Podcasts by The Documentary Podcast

Stories from the New Silk Road: Iceland from 2023-12-12T01:30

In 2013 Iceland made history by becoming the first European country to sign a free trade agreement with China. It was aimed at increasing exports from Iceland to China as well as opening up Icel...

In the Studio: Kengo Kuma from 2023-12-11T01:30

Kengo Kuma has a philosophy: to enrich the connection between buildings and nature, “almost tuning-in” to the materials. His architecture is inspired by traditional Japanese design, and he is a ...

Taiwan's balancing act from 2023-12-10T01:30

Former BBC Taiwan correspondent Cindy Sui meets two young Taiwanese voters, Shirley Lin and Dennis, who have very different views about the island, its future and its relationship with Mainland ...

BBC OS Conversations: Climate change and the young from 2023-12-09T01:30

World leaders are currently meeting in Dubai for the United Nations’ COP23 climate summit to discuss how to cope with a changing global climate. At the same time, a new study has suggested that ...

Heart and Soul: The Sarajevo Haggadah from 2023-12-08T01:30

Sarajevo’s most famous artefact, a 700 year-old Jewish prayer book called the Haggadah, captures the story the city wants to tell about itself. But is it accurate? In Sarajevo, Farrah Jarral joi...

Assignment: Cyprus and the battle over songbird slaughter from 2023-12-07T02:40

Cyprus is one of the main resting stops for songbirds as they migrate between Europe, Africa and the Middle East. For centuries, Cypriots trapped and ate a small number of migrating songbirds, a...

The Children of Paradise: Without hope you're dead from 2023-12-06T18:10

Three decades after the momentous transition from Apartheid to a democratic South Africa, Fergal Keane returns to see what happened to the hopes and promises of a better nation. In a famous spee...

The Children of Paradise: A deadly mixture from 2023-12-06T18:05

Three decades after the momentous transition from Apartheid to a democratic South Africa, Fergal Keane returns to see what happened to the hopes and promises of a better nation. In a famous spee...

The Children of Paradise: The future must change from 2023-12-06T18:00

Three decades after the momentous transition from Apartheid to a democratic South Africa, Fergal Keane returns to see what happened to the hopes and promises of a better nation. In a famous spee...

Stories from the New Silk Road: Norway from 2023-12-05T01:30

The Norwegian town of Kirkenes set on the coast and inside the Arctic Circle, is on the edge of what the Chinese refer to as the Polar Silk Road. The Northern Sea Route or Northeast Passage is a...

Filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk: Animating Ukraine’s War from 2023-12-04T01:30

Iryna Tsilyk is one of Ukraine’s best known young documentary makers. She made her name following the lives of soldiers, female paramedics and families living on the frontline in East Ukraine af...

Introducing Amazing Sport Stories from 2023-12-03T15:00

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 ...

Kissinger’s Legacy from 2023-12-03T01:30

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, cond...

BBC OS Conversations: Israel and Gaza - securing freedom from 2023-12-02T01:30

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 ...

Heart and Soul: Follow God, not the people from 2023-12-01T01:30

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 word...

Kissinger from 2023-11-30T14:06

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 th...

Assignment: Poland's forest frontier from 2023-11-30T02:40

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 Belarusia...

Gaza diaries from 2023-11-29T12:03

English teacher Farida and Khalid, a medical supplier, document through intimate voice messages their struggle to survive the war in Gaza. They tell a story of immense loss and resilience in a w...

Sweden: Living with guns and gangs from 2023-11-28T10:42

Sweden has become a European hotspot for deadly shootings, rocking its reputation as a safe and peaceful nation. Last year, a record 62 people were killed in gun violence in the Nordic nation, w...

In the Studio: Danny Boyle from 2023-11-27T01:30

Danny Boyle, the visionary behind the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony and the Oscar-winning director of films like Slumdog Millionaire, Yesterday and Trainspotting, returns to his home town...

The Cultural Frontline: K-drama from 2023-11-26T01:30

Korean drama, or K-drama, is enjoying phenomenal worldwide success. South Korea is now one of the largest content providers in the world. Actress Min-ha Kim, star of Pachinko, explores how K-dra...

BBC OS Conversations: Hostages, prisoners and peace from 2023-11-25T01:30

After seven weeks of war between Hamas and Israel, there was a deal for a pause in the fighting. On Friday morning the rockets and gunfire fell silent in Gaza. The agreement also included the re...

The Trial of Oscar Pistorius from 2023-11-24T14:17

In 2014 Audrey Brown told the dramatic story of the trial of the athlete Oscar Pistorius After becoming a Paralympics champion, Oscar Pistorius rose to fame as the first double amputee to compet...

Heart and Soul: Wolves in sheep's clothing from 2023-11-24T01:30

When Kenyan-born nurse Margaret Ruto chanced upon an internet story about an American Christian missionary accused of sexually abusing children in a Kenyan orphanage, she knew she had to act. Th...

Florida's political refugees from 2023-11-23T02:40

Americans on both sides of the political spectrum are escaping states they no longer feel comfortable in. They are calling themselves ‘political refugees.’ And the sunshine state of Florida is a...

We the people are Barbados from 2023-11-21T01:30

In September 2020, Barbados announced its decision to become a republic, removing the British monarchy as head of state. November 30th, 2021 marked not only the 57th anniversary of the nation’s ...

In The Studio: Damon Galgut - Adapting The Promise for the stage from 2023-11-20T01:30

Damon Galgut’s 2021 Booker Prize-winning novel, The Promise, chronicles the slow decline of a white family on a farm outside Pretoria, South Africa, and the ripple effects of a deathbed promise ...

The Debate: Israel Gaza - What happens when the war ends? from 2023-11-19T01:30

The BBC’s Mishal Husain is joined by a panel of guests to discuss what happens when the Israel Gaza war ends. On the panel are Jeremy Bowen, BBC International Editor; Daniel Levy, director of th...

BBC OS Conversations: Hate against Jews and Muslims from 2023-11-18T01:30

The war in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel continues to cost many lives. It is also increasing tensions and anger around the world.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part...

Heart and Soul: Israel – Gaza: Can interfaith work prevail? from 2023-11-17T01:30

The recent violence between Israel and Hamas threatens the survival of the hundreds of small-scale projects which aim to bring Jews and Palestinians together to work for peace, or at least share...

The mighty Mekong’s last hope from 2023-11-16T02:40

Tens of millions of lives depend on the Mekong river for fishing and farming as it travels through China and South East Asia. But there are increasing signs that this river with one of the riche...

Tanni's Lifetime Road to Disabled Equality from 2023-11-15T01:30

Multi gold medal winning Paralympic wheelchair athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson examines 50 years of changing attitudes to disability around the world.

When Tanni was a child in the 1970s in Wa...

A man without bees from 2023-11-14T01:30

Why are all the bees dying? Simon Mitambo, an expert from Kenya's so-called 'Land of Bees', travels from his own affected community to huge industrial farms in search of answers. It is a journey...

In The Studio: Jenn Lee: Taiwan fashion designer from 2023-11-13T01:30

Taipei based fashion designer Jenn Lee is preparing her Spring Summer 2024 collection for London and Taipei Fashion Weeks. Inspired by the recycled materials she finds in local markets, by Briti...

BBC OS Conversations: Israeli losses from 2023-11-11T01:30

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, thousands of lives have been lost in the war. While rolling news and live updates give us minute by minute coverage, we want to take the opportuni...

Heart and Soul: Queerly beloved: Same-sex love and the Synod from 2023-11-10T01:30

The Church of England prohibits same-sex relations. Even so, the debate on this position – in the UK and the worldwide Anglican Communion - continues. Should the Church allow and conduct LGBT bl...

The Jews and Arabs coexisting in crisis from 2023-11-09T02:40

Just over 20% of Israel’s population are Palestinian - or Israeli Arabs - making them the largest minority in the country. They are distinct from the Palestinians living in the occupied West Ban...

My Forgotten War from 2023-11-07T01:30

Turkey hosts the largest population of refugees and asylum seekers in the world. These include around 3.6 million Syrians, who fled there during the war in their country. Now many of those Syr...

In The Studio: Carol Morley from 2023-11-06T07:45

Carol Morley is known for films like The Falling, Dreams Of A Life, and her most recent work, Typist Artist Pirate King.

Her next movie is an adaptation of her autobiographical novel Seven...

BBC OS Conversations: Palestinian losses from 2023-11-04T01:30

The fighting and funerals in the Israel and Hamas war are constant. Thousands have been killed.

The number of fatalities don’t tell the real stories though. In recent days, the OS team has...

Heart and Soul: Finding Falun Gong from 2023-11-03T01:30

It’s been more than two decades since the Chinese government launched a crackdown on Falun Gong. The spiritual group claims practitioners face mass arrest, torture and are murdered by the state ...

Assignment: Taught to fear - corporal punishment in the classroom from 2023-11-02T02:40

In Kenya, corporal punishment in schools has been banned for over twenty years, yet young students are being beaten by their teachers on a daily basis, and the consequences can be fatal. In the ...

The Raspberry Visa from 2023-11-01T14:23

The ‘Raspberry Visa’ is the colloquial name given to the Portuguese passport that workers picking berries in Western Portugal can apply for after 7 years of work. Bhrikuti Rai and Fabian Federl ...

In the Studio: Kieran Stanley - Designing a Zoo from 2023-10-30T01:30

Zoo designer Kieran Stanley has created some of the world's most impressive spaces to care for animals ranging from the Indian rhinoceros to the giant panda. He is passionate about animal welfar...

BBC OS Conversations: Jewish-Palestinian couples from 2023-10-28T00:30

Observing the suffering on both sides of the Israel and Gaza war, are couples and families around the world in which individuals with Jewish and Palestinian heritage have come together and built...

Heart and Soul: The New York Supreme Court's first female Hasidic judge from 2023-10-27T00:30

Rachel Freier was 30 when she started her training to be an attorney, and many people told her she was making a mistake. Growing up in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, New...

Assignment: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Russian Theatre from 2023-10-26T01:40

Tatiana Frolova wasn’t born to be a theatre director. She grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s in a cut-off part of a closed country, the Soviet Far East. She was a shy, nervous girl brought up by a si...

Africa's urban future: What next? from 2023-10-24T10:32

Faced with the ever-quickening pace of urbanisation, what is the future for Africa's swelling cities? Experts predict that Africa could be home to forty percent of humanity by the end of this ce...

In the Studio: PAC NYC from 2023-10-23T00:30

September 2023 sees the opening of PAC NYC – the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York. It’s the final building in the new piazza, situated on the site of the World Trade Center in lower M...

Other people's children from 2023-10-22T00:30

Mothers from all over the world leave their families in search of economic opportunities elsewhere – and they often end up working as nannies, which means they spend their days with children whi...

BBC OS Conversations: Teenagers in Gaza and Israel from 2023-10-21T00:30

In recent days, there have been warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza amid continual bombardment. In Israel, the discovery of bodies continues in the communities near the border, follow...

Understand: Israel and the Palestinians from 2023-10-20T17:00

A guide to the history and context of the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Katya Adler and guests explain the key players and set out the background to help you get to ...

Heart and Soul: My journey beyond death from 2023-10-20T00:30

Following a dramatic train accident, David Ditchfield was dragged under a speeding train in Cambridgeshire and nearly lost his life. As he lay in hospital, just before being taken into surgery, ...

Assignment: The village versus the mine from 2023-10-19T01:40

A village in northern Portugal is fighting to prevent what could be the first large scale battery grade lithium mine in Europe from going into operation on its doorstep. For Assignment, Caroline...

Africa’s Urban Future: South Africa from 2023-10-17T00:30

Apartheid may now be long buried politically but in and around South Africa’s main cities it has left a visible legacy. Those entrenched historical problems could be about to get worse as cities...

In the Studio: Mohsen Makhmalbaf from 2023-10-16T00:30

Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf takes us behind the scenes of the making of Kandahar, his film about life in Afghanistan that captured the world's attention when President Bush asked to see i...

Special: My Indian Life from 2023-10-15T00:30

“I’m in love with the mountains.” A special episode from Kalki Presents: My Indian Life. Savita Kanswal was an inspirational climber, who had scaled Mount Everest. At the age of 26, she was trag...

BBC OS Conversations: Israel and Gaza from 2023-10-14T00:30

This is an historical conflict with decades of bloodshed but the unprecedented violence of the past week has thrown the crisis into unknown territory. It was triggered by the Islamist militant ...

The Cultural Frontline: How Disney redefined animation from 2023-10-13T00:30

It has been 100 years since a young animator sold his first film series, called Alice Comedies, to a distributor. Without knowing, he was starting what became one of the world’s biggest media em...

Assignment: America’s hidden histories from 2023-10-12T01:40

It’s more than 150 years since the end of the American Civil War. But the replacement of a monument dedicated to the Confederate Commander Robert E Lee with a statue of black icon Henrietta Lack...

Africa's urban future: Tanzania from 2023-10-10T00:30

Mike Wooldridge and Tanzanian development worker Mary Ndaro report on the opportunities and challenges for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial centre, and one of Africa’s fastest growing cities...

In the Studio: Anton Skrypets from 2023-10-09T00:30

Stay Online is the first film about the full-scale war in Ukraine. Young producer Anton Skrypets tells Antonia Quirke about the dangers and challenges of this groundbreaking production, through ...

BBC OS Conversations: Fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh from 2023-10-07T00:30

The territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is at the centre of one of the world’s longest running disputes that goes back more than 100 years. The latest conflict involved a lightening military operation...

Heart and Soul: Young Catholics on the Francis revolution from 2023-10-06T00:30

Pope Francis has launched the biggest consultation in the history of the Catholic church. Since the process started three years ago, millions of Catholics worldwide have given their responses to...

Gabon’s dark football secret from 2023-10-05T01:40

Gabon is football crazy and it’s the dream of most young footballers to play internationally. But, in 2022 a long serving coach for youth national teams admitted to charges of raping, grooming, ...

Africa's urban future: Ghana from 2023-10-04T00:30

What is the future for Africa's rapidly swelling cities? The stretch of nearly 1,000 km between Abidjan and Lagos, is by 2100 projected to be the largest zone of continuous, dense habitation on ...

Will the unicorns of the sea fall silent? from 2023-10-03T00:30

The term “narwhal” derives from the old Nordic for “nár + hvalr”, meaning corpse + whale, which, for these animals, is quickly becoming prophetic. Climate change, with its accompanying increase ...

In the Studio: The visitors from 2023-10-02T15:30

After its award winning premier in 2020, a new production of The Visitors by Indigenous playwright Jane Harrison sees us on the eve of colonisation. The first fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour on...

October 1973: The war that changed everything from 2023-10-01T00:30

It is a war with many names - The Yom Kippur War, the Ramadan War, the October War. What is clear 50 years after it was fought is that it was a conflict that really did change the world. Michael...

BBC OS Conversations: War and fatigue in Ukraine from 2023-09-30T00:30

Winter is approaching once again in the war and, for all the combat in the summer, the situation remains largely unchanged for both Ukrainian and Russian forces. There is talk that the conflict ...

Heart and Soul: The Hare Krishna MC from 2023-09-29T00:30

Jake Emlyn’s musical talents were once hailed by international pop star Robbie Williams, who mentored the young English rapper. It lead him to feature on the albums of major stars and tour world...

Germany: Jail for fare-dodging from 2023-09-28T01:40

In Germany you can go to prison for travelling on public transport without a ticket. It’s estimated that 7,000 people are serving a jail sentence for this at any one time. Most of them are seria...

Donor babies: A question of identity from 2023-09-26T00:30

For many people around the world, donation of sperm or an egg can be the difference between becoming parents and not. But while this donation can make their dream of parenthood come true, what a...

In the Studio: Ken Loach: The Sequel from 2023-09-25T00:30

The shooting starts on The Old Oak and Sharuna Sagar is there to witness Ken Loach's unique style of directing. Throughout his career from Kes to The Wind That Shakes The Barley to I, Daniel Bla...

BBC OS Conversations: The floods in Libya from 2023-09-23T00:30

Storm Daniel delivered 300 times more rain than expected onto the north-east coast of Libya, causing two dams to burst and water up to 30 meters high to tear through the coastal city of Derna. T...

Heart and Soul: Poland's nuns lifting the veil from 2023-09-22T00:30

What happens when a Catholic nun in Poland chooses to leave her religious community? Nuns are rejecting their orders after experiencing what they now regard as abuse. Some say they have even bee...

How a war has changed a Norwegian town from 2023-09-21T01:40

Kirkenes, in the far north-east of Norway, once thrived on its close ties with neighbouring Russia. All that changed after the invasion of Ukraine. Now it’s become home to Ukrainian refugees and...

Cricket and the maidens from 2023-09-19T00:30

In March 2023, the first season of the Women’s India Premier League, the world’s second most valuable cricketing league, behind only the men’s IPL, was played. Five teams battled it out to claim...

In the Studio: Vhils from 2023-09-18T00:30

Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is a Portuguese artist, known for his striking huge murals that have appeared on city walls from Brazil and the US, to Senegal and Vietnam. He uses a bas-relief carving...

Bonus: The Explanation from 2023-09-17T01:30

What is a war crime? How is it different to a crime against humanity and genocide? And who holds those responsible to account? Find out in this bonus episode of The Explanation, from the BBC Wor...

Remembering Buthelezi from 2023-09-17T00:30

The BBC's Audrey Brown looks back at the life of South Africa's Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who died earlier in September aged 95. He played a vital - and controversial - role in the count...

BBC OS Conversations: The earthquake in Morocco from 2023-09-16T00:30

The earthquake struck in a region of the High Atlas Mountains. Its force destroyed entire villages and could be felt across the country, and even in neighbouring Algeria. Around 3,000 people los...

Heart and Soul: Faith, terrorists and mercy at Guantanamo Bay from 2023-09-15T00:30

Dr Jennifer Bryson interrogated suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists at the infamous Guantanamo Bay. She worked at the detention centre in Cuba for two years and says that some of the inmates bragged o...

Missing in Syria from 2023-09-14T01:40

There are one hundred thousand missing Syrians, according to the UN, who’ve been detained or have disappeared since the beginning of the uprising in Syria twelve years ago and the civil war that...

Building power: India’s new parliament from 2023-09-13T00:30

Prime Minister Narendra Modi describes India’s new parliament as a reflection of the “aspirations and dreams” of all Indians. But the huge triangular structure that sits next to its colonial-era...

In the Studio: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh from 2023-09-11T00:30

Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh is one of Ireland's leading screen costume designers - working on such productions as The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Jimmy's Hall and the recent, multi award-winning Th...

Inside an autistic mind from 2023-09-10T00:30

Science journalist Sue Nelson shares her personal journey to better understand a condition that affects millions worldwide. Inside her autistic inner world is a cacophony of brain chatter, anxie...

BBC OS Conversations: Climate change in Africa from 2023-09-09T00:30

Africa causes little damage to the climate but tends to feel the brunt of changing weather patterns. That was the debate in recent days as Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, hosted Africa’s first-ever cl...

Izabela in the forest from 2023-09-06T09:40

Hear the marvellous sounds of Europe's last primeval forest, Białoweiza, in an immersive experience rich with all kinds of bird song and animal sounds, including that of the rare European bison....

Surviving Greece's migrant boat disaster from 2023-09-05T15:47

n the early hours of 14th June, a heavily overcrowded, rusty fishing trawler carrying as many as 750 migrants capsized off the coast of Greece. The passengers - men, women and children from coun...

Slovakia divided from 2023-09-05T00:30

Slovakia may be a small country, but its upcoming elections could have a big impact across Europe and beyond. One of the strongest supporters of Ukraine in its war against Russia, Slovakia was t...

In the Studio: Robyn Weintraub from 2023-09-04T00:30

Robyn Weintraub is a leading crossword designer who writes clues and fills in cells for the New York Times, famous for its challenging daily puzzles. She also creates for the New Yorker, People ...

BBC OS Conversations: American voters from 2023-09-02T00:30

The US elections for the next president are not until November 2024, but the campaigning for votes is underway. And it’s two familiar faces who seem to be the ones to beat. Host Lukwesa Barak ...

Heart and Soul: My sex work and my faith from 2023-09-01T00:30

Aaliyah grew up a devout Muslim but now makes adult content for the online service OnlyFans. She’s often pictured wearing a hijab. Aaliyah is her stage name. She’s had death threats but believes...

Singing Morocco's new identity from 2023-08-31T01:40

Gnawa music is a Moroccan spiritual musical tradition developed by descendants of enslaved people from Sub-Saharan Africa. It combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dance, and is trad...

A new term in Myanmar from 2023-08-29T08:30

On 1st February 2021, a coup d'état began in Myanmar where the National League for Democracy was deposed by Myanmar's military. Students studying at the country’s higher education institutes wer...

In the Studio: France's Rugby World Cup kit from 2023-08-28T00:30

The French national team are known throughout the sporting world as "les bleus" because of their iconic kits, which echo the blue of the French national flag. French sportswear brand Le Coq Sp...

BBC OS Conversations: Migrating from Africa from 2023-08-26T00:30

More than 60 people are currently feared lost at sea after trying to escape Senegal by boat for a better life in Europe. According to the UN, Africa accounts for only 14 percent of the global mi...

Heart and Soul: 60 years since ‘I have a dream’ from 2023-08-25T00:30

Baptist minister Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his "I have a dream" speech on 28 August 1963 to crowds of over 250,000 in Washington DC as part of the Great March, which called for jobs and...

Belize's blue bond from 2023-08-24T01:40

In 2020 Belize was broke. Again. This small, climate-vulnerable, Central American nation is home to the western hemisphere’s longest barrier reef. And it was about to default on a debt of over h...

Back to school: Supporting neuro-divergent students through LARP from 2023-08-23T00:30

Neurodivergent students learn, think, and process information differently than their neurotypical peers. Because of this, they often face unique challenges in the school setting. Students may st...

In the Studio: Nicola Benedetti from 2023-08-21T00:30

World famous violinist Nicola Benedetti starts her new job as Director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Anna Bailey follows her as she enters unchartered territory, commissioning new wor...

The famine at the edge of the ocean from 2023-08-20T00:30

Madagascar is experiencing its worst famine for over 30 years. With successive years of drought, this began in the country’s deep south but as successive cyclones hit Madagascar in 2022 and 2023...

BBC OS Conversations: The fires in Hawaii from 2023-08-19T00:30

It is the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than a century. On the Hawaiian island of Maui, block after block of the seaside town of Lahaina lies in ruins. Only the twisted wreckag...

Heart and Soul: German, soldier, Jew from 2023-08-18T00:30

After the horrific role played by the German military in the Holocaust, arguably the last place you would expect to find a Jew would be in the German Armed Forces. And yet it is estimated that t...

Zimbabwe's worker exodus from 2023-08-17T01:40

Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing their country, looking for work in the West, especially in the United Kingdom.

Last year Zimbabwe was the third largest source of foreign worke...

Directing disability from 2023-08-16T00:30

In the 15 years that Jordan Hogg has been a TV director, he has never worked with another disabled director. Whilst 18% of the population has a disability, this is not represented in many indust...

Did big tech know I was gay before I did? from 2023-08-15T00:30

Journalist Ellie House is bisexual. But before she had even realised that, it felt like big tech had already worked it out, with sites like Netflix and TikTok regularly recommending her LGBTQ co...

In the Studio: Christopher and Tammy Kane from 2023-08-14T00:30

Fashion designers and brother and sister duo, Christopher and Tammy Kane have been trendsetters in the fashion world since 2006. They’ve dressed celebrities and world leaders, blending a playful...

The Engineers: Lunar exploration from 2023-08-13T00:30

Humans are returning to the moon for the first time in over 50 years. The multi-national mission is called Artemis and involves the most powerful rocket and capable spacecraft ever built, a spac...

BBC OS Conversations: Football in Saudi-Arabia from 2023-08-12T00:30

A new season of the Saudi Pro League is underway, now featuring some of the biggest names in football. Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante, among many others, have all signed-up to...

Heart and Soul: Moscow vicar returns home from 2023-08-11T00:30

The Rev Malcolm Rogers has been in charge of the most extraordinary church.  St Andrews looks like an ordinary British Victorian church, but amazingly it’s just ten minutes from the heart of pow...

When Wagner came home from 2023-08-10T01:40

Tens of thousands of Russian criminals – murders, rapists, robbers – were recruited from prisons by the mercenary group, Wagner, to fight in Ukraine. Now, after six months on the battlefield, th...

Female founders: Green tech in the blue economy from 2023-08-09T00:30

Subsistence fishing employs hundreds of millions of people around the world. It’s an enormous business worth trillions of dollars. It’s also a dirty business. High-cost diesel motors and expensi...

Inside Afghanistan's secret schools from 2023-08-08T00:30

In March 2022, seven months after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, second level education was banned for girls, leaving around 1.1 million of them without access to formal schooling...

In the Studio: Ajay Chowdhury from 2023-08-07T00:30

The Indian-born crime fiction author, Ajay Chowdhury, is writing the fifth instalment of his Detective Kamil Rahman series, set between India and the UK. But Ajay is also a leading digital tech ...

Beats, rhymes and life: Hip-hop at 50 from 2023-08-06T00:30

DJ and writer Lynnée Denise marks hip-hop’s 50th year by speaking to leading names about the music, the art and the creativity of this global cultural movement. Legendary hip-hop producer Pete R...

BBC OS Conversatioms: Living through a coup from 2023-08-05T00:30

Niger has been the focus of international and diplomatic attention over the past week after its democratically elected president was removed from power by the military. In recent days, we have s...

Heart and Soul: Online spiritual communities from 2023-08-04T00:30

A doctor in New York, Anjoli has been longing for a space to practise spirituality within a like-minded community, but she does not want to go to her parents’ Hindu temple. Whilst she likes the ...

Returning to Romania from 2023-08-03T01:40

Millions of people left Romania after it entered the EU in 2007. They were haemorrhaging doctors at such a rate they had to shut entire hospitals and losing so many builders they had to cancel m...

A billion batteries from 2023-08-02T00:30

Fourteen-year-old Sri Nihal Tammana is on a mission to prevent billions of batteries going to landfill. After watching devastating fires cause by discarded lithium-ion batteries, the kind of bat...

Invading the past: Russia and science fiction from 2023-08-01T00:30

Science fiction flourished from the earliest days of the Soviet Union. A rare space to explore other realms and utopian dreams of progress. But with the Soviet Union's collapse different narrati...

In the Studio: Sophie Hannah from 2023-07-31T00:30

The crime writer Agatha Christie remains the best-selling novelist of all time even though her death was almost 50 years ago. Her fictional detective Hercule Poirot has attained legendary status...

Women writing Zimbabwe from 2023-07-30T00:30

Look at any fiction prize recently and odds are that you will find a Zimbabwean woman nominated, be it Tsitsi Dangaremba, NoViolet Bulawayo or Petina Gappah. But forget the glitz of the Booker, ...

BBC OS Conversations: Women in sport from 2023-07-29T00:30

The Women’s World Cup is underway and global attention is once again on women in sport. Host James Reynolds brings together Preeti Singh, a national and international basketball player for India...

Botswana: Living with elephants from 2023-07-27T01:40

The battle to keep the peace between people and elephants in northern Botswana. The earth’s largest land mammal, the elephant, is an endangered species. Poaching, habitat loss and disease have d...

Song of the bell from 2023-07-25T00:30

The world's most followed religion is changing rapidly. Hannah Ajala explores how church bells travelling from Italy to Nigeria herald Africa's new role as the beating heart of Christianity. The...

In the Studio: SO - IL and Ben Lovett: The architects of music from 2023-07-24T08:05

Brooklyn-based architectural practice SO|IL's have garnered a reputation for crafting exquisite arts spaces. They are joined by musician Ben Lovett, one of the founding members of folk rock outf...

BBC OS Conversations: Surviving a heatwave from 2023-07-22T00:30

Millions of people around the world have been living under heat advisories due to record hot temperatures. The exceptional heat is being felt across Europe, the US, North Africa, the Middle East...

Heart and Soul: America’s atheist street pirates from 2023-07-21T00:30

On a busy street in Los Angeles a group of people in yellow vests are holding a ladder against a lamppost. Up the ladder, 34-year-old Evan Clark is ripping down a sign that is nailed to the post...

Tunisia’s democratic dream from 2023-07-20T01:40

Tunisia’s democracy is being dismantled by a president who claims he’s saving it from anarchy. Parliament has been dissolved, scores of judges sacked and opponents jailed. Once Tunisia - the nor...

Kew Gardens: Botany and the British empire from 2023-07-18T00:30

For centuries, Kew Gardens was the flash point for a lesser known British imperial project – the collection of plants from colonised nations for political and commercial gain. Author and journal...

In the Studio: Gregory Doran from 2023-07-17T00:30

Acclaimed and award-winning Shakespearean, Gregory Doran, has directed every play in Shakespeare’s First Folio except Cymbeline. For him it’s one of Shakespeare’s most complex creations and he w...

Women's football: Passion versus profit from 2023-07-16T00:30

The Euros 2022 saw the Lionesses finally ‘bring it home’ - the excitement and crowd numbers showed there was a huge demand for women’s football. Ahead of the Women’s 2023 World Cup this document...

BBC OS Conversations: Living with rising prices from 2023-07-15T00:30

Prices almost everywhere are going up, which means most of us have less money to spend. At the heart of it is inflation, the rate at which prices are rising. It means paying higher costs for eve...

Heart and Soul: Future shaman from 2023-07-14T00:30

As a shaman, Sipa Melo is the beating heart of tribal faith and culture in a remote corner of north-east India, tucked in the shadow of the Himalayan Mountains. He's a healer, a story-teller and...

Speaking for themselves from 2023-07-13T01:40

Kaaps is a language widely spoken in the bleak townships of Cape Town, South Africa. It’s often denigrated as a lesser form of Afrikaans – the language that was used as a tool of white supremac...

Bangladesh's clothing conundrum from 2023-07-11T00:30

Many Western fashion brands source garments from Bangladesh, a country with a long history of producing affordable clothing. The industry suffered a devastating disaster in 2013 when the eight-s...

In the Studio: The Aquatics Centre, Paris Olympics 2024 from 2023-07-10T00:30

In September 2017, The International Olympic Committee announced that a century after France last hosted the Olympics in 1924, the games would be returning to Paris for the third time in its his...

BBC OS Conversations: Race in France from 2023-07-08T00:30

France has questions to answer around inequity and its approach to policing. It follows days of violent protests after the fatal shooting in Paris, during a police traffic stop, of a 17-year-old...

Heart and Soul: A new generation of Nigerian royalty from 2023-07-07T00:30

Hannah Ajala, a Nigerian-British broadcaster explores the new generation of chieftaincy and royalty in Nigeria. She takes a closer look at some of the key aspects of an inauguration ceremony acr...

What's happened to Iraq's Yazidis? from 2023-07-06T01:40

In 2014, militants of the Islamic State group set out to destroy the ancient, minority Yazidi community of northern Iraq. Thousands were murdered, thousands of Yazidi women and children were ens...

Wagner's revolt: The world takes stock from 2023-07-04T02:00

Russia's once shadowy private military company Wagner hit the headlines around the world when the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ordered his men to march on Moscow. Although the insurrection...

In the Studio: Shezad Dawood from 2023-07-03T00:30

The British artist, Shezad Dawood is known for his colourful textiles and multimedia artworks, often featuring music and VR to explore issues such as migration, the environment and climate chang...

BBC OS Conversations: What do Russians and Belarusians make of the Wagner Group? from 2023-07-01T00:30

Following the Wagner group march on Moscow, we hear from Russians and Belarusians.

Heart and Soul: Nick Cave on grief, faith and music from 2023-06-30T00:30

The songwriter, poet and author, Nick Cave has a conversation about grief, faith and the spirituality of music with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Nick writes hauntingly beautiful so...

The Organ Harvesters from 2023-06-29T01:40

Assignment tells the story of a young street trader from Lagos who ended up at the heart of an organ harvesting plot involving a senior Nigerian politician and a hospital in the UK. The young ma...

Biniam Girmay: Africa’s new cycling hero from 2023-06-27T00:30

Biniam Girmay stands on the brink of history as the first black African rider to win a stage of cycling’s biggest race: the Tour de France. After a hard upbringing as one of six children in the ...

In the Studio: Matthew Xia from 2023-06-26T00:30

***This programme contains racially sensitive language and themes that may be upsetting.*** Matthew Xia is a theatre director and Olivier award-winning artistic director of the Actors Touring Co...

BBC OS Conversations: Survival from 2023-06-24T00:30

Race against time rescue stories have been among the dominating international headlines in the past couple of weeks. There was the missing sub in the Atlantic and before that the incredible surv...

Heart and Soul: Windrush at 75 from 2023-06-23T00:30

Prof. Robert Beckford interviews Barbara Blake-Hannah the UK’s first black news reporter who returned to Jamaica after just eight years after coming over as part of the Windrush generation. She ...

South Korea: A room with a view from 2023-06-22T01:40

“It’s like living in a cemetery.” Jung Seongno lives in a banjiha, or semi-basement apartment in the South Korean capital Seoul. Last August parts of Seoul experienced major flooding. As a resul...

The monkey haters from 2023-06-20T00:30

There is disturbing material, including descriptions of violence and torture of monkeys, from the start of this programme.

There's a horrific and disturbing trade in the torture of Macaque...

In the Studio: Wayne McGregor from 2023-06-19T00:30

Wayne McGregor is a choreographer and director whose future-focused, multi-award-winning works take inspiration from technology, literature and visual art. As resident choreographer for the Roya...

Controlled and connected: 50 years of the cell phone from 2023-06-18T00:30

Fifty years on from the first mobile phone call, this programme examines how the device has revolutionised the way we lives our lives. It was 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher made ...

BBC OS Conversations: Air pollution from 2023-06-17T00:30

Hundreds of wildfires are burning across Canada, almost half are classed by officials as ‘out of control’. Their immediate impact is the destruction of homes and businesses, plants and wildlife....

Heart and Soul: Swiss Christians and conversion therapy from 2023-06-16T00:30

There’s a debate raging in Switzerland over a potential nationwide ban on so-called conversion therapy. We meet Christians whose lives the procedure has changed forever. They explain how growing...

Catching a Pervert from 2023-06-15T01:40

An investigation by BBC Eye exposes the men profiting from an ugly business of sexual assault for sale.

We find websites selling thousands of videos of men sexually abusing women on trains...

Swan's head, tiger's roar from 2023-06-13T00:30

Producer Steven Rajam travels to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar to meet some of the women challenging convention, tradition and history at home and across the globe, including hip-hop artist ...

In the Studio: Ada Limon from 2023-06-12T00:30

In the Studio follows US poet laureate Ada Limón as she crafts an original poem dedicated to Nasa’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon. Her poem will be engraved on the Clipper spacecr...

BBC OS Conversations: India train crash from 2023-06-10T00:30

The collision between three trains in the state of Odisha claimed more than 280 lives and left more than 1000 people injured. We bring together a volunteer, Govind Dalai, who was one of the firs...

Heart and Soul: America's relief mission from 2023-06-09T08:30

The work of Florida's Baptist Relief responding to climate events like Hurricane Ian and floods in Kentucky - in support of people whose lives have been turned upside down.

Ukraine: The men who don’t want to fight from 2023-06-08T01:40

For more than 15 months the Ukrainian armed forces have held out against the superior numbers of the Russian invasion force. But not every Ukrainian man subject to the draft is willing to fight....

Yellowstone: The first national park from 2023-06-06T00:30

In 1872, Yellowstone became America and the world's first national park. Alongside erupting geysers, bubbling hot springs, canyons, and bison herds, we uncover the pivotal role of art in winning...

In the Studio: Ken Loach from 2023-06-05T00:30

The Old Oak will be Ken Loach's last feature film and Sharuna Sagar was granted exclusive access behind the scenes of this landmark movie. She joins the 86 year old director on his swansong as h...

BBC OS Conversations: Mount Everest from 2023-06-03T00:30

It’s 70 years since a New Zealand mountaineer and his Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer guide reached the highest point on Earth. There have been celebrations in Nepal in recent days to mark the ...

Heart and Soul: The ‘living saint’ who hid a mystical sex sect from 2023-06-02T00:30

Jean Vanier changed Richard and Hazel’s lives. He founded the L’Arche movement – a global network inspired by Christian teaching – where people with and without learning disabilities live togeth...

Myanmar’s war in the air from 2023-06-01T01:40

Russia is supplying the Myanmar military with advanced fighter jets and training their pilots how to use them in a war against their own people. More than two years on from the coup, the country...

Metaleurop : A stain on France from 2023-05-30T00:30

For years the people of Evin-Malmaison in north-east France have lived and brought up children in a town which is dangerously polluted. The Metaleurop Foundry attracted workers and their familie...

In the Studio: Alberta Whittle from 2023-05-29T00:30

Alberta is an award-winning Barbadian-Scottish multi-disciplinary artist whose work encompasses drawing, digital collage, film and video installation, sculpture, performance and writing. In this...

BBC OS Conversations: Living with ADHD from 2023-05-27T00:30

The exact cause is unknown, but the mental health condition ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) affects millions of lives around the world. Symptoms include hyperactive behaviour and...

Heart and Soul: Evangelical or political Christianity? from 2023-05-26T00:30

One of the founding principles of the United States is that religion and politics, church and state, are separate. Yet today in America religious belief and politics have become inseparable. Sel...

Germany’s forests under threat from 2023-05-25T01:40

Drought and hotter summers are killing Germany’s spruce forests. They’re a staple of the timber industry but are proving unable to cope with the consequences of climate change. Four out of five ...

Global dancefloor: Salvador from 2023-05-24T00:35

Brazil has one of the highest rates of trans and gender-diverse homicides in the world, and almost three-quarters of people killed each year are either black or mixed race. Many think the countr...

Global dancefloor: Beirut from 2023-05-24T00:30

Frank McWeeny heads to Beirut to meet the nightlife community behind the Grand Factory club, and explores how underground culture here survives even during chronic lack of opportunity. This scen...

Beirut: Life in the unliveable city from 2023-05-23T00:30

What is it like to live through the collapse of your country, in a city you love and cannot bear to leave? Lina Mounzer is a writer and translator living in Beirut, and this is a question she wr...

In the Studio: Lawrence Abu Hamdan from 2023-05-22T00:30

Lawrence Abu Hamdan is an artist and forensic investigator of sound. He describes himself as a 'private ear’, listening to, with and on behalf of people affected by corporate, state and environm...

Iraq: Generation Invasion from 2023-05-21T00:30

Twenty years after the US-led invasion, four young Iraqis recall life under foreign occupation and share their hopes and fears for the future. Shedding a light on post-Saddam Iraq are: 26-year-o...

Introducing The Explanation from 2023-05-20T11:30

On a mission to make sense of the world. A new podcast, with hosts John Simpson and Claire Graham. Episodes released weekly from 20 May 2023.

BBC OS Conversations: Long Covid from 2023-05-20T00:30

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest figures suggest that nearly seven million people have died due to Covid - although the true figure is likely to be much higher. While many more contr...

Heart and Soul: The emerging Muslim 'manosphere' from 2023-05-19T00:30

In Britain, the growth of Islam is being driven by a younger population, born and brought up in the United Kingdom. This includes BBC reporter Rahil Sheikh. Having grown up against the backdrop ...

Hard times in the Big Easy from 2023-05-18T01:40

New Orleans is the murder capital of the United States: researchers into 2022’s crime figures say it suffered more homicides per capita than any other major city. Carjackings, armed robberies an...

Bonus: The Lazarus Heist from 2023-05-17T00:30

Introducing season 2 of an original podcast about hackers and North Korea. They’re back - in fact the criminals never went away. Season 2 begins at an ATM, possibly near you.

In the Studio: Sir Lenny Henry from 2023-05-16T00:30

Sir Lenny Henry's new one man show - August in England gives an insight into the lives impacted by the Windrush scandal. In 2017, thousands of legal residents who arrived from Commonwealth count...

Generation Change: Battling for a sustainable environment from 2023-05-15T00:05

Babita Sharma meets young people from around the world working to fight climate change, including a Kenyan engineer who has designed a solar powered fridge which can be used to transport vaccine...

Generation Change: Equality in science and technology from 2023-05-15T00:03

Megha Mohan talks to young people working to diversify science, technology, engineering and maths - fields that will be crucial to the future of our planet, but whose workforces remain predomina...

Generation Change: Tackling taboos around organ donation from 2023-05-15T00:02

Babita Sharma talks to young people who are trying to save lives by tackling taboos around organ donation in countries including India and the UK. She also speaks to Nobel Prize-winning economis...

Generation Change: Fighting hunger from 2023-05-15T00:01

Babita Sharma meets young people trying to solve global food problems, including a Lebanese man who worked to feed people after the deadly bomb blast in 2019, and an American woman whose work co...

BBC OS Conversations with Russians from 2023-05-13T08:30

In recent days, Russia staged its annual Victory Day military parade, celebrating the defeating of Nazi Germany during World War Two, which ended in 1945. Host James Reynolds hears from two wome...

Heart and Soul: Ticket to Taiwan from 2023-05-12T00:30

Cindy Sui discovers how the Chè-lâm Presbyterian Church in central Taipei has been helping Hong Kong activists who have fled to Taiwan since the introduction of the national security law. The Lu...

Searching for my son from 2023-05-11T01:40

In the chaos following Turkey’s devastating earthquake in February, Omar was separated from his son Ahmed after both were pulled alive from the collapsed ruins of their home. Omar lost his first...

In the Studio: Kevin Kwan from 2023-05-08T00:30

In recent years, dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians, has made Los Angeles his home. The city is rich with art, fashion and intriguing social structures, all of w...

BBC OS Conversations: Escaping from Sudan from 2023-05-06T00:30

The fighting between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces started around three weeks ago. Since then, the UN estimates that more than a 100,000 people have fled the country...

Heart and Soul: Will the real Shaman stand up? from 2023-05-05T00:30

According to the national census, the number of British people who say they follow Shamanism as a religion has risen twelvefold in the space of 10 years. While the numbers are still low – at aro...

Kenya's Free Money Experiment from 2023-05-04T01:40

Thousands of Kenyan villagers are being given free cash as part of a huge trial being run by an American non-profit, GiveDirectly. Why? Some aid organisations believe that simply giving people m...

The making of King Charles from 2023-05-02T11:54

Charles III waited a very long time to become King. Since his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, he filled his life with activity, pursuing deeply held passions and causes – on the environm...

In the Studio: Tinuke Craig from 2023-05-01T00:30

The acclaimed British theatre director, Tinuke Craig embarks on her opera debut at the English National Opera with Blue, a tale of police violence in America and its impact on a New York family....

The day I met the King from 2023-04-30T00:30

People from all over the globe remember their meetings with King Charles III over the years. They include Dr Joe McInnes who took the former Prince for a dive beneath the ice of the North West p...

BBC OS Conversations: Fentanyl in the United States from 2023-04-29T00:30

Fentanyl is a potentially deadly synthetic opioid. The other month, a drug enforcement official in the country described it as the single deadliest drug threat the US has encountered. It’s been ...

Heart and Soul: The Church's slave plantation, part two from 2023-04-27T23:30

Professor Robert Beckford explores the Christian understanding of reparations. He speaks to Christians in Barbados who say reparations from the Church are now both justified and necessary. But t...

Laos: the most bombed country on earth from 2023-04-27T01:40

50 years after the last US bombs fell on Laos, they’re still killing and maiming. In an effort to stop the march of communism, between 1964 and 1973, America dropped over two million tonnes of ...

Miss Marple returns from 2023-04-25T23:30

Agatha Christie is the world's most translated author, with her work being available in over 100 languages. And one of her most beloved characters, Miss Marple, is about to be resurrected with t...

After the earthquake: Turkey’s election from 2023-04-24T23:30

We travel to Turkey's Anatolian heartland to find out whether the region which helped propel President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power in the early 2000s will do it again in May's crucial election...

4. Murder in Mayfair: The home front from 2023-04-23T23:30

“He’s a coward, he’s not a man.” Martine’s mum passes judgement on Farouk. A final push for answers takes Nawal to Yemen and Norway. And questions of betrayal ring alarm bells in London.

3. Murder in Mayfair: The flight from 2023-04-23T23:29

“He won’t wake up...I think he’s dead.” What Farouk did in the hours after Martine died and the bridges he burned to get away. Nawal’s investigation reaches a critical point. Will Farouk keep ta...

2. Murder in Mayfair: Martine from 2023-04-23T23:28

Friends panic when "street-smart" Martine fails to come home. Her family scrambles to help as a surprise move on Facebook makes something “click” with police.

1. Murder in Mayfair: Finding Farouk from 2023-04-23T23:27

The hunt for the suspected killer of 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen, whose body was found buried under rubble in a London basement in 2008. She died after a night out with "...

Caught in Sudan's conflict from 2023-04-21T23:30

To live in Sudan is to have experienced violence, protest, dictatorship, political instability and upheaval. But the scale of fighting during the last week has shocked many. Caught in the middle...

Heart and Soul: The Church's slave plantation, part one from 2023-04-20T23:30

What are the consequences of the Church of England's historic slave plantations in Barbados today? Theologian Robert Beckford considers why and how the Church's missionary arm, the Society for t...

Leaving Sri Lanka from 2023-04-20T01:40

Record numbers are fleeing the island in the wake of a brutal economic crisis – perhaps one in twenty five Sri Lankans left last year alone. Some 300,000 went for contracted positions, mostly in...

Introducing: Murder in Mayfair from 2023-04-18T23:30

Coming soon: The hunt for the suspected killer of 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen, whose body was found buried under rubble in a London basement in 2008. She died after a nig...

The hidden caste codes of Silicon Valley from 2023-04-18T02:00

Sam, Harsha and Siddhant are tech workers of Indian descent, who all say they have experienced discrimination in corporate America. They are not being singled out on the basis of race, gender, r...

In the Studio: Erica Whyman: Directing Hamnet from 2023-04-17T16:37

Maggie O’Farrell’s historical novel Hamnet was published in 2020 to great critical acclaim, winning the Women's Prize. It tells the story of a gifted herbalist, Agnes Hathaway, who is married to...

The ghost ship from 2023-04-15T12:00

In the Persian gulf, a powerful storm appears to sink an oil tanker, prompting a dramatic Royal Navy rescue. But six weeks later, the same tanker causes a scandal when it drifts onto a luxury Bo...

BBC OS Conversations: Living with multiple sclerosis from 2023-04-15T09:30

A ground-breaking new medical trial has begun in the UK aimed at slowing the progress of multiple sclerosis. The Octopus trial is looking into whether existing drugs can be repurposed to help sl...

Heart and Soul: Sikhism’s lost song from 2023-04-14T04:00

In the heyday of the Sikh Empire, Kirtan (Sikh hymns) were performed using stringed instruments such as the sarangi, rabab and taus. The rich, complex tones these instruments create are said to ...

Gran Chaco - Paraguay’s vanishing forest from 2023-04-13T01:40

The Gran Chaco Forest is Latin America’s second largest ecosystem. It is a mix of hot and arid scrublands, forests and wetlands, part of the River Plata basin, so large it extends into Paraguay,...

In the Studio: Telling the John Hume story from 2023-04-12T23:30

Beyond Belief: The Life and Mission of John Hume is a new musical drama about the Irish politician who was one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace process. Marie-Louise Muir goes beh...

The billion-dollar scam from 2023-04-12T12:49

Investigative reporter Simona Weinglass leads a BBC Eye investigation into a criminal network, believed to have scammed more than a billion dollars from victims across the globe. The organisatio...

Deep Waters: Container ships from 2023-04-10T23:30

Container ships are the monsters of the seas - the very biggest are almost half a kilometre long and piled high with up to 20,000 huge boxes. At any one time, there are tens of thousands of thes...

Deep Waters: Sanctions and the new 'dark' fleet from 2023-04-10T23:29

Shipping has long been one of the most opaque of global industries. Now many operations in the oil sector, which accounts for nearly a third of all seaborne trade, have become still more secreti...

Deep Waters: The hidden world of global shipping from 2023-04-10T23:28

Bulk carriers are the ships that keep the modern world going - like the MV Raeda and the MV Olivian Confidence carrying grain from Ukraine to Turkey, and flour to Afghanistan and Yemen. Zig zagg...

OS Conversations: Guns in America from 2023-04-07T19:06

Funerals have been taking place for victims of the latest mass shooting in the United States. Six people – including three children aged 9 – were killed in the attack at the Covenant School in N...

Heart and Soul: Clergy in cartel land from 2023-04-06T23:30

Mexico has become the most dangerous country in the world to be a Catholic priest. In the past 15 years, 50 were killed in narco-related violence. And the young men who enter the priesthood in t...

Vienna: Getting housing right from 2023-04-06T01:40

Affordable housing is in widespread crisis. Many cities around the world have failed to build enough houses with good design and make living in them affordable – whether rented or bought. This e...

In the Studio: Nikita Gill from 2023-04-03T16:30

The poet Nikita Gill has written several volumes of poetry, and enjoys engaging poetically with her audience using social media. Her work often explores Greek myths, and her latest project is a ...

Being gay in Africa from 2023-04-01T08:30

It’s illegal in around 30 countries in Africa to be in a same-sex relationship and recently there’s been political debate in places such as Uganda and Ghana around stricter laws. We’ve also repo...

Heart and Soul: Purity to nudity from 2023-03-31T04:00

Gwen was brought up as a strict evangelical Christian. She was taught that women needed to control the way they dressed and acted to control the behaviour of men. When she was sexually abused, s...

Finland’s uneasy relationship with its neighbour from 2023-03-30T01:40

How has Finland survived so long as an independent European country, up close to Russia, its aggressive neighbour? Over the decades it’s learnt to live with both the Soviet Union and then post-...

Myanmar: fighting the might of the junta from 2022-04-21T01:40

Myanmar is now in a state of civil war. What started in February 2021 as a mass protest movement against the military coup is now a nationwide armed uprising. The junta is under attack across the c...

Saving our species from 2022-04-19T01:32

Australia is famous for its unique wildlife and landscapes. But Australia also has the highest mammal extinction rate in the world, and there are big declines in frogs, reptiles, and birds caused b...

Saving Ukraine's children from 2022-04-16T18:50

The United Nations’ children agency, Unicef, has said that almost two thirds of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children have been displaced during the six weeks since Russia’s invasion. One of Russia’s ke...

Who killed my grandfather? from 2022-04-16T11:06

Beirut, 1974. It is the height of the Cold War. A prominent Yemeni politician is shot dead in his car. Some say, had he lived, Yemen would be a different country today. The killer was never caught,...

Understanding the long history between Russia and Ukraine from 2022-04-16T08:32

Claire Graham talks to former BBC foreign correspondent Kevin Connolly about what has historically bound Russia and Ukraine together, and what has pulled them apart.

Russia's unwelcome new exiles from 2022-04-14T09:40

Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled abroad since its invasion of Ukraine, afraid of growing repression in their country, and increasing international isolation. Most of the new exiles are y...

Healing with fire on koala country from 2022-04-12T02:00

In the forests surrounding Biamanga, a sacred mountain for the Yuin people of south-eastern Australia, traditional indigenous fire practitioners are preparing to bring fire back into the landscape....

Helping Ukrainians from 2022-04-09T23:30

With Russian forces withdrawing from some areas of Ukraine, details are emerging of the death and destruction they have left behind. In Borodyanka, 60 km north-west of Kyiv, the main road through t...

The shadow of Algiers from 2022-04-09T12:00

It is 60 years since the Algerian War of Independence. But it still casts a shadow over the present. As France goes to the polls to elect a new president, Edward Stourton presents stories from the ...

Understanding South Africa’s continuing quest for equality from 2022-04-09T08:50

Claire Graham talks to the former BBC News Africa bureaux chief, Milton Nkosi, to get a better understanding of why the post-apartheid dream of a "Rainbow Nation" has still not materialised.

Dying to hunt in France from 2022-04-07T01:40

Just before Christmas, 2021, Joel Vilard was driving his cousin home on a dual carriageway just south of Rennes in Brittany. Suddenly, a bullet flew through the window and hit the pensioner in the ...

A coastal town in fear of the sea from 2022-04-05T02:00

The ocean is central to the Esperance community’s lifestyle and identity. But three fatal shark attacks in three years have had a profound impact on this remote western Australian coastal town. As ...

Talking to Ukraine's children from 2022-04-02T23:25

An estimated four million people – mostly women and children – have escaped from Ukraine and its war. Host Karnie Sharp hears from two Ukrainian mental health professionals who discuss the impact o...

Understanding the power that Saudi Arabia wields from 2022-04-02T08:50

Claire Graham and guests explain the important, long-running stories that are in the newsClaire Graham talks to the BBC’s Middle East correspondent, Anna Foster, to get a better understanding of ho...

Life's big questions from 2022-04-02T04:50

What are the big mysteries that people want to understand about life? How to be happy. How to accept old age and death. Wit questions sent in from all over the world, Buddhist nun Sister Dang Nghie...

Shipwreck from 2022-03-31T12:01

In April 2015, more than 1000 refugees and migrants drowned when the old fishing boat they were travelling on sank in the Mediterranean. It was the area's worst shipwreck since World War Two. Bu...

The house that Viktor built from 2022-03-29T02:00

The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, is running for a fourth consecutive term. The election is on 3 April. But now it is taking place against the background of a war on Hungary’s border, fol...

Destroying Ukrainian history from 2022-03-26T19:30

How major news stories are affecting the lives of people around the world

World of Wisdom: Guilt from 2022-03-26T18:50

Guilt can be a nagging sensation that is sometimes very hard to get rid of. Anna, from Switzerland, has experienced this negative feeling since she was very young and constantly feels she has not d...

Counting them in from 2022-03-26T13:00

Before the war, the Falklands were a distant outpost of Britain, more British than Britain. But these rocky, rural islands were also in decline, losing so many people to emigration, life on the Fal...

Understanding relations between Taiwan and China from 2022-03-26T09:52

Claire Graham talks to the BBC’s Taiwan correspondent, Cindy Sui, to get a better understanding of China’s reluctance to accept Taiwan’s strengthening independence, and why reunification is so impo...

Heartbeats, abortion and Texas from 2022-03-24T02:40

In September, 2021 the state of Texas introduced the most restrictive abortion law in the United States. SB8, also known as the Heartbeat Act, prohibits the termination of pregnancy after around 6 ...

Why are we having less sex? from 2022-03-22T03:00

Author Jerry Barnett investigates why across the western world there has been a recent, steep decline in sexual activity. With the help of experts, activists and the winners and losers in the matin...

Understanding the rise of Boko Haram from 2022-03-19T09:50

Claire Graham talks to the BBC’s West Africa correspondent, Mayeni Jones, to get a better understanding of how Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group, took hold in northern Nigeria.

Relationships with mothers from 2022-03-19T05:50

Our mothers are at the heart of who we are, whether they are in our lives or not, but this fundamental relationship can be very challenging, with wounds that can last a lifetime. Lucia, from Mexico...

The fate of Russia’s soldiers from 2022-03-17T02:40

Most Russians are getting a distorted picture of what Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Even the use of the words “war” or “invasion” is prohibited and state controlle...

The Shutdown: Conflict from 2022-03-16T12:00

For over a year a civil war has raged in Ethiopia, a result of decades long ethnic tensions. The northern state of Tigray has been subject to a communications blackout for most of the last year. We...

Bougainville's long road to independence from 2022-03-15T03:00

How do you create a nation from the ruins of conflict and neglect? It is the question asked by local journalist, Louiseanne Laris, as her home island of Bougainville prepares to become the world’s ...

Welcoming Ukraine's refugees from 2022-03-12T12:00

The United Nations says the war in Ukraine has provoked the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two. Leaving their homes and most of their possessions behind, many people have ...

Understanding North Korea and the Kim dynasty from 2022-03-12T09:52

Claire Graham talks to the BBC’s Correspondent in Seoul, Laura Bicker, to get a better understanding of North Korea, one of the world’s most secretive countries.

World of Wisdom: Changing expectations from 2022-03-12T05:52

How do we learn to adapt when life doesn't go as we planned? Sometimes thelife we believed we should be living and the expectation of the person we would become, no longer matches reality. Max, fro...

Tough Love’ in San Francisco from 2022-03-10T02:40

Last year, San Francisco had twice as many deaths from drug abuse as Covid. In the central ‘Tenderloin’ district alone, where thousands of homeless people have pitched tents, three people a week ar...

The shutdown: Elections from 2022-03-09T12:00

National and regional elections have frequently coincided with internet shutdowns or disruption. Shutdowns can occur whilst polls are open, or are sometimes imposed in response to protests that fol...

Surviving in Ukraine from 2022-03-05T12:00

The war in Ukraine is bringing much destruction and devastation, with fighting and attacks in multiple cities. Host Karnie Sharp guides us through the stories of men and women who are living throug...

World of Wisdom: Living with losing the one you love from 2022-03-05T05:50

When someone young dies it is very hard for those they leave behind, perhaps even more so when they have taken their own life. Jorge, from Mexico, speaks to Buddhist Nun, Sister Dang Nghiem, about ...

The shutdown: Misinformation from 2022-03-02T12:00

It is often claimed that shut downs are required to stop the spread of misinformation online, particularly during times of uncertainty or protest. In India, one of the world's largest democracy, in...

Inside the world's biggest humanitarian warehouse from 2022-03-01T03:00

Each year Unicef, the United Nations children’s charity, procures billions of dollars of goods for delivery to those most in need all over the word. Many of those supplies will either have come fro...

Ukraine from 2022-02-27T00:30

When the Russian attacks began, after all attempts at diplomacy had failed, Ukrainians were awoken in their beds by the sound of explosions. Host James Reynolds share the stories of ordinary Ukrain...

World of Wisdom: Self-confidence from 2022-02-26T19:52

Is self-love the key to developing confidence? If so, how does it work? Nadia, from Colombia, doesn’t trust in her own ability to succeed, especially in her career and feels trapped by her lack of ...

Subscription scams from 2022-02-24T02:40

From pills that resolve chronic pain issues overnight to diet supplements which promise to help shed pounds in days, the internet is awash with adverts making bold - and often outrageous - claims. ...

Jobfished from 2022-02-22T03:00

It is 2020. Covid Britain is in lockdown and the world is working from home. In the depths of the deadly pandemic and when people were at their lowest, someone spots an opportunity. This is the sto...

Journalists in Mexico from 2022-02-19T09:30

Outside a war zone, Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries to be a journalist. In 2021, seven journalists were murdered. In the first few weeks of this year alone, the killing of five journa...

Word of Wisdom: Overcoming betrayal from 2022-02-19T05:50

When someone we trust betrays us, the feelings can be corrosive and long-lasting. Nini, from Myanmar, found out a year ago that her husband of 20 years had been cheating on her for a decade and had...

Italy’s hidden sins from 2022-02-17T02:40

With the seat of the Catholic Church on its doorstep and the highest number of priests of any country, Italy is a bastion of global Catholicism. And yet, unlike many other countries, it has failed ...

Dark patterns from 2022-02-15T02:32

Trying to cancel some online accounts can be a maze of searches and false hopes, multiple clicks through a puzzle of seemingly unrelated destinations. This is what has become known as a 'dark patt...

Women building peace: Colombia from 2022-02-13T10:30

An ex-Farc fighter talks about her struggle to integrate into Colombian society after she laid down arms five years ago. Leading women peace builders discuss whether the historic 2016 peace accord ...

World Wide Waves '22: The sounds of community radio from 2022-02-12T13:00

For World Radio Day 2022, we tune in to radio stations around the world that connect communities, spark conversations, keep traditions alive and give a voice to their listeners. From Aboriginal Koo...

Coronavirus: Protesting truckers from 2022-02-12T09:30

For the past fortnight, the world has watched Canadian truckers block roads to protest against Covid restrictions. A rule that required any truckers entering Canada from the US to be fully vaccinat...

Nato’s role in the Ukraine crisis from 2022-02-12T06:00

Russia and some Nato member states, including the US, are at odds over the Ukraine crisis. Ros Atkins examines the dynamics at play between Russia and Nato.

World of Wisdom: Regrets from 2022-02-12T05:50

Looking back over a long life can provide cause for regret. Incidents from decades past, seemingly forgotten, can suddenly provoke deep sadness. Richard in Malaysia is troubled by the way he acted ...

Ukraine’s frontline bakery revisited from 2022-02-10T02:40

Lucy Ash catches up with a warzone bakery comforting people in an east Ukrainian town. She visited in 2017 to tell the story of a small enterprise that was bringing hope to a trapped community livi...

No satisfaction from 2022-02-08T03:00

Sex is everywhere – in popular music and TV programmes, in toothpaste adverts and on social media. Yet in real life, regular sex no longer seems to be such a big priority for people in their 20s. R...

Women building peace: Ethiopia from 2022-02-06T10:30

Women working to help communities caught up in Ethiopia’s brutal war talk about the immense challenges they face on the ground, and we hear the story of "Tsega", who was brutally attacked after she...

The Winter Olympics from 2022-02-05T09:30

The Winter Games are officially underway as Beijing becomes the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics. Host Karnie Sharp brings us a conversation between two competitors, who are f...

Joe Rogan, Spotify and Covid from 2022-02-05T06:00

The musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have asked Spotify to remove their music from the platform. They have criticised the music streaming service for publishing a podcast that spreads Covid m...

World of Wisdom:The passion for life from 2022-02-05T05:50

The pandemic has caused many people to reassess their lives...but self-reflection is a journey that can bring challenges. Annie, from Australia, feels she has gained wisdom and a deeper insight int...

Pakistan's long game from 2022-02-01T03:00

Owen Bennett-Jones examines how the government in Tehran outwitted the United States in Iraq, which resulted in Tehran having more influence in Baghdad than Washington. He also examines how Islamab...

Women building peace: Bosnia-Herzegovina from 2022-01-30T10:30

A woman born after her mother was raped during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s says the struggle for reparation and reconciliation continues 25 years later. Suzanne Kianpour discusses what we can...

Women building peace: Bosnia-Herzegovina from 2022-01-30T10:30

A woman born after her mother was raped during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s says the struggle for reparation and reconciliation continues 25 years later. Suzanne Kianpour discusses what we can...

Music that survived the Nazis: Part two from 2022-01-29T13:00

Featuring extraordinarily rare recordings, historian Shirli Gilbert presents this new history of life and music under Nazi tyranny. This episode focuses on music-making in the camps and ghettos of ...

Women in Ukraine and Russia from 2022-01-29T09:30

There is much international focus on the possibility of a Russian military invasion of its neighbour Ukraine. US President Joe Biden has spoken of “enormous consequences” if that did happen, warnin...

The rising cost of living from 2022-01-29T06:00

The cost of food and fuel has risen globally. The pandemic has played some part in it but there are other reasons too. Ros Atkins examines what’s behind the rise in the price of goods and services.

World of Wisdom: Judging ourselves harshly from 2022-01-29T05:50

Can we learn to let go of negative thoughts that are bringing us down? Sometimes it can feel as if nothing in life is going the way it should and we judge ourselves for not doing better. Judy is fr...

World of Wisdom: Judging ourselves harshly from 2022-01-29T05:50

Can we learn to let go of negative thoughts that are bringing us down? Sometimes it can feel as if nothing in life is going the way it should and we judge ourselves for not doing better. Judy is fr...

Hunting the darknet dealers from 2022-01-27T02:40

The high stakes cat and mouse game between police and darknet drug dealers. Police in the UK say they are finally turning the tide on drug dealers selling on the darknet – a secretive part of the i...

Fighting tobacco in Zambia from 2022-01-25T03:00

In Zambia, smoking is on the rise. One woman wants to change that. BBC global health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar follows the story of Brenda Chitindi in her efforts to get tobacco control on the a...

Women Building Peace: Afghanistan from 2022-01-23T10:30

"Lama", a student in Afghanistan who fears for her safety since the Taliban takeover, speaks to the country's former education minister Rangina Hamidi, who fled to the United States, and to former ...

Music that survived the Nazis: Part one from 2022-01-22T13:00

There is a common misconception that music under the Nazis was either ‘Degenerate Music’ to be suppressed or propaganda music that was officially sanctioned. Historian Shirli Gilbert shows that the...

Coronavirus: Family arguments from 2022-01-22T09:30

Health professionals will tell you that Covid-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives across the globe yet some people continue to doubt their safety and refuse to get a jab. These differences of ...

China's Zero-Covid Dilemma from 2022-01-22T06:05

As coronavirus restrictions begin to ease around the world, China is sticking with its Zero-Covid policy. But questions have been raised about how sustainable the strategy is, and how much longer C...

World of Wisdom: Feeling used from 2022-01-22T05:50

When we feel taken advantage of by people, it can be very hurtful and leave us feeling bitter. Giving a lot to our friends can come with the expectation that the same is offered in return. This is ...

World of Wisdom: Feeling used from 2022-01-22T05:50

When we feel taken advantage of by people, it can be very hurtful and leave us feeling bitter. Giving a lot to our friends can come with the expectation that the same is offered in return. This is ...

Hunting Syria's war criminals from 2022-01-20T02:40

Imagine walking down a street in a European capital and meeting your torturer. For many Syrian refugees fleeing war and human rights abuses, Europe was meant to be a sanctuary. So it was a shock wh...

Silence would be treason from 2022-01-15T13:00

The last writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa from prison in Nigeria to an Irish nun in the run up to his execution in November 1995. Smuggled out of prison in bread baskets, they are the final testament of a...

Coronavirus: Athletes and teachers from 2022-01-15T09:30

The vaccination and visa controversy around Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open tournament has made global headlines all week. It has also put focus on how sports around the world deal with vacci...

Djokovic, sport and vaccine mandates from 2022-01-15T06:00

The Covid vaccination status of men's number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic, has caused a political row. Ros Atkins looks at what Djokovic's case could mean for vaccination in sport.

World of Wisdom: Being your true self from 2022-01-15T05:50

Being the real you can be difficult, especially if it means upsetting your family. Folake from Benin tries to be a ‘good girl’ and avoids taking decisions her family would not approve of, but she w...

Montenegro’s Chinese road from 2022-01-13T04:15

It’s been called the priciest piece of tarmac in the world. In 2014 the government of Montenegro signed a contract with a state-owned Chinese company to build part of a 170 kilometre-long highway –...

Forest fear from 2022-01-08T13:00

The Amazon is the largest area of rainforest on earth. Bursting with life, it provides us with a wealth of resources. But for each of its potential riches a potential threat is lurking beneath the ...

Coronavirus: The vaccinators from 2022-01-08T09:30

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is leading to record infection levels in several countries, and vaccination is a key part of the fight against the pandemic. Host James Reynolds ...

The storming of the US Capitol: what happened next from 2022-01-08T06:00

The US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 has been described by President Biden as a dark day in US history. A year on since the attack, Ros Atkins examines the legal and political fall-out from it.

World of Wisdom: Precious time in later life from 2022-01-08T05:50

It can be hard to choose how to spend our precious time. Imam Jamal Rahman, a Sufi spiritual teacher, offers a joyful perspective to Rebecca from the USA.

Turkey's crazy project from 2022-01-06T04:15

A giant new canal for the world’s biggest ships is the most ambitious engineering plan yet proposed by Turkey’s President Erdogan, whose massive infrastructure projects have already changed the fac...

Gone but not forgotten: Syria's missing persons from 2022-01-04T04:00

Wafa Mustafa hasn't heard from her dad since he went missing in July 2013. She, like tens of thousands of others in her position, believes he is being detained by the Syrian government, and is sear...

A Wish for Afghanistan: The advocate and the musicians from 2022-01-02T07:00

Another chance to hear from some of the BBC's acclaimed series examining the seismic events shaping Afghanistan before and after this year's return to power of the Taliban. After last week's episod...

A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity: The future from 2022-01-01T19:00

ustin Rowlatt looks at the monumental challenge of weaning ourselves off fossil fuels. Solar and wind could meet all of humanity’s energy needs, but can we switch over before climate disaster strik...

BBC OS Conversations: Tracking the pandemic from 2022-01-01T09:00

Two years after the first cases of a mysterious new virus were reported from China, host Nuala McGovern brings together experts in Switzerland, India and Israel who have been tracking the spread an...

World of Wisdom: Social distance from 2022-01-01T05:30

The pandemic has meant stopping so many of the everyday things we used to do, including not hugging and kissing others. For Susanna from Italy, not being able to connect with people socially in the...

Peru's left behind children from 2021-12-30T04:15

Peru has been battered by Covid-19. It has the highest known death toll in the world per capita. But behind the figures there’s another hidden pandemic. By the end of April 2021 around 93,000 child...

Archbishop Desmond Tutu from 2021-12-26T11:05

Reflecting on the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African priest who became a prominent figure in the fight against apartheid, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

A Wish for Afghanistan: The Talib and the president from 2021-12-26T07:00

A chance to hear once again from the BBC's acclaimed series examining the seismic events shaping Afghanistan before and after this year's return to power of the Taliban. The BBC's chief internation...

A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity: Fossil fuels from 2021-12-25T19:30

Justin Rowlatt looks at the bonanza provided by coal, oil and gas in just the last two centuries. Our modern comfortable way of life is only made possible by burning through a finite stock of fossi...

MTV@40 from 2021-12-25T13:00

In the early '80s the idea of a television channel showing nothing but music videos 24 hours a day was completely revolutionary. It posed the first real threat to the dominance of Top 40 Radio acro...

Understanding the Islamic State group from 2021-12-25T09:51

Anu Anand talks to Quentin Sommerville about the rise, fall and potential re-emergence of the Islamic State group.

Coronavirus: Reporting Covid from 2021-12-25T09:30

Vaccines, vaccine hesitancy, Delta and Omicron – what is it like reporting on the pandemic? Host Nuala McGovern links up with journalists in Brazil, the United States and Germany to hear how they h...

World of Wisdom: Happiness in a hard situation from 2021-12-25T05:50

How do you find inner happiness when life in your home country is very hard? Eduardo is a young man in Venezuela facing daily struggles in his life. He finds it difficult to accept he cannot leave ...

Afghan girls given a sporting chance from 2021-12-24T10:05

Female athletes faced brutal choices as allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan - to flee their homes and country or to stay and possibly abandon all hope of pursing their sporting dreams. Some mad...

CODA: I'm the thumb in my family from 2021-12-21T04:30

Humera Iqbal enters the remarkable world of Children of Deaf Adults, or CODAs. At a young age they take on the mighty responsibility of interpreting for their mums and dads outside the home…in a wo...

Agriculture: The solar energy revolution from 2021-12-19T10:30

Justin Rowlatt explores what was the original solar energy revolution – harnessing the sun’s rays to grow food. Some 10,000 years ago our ancestors began to till the soil, producing the energy surp...

Parcels of CARE from 2021-12-18T13:00

Seventy-five years ago, when aching hunger dominated people’s lives in post-war Europe, a food parcel seemed like a miracle. Particularly when it had come all the way across the Atlantic from the U...

Understanding how Russia has changed under Putin from 2021-12-18T09:50

Anu Anand talks to Sarah Rainsford about how everyday life in Russia has changed under Vladimir Putin.

Coronavirus: Threats to health workers from 2021-12-18T09:30

Covid-19 infections in several countries are causing pressures on hospital resources to rise again. At the same time, polarising views persist over vaccination and some health workers have witnesse...

What 2021 taught us about Covid from 2021-12-18T06:00

This year started with the focus on Covid-19 vaccine rollouts and ends with the emergence of a new coronavirus variant, Omicron. Ros Atkins looks at how the pandemic has evolved in 2021 and the cha...

World of Wisdom: Recovery from 2021-12-18T05:52

When our bodies recover from a life-threatening illness, it can sometimes be hard for the mind and morale to follow suit. People can even say they resent their body for 'letting them down'. This wa...

The fake bitcoin mine from 2021-12-15T02:40

With crypto currencies – like Bitcoin and Troon - booming there’s never been a better time to mine for crypto online. Mines in this context describe hundreds of computers that solve complex mathema...

Fire: The energy revolution from 2021-12-12T10:30

Justin Rowlatt goes right back to the origin of our species two million years ago to explore how the mastery of fire by early humans transformed our metabolism, helping us to evolve our uniquely en...

Afghanistan: Women, girls and their rights from 2021-12-11T09:50

Anu Anand talks to Yogita Limaye about the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. They reveal how a turbulent history dictates the ever-shifting attitudes towards women and girls in the country.

Coronavirus: Pandemic PTSD from 2021-12-11T09:30

Several countries are seeing the pressure that a new wave of Covid-19 is placing on their hospitals once more, and they’re reintroducing measures to try and slow down the spread of infections. Hos...

Compulsory Covid vaccinations from 2021-12-11T06:00

The new Omicron variant poses a potential risk of spiralling coronavirus infections globally and governments around the world are putting plans in place to tackle it. One solutions is to make Covid...

Poland’s fractured borderlands from 2021-12-09T02:40

Thousands of people – mostly migrants from the Middle East - are camped in freezing weather at the Poland-Belarus border. Many have spent thousands of dollars to fly into Belarus on tourist visas, ...

Only bleeding: How Swedes opened up about periods from 2021-12-07T03:00

“It’s alright (I’m only bleeding)”. In 2017, these words were emblazoned on the Stockholm subway or tunnelbana, alongside a giant poster of an ice-skater with a red-stained crotch. The deliberately...

Poison: Jacob Zuma's toxic obsession from 2021-12-04T20:00

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's former president, believes the world is out to poison him. He has claimed that the CIA, MI6, local traitors, and perhaps even one of his wives, have tried to kill him. No...

Understanding Iran: Reconciling religion and democracy from 2021-12-04T09:50

Anu Anand talks to Rana Rahimpour about how decades of turbulence have shaped Iran, and why religion, democracy and ideals all combine to explain Iran today.

Coronavirus: Omicron from 2021-12-04T09:30

At this time of the year, many people traditionally begin to think about coming together for gatherings of family and friends to celebrate events such as Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. But for mi...

America’s abortion divide from 2021-12-04T06:00

The US Supreme Court has heard arguments in the most important abortion case in a generation. It is the biggest challenge to a 1973 ruling that legalised abortion nationally, and could change repro...

Sleepless in Seoul from 2021-12-02T02:40

Korea is one of the most stressed and tired nations on earth, a place where people work and study longer hours than anywhere else. And statistics show they are finding it increasingly difficult to ...

Internet instigators from 2021-11-30T03:00

Internet instigators are organising protests and campaigns using social media and other internet tools and apps to promote their causes. Nina Robinson explores the methods used by activists to crea...

Israel and Palestine from 2021-11-27T09:50

How did the relationship between Israel and Palestine reach its current point? Jeremy Bowen talks to Anu Anand about the backstory behind the headlines.

Coronavirus: Europe’s unvaccinated from 2021-11-27T09:30

The World Health Organisation has been sounding the alarm about the path of the pandemic in Europe, as Covid infections and deaths continue to rise across parts of the continent. Affected countries...

Migrant crossings to the UK from 2021-11-27T06:00

France and Britain are caught up in disagreements over who needs to do what to stop any more people dying on small boats crossing between the two countries. 27 people were killed in the English Cha...

Reaching for the sky from 2021-11-23T03:00

Memory Sidira is buzzing with excitement as she talks about what she is learning during her course at Malawi’s Drone and Data Academy - the first of its kind in Africa. The Academy’s aim is to buil...

Regarding the pain of others from 2021-11-20T13:00

BBC special correspondent Allan Little addresses the gulf between the reality of war and our ability to comprehend it from afar. His mission as a reporter has been to convey the experiences of peop...

Understanding democracy in Hong Kong from 2021-11-20T09:51

Why are there democracy protests in Hong Kong? Anu Anand talks to Stephen McDonell. The Explanation is a concise audio guide giving you the backstory behind the headlines.

Coronavirus: Europe from 2021-11-20T09:30

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Europe is once again “at the epicentre” of the Covid pandemic. The WHO reported that deaths from coronavirus in the continent have increased by 5...

Rising tensions with Russia from 2021-11-20T06:00

President Putin has said that the West was taking Russia's warnings not to cross its ‘red lines’ too lightly. This comes amid rising tensions between Russia and the West. Ros Atkins has been lookin...

Salmon wars from 2021-11-18T02:40

Sockeye and Chinook salmon make one of the world's great animal migrations, swimming 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean up 6,500 feet into Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, where they spawn and die - but t...

Trading tribulation from 2021-11-16T02:30

New apps that provide access to stock markets are revolutionising the world of trading, but they are also creating problems. A new generation of traders are emerging, fuelled by social media and wi...

The hack that changed the world from 2021-11-13T20:00

In 2009, someone broke into the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in the UK and stole emails. The material was distributed online - mainly on blogs linked to climate change sc...

On the Covid ward from 2021-11-13T13:00

Frontline medical teams in the UK have fine-tuned the physical treatment of severely ill Covid patients. But one thing that has gone largely unnoticed is their efforts to help those patients – ofte...

Climate: Coal mining from 2021-11-13T09:30

Moving away from the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas has been a major talking point at the COP 26 climate conference. Two coal mine workers in the United States and Canada discuss their ...

The fight for Nazanin’s freedom from 2021-11-13T06:00

The husband of a British-Iranian charity worker held in Iran since 2016 has been on hunger strike again to push for her release. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held there on spying charges, whi...

Evia’s inferno from 2021-11-11T02:40

With the UN climate conference in Glasgow drawing to a close Assignment brings us the final programme in a series which has been telling the story of three places devastated by extreme weather even...

More yield, less field from 2021-11-09T03:00

This year Zimbabwe has had a bumper crop of the staple food, maize. It is only the second time in two decades that it has grown enough food for the whole population. Last year they barely had half ...

Climate: Civil disobedience from 2021-11-06T09:30

Usually protests against climate change take the form of marches or protests but for some activists this is not enough. Host Nuala McGovern hears from three people in Malaysia, France and Germany a...

Tree planting and climate change from 2021-11-06T06:00

Trees absorb carbon dioxide - the main gas heating the planet - so planting more of them is seen by many as a possible climate change solution. But how impactful is it? This week, Ros Atkins, looks...

The Ahr Valley flood from 2021-11-04T02:40

The worst effects of climate change are often framed as a problem for the future. But for some, the worst has already happened. As world leaders gather in Glasgow to talk about how to bring down em...

A Geochemical HIstory of LIfe on Earth: 5. The Anthropocene from 2021-10-31T10:30

Could human engineering stabilise the Earth's climate and chemistry in the long term? Tim Lenton of Exeter University explains why the Gaia hypothesis is the key to understanding the future of life...

The Story of Aids: 4. The end of an epidemic? from 2021-10-30T12:00

When President Thabo Mbeki came to power in South Africa in 1999, the country was gripped by an HIV-Aids epidemic - and the president's decision to question scientific evidence, and reject the use ...

Climate: Animals under threat from 2021-10-30T08:30

The changing planet is threatening a number of vulnerable and endangered species, and host Nuala McGovern hears from three experts on polar bears, snow leopards and bumble bees on why we should all...

Ros Atkins on: The US and China’s climate commitments from 2021-10-30T05:00

Ahead of COP26, the big climate change summit in Glasgow, Ros Atkins looks at the climate promises of two of the world’s biggest polluters – the US and China.

Lytton Burns from 2021-10-28T01:40

The worst effects of climate change are often framed as a problem for the future. But for some, the worst has already happened. As world leaders prepare to gather in Glasgow to talk about how to br...

A Geochemical History of Life on Earth: 4. The great chemistry experiment from 2021-10-24T09:30

Justin looks at the period since the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, which had seen a steadily cooling climate - until we humans turned up. What can the last 66 million years teach us about th...

The Story of Aids: 3. Aids denialism in South Africa from 2021-10-23T12:00

When Aids began to emerge in the USA and Europe in the 1980s, South Africa was a fractured country, divided by Apartheid. During this time, the ruling National Party seemed disinterested in prevent...

Climate: Changing seas from 2021-10-23T08:30

As world leaders, scientists and activists prepare for the UN climate change conference in Scotland, host Nuala McGovern hears how sea level rise is affecting islands in the Caribbean Sea, the Atla...

Ros Atkins on: The UK’s rising Covid cases from 2021-10-23T05:00

More than 50,000 Covid cases have been recorded in the UK for the first time since mid-July. Hospital admissions are also rising, however, daily deaths have fallen slightly. Ros Atkins examines wha...

Ros Atkins on: The UK’s rising Covid cases from 2021-10-23T05:00

More than 50,000 Covid cases have been recorded in the UK for the first time since mid-July. Hospital admissions are also rising, however, daily deaths have fallen slightly. Ros Atkins examines wha...

Denmark’s Red Van from 2021-10-21T01:40

A unique project aimed at reducing harm to women selling sex in Copenhagen… Every weekend night in Copenhagen’s red light district of Vesterbro, a group of volunteers pull up and park a Red Van. Th...

The lost art of breathing from 2021-10-19T02:00

After recovering from pneumonia for the third time, journalist James Nestor took decisive action to improve his lungs. He questioned why so many humans - and only humans - have to contend with stuf...

A series of unfortunate events from 2021-10-17T09:30

Justin Rowlatt discovers how phosphorus may have held evolution back for a billion years. How plants first colonised the land - precipitating an ice age in the process. And why volcanoes have both ...

The Story of Aids: 2. Act Up fights back from 2021-10-16T12:00

It began in March of 1987, when the playwright Larry Kramer gave a speech at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York’s West Village, telling half the room to stand up. He bluntly ...

World of Wisdom: Forgiveness from 2021-10-16T09:00

Forgiving someone who has hurt us badly can seem impossible. Bearing a grudge can feel like carrying a bag or rocks. Can we learn to move on and forgive?Author of Universal Human, Gary Zukav, offer...

Climate: Activists from 2021-10-16T08:30

World leaders, scientists and activists are preparing for next month’s UN climate change summit in Scotland. These talks have been taking place for decades - but you sense the world is watching lik...

Ros Atkins on: China-Taiwan tensions from 2021-10-16T05:00

In recent weeks, China has sent a record number of military jets into Taiwan’s air defence zone. The Taiwanese Defence Minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, has said that tensions between China and the self-go...

Russia: The limits of freedom from 2021-10-14T01:40

In August, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, was expelled from Russia – a country she’s reported on from the start of Vladimir Putin’s presidency over two decades ago. Now she has be...

Somalia’s forgotten hostages from 2021-10-12T02:00

The sailors held captive for years, and the man who managed to free them. Somali pirates made millions of dollars hijacking ships and holding their crews hostage, if no ransom was paid though, sai...

World Book Café: PEN from 2021-10-11T17:16

100 years ago English PEN was founded to create a “common meeting ground in every country for all writers.” and it quickly grew into an international organisation. The organisation has long campaig...

A Geochemical History of Life on Earth: 2. When bacteria ruled the world from 2021-10-10T09:30

Justin explores the Precambrian period: a kind of dark ages, spanning most of our planet's history, but about which we have very few fossil records. What we do know is that it contained two of the ...

World of Wisdom: Hope and children from 2021-10-09T17:02

The pandemic has made many people unsure about the future. Issues such as climate catastrophe have come to seem all the more real. How do we keep hope alive for our children and ourselves? Reverend...

The Story of Aids: 1. The beginning from 2021-10-09T12:00

We return to the beginning of the global Aids crisis and explore the personal and political struggles of the epidemic, as it unfolded in two very different countries – the United States and South A...

Coronavirus: Protecting vulnerable children from 2021-10-09T08:30

Children who have a compromised immune system remain at high risk during the ongoing pandemic if they develop Covid-19. Their parents continue to protect their children from those who no longer wea...

The UK's net zero challenge from 2021-10-09T05:00

In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to set a net zero carbon emissions goal by 2050. Now, as the country gets ready to host a major UN climate change summit in a few weeks, Ros Atkins lo...

Pandora Papers: On the trail of dirty money from 2021-10-07T01:40

Amongst the millions of documents released in the ‘Pandora Papers’ leak of offshore financial information are a number of documents that one British Iranian family business would rather have remain...

Smart women, male genius from 2021-10-05T02:00

Five hundreds years ago a Spanish physiologist declared that genius was stored in the testicles. Even today, studies have shown that people associate men with genius more than women. Award-winning ...

A Geochemical History of Life on Earth: 1. In the beginning from 2021-10-02T19:30

How did this continuous chemical reaction that we call "life" first begin? And why did the hellish conditions of the early Earth provide the perfect birthplace? Justin Rowlatt speaks to two scient...

World of Wisdom: Making decisions from 2021-10-02T09:00

Decisions about the course of our lives can seem overwhelming. When we come to a junction in our life it can be hard to decide which way to turn. Is there a process to make those choices easier, an...

Coronavirus: Vaccine regret from 2021-10-02T08:30

Despite the life saving properties of vaccination against Covid-19, not everyone has chosen to get the jab - even in countries where vaccines are readily available. Karnie Sharp and James Reynolds ...

Global supply chain disruption from 2021-10-02T05:00

The UK and the US have been experiencing supply shortages across a number of industries. There are many factors involved, including the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had a knock-on effect on the glo...

Northern Ireland’s Ceasefire Babies from 2021-09-30T01:40

In the UK’s most disputed region, Northern Ireland, the Unionist community has long been known for tenacity and even, say its critics, inflexibility in its determination to maintain links with Brit...

Buy me love: Inside the world of love coaching from 2021-09-28T02:00

Love coaching is a multi-billion dollar global industry, and one of the fastest growing in the world. More single people than ever are looking for advice to find a lasting romantic partnership. The...

World of Wisdom: Successful relationships from 2021-09-25T08:32

To have a beautiful, strong, lasting, successful relationship at the core of our lives is an ideal that takes root at an early age. But do we always know what a successful relationship looks like? ...

Coronavirus: Vietnam and the Philippines from 2021-09-25T08:30

Vietnam was, until recently, one of the world’s Covid success stories. Its policy of early border closures, lockdowns and track and tracing ensured that fewer than 40 people had died from the disea...

Ros Atkins on: Germany’s election from 2021-09-25T05:00

Germany’s first female chancellor, Angela Merkel, is standing down after 16 years in office. This matters because a major figure is exiting the global stage. She has worked with four US presidents ...

A long way from Vietnam from 2021-09-23T01:40

Vietnamese migration to the UK is the second highest after Albania and each year the numbers are rising. Not even the tragedy of the Essex lorry disaster in 2019 has been enough to put people off. ...

The Fake Paralympians: 6.Fallout from 2021-09-21T02:00

After years in the wilderness, athletes with a learning disability are back at the London 2012 Paralympics - and Dan is among them. There are new tests designed to stop cheating. Do they work? And ...

Afghanistan and me from 2021-09-18T12:00

As Afghanistan reaches a turning point with American troops leaving the country, BBC Pashto presenter Sana Safi tells the story of how her own life has been intertwined with the fate of her country...

World of Wisdom: Dreams from 2021-09-18T09:00

Can sticking to our dreams end up holding us back? Diane and her husband promised they would sell their home on retirement and travel the world. Sadly, he passed away before they could do that. Dia...

World of Wisdom: Dreams from 2021-09-18T09:00

Can sticking to our dreams end up holding us back? Diane and her husband promised they would sell their home on retirement and travel the world. Sadly, he passed away before they could do that. Dia...

Coronavirus: Vaccinations and hospitals from 2021-09-18T08:30

The United States continues to record some of the highest infection and death rates in the world due to Covid-19. Host Nuala McGovern brings together two hospital nurses in Florida. They share the ...

Ros Atkins on: The ethics of Covid booster jabs from 2021-09-18T05:00

The UK joins a growing number of rich countries offering Covid booster vaccines, whilst across Africa only 3% of people have been vaccinated against the virus. Ros Atkins looks into the issue of va...

Ros Atkins on: The ethics of Covid booster jabs from 2021-09-18T05:00

The UK joins a growing number of rich countries offering Covid booster vaccines, whilst across Africa only 3% of people have been vaccinated against the virus. Ros Atkins looks into the issue of va...

The Rise and Fall of an International Fraudster from 2021-09-16T01:40

Assignment reveals the inside story of Ramon Abbas, one of a new breed of global cyber-fraudsters. Snared by the FBI in 2020, Abbas is better known as Instagram influencer Hushpuppi, who flaunted...

The Fake Paralympians: 5. Court from 2021-09-14T02:00

A criminal case is brought against the so-called fake Paralympians and the team’s organisers. The prosecutor gives the inside take on the legal process and an outcome that left many frustrated. And...

World of Wisdom: Jealousy from 2021-09-11T09:00

Jealousy, rudeness, lack of respect - it can be hard not to be troubled by the way people treat us. Sometimes we may feel that people that we know are jealous and are trying to hold us back. After ...

Afghanistan protests from 2021-09-11T08:30

The Taliban is stamping its authority on Afghanistan, and dealing forcefully with those demonstrating against the new regime. In recent days, the details of the new government's all-male cabinet ha...

9/11: The day that changed our lives forever from 2021-09-10T08:00

Twenty years on from the 9/11 terror attacks, New Yorkers and those affected by the events recall where they were and how they have managed to process the horror of what happened. Presenter and New...

The mystery of Havana syndrome from 2021-09-09T01:40

Gordon Corera investigates the mysterious illness that has struck American diplomats and spies. It began after some reported hearing strange sounds in Havana 2016, but reports have since spread aro...

The Fake Paralympians: 4. Probe from 2021-09-07T02:00

There are allegations the cheating went wider within intellectual disability sport, and that it wasn’t just the gold-winning Spanish basketball team. An investigator for the International Paralympi...

Mikis Theodorakis remembered from 2021-09-05T14:00

Zorba’s theme from the 1964 film is what the composer Mikis Theodorakis will always be known for outside his native Greece, but in his time he was a figure on the world stage, rubbing shoulders wit...

World of Wisdom: Opening up again from 2021-09-04T09:00

When Covid restrictions are lifted, the effort to return to our former lives can present unexpected personal trials. Shops, restaurants and offices have re- opened in Detroit, USA but Alex is findi...

Women of Afghanistan from 2021-09-04T08:30

The last US soldier has left Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban in control of the vast majority of the country. Working women have been told to stay at home for now, for their own safety. Host Nuala ...

Moria - after the fire from 2021-09-02T01:40

The fire that destroyed the sprawling Moria asylum seekers’ camp on the Greek island of Lesvos last September made headlines around the world. For the asylum seekers who lost their makeshift home a...

The Fake Paralympians: 3. Lost from 2021-08-31T02:00

The cheating is now out in the open and the players - including genuinely-disabled captain Ray - have to hand back their gold medals. But how and when did the cheating start? An ex-coach of the tea...

The world according to search from 2021-08-28T12:00

What can we learn about a culture from what they search online? From xenophobia in Nigeria, shut-in teenagers in Japan, India’s biometric identity card, and the creation of viral TikTok slang, we l...

World of Wisdom: Peace of mind from 2021-08-28T08:50

Keeping some peace of mind when the world around you is in turmoil is a great challenge. Mohammed finds it hard to maintain concentration, he sleeps 12 hours a night but awakes exhausted. He lives ...

Chaos in Afghanistan from 2021-08-28T08:30

Despite terror warnings, Afghans continued to gather at Kabul’s airport, desperate to get onto a plane. What was feared, and what is sadly familiar in Afghanistan, happened - bomb blasts brought fu...

Catalonia: Squatters, eviction and extortion from 2021-08-26T01:40

How Catalonia’s housing crisis spawns opportunities for organised crime… Spain has a history of squatting. After the property crash of 2008 many families were forced to occupy homes that did not b...

Archiving Black America from 2021-08-25T04:00

"We are our history," said James Baldwin. But how history is remembered depends on what materials survive, and who deems those materials worthy of preserving. Maya Millett - a writer, editor and fo...

The Fake Paralympians: 2. Caught from 2021-08-24T02:00

A basketball journalist in Spain recognises three of the players in the gold-medal-winning intellectual disability basketball team - and they are not disabled. He has even played on the same team a...

A bad business from 2021-08-21T12:00

Twenty years ago, the brash Texan energy company Enron collapsed after its massive fraud was finally exposed. Investors and pension funds worldwide lost billions of dollars. The case was meant to s...

World of Wisdom: Bereavement and acceptance from 2021-08-21T08:52

Akinkunmi has lost both his mother and his sister. Dr Shefali Tsabary helps him come to terms with bereavement, and discusses the idea of 'acceptance' and how we can learn from brutal realities. ...

Trying to flee Afghanistan from 2021-08-21T08:30

As the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan, thousands are attempting to leave the country, fearful for their safety. During the 20-year conflict, some Afghans worked as translators, interpreters a...

India's living dead from 2021-08-19T01:40

What would it be like if everyone believed you were dead? Lal Bihari knows exactly what that feels like. When he was 22 years old the Indian farmer was told by his local government office that he w...

The Fake Paralympians: 1. Gold from 2021-08-17T09:44

Ex-Paralympic swimmer Dan Pepper investigates the cheats who won gold and left a devastating legacy for learning disability sport. Ray Torres used to get beaten up every day at school. He stood ou...

OS Conversations: Afghanistan from 2021-08-16T08:47

This audio was updated on 16th August. The Taliban is advancing towards Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as foreign forces prepare to fully withdraw from the country. Thousands of people are being di...

World of Wisdom: Self-help for the spirit from 2021-08-13T09:00

Life presents many personal challenges. Three spiritual advisors – Sister Dang Nghiem, Dr Shefali Tsabary and Eckhart Tolle offer guidance to members of the public from across the world on coping w...

What’s Killing Israel’s Arabs? from 2021-08-12T03:15

Israel’s Arab population is in the grip of a violent and deadly crime wave. Since the start of the year, scores of Arab citizens have lost their lives and increasingly, even women and children are ...

Hiroshima successors from 2021-08-10T03:06

When photographer Haruka Sakaguchi set out to Hiroshima to document atomic bomb survivors' stories, she discovered they were far more difficult to find than she expected. Stigmatisation and survivo...

Two smiley faces: Episode six from 2021-08-07T19:30

In the future, 10 years from now, will our fingers still reach for a laughing face with crying eyes? Will Unicode and its strict approval process for new emoji be relevant at all? Possibly not. We ...

OS Conversations: Olympic golden moments from 2021-08-07T08:30

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were always going to be different. They took place a year later than planned and were the first to be held during a pandemic, with fans banned. So as the Games come to an en...

Malta and the El Hiblu 3 from 2021-08-05T03:15

This is the curious story of how a child refugee ended up in Malta accused of the most serious crime - of being a terrorist. Lamin was 13 when he ran away from his home in Guinea in search of a bet...

Africa’s vaccine ambitions from 2021-08-03T03:30

Africa is a continent of 1.3 billion people, but makes less than 1% of the lifesaving vaccines it needs. The continent’s 54 nations are almost entirely dependent on agencies like Unicef and Gavi, t...

Two smiley faces: Episode five from 2021-08-01T09:30

Our journey into the emoji universe takes some surprising directions. We reveal some of the human stories behind those tiny pictures on our screens. From the early days of reggae in Kingston, Jamai...

Beijing: Beyond the masks from 2021-07-31T12:00

Over a year after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the headlines in China, Liyang Liu explores the hidden impacts on people in her home city Beijing. Life has in some ways got back to normal in China’s ca...

Extreme weather from 2021-07-31T08:30

In recent weeks the world has seen floods in Europe and China and devastating wildfires in Canada, the United States and Siberia. It’s difficult to link single events to global warming but climate ...

Rebuilding Beirut’s village in a city from 2021-07-29T03:15

A year ago Johnny Khawand saw the home he grew up in ripped apart by the massive explosion in a chemical dump in the port of Beirut, Lebanon – one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history. For ...

A tale of two Tokyos from 2021-07-27T03:30

The wait is finally over for the Tokyo Olympics, 2020. Ken Nishikawa and Nick Luscombe take inspiration and hope from the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, which kick-started a new internationalism in Japan ...

Two smiley faces: Episode four from 2021-07-25T09:30

So how do you get an emoji added to the list? We hear from the women who have had hundreds of emoji approved between them, from the sari, to the mirror, to the one-piece bathing suit. How did they ...

The road to rock'n'roll from 2021-07-24T12:00

In a segregated US, black audiences, entertainers and entrepreneurs established their own network of live performance venues known as the Chitlin’ Circuit. Concentrated primarily in the Deep South,...

The Tokyo Olympics from 2021-07-24T08:30

A year later than planned, due to the pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics are underway. Yet Covid cases in the capital are rising, and a recent poll showed that 55% of people in Japan were opposed to the ...

Dangerous liaisons in Sinaloa from 2021-07-22T03:15

The Mexican state of Sinaloa is synonymous with drug trafficking. With the profits from organised crime a driver of the local economy, the tentacles of ‘narco cultura’ extend deep into people’s liv...

Lex Gillette: A leap in the dark from 2021-07-20T03:30

Lex Gillette was seven years old when his eyes stopped working. At first, things were a little blurry, a little distorted. Then, after 10 operations to treat the retinas that kept detaching in both...

Two smiley faces: Episode three from 2021-07-18T09:30

We travel to California to find out who controls the emoji available on every single smartphone in the world - the mysterious Unicode Consortium. This secretive organisation decides what is include...

China in slogans from 2021-07-17T19:00

As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, Celia Hatton looks at how party slogans reveal the turbulent history of modern China. Throughout its existence, the party has used k...

Breaking through from 2021-07-17T12:00

Breaking, also known as break-dancing, borne in New York City in the 1970s, is set to make its debut at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Four-time breaking world champion, BoxWon (Benyaamin Barn...

Coronavirus: England Unlocking from 2021-07-17T08:30

England is about to do what no country has done before during the coronavirus pandemic - open up in the face of rapidly rising infections, driven by the more transmissible Delta variant. Nearly all...

Finding Grace from 2021-07-14T03:30

In November 1990 a body of a woman was discovered - near an abandoned farm house in Missouri. The victim had been restrained with six types of rope. Police had no idea who she was, let alone who ha...

Sporting heroines of history from 2021-07-13T02:00

Multi Gold-winning Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson explores the role of women in sport through history. She looks at some of the milestones in sport for women and acknowledges several people who we...

Two smiley faces - part two from 2021-07-11T09:30

The emoji, invented in Japan in the 1990s, and now standardised on every device and platform we have, has become a new type of global communication. Whether you love them or hate them, they stir up...

The mixed beat from 2021-07-10T12:00

The voices of those from mixed race communities are more frequently heard today and are playing a more central role in shaping discussion around race, identity and what it means to straddle differe...

Coronavirus: Refusing the vaccine from 2021-07-10T08:30

Official figures suggest the global death toll from Covid-19 now exceeds four million with the virus proliferating in Asia, Africa and South America, where fewer people have been vaccinated. Host J...

Missing from Manhattan from 2021-07-08T01:40

Last spring New York looked like the epicentre of the pandemic with boarded up shops, makeshift morgues in refrigerated trucks and the constant wail of ambulance sirens echoing through the deserted...

Bats: Friend or foe? from 2021-07-06T02:00

Bats are depicted in some cultures as devil-like vampires through images of death and Halloween. But in others they are the opposite and are believed to bring luck and good fortune in China. Fear o...

Two Smiley Faces from 2021-07-04T09:30

The emoji, invented in Japan in the 1990s, and now standardised on every device and platform we have, has become a new type of global communication. Whether you love them or hate them, they stir up...

Coronavirus: Face masks from 2021-07-03T08:30

Face coverings have been part of the fight against the spread of the virus in many countries but the debate around them continues. Israel has been one of the most successful countries in the world ...

The runaway maids of Oman from 2021-07-01T01:40

Two hundred young women from Sierra Leone, west Africa, have been trapped in the Arabian sultanate of Oman, desperate to get home. Promised work in shops and restaurants, they say they were into tr...

Guru: Who knew what and when? from 2021-06-29T02:00

For the last year, BBC journalist and passionate yoga teacher Ishleen Kaur has been investigating allegations of sexual and emotional abuse at the heart of an organisation she once called home. Fel...

Marvellous medicine from 2021-06-27T09:30

During the pandemic, the world witnessed how fast medicine can advance with an abundance of cash and collaboration. Is progress at this speed and cost sustainable? Sandra Kanthal asks if drug devel...

A right to health from 2021-06-26T12:00

What will be the biggest healthcare issue in the next decade? What is the future of public healthcare around the world? The BBC World Service brings together the acclaimed US physician and Berggrue...

Coronavirus: Survivor's guilt from 2021-06-26T08:30

Worldwide almost four million people have now died from Covid-19. For each individual who has lost a loved one, each statistic is a deeply personal experience. The disease has not just attacked our...

Nigeria’s kidnapped children from 2021-06-24T01:40

Since December, gangs have seized more than a thousand students and members of staff from schools in armed raids across northern Nigeria. The wave of abductions is having devastating consequences f...

Guru: A dark legacy from 2021-06-22T02:00

For the last year, BBC journalist and passionate yoga teacher Ishleen Kaur has been investigating allegations of sexual and emotional abuse at the heart of an organisation she once called home.Fell...

The life of Kenneth Kaunda from 2021-06-20T07:30

Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia was a unique African leader. He led the African continent’s fight against Apartheid, gaining a peaceful transition to power in his own country. He was ...

Deepwater Horizon oil spill from 2021-06-19T12:00

In the evening of 20 April 2010 disaster struck at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when a blowout caused by a surge in methane gas from the oil well exploded engulfing the platform. For the next 87 d...

Women in Iran from 2021-06-19T08:30

Iran has voted for a new president and BBC Persian Service presenter, Rana Rahimpour, hears from different women in conversation on what life is like in the country. Three young women, including on...

Syria’s decade of conflict: The many colours of Raqqa from 2021-06-17T01:40

Syrian born reporter Lina Sinjab presents a special series from Assignment’s award winning archive on the ten years of civil war in her country. In the final programme from the season Lina hears f...

Guru: Living a lie from 2021-06-15T02:00

For the last year, BBC journalist and passionate yoga teacher Ishleen Kaur has been investigating allegations of sexual and emotional abuse at the heart of an organisation she once called home. Fel...

When Kissinger went to China from 2021-06-12T12:00

In July 1971, Kissinger, then US National Security Advisor, made a clandestine visit to the People’s Republic of China – then America’s sworn enemy. At the time China was isolated from the outside ...

Life in Iran from 2021-06-12T08:30

As Iran prepares to hold its presidential election to select a replacement for Hassan Rouhani, BBC Persian presenter Rana Rahimpour brings together Iranians, both in the country and living abroad, ...

Syria’s decade of conflict: Islamic State’s most wanted from 2021-06-10T01:40

Syrian born reporter Lina Sinjab presents a special series from Assignment’s award winning archive on the ten years of civil war in her country.This week Chloe Hadjimatheou tells the astonishing st...

Being mum from 2021-06-08T02:00

Are children always better off in a two-parent family? Ateira Griffin, daughter of a single mother and the director of non-profit organisation that supports black single mothers and their daughters...

Bonus: The Lazarus Heist Episode 1 from 2021-06-05T23:30

Introducing our new original podcast. Here’s episode 1: Hacking Hollywood. A movie, Kim Jong-un and a devastating cyber attack. The story of the Sony hack. How the Lazarus Group hackers caused mayh...

Introducing: The Lazarus Heist from 2021-06-05T23:15

Hacking Hollywood and the billion-dollar plot. Hear all about our new original podcast. Search for The Lazarus Heist wherever you find your podcasts.#LazarusHeist

Coronavirus: The Olympics from 2021-06-05T08:30

The Olympic Games now look certain to go ahead in Japan in July. However, some people in the country are against holding the event, as it tackles a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, low vaccination...

Syria’s decade of conflict: Syria's secret library from 2021-06-03T01:40

Syrian born reporter Lina Sinjab presents a special series from Assignment’s award winning archive on the 10 years of civil war in her country. This week an extraordinary story from 2016, reported...

Globalisation in reverse from 2021-06-01T02:00

Globalisation is about open trade, open doors and open borders. It is the way that Asia has grown its economy for the better part of the last half century. But the pandemic and tensions between the...

The Tulsa tragedy that shamed America from 2021-05-29T14:00

Alvin Hall tells the story of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history. In the early 20th Century, Tulsa was a wild west town which became a boom cit...

Hip-hop and healing: Commemorating Tulsa from 2021-05-29T12:00

A century ago, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history took place - the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Greenwood was a prosperous and thriving district, nicknamed 'Black Wall Street' ...

Coronavirus: Getting Covid after vaccination from 2021-05-29T08:30

Vaccines are seen as a way out of the coronavirus pandemic; a way to stop transmission and have fewer patients in hospital. Host Nuala McGovern shares different experiences of vaccination and hospi...

Syria’s decade of conflict: The battered champions of Aleppo from 2021-05-27T01:40

Syrian born reporter Lina Sinjab presents a special series from Assignment’s award winning archive on the ten years of civil war in her country. This week she introduces Tim Whewell’s programme f...

Reaching back to Hands Across America from 2021-05-25T02:00

On 25 May 1986, 6.5 million people did the impossible; they joined hands to form the world’s longest human chain, from New York to Los Angeles. But far from being a simple stunt, Hands Across Ameri...

Vaccinating the world from 2021-05-22T19:00

Now that scientists have created a Covid-19 vaccine in record time, the race is on to vaccinate the world. Public health professor Devi Sridhar follows the journey of the Covid vaccine from factory...

Gagarin and the lost Moon from 2021-05-22T12:00

On 12 April 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became an explorer like none other before him, going faster and further than any human in history, into what had always been the impenetrable and infinite u...

Israel and Gaza from 2021-05-22T08:30

After 11 days of conflict, a ceasefire has been agreed between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The violence in that time killed more than 250 people, most of them in Gaza. During t...

Syria’s decade of conflict: Damascus diary from 2021-05-20T01:40

Syrian born reporter Lina Sinjab presents a special series from Assignment’s award winning archive on the 10 years of civil war in her country. In 2013 Lina recorded an audio diary of her final day...

Speaking out from 2021-05-18T02:00

London-based broadcaster Edward Adoo and US DJ T Storm team up to discuss the experiences of black people who are stopped and searched in their countries. Together they hear the personal stories of...

Coronavirus: Healthcare workers and burnout from 2021-05-15T08:30

Dr Solelwa Sifumba in Johannesburg, South Africa, recently left the profession after experiencing such chronic anxiety that it even led to her considering taking her own life. She is joined by two ...

Saving the vaquita from 2021-05-13T01:40

Jacques Cousteau called Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, ‘the aquarium of the world’. It is home to one of the most critically endangered species on earth. The vaquita is a small porpoise facing total extin...

Bob Marley: An extraordinary day from 2021-05-11T02:00

Forty years after the death of reggae singer Bob Marley, British writer and dub poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, remembers the day Jamaica came to a standstill for the singer’s funeral. Bob Marley was lai...

Our story: Part two from 2021-05-08T19:00

For the past seven years, Marlo has been making a podcast about life as a single mum raising her transgender daughter. In this programme Marlo reaches out to parents of transgender children and adu...

Coronavirus: Pilots and trainee doctors from 2021-05-08T08:31

The pandemic has caused millions of job losses during the past year. The travel industry is one area that has been badly affected as many countries closed their borders or restricted entry. As a re...

Myanmar: The spring revolution from 2021-05-06T01:40

More than 750 people have been killed by the Myanmar military since they seized power in a coup three months ago. Mass protests demanding a return to democracy and the release of elected leader Aun...

Where is Jack Ma? from 2021-05-04T02:00

On the eve of what would have been the world's largest share listing, Ant Financial founder Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire mysteriously disappeared. Things started to go wrong for Ma after he tol...

Our story: Part one from 2021-05-01T19:00

For the past seven years, Marlo has been making a podcast about life as a single mum raising her transgender daughter. In the first programme, Marlo explains why she put her daughter’s story out fo...

Our story: Part one from 2021-05-01T19:00

For the past seven years, Marlo has been making a podcast about life as a single mum raising her transgender daughter. In the first programme, Marlo explains why she put her daughter’s story out fo...

Coronavirus: India from 2021-05-01T08:30

A second coronavirus wave is ravaging many parts of India and the health services continue to struggle. Two doctors in Delhi and Mumbai share their experiences of working under increasingly difficu...

The Battle of Palma from 2021-04-29T08:10

At the end of March, hundreds of militants linked to the Islamic State group overran a small, but strategic coastal town in northern Mozambique. The bloody surprise attack on Palma marked a signifi...

Dance Divas: 1988-1998 from 2021-04-24T12:00

Sampling technology created new opportunities for producers but raised questions of authenticity and authorship in the industry. Some of the biggest dance music hits of the early '90s used uncredit...

Coronavirus: Sudan from 2021-04-24T08:30

Sudan has recorded only 32,000 cases of coronavirus infections and just 2,300 Covid-19 related deaths so far. It is also rolling out vaccines. But the numbers are thought to be much higher and host...

Prince belong Vanuatu from 2021-04-23T13:01

Villagers believe Prince Philip is returning to his ancestral home on their Pacific island. In a handful of villages on the island of Tanna, in Vanuatu, he has been revered as an ancestral spirit a...

America’s solitary inmates from 2021-04-22T01:40

Since the pandemic struck, millions around the world have endured lockdowns, with many finding it hard to tolerate long periods indoors. But what if lockdown meant years on end spent entirely alone...

Dance divas: 1978-1988 from 2021-04-17T12:00

We meet Yvonne Turner, Rebecca Mackenzie, Carol Cooper, Gail Sky King and Sharon White who were all Paradise Garage regulars from its opening in the late 70s. We follow their first steps in the mus...

Coronavirus: Surviving isolation from 2021-04-17T08:06

The pandemic has caused many people to feel lonely and isolated. For three women, the isolation is as a result of travelling and having to quarantine in hotels on arrival - Michelle in Australia, A...

The day I met Prince Philip from 2021-04-17T01:00

Over his seven decades of service to Queen Elizabeth the Second, to the United Kingdom, her 15 other realms, and to the Commonwealth, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, met many millions of peop...

Sexual healing in the Israeli military from 2021-04-15T01:40

Soldiers returning from the line of duty with injuries affecting sexual performance are universal to all militaries around the world, but Israeli psychologist Dr Ronit Aloni set about making hers t...

Don't log off: My life, my world from 2021-04-13T02:00

Alan Dein follows 25-year-old entrepreneur Fahad in Dhaka, Bangladesh who has to deal with the pressures of running multiple businesses during the pandemic – and has over 200 employees depending on...

Coronavirus: Loss of smell and taste from 2021-04-10T23:30

The loss of smell and taste is now considered one of the major symptoms of Covid-19 and it can have a huge impact on people’s lives - especially when these senses do not return after someone has re...

The other caliphate from 2021-04-10T12:00

For five brutal months in 2017 the black flag of so-called Islamic State fluttered over a captured city, and thousands of lives were destroyed. But rather than Iraq or Syria, this was a reality in ...

HRH Prince Philip: A celebration of a life from 2021-04-10T11:10

Buckingham Palace has announced the death of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He was 99 years old. Tuppence Middleton presents a celebration of his life, and looks back through the...

HRH Prince Philip: Links with the armed forces from 2021-04-10T10:59

Jonny Dymond looks back at Prince Philip's links with the armed forces, and his time as an officer in the Royal Navy. He tells the story of the Duke of Edinburgh's lifelong love of the sea, and his...

HRH Prince Philip: His work with charity from 2021-04-10T10:50

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 ...

The life of Prince Philip from 2021-04-10T10:40

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.

Denmark: Goodbye to mink from 2021-04-08T01:33

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. Ther...

Don’t log off: My life, my world from 2021-04-06T01:30

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 hop...

Coronavirus: Brazilian doctors from 2021-04-03T08:30

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 tota...

Namibia: The price of genocide from 2021-04-01T01:33

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 ...

Women dying for work from 2021-03-30T02:00

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 ...

The coronavirus and your money from 2021-03-28T06:00

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 aroun...

Joe Biden's border challenge from 2021-03-27T07:00

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 facil...

Coronavirus: Homelessness from 2021-03-27T06:30

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...

Shipping’s dirty secret from 2021-03-25T05:07

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 investigate...

A constitutional conversation from 2021-03-23T05:30

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 ...

World of wisdom: Love from 2021-03-21T14:00

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 e...

World of wisdom: Breathe from 2021-03-20T21:00

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...

What happened with the AstraZeneca vaccine? from 2021-03-20T07:00

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 ...

Coronavirus: Reporting Covid-19 from 2021-03-20T06:30

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 journ...

Scotland's contested identity from 2021-03-18T05:07

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 t...

What does the future hold? Covid, women and the US economy from 2021-03-16T05:30

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 Royal Family’s missed chance from 2021-03-13T07:00

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...

Coronavirus: Resilience during a year of the pandemic from 2021-03-13T06:30

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 chall...

The disinformation dragon from 2021-03-11T05:07

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’ rat...

The empty desk: Women, Covid and the US economy from 2021-03-09T05:30

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...

The Saudis and the superpower from 2021-03-06T07:00

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 ...

Coronavirus: War and Covid trauma from 2021-03-06T06:30

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 bringin...

Biden's world from 2021-03-04T05:30

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...

A year of Covid from 2021-03-02T05:30

In March 2020 the UK was gearing up to face the Covid-19 pandemic. Cases were increasing rapidly and by the end of month the country was in full lockdown with medics facing their toughest ever test...

Facebook's global power and influence from 2021-02-27T07:00

After a series of damaging scandals, many critics believe the social media giant has become too powerful and should be broken up. This week, Ros Atkins will consider Facebook's influence in Myanmar...

Coronavirus: Venezuela's hospitals from 2021-02-27T06:30

Venezuela’s hospitals are dealing with a pandemic at a time when the country is already in an economic crisis. Many hospitals don’t have running water and there are shortages of oxygen and other me...

Kenya’s unhappy doctors and nurses from 2021-02-25T05:07

All over the world, frontline health workers have paid the ultimate price during the coronavirus pandemic. But in Kenya the story of one young doctor’s heroism has made headlines for all the wrong ...

I am Robert Chelsea from 2021-02-23T05:30

Robert Chelsea suffered horrific burns after his stationary car was hit by a truck with a drunk driver at the wheel, in Los Angeles in 2013. He survived and went ahead with a series of demanding su...

How the Irish shaped Britain from 2021-02-21T06:00

With migration, integration and assimilation dominating much public debate, Fergal Keane explores the profound influence, over many centuries, of the Irish in Britain. Whether it is 19th Century th...

Covid-19: The cost of keeping schools closed during a pandemic from 2021-02-20T07:00

With thousands of schools still closed around the world, there are increasingly urgent warnings about the impact this pandemic is having on millions of children. Ros Atkins looks at risks of reopen...

Coronavirus: Living in a refugee camp from 2021-02-20T06:30

Tasneem recently graduated from university. Like everyone else, her future is on hold because of coronavirus. But for Tasneem it is a particularly uncertain time, as she has been living in Jordan a...

Drug-free in Norway? from 2021-02-18T05:06

Can Norwegians with psychosis benefit from radical, drug-free treatment? In a challenge to the foundations of western psychiatry, a handful of Norway’s mental health facilities are offering medicat...

Inside the brain of Jeff Bezos from 2021-02-16T05:30

David Baker reveals the thinking and the values that made Jeff Bezos the richest man on the planet, and Amazon the most wildly successful company, even in a year when the global economy faces catas...

World Wide Waves: The sounds of community radio from 2021-02-14T06:00

We may think we live in a digital age, but only half the world is currently online. Across the globe, small radio stations bind remote communities, play a dazzling array of music, educate, entertai...

The slow search for the origin of Covid-19 from 2021-02-13T07:01

As scientists from the World Health Organisation release the findings of their latest visit to Wuhan, Ros Atkins looks at the reasons why so much remains unknown about the start of the pandemic, an...

Coronavirus: The vaccinated from 2021-02-13T06:30

Around the world, millions of people are receiving their first dose of vaccines against Covid-19. Healthcare workers are often prioritised and today we introduce two hospital workers; a porter here...

Unmasked: Stories from the PPE frontline from 2021-02-11T05:07

Personal protective equipment like masks and gloves are the last line of defence for healthcare workers on the frontline, preventing them from getting infected by the Covid patients they care for. ...

Coronavirus Front Line: The search for a vaccine - part two from 2021-02-09T05:30

The medical teams at Bradford investigate the hesitancy over the Covid-19 vaccine. A team of young ambassadors is recruited to help build trust locally and medical teams follow up with those who ap...

Coronavirus: Guilty mums from 2021-02-06T11:55

Many parents are finding it hard to be a teacher and a parent at the same time during this pandemic. Two mums - Priya in India and Mputle in South Africa - share their experiences. Host Nuala McGov...

Trump impeachment: The Republicans' dilemma from 2021-02-06T07:00

As Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial approaches, Ros Atkins looks at the decisions that Republicans face over the former US president’s role in the storming of the Capitol and in the future o...

Europe’s most dangerous capital from 2021-02-04T05:07

Bucharest, in Romania, is arguably Europe’s most dangerous capital city. It’s not the crime that’s the problem – it’s the buildings. Many of them don’t comply with basic laws and building regulatio...

Coronavirus Front Line: The search for a vaccine from 2021-02-02T05:30

Over the last few months the race has been on to create and test a vaccine for Covid -19. Over 200 are in development and some are now licensed and given to protect some of the most vulnerable in s...

Compassion fatigue from 2021-01-31T05:30

Compassion fatigue has long been an issue for people in the medical and humanitarian professions. People often enter those worlds because of a desire to care, and to be compassionate towards others...

Coronavirus: Vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minorities from 2021-01-30T06:31

Millions of people across the world are currently being vaccinated against Covid-19. Black, Asian and Latino groups have been the hardest hit by the first wave of the pandemic and yet people within...

The exiles: Hong Kong at a crossroads from 2021-01-28T05:07

Over a year ago, two young men who met over the internet as Hong Kong was gripped by months of pro-democracy protests. They shared a common interest in martial arts and a burning desire to resist C...

Donald Trump and me from 2021-01-26T05:30

In one of America’s reddest states, Idaho, local Republicans reflect on Donald Trump’s rise to the White House. What were their hopes for the most unconventional president in living history, what w...

Voices from the Ghetto from 2021-01-24T06:00

Codenamed Oyneg Shabbat (Joy of the Sabbath), a team of 'researchers' wrote and collected documents detailing life and death inside the ghetto. The secret project was conducted inside the Warsaw Gh...

President Biden: Call for unity from 2021-01-23T07:00

The new US President Joe Biden inherits a deeply divided country - whether by politics, race or religion. We hear from evangelical Christians in Ohio and Seattle about whether the church can suppor...

Lisa Montgomery: The road to execution from 2021-01-21T05:07

Lisa Montgomery’s crime was an especially abominable murder: In 2004 in the small mid-West American town of Skidmore, she strangled an expectant mother, Bobbie Jo Stinnett. She then cut open her vi...

President-elect Joe Biden from 2021-01-19T05:31

On Wednesday, 20 January Joe Biden will be sworn in as America’s 46th president of the United States, after scoring a record-breaking victory on his third attempt at winning the White House. After ...

My viral video and me from 2021-01-17T06:00

Colm Flynn tracks down the internet's original viral video superstars and reveals how becoming an online sensation changed their life. So many people spend their time chasing the allure of fame, ho...

Coronavirus: Young widows from 2021-01-16T10:30

Each Covid-19 death has a tremendous personal impact on loved ones. Host Nuala McGovern talks to three women who have lost their husbands to the disease. Their Facebook group 'Young Widows and Wido...

Social influencers and the perfect body from 2021-01-14T05:07

In the age of social media and the selfie, the perfect look is everything. That's what online influencers tell their followers. Some are also happy to provide a 'how-to’ guide to obtaining the perf...

The digital human: Sacred from 2021-01-13T04:00

Sacred objects and places are often imbued with memories - memories we cherish, which define who we are. Aleks Krotoski asks if technology can be a conduit for sacredness and give us a greater unde...

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from 2021-01-12T05:30

The California senator has made history in three ways – as the first woman, first black person and first person of Indian origin to be elected as vice president. Many observers believe she will be ...

Coronavirus: Intensive care from 2021-01-09T06:30

As vaccines begin to be administered in several countries, many places are experiencing worrying rises in cases and deaths from Covid-19. One effect is that hospitals have to try and cope with the ...

Libya's Brothers from Hell from 2021-01-07T05:07

Amid the anarchy of post-Revolution Libya, seven brothers from an obscure background gradually took over their home town near Tripoli. They're accused of murdering entire families to instill fear a...

The Digital Human: Ghoul from 2021-01-06T12:55

Violent content online has rightly been condemned, yet while we criticise those facilitating the supply we rarely talk about the demand. Aleks Krotoski asks who views it and why.

Donald Trump: The political record from 2021-01-05T14:32

What is Donald Trump’s political and policy legacy? Nada Tawfik explores how four years of the Trump presidency has challenged US policy conventions and re-written the narrative of American politic...

Donald Trump: The man from 2021-01-05T10:38

Donald Trump was the businessman and TV show host who became the 45th President of the United States, with huge power and resources at his fingertips. Rob Watson tells the life story of one of th...

Coronavirus: Forgotten voices from 2021-01-02T10:06

Host Nuala McGovern checks in with two so-called Covid-19 ''long-haulers'', who are still enduring symptoms several months after catching the disease. We also hear from residents living in some of ...

BBC correspondents' look ahead from 2021-01-01T11:06

There were times in 2020 when the world felt like an out of control carousel and we could all have been forgiven for just wanting to get off and to wait for normality to return. But will 2021 be an...

Breakthrough: The race for the Covid vaccine from 2021-01-01T01:06

Dr Kevin Fong talks to the people who have seemingly achieved the impossible and created a coronavirus vaccine in a matter of months. Speaking to the scientists who’ve spent the past 12 months with...

Searching for Wisdom in Lagos from 2020-12-31T03:45

A young woman is desperately searching for her brother in Lagos. On the night of 20th October, Nigerian soldiers opened fire at a peaceful demonstration camped at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos. The ...

The Digital Human: Subservience from 2020-12-30T05:30

Aleks Krotoski finds out if how we treat our subservient robots impacts how we treat one another. As with any new invention, domestic robots illuminate issues within human society that we may not h...

The Hindu bard from 2020-12-29T04:01

In 1914 a 19-year-old Indian student caused a sensation when she was awarded the top prize - the bardic chair - at the 1914 University College of Wales Eisteddfod held in Aberystwyth. All the entri...

Revolution of the senses from 2020-12-27T05:01

Four radio producers present intimate stories of people across Europe, revealing the effect of Covid 19 on their experience of touch, sight, sound, smell and taste. In a year where movement was res...

Coronavirus: Surviving the pandemic from 2020-12-26T10:30

After hearing so many incredibly moving stories since the pandemic was first declared, we’ve decided to return to some of those people to hear how their lives have changed - from two residents in W...

The Digital Human: Messiah from 2020-12-23T15:08

Why do so many of us treat Silicon Valley billionaires like our new messiahs? For some, people like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and engineer Elon Musk are the charismatic high priests for this new...

Warrior elephant guardians from 2020-12-22T04:01

In a remote part of Northern Kenya, former Samburu warriors have become elephant keepers, rescuing and raising baby elephants in what’s thought to be Africa’s first community owned and run elephant...

Coronavirus: Spikes and Santas from 2020-12-19T11:01

We are in the biggest holiday season for large parts of the world but many countries are experiencing a rise in Covid cases. It’s worrying for those in South Korea's capital Seoul, where around hal...

Darfur: A precarious peace from 2020-12-17T03:33

After 17 years of conflict costing 300,000 lives, a peace agreement offers new hope to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region. It comes as UNAMID, the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force, p...

Don't Log Off: Opportunity from 2020-12-16T11:01

Alan hears stories from people who’ve transformed their lives and are helping others to do the same against the backdrop of the pandemic. He speaks to Alhaji in Sierra Leone who’s building a house ...

Coronavirus: Vaccines, frustrations and hope from 2020-12-12T10:30

Two doctors in Nairobi tell host Nuala McGovern why conditions for health workers in Nairobi are leading to calls for a strike. They include rising death rates, unpaid salaries and lack of a compre...

Syria's soldiers of fortune from 2020-12-10T03:33

The bitter war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasian region of Nagorno Karabakh may have come to an end, but the business of fighting may continue for at least some of its combatants. The...

Don't log off: Grounded from 2020-12-09T11:01

Alan Dein searches for the nspiring and moving stories of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent. Today, airline pilot Peter in Australia talks about deciding to become a bu...

Belarus across the barricades - part two from 2020-12-08T04:01

For 100 days and counting protesters are calling for an end to the 26-year long rule of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. Poet Valzhyna Mort records first-hand stories from her friends who are out p...

Back down to Earth from 2020-12-05T21:01

Since November 2000, humans have been living in space on the International Space Station (ISS). Although the ISS is a remarkable engineering achievement, human space exploration has proven dangerou...

Coronavirus: Vaccine approved from 2020-12-05T10:31

Nuala McGovern talks to Kerry. She has muscular dystrophy and has been shielding, or isolating, at home in England since March. We also hear from Dr Joseph Varon, Chief of Critical Care at the Unit...

Me and my trolls from 2020-12-03T03:33

Internet trolls are harassing and bullying people like never before. That’s according to research carried out in the UK which found abuse rising as the world spends more and more time online thanks...

The state of the planet from 2020-12-02T19:42

Ahead of a crucial year in the battle to control climate change, presenter Lucy Hockings is joined by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He is warning that "our planet is broken". We'll hea...

Don't Log Off: Searching for hope from 2020-12-02T11:01

Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changed world. Inspiring and moving stories of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent. Today, Liana in Armenia celebr...

Belarus across the barricades - part one from 2020-12-01T04:01

Lucy Ash explores the world of the security forces that keep Lukashenko in power, peeling back the ubiquitous balaclavas to find the men and women beneath. Minsk, early December. A wall of masked m...

100 Women: Women in power from 2020-11-29T04:30

Mary Ann Sieghart asks what it takes to be a powerful woman and what holds so many back. Sexism, appearance and encouraging fathers are all up for discussion as Mary Ann talks to former Prime Minis...

Coronavirus: Festive celebrations from 2020-11-28T10:30

The arrival of winter for many countries brings the threat of increased infections as people gather indoors to escape the cold. It’s also a time for celebrating religious festivals and holidays. Ho...

The Mapuche – fighting for their right to heal from 2020-11-26T03:33

The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group – a population of more than 2 million people. And, they are fighting for their right to heal. They want Chileans to value their unique approach to h...

Don't Log Off: Resilience from 2020-11-25T12:45

Throughout the pandemic Alan Dein has been hearing inspiring and moving accounts of how people’s lives have been transformed by the pandemic. Today, Alan connects with Sakie in Myanmar, who tells o...

100 Women: The mushroom woman from 2020-11-23T13:47

This is the story of Chido Govera aka The Mushroom Woman. It is a story about her home, Zimbabwe. And it is also a story about mushrooms. It never should have happened. Chido, an orphan, became the...

Coronavirus: Mental and physical toll from 2020-11-21T14:02

Women in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil reveal the frightening effect of the pandemic and lockdowns on women in Latin America. Many are living with their aggressors and are unable to escape to a safe pla...

Martinique: The poisoning of paradise from 2020-11-19T03:33

“First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned.” That’s how many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean island that, to tourists, means sun, rum, and palm-fringed beaches. Slavery ...

The five-day election from 2020-11-18T11:01

Philippa Thomas hears from voters across the United States on the agony and ecstasy of waiting for results of the unusually protracted presidential election.

Obesity crisis In Thai temples from 2020-11-17T04:01

Obesity is a growing problem in Thailand. As the country becomes more affluent, its citizens are working more and cooking less which means that they are buying more convenience foods containing hig...

Blood lands from 2020-11-15T05:00

At dusk on a warm evening in 2016, two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South African farmhouse. The frenzy that follows will come to haunt a community, destroying families, turning neighbours...

US election: A test of democracy from 2020-11-14T10:30

Joe Biden is the projected winner of the race to be the next president of the United States. Donald Trump, however, refuses to concede the election and many of his supporters continue to believe th...

The burning scar from 2020-11-12T03:33

Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, a product found in everything from shampoo to soup; in the last two decades vast areas of forests have been cleared to make way for plantation...

India's missing children from 2020-11-10T04:01

In India, a child goes missing every eight minutes. BBC South Asia Correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan meets the family of one of those children and follows their attempts to trace their daughter. It...

US election: Divided nation from 2020-11-07T09:43

The US election has amplified political and racial divisions across the nation, so how do voters feel about the splits in their society?

Host Nuala McGovern is in Reno, Nevada, speaking to...

Sicily’s prisoner fishermen from 2020-11-05T12:00

Eighteen fishermen from Sicily are in jail in Benghazi, accused of fishing in Libya’s waters. And in this part of the Mediterranean, rich in the highly-prized and lucrative red prawn, these kinds o...

Missing and murdered: America’s forgotten native girls from 2020-11-03T04:01

Native American women are trafficked, murdered and raped at five to ten times the national rate of other American women. The figures are gruelling. Each year, hundreds of girls and women go missing...

US election: Race and policing from 2020-10-31T10:30

As the presidential election campaign nears its conclusion, another American city witnesses protests for racial justice after police officers shoot dead a black man on the streets of Philadelphia. ...

US election: Socially distant from 2020-10-29T04:01

Ahead of the US presidential election on 3 November, two socially distanced views of the pre-election political landscape of America, explore different perspectives on key issues and themes from th...

China's rocket man from 2020-10-27T04:01

Qian Xuesen is widely celebrated in China as the father of the country’s rocket programme, and the man who kick-started its exploration of space. China is now second only to the US in terms of its ...

Fighting together in Korea from 2020-10-25T05:01

Seventy years ago tens of thousands of North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Over the next three years one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th Century claimed millions of lives. On a more pos...

US election: Trucking and farming from 2020-10-24T10:31

Nuala McGovern speaks with truck drivers and farmers in the United States as they share their thoughts on how their lives and livelihoods have been under the past four years of the Trump presidency...

The British and their fish from 2020-10-22T12:00

By the middle of the 20th century, the English town of Grimsby was the biggest fishing port in the world. When the catch was good “fishermen could live like rock stars”, says Kurt Christensen who f...

A perfect match from 2020-10-20T04:01

Thirteen years ago, journalist Ibby Caputo underwent a bone marrow transplant in the US to treat an aggressive form of leukaemia. Because she is of Northern European descent, she believes she had a...

The TikTok election from 2020-10-18T05:01

TikTok has become one of the political stories in the run up to the US elections, exposing America's distrust of China. But its users and influencers could help decide who takes the White House. Jo...

The Response USA: The return from 2020-10-17T21:02

As an election approaches in America, we return to a unique experiment which took the temperature of the USA after the surprise election of Donald Trump. In 2016 the BBC World Service, in associati...

US election: Losing your job from 2020-10-17T10:31

Our conversations reflect the impact Covid-19 has had on the US economy and on people’s jobs and wellbeing. We hear from a cook in northern California and a PBX switchboard operator in Massachusett...

Reza's story from 2020-10-15T12:00

A death-defying migrant's story... Said Reza Adib was a TV journalist in Afghanistan. In 2016, about to break a story about the sexual abuse of children by Afghan men in authority, he received a th...

Dyslexia: Into adulthood from 2020-10-13T04:01

Stella Sabin, who has dyslexia herself, looks at the impact of the condition in adult life, and asks what difference does it make to know the name of what you are experiencing? Dyslexic people are ...

Spitfire stories from 2020-10-11T05:01

In September 1940, in two factories in Southampton, one of the most iconic planes of World War Two was being painstakingly assembled, piece by piece. This sleek and beautiful fighter, with record b...

US election: Testing positive for Covid-19 from 2020-10-10T10:31

The President of the United States is recovering from Covid-19, after a week when the world watched him leaving hospital briefly in a motorcade to wave supporters and - on his return to the White H...

Portland, prisons and white supremacy - part two from 2020-10-08T12:00

The second part of this two-part documentary continues the story of Portland, Oregon and its struggle with white supremacists.

Portland has a reputation as one of the United States’ most l...

Dyslexia: Language and childhood from 2020-10-06T04:02

Toby Withers who is dyslexic himself, reveals the challenges of learning English, with all its inconsistent rules and odd spellings. He talks to the subject of a ground-breaking study into bilingua...

US Election 2020: Trump and coronavirus from 2020-10-05T11:05

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the US and there are more than 7 million confirmed cases. President Trump, whose approach to the virus divides opinion, has now himse...

Portland, prisons and white supremacy - part one from 2020-10-01T12:00

Portland, Oregon, has a reputation as one of the United States’ most liberal and tolerant cities. Since the death of George Floyd, it has been at the forefront of protests and violence as anti-raci...

Songs of the Humpback Whale from 2020-09-29T04:01

Songs of the Humpback Whale was released in 1970 and went multi-platinum, becoming the best selling environmental album of all time. But it also became emblematic of the West’s shifting attitudes t...

What has Nobel done for the World? from 2020-09-27T05:01

Brilliance is a must to win a Nobel Prize, but is that the only requirement? What else does it take to become a laureate? Ruth Alexander tells the stories of those who have been overlooked – in som...

Coronavirus: Back to normal in Wuhan? from 2020-09-26T13:23

What is life like now in the Chinese city where Covid-19 was first detected? Officials have declared Wuhan virus-free. Lots of people have been sharing pictures from bars in the city, which suggest...

Poland's gay pride and prejudice from 2020-09-24T12:00

A number of small towns in Poland have been campaigning against what they call 'homosexual ideology'. Local authorities in the provinces have passed resolutions against perceived threats such as se...

Coronavirus: Friendships during lockdown from 2020-09-19T11:01

Covid-19 is affecting our relationships - some are better, others are more challenging. A jewellery designer in India and a lawyer in the United States share their experiences and discover they hav...

The trouble with Dutch cows from 2020-09-17T12:05

The Netherlands - small and overcrowded - is facing fundamental questions about how to use its land, following a historic court judgment forcing the state to take more urgent action to limit nitrog...

The shepherd and the settler from 2020-09-16T13:01

Muhammad is a Bedouin shepherd in a remote corner of the West Bank called Rashash. His family has been herding sheep and goats in Rashash for 30 years and in Palestine for generations. But since Is...

Remembering those lost to Covid-19 from 2020-09-11T13:11

It is six months since the outbreak of a new coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Very few lives around the world have not been affected by Covid-19. More than 27 million people have been in...

South Africa moonshine from 2020-09-10T12:00

Pineapple beer is the universal homebrew in South Africa and pineapple prices trebled when the government imposed a ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco during the coronavirus pandemic. South Afr...

Accused of hacking the Pentagon from 2020-09-09T13:01

Seven years ago in a sleepy English village a doorbell rang. In that moment, Lauri Love’s life changed completely. Lauri was arrested at the door. He was accused of hacking into US government websi...

Why India is mad for motorbikes from 2020-09-08T04:01

What is behind the deep-seated and increasing passion for motorcycling in India?The hosts of the podcast Biker Radio Rodcast, explore what drives the love for the two-wheeler. Sunny and Shandy trav...

BBC OS Conversations: Covid-free nations from 2020-09-07T15:08

Vanuatu, Micronesia and the Solomon Islands are among a handful of nations that have no registered coronavirus cases. Yet, despite this enviable status, the pandemic is introducing other problems w...

Naziha Syed Ali: Pakistan’s fearless female reporter from 2020-09-03T12:05

Journalist Naziha Syed Ali has made a career out of investigating sometimes scandalous abuses of power in her native Pakistan. Publishing in the country’s main English-language daily newspaper, “Da...

Rulebreakers: A beautiful prison from 2020-09-02T13:01

Greenland has been detangling its colonised relationship with Denmark since World War Two. Along the way, each state service and law needs to be rewritten. In 1948, three young Danes were sent to r...

The Soviet Feminist Army from 2020-09-01T04:01

The Soviet women spreading ideas on women’s equality in Afghanistan They were highly trained, focused on their mission and dedicated to their goal of promoting women’s equality in Afghanistan. In A...

Coronavirus: Children with special needs from 2020-08-30T08:30

Children around the world are starting to return to school after months of absence because of the coronavirus pandemic. Nuala McGovern talks to Unathi in South Africa and Jamie in the US - both hav...

August in Minsk from 2020-08-29T07:30

August in Minsk tells the story of the popular uprising in Belarus this August; a fast-changing revolt against the Soviet-style regime of Alexander Lukashenko. He’s been in power for 26 years and c...

Hugh Sykes: Reporting from the frontlines from 2020-08-27T12:05

Hugh Sykes has reported for the BBC since the 1970s and has travelled far and wide to witness some of the most significant events of our age. Here, in conversation with Owen Bennett-Jones, he discu...

Rulebreakers: Veteran on the tracks from 2020-08-26T13:02

There is a secret map passed down from hobo to hobo. You can’t buy it in stores or download it online but if you’re lucky enough to get a copy you can travel anywhere in America by freight train. T...

Red State refugees from 2020-08-25T04:01

President Trump has dramatically reduced the numbers of refugees arriving in the United States, vowing to protect native-born Americans’ interests. But there’s a catch - some of the nation’s reddes...

BBC OS Conversations: Covid-19 'long-haulers' from 2020-08-23T08:31

Thousands of people across the globe are experiencing a worrying cycle of Covid-19 symptoms months after recovering from the disease. Four of the so-called 'Covid long-haulers’ - from South Africa,...

Barbara Demick: True stories from North Korea from 2020-08-20T12:05

North Korea and Tibet are two of the most tightly-controlled societies on earth, and as a consequence their peoples are often misunderstood by the world’s media, caricatured respectively as aggress...

Rulebreakers: How I disappear from 2020-08-19T13:02

In Japan, if you want to disappear from your life, you can just pick up the phone and a ‘night moving company’ will turn you into one of the country’s ‘johatsu,’ or literally ‘evaporated people.’ Y...

BBC OS Conversations: Addiction during a pandemic from 2020-08-16T08:31

Nuala McGovern considers alcohol and drug addiction relapse during the pandemic. We hear from two men, in Kenya and the United States, about how they have fought their addictions while under lockdo...

Stitching souls from 2020-08-16T05:31

The women of Gee’s Bend have held on to their creative traditions, passed down from mother to daughter: spine-tingling gospel singing, and a unique style of bold, improvised quilting. Made from old...

Milton Nkosi: The apartheid child who changed Africa’s story from 2020-08-13T12:00

As a child of Soweto, apartheid South Africa’s most notorious black township, Milton Nkosi could easily have become an embittered adult; in June 1976 he witnessed the Soweto uprising in which white...

Fighting talk: How language can make us better from 2020-08-12T13:01

When we talk about cancer it’s often hard to find the right words. As we search for the perfect thing to say, we find ourselves reaching for familiar metaphors; the inspiring people fighting or bat...

Vaccines, money and politics from 2020-08-11T04:02

Nearly every person on the planet is vulnerable to the new coronavirus, SarsCoV2. That’s why there are more than 100 projects around the world racing towards the goal of creating a safe and effecti...

BBC OS Conversations: After the Beirut explosion from 2020-08-09T08:32

Beirut has been left destroyed by this week’s massive explosion: more than a hundred are dead; thousands injured and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless. It has devastated lives, belongin...

Worlds Apart from 2020-08-09T05:02

The pandemic has accelerated de-globalisation. Governments worry now about the length and strength of medical supply chains and cross-border trade and travel. But globalisation has had its critics ...

Soft Jihad Assignment from 2020-08-07T18:00

In the United States a small but increasingly vocal group of people believe that members of the country's Muslim community are working from within to turn America into an Islamic state. This group ...

Algeria's plague revisited from 2020-08-06T12:00

A mysterious illness appears out of nowhere. The number of cases rises exponentially, as the authorities attempt to downplay the severity of the disease. There is a shortage of medical staff, equip...

BBC OS Conversations: Spain's tourism industry from 2020-08-01T15:00

During a period of huge uncertainty, Spain's tourism industry suffers a setback while musicians in South Africa, Denmark and the United States share creative challenges and how they are reconnectin...

Venezuela's 'Bay of Piglets' from 2020-07-30T12:00

A failed coup in Venezuela - a story of hubris, incompetence, and treachery… At the beginning of May, the government of Nicolas Maduro announced the armed forces had repelled an attempted landing b...

Ingenious: The milkshake and the cyclops gene from 2020-07-29T12:32

The Milkshake Gene - (LCTL) - More than 90% of people in some parts of the world are unable to properly digest milk, cheese and other dairy products. Most other animals are also unable to drink mil...

Karachi's ambulance drivers from 2020-07-28T04:02

In Karachi, with a population of around 20 million people, ambulance drivers are on the front lines of this megacity’s shifting conflicts. Samira Shackle joins one of these drivers, Muhammad Safdar...

Death of Elijah McClain from 2020-07-26T08:33

Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man, was killed after an encounter with police in Colorado last year. He had been put in a chokehold and injected with ketamine. No-one has been punished over wh...

The most important, least important thing from 2020-07-26T05:02

Why is watching sport so important to us as a species? And what happens when that experience is taken away from us? Award-winning sports journalist and broadcaster Clare Balding explores why sport ...

The many colours of Raqqa from 2020-07-23T12:05

The untold story of Abood Hamam, perhaps the only photojournalist to have worked under every major force in Syria's war - and lived to tell the tale. At the start of the uprising he was head of pho...

Ingenious: The ginger gene and breast cancer gene from 2020-07-22T13:01

A particular version of the ginger gene MC1R underpins the fiery hair and freckled complexion of redheads, famed and feared in many cultures. But it is also linked to increased pain sensitivity and...

The confined: A story of hidden children from 2020-07-21T15:17

In 1942 in Nazi occupied France Jews were hunted and those helping them could be sent to concentration camps. Despite the dangers a Catholic nun took a stand that saved the lives of 82 Jewish child...

South Africa’s alcohol ban from 2020-07-19T08:32

For the second time during its Covid-19 outbreak, South Africa has decided to ban sales of alcohol. How does that have an impact on the workload of doctors in hospitals treating coronavirus patient...

Embankment baby from 2020-07-19T05:00

Tony May was only weeks old when he was abandoned as a baby on the Victoria Embankment in London in 1942. There was no clue to who he was or why he was left by the river Thames in the middle of Wor...

Coronavirus and Africa from 2020-07-18T21:00

The terrible choice between hunger and infection, police imposing lockdowns with brutality and the unexpected positives to come out of the pandemic in Africa. Presenter Toyosi Ogunseye in Lagos exa...

What the sediment revealed in Lebanon from 2020-07-16T12:00

The discovery of a mysterious delivery of defective, sediment-heavy fuel intended to generate electricity in Lebanon has sparked a huge scandal in the country. More than two dozen people, including...

DNA and me from 2020-07-14T04:02

Want to know who you really are? Take an at-home DNA test, just like over 26 million others have around the globe. But the question is: why? For many, it’s just a bit of fun; for others it might be...

Black America speaks from 2020-07-12T09:01

We listen in to four black-owned radio stations in the United States to find out how they are covering the killing of George Floyd and the waves of protest since. From Philadelphia, Houston, Los An...

The Coronavirus Frontline special from 2020-07-12T05:02

This series comes from the Bradford Royal Infirmary, in the North of England, with recordings made by Dr John Wright, who works there. He is an epidemiologist and as he helps the hospital prepare a...

The missing bodies of Guayaquil from 2020-07-09T12:00

In March and April, Guayaquil in Ecuador was the epicentre of the Covid pandemic in Latin America. The city’s health services began to collapse fast – hospitals, cemeteries and morgues were overwhe...

Unmapped world from 2020-07-07T11:51

Maps are the scaffolding of the digital age. Without them, and their associated data, a technological revolution is impossible. Vast swathes of Africa are still not mapped to a true local scale. Th...

Race in America: My enslaved ancestors from 2020-07-04T20:45

As Americans call for change following the killing of George Floyd, three women share the history of slavery in their families and discuss its impact on society today. Sharon Leslie Morgan in Missi...

Wuhan: City of silence from 2020-07-02T12:38

The BBC’s China correspondent, John Sudworth, travels to Wuhan – the city on the banks of the Yangtze river where Covid-19 first emerged. As the city returns to life, he examines one of the biggest...

The 'grandma benches' of Zimbabwe from 2020-06-30T10:06

Zimbabwe has over 14 million people but fewer than 20 psychiatrists. After years of economic turmoil, unemployment and HIV, mental health is a huge challenge and doctors estimate one in four Zimbab...

Coronavirus: The economic shock from 2020-06-28T18:18

In a few short months the coronavirus has turned the world upside down. Alongside the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of deaths, the world is now bracing itself for a brutal economic impact.
W...

Coronavirus conversations: What next? from 2020-06-28T08:30

Health experts and listeners from Ghana, the US, Canada, China, Switzerland and Italy share their views of life in a post-pandemic world.

World debate: Re-engineering the future from 2020-06-27T21:36

All over the world engineers are being called on to re-purpose and solve the problems the global pandemic creates. We bring together an audience of engineers and the general public from six contine...

Kenya’s locust hunters from 2020-06-25T12:16

East Africa has seen the worst invasion of desert locusts for decades and there are warnings of even larger swarms to come. Millions of people across the region, who are already feeling the impact ...

New York Covid-19 diary from 2020-06-23T06:02

Public health leader Dr Tom Frieden reflects on the ongoing global pandemic. An expert on infectious disease, Dr Frieden is a former director of the US States Centers for Disease Control and Preven...

Rethink: The edge of change from 2020-06-22T11:02

BBC Media editor Amol Rajan and a panel of guests analyse how the coronavirus pandemic has created new opportunities to change our world. They range across topics including geopolitics and the rise...

Reporting Covid-19 from 2020-06-21T05:02

As the pandemic continues to impact the world, BBC World Service's Nina Robinson, talks to journalists from two daily newspapers in India and the United States as we explore its impact on people in...

Rethink: Class of Covid-19 - Should I go to university? from 2020-06-20T21:02

The pandemic has led to job cuts and reduced salaries, so does going to university still make financial sense? And if you took a cut in wages during lockdown but are now back at work, how should yo...

Coronavirus conversations: Another Beijing lockdown from 2020-06-20T08:02

We speak to people in China's capital, Beijing, where a fresh spike of Covid-19 cases has been detected. Fan Fan and Richard tell us what it feels like to go through lockdown all over again. Meanwh...

The 5G con that could make you sick from 2020-06-18T12:00

Since the outbreak of coronavirus something strange has been happening – attacks on telephone masts and telecom workers are being reported all across the world. That’s because some people think tha...

My fake news whodunnit from 2020-06-14T05:02

When a name very similar to journalist Michelle Madsen’s was used as the cover for a fake news hatchet job on a Senegalese politician, she found herself entangled in a web of deception that she is ...

Coronavirus and Latin America from 2020-06-13T21:02

How has Latin America dealt with the pandemic? The lockdown, the needs of the economy, cash pay-outs to the poor, culture, tradition and safety in a time of crisis are all discussed with an expert ...

Conversations on race and change from 2020-06-13T15:32

In the days since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May, we have witnessed many things from police officers marching alongside protesters; to the political debate about US police refor...