The Documentary Podcast
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. The best of documentary storytelling from the BBC World Service.
From China’s state-backed overseas spending, to on the road with Canada’s Sikh truckers, to the front line of the climate emergency, we go beyond the headlines.
Each week we dive into the minds of the world’s most creative people, take personal journeys into spirituality and connect people from across the globe to share how news stories are shaping their lives.
From China’s state-backed overseas spending, to on the road with Canada’s Sikh truckers, to the front line of the climate emergency, we go beyond the headlines.
Each week we dive into the minds of the world’s most creative people, take personal journeys into spirituality and connect people from across the globe to share how news stories are shaping their lives.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 29, 2026 • 22min
Elana Meyers Taylor: A 20-year journey to gold
Elana Meyers Taylor, American bobsledder and multi-time Olympic medallist who won monobob gold and advocates for diversity and disability rights. She recalls celebrating with her deaf sons using sign language. She talks about juggling elite sport with motherhood, pushing for greater access and representation in winter sports. She also addresses climate change’s impact on bobsleigh and her plans to recruit and support diverse talent.
8 snips
Mar 28, 2026 • 26min
80 years of the BBC Russian Service
Oleg Boldyrev, BBC Russian Service journalist who traced his love of shortwave into a career reporting from London and Moscow. Lesthia Kertopati, BBC Indonesia reporter covering coral restoration led by young female divers. They discuss BBC Russian’s 80-year history, censorship and jamming tactics in Russia. Then the Makassar Strait’s coral decline and grassroots underwater gardening to rebuild reefs.
Mar 28, 2026 • 23min
Bombings in Lebanon
Tasnim, a Beirut resident coping with repeated displacement, and Kareem, a PhD student whose family home was destroyed, share personal accounts. They describe evacuation struggles, destroyed homes, and the emotional strain of living under frequent airstrikes. Conversations also cover community solidarity, nearly a million people on the move, and how families and businesses try to plan amid recurring conflict.
4 snips
Mar 27, 2026 • 26min
Deaf Umrah
A UK group of deaf pilgrims travel to Mecca with British Sign Language support. The programme explores how rituals tied to sound are experienced visually. It follows preparations, crowd navigation during Tawaf and Sa'i, and makes space for friendships formed. It highlights projects translating the Quran into sign and how accessibility reshapes belonging.
16 snips
Mar 26, 2026 • 33min
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest~serving PM
Gil Hoffman, former Jerusalem Post political correspondent, breaks down Netanyahu’s public persona. Anshul Pfeffer, The Economist’s Israel correspondent and biographer, traces his political trajectory. Bethan McKernan, former Guardian Jerusalem correspondent, outlines his upbringing. They discuss his rise from military fame to UN diplomacy, his Iran-focused rhetoric, coalition tactics, legal troubles, and how security narratives shaped his long rule.
18 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 26min
Madagascar: From famine to hope
Huli Raubina, a nutrition and gender specialist with FAO Madagascar, explains how women’s land rights and agroecology shape resilience. Short scenes cover women forming land collectives, agroecological techniques that rebuild soils and seed systems, and the links between secure land access and stronger family nutrition. The narrative moves from drought and deforestation to community-led recovery and calls for systemic, women‑focused policy change.
12 snips
Mar 24, 2026 • 52min
Billion dollar babies
Florian Stein, a researcher who studied eel biology and trafficking, explains why glass eels are crucial and impossible to breed in captivity. The conversation traces smuggling methods, shifting export routes after trade bans, and the boom in Caribbean elver fishing. Short, tense scenes reveal undercover probes, recovered data, and links between European suppliers and Asian markets.
4 snips
Mar 23, 2026 • 27min
The Romeros: Developing digital games
Brenda Romero, veteran designer and studio co-lead, and John Romero, pioneering creator of seminal shooters, talk through life in a busy indie studio. They reveal studio life in Galway, the scale and pivots of their project Heavy Trigger, coping with funding loss and layoffs, and shrinking a blockbuster vision into a focused micro team while keeping art and spirit intact.
Mar 22, 2026 • 24min
Is the revolution in Cuba over?
Christopher Sabatini, a Latin America researcher who maps Cuba’s ties with Venezuela and oil-for-services deals. Lillian Guerra, a historian of Cuba’s revolution and political shifts. They explore Cuba’s lost Venezuelan oil lifeline, rising blackouts and humanitarian strain, and the historical roots of the island’s resilience and authoritarian evolution.
21 snips
Mar 22, 2026 • 27min
Nepal - “Shot like enemies”
A deep-dive into mass youth protests in Nepal that toppled the old political order. Online organising on TikTok and Discord transformed anger into action. Thousands of videos and a leaked police radio log reveal chaotic crowd control, orders to fire and fatal shootings. Nationwide unrest spiraled into arson, looting and a rushed election that vaulted a Gen Z-backed cohort into power.
