South African city of East London – by one person. He killed so many, he lost count. In piecing together this story, we expose the disturbed past and racial injustices of South Africa itself. 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, 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.

The day’s top stories from BBC News, including the latest on the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, plus bringing you developments on US politics and the climate. Delivered twice a day on weekdays, daily at weekends.

In the third season of her podcast, Dua Lipa: At Your Service, pop powerhouse Dua Lipa has candid, uplifting and insightful conversations with the people who inspire her most about topics like reinvention, sex and relationships, psychedelics, and more. Season Three will include conversations with internationally renowned artists, thought leaders and cultural icons. Season Three of At Your Service will also invite listeners to explore the vast landscape of human experiences, and celebrates the power in sharing stories and insights into the world around us. Following Season Three's premiere with Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg, Dua will welcome an extraordinary lineup of guests including BLACKPINK's Jennie Kim, renowned relationship expert Esther Perel, star of Netflix's You and podcaster Penn Badgley, drag icon Sasha Velour, and the incomparable Billie Eilish. New episodes of At Your Service will be released every Friday at 12pm UK time. The Dua Lipa: At Your Service podcast is the sweeping companion piece to Dua's Service95 newsletter, a global style, culture, and society editorial platform created to help the reader make sense of the world.

Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4

The daily drama of money and work from the BBC.

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