BBC Radio Podcasts from The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2010
MI6 - A Century in the Shadows (Part Three)
In the final part of this series, Sir John Scarlett, the former head of Britain's the...
Assignment - Reporting Mindanao
The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world to report from.
The Foods that Make Billions - Part Three
How have advertisers and brand specialists convinced us to buy a commodity that is for...
Brazil: Lula's Legacy - Part One
In this two-part series, the BBC’s Paulo Cabral travels to the two places that life...
MI6 - A Century in the Shadows (Part Two)
The second part in this series describes what went on behind the Iron Curtain during...
Assignment - Mexico's Toughest Cop
For Assignment Rob Walker travels to the city of Tijuana on Mexico's border with the...
The Foods that Make Billions - Part Two
How have advertisers and brand specialists convinced us to buy a commodity that is for...
Power and the Judges - Part Two
Many Turks have lost faith in their judges, who are seen as out of touch and too close...
MI6 - A Century in the Shadows
Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, marks its centenary this year and BBC security...
The Foods that Make Billions
How have advertisers and brand specialists convinced us to buy a commodity that is for...
Power and the Judges - Part One
Why are judges so important in today's world and how do the courts earn and use their...
Extremes of Corruption: Somalia - Part Two
Does Somalia deserve its bad reputation for corruption? In the second of a two-part of...
Extremes of Corruption: Sweden - Part One
Does Sweden live up to its squeaky clean image? In the first of a two-part series at -...
Oiling the Machine - Corruption in Chicago
"We like our crooks, our fast Eddies, and we find them entertaining. " Steve Edwards to...
Manny Pacquiao - Part Two
In this exclusive two-part documentary, Mike Costello travels to the Philippines to...
Assignment - Europe's Missing Millions
For Assignment Angus Stickler tracks how money has gone astray across the 27 member of...
Would You Kill the Big Guy: Part One
You're standing on a footbridge next to a very big man. The only way you can stop an...
Manny Pacquiao - Part One
In this exclusive two-part documentary, Mike Costello travels to the Philippines to...
Assignment: Anger in Punjab Province
More than six million people in Pakistan now face the start of winter without adequate...
Marching into History - Part Two
"Lucky them, they didn't have to fight the battles we fought. " Michael Goldfarb traces...
Road Kill - Part Two - Costa Rica
"There are no words to describe when you lose your child, especially one who was full...
The Impossible Life of Jacques Costeau
Pioneering French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau brought marine life to cinema and...
Assignment: Trouble in Dagestan
Almost every day in the Russian republic of Dagestan there are reports of Islamist and...
Marching into History - Part One
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they...
Road Kill - Part One - Kenya
"It's a woman with a tiny baby and luggage on the back of a motorbike with no helmet.
The Great Palace of Verse
Completed by the poet Ferdowsi in 1010 AD, the Shahnameh is widely regarded as a of...
Assignment: Congo's Blood Gold
For Assignment Thomas Fessy investigates allegations that a senior Congolese general a...
Baghdad Boy - Part Two
Ali Abbas became an icon of the Iraq War when images of him with his arms amputated...
Return to White Horse - Part Two
"With the city being built here on our doorstep, I can look after the children and...
The Battle of King Salmon - Part Two
“If you say bye bye to that fountain of life you may as well say bye bye to my heritage.
Assignment - Burma Votes
The people of Burma go to the polls on November 7th for the first time in 20 years.
Baghdad Boy - Part One
Seven years after an American rocket attack destroyed his home, killed 16 members of...
Return to White Horse - Part One
"We took the decision to build a new city ten years ago. We had four objectives: and -...
The Battle of King Salmon
Nick Rankin reports from Alaska during the greatest wild salmon run in the world and...
Assignment: Irish Anger
As Ireland faces up to one of Europe's most punishing financial crises, Ed Butler at...
The Other Guantanamo
Travel writer Polly Evans goes to Guantanamo, Cuba, and talks to local people about...
Assignment - Drugs and Power in Kyrgyzstan
The BBC's Central Asia correspondent, Rayhan Demytrie, explores the relationship drugs...
Great Expectations Part 4
Organisers of the 2012 Olympic Games argue that its legacy will be felt for to come...
Great Expectations Part 3
It is two years to go until the London 2012 Olympic Games and the residents of a have...
Mysteries of the Brain - Part Four
"I find it difficult to recognize famous people because they have very symmetrical faces.
The City That Sacked Its Staff
In the midst of a financial crisis, Maywood, a small city near Los Angeles, took the...
Why Europe's Roma stay poor
It’s halfway through the European ‘Decade of Roma inclusion’ but millions of in...
Memory Wars - Silent No More
Can oral history challenge or alter the official past of a nation? History is often to...
Mysteries of the Brain - Part Three
"I have to choose between the fruit salad and the cream cake. Rationally, I know what...
The Empire's Last Officers
As a 23-year-old, young British colonial officer John Smith was put in charge of the...
Assignment: Black and Single
There's a tough marriage market in the US for single, college educated, black women.
Memory Wars - The Ghosts of Europe
Can oral history challenge or alter the official past of a nation? History is often to...
Mysteries of the Brain - Part Two
“When I wake up in the morning I think I’ve still got two normal arms and I have...
The Magic Carpet Flight Manual
Writer Cathy FitzGerald explores the past, present, and very real future of the magic...
Assignment - American and Muslim
With anti-Islamic sentiment on the rise in America, Claire Bolderson reports for on it...
World Stories: Revolutions in Iran
How does the spread of ideas impact individual lives, shape millions of minds, fuel is...
Mysteries of the Brain - Part One
"Why do we like and dislike certain foods? The most important thing in the tasting is...
Seeking the Endgame - Part Two
Chess fanatic Simon Terrington goes on a wide ranging journey and asks the question, a...
Assignment - Senegal's Schoolboy Beggars
Angus Crawford reports from Senegal for Assignment on what the government there is to...
World Stories: The Children of Pedro Pan
During operation Pedro Pan, 14,000 children were sent from Cuba by the parents for was...
Zainab's Story
"She walked in like a commander of the armed forces - despite the fact they had guns -...
Seeking the Endgame - Part One
Self-confessed chess fanatic Simon Terrington assesses how computer technology has at...
Assignment - Commonwealth Games
There are frantic preparations underway in India's capital city, Delhi, for the Games...
World Stories: Afghanistan's Dancing Boys
In Afghanistan women are not allowed to dance in public, but boys can be made to dance...
The Legal World - Part Two
Incompetence and corruption in Uganda's justice system is leading to countless numbers...
The Battle for Hearts and Lungs - Part Two
Sue Armstrong looks at the Malawi's growing dependence on tobacco growing.
Assignment - Happy Birthday Mr President
President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia is one of West Africa's longest serving leaders.
A Widow's Journey
In 1989, Appapillai Amirthalingam - the most prominent political figure of the Tamil -...
The Legal World - Part One
It is claimed that thousands of people of Haitian descent are suffering systematic by...
The Battle for Hearts and Lungs - Part One
Sue Armstrong investigates the growing pressure on developing countries as tobacco for...
Assignment - Cutting the Lifeline in Honduras
Money sent home by migrant workers provides a lifeline for millions of the world's...
World Stories: The Rollercoaster of Life in Kabul
"Why doesn't grandad smile?" Meena Baktash takes a personal look at the Kabul of her...
The Brotherhood - Part two
Despite an official ban and regular crack downs the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has to...
The Wireless World of Gerry Wells
Guru, boffin, eccentric and genius, Gerry Wells is obsessed with radio - tinkering and...
Assignment - On the Run in Sweden
Sweden has garnered respect around the world for the welcome it offered to thousands...
The Brotherhood - Part one
"No taxi driver in Cairo knows how to find the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Superstar
Singer Sami Yusuf is one of the biggest superstars in the Muslim world.
Assignment - Proud to be Georgian
How do you train someone to love their country? Two years ago Russia and Georgia a war...
Useful Idiots - Part Two
In this two part series, the BBC takes a look at the intellectuals - or Lenin's - who...
The Mossad
"They teach you how to steal and they teach you how to kill and they teach you to do...
Korea's lost children
Korea's overseas adoption programme began in the 1950s as the impoverished answer to...
Assignment - Politics in Rwanda
Days before Rwanda's presidential election, the government has issued a strongly any...
Useful Idiots
“That’s what my role was. I was taken around and shown things as a useful idiot.
Shaking the World - Part Four
"This culture inhibits the evolution of new ideas," says Professor Guosong Liu of the...
Spanning the World - Part Four
London Bridge has served as a crossing, a shopping district, a housing settlement and...
Assignment - Jamaica's Sprint Factory
Jamaica has a reputation for producing world class athletes. Athletes are nurtured a...
Listening Post - Part Two
The Listening Post is a new series that invites close, unhurried listening to the of...
Shaking the World - Part Three
China's social tensions may threaten the growth upon which much of the rest of the now...
Spanning the World - Part Three
What personal stories can a bridge reveal? When the he Oresund Bridge-Tunnel opened it...
Assignment - Who Jails the Pirates?
Why are so few captured pirates brought to trial? Each year hundreds of ships are by...
Listening Post - Part One
Mary Thida Lun works is a civil servant. She has had postings in Sudan and Iraq.
Shaking the World - Part Two
Part Two of this series looks outwards at the potentially world-shaking clash of China...
The Greatest Hits of the World - Part 2
The song Wimoweh, or The Lion Sleeps Tonight has been exposed to a mass audience with...
China Shaking the World - part one
Michael Robinson examines the political, economic and cultural mechanisms of China's -...
Stand By Me
Ben E King says of his song Stand By Me "It tends to fall in place for someone who it...
Assignment: The Families of Manshiyet Nasser
Catherine Miller reports from one of Cairo's biggest slums where - in 2008 - a massive...
Caribbean voices - Part one
The BBC's seminal role in launching Caribbean writing in the region is remembered 60...
Every Picture Tells A Story
"A good photograph has an emotional component, the iconic photos hit you right away it...
Home from Home Part Two
London based British-Asian DJ, Bobby Friction travels to North America to find out the...
Assignment: Arizona's Immigration Law SB1070
Arizona has passed a law cracking down on illegal immigrants -- the toughest of its in...
Tiger v Dragon: China's String of Pearls (part two)
Mukul Devichand explores the rising Asian giants, China and India. How will the old of...
The Power and the Passion - Part Four
With the World Cup underway, many fans will be avidly debating the fate of their in it...
Home from Home Part One
How does one's family history alter one's sense of sefl? Nihal Arthanayake - a London...
Assignment: Spain's Hard Times
Pascale Harter reports from Spain for Assignment to see how families there are coping...
Tiger v Dragon: The Power of the Poor (part one)
Mukul Devichand explores the rising Asian giants, China and India. In the churn and of...
The Power and the Passion - Part Three
With the World Cup underway, many fans will be avidly debating the fate of their in it...
Aung San Suu Kyi: Freedom from Fear
Aung San Suu Kyi leads the pro-democracy movement in Burma. She has been under house...
South Africa's Path to Freedom - Part Two
Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author Wole Soyinka travels to South Africa to assess the...
The Power and the Passion - Part Two
With the World Cup underway, many fans will be avidly debating the fate of their in it...
Crime, Scene, Insects
Amoret Whitaker is a forensic entomologist. She is called in to help on cases where it...
Assignment: India's Maoist Insurgency
The Indian government is engaged in its biggest ever offensive against Maoist in state...
South Africa's Path to Freedom - Part One
Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author Wole Soyinka travels to South Africa to assess the...
The Power and the Passion - Part One
With the World Cup fast approaching many fans will be avidly debating the fate of in...
In the Shadow of the Stadium
What is the mood of South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup? Audrey Brown talks to to...
Assignment: Thawil - the Red Shirt protestor
When Thai soldiers stormed an anti-government protest in Bangkok last month more than...
The Travelling Electric
In 1951, a black man named Willie McGee was executed in Mississippi's travelling chair...
Thank You for My Freedom
Former Beirut hostage John McCarthy has never thanked Giandomenico Picco, the United...
Nightingales and Roses
Iran has an enthralling literary landscape. Poetry extends to all areas of Iranian and...
Assignment: Jamaica's 'Godfather'
This week's Assignment comes from Jamaica where there have been pitched street battles...
The Art of War
The Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote a treatise called The Art of War over 2,500 years ago.
Soft Power - Part Two
The ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your is...
Global Perspective - Wedge Island
Wedge Island is located in a secluded spot on the rugged, windswept Indian Ocean off...
Assignment: Swine Flu: Panic or Pandemic
In June 2009 the head of the World Health Organisation declared swine flu a global...
Would You Kill The Big Guy - Part Two
A runaway train is heading towards five people. You're standing on a footbridge, next...
Soft Power - Part One
The ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your is...
Global Perspective - The Lonely Funeral
Civil servant Ger Frits and poet Frank Starik come together in their shared that those...
Assignment: A Taliban Class War?
In Pakistan, the Taliban are continuing to attract recruits, despite the fact that...
Would you kill the big guy?
A runaway train is heading towards five people. You're standing on a footbridge, next...
Cracking The Code
The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera gains exclusive access to Britain's the...
Global Perspective - Middle C
A year-long transition from woman to man, chronicled by Tristan Whiston through the in...
Assignment: Goldmine Sachs
Assignment investigates how Goldman Sachs has made record profits since it was bailed...
The Other Guantanamo
Award-winning travel writer Polly Evans goes in search of the other Guantanamo, to and...
The Price of Bio Fuels - Part Two
What are the practical and moral issues around this alternative energy source? Gerry...
Global Perspective - Living in Limbo
In the UK, failed asylum seekers like Collen have no rights to accommodation or benefits.
Assignment - Inside Britain's Class System
With the British election on May 6th, the BBC’s Nina Robinson examines the class to...
The Apostle's Workshop
Apostle Asafo guides us around his remarkable workshops in Accra, where teenagers can...
The Price of Bio Fuels - Part One
Gerry Northam investigates claims that bio fuels - once believed to be the answer to -...
On the Edge in Soweto
Unemployment in Soweto is well above the national average for South Africa.
Assignment: Total Recall - The Toyota Story
Toyota, the world's biggest car company, is in crisis, accused of putting the public...
Looking for Jaballah Matar
Libyan dissident Jaballah Matar disappeared 20 years ago, and his son Hisham is his...
Generation Jihad - Part Three
Peter Taylor investigates the terrorist threat from young Muslim extremists on the...
Return to Trebizond - Part Two
In 1923 hundreds of thousands of Christian and Muslims moved between what is now and...
Assignment - Zimbabwe's New Farmers
It's ten years since Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe initiated a land reform which...
Living With Tourists - Part Two
How does tourism affect local culture? In the second part of Living With Tourists, Ros...
Generation Jihad - Part Two
Peter Taylor investigates the terrorist threat from young Muslim extremists on the...
Return to Trebizond
In 1923 hundreds of thousands of Christian and Muslims moved moved between what is now...
Assignment - the French Burqa Ban
With several European countries now considering banning face veils in public places,...
Living With Tourists - Part One
Is tourism encroaching on lives, highlighting inequalities and causing antipathy and...
Generation Jihad
In the first of a three-part series, Peter Taylor investigates the terrorist threat on...
My World
Diverse short films that represent humanity. That was the end result of the BBC World...
Assignment: The Art of Match-Fixing
A series of recent arrests across Europe has highlighted the growing threat of in...
Queenan's Crime Scenes - Part Two
American author Joe Queenan visits Sweden, perhaps the most exciting and important for...
The Great Writ
The writ of Habeas Corpus prevents an individual from unlawful detention.
The Great Writ
The writ of Habeas Corpus prevents an individual from unlawful detention.
Shed Men
Australian men are typically defined as confident and unassailable characters, but is...
Assignment - Love and Morals in Mangalore
Tinku Ray reports from Mangalore in south India where street vigilantes are making it...
Queenan's Crime Scenes
American author Joe Queenan's passion for crime fiction sees him heading to two very...
Road to Rwanda
"I don't know anything about the genocide. I didn't kill anyone or steal from anyone.
The Other Internet
China patrols its cyberspace carefully. The government there closes down hundreds of...
Afghan Bloggers
Najieh Ghulami looks at the way bloggers in Afghanistan operate and how increased will...
The Virtual Revolution - Homo Interneticus
Dr Aleks Krotoski concludes her investigation of the internet twenty years on by our...
Internet Cafe Hobo - Part Three
Nick finds that internet cafes are not just a way to stay in contact with family, and...
Assignment: Hackers For Hire
An investigation into the expertise of Russian hackers. What makes them so good at...
Online dating in India
The people behind the booming online dating industry in India believe they are society...
The Virtual Revolution - The Cost Of Free
How commerce has colonised the web - and how web users are paying for what appear to...
Spanning the World - Part Two
The Ponte Milvio, the bridge that spans the Tiber river in Rome, is a site of both and...
Great Expectations, part two
Nina Robinson returns to east London for the second part of Great Expectations, the in...
The Virtual Revolution - Enemy Of The State
How has the online world impacted on global politics? Twenty years on from the of the...
Spanning the World - Part One
Italian artist Joseph Stella depicted the Brooklyn Bridge in New York as a metaphor in...
Assignment: Taxing Questions for Greeks
No-one likes paying tax - but avoiding it is a way of life for many people in Greece,...
Great Expectations, part one
The world may be coming to East London in 2012, but the world is already represented...
The Virtual Revolution -- The Great Leveller
Since its birth almost twenty years ago, the World Wide Web has transformed our world...
Polar Bear Kebabs
Iranian Kazem Ariaiwand runs the most northerly kebab shop on the planet.
Assignment - Mexico's Drug War
A war is raging between rival drug cartels along Mexico's border with the United States.
Obama's America - The End of the Dream
As the United States endures its worst economic crisis since The Great Depression, the...
New York's Catholics
The religious face of New York is being transformed. Once the preserve of the Irish...
Message in a Bottle
The fabric of island life as described through the most non-instant of communication -...
Assignment: Unlawful Detention
Every year thousands of asylum seekers are detained in Britain. They are held while to...
Obama's America - Part One
Simon Schama examines some of the daunting challenges facing Barack Obama, both on the...
Opposing Obama - Part Two
Author and journalist Gary Younge tells the story of the other side of the Obama who...
China's Forgotten Admiral
Zheng He was an epic seafarer who predates Columbus - and who symbolises China's...
Textbook Diplomacy - Part Two
In Europe, school history textbooks are used to heal the wounds of conflict, overcome...
Opposing Obama - Part One
Author and journalist Gary Younge tells the story of the other side of the Obama who...
Africa Kicks
Farayi Mungazi looks ahead to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and explores how have...
Assignment - Ten Days in Haiti
On 12th January a powerful earthquake struck Haiti in the Caribbean. As many as people...
Textbook Diplomacy - Part One
Mark Whitaker looks at South Africa’s struggle to produce school history textbooks...
Africa Kicks - Part Three
Adebayor, Droga and Essien are African football superstars who have found fame and in...
Assignment - Guantanamo Reunited
Gavin Lee tells the story of how a former prison guard at Guantanamo Bay detention two...
Health of a Nation - Part Two
Business, money, demographics, politics - these are the issues preventing health from...
Africa Kicks - Part Two
As South Africa prepares to host the 2010 World Cup, Farayi Mungazi, the voice of on a...
Closing Guantanamo
Assignment explores what President Barack Obama done in his attempts to close the Bay...
Health of a Nation - Part One
Michael Goldfarb looks at President Obama's mission to reform America's health care...
Africa Kicks - Part One
As South Africa prepares to host the 2010 World Cup, Farayi Mungazi, the voice of on a...
Arming Angola
Angola has also been described as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Sound of Snow and Ice
The Jyväskylä School for the Visually Impaired in Finland has one important aim: on...