BBC Radio Podcasts from The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2008
Soft Jihad Assignment
In the United States a small but increasingly vocal group of people believe that of to...
Brand Cuba part one
In Brand Cuba, Allan Little analyses some of the factors that have kept Cuba alive in...
Too Many Santas
Throughout much of the Christian world Christmas is the time when Santa Claus – a is...
Assignment In Exile
There are more than 10 million Palestinians living around the world, more than half of...
Return to White Horse Village part three
While China's economy has boomed over the past 30 years, many of its 700 million have...
Timeline part three
Timeline is the programme where the past sheds light on recent events though use of...
Assignment A Return to Helmand
Last year our correspondent Jill McGivering reported from Helmand Province in southern...
Return to White Horse Village part two
While China's economy has boomed over the past 30 years, many of its 700 million have...
1968: The year that changed the world?
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John a...
Assignment Bolivia on the Brink
And now Assignment asks whether Bolivia is on the brink of civil war. In the run-up to...
1968: The year that changed the world?
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John a...
Assignment - Aids and the Caribbean
Five years after doing a series of reports on HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, Emma her...
Timeline - part one
In this topical and lively series, contemporary stories and events are explored the of...
1968: The year that changed the world?
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John a...
Tired of Terror Part Two
Rupa Jha explores what ex-militants in Kashmir and their families expect from the future.
Street Art Part One
This series looks at street art in two very different cities: New York and Sao Paulo.
Giving up the gun in Kashmir
Rupa Jha talks to former militants in Kashmir and their families about why they took...
The world without...copper
You might think that copper is just another metal, but in fact it is a vital substance.
Toxic Trailers - Assignment
Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless when Hurricane Katrina devastated...
Hard lessons from Afghanistan Part Two
Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in from the in...
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change - Part Three
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores is...
The world without...cows
Discover just how important cows have been civilisation, all around the world.
Hard Lessons from Afghanistan Part One
Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in from the in...
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores is...
The PR battle for the Caucasus
The South Ossetian conflict not only sparked a military war between Russia and but a...
Rat Attack
Neil McCarthy pieces together a story of rats, famine and insurrection from the 1950's...
The Lost Veterans
Andrew Purcell investigates the growing homelessness crisis among Iraq and Afghanistan...
America’s First Principles
Allan Little presents an appraisal of the man described as America's Apostle of Thomas...
Failure or Fraud
As the global banking crisis deepens, a flood of multi-million dollar lawsuits is to...
Is al-Qaeda winning? Part Four
The Saudi Interior Ministry and the US Military in Iraq have offered al - Qaeda and...
Out Of The Ghetto
This special documentary exploring life in Chicago's inner city is based on Ghetto an...
The View from Kashmir Assignment
A series of protests against Indian rule in Kashmir has left more than 30 people dead...
Is al-Qaeda Winning? Part Three
Owen Bennett-Jones tests the big promises governments have made about the financial on...
In the Shadow of the Cartel Assignment
In Mexico, the government has deployed thousands of troops in an attempt to break up...
Children of the Revolution Part two
In Iran, the constant drugs crisis and loss of skilled workers contrast with a lively...
Is al Qaeda Winning? part two
Owen Bennett-Jones looks at al Qaeda's hard power and military capabilities in its key...
Africa's Guantanamo Assignment
In Assignment, Robert Walker travels to East Africa to investigate a secret detention...
Children of the revolution Part one
This series explores what life offers to Iran's burgeoning young population who are by...
Is al Qaeda Winning? Part one
Seven years into the global war on terror, is al-Qaeda winning? It's a deceptively one...
Pakistan's Tribal areas
Pakistan's government is locked in an intense battle with Islamist militants for of on...
My Senator My Vote Part Two
Robin Lustig travels to Phoenix, Arizona, the home of Senator John McCain, to ask two...
Looted Art
A tale of a tiny painting, set against a large canvas of war, politics and looted art...
The Afghan Arms Bazaar Assignment
As the insurgency in Afghanistan grows, Kate Clark travels undercover to investigate...
My Senator My Vote Part One
We know the two US presidential candidates and what they would do in office, but what...
The Desert Capitalists Part Two
How are the Marwari traders managing as India goes global? Can a business culture on...
Tales from the Commonwealth Part One
The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations.
The Desert Capitalists Part One
Mukhul Devichand finds out how the Marwari trading caste from India's western deserts...
The 66 Club
Ruth Evans tells the extraordinary story of 11 women brought together on the internet...
The Presidential Contenders Part Two
John McCain: a profile of the man who talks of honour and patriotic duty and admits a...
What Lies Beneath Part two
Win Scutt finds out how the maritime treasure hunting industry has boomed in recent years.
Spain's Civil War Breaking the Silence
Following recent legislation in Spain the government has agreed to offer support to to...
Al-Qaeda's Internal Debate
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner talks to former allies of Osama bin Laden who...
The Presidential Contenders
Barack Obama:the profile of one of the two individuals who are the presumptive in the...
What Lies Beneath Part One
International seas are largely unregulated, meaning most underwater archaeological can...
Why they're dying in the Congo Part Two
BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle continues travelling from the west to the a...
Rehearsing for War
The extraordinary US military base at the heart of a vast shift in American military...
Secrets in the Family Assignment
During Argentina's Dirty War of the seventies and eighties thousands of leftists and...
Why they're dying in the Congo Part One
BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle explores why over five million people have...
The Billion Dollar Election Part 2 Ambassadors
Prestigious job. Exotic location. Stately home, fine food and wine, and many other in...
The Right to Know Part 1
Freedom of information is well on the way to being seen as an essential prerequisite a...
The Trouble with Money Part Two
Will there be a return to the dreaded days of "stagflation" with weak growth and...
The Billion Dollar Election Part One 527s
The United States is due to have the first billion-dollar election in its history.
South Africa's Promised Land: Assignment
After the ending of apartheid in South Africa, the transfer of land from white to was...
The Trouble with Money Part 1
With the world's economy now threatened by what some believe is the most dangerous the...
Secrets in the Blood Part Two
In this two-part investigation, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use...
Building Better Health Part Two
Jill McGivering explores whether China is doing enough to provide healthcare to 1.
Secrets in the Blood Part One
In this two-part investigation, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use...
Football's Conmen Assignment
An undercover BBC investigation has exposed how young African footballers are being by...
Building Better Health
Part One: Jill McGivering compares two very different free health systems in the the...
Policing the Poppy Fields Part Two
In the second part of this series, Kate Clark reports from those provinces where an is...
Congo's Contract of the Century
In a multi billion dollar deal China has promised to rebuild DR Congo's crumbling in a...
Countdown to the Olympics Part Two
China says hosting the Olympics has accelerated national reforms, technological and...
Policing the Poppy Fields Part One
Kate Clark gains rare access to the fight against the Afghan opium trade and asks how...
Health for All
Campaigners for improving maternal health have been lobbying the G8 to get the topic...
Countdown to the Olympics Part One
As the world counts down to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Gerry Northam investigates...
Race and Reconciliation Part Three
In the third part of this series, Audrey Brown travels to Atteridgeville, a township...
Health for All
Is health for all a fact or just fiction? Helen Sharp asks if the world has the will,...
Burma Reporting the Cyclone: Assignment
This week's Assignment tells the story of the Burmese cyclone through the eyes and of...
Race and Reconciliation Part Two
In the second part of this series, Audrey Brown travels to South Africa to explore how...
Feeding the Spirit of New Orleans
Sheila Dillon reports on the work of restaurateurs, farmers, fishermen and activists a...
The Baseball Factory
Baseball may be the United States' national sport - but this year, 2008, almost half -...
Age of Terror Part 3
In the third part of this series, Peter Taylor investigates The Paris Plot, the of a a...
Race and Reconciliation Part One
Fourteen years after liberation and 60 years since the beginning of what was then and...
Bomb Hunters
More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Bomb Hunters, tells the stories a...
Rome's New Wolf Assignment
The new mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno was once a so-called neo-fascist - a supporter...
Age of Terror part 2
In the second part of this series, Peter Taylor investigates how two events in 1987 to...
Leila's Story
The powerful story of a young Iranian woman called Leila, sold into prostitution at of...
Argentina; Dancing To The Music Of The Mind
Argentinian film director, writer and tango enthusiast, Edgardo Cozarinsky, talks to a...
Taxi to the Dark Side
In Taxi To The Dark Side, American film-maker Alex Gibney reports on the use of by in...
Kidnapped - part two
Dr Thomas Hargrove, an American scientist kidnapped by FARC, is reunited with the who...
Assignment
Lucy Ash finds out if new trade deals and diplomatic dialogue with Libya can encourage...
Assignment
The Commodities Bubble: Michael Robinson investigates and reveals how the commodities...
What Next For Kenya? - Part Two
In this two-part series, former BBC East Africa Correspondent Mike Wooldridge travels...
Failure at the Central Bank
For the last six decades, central bankers have run the international financial system...
Kidnapped: Part One
Presenter Ritula Shah reunites former hostage Norman Kember - kidnapped in Iraq - with...
What Next For Kenya? - Part One
In this two-part series, former BBC East Africa Correspondent Mike Wooldridge travels...
How Crime Took on the World
Cyber-crime is the fastest-growing sector of global-organised crime, worth about a...
Escape from Time
Who wouldn't like to escape the relentless march of time? Find out about the routes to...
Assignment - Beyond Mark Weil
Last September, Mark Weil, the radical theatre director of the Ilkhom theatre in was a...
Living With Chico Mendes
To mark the 20th anniversary of his assassination, Nick Maes looks at the life of the...
How Crime Took on the World: Part Three
In the third part of this series on international crime, Misha Glenny is in South the...
Where the Buffalo Roam
How have non-native creatures - from birds to bovines, reptiles to rhesus monkeys - of...
Philosophy in the Streets
Nick Fraser looks at the intellectual revolution that spread from Paris throughout the...
How crime took on the world: Part two
In the second of this series which charts the explosion of international organised to...
Escape to New Zealand
Environmental refugees seek a home somewhere in the planet where the predicted global...
Assignment: Football in the Holy City
In this week's Assignment David Goldblatt travels to Israel to meet the fans of Beitar...
The My Lai Tapes - Part Two
Forty years ago, 504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed by US soldiers.
How Crime Took on the World: Part One
As part of his investigation into global crime, Misha Glenny is in Canada, where the a...
Policing the UN
The BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut sets out to examine serious new allegations of...
The Convict Streak
The resourcefulness and resilience of prisioners fighting for freedom that make today...
Assignment - Granny Dumping
Abandonment, abuse and neglect of the elderly by their own children and grandchildren...
The My Lai Tapes - Part One
Forty years ago in the village of My Lai in South Vietnam, a massacre took place.
Strangers in Marseilles
Laurie Taylor explores Marseille's unique racial geography to find out what kept the...
Harare Festival
Manuel Bagorro, the director of the Harare International Festival of the Arts, his to...
Assignment: Inside Somalia's Insurgency
The last few weeks have seen an increase in violence in Somalia. Insurgents have up on...
Elegy for the Tech
Award winning poet Fred D’Aguiar is head of creative writing at Virginia Tech, the a...
A Dollar a Day - China
China is on track to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving Dollar-a-day...
Call me Nana
More than 65,000 grandparents in Canada are raising their grandchildren on their own,...
The Message from China
Dr Anne-Marie Brady from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand investigates how...
The Grass is Greener
Why do Ghanaians dream of living a better life abroad? What must change in Ghana for...
Assignment: The Most Dangerous Gang in America
The United States has long been home to violent gangs, from the Mafia to the Bloods...
Return to Kurdistan Part 2
For Iraqi Kurds these are the best times they have ever known. But can the desire for...
Simpson Returns to China
Programme one: The Road From Tiananmen charts John Simpson's return to modern China 19...
No Way Out
Shazia Khan investigates the agony of forced marriages in the UK and the risks of to...
Assignment: No more child witches in DRC?
Is it possible to legislate against deeply held beliefs? That's what the authorities...
How Iraq's War Shaped Our World: Part Four
John Simpson looks at the how the Iraq War has affected America's international role...
Return to Kurdistan - Part 1
In the first part of the series Return to Kurdistan, Michael Goldfarb follows the of...
Escaping the Water Wolf
With climate change bringing new threats of rising sea levels and increased rainfall,...
The Kids Who Ran Iraq
After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 hundreds of young American recruits were sent by to...
Pirates Part Three
Nick Rankin enters cyber space to explore the world of intellectual piracy - the of...
How Iraq's War Shaped Our World: Part Three
In Programme Three, Lyse Doucet looks at how the Iraq War changed the regional balance...
Teacher Flower
In the 1980s Kathy Flower became the most famous face on Chinese television, as to of...
Assignment: Afghanistan - Winning Hearts and Minds
According to US intelligence the Afghan president Hamid Karzai controls only 30 of the...
Pirates Part Two
Nick Rankin travels to Africa to find out how modern day pirates are ruling the high seas.
How Iraq's War Shaped Our World: Part Two
Magdi Abdelhadi explores how the dream of a democratic Arab world was promoted then in...
How Iraq's War Shaped Our World: Part Two
In Programme Two Magdhi Abdulhadi looks at how the neocon dream of a democratic Arab...
Boom or Bust
Sharon Mascall investigates the Australian mining industry where many inexperienced by...
Assignment Jacob Zuma: The Investigation
Jacob Zuma is one of the most powerful men in South Africa. He controls the ruling and...
How Iraq's War Shaped Our World: Part One
Programme One: BBC correspondent Jim Muir evaluates how war has changed Iraq from the...
After the KGB: Part Two
Martin Sixsmith gets under the skin of the fastest growing and arguably most secret in...
Assignment - Unknown Neighbours
Why are the British so scared of Islam? When the head of the Anglican church, Dr Rowan...
The Kremlin and the World - Part 4
Russia has made more enemies than friends recently. Tim Whewell finds out where this...
Secrets in the Blood Part Two
In this two-part investigation, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use...
The Kremlin and the World - Part 3
Tim Whewell investigates why a 'new' Cold War could be underway and if Russia and the...
Friday Documentary: After the KGB - Part One
Martin Sixsmith looks at Russia's fast growing and politically influential secret service.
The Danish Nazi
Soeren Kam is a former Danish SS Officer and one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals...
The Kremlin and the World - Part 2
Pipeline Power: Could Russia's vast energy sources possibly be the missiles of the Tim...
The Kremlin and the World - Part 1
Nearly twenty years after the Cold War, there’s a new chill in relations between and...
Uncovering Pakistan - Part 2
Owen Bennett-Jones examines the rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan and the risk of...
Uncovering Pakistan - Part 1
Why have so many of the hopes and aspirations of Pakistan's founders remained...
Pain: Episode Two
In this second programme on Pain, Andrew North explores the strategies we use to pain,...
Bangladesh Floods: Three Months On
It's been three months since cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh. BBC reporter, Siobhann to...
Fading Traditions - part 3
Temple prostitutes: The ancient Hindu tradition of dedicating young girls to the has...
Assignment - Kurdistan Corruption
With its functioning parliament, a booming oil economy and a small but well-trained of...
Pain: Episode One
In this two part series, former BBC Iraq correspondent, Andrew North takes a personal...
Securing Pakistan's Bomb
What would happen if the government of Pakistan, one of the world's nuclear powers, to...
Fading Traditions - Part 2
Georgia, considered to be the birthplace of wine, risks losing its wine industry.
Assignment - Kenya violence
This week's Assignment reports on the post election violence in Kenya which has the of...
A Dollar A Day - Part 4
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to on...
Fading Traditions - Part 1
The number of Moroccan story-tellers, known as halakis, is dwindling. Why is their art...
Desperate Dreams Part 3
The final part of a three part series. Every year, thousands of young people from set...
Assignment - African Footballers
Millions of young African boys dream of following such football stars as Didier Drogba...
A Dollar A Day - Part 3
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to on...
Desperate Dreams - Part 2
The second in a three part series. Every year, thousands of young people from Africa a...
Looted Art: Part II
Charles Wheeler is on the trail of art seized by the Soviets at the end of World War II
Assignment - On the trail of spammers
Simon Cox tries to track down the criminals who plague us with spam emails offering to...
A Dollar A Day - Part 2
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to on...
Desperate Dreams Part 1
Every year, thousands of young men and women from sub-Saharan Africa set off across of...
Friday Documentary - Looted Art: Part One
At the end of World War Two, as Nazi Germany lay in ruins, millions of works of art to...
Assignment - S Korea computer addiction
Computer gaming has become a national obsession in South Korea but there is a dark side.
A Dollar A Day - Part 1
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to on...
Debt Threat Part 2
The dangers of the present crisis turning into a full scale recession, and at the of...
Only One Bakira
Bakira Hasecic is unrelenting in her pursuit of the war criminals of the Bosnian war.
Assignment - Taxi to the Dark Side
American film-maker Alex Gibney tells the story of an Afghan taxi driver, tortured to...
Press For Freedom Part 4
In the final part of the series Roy Greenslade profiles the head of News Corporation...