The Documentary Podcast

Currently about a fifth of Ukraine is under Russian occupation. Olga Malchevska of the BBC News team has spoken to 3 people from different cities in this area. She tells us about the threats they face for being Ukrainian and the small acts of resistance they carry out. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Irena Taranyuk. Produced by Caroline Ferguson, Alice Gioia and Hannah Dean. This is an EcoAudio certified production. (Photo: Irena Taranyuk.)

It’s the 70th anniversary of this unique BBC radio programme aimed at just a few dozen listeners: The team of scientists and support staff isolated at British research stations in the Antarctic midwinter. Hosted by Cerys Matthews, the show features messages from family and friends at home, music requests from Antarctica and a specially recorded message from His Majesty The King. For decades this show has been part of the traditional midwinter celebrations and has also been enjoyed by listeners around the world. Midwinter celebrations at the British research stations include a feast, exchange of presents, watching the 1982 horror film The Thing (where an alien monster terrorises an Antarctic base) and listening - on short wave - to the BBC’s Midwinter Broadcast. Producers: Martin Redfern and Richard Hollingham An EcoAudio certified Boffin Media production

Since Israel launched its attack on Iran, targeting the country’s nuclear capabilities, air strikes by both sides have killed and injured people in both countries. We hear from three Iranians living abroad who tell us about their concerns for family and friends in Iran. Two friends – one Israeli and one Iranian – join us to explain their search for common ground. We also bring together Israelis who share their experiences of Iran’s missile and drone attacks, and the rush to the shelters.

Cambridge anthropologist David Sneath is in Mongolia to find out how Buddhism continues to make a comeback after years of persecution under Communism. David tells the story of how a young Mongolian boy has recently been recognised as the new reincarnation in a lineage of major Buddhist leaders, once known in the country as ‘Holy Emperor’. The 10-year-old boy will, when formally enthroned, be considered the 10th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu in a lineage stretching back centuries. The Jebtsundamba Khutughtu (widely known to Mongolians as the “Bogd’) is a leader of the Gelugpa School within the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and the young boy was officially recognised by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan religious leader. David meets the boy’s mother, religious leaders and leading cultural figures to find out what is in store for the young Bogd. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

The world is electrifying, and central to our decarbonisation drive is copper. The red metal is second only to silver as the best conductor of electricity and it is critical in the manufacture of wind turbines, electric cars and solar panels. Reporter Robin Markwell travels through Chile, where the reserves of some of the world’s largest copper mines are starting to dwindle. Can supply keep pace with soaring demand?

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds force and the Basij militias are back in the news due to the conflict between Israel and Iran. What are they, how do they operate and how have they become so influential? In this episode, we look at the origins, the branding and the ideological blueprint of the Tehran-led influence network that has been shaping events in the Middle East for decades. This bonus episode of The Documentary, comes to you from the Global Jigsaw, Looking at the world through the lens of its media.

Recently several videos from recruiters on LinkedIn have gone viral. The videos appear to show recruiters conducting routine job interviews over a video call, but something is up with the candidates. Their faces are blurred, and they appear to be using some sort of a filter. After some strange interaction with the recruiter, they drop off the call. But these creepy videos are not isolated incidents – many recruiters are reporting that this has happened to them multiple times. Who are these candidates really? We expose the phenomenon of North Korean IT workers applying for remote tech jobs in the US, and how this has become a significant revenue raising scheme for Kim Jong Un’s regime. The FBI believes thousands of North Koreans have made millions of dollars using fake, stolen or borrowed identities to work remotely. And now, there is evidence that the scheme is expanding into Europe. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC Trending in-depth reporting on the world of social media.

Ketamine was designed as an anaesthetic but its use as a recreational drug is growing fast, particularly among young people. In the UK, it’s doubled in less than ten years but it can cause serious side effects. The supply chain for the drug starts with pharmaceutical manufacturers in India then involves criminal gangs in Europe who use front companies to legally import vast quantities of the drug before flooding it onto the illegal market in the UK. Paul Kenyon investigates the trade. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

The Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo has attracted global fame for his bold and sensual portraits. He paints bodies and faces using his fingertips instead of a brush, capturing form through direct, tactile gestures. When he went to art school in Vienna, he was struck by the extent to which Black subjects had been overlooked in global art. Determined to change the status quo, he drew inspiration from early 20th Century Viennese artists like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele and added his own techniques to invent a fresh new style of portraiture. Lucy Ash follows his preparations for a major new show at Gagosian in London. It involves a transformation of the gallery space into a full-scale recreation of a Ghanaian courtyard – just like the shared space in which he was raised. With the help of his collaborator, Glenn De Roché, an architect famous for community buildings and with an artist friend who produced a set of playing cards, especially for the event. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

Roughly a third of all global mammal extinctions in the last 500 years are thought to have occurred in Australia. At least 34 species have gone extinct since European colonisation, and over 2,000 species of mammals, birds and invertebrates are now listed as critically endangered or threatened. Without substantial and rapid change, this list is almost certain to grow. Ruth Evans investigates what can and should be done to prevent further casualties and turn things around.

Earlier this year, the Egyptian TV drama Lam Shamseya aired across the Arab world. It tackled sensitive topics, including child sexual abuse, and sparked difficult conversations in society. Faranak Amidi discusses the issues raised by this hit show with Ahmed Abdallah from BBC Arabic. If you have been affected by the issues discussed in this episode, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide. www.befrienders.org. In the UK a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline. Plus, Wycliffe Muia from BBC Africa explains why Uganda's iconic crested crane is endangered, and Mansur Abubakar, also from BBC Africa, meets one of the very few women driving kekes, small three-wheeled vehicles that people use as cabs, in the Nigerian city of Kano. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Alice Gioia, Hannah Dean and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

After the fatal shooting in Pakistan of a teenage social media influencer, Sana Yousaf, we bring together female influencers around the world to share their experiences. Sana’s death has ignited a fierce debate about women on social media and the safety of influencers. We hear from three women in Pakistan. Between them, they have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube but face abuse every day. Zenith Irfan is the first woman to ride a motorbike solo across Pakistan, Mahnoor Rahim is a fashion influencer, and Sabah Malik is a comedian and cultural commentator in the country. We speak to female influencers in the US, Mexico City and Peru who share advice on how they stay safe. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives

In March 2022, the senior pastor of The Redeemed Christian Church of God - Jesus House Parish, Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye, resigned from his position at a church in Washington D.C., to ascend a traditional throne as Soun of Ogbomoso kingdom of Oyo state, in south-west Nigeria. His decision sent shock waves in the community as the role is considered part of traditional African spirituality - something an evangelical pastor is not expected to be linked with. But Ghandi insists that the same God who called him as a young man to become a pastor has called him now to become a king. Since ascending the throne, he has been drawn into a legal process by some of his cousins, who argue the throne is not for a pastor. There’s also pressure from local traditionalists, who are asking that the new king converts from Christianity to their traditional African religion. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

Every year the UK produces around 50 million tyres for disposal. They are supposed to be sent for recycling. Instead, big money is being made by diverting tyres to illegal and dangerous 'pyrolysis' plants where they are melted down to extract oil and steel. Together with a team of journalists from Source Material, a not-for-profit group specialising in climate and corruption, we follow the tyres from the UK to India using tracking devices. The team discovers just how large scale this largely illicit business has become. Earlier this year, a makeshift pyrolysis plant exploded near Mumbai, killing four people. It had been processing tyres from abroad. Reporter Paul Kenyon confronts a tyre trader in the north of England who admits to shipping his waste tyres to India for pyrolysis.

On 12 May, 59 Afrikaners arrived in Washington to receive “refugee” status. At a press conference, President Trump said he had acted because Afrikaners - the white minority community that ruled South Africa during apartheid - face an existential threat. His words echoed the views of his South African born former adviser, Elon Musk, who has repeatedly used his X platform to amplify false claims of a “white genocide”. Many South Africans, including several Afrikaners that we have spoken to, dismiss the idea that they are under attack as wild misinformation. So where does the idea that white South Africans are being uniquely targeted come from? And what impact is it having on the diplomatic relationship between the White House and Pretoria? This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC Trending in-depth reporting on the world of social media.

In the last two decades thousands of men have disappeared in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest region. Activists and some of their families accuse the Pakistani authorities of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. The government is fighting an insurgency in the region, but denies any involvement in the disappearances. It says some of the missing men have joined militant groups or have simply left the province. Mutilated bodies have continued to turn up, including in mass graves. Farhat Javed reports on Balochistan’s Women of the Vanished - the mothers and daughters left behind who are still searching for their missing loved ones.

Brian D’Souza, aka Auntie Flo, is a Scottish musician, DJ and sound recordist who has played at some of the biggest festivals and clubs around the world. His compositions fuse field recordings from around the globe with cutting edge production techniques to transport the listener to different places and states. He has spent the last few years trying to bring together the natural and electronic worlds, experimenting with a complex setup of sensors and synthesisers to create music from plants. Last year he released an EP called Mycorrhizal Funghi that sampled the sounds of four different mushroom species and a full-length album called In My Dreams (I’m A Bird And I’m Free), built from field recordings and genres from across the world. Tom Raine follows Brian on a trip to Kenya and Goa to conduct field recordings and create plant music for a brand-new album and a listening app he is developing. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

Moldova is a country torn between pro-Western and pro-Russian factions. In September this year, Moldovans will vote for a new leadership, and pro-European observers are worried that Russia will try to influence the outcome of these elections. Why? Natasha Matyukhina from BBC Monitoring explains. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Alice Gioia and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

For well over a decade, civil war blighted the lives of Syrians, as rebel forces battled against former President Bashar al-Assad and his brutal regime. More than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million others were forced from their homes during this time. In December last year, everything changed when Assad’s dictatorship was abruptly overthrown by his opponents. We hear from a range of people living and working in Syria as they describe how life was for them under the old regime, and how they have been affected by the country’s new leadership. They also discuss how the lifting of international sanctions has started to improve their ailing economy. Hoteliers describe how their hotels are now fully booked, and they are able to maintain and upgrade their buildings again. And three artists exchange views on organising performances now and their hopes for the future. Three students describe how having freedom of speech has transformed university life. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives

In the wake of the Assad regime’s fall in Syria, thousands of Alawites, a minority Shia sect historically linked to the former regime, have fled to Lebanon. They are seeking refuge from discrimination and sectarian violence that has left over 1,000 civilians dead, including women and children. The late Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, became the most powerful Alawite when he seized control of Syria in a coup in 1970. Under the rule of Hafez al-Assad and then his son Bashar - the ruling Assad’s recruited heavily from the Alawite community placing them in top posts in state, security and intelligence branches. Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, promised to protect Syria's minorities, but has struggled to contain a wave of violence directed towards the Alawite community. Emily Wither travels to the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli to meet with Syrian Alawite refugees and a new youth movement. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.