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 18, 2026 • 49min
Hope and fear: India's space revolution
A deep dive into India’s leap from practical satellites to planned human spaceflight. Behind-the-scenes control rooms, the Mars mission’s tense triumph, and the origin story that shaped the programme. Profiles of engineers and a private rocket boom show new ambition. Tensions over safety, transparency and military uses frame a debate about national pride and risk.
7 snips
Mar 17, 2026 • 27min
How to spend billions – fast: Carney’s Defence Deadline
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Keeley, senior officer running Canada’s basic training at Saint-Jean, explains rapid moves to scale recruit intake. He describes quick purchases and relaxed hiring to expand capacity. The conversation covers training bottlenecks, graduation changes, and how buy-fast pressure meets limits in time, staff and space.
Mar 16, 2026 • 27min
Mariam Issoufou: Designing a museum
Mariam Issoufou, an architect who adapts West African earth-building traditions for contemporary projects, discusses designing the Bet B museum in Tambacounda. She talks about patience in architecture, rooting design in local craft and soil, burying galleries for climate control, rethinking displays as communal, and using earth bricks and public plazas to invite curiosity.
Mar 15, 2026 • 28min
How the Oscars went international
Tom Brook, veteran BBC film reporter who has covered the Oscars since the early 1980s, walks through how the awards have become more global. He discusses Hollywood's production slump and AI anxieties. He outlines how international cinema now fills gaps left by American studios. He traces the Oscars' changing attitude to foreign films and how membership shifts reshaped nominations.
Mar 15, 2026 • 27min
Europe's night train renaissance: Still on track?
Kurt Bauer, head of long-distance services at ÖBB, explains Nightjet’s strategy and new train designs. John Wirth, independent rail consultant and pro-night-train campaigner, analyzes optimal journey lengths and the economics of sleepers. They discuss the renaissance of night trains, cabin innovations like mini pods, cross-border operational headaches and the policy and infrastructure hurdles threatening expansion.
Mar 14, 2026 • 30min
Iran war: What's life like inside Iran?
Sarbas Nazari, BBC Monitoring analyst on Iranian media; Taraneh Fathalian, BBC Persian reporter on civilian impacts; Ghoncheh Habibiazad, BBC Persian correspondent with contact inside Iran. They describe life under internet blackouts and costly satellite options. They discuss AI-made videos complicating verification, state media control and shrinking independent reporting. They recount daily fear, polarized public sentiment and Kurdish political dynamics.
Mar 14, 2026 • 23min
Women and the future of Formula 1
Rachel Robertson, a British F1 Academy driver aiming for the top of motorsport. Esme Kosterman, a Dutch newcomer with a karting past and single-seater ambitions. Alba Larsson, a Danish junior racer inspiring other women. They talk about the thrill of F1 cars, facing sexism in karting, balancing friendship with fierce on-track rivalry, and ambitions to reach higher levels of racing.
16 snips
Mar 13, 2026 • 27min
The naked monks
Muni Pranam Sagar, a Digambara monk who practices sky-clad renunciation, describes doctrine, daily travel and dangers on pilgrimage. Anunay Sagar, a former corporate worker turned Jain disciple, shares his staged progress toward monkhood and celibacy. They discuss vows of non-possession, the feather duster used for nonviolence, villagers’ reactions and the resurgence of naked ascetics in modern India.
Mar 12, 2026 • 31min
The women of IS: Part three
Mina al-Lami, researcher on jihadist media who knows reintegration work in Syria, and Claire Denning, Russia and former-Soviet republics expert on repatriation and law. They examine chaotic camp closures and missing detainees. They discuss divergent Russian legal responses, cases of injustice, regional reintegration programs, IS mobilisation and how recent events shaped narratives and escape networks.
Mar 11, 2026 • 30min
The women of IS: Part two
Bryn Windsor, Russia team reporter on Central Asia, explains Central Asian approaches to repatriation and the region’s rising Islam. Short, sharp takes cover why nations resist returns, Kazakhstan’s Operation Jusan, Russia’s mixed strategies, and how state restrictions can fuel grievances. The conversation spotlights legal, political and identity tensions shaping who is brought home and how they are treated.
