
300 episodes

The Documentary Podcast BBC World Service
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- Society & Culture
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4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
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A window into our world – investigating, exploring and telling stories from everywhere. Original BBC documentary storytelling, bringing the globe to your ears. Award-winning journalism, unheard voices, amazing culture and “unputdownable” audio.
New episodes every week from our teams: documentaries, Assignment, Heart and Soul, In the Studio and OS Conversations.
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Introducing Amazing Sport Stories
Sport but not as you know it. A brand new sports storytelling podcast.
Imagine being stranded in the “death zone” on one of the world’s highest mountains. How about running 200 miles in a dark tunnel? We’ve been searching the world for the most amazing sport stories. Other podcasts bring you the scores and team news. This one tells the stories you’ll wish you’d known about and now probably won’t forget. You don’t need to be obsessed with sport to find yourself immersed in our mini-seasons and short stories.
Search for Amazing Sport Stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Or find it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvs1/episodes/downloads -
Kissinger’s Legacy
Henry Kissinger was one of the most important diplomatic figures of the last 50 years. James Naughtie looks back at his global influence, as he reflects on his own interview with Kissinger, conducted just a year before his death.
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BBC OS Conversations: Israel and Gaza - securing freedom
A week without war meant that the temporary pause in fighting was replaced by the emotions of family reunions. Before the air strikes resumed on Friday, dozens of the hostages captured by Hamas in the 7 October attacks were released, while Palestinians held in Israeli jails had been allowed to leave.
In our conversations host James Reynolds hears a few of those stories of families celebrating seeing loved ones again. “My mum came out of the Earth one day and that was incredible,” Sharone Lifschitz tells us. Her 85-year-old mother, Yocheved, was one of the first hostages to be released but (at the time of recording) her father was still being held. “She told us my father was injured and so we thought that he was gone and now we know that he is there, but we also know so much more about how horrendous the conditions are.”
Human rights organisations say the number of Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons has increased dramatically since 7 October. There are now thought to be more than 6,000 Palestinians held by Israel, many still awaiting trial. We bring together Marwan whose son, Wisam, was released after six and a half months in prison, and Eman who recently welcomed home her sister in law, Hanan.
We also meet two parents living under the Israeli bombardment in Gaza who led their families to safety in Egypt. They tell us about the conditions they endured and how their children are coping.
A Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC OS team. -
Heart and Soul: Follow God, not the people
Brought up in a devout Catholic family in the suburbs of Kampala, Frank Mugisha knew that something was different about him even as a small boy. He was gay, although in those days he had no words for it. Growing up, he was subjected to conversion therapy, and his family took him to traditional healers to try and change his orientation. When all his prayers for God to “make him like his friends” went unanswered, Frank gradually came out to family and close friends. He started an organisation to help other LGBTQ+ people. Frank tells Mike Wooldridge why, despite the enormous risk, he has to do the right thing and continue his campaign.
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Kissinger
Few people can claim as much influence over the shape of the modern world as Henry Kissinger. The former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace laureate is loved, loathed and listened to - for the decisions he took, the attitude he espoused and for his knowledge and analysis of world affairs. In 2022, James Naughtie travelled to Kissinger's home to discuss six great leaders and the lessons they taught, as Kissinger reflected on his own role in creating the modern world.
this programe was first published in 2022. -
Assignment: Poland's forest frontier
The Polish government has built a steel border wall 186km long and 5m high along its eastern frontier. It is meant to stop global migrants from Asia and Africa trying to cross from the Belarusian side. But the wall cuts straight through the Białowieza forest - the largest remaining stretch of primeval forest in Europe and a Unesco world heritage site. Grzegorz Sokol meets environmental scientists, activists and local villagers, such as Kasia Mazurkiewicz-Bylok who treks into the forest with a rucksack of supplies to try to help migrants lost in the dense, trackless forest. And, Kat Nowak, a biologist trying to log the precise effects of the wall, from the plant species brought in with the gravel for the foundation, to the possible effects on wolf behaviour.
Customer Reviews
12 November 2022 Qatar
How do expats feel about the classes and their rights? Qatar is highly supported by the expat’s that keep the country running, and allow these women their positions in society. These women are living a fairytale. The toll must eventually be payed for this extortion of others, nothing is free…
lol
the title of the current episode is “Kenya’s free money experiment.” at first glance I seriously read it as “Kanye’s free money experiment.” lololllllllll
Billion Dollar scam
Generally The Documentary is a terrific podcast and I give it five stars but for this one which gets one. What is most annoying is the glottal or vocal fry of the journalist who did the “billion dollar scam” episode. The baby talk along with the vocal fry strikes immense dissonance with the nature of the podcast and, moreover, a serious organization like the BBC. It grates on the ears and the mind. PLEASE, can we ask these journalists to speak in their normal voice and without this contrived affectation that originated in Hollywood? It’s nauseating, interferes with the content and had me turning off the episode. Thank you.