The Documentary Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Francis, the rebel Pope Apr 22, 2025

Show notes

Following the death of Pope Francis, Edward Stourton looks at the life and legacy of the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide. He was elected at a time of crisis for his Church, but quickly transformed its reputation. He urged Christians to be less judgemental and more welcoming of gay and divorced people. And as the first Pope of Latin American identity and from the southern hemisphere, he put the poor at the heart of the Church’s mission, speaking up for migrants and refugees and those worst hit by the impact of climate change. Edward Stourton speaks to people inside and outside the Catholic Church, including those who worked closely with him.

Assignment: Dicing with democracy? Romania’s cancelled election Apr 22, 2025

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A cancelled election, a cancelled candidate and a divided country – is Romania’s democracy under threat?

Last December the country’s Constitutional Court cancelled the presidential election two days before the final vote, citing outside interference, with the nationalist pro-Putin candidate, Calin Georgescu, riding high in the polls. TikTok sensation and portraying himself as an outsider, Georgescu’s anti-EU and anti-NATO message resonated with an unhappy electorate. His sudden success was unprecedented, as was the cancelation of a European democratic election.

The political establishment claim that cyberwarfare and Russian interference gave them no choice. Georgescu has now been eliminated from May’s Presidential re-run.

Historian Tessa Dunlop asks how this happened, why it matters and what next for this strategically important country on the eastern edge of the EU and NATO?

In the Studio: Amin Gulgee - Heavy metal Apr 21, 2025

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Amin Gulgee defies easy categorisation: he’s a metal sculptor, a curator, and one of Pakistan’s most innovative and cherished artists, the beating heart of his home city of Karachi’s creative scene. His metalwork is as dramatic and eccentric as Amin is. He’s in your face, uncompromising, a living and breathing performance piece.

Amin also comes from a prestigious family: his father, Ismail Gulgee, was one of Pakistan’s most famous modernists, creating abstract paintings that have been exhibited across the globe, and even sketching heads of state like Reagan and Gaddafi. In 2007, Ismail and Amin’s mother Zaro were tragically murdered by their driver. It was Amin who found their bodies, in their house which adjoins his own studio and gallery. Much of Amin’s work since has been an attempt to come to terms and heal from this most tragic of events.

Presenter Harry Stott meets Amin on location in his Karachi studio-cum-gallery-cum-home, as he prepares to open a new museum of his father’s work – the ‘most momentous’ thing he has ever attempted. We listen in as Amin shows us the calligraphy adorned doors which he has created for the museum’s entrance. We go inside his studio to hear about his creative process more widely. And we hear Amin come to terms with the tragedy of his parents’ death and the solace that he finds in his workshop.

Amidst the tumult of this momentous museum opening in the already tumultuous city of Karachi, this episode of In the Studio attempts to understand how Amin’s two year process of creation, curation and healing will change his creative process for the years to come.

Presenter & Producer: Harry Stott Co-producer & Fixer: Adam Fahy-Majeed Exec Producer: Sandra Ferrari Sound Design & Engineering: Alan Leer, Lizzy Andrews

A Message Heard Production

Image: Amin Gulgee (Credit: Humayun Memon)

Make me perfect: Manufacturing beauty in China Apr 20, 2025

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In China today, looking good is seen as key to career success. With beauty videos promoting extreme weight-loss flooding social media, beauty apps making booking surgery click of a button away, China’s cosmetic surgery industry is booming. But the surge in demand has led to a shortage of qualified practitioners and licensed clinics. Hundreds of accidents are happening inside Chinese clinics every day. We talk to young women pressured into cosmetic procedures and expose the surgeon behind one of China’s most notorious botched surgeries.

Presenter: Natalia Zuo Produce: Ly Truong Editors: Rebecca Henschke and Monica Garnsey Mixed by Gareth Jones

This episode includes a clip from The Most Beautiful You in the World (世界上最动听的你), aired on WeTV.

The Fifth Floor: Inside the Taliban's surveillance network Apr 19, 2025

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There are over 90,000 hi-definition CCTV cameras in Kabul, watching everyone’s movements. What are the Taliban using this footage for? BBC Afghan Services' journalist Mahjooba Nowrouzi was granted exclusive access into the country’s top security control room. Plus, BBC Mundo's William Márquez on the history of Charles Darwin's house, and Mayuresh Konnur Gopal reports for BBC Marathi on the geological and historical relevance of India's Lonar Crater Lake.

Presented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Alice Gioia, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean

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

BBC OS Conversations: Colourism Apr 19, 2025

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The issue of colourism was highlighted in a recent BBC news report about a Nigerian woman who bleached the skin of her six young children leaving them with discoloured skin, burns and scars. It is a form of racism where light skin is more highly valued than dark skin amongst people of the same ethnic group. In our conversations, we hear from women who share experiences of colourism in India including Chandana who has faced colourism from an early age. We also bring together two black women who work in the fashion and beauty industry, where appearance is everything. Beauty journalist, Ateh, shares her experiences of colourism with Nyakim, a Sudanese-American model known as Queen of the Dark after her naturally dark skin tone.

Heart and Soul: Our Sacred Harp Apr 18, 2025

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Sacred Harp pioneer and former punk frontman, Tim Eriksen, takes us into the hair-raising sound of shape note singing, an American choral tradition experiencing a resurgence across the US and in Europe. All people and all faiths are welcome. As a new edition of the songbook approaches publication, Tim explores why this music is drawing more singers and how it is managing to remain inclusive despite increasing political polarisation in the wider culture. Sacred Harp is sung a cappella in four-part harmony, a non-performative music where everyone takes a turn to lead and groups gather anywhere from churches to community centres and pubs. But how have recent political divides affected the community and how can it continue to remain an inclusive space?

Braille and me Apr 17, 2025

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Built around a game of braille Scrabble, Emma Tracey presents a celebration of braille, 200 years after it was invented. Emma, who’s been blind since birth, talks to others who love the six tiny dots: Geerat Vermeij, one of the world’s leading experts in molluscs; Yetnebersh Nigussie, an Ethiopian lawyer, who describes her blindness as "a lottery I won at the age of five"; Sheri Wells-Jensen, a linguistics professor who’s been a linguistic consultant on Star Trek and is on the US advisory board for messaging extra-terrestrial intelligence; Japanese concert pianist, Nobuyuki Tsujii, who learnt to play using braille music; and Emma's friend and Scrabble partner, Ellie. And there’s a chance encounter with the most famous braille user of them all, Stevie Wonder. But can braille survive with the ever-increasing supply of tech that allows blind people to listen to, rather than feel, information?

Presenter: Emma Tracey Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound design: Steve Brooke Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Olympique Lyonnais: The Champions League trailblazers Apr 16, 2025

Show notes

Olympique Lyonnais is the most successful club in women’s football, dominating Europe over the last 15 years winning eight Champions League titles. Only Barcelona have recently been able to compete. Lyon's success is the vision of club president Jean-Michel Aulas who wanted to create an iconic team, with the best players, but in the case of Aulas he also promised to ensure both male and female players were treated equally. This included the first mixed football training academy.

In Olympique Lyonnais: The Champions League trailblazers we find out the story of how the French club raised the standard of women’s football, going behind the scenes with striker and Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, Chelsea and England defender Lucy Bronze and France and Lyon captain Wendie Renard who have all witnessed huge success and then change with Europe’s elite catching up. Now South Korean born businesswoman Michele Kang has taken over the the French giants, with big ambitions for the club.

Photo: Players of Olympique Lyonnais celebrate after winning during the UEFA Women's Champions League final match between FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais at Juventus Stadium on May 21, 2022 in Turin, Italy. (Credit: Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images)

Assignment: New Zealand - what counts as Māori equality Apr 15, 2025

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Māori in New Zealand have been resisting moves by the current right-of-centre government to abolish certain indigenous-specific rights aimed at combatting disadvantage.

In a 9-day hikoi or march of defiance they walked from the top of New Zealand down to the capital Wellington, joined by non-Māori supporters - all opposed to the changes.

A separate Māori Health Authority has been dismantled, for example. It was set up by the previous centre-left government to tackle health inequalities that mean indigenous people live seven years less than other New Zealanders. Māori also come bottom in statistics for employment, housing and education, and are highly overrepresented in prison.

Most divisive though, a new law proposal about the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi - New Zealand’s founding document, sought to do away with what has been a form of affirmative action, and instead treat everyone the same, regardless of heritage.

Some feel this is all necessary to achieve proper equality. Others feel that Māori progress will be undone and inequality or inequity entrenched.