The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2014: Recent Episodes
BBC World Service
One boat, two families; trying to escape war in Syria, desperate to start a new life in Europe. In October 2013, dozens of migrants aboard that boat died, as it travelled across the Mediterranean Sea. But some eventually made it to Malta. What happened next?
The richest man of all time was 14th Century monarch King Mansa Musa, who reigned over Mali from 1312 to 1337. His fortune came from gold and salt, and control of trade routes.
A startling 300-year journey of a Stradivarius violin through the lives of geniuses, dictators, refugees, and the Milwaukee thieves who stole it from violinist Frank Almond.
How ordinary people – soldiers, mothers, nurses, even children – experienced World War One and the little-known human side of the world's first truly global conflict. With stories of love, loss, hope and fervour.
Assignment follows Abdi Nor, a winner of the annual US green card lottery, as he attempts to escape from a life of poverty in Kenya and realise the American dream.
Is karaoke now an art form? Music critic Katie Puckrik hits the clubs in Portland, Oregon, to find out.
Tupac Shakur trained as an actor, posed as a street thug and became a best selling rapper, but he died in 1996. Mythologised and revered, is Tupac a modern Black American folk hero?
The Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste or Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra, is the only symphony orchestra in Central Africa. It was founded in the mid-1990s by Armande Diangienda. In the beginning a small handful of would be musicians, made long arduous daily journeys to rehearsals that lasted seven hours, Monday to Friday. They waited patiently to take turns on the few available instruments - and gradually taught themselves to play.
Music pulsates in Lisbon, from the traditional and dramatic Fado to the contemporary Kuduro – a strain of Angolan dance music that combines electronic music with Caribbean inflections, born in the late 1980s. Musicians, such as the modern fadist and guitar player Lula Pena, the post-bossa nova Antonio Zambujo, and the incandescent Buraka Som Sistema, echo this rich musical landscape.
An international NGO, Women without Borders, based in Vienna, with years of experience working in the field of counter terrorism, is pioneering a strategy of using mothers of Jihadist fighters and supporters to help counter the radicalisation of young men and women.
Tim Whewell gains rare access to the shadowy world of Russia's radical nationalists fighting in eastern Ukraine for Novorossiya, or New Russia, and a dream of empires past.
A vivid portrait of the everyday lives of girls and women at a turning point in Afghan history. Lyse Doucet visits Kabul to see how the lives of Afghan girls and women have changed since the fall of the Taliban 13 years ago, and to hear concerns that these hard-won gains are already being threatened as the troops depart.
For 100 years, an intriguing mix of people have been criss-crossing the US by Greyhound bus. To mark the company's centenary, Laura Barton sets off on an unplanned journey ‘to look for America’. She is conscious of the discrepancy between what the bus line represents in the collective imagination – an idea of freedom, adventure and possibility – and the realities of cross-country coach travel.
Mike Wendling explores the controversy surrounding the Washington Redskins. It's one of the most popular American football teams but many Native Americans say the name is racist.
For most people in the West, the swastika remains inextricably linked to the atrocities committed by the Nazis. But there have been calls to reclaim the symbol from its Nazi links and restore its origin as an ancient symbol for good luck. For many, such a suggestion is an outrageous affront to good taste. Can these two views ever be reconciled?
In the wake of the global economic crisis, what does capitalism mean to us today? Stand-up comedian Colm O’Regan visits the Kilkenomics Festival of economics and comedy in Kilkenny, Ireland, and heads to New York to ask what people really understand about capitalism.
For Assignment, Chris Rogers goes undercover to reveal the hidden shame of Guatemala’s hospital for the mentally ill.
In 1974, New York City became the canvas for a new generation of Graffiti pioneers. Who were the teens behind the 'tags' - now the veterans of the scene? Why did they create this movement? We meet some of those who defied the law (and their parents) and diced with death to chase fame and acceptance of their peers.
Two decades after the death of notorious drug baron Pablo Escobar in 1993, he still looms large in the Colombian psyche. In some quarters, there is an ambivalence towards this ruthless killer, an admiration for the man who made an estimated US $20 billion and built homes for the poor. But many reject the Robin Hood image, and see his legacy as deeply corrosive. Linda Pressly meets victims, a cartel-insider, and Pablo Escobar’s sister as she finds out how the story of this most notorious drug baron still resonates in the city of Medellin.
Director Orson Welles was asked to write his life story in his later years. He declined but was convinced by his friend Henry Jaglom to discuss his life over a weekly lunch at their favourite Hollywood restaurant, Ma Maison. The hundreds of tapes, recorded from 1983 to 1985, reveal extraordinary, frank, conversations between Welles and the independent director Jaglom.
Gabriel Gatehouse and his team go in search of Annie and along the way meet the medics and families on the front line of the Ebola crisis.
Former commander of the British and Coalition forces in Helmand province Major General Andrew Mackay, embarks on a personal journey to find out what has been achieved by the 14-year-campaign in Afghanistan.
The story of Canadian-born Aimee Semple McPherson and how she went from farm girl to invent broadcast evangelism, becoming among the most famous and glamorous women in America in the 1920s and 30s.
British journalist Nick Baker and Anglo-Cuban journalist Arnaldo Hernandez Diaz discover a vivid snapshot of Cuba including topics around the internet and online communication, LGBT issues and a surprising medical story.
How Ebola is affecting not just health services in West Africa, but tourism, agriculture and investment across the entire continent. Paul Moss travels to Ghana and Senegal to assess the wider impact of Ebola in Africa.
Mobeen Azhar is in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, where police are fighting an increasingly desperate war against the Taliban. Every day an officer is killed in the struggle.
The Star-Spangled Banner is embedded in American national identity and yet it only became the official national anthem in 1931. Erica Wagner returns to its origins, the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, to find out how Francis Scott Key came to write these lyrics about the American flag
There are now more pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea than off the coast of Somalia - once considered the global 'piracy hotspot'. The BBC’s Mary Harper travels to Lagos, one of the busiest ports in Africa, to explore the highly complex world of piracy.
Natalia Antelava charts the downfall of Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the Uzbek president. She hears an inside account of the family feud from Gulnara’s son, Islam Karimov Jr.
In August 2013 the Assad regime in Syria was accused of deploying chemical weapons against its own civilian population. President Obama – who had described the use of chemical weapons as a “red line” – was planning airstrikes against the Syrian government. In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron was determined to stand with him - but first he had to win Parliament’s approval.
Can the world come together to beat diseases with pandemic potential? We've spoken to four expert witnesses, including a doctor who helped to eradicate one of the world's oldest diseases and a man who discovered one of the world's newest ones.
Allan Little returns to Sarajevo to explore the role of the arts in restoring the city's identity, 20 years after the siege which saw its cultural life flourish against the odds. How are the citizens of Sarajevo fulfilling that basic human need for art in a transformed cultural landscape?
Hidden away in the backrooms at Humbolt University and the Ethnological Museum in Berlin are some of the most remarkable sound recordings ever made. They date back to World War One and capture the voices of some of the ordinary men who fought in ‘the war to end all wars’. What happened to these men and how did they die?
Ali Hamedani has been to Turkey to meet the Iranian lesbian and gay people who’ve fled home after facing pressure to change their gender.
When the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards, riots erupted across the city to avenge the killing. Bobby Friction went into hiding with his family to escape the mobs. He returns with professor Swaran Singh, 30 years on, to talk to the children caught up in the riots.
Mustafa Nayyem is one of Ukraine's leading investigative reporters, who has controversially decided to leave journalism and enter the political arena. Andriy Kravets from the BBC’s Ukrainian Service travelled back to his homeland ahead of the recent parliamentary elections to find out more about Mustafa. How did an immigrant boy from Afghanistan manage to make his mark in Ukrainian society? And has this leading anti-corruption campaigner sold his audience short - or is this an attempt to kick-start much-need changes in Ukrainian political life?
Kavita Puri goes to Switzerland to hear the extraordinary stories of survivors who lived as indentured child labourers.
Linard Davies is a baggage attendant at San Francisco airport. He deals with the packages that the airlines won't touch. Clown shoes, 10ft carved wooden doors, fresh moose antlers are just some of the strangest artefacts he has dealt with.
What are changes in voting laws doing to demoracy in the USA? Rajini Vaidyanathan travels to North Carolina to investigate voting rights in the United States.
In the Indian capital Delhi stands India Gate, the largest memorial to the war for which 1.5 million Indian men were recruited. But Anita Rani discovers that World War One is something of a forgotten memory today, seen as part of its colonial history. She sets out to uncover some of the forgotten stories.
Women abused in institutions run by the Catholic Church are demanding answers from religious authorities and the government. But will the latest inquiry give them any peace?
Ebola is now regarded as an international threat to peace and security, according to the World Health Organisation. Up to 10,000 people a week could soon be infected in west Africa, with cases also reported in Europe and the US. Simon Cox asks why it took so long for the world to wake up to the threat posed by Ebola.
Texas is crucial in the race for national power. Gary O’Donoghue travels to the Lone Star State to find out about the challenges the Republicans face on divisive issues like immigration and shifts in social attitudes - and what this could mean for the party and Texas
Music from the rising stars of Africa, including wordsmiths M.Anifest from Ghana and Tumi from South Africa, whose conscious rap uses lyrics to challenge and delight. Also featuring Aziza Brahim from western Sahara, Songhai Blues from Mali, Lala Njava from Madagascar, Nigerian pop diva Omawumi, and The Good Ones from Rwanda.
Tim Whewell is one of the few foreign reporters who’ve made it to Tobruk, last toehold of Libya’s elected authorities – holding out against a growing jihadi menace
India is falling in love with Western classical music. In his home-city Mumbai, Zareer Masani encounters the country's first national ensemble, the Symphony Orchestra of India. He visits Furtado's, the city's oldest music shop, which sells hundreds of pianos a year, and discovers that thousands of children learn a Western instrument. Yet, Zareer finds that this is not the total success it seems.
Everything's bigger in Texas and that goes for the personalities who run for election there. While the Republican party is dominant, Democrats believe that they can change the reddest of the red states blue in the coming years. Can the Democratic Party make big gains in the mid-term elections?
Linda Pressly travels to Kosovo and meets the sister of ISIS’ first suicide-bomber from the Balkans. How could Europe’s most pro-American state have fostered such extremism?
In recent years, sperm has been shipped out of Denmark at an astonishing rate, producing thousands of babies worldwide - many in the UK. In 2006, the UK was not importing any Danish sperm, but by 2010 Denmark was supplying around a third of our total imports. Why are Danish donors in such demand? Kate Brian investigates.
Orania, South Africa, remains a 'whites only' town despite the end of apartheid 20 years ago. BBC reporter Stanley Kwenda travels to Orania to explores whether the people of Orania are clinging to a racist past – or whether it is a close-knit community that just happens to be white.
Neal Razzell goes to work with Copenhagen’s hot dog vendors who tell how the humble sausage is a barometer for changing attitudes to class, identity and immigration.
Since the 18th Century, Tamil fishermen have claimed to navigate by the mysterious music of the singing fish of the Batticaloa lagoon in eastern Sri Lanka. The fishermen's ancient name for the creature is Oorie Coolooroo Cradoo (crying shells); scientists believe that the underwater choristers are some kind of fish. But, after 30 years of civil war and the ravages of the tsunami, does any evidence of this strange nocturnal chorus remain?
The rockets and missiles fly, from Israel into Gaza, from Gaza into Israel. It is the latest iteration of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours, which has flared since the very founding of the Jewish state in 1948. Why does this particular conflict, above all others, attract the attention it does?
Tim Mansel on the lives of people in Sierra Leone as they face a three day "lock-down" designed to counter Ebola which has already killed nearly 500 of their compatriots.
In the late 1930's a young Mildred Cummings from Dayton, Ohio is barefoot, standing in the spotlight on stage, wearing that same old shabby dress and a broken straw hat. This is Little Miss Cornshucks and she has the audience in the palm of her hand, a unique act and larger than life personality. By the 1940's she made top-billing at nightclubs across America, performing heartbreaking ballads. But who remembers her now?
Music from the most promising bands of the Mexican music scene. Hear rapper Eptos One, the rock anthems of Zoé, Mexico’s biggest rock band, and happy-go-lucky artist Caloncho. Plus, we talk to the diva of Mexican pop, Julieta Venegas, Centavrus, Hello Seahorse and Little Jesus.
In Ivory Coast, men are going back to the classroom. It's an innovative project dubbed the 'school for husbands' - and designed to save the lives of mothers and children.
The legacy of jazz pianist James Booker. Classically trained in piano and a child prodigy, Booker toured with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin and played on sessions with Fats Domino and Little Richard. But, gay at a time when homosexuality was a huge taboo and black in a divided America, Booker died alone, aged 43, after a life of drug and alcohol abuse.
After becoming a Paralympics champion, Oscar Pistorius rose to fame as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. He became a hero to millions – until the fateful night when he shot dead his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp.
Hilary Andersson investigates the more than one million mentally ill prisoners held in US jails and prisons, most of whom are incarcerated for relatively minor offences.
Ten years ago, Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. In the decade since, countries across the world have passed smoke-free laws of their own. Denis Murray looks at the impact of this type of anti-smoking legislation across Europe - and considers the future of tobacco.
Could women's football provide a new, more sustainable model to the men's game? Yvonne Macken hears from young women in Trinidad and Tobago, Iceland, Brazil, Japan, the UK, the USA and Africa.
At least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the northern English town of Rotherham by gangs of men who were predominantly of Pakistani origin between 1997 and 2013 according to an independent inquiry, by Professor Alexis Jay. How did police, press, politicians and professional agencies fail to deal with it?
Natalio Cosoy meets the miners of northern Spain who sing to their patron saint, Santa Bárbara Bendita, in the hope that she will watch over them in the uncertain times ahead.
Giving Africa's obscure musical gems a new lease of life - meet the fans of rediscovered sounds. Among them is ethnomusicologist Brian Shimkovitz who's trying to track down musician Ata Kak.
King George VI spoke to the world about the declaration of war on Germany in 1939. Listen to the story of how it was broadcast around the world 75 years ago.
Air traffic controllers have guided trans-Atlantic flights since 1919. As Creative archaeologist Christine Finn discovers, datalink - effectively text messaging - is increasingly being used, so that voice communication is on the wane.
Pentecostal churches in Guatemala run many of the country's compulsory drug rehabilitation centres. But just how safe and effective are they? Linda Pressly reports.
Million's Poet is a hugely popular televised competition to find the best poet in the Middle East. Poetry has always had an essential role to play in Arab literature and the tradition is thriving.
TV made in the USA by tribal people, for tribal people covering everything from whaling rituals to canoe journeys and watched, at its height, by 50 million people.
Did President Johnson take the US to war with Vietnam on a lie, or was he misled? DD Guttenplan explores what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964.
As more young people leave Ireland, Gaelic Football is losing its lifeblood. John Murphy reports on the struggle to keep alive the game that is at the heart of Irish identity.
Rastafari's global impact after the explosion of Jamaica's Roots Reggae scene in the 1970s. Does this spiritual and cultural movement still have relevance today?
The classic novel, a parable of America's Great Depression, as applied to the US today. Mark Mardell considers John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.
The BBC's China Editor investigates an elusive cult at the centre of a grisly murder that has shocked the nation.
How Rastafari turned from an ostracised religious sect into a global phenomenon - and its role in replacing the shackles of colonial rule with a forgotten African identity.
The Helmand valley dam complex, is the biggest engineering project in Afghanistan. How has it withstood the Soviet invasion and the conflict that began in 2001?
Presenter Nihal Arthanayake visits UK immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal who gives advice to migrants seeking visas to work and live in Britain.
As Ukrainian holidaymakers stay away from Crimea's beaches following Russia's annexation of the peninsula, Lucy Ash meets the Russians who are reclaiming their bit of paradise.
David Loyn investigates how a lost document is helping Afghanistan come to terms with its painful past. A war crimes trial in the Netherlands has unearthed a list of 5,000 prisoners detained, tortured and killed by the radical communist regime that ran the country in 1978-79 - a "death list".
Forty years on from President Nixon’s resignation we hear from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate story. Did their reporting make Americans more mistrustful of government and ready to believe the worst of their leaders?
In Colombia’s Marxist guerrilla war, thousands of rebel fighters have been female. When they got pregnant, they were forced to have abortions or give their babies up. Now, many of these rebel mothers have demobilised and are desperate to find their children.
Tim Whewell meets the dynamic young women in Turkish Kurdistan who are defining the future of their society.
Theatre director Mehmet Ergen guides us through the politically charged arts scene of his native homeland Turkey, as he negotiates national and cultural borders to stage work that is as unpretentious as it is provocative.
‘I’ll marry your sister if you marry mine. And if you divorce my sister, I’ll divorce yours.’ That is Yemen’s ‘Shegar’, or swap marriage, an agreement between two men to marry each other’s sisters, thereby removing the need for expensive dowry payments. But the agreement also entails that if one marriage fails, the other couple must separate as well - even if they are happy.
WARNING: This programme includes graphic descriptions of sexual violence 'A humanitarian crisis', that's how the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers describes the levels of violence against women they are dealing with in Papua New Guinea - levels they usually only witness in war-zones. Russian photojournalist Vlad Sokhin reports on the untold stories of women subjected to the most extreme violence perpetrated anywhere on earth, including the brutal torture of women accused of witchcraft.
Six talented young writers under 35 explore a great grandparent or grandparent's involvement in World War One. This centenary offers a chance to reflect on the gulf that separates young people from the war. Each writer attempts to bridge the gap, to question what the values and sacrifices of the war mean today.
What do you do when a twisting funnel drops from the sky with tearing winds of up to 500 km an hour? Neal Razzell goes out and about with the storm chasers in Oklahoma City, USA.
As Nato troops withdraw from Afghanistan, British and Afghan women share their stories of being widowed by the same war. Zarghuna Kargar hears how the lives of four women changed the moment they received the news of their husbands' sudden deaths, how they have coped in the aftermath and what they feel about war today.
Following recent botched executions in several states, Rajini Vaidyanathan asks whether the future of the death penalty in the US is itself now in question. Is it possible that the United States could give up on the death penalty?
Claire Bolderson reports from Kentucky on how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is changing lives. But can the doubters be won over?
In 1896 the British sent thousands of labourers from India to Kenya, to build the Uganda Railway from Mombasa on Kenya's coast to Lake Victoria in Uganda. During the '60s and '70s, facing uncertainty in an independent Kenya, many used their link with Britain to settle in the UK, causing alarm among the government and public. Neil Kanwal explores their experiences of empire, identity, discrimination and migration.
Ahead of sporting mega-events such as the Olympic Games, local people are being given a "clean-up" and training. For this summer's Commonwealth Games, 10,000 Glaswegians are getting tutoring how to speak 'properly', project positive body language and maintain eye contact whilst talking to visitors.
Fifty years ago, at the height of the Cold War and at the time of increasing tensions between East and West, Satish Kumar hit the headlines around the world when he walked 8000 miles from New Delhi to Moscow, then on to Paris, London and Washington DC, delivering packets of 'peace tea' to the leaders of the world's four nuclear powers.
Yalda Hakim hears from residents deep in Boko Haram territory, in northern Nigeria, who are caught between the Islamist militant group and the Nigerian military.
Sarfraz Manzoor charts the extraordinary story of jazz in India when some of the world's most accomplished musicians including Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong brought their talents to the east and mixed with performers such as Chic Chocolate, Micky Correa, Teddy Weatherford and Frank Fernand - all regarded in India today as jazz legends.
Meet New York's rookie cabbies - fledgling taxi-drivers trying to earn a living in the most stressful city in the world. Most are immigrants, already grappling with the challenges of a new language and a new culture. Now they have to deal with long hours, short fares, and grumpy passengers in the back.
Are international regulations designed to stop money and equipment reaching terrorist organisations curtailing vital aid programmes in some of the world's most troubled regions?
Baroness Oona King, former British Labour MP, discovers her American family's role in the fight for equality. Her grandfather and uncles worked with Martin Luther King in The Albany Movement, a campaign that tried to desegregate their home town in Georgia. Oona travelled to Albany to speak to members of the movement on the 50th anniversary of the passing of The Civil Rights Act.
Alvin Hall delves into the inspirations and fears that influence people’s differing attitudes towards money. He speaks to Peter de Savary who has bought hotels and boats, living around the world in luxury resorts that he’s owned, but says it’s not the money he craves. He finds out about the man who left $187 million to charity, and the men who pay serious cash to spend time with college-educated beauties.
Between 1981 and 1990 teams 'representing' England, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Australia toured Apartheid era South Africa, despite there being a well established sporting boycott in place. Jonathan Agnew, the BBC's cricket correspondent, reveals how and why the tours took place and finds out whether those that chose to play in these rebel cricket tours now regret their actions.
The median age in many Silicon Valley tech firms is under 30. So where does that leave older workers trying to join the technology revolution? Is Silicon Valley ageist?
With the power of nuclear weapons and the potential to wipe out life on Earth, asteroids hit Earth more frequently than you'd think. Meet the volunteers monitoring the skies.
Why do some people who have plenty of cash choose to sit on a secret nest egg, rather than spend it and make their life better?
Seven up-coming Ghanaian musicians perform a song especially for the BBC, and talk about what inspires them in Ghana and beyond. Featuring Efya, queen of Afro pop, and Kyekyeku, Yaa Pono, Ayisoba, Cwesi Oteng and Wiyaala.
In April 16 Sherpas lost their lives in an avalanche whilst working for expedition teams climbing Mount Everest. Navin Khadka reports.
More and more wealthy Russians are settling in London. From a lavish Russian Ball at the Royal Albert Hall to home-buying in the capital's most exclusive postcodes - Kensington - Olga Betko enters the world of the Russian business elite to find out why London has become a favourite destination.
Mona Eltahawey visits her home country of Egypt where women, who stood side-by-side with men during the protests, now fear to walk the streets without being assaulted. Mona hears from the women who are taking matters into their own hands, standing up to sexual harassers and saying ‘enough is enough'.
Historian Heather Jones tackles the familiar image of a war centred on a static front line in northern Europe, and looks at how World War One affected populations beyond the front line.
For some in South Korea, old age has meant making some tough choices. In a park in Seoul, Lucy Williamson finds an old profession getting some surprising new recruits.
How will Brazil cope with the pressures of hosting the World Cup - on and off the pitch? Preparations have been beset by huge problems and anything other than victory will be seen as a failure.
Edward Stourton examines Vladimir Putin’s strategic vision for Eastern Europe, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea - and the rise of political tensions throughout Ukraine.
Meet the women who are trying to be heard. Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy meets those who pushed through legislation enshrining gender equality in Tunisia - and asks what will it take to make the government repeal the law in Jordan that allows rapists to marry their victims.
In spring 1944 American women war correspondents gathered in London in anticipation of the D-Day invasion. Women were not allowed to report from the front line, although that did not stop Martha Gellhorn. Other women, such as Helen Kirkpatrick witnessed Eisenhower's return from the front as she reported from D-Day headquarters. Lyse Doucet recounts the stories of women war correspondents and how it has changed since then.
Residents of Glasgow are some 30% more likely to die young than people in similar UK cities, mainly due to drugs, alcohol, suicide, and violence. Lucy Ash investigates
As Brazil hosts the World Cup, Musa Okwonga explores the role the beautiful game has played in Brazilian culture.
Bobby Friction traces how young people in India are expressing themselves through music and the massive rise in independent music and festivals. Recorded on location at NH7 in Bangalore, India’s Glastonbury.
Ros Atkins brings three teenage girls from the programme All that Stands in the Way together in New York City with two other girls, for a unique debate on gender inequality - a conversation that ranges from everyday sexism to the problems of balancing traditional attitudes with modern ambitions.
As Ukraine prepares for elections amid rising tension, Tim Whewell travels there to meet the nationalist militiamen who are determined to secure a strong and united country.
The parents of four teenage girls in the BBC World Service programme All That Stands In The Way, meet and talk for the first time. What did they think of the freedoms and limits to each girl’s life? Has the documentary made them reconsider their views on trust, discipline, relationships and fashion?
Four teenage girls from the BBC World Service programme All That Stands In The Way, meet for the very first time. Lulu from London, Shoeshoe from Lesotho, Vigdis from Iceland and Mira from Jordan discuss what choices and freedoms they have and how they see gender equality, as they stand on the threshold of adulthood.
Simon Cox investigates a notorious miscarriage of justice in Iceland which many see as a stain on the country's justice system.
Finding Nigeria's missing girls has become a global cause with a massive online campaign #BringBackOurGirls. Presidents and prime ministers have joined parents in calling for their release. Nkem Ifejika tells the story of their disappearance and examines what it means for Nigeria - and Boko Haram.
As the World’s media prepares to descend on Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, Julia Carneiro presents the second programme which gets to the heart of Brazilian identity.
Most people who face criminal charges in Kenya go to court without a lawyer. The Kenyan judiciary admit this leads to a great deal of injustice. This programme meets an impressive group of prisoners who are acting as lawyers on behalf of themselves and their fellow inmates. Mostly by discovering flaws in the original cases, they are managing to get large numbers of convictions overturned at appeal.
Across Argentina’s vast GM belt, there are claims of an on-going health crisis. One provincial Minister for Public Health wants an independent commission to investigate.
In the 1960s and early '70s, Addis Ababa's nightlife was electrified by a blend of traditional folk music, jazz, swing, rhythm and blues. Courtney Pine meets some of the veterans of the Swinging Addis golden age of Ethiopian jazz, including Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete - the 'Ethiopian Elvis'. These Ethiopian heroes, now in their 70s, are like the Buena Vista Social Club stars of their country.
As the World’s media prepares to descend on Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, Julia Carneiro presents the first programme which gets to the heart of Brazilian identity.
After the humiliations of World War Two, France was insistent on reasserting itself as a world power. In their Vietnamese colony the nationalists led by Ho Chi Minh were just as determined to gain independence. The showdown to a seven-year guerrilla war came in 1954 at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Survivors, politicians and historians explain how the horrors of a 56-day siege ended with the French garrison being virtually wiped out. In Paris, desperate politicians even considered using American atomic weapons to try to save Dien Bien Phu. For the other European powers it marked the beginning of the end for their colonies in Africa and the Far East.
Mark Mardell examines America's Grand Old Party which has been engaged in a civil war; now the Establishment is fighting back against the Tea Party. Can the Republicans win again?
Egyptian author Tarek Osman examines the build up to the Arab Spring. As with the previous experiments with liberalism, nationalism and Islamism, the region's presidential hard men seek to consolidate their power by passing it onto their sons. At the same time, riding the wave of a population explosion which leaves two thirds of the Arab world under 25 years old, a new generation frustrated by the lack of jobs or political freedoms rises up to challenge the old order.
How is technology transforming education, and what will the classroom of the future look like? Sarah Montague turns her attention to universities, in particular, to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Some argue these free university online courses, presented by some of the best professors in the world, could - in cash strapped times - be the saviour of higher education and take university to people in some of the remotest regions of the world. Others argue they could destroy centuries of tradition
Neal Razzell spends days and nights in Lagos with the electricity teams who are working to literally bring power to the people.This programme was originally broadcast in October 2013.
Eyptian author Tarek Osman explores the events which converged and led to the rise of Islamism from the 1970s onwards, a force which came to fill the vacuum left by Arab Nationalism. He investigates the reasons for the re-emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, the influence of the conservative, oil-rich Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, and the three pivotal events in 1979 which boosted Islamism.
How technology is transforming education. How do children learn best? And have traditional teaching methods outlived their usefulness?
The African quarter of Jerusalem, Ethiopian Jews returned to their ancient homeland and African asylum-seekers: Paul Bakibinga travels to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to explore the lives and experiences of people from three different communities.
Vietnamese now cross in their thousands to visit Cambodian border casinos. Ed Butler reports on (some of) the darker aspects of Cambodia’s gambling boom.
Tracing the history of the modern Arab world through some of the great political dreams that have shaped it, from the 19th Century to the Arab Spring. In part two of The Making of the Arab World, Egyptian author Tarek Osman explores the rise and fall of Arab nationalism.
Lu Olkowski reports on New York's growing 'prepper' movement - people who are fearful of the future and who are preparing for the next disaster that will strike the city. They train in self-defence, plan ways to escape, store food and water in their houses and have 'bug out' bags ready at a moments notice if they have to flee. Are these people simply paranoid? Or do they have genuine concerns that all of us should take heed of?
How Manchester helped shape the modern age. Communism, free trade, the co-operative movement, the campaign for female suffrage, European vegetarianism and trade unionism all originated or - crucially - were developed in the northern UK city.
Can a unique friendship between two men of god end the killings in the Central African Republic? Tim Whewell investigates.
The history of the Arab world, including Egypt's 19th Century encounters with Europe and the cultural renaissance known as Nahda.
How does being on a map affect your work, education and rights? Meet the The volunteers who are mapping the world's unmapped places and people - in the aftermath of natural disasters, and in areas of political unrest and civil war.
The story of Capt Mbaye Diagne, one of the unsung heroes of Rwanda’s genocide. Working as a Senegalese UN peacekeeper, he saved the children of murdered Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and many more. Mark Doyle travels to Rwanda, Senegal and Canada to meet the people who knew Mbaye Diagne.
How can an airplane go missing in the 21st Century and why - nearly a month after it disappeared - we are apparently no nearer to solving the mystery of what happened to flight MH370?
Lucy Ash talks to the Ukrainian volunteers and activists who are painstakingly restoring a stash of documents dumped in a lake on the abandoned estate of ex-president Yanukovich.
Hacking, security, encryption: Gordon Corera explores the history of the war between governments and geeks to control computer cryptography.
Sarah Montague turns her attention to universities, in particular, to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Some argue that these free university online courses, presented by some of the best professors in the world, could - in cash strapped times - be the saviour of higher education and take university to people in some of the remotest regions of the world. Others argue they could destroy centuries of tradition.
Mustapha Mohammed meets Nigerian boys who have to work to support their families in the northern city of Kano. It's a heavy burden for them, and they pay a high personal price.
In 1983 at the height of the deprivations and repression of Nicolae Ceausescu's communist regime in Romania, a man called Ion Bugan made a solitary protest against the system. His daughter, the poet and writer Carmen Bugan, describes what happened next.
Each year, thousands of Latin American migrants illegally cross the US border via a treacherous journey, walking for days across the Arizona desert. Some succeed, others are deported, while many drop dead from exhaustion. The BBC's Mexico Correspondent Will Grant travels to Tucson, Arizona, to meet the team behind The Missing Migrant Project, which works to identify the remains of the dead and, ultimately, return them to their family.
More gun deaths are due to suicide than homicide in the US. But what happens to the fiancée left behind, to friends and to the law enforcement officers involved? And, in the wake of the Clackamas mall shooting, we hear from people about their fear of violence, rational or not, that drives the fierce opposition to gun control.
Tim Whewell travels to the Turkish border and to Lebanon to talk to the doctors and health care workers struggling to cope with a growing crisis.
Monica Vasconcelos reports that fifty years after the coup, Brazil has started to deal with the legacy of the military dictatorship. But why are some people still afraid?
Under apartheid in South Africa, stand-up comedy was exclusively the domain of white performers. But now comics like David Kau and Riaad Moosa are challenging that dominance with their witty takes on the complexities and divides of their society.
Young women lack the same opportunities as men, despite most countries legislating against discrimination. What is standing in the way of girls achieving equality?
The BBC’s Valeria Perasso is on the US border, exploring the journey taken by Mexican deportees as they pass through the security fence, back home.
Does 'paid media' threaten democracy? Shilpa Kannan investigates corruption in India where there are 250 radio stations, 850 TV channels and 93,000 newspapers and magazines.
Catherine Carr charts the course of one day in the lives of many people, making many different journeys across the globe. By simply asking "Where are you going", she unearths the painful, the poignant and the downright bizarre.
Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, the Middle East has experienced a proliferation of new TV channels keen to spread religious and political messages to audiences. There are new media stars – TV evangelists and religious leaders. But some of what is broadcast has been described as openly sectarian, provocative and even blasphemous. We look at two countries where this kind of broadcasting proliferates – Iraq and Egypt - and try to uncover the reasons for it, and the possible consequences.
Hungarian conductor – Ivan Fischer – is holding up a mirror to Hungarian society and has written an opera to expose growing intolerance. Lucy Ash reports
With regulation of newspapers planned, Steve Hewlett and a panel of international editors ask: how free is the UK press?
Fashion magazines, consumerism, and the changing face of Chinese fashion. Jessie Levene speaks to editors, photographers, designers and cultural commentators to find out how Chinese women are creating a new Chinese female identity.
A decision by his father to send him to ballet school changed the direction of Carlos Acosta’s life. Thanks to Fidel Castro’s belief that art should be accessible to all Cubans he received free ballet tuition. It shaped his character, and secured his future. Now he wants to give something back to his country by saving an abandoned ballet school in Havana. Vittorio Garatti’s School of Ballet is an extraordinary labyrinth of corridors, graceful arches and majestic brick and terracotta domes, and has been described as one of the most remarkable buildings of the 20th Century. But the ballet star’s attempts to restore the building have stirred Latin passions and protest.
Rupa Jha meets fellow Indian women who choose to be, or are forced to be, single. She comes face-to-face with a story of coercion, prejudice and neglect that is both shocking and moving. It is also a story about the reactionary attitudes, narrow-mindedness and sometimes outright misogyny that obstruct such women's choices.
Thousands of Uruguayans are hooked on a highly addictive cocaine derivative – ‘pasta base’. Will the legalisation of marijuana impact this problematic drug abuse? Linda Pressly reports.
Ingrid Betancourt - who was held captive for six years - explores how people's minds can be free even while they are in captivity.
The number of families in India employing detectives to spy on future brides and grooms is on the rise. Many dozens of premarital investigations happen each week, it’s now reported. Ed Butler has been finding out why.
Ex-Guantanamo detainees talk about freedom and how detention in the military prison changed their lives and thinking.
They are Asia’s economic giants – yet the historical record of Japan and China continues to cause tensions. In programme two, Japanese journalist Mariko Oi and Chinese journalist Haining Liu, travel around China, including the city of Nanjing, where Japanese forces committed rapes and mass killings during the war. How are events like these remembered in modern China? And, why can young Chinese consume Japanese pop culture while demonstrating against Japan’s historical record? The pair discover that, despite the deep cultural links between their nations, history remains a barrier.
Kim Ghattas travels through her native country Lebanon exploring the deepening sense of anxiety there over the war in neighbouring Syria.
They are Asia’s economic giants - yet the historical record of Japan and China continues to cause tensions. China’s leaders accuse Japan of failing to apologise for its wartime aggression – while Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, talks of rewriting the country’s pacifist Constitution. Tensions are rising in the South China seas.
Japanese journalist Mariko Oi and Chinese journalist Haining Liu, visit each other's country to explore the intertwineed histories of their two nations and what they mean today.
The story of Russia's volunteer diggers armed with spades and metal detectors who search forests and swamps for the remains of Red Army soldiers seventy years after World War Two.
What role does music play for today’s soldiers? Soldiers stationed at Camp Bastion describe their music as an essential part of their lives - helping to drown out the hum of activity around camp and helps everybody to relax in their free time.
Voluntary euthanasia for adults has been legal since 2002 in Belgium. Now legislators are considering extending the right to die to children who are terminally ill.
With accusations of corruption and criminality, are the concerns about Sochi justified? Given that all Olympic host cities endure fierce criticism in the lead-up to the Games are they being exaggerated?
For centuries, Turkish traders have exploited their location on the historic Silk Road between east and west, selling to merchants travelling in both directions. And, as Jim O'Neill reports Turkey's geography remains important to this day as the country becomes an aviation hub, a conduit for gas and oil, and a unique visitor destination. Yet Turkish plans go much further too. So can this ambitious country combine its deep-rooted trading skills with ultra modern technology to develop world-beating manufacturers? Or will its much lauded potential remain just that?
Mexico's hope of becoming the workshop of North America was shattered by China's domination of cheap exports, but recently, the Mexican dream is in sight again. As Beijing opts for "quality not quantity" of growth, companies are returning, drawn by competitive labour and proximity to the US market. In the first part of a landmark series, the economist Jim O'Neill travels across Mexico to investigate. He discovers that its ambitions now go far beyond cheap manufacturing. But can Mexico's youthful, reforming government overcome the challenges of widespread poverty, crime and a huge number of people living outside the formal economy
Turkey has notoriously vague and extensive anti-terror laws which have been used to jail dozens of journalists over the last six months. Journalists say these laws have been used as a pretext to prevent them from reporting on subjects the government finds sensitive, such as the Kurdish issue or Turkey’s policy towards Syria. Selin Gerit investigates why journalists so often find themselves under attack from the authorities.
Can Indonesia break its old reliance on exporting raw materials to realise the potential of a huge, growing and rapidly urbanising population?
Nigeria is a nation of young, vibrant and natural entrepreneurs. Can they overcome the country's terrible legacy - decades of corruption, crime, and mismanagement?
What does the popularity of controversial comedian Dieudonné tell us about France today? Helen Grady meets some of his supporters and those who think he's a dangerous anti-Semite.
meet Ruhan Jia one of the young hopefuls in the world of state-manufactured pop. After decades of being closed off to western pop culture, the pressure is on for China to find a state-endorsed popstar, a fun and cool ambassador who can command the global stage.
Why and how illegal migrants from Burma and Cambodia are being forced onto Thai fishing boats to work, unpaid, for months.
Nick Thorpe reports from Hungary where the government has adopted controversial laws to clear the homeless off the streets. But can you legislate away a social problem?
Natalia Antelava profiles Gulnara Karimova, the socialite, pop star and philanthropist daughter of Uzbekistan's dictatorial president.
It has taken scientists almost 50 years to cure rare diseases through gene therapy. The risks are still great but the field is developing fast, bringing hope to those with untreatable conditions. Now there are growing concerns that athletes will abuse this pioneering technology. Tim Franks speaks to American journalist and sports enthusiast David Epstein, and geneticist Philippe Moullier about the issue of gene doping.
Prostitution is said to be one of the world's oldest professions, and one which has traditionally been the domain of women, but today it is common for men to also sell sexual services. Mobeen Azhar meets some of the many male sex workers doing business in London - now seen by many as the number one destination to ply their trade.
For centuries, Turkish traders have exploited their location on the historic Silk Road between east and west, selling to merchants travelling in both directions. As Jim O'Neill reports, Turkey's geography remains important to this day as the country becomes an aviation hub, a conduit for gas and oil, and a unique visitor destination. Yet Turkish plans go much further too. So can this ambitious country combine its deep-rooted trading skills with ultra modern technology to develop world-beating manufacturers? Or will its much lauded potential remain just that?
Tim Whewell investigates claims that millions of dollars of aid meant for Syria has been wasted due to mismanagement at the Syrian opposition's aid coordination unit.
Indonesia has enjoyed a boom created by its exports of raw materials to China, India and other growing economies. But commodity prices are notoriously volatile and the world's fourth largest nation needs to create a more stable economy as it expands even further and urbanises rapidly. International investors are queuing up to exploit this major market, but as Jim O'Neill discovers the Indonesian story is complex: poverty, poor infrastructure and an historical aversion to foreign interference could all threaten the dream of joining the world's economic A list.
Breakthrough on the identity of a man found on a London street. Months after Jose Matada from Mozambique fell to his death from the undercarriage of an aeroplane flying over London, his family has been traced. This is an update on the story originally broadcast in June 2013.
Mexico's hope of becoming the workshop of North America was shattered by China's domination of cheap exports, but recently, the Mexican dream is in sight again. As Beijing opts for "quality not quantity" of growth, companies are returning, drawn by competitive labour and proximity to the US market. Jim O'Neill travels across Mexico to investigate. He discovers that its ambitions now go far beyond cheap manufacturing. But can Mexico's youthful, reforming government overcome the challenges of widespread poverty, crime and a huge number of people living outside the formal economy?
Will the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi showcase a resurgent Russia or hide real problems within? Lucy Ash investigates.
Jim O'Neill investigates Nigeria; can a nation of young, vibrant, natural entrepreneurs overcome decades of corruption, crime and mismanagement?
James Fletcher asks if mining for rare earths and uranium will destroy Greenland's environment – or lead the country to independence?