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The Documentary Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by BBC World Service
The best documentaries from the BBC World Service. Hear the voices at the heart of global stories. Where curious minds can uncover hidden truths and make sense of the world. From the global housing crisis to gerrymandering in US politics to the miracle doctor of Lourdes, we go beyond the headlines. Each week, all year round, we bring you the stories shaping our world. From the personal voices behind the headlines to perspectives on faith and spirituality and how work and money impact our lives. Discover how people find solutions to global problems and look at the world through the lens of its media. The Documentary Podcast is about the people living the story – helping you see the world with greater clarity.
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- 2 days ago23 min
Digging deep to help farmers
A new farming method is having a dramatic effect on maize crops in Malawi, and assistance is coming from a solar-powered tractor. In the last of her visits to Malawi, Myra goes to a village where they are using a new method called Deep Bed Farming. It has more than doubled the yield of some of the farmers and improved their standards of living. The method involves digging deep into the hard earth. This can be tough work but a new solar-powered tractor designed in the UK called Aftrak is helping the farmers. Malawi has been hit hard by the changing climate and often struggles to feed its population. So making it more food secure could improve the lives of millions.
- 3 days ago55 min
Loving, living and dying together in the Netherlands
Els and Jan have fewer than three days left on Earth. Childhood sweethearts who met in kindergarten more than six decades ago, they know precisely when they will die. And how. On an early summer’s Monday morning they will travel to a nearby hospice. Some of their family and friends will accompany them. And then precisely at 10.30am - holding hands, they hope - two doctors will administer lethal medication to each of them. In the Netherlands, euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal if someone is suffering unbearably with no prospect of getting better. The suffering can be physical or psychological. Els was diagnosed with dementia. Jan lived with pain 24/7. Last year, 33 Dutch couples chose to die like Els and Jan. And in February, one of the Netherlands’ former prime ministers ended his life by euthanasia together with his wife. For Assignment, Linda Pressly meets Els and Jan as they prepare for the end. And she explores the complex issue of allowing euthanasia in cases of dementia. A warning: some listeners might find the content of this documentary upsetting. First broadcast 2nd July 2024
- 4 days ago20 min
If China's exports are booming, why are consumers struggling?
China's booming export figures, driven in part by demand for AI-related products, suggest a high-tech economy that's thriving. Yet many consumers at home continue to face economic pressures. Ed Butler asks whether there's a link between weakness at home and strength abroad, and what China's export surge could mean for other countries and trading partners.
- 5 days ago49 min
Germany's rust belt revival
On location in Dortmund, in Germany's Ruhr region, historian and author Katja Hoyer reports on the dramatic transformation that has taken place in the city in the last 20 years. Once known for its heavy industry, especially steel production, Dortmund realised the future lay elsewhere. The city would instead become a centre for hi tech industries, for start-ups, for logistics and it would attract talent to make that happen. Investing in two world class technical universities was a huge help together with the efforts of local government to support new businesses with access to workspace and useful contacts. The city cleaned up its act with new parks and lakes and a river free of pollution. The cultural centre Dortmunder U, the famous football club Borussia Dortmund plus a concert hall helped to turn the city into an attractive place to live. Yet in neighbouring Essen, people have been left behind in this transformation. What can Dortmund and its neighbouring cities teach the world about the process of deindustrialisation ?
- 6 days ago24 min
Living with dementia
A major new international study predicts that the number of people diagnosed with dementia will more than double by 2050. Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia, who led the study, predict that new cases worldwide will rise from some 11 million each year to around 25 million. That increase will not only have an impact on the families affected but also on health and care services. We bring together people with dementia to share their experiences. “If I say I have Alzheimer’s, it’s like the end of the world but it’s not the end of the world,” Helen tells us. We also hear from carers, including Amanda who looks after her 91-year-old mother in Ghana. They discuss the stigma around dementia and the pressure it can put on families.
- 1 weeks ago26 min
The right thing: Gaza's parish priest
As a young missionary priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli left his native Argentina to work in the Middle East. He went out of a passion for bringing Christ to the people wherever he was called. He became Gaza’s only Catholic parish priest at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. Life in the territory was never easy, but it became extraordinarily challenging after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 when around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry. The Gaza Hamas-run Health Ministry has put the number killed since the start of the war at around 74,000 including more than 20,000 children. Mike Wooldridge finds out what motivated Fr Romanelli to return to his flock and stay with them through the dangers and hardships of the devastating war that followed the Hamas attack. On the day of the assault, he was in Bethlehem in the West Bank – and it took him nearly seven months to obtain permission from the Israeli authorities to go back to Gaza.
- 1 weeks ago22 min
Navi Pillay
Navanetham 'Navi' Pillay has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026. The 85-year-old South African jurist and former UN Human Rights chief initially thought the news was a joke. Born in Durban, South Africa, to a Tamil family, her grandparents had come to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in the sugarcane fields. Born under apartheid rule neither of her parents were educated and her mother fought for her daughters to attend school where Navi's teachers saw her potential. The community then raised money enabling her to attend university. In 1967 she was the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province defending apartheid activists and political prisoners. She made international news in 1973 when she secured greater legal rights for the prisoners on Robben island including future president, Nelson Mandela. Once president, Mandela appointed Pillay the first non-white woman judge in the South African High Court. Soon after she was made a judge on the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She became UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and then in 2021 she chaired a UN Commission which accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. Israel has said awarding Pillay the Nobel Prize legitimised "anti-Israel hatred" and and both the US and Israel have since issued sanctions on the International Criminal Court. Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes, said she had been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.
- 1 weeks ago27 min
The silence of the oligarchs
Russia's super-rich once ruled the country, holding deep influence over the country's politicians in the years immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They then gradually saw their power decline under the rise of Vladimir Putin, but could they - and would they - ever seek to restore their political influence Russia editor at BBC Monitoring, Vitaly Shevchenko, traces the origin story of Russia’s oligarchs and why the party is now over for Russia’s wealthiest men. From the chaotic post-Soviet days of the 1990s when they amassed vast fortunes and wielded immense power to today where their number has reached an all-time high - while their political influence has virtually disappeared. Vitaly asks what, if anything, might lead them to restore their political clout?
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About The Documentary Podcast
The best documentaries from the BBC World Service. Hear the voices at the heart of global stories. Where curious minds can uncover hidden truths and make sense of the world. From the global housing crisis to gerrymandering in US politics to the miracle doctor of Lourdes, we go beyond the headlines. Each week, all year round, we bring you the stories shaping our world. From the personal voices behind the headlines to perspectives on faith and spirituality and how work and money impact our lives. Discover how people find solutions to global problems and look at the world through the lens of its media. The Documentary Podcast is about the people living the story – helping you see the world with greater clarity.
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