The Documentary Podcast
By 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.
Episodes (18)
The Documentary Podcast
Embargo and the Cuban spirit
Cubans are enduring a crisis reminiscent of the 1990s Special Period, with rolling blackouts, food scarcity, and collapsing public services—despite decades of U.S. sanctions. Jose Carlos Cueto Lopez, a Cuban-born BBC journalist, reveals that while the embargo
The Documentary Podcast
Africa's football dreamers
In a powerful exploration of dreams, destiny, and systemic inequality, BBC journalist Justice Beidou takes listeners on a journey from the dusty pothole pitches of rural Ghana to the elite training grounds of the Right to Dream Academy. At the heart of the sto
The Documentary Podcast
Italy’s migrant fruit pickers
In the far south of Italy, Calabria’s citrus harvest is powered by thousands of undocumented migrants living in squalid, government-run tent encampments like Tendopoli—despite being legally permitted to work. This paradoxical situation reveals a nation in cris
The Documentary Podcast
Good Bad Billionaire: Beyonce
Beyoncé’s journey to billionaire status isn’t built on a single product or brand—it’s a masterclass in artistic control, strategic reinvention, and owning your intellectual property. From her early days as a child performer in Destiny’s Child, where she was gr
The Documentary Podcast
The Missionary Soldier
David Eubank, a U.S. military veteran and founder of the Free Burma Rangers, defies easy categorization: he's a Christian missionary who carries a gun, a man who prays for enemies he's just killed, and a father who brings his children into war zones. In this p
The Documentary Podcast
Injured during childbirth
One in three women experience lasting health problems after childbirth, yet these injuries remain shrouded in silence and stigma—despite being preventable with proper care and education. In this powerful episode of The Documentary Podcast, three UK women share
The Documentary Podcast
Finding soldier Tom
In a powerful story from the BBC World Service's 'The Documentary Podcast,' a Soviet prisoner of war named Tom—known only by his first name—escaped Nazi captivity on Jersey during World War II and was hidden for over two years by a local family, the Le Bretons
The Documentary Podcast
Introducing: The Food Chain - Rethinking the potato
The potato, long dismissed as a stodgy carb, is undergoing a global renaissance—from high-end restaurants to scientific research—despite a history of stigma and near-extinction. In this episode of The Food Chain, BBC journalist Ruth Alexander traces the potato
The Documentary Podcast
Trine Hahnemann: mixing cookery and hygge
Trine Hahnemann, a Danish chef and author, reveals how cooking isn’t just about sustenance—it’s a profound act of belonging, memory, and cultural connection. In a sun-drenched Copenhagen kitchen, she prepares a multi-course meal rooted in seasonal, local ingre
The Documentary Podcast
Khartoum: Lessons in war
In the aftermath of Sudan's brutal civil war, the BBC's 'The Documentary Podcast' delivers a haunting portrait of resilience and loss through the eyes of Khartoum's youth. At a newly reopened primary school, boys in uniforms flood hallways—some for the first t
The Documentary Podcast
Introducing: What in the World
In a groundbreaking double episode of The Documentary, BBC's Hannah Gelbart dives into two powerful social phenomena reshaping modern work and mental health: job hugging and rejection therapy. Job hugging—staying in a role despite disengagement—has surged as e
The Documentary Podcast
Following the path of the rose
Natasha Serlin, a Jewish mother and journalist, embarks on a transformative pilgrimage retracing the legendary journey of Mary Magdalene across southern France—a path said to span from Spain’s Montserrat to the cave of La Sainte-Borgne. What begins as a spirit
The Documentary Podcast
World Cup superfans
The BBC's 'The Documentary' podcast turns its spotlight on the raw, emotional heart of the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup through the voices of superfans from nations making their debut: Cape Verde, Jordan, Curaçao, and Uzbekistan. These passionate supporters speak
The Documentary Podcast
Ground zero: reporting an epidemic
The BBC's 'Fifth Floor' podcast confronts the complex reality of reporting from the epicenter of a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where misinformation, community mistrust, and violent resistance to health workers have become as
The Documentary Podcast
Introducing: Business Daily: Who’s behind Sierra Leone’s illegal fishing problem?
A deep dive into the hidden crisis of illegal industrial fishing off Sierra Leone's coast reveals a devastating chain of ecological, economic, and human consequences. Local artisanal fishermen—many of whom have fished their entire lives in wooden dugout canoes
The Documentary Podcast
World Cup poetry: lines for the beautiful game
The BBC's 'In The Studio' podcast explores how poetry and football intersect during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Poet Ian McMillan, Barnsley FC’s longtime poet-in-residence, reveals how he crafted 'The World Cup is a Shi
The Documentary Podcast
Lebanon's Abandoned Lives
In Lebanon, war has become a recurring rupture in the lives of ordinary people, turning homes into rubble and routines into emergency evacuations. Karine Torbay’s reporting from the frontlines reveals how families like Roshana’s—displaced from their coastal ho
The Documentary Podcast
Sheba: Just Like Us?
Sheba, a 44-year-old chimpanzee, embodies the moral reckoning at the heart of biomedical research. Born in a zoo, raised in a lab, and later rescued for cognitive research, her journey from captivity to sanctuary at Chimp Haven reveals both the cruelty and the
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