The Documentary Podcast

BBC
  • 4.1 (229)
  • DOCUMENTARY
  • UPDATED DAILY

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 share how news stories are shaping their lives.

  1. 55 MINS AGO

    For the love of dogs

    Mityana is a bustling regional town in central Uganda, where motorbikes are king. Here an online con operation flourishes in plain sight. Armed with smartphones, emotional images, and carefully crafted lies, a network of young men preys on dog lovers in Europe and America - people who believe they are saving abused, sick, or dying animals. This documentary dives into the shadowy world of the dog-rescue scammers of Mityana. Through undercover reporting, BBC Africa Eye exposes how the scams work, and the lengths the scammers will go to extort donations from well-meaning animal lovers in the west. Presenter: Nyasha Michelle Producers: Chiara Francavilla and Alice Muthengi, with Godfrey Badebye and Catherine Namugerwa in Uganda Executive Producer: Miriam Quansah Editor: Rebecca Henschke

    27 min
  2. Mapping Epstein's global connections

    1 DAY AGO

    Mapping Epstein's global connections

    The personal correspondence, photographs and papers of the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein have been released to the public in stages, beginning in December 2025, after an almost unanimous vote in the US Senate. The released files run to three and a half million documents — emails, letters, photographs, videos, financial records, flight details — all are now open to public scrutiny. Many files remain heavily redacted, but what can be read has already had repercussions globally and revealed Epstein’s web of connections to powerful figures around the world. Abdirahim Saeed, BBC Arabic, and Luiz Fernando Toledo, BBC News Brazil, share what they found about the files related to their regions. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.

    26 min

  3. 1 DAY AGO

    My social life as a wheelchair user

    Imagine being dressed up for a night out with friends and being thrown out of a bar because your wheelchair is considered a fire hazard. When 18-year-old Maddie Haining was ordered to leave a nightclub in the UK it prompted a wider discussion about disability and accessibility in different countries around the world. Four wheelchair users - Maddie in the UK, Brian Muchiri in Kenya, Nadia Leila Carelse South Africa and Haleigh Rosa in the US - share some of the obstacles they have encountered when trying to socialise. Their experiences range from drunks in bars grabbing their wheelchairs to people praying for them in public. Even a simple visit to the toilet can become a problem. “I’ve encountered issues, even in a restaurant that’s accessible, where the wheelchair accessible bathroom has been used as storage,” says Haleigh Rosa, from Florida, USA.

    24 min

  4. 2 DAYS AGO

    A church without walls

    Pastor Jane Codrington grew up in a conservative faith environment before leaving the institutional church to found We Are Church - a community for those excluded by traditional structures. Set within a quiet, gated Johannesburg neighbourhood reflecting the city’s wealth and social divides, the church brings people together to connect, belong, and celebrate community. Jane emphasises this is not a ‘queer church’- though LGBTQ members are welcome, but a space for anyone pushed to society’s edges. Some consider what she is doing blasphemous. She has faced accusations of “harbouring sin” or “leading people to hell,” alongside hostility for her radical inclusivity. Jane reflects on the personal cost of leaving the institutional church and the heartbreak she has experienced in her family. She speaks candidly about grief, doubt, and how her faith has been reshaped by both loss and radical inclusivity.

    26 min

  5. 3 DAYS AGO

    Atomic crossroads: Poland's nuclear future

    Forty years after Chernobyl, Poland aims to open its first nuclear power plant. Shortly after the disaster, only 30% of Poles supported nuclear power. In 2022, the support hit a record 75%, almost doubling just from the year before, according to public opinion polls. Poland’s nuclear revival attempts to solve several issues at once: it will make Poland more energy-independent, especially in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but it will also help the country move away from coal per the EU’s climate policies. That’s according to the officials, but what do people living near the new site think about its construction? Journalist Zuza Nazaruk sets out to discover whether the ghosts of Chernobyl still haunt the areas surrounding the spot picked for the new plant.

    27 min

  6. 4 DAYS AGO

    In Our Time: The Mariana Trench

    Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Mariana Trench which turned out to be deeper than Everest is high, by two kilometres. Trenches like Mariana form when one tectonic plate slips under another and heads down and there are around fifty of them globally. While at one time some thought it was too dark and deep for life there and others wildly imagined monsters, the truth has turned out to be much more surprising.

    49 min

  7. 5 DAYS AGO

    Driving Against Net Zero

    Is defence of the petrol car and liberated motoring becoming the new battleground for Europe’s populist parties? Chris Bowlby visits one of the homes of German car culture and a populist stronghold, Zwickau, to see how motoring is rising up the German agenda. Is Zwickau a foretaste of something affecting all of Germany – a car-loving, car-manufacturing powerhouse in the past, now wondering anxiously what the future holds against the emergence of Chinese electric cars. And less than a hundred miles from Zwickau, just across the border in the Czech Republic, a new coalition government has recently taken power, including ministers from a populist party called Motorists for Themselves – muscular defenders of the old petrol car. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

    27 min

  8. 6 DAYS AGO

    Neha Vyaso: Crafting consent in Bollywood

    *** This programme contains scenes of a sexual nature and discussion of sexual assault, including child sex abuse *** Neha Vyaso is one of the most successful intimacy co-ordinators in Bollywood. She has worked with some of Bollywood's biggest names, including actors Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone and Konkona Sen Sharma, and directors like Hansal Mehta. Having worked on more than 50 projects for clients including Netflix, Amazon and Tinder, she is reshaping how sex and desire is shown on screen - and how it is filmed. We join her in a workshop with two actors, who are getting comfortable with each other, their roles, and the techniques of consent and conversation that Neha is an advocate of. As they work on the choreography of their sex scene, Neha articulates how it’s a fine balance between the demands of a script, a director's vision, a character's emotional arc, and what an actor can consent to.

    27 min
See All (2K)

Shows with Subscription Benefits

Get exclusive episodes, early access, and more

$9.99/month or $99.99/year

View Subscription FAQs

Hosts & Guests

4.1
out of 5
229 Ratings

About

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 share how news stories are shaping their lives.

Information

  • Channel
    BBC
  • Creator
    BBC World Service
  • Years Active
    2005 - 2026
  • Episodes
    2K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Show Website
    The Documentary Podcast
  • Provider
    BBC Studios Distribution Limited

More From BBC

You Might Also Like