The Documentary Podcast

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Vancouver's mental health crisis Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

On 26 April 26, this year, 11 people were killed after a car was driven into a crowd at a street festival in Vancouver. Dozens more were injured, making it the deadliest attack in the city’s history. The youngest victim was just five years old. The accused, 30-year-old Adam Kai-Ji Lo, remains in custody while facing numerous charges of second-degree murder. Shortly after the attack, authorities confirmed that he was ‘being supervised under the Mental Health Act’ at the time of the attack.This case has sparked a conversation about mental health and the way it is dealt with, or not, in the city. Sam Gruet travels to Vancouver, British Columbia to ask if the city, and wider province, is facing a mental health crisis, exploring how a mixture of cuts and a worsening opioid crisis has led some to call for drastic action. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Wynton Marsalis: The sound of democracy Jul 21, 2025

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An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz trumpeter and bandleader Wynton Marsalis, one of America’s greatest living musicians. How does a great artist pass on the lessons and traditions of their culture to the next generation? We follow Wynton and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as they prepare for the international premiere of Wynton’s Democracy! Suite. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

The mystery of the ‘tula boy’ Jul 19, 2025

Show notes

In 1953, a South Korean child was smuggled into Colombia in a duffle bag, or ‘tula’ in Spanish. He was adopted and re-named Carlos Arturo Gallón, but he had questions about his identity that remained unanswered for over half a century. José Carlos Cueto from BBC Mundo reports.

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 Alice Gioia, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean.

This is an EcoAudio certified production.

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

Landmines Jul 19, 2025

Show notes

Hidden landmines and other devices left behind from wars are present in nearly 70 countries and territories, according to the military alliance Nato. Among those is Ukraine, where the war has made it one of the most mine laden countries in the world. Recently, Ukraine joined several other countries bordering Russia in announcing it will withdraw from an international mine ban treaty. Since 1999 that agreement, known as the Ottawa Convention, has prohibited the use, stockpiling and production of anti-personnel mines. We discuss the global impact of the weapon. Researchers say each year more than 5,500 people are killed or injured. Most are civilians. Many are children. We hear from landmine survivors in Ukraine, Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia and Uganda about how their lives have been changed by landmines. Also, three men in Ukraine, Tajikistan and Syria, discuss why they put their lives at risk by trying to remove landmines. 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.

Escaping North Korea Jul 18, 2025

Show notes

North Korea is considered one of the most secretive countries in the world. It is officially an atheist state. The ruling party sees religion as a threat to its authority. Instead North Koreans are expected to show complete devotion to the ruling Kim family, who many view as godlike. There are believed to be a small number of Christians practicing in secret inside the hermit kingdom, but entire families can be sent to prison camps for practicing religion. Even owning a Bible can lead to detention or even death. There are an estimated 33,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea. The exact number of North Korean Christians living in the south is unknown, but it is believed that a significant number of defectors now identify as Christians. BBC Correspondent Danny Vincent travels to the South Korean capital of Seoul to meet a family of defectors he first met a decade earlier while fleeing Northern China. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world

Returning Germany’s stolen skulls Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

In 1900, German colonial officers executed 19 Tanzanian leaders, including Akida Kiwelu, and shipped their skulls to Berlin for scientific study. Thousands of such skulls and ancestral remains stolen from Germany’s past colonies are still kept in Berlin museums to this day. In an administrative building in Berlin, Zablon Kiwelu encounters his grandfather’s skull for the first time. DNA testing confirmed a genetic match to this skull, held in an anthropological colonial-era collection of thousands of skulls known as the S-Collection. But despite proof of his heritage, Zablon cannot bring his grandfather home for a proper burial.

Myanmar’s Scam Centres Jul 15, 2025

Show notes

Observers are calling this possibly the biggest human trafficking event in modern times. Hundreds of thousands of people recruited – usually under false pretences - to work in massive facilities in the border areas of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, to promote fraudulent investment schemes and romance scams to unsuspecting citizens around the world. The scams, run by criminal gangs, are thought to be making tens of billions of dollars every year. Those recruited often find themselves, trapped, beaten and tortured. Ed Butler travels to Thailand’s border with Myanmar to investigate the scale of the trade, to speak to survivors and to some of those still involved, and to explore what role the ongoing civil war in Myanmar is playing in fuelling this apparently burgeoning criminal trade, beyond the reach of international law-enforcement.

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

Anatomy of a scene Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

For over 25 years Antonia Quirke has made programmes and written articles about film. After a chance comment during an interview, she was offered a small part in a screen adaptation of Jim Crace’s novel Harvest, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, one of the celebrated instigators of the surreal, unsettling cinema movement known as the Greek Weird Wave. Filmed over the course of one tempestuous summer on location in the remote Scottish Highlands, little did she know that she was to end up having to perform a particularly gruesome act of violence during a pivotal scene. And then watch that moment screened for the first time at the Venice Film Festival. This programme contains content that some listeners may find upsetting.

Dying for a transplant Jul 13, 2025

Show notes

In 2019, British-Nigerian comedian Emmanuel Sonubi suffered from a near-fatal heart failure whilst on a comedy tour of Dubai. He had a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy, which means his heart was not pumping enough oxygen around his body, and he might need an urgent transplant. In the years since Emmanuel's condition has been controlled through medication but the threat of a heart transplant still looms large – as does the shortage of donors from people of his background where he lives in the UK. Emmanuel examines the cultural attitudes which stop people from taking part in organ donation and transplantation. He also hears from Dr. Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, director general of Organización Nacional de Trasplantes and Lalitha Raghuram, one of the leaders of the MOHAN Foundation, which helps spread awareness of organ donation across India.

The Romanians choosing life in the hills Jul 12, 2025

Show notes

A growing number of Romanians, including some celebrities and the country’s former prime minister Dacian Cioloș, are moving to the countryside. They say they're looking for a slower and more sustainable life in the hills. But this seemingly idyllic lifestyle is not without challenges. What's driving this trend? Romanian journalist Anca Badea has looked into this. Plus, the man who spent the past 20 years turning a wasteland into a park; is it safe to eat sprouted potatoes? And why is the Kenyan flower industry struggling? Featuring André Biernath from BBC Brasil, Nazanin Motamedi from BBC Persian and Anne Okumu from BBC 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 Alice Gioia, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean This is an EcoAudio certified production.

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

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