The Documentary Podcast

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Not-so-golden weddings Dec 27, 2025

Show notes

Gold prices have reached record highs this year, resulting in changes in buying habits, investment patterns and traditional customs. For the Fifth Floor, BBC language service journalists reflect on changing practices around gold in their regions and from the BBC's Delhi Bureau, Abhik Deb explains how sky-high prices are making a huge difference to Indian weddings, including his own.

Around a fifth of Guatemalans leave their home country to seek economic opportunity abroad, particularly in the USA. The money they send home offers vital support to the families they leave behind, but their earnings are also often used to build luxurious new houses in their hometowns. These homes, sometimes called 'remittance mansions', stand out from the traditional Guatemalan architecture all around them. For BBC Mundo, Atahualpa Amerise went to Guatemala to take a look.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world.

Presented by Faranak Amidi.

Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Why I chose to adopt Dec 27, 2025

Show notes

Actress Jennifer Aniston sparked controversy recently when she said that, despite years of unsuccessful fertility treatment, she is not interested in adopting a baby. Instead, she wants “my own DNA in a little person.” Four women from India, the US and UK share their experiences of trying to have children by several different routes. Sometimes, their choices bring judgement. Imogen, in the UK, always wanted to adopt, yet family and friends wondered why going "down the IVF route” was not an option. Margaret, a mother in India, has both a biological son and an adoptive daughter. She felt an instant connection with the baby girl and has never regretted the decision. Yet everyone tried to dissuade her and her husband from adoption. Her daughter Shika, now 26, joins two other adult adoptive children for our second conversation. They discuss what it was like growing up and how being adopted has affected them personally as well as the relationship with their parents. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives

The lord and dance: Michael Flatley Dec 26, 2025

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Michael Flatley is the most famous Irish dancer in the world, rising to stardom for his leading roles in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Colm Flynn travels to meet Flatley at home, where he reflects on the highs of his remarkable career and the personal experiences that shaped his outlook on life and faith. Born in Chicago to Irish parents, Flatley grew up surrounded by music, dance, and the values of hard work and perseverance. His groundbreaking performance in Riverdance at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 brought Irish dance to a global audience, and his later productions redefined what Irish traditional dance could be. In recent years, Michael Flatley’s life was upended when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. He describes the diagnosis as a moment that forced him to re-examine what truly matters: family, love, and belief in God. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

The gift of science Dec 25, 2025

Show notes

Our present to you is the science of gifts. First, we investigate the health benefits of donating blood, and find out about the predator sharing a feast of food in the Arctic. We are then joined in the studio by physicist Dr Krishma Singal from Rice University, who unravels the soft-matter physics and brilliant engineering potential of knitting. Next, we discuss the reputation of piranhas, enquire about the uniqueness of our sneezes, and break down how salting roads makes them safer in the winter.

Bonus: 2025 in conversations from The Interview Dec 24, 2025

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2025 on The Interview

In 2025, the BBC launched The Interview, bringing you the best conversations from across the BBC. People shaping our world from all over the world.

This special episode for The Documentary features three of the most compelling conversations from The Interview across the year. Senior politicians are held to account by experienced BBC journalists, who also bring a unique and personal insight to the conversation, with a behind-the-scenes take on each encounter that took place.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s controversial challenge to climate orthodoxy was the subject of his conversation with the BBC’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt. Like his boss President Trump, Secretary Wright believes the threat from climate change is exaggerated, and the rush to decarbonisation by renewables has been an expensive mistake. In an interview with BBC presenter Paul Njie, Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud defends his efforts to tackle the terrorist insurgency in his country. And he stands firm in the face of demands for independence from the northern region of Somaliland - the unity of Somalia, he says, is sacrosanct. British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out her plans for a radical reform of the UK asylum system in a conversation with the BBC’s Nick Robinson. It makes for an uncompromising message for those trying to enter Britain illegally. Thank you to the all the teams across the BBC who have helped us make The Interview throughout 2025. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Lucy Sheppard Producers: Ben Cooper, Clare Williamson, Farhana Haider, Lucy Sheppard Editors: Justine Lang and Nick Holland Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

Argentina's elusive big cats Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

After decades of extinction, wild jaguars are once again roaming in Northern Argentina. It has been at least thirty five years since a wild jaguar cub was spotted in this dry and dusty part of Argentina. But in August 2025, a baby appeared on the chocolatey-brown banks of the River Bermejo. Its existence was a great success for the team from Rewilding Argentina, a non-profit foundation that started reintroducing these magnificent beasts here in 2019. But it has not been easy: hunting is still a problem and the organisation has had to get the locals on board with sharing their home with big cats. Charlotte Pritchard travels to 'The Impenetrable Forest' to find out how the birth of this baby became possible.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Michael Symmons Roberts' Christmas card poem Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

There’s a tradition among poets to write a poem to put inside the Christmas cards they send. So, the BBC World Service has commissioned one specially from the poet, dramatist and novelist Michael Symmons Roberts, whose Christian faith is important to his identity and work. But his art is not a direct expression of this, and instead he follows the poet Emily Dickinson’s instruction to "tell all the truth but tell it slant".

Michael has just become a grandfather, so feels keenly the happiness of the arrival of a cherished child, creating a parallel between his own life and the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus. Julian May follows Michael’s creative process as he grapples huge spiritual and personal themes – distilling them to a length which can fit on a Christmas card: a daunting but joyful task.

The programme begins on London’s Oxford Street, where consumerism triggers preparations a full three months before Christmas, and ends with the sealing of the Christmas cards before they are popped into the post box.

United in space: How we built the ISS Dec 21, 2025

Show notes

Celebrating 25 unbroken years of humans living in space, former international director of the UK Space Agency Dr Alice Bunn charts how nations put aside differences to create the ultimate symbol of human ingenuity and collaboration – a space station orbiting our planet that has been home to more than 300 people from 24 different nations.

Using mission control audio, news archive and personal stories, Alice illuminates acts of epic survival, humour and selflessness that made the station a reality. She investigates why a near fatal disaster on the Russian Mir space station spurred nations to commit to the ISS, and reveals how a Moscow basement and Hollywood royalty sparked bonding between Russians and Americans. She also discovers how quick thinking and plastic tape saved the station, allowing it to grow to the size of a football pitch, and how one astronaut came within seconds of drowning in space.

Looking into the future, Alice explores how the legacy of the ISS will be carried on by a new generation of private space stations, which have the power to push back the boundaries of science for the good of all humanity. The reduced gravity offers enormous possibilities, including creating materials impossible to create on Earth.

Living in fear on South Africa's farms Dec 20, 2025

Show notes

In February, American President Donald Trump signed an executive order which said that South African Afrikaners - descendants of mainly Dutch settlers who arrived in the 17th Century - could be admitted as refugees in the USA as they were "victims of unjust racial discrimination". President Trump’s move to prioritise the resettlement of white South African farmers reignited global controversy when he referenced what he has described as a “genocide” against white farmers. Thousands of South Africans have now applied for refugee status in the USA, and are waiting to potentially relocate there. Farmers in South Africa are predominantly white, but farmers and farm workers of all races fear theft and violent crime in the country. Claire Mawisa is a reporter for BBC Africa Eye and recently travelled to meet farmers in South Africa.

Kings, or chiefs, in Ghana don't hold much formal or political power, but they are hugely important to people and hold a lot of cultural and social influence. But there are also powerful royal women in Ghana. They've held power in certain parts of the country for a long time, but it seems their influence is now on the rise. It is a story that caught the eye of Stefania Okereke of BBC Focus on Africa.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world.

Presented by Faranak Amidi.

Produced by Caroline Ferguson and Laura Thomas.

Jewish Australians on the Bondi Beach attacks Dec 20, 2025

Show notes

The Australian government says it will crack down on hate speech following the deadly shooting that targeted a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach. People had come together to celebrate Hanukkah when two gunmen opened fire, killing fifteen people.

Australia’s new laws aim to target those who spread “hate, division and radicalisation". In our conversations, Jewish Australians discuss their personal experiences of antisemitism in Australia.

“You see the arson, you see the graffiti, you see the protests, you see the slogans, you see the people delegitimising Israel and its right to exist,” Sharon tells us. “And the jump is, unfortunately, not that far for people to then delegitimise the right of Jews to be in this country.”

Reports from across the world suggest that antisemitism is on the rise, particularly since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. We also bring together Jews in the US, Belgium and Germany who share their experiences of attacks on their community, and discuss what can be done about it.

Presenter: James Reynolds

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