The Documentary Podcast

Kate Humble looks at the impact Prince Philip made on the world through his work with international charities. She learns how the Duke of Edinburgh's Award championed youth achievement, and how he promoted conservation of the environment through his work with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

Buckingham Palace has announced the death of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He was 99 years old. Edward Stourton tells the story of his life.

Can Denmark's mink industry rise again? Denmark was the world's top producer of mink for the luxury market. Last year a coronavirus variant was found in the animals, and transmitted to people. There was a fear the variant - Cluster 5 - might interfere with the efficacy of any vaccine developed for humans. So in November, the Danish government ordered a cull of all 17 million farmed mink. But quest...

Alan Dein follows Margaret in Uganda, who cares for nine children orphaned by Aids and who has HIV herself. Told through interviews and her own smartphone recordings, it’s an inspiring story of hope and resilience as Margaret deals with lockdown and the loss of loved ones.

Brazil's health service has been pushed to the brink as coronavirus cases continue to climb. Some 66,570 people died of Covid-19 in March, more than double the previous monthly record, and the total number of Covid-19 related deaths is over 320,000. Yet President Jair Bolsonaro continues to oppose lockdowns and has been heavily criticised for his handling of the pandemic. There have also been prob...

More than a century after its brutal colonisation of Namibia, including what it now accepts was the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, Germany is negotiating with the country’s government to heal the wounds of the past. The eventual deal may set a precedent for what other nations expect from former colonisers. But how do you make up for the destruction of entire societies? Germany has agreed...

Karoshi, or death from overwork, has been common in Japan for decades. It is often seen as part of ‘salary man’ culture where men commit themselves above all else to their employer. However little is ever said about women who die from Karoshi. Now the plight of women is coming more into focus following high profile deaths and signs more women are suffering. Yoshie Matsumoto examines how an overwor...

After a year of lockdowns and Covid restrictions, Manuela Saragosa and Devina Gupta take a global look at jobs, pay and financial wellbeing. They look at the support packages from governments around the world and revisit some of those who spoke to the programme a year ago. How have they fared in the past 12 months?

As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised a more humane approach to migration on the US-Mexico border. But right now, more than 17,000 unaccompanied children are being held in migration facilities. Ros Atkins considers the challenge facing the Biden administration (Photo: Dareli Matamoros, a girl from Honduras, holds a sign asking President Biden to let her in during a migrant demonstration...

The coronavirus has changed almost everyone’s lives and for some losing their jobs has led to homelessness. Edward in the United States had to sleep in the New York subway and train stations before finding help from a mission, while Walter spent five months homeless in South Africa - even for a stint, on the famous Table Mountain. Host Nuala McGovern also hears how families in Rome are approaching...

The shipping industry is worth millions to the world economy and we depend on it for most of our goods. Assignment lifts the lid on the dangerous and polluting world of shipbreaking and investigates why ships once owned by UK companies end their lives on beaches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. (Image: Bangladeshi labourers and docked ships at a shipbreaking yard. Credit: Farjana Khan Godhuly/AF...

How do you solve a problem like America? A land where speech is free - but hate rules the airwaves. A land of opportunity - where 40 million people live in poverty. A land of democracy - where the majority of Americans are under-represented in national government. Award winning journalist Brian Palmer asks if the near sacred text is fit for modern governance. Does the electoral college deliver ade...

Eckhart Tolle, Dr Shefali Tsabary and Sister Dang Nghiem offer advice to members of the public from across the world as they respond to the challenge of the pandemic. In a series of intimate pone explore more life-lessons in this series of two programmes. In a series of intimate one to one conversations presented by the BBC’s Nuala McGovern, for the BBC World Service Festival they explore life-les...

Eckhart Tolle, Dr Shefali Tsabary and Sister Dang Nghiem offer advice to members of the public from across the world as they explore life-lessons in this series of two programmes. The last year has brought challenges like no other year, leading to dramatic personal changes all over the world. People struggle to endure the restrictions, or to cope with grief, or perhaps they wonder suddenly see the...

Some of the European Union's biggest nations have restarted their roll-out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after the medicines regulator concluded it was safe and effective. Ros Atkins considers how a vaccine initially hailed as a "gamechanger", has ended up in the middle of a scientific and political storm.

During the last year hundreds of people across the globe have shared their experiences on the programme about living during a pandemic. This time, we view this challenging situation through a journalist’s lens. Reporters from India, Brazil, the United States, Italy, South Africa, Rwanda and New Zealand share, with host Nuala McGovern, what it’s like to work on possibly the most important story of...

For over three hundred years the union of England and Scotland has held firm through war and poverty but in recent years some people north of the border have asked for a divorce. Elections in May to Scotland’s devolved parliament could return a majority for the ruling Scottish National Party which is seeking a mandate for a second referendum on seceding from the UK. Only seven years ago those want...

From women in senior management positions, to women-owned start-ups, to low income families, Covid poses difficult questions about how to adapt to an uncertain future. Nada Tawfik explores some of the strategies being adopted by women in the US economy to adjust to a vastly changed economic landscape.

It has been a turbulent week for the British royal family following Harry and Meghan's explosive sit-down with Oprah Winfrey. On Thursday, Prince William said the British Royal family is not racist - in his first public response to allegations made in the US television interview, where the Duchess of Sussex claimed her husband had been asked how dark the skin of their first baby might be. Ros Atki...

One year ago, the World Health Organisation announced that Covid-19 was spreading across different countries at such an alarming rate that it needed to be classed as a pandemic. It has been a challenging year for everyone and host Nuala McGovern shares conversations with people who perhaps don’t always receive public recognition for their work or actions. This includes one of the researchers who h...

Prior to the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and the Covid 19 pandemic, China’s presence on social media was largely to promote a positive image of its country – trying to ‘change the climate’ rather than seeking to sow confusion and division. But this is changing. In this investigation for Assignment Paul Kenyon and Krassimira Twigg examine China’s new strategy of aggressively pushing disinforma...

A year ago American women out-numbered men in the workforce for the first time. Now, after a year of Covid pandemic that process has gone into reverse with more women than men leaving the workforce. Nada Tawfik hears how women are experiencing disproportionate job losses due to Covid recession and hears how working from home has changed work for many women.

Joe Biden promised to be tough on Saudi Arabia. But this week, he stopped short of punishing the kingdom's crown prince despite US intelligence holding him responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Ros Atkins looks at the President's first foreign policy test, and the Washington-Riyadh alliance.

We hear from two US veterans who served during the war in Vietnam about the similarities between their experiences and the trauma experienced by many during the pandemic. Covid vaccines are bringing renewed hope across the world when it comes to Covid-19 but thousands of people are continuing to die from the disease on a daily basis. The emotional toll of losing loved ones is being felt by so many...

President Biden claims “America is back”. He plans to put diplomacy first and restore long-standing American alliances. His predecessor, President Trump, left behind a very different world from the one he greeted in 2016. Fresh crises confront the Biden Administration, including the Myanmar coup and political unrest in Russia. And climate change is now an urgent global problem. Secretary of State...