The Documentary Podcast

North Korea is considered one of the most secretive countries in the world. It is officially an atheist state. The ruling party sees religion as a threat to its authority. Instead North Koreans are expected to show complete devotion to the ruling Kim family, who many view as godlike. There are believed to be a small number of Christians practicing in secret inside the hermit kingdom, but entire fa...

In 1900, German colonial officers executed 19 Tanzanian leaders, including Akida Kiwelu, and shipped their skulls to Berlin for scientific study. Thousands of such skulls and ancestral remains stolen from Germany’s past colonies are still kept in Berlin museums to this day. In an administrative building in Berlin, Zablon Kiwelu encounters his grandfather’s skull for the first time. DNA testing con...

Observers are calling this possibly the biggest human trafficking event in modern times. Hundreds of thousands of people recruited – usually under false pretences - to work in massive facilities in the border areas of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, to promote fraudulent investment schemes and romance scams to unsuspecting citizens around the world. The scams, run by criminal gangs, are thought to be...

For over 25 years Antonia Quirke has made programmes and written articles about film. After a chance comment during an interview, she was offered a small part in a screen adaptation of Jim Crace’s novel Harvest, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, one of the celebrated instigators of the surreal, unsettling cinema movement known as the Greek Weird Wave. Filmed over the course of one tempestuous su...

In 2019, British-Nigerian comedian Emmanuel Sonubi suffered from a near-fatal heart failure whilst on a comedy tour of Dubai. He had a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy, which means his heart was not pumping enough oxygen around his body, and he might need an urgent transplant. In the years since Emmanuel's condition has been controlled through medication but the threat of a heart transplant...

A growing number of Romanians, including some celebrities and the country’s former prime minister Dacian Cioloș, are moving to the countryside. They say they're looking for a slower and more sustainable life in the hills. But this seemingly idyllic lifestyle is not without challenges. What's driving this trend? Romanian journalist Anca Badea has looked into this. Plus, the man who spent the past 2...

Across the world, there’s often a stigma when it comes to men discussing their emotions. “We’re taught here as men that a man shouldn’t cry,” says Kholekile, who chairs the ManKind Project, a support group for men in South Africa. Across the world, there’s often a stigma when it comes to men discussing their emotions. “We’re taught here as men that a man shouldn’t cry,” says Kholekile, who chairs...

The number of adults getting baptised in France has tripled in the last three years. Why are so many more adults joining the Church in France? We meet two of France’s new Christians, one baptised this Easter, one last Easter, and hear the strong stories they have to tell about the path they took and ask whether Catholicism is changing from a religion that baptises infants to one that baptises adul...

Researchers in Morocco are developing dry-land agriculture at ICARDA (the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas). It is home to a gene bank, in which around 150,000 different seed-types are kept in perfectly calibrated cold vaults, and duplicated to protect them from ‘fire, earthquake and war.’ They’re used for the creation of new varieties - such as wheat or lentils resi...

Sidhu Moose Wala explodes onto the Canadian music scene. His sound is a fusion of two worlds - hip-hop with the poetic language of rural Punjab, where he is from. After years of struggle he is making it. But with the spotlight comes a dark side. As his fame grows, so do the threats. This is the hunt for answers in a killing that won’t be forgotten. A two-year-long investigation that exposes a tang...

France’s last foyers – housing for immigrant workers – are set for demolition. But some current residents are worried about what they’ll lose. Hundreds of “foyers” - housing units especially for immigrant workers – were built after World War II. The economy was booming and France needed unskilled labour to help rebuild the country. But since the 1990s there has been a policy to get rid of the old...

How do you imagine the future if you are a science fiction writer living in the present with your country at war? That is the challenge and dilemma for best selling author Max Kidruk. As he nears completion of Collapse, the second volume of a science fiction trilogy The New Dark Ages, his first volume, Colony has sold 60,000 copies in Ukraine. In the real world, Kidruk has had to fight against his...

Afghanistan used to produce more than 80% of the world's opium, the key ingredient for the drug heroin. When the Taliban took over, they banned poppy farming completely. 3 years on, how has this measure been implemented and how is it affecting people? Yama Bariz and Mamoon Durrani from the BBC's Afghan service discuss the effectiveness of the Taliban's poppy eradication campaign and explain how th...

Donald Trump campaigned hard on illegal immigration ahead of the presidential election and promised voters a major crackdown if they backed him. Since he came to power, the president has issued executive orders to fortify the country’s borders and suspend the entry of undocumented migrants. He has also vowed to oversee the largest deportation programme in American history with criminals and gang m...

Salma El-Wardany meets young women in Egypt using their voices to amplify their faith – drawing inspiration from the long tradition of female Quran reciters in the country. Following in the footsteps of pioneering women like Sheikha Munira Abdou who was first heard on Egyptian Radio 100 years ago and the renowned singer Umm Kulthum, more Egyptian women are sharing their recitations of the Quran pu...

British-Pakistani pharmacist turned comedian Lubna Kerr hears from doctors, sufferers, and experts as she explores Pakistan’s growing diabetes crisis. With type 2 diabetes rates now the highest in the world, the disease is affecting millions - shaping lives, straining healthcare, and raising questions about prevention. Many sufferers remain undiagnosed, missing crucial early intervention. But for...

An inspiration, a politician, a pioneer on and off court - these just some of the words used to describe Arthur Ashe, who became the first African-American to win the men's Wimbledon singles title against Jimmy Connors in 1975. It was one of the most iconic sporting moments of the 20th Century at a time of huge political and racial unrest. Ashe’s life spans America’s Civil Rights struggle, the end...

In 2021, a huge container ship, the X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank off the coast of Sri Lanka, releasing hazardous materials, toxic chemicals and more than 1000 tonnes of microplastic pellets into the sea. The UN called it an environmental catastrophe. Today, Sri Lanka is still counting the cost. Leana Hosea visits Sri Lanka to investigate the legacy of the disaster, and find out why, four yea...

Why are Poland's young voters turning to the right? With his veto powers, Poland’s president-elect Karol Nawrocki could halt the pro-EU government of Donald Tusk. Poland is a NATO member and backs Ukraine in the war with Russia. Scaling up security is an issue almost all Poles agree on, yet there are some signs of shifting attitudes - on foreign policy and immigration. We examine the gender gap am...

Poland’s president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, is a right-wing historian, an amateur boxer and a fan of Donald Trump. What will his presidency mean for the region? Kateryna Khinkulova, editor of the newly launched BBC News Polska, explains. Plus, India’s ‘tailor on wheels’ with Anil Kumar reporting for BBC Telugu and the science of smiling with Alassane Dia from BBC Afrique. This episode of The Documen...

Following the recent bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites by the United States, we talk to Iranians living in the US about their thoughts as they watch events in the Middle East from afar. They describe feeling conflicted about the attacks carried out by their adopted homeland. They worry about friends and relatives who could be in danger back in Iran. But perhaps unsurprisingly for an exiled community...

DJ Fatboy Slim’s Praise You is a song you might have heard in a Hollywood movie or danced to in a club - to this day, it is still his biggest hit. But there is something you won’t know: the singer behind the lyrics or the true meaning of the words. Civil rights activist Camille Yarbrough first released Take Yo’ Praise 50 years ago. It was written as a love letter to African-American men, inspired...

One of the first executive orders that President Donald Trump signed in his second term of office stated that being transgender is incompatible with the ‘rigorous standards necessary for military service’. It set the stage for a ban on trans people serving in the military, regardless of ability, rank or service history. Official figures say there are 4,240 transgender service members in the US arm...

From the BBC World Service podcast Witness History, this is a special episode to mark June as Pride Month. We are looking back at some of the major moments and movements that changed the lives of LGBT+ people and communities, through first-hand accounts. It’s history told through the people who were there.

The daily realities and private thoughts of a young woman living through war. Every morning, Hanya Aljamal sees the same man from her balcony. “He has this tiny garden in the middle of all this concrete stuff,” she says. “Just across the road, there’s a blown-up building. Yet he’s cultivating these little herbs and plants. And I look at that and it just looks like the purest form of resistance.” H...