The Documentary Podcast

BBC World Service
  • 4.3 (1.6K)
  • DOCUMENTARY
  • UPDATED DAILY
The Documentary Podcast

A window into our world, through in-depth storytelling from the BBC. Investigating, reporting and uncovering true stories from everywhere. Award-winning journalism, unheard voices, amazing culture and global issues. From Syria after Assad to rebuilding Ukraine, to how AI changed our lives, The Documentary investigates major global stories. We delve into social media, take you into the minds of the world’s most creative people and explore personal approaches to spirituality. Every week, we also bring together people from around the globe to discuss how news stories are affecting their lives. A new episode most days, all year round. From our BBC World Service teams at: Assignment, Heart and Soul, In the Studio, OS Conversations, The Fifth Floor and Trending.

  1. 2H AGO

    The Fifth Floor: Inside the Taliban's surveillance network

    There are over 90,000 hi-definition CCTV cameras in Kabul, watching everyone’s movements. What are the Taliban using this footage for? BBC Afghan Services' journalist Mahjooba Nowrouzi was granted exclusive access into the country’s top security control room. Plus, BBC Mundo's William Márquez on the history of Charles Darwin's house, and Mayuresh Gopal reports for BBC Marathi on the geological and historical relevance of India's Lonar Crater Lake. Presented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Alice Gioia, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

    27 min

  2. 14H AGO

    BBC OS Conversations: Colourism

    The issue of colourism was highlighted in a recent BBC news report about a Nigerian woman who bleached the skin of her six young children leaving them with discoloured skin, burns and scars. It is a form of racism where light skin is more highly valued than dark skin amongst people of the same ethnic group. In our conversations, we hear from women who share experiences of colourism in India including Chandana who has faced colourism from an early age: “I was six or seven years old when I would first hear these conversations of my relatives saying that she’s a dark-skinned girl and you will have to pay a lot more dowry to get married and it will be such a struggle to find a husband for her.” We also bring together two black women who work in the fashion and beauty industry, where appearance is everything. Beauty journalist, Ateh, shares her experiences of colourism with Nyakim, a Sudanese American model known as Queen of the Dark after her naturally dark skin tone. Presenter: Luke Jones BBC producer: Iqra Farooq Boffin Media producer: Richard Hollingham An EcoAudio certified Boffin Media production in partnership with the OS team. (photo: Campaigner Chandana Hiran. Credit: Chandana Hiran)

    24 min

  3. 1D AGO

    Heart and Soul: Our Sacred Harp

    Sacred Harp pioneer and former punk frontman, Tim Eriksen, takes us into the hair-raising sound of shape note singing – an American choral tradition experiencing a resurgence across the US and in Europe. All people and all faiths are welcome. As a new edition of the songbook approaches publication, Tim explores why this music is drawing more singers and how it’s managing to remain inclusive despite increasing political polarisation in the wider culture. Sacred Harp is sung a-cappella in four-part harmony - a non-performative music where everyone takes a turn to lead and groups gather anywhere from churches to community centers and pubs. Songs were first published in a book of psalms in Georgia in 1844 and in 2025 a new edition will publish a record number of compositions submitted by sacred harp singers from all over the world. For Tim Eriksen this is devotional music, but it will mean different things to different people - what’s special about it is the way it ‘transcends differences.’ Sociologist Laura Clawson tells us how the forbearers of the music stipulated that religion, and politics should not come into the ‘hollow square.’ Historically the Sacred Harp community has continued to sing and build bonds through chapters of political polarisation in the US. But how have recent political divides affected the community and how can it continue to remain an inclusive space? Producer: Sarah Cuddon A Falling Tree Production Image: Tim Eriksen teaching at Sage Gateshead’s Summertyne Americana Festival

    26 min

  4. 2D AGO

    Braille and me

    Built around a game of braille Scrabble, Emma Tracey presents a celebration of braille, 200 years after it was invented. Emma, who’s been blind since birth, talks to others who love the six tiny dots: Geerat Vermeij, one of the world’s leading experts in molluscs; Yetnebersh Nigussie, an Ethiopian lawyer, who describes her blindness as "a lottery I won at the age of five"; Sheri Wells-Jensen, a linguistics professor who’s been a linguistic consultant on Star Trek and is on the US advisory board for messaging extra-terrestrial intelligence; Japanese concert pianist, Nobuyuki Tsujii, who learnt to play using braille music; and Emma's friend and Scrabble partner, Ellie. And there’s a chance encounter with the most famous braille user of them all, Stevie Wonder. But can braille survive with the ever-increasing supply of tech that allows blind people to listen to, rather than feel, information? Presenter: Emma Tracey Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound design: Steve Brooke Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

    27 min

  5. 3D AGO

    Olympique Lyonnais: The Champions League trailblazers

    Olympique Lyonnais is the most successful club in women’s football, dominating Europe over the last 15 years winning eight Champions League titles. Only Barcelona have recently been able to compete. Lyon's success is the vision of club president Jean-Michel Aulas who wanted to create an iconic team, with the best players, but in the case of Aulas he also promised to ensure both male and female players were treated equally. This included the first mixed football training academy. In Olympique Lyonnais: The Champions League trailblazers we find out the story of how the French club raised the standard of women’s football, going behind the scenes with striker and Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, Chelsea and England defender Lucy Bronze and France and Lyon captain Wendie Renard who have all witnessed huge success and then change with Europe’s elite catching up. Now South Korean born businesswoman Michele Kang has taken over the the French giants, with big ambitions for the club. Photo: Players of Olympique Lyonnais celebrate after winning during the UEFA Women's Champions League final match between FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais at Juventus Stadium on May 21, 2022 in Turin, Italy. (Credit: Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images)

    49 min

  6. 4D AGO

    Assignment: New Zealand - what counts as Māori equality

    Māori in New Zealand have been resisting moves by the current right-of-centre government to abolish certain indigenous-specific rights aimed at combatting disadvantage. In a 9-day hikoi or march of defiance they walked from the top of New Zealand down to the capital Wellington, joined by non-Māori supporters - all opposed to the changes. A separate Māori Health Authority has been dismantled, for example. It was set up by the previous centre-left government to tackle health inequalities that mean indigenous people live seven years less than other New Zealanders. Māori also come bottom in statistics for employment, housing and education, and are highly overrepresented in prison. Most divisive though, a new law proposal about the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi - New Zealand’s founding document, sought to do away with what has been a form of affirmative action, and instead treat everyone the same, regardless of heritage. Some feel this is all necessary to achieve proper equality. Others feel that Māori progress will be undone and inequality or inequity entrenched.

    27 min

  7. 5D AGO

    In the Studio: Steve Reich

    For 60 years, New York composer Steve Reich has been one of classical music’s most celebrated revolutionaries. Pioneering minimalism in the 1960s, a musical style based on repetition and shifting rhythms, his strange experiments with cassette tape led to orchestral masterpieces – now performed around the world. His career has not only helped define the latest era of classical music, but had an enormous influence on pop, rock and electronica. He has helped shape 20th Century music in a way few can claim to match. To mark 60 years since his first major piece,1965’s It’s Gonna Rain, he takes Alastair Shuttleworth through the process and stories behind some of his greatest works, including Clapping Music, Different Trains and City Life. He also reflects on his legacy, his plans for the future and what, at the age of 88, still inspires him to compose

    26 min

  8. 6D AGO

    Defeated: How ordinary Germans experienced the end of World War Two

    On 8 May 1945 Britain, the US and many other countries were rejoicing. Germany had surrendered, and World War Two was over, at least in Europe. Yet it was not a day of celebration for everyone - for the vanquished Germans, it marked the end of bombings and of Nazi rule. But it was also a time of deprivation and chaos, fear and soul-searching. Millions of ethnic Germans had fled their homes to escape the approaching Red Army. Lore Wolfson Windemuth, whose own father grew up under Nazi rule, unearths the stories of six ordinary Germans who lived through that extraordinary time.

    49 min
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Hosts & Guests

4.3
out of 5
1,587 Ratings

About

A window into our world, through in-depth storytelling from the BBC. Investigating, reporting and uncovering true stories from everywhere. Award-winning journalism, unheard voices, amazing culture and global issues. From Syria after Assad to rebuilding Ukraine, to how AI changed our lives, The Documentary investigates major global stories. We delve into social media, take you into the minds of the world’s most creative people and explore personal approaches to spirituality. Every week, we also bring together people from around the globe to discuss how news stories are affecting their lives. A new episode most days, all year round. From our BBC World Service teams at: Assignment, Heart and Soul, In the Studio, OS Conversations, The Fifth Floor and Trending.

Information

  • Creator
    BBC World Service
  • Years Active
    2005 - 2025
  • Episodes
    2K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2025
  • Show Website
    The Documentary Podcast

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