The Documentary Podcast

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Assignment: The human cost of developing Cambodia's Angkor wonder Dec 31, 2024

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Tourists are flooding to Cambodia's "8th wonder of the world," the ancient temple complex at Angkor. But the rapid expansion of the site comes at a terrible cost, as tens of thousands of people are ousted. The authorities call some "illegal squatters" and claim others volunteered to leave. But human rights groups say the evictions are forced, illegal and target families who've worked the land for generations. Many say they're now debt-ridden and struggling to survive. Jill McGivering travelled to Angkor to meet those at the heart of the crisis.

Bonus: Americast - Former US President Jimmy Carter has died aged 100 Dec 30, 2024

Show notes

Former US President Jimmy Carter has died aged 100. The 39th U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate lived longer than any president in history. He celebrated his 100th birthday in October 2024. How did a peanut farmer from the Deep South and Georgia Governor become president? Justin Webb speaks to Jonathan Alter, author of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life. From brokering peace in the Middle East, to famously promising the American people he would never lie, Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. It was period beset by economic and diplomatic crises. The Carter Center, which advocates for democracy and human rights around the world, said he died on Sunday afternoon at his home in Plains, Georgia.

This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Joe McFadden. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

In the Studio: Tomás Saraceno Dec 30, 2024

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Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno's studio is two big and old industrial units covered in graffiti, in what was East Berlin. This was where the company AGFA developed and made the chemicals that made colour photography possible. The ground is so polluted Saraceno's lease forbids him from growing any vegetables, and this matters to this environmentally concerned artist. But the industrial past of Studio Saracen is fitting as Tomás’ work is highly technical. Here he has an architecture department, an arachnid research laboratory and an engineering works. He has about 40 people working on different projects. Tomás talks to Julian May about some of his projects, including Aerocene - sculptural hot air balloons that ascend and fly without the use of any fossil fuels, by capturing the reflected heat of the sun. His ambition is to create a kind of slow aviation, in which his balloons circumnavigate the globe on air currents.

Bonus: HARDTalk - Past Notes Dec 29, 2024

Show notes

A special bonus episode remembering some past HARDtalk guests who died in 2024. All of them made a significant impact, whether it be in politics, activism or culture. Here is a chance to reflect on their lives and motivation.

For more in-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities, go to bbcworldservice.com/HARDTalk or search for HARDTalk wherever you got this podcast.

The Fifth Floor: Bollywood binge Dec 28, 2024

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Why are old Bollywood hits being re-released in cinemas? And why are horror movies doing so well this year? Journalists Meryl Sebastian, Yasser Usman and Shoaib Sharifi discuss all things Bollywood.

Produced by Alice Gioia, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean.

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

BBC OS Conversations: Becoming an Olympic and Paralympic trailblazer Dec 28, 2024

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Earlier this year, five countries won Olympics medals for the first time in history. We celebrate three of those athletes from Nepal, Cape Verde and Dominica and hear about the challenges on their journey to sporting greatness. Thea LaFond, who won gold in the triple jump for Dominica had little financial support early on in her athletics career and was often the only person in her event who also had a full-time job. We hear how the athletes’ experiences not only affected their country, but also inspired others. Nepalese Paralympian Palesha Goverdhan, who won a bronze medal in Taekwondo says, “It has shown people, especially athletes and persons with disabilities, that anything is possible.” And, Cape Verde boxer David de Pina had to leave his country and family to get the right training.

Heart and Soul: From the ashes of Notre Dame Dec 27, 2024

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In 2019 a devastating fire ripped through the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Locals looked on in disbelief, and millions watched on television around the world, as the iconic wooden spire came crashing down into the flames. Many thought Notre Dame was lost forever, but the 860-year-old Cathedral was not for giving up and over the past four years a team of skilled workers, at a cost of 700 million Euros, have painstakingly reconstructed this medieval masterpiece. Colm Flynn meet five people who say the symbolism of this Cathedral's restoration has had a profound impact on their faith. From a young wheelchair user who constructed a wheelchair for Pope Francis from the Cathedral's burnt wood, to the firefighter who saved the sacred chalice from the flames, to the young female footballer involved in the Paris Olympics who is now inspired to see the cathedral's rebirth and a choir made up of the Cathedral's architects and carpenters.

The street that tech built Dec 26, 2024

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The city of Florence is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. But are new technologies and hyper-tourism changing it forever? Writer Kamin Mohammadi tells the story of how one road - the Via Di San Niccolo - has changed. Kamin lived there when she first moved to the city 16 years ago, and she has seen the changes first-hand.

She speaks to friends who still live on the street, business owners who have experienced the changes, about whether the character of the city has been forever altered.

But Kamin’s story, like many she knows in Florence, is complicated. The book she wrote about the city’s lifestyle encouraged many of her readers to travel there and experience it for themselves. Many others – from bar owners to cookery writers – similarly depend on tourism. She asks all of them what the city can do to retain the character that residents – and tourists – love.

Bonus: HARDTalk - 2024 Review Dec 25, 2024

Show notes

A special episode from the HARDTalk podcast.

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur looks back on some of the most powerful moments from 2024 in his end of year review.

For more in-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities, go to bbcworldservice.com/HARDTalk or search for HARDTalk wherever you got this podcast.

Assignment: Poland's ghosts, Ukraine's heroes Dec 24, 2024

Show notes

Ukraine and Poland are neighbours and close allies in today’s conflict with Russia. But the ghosts of victims of an earlier war have returned to divide them. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by Ukrainians in Volhynia, in what's now western Ukraine, in 1943. Most of the victims still lie in unmarked graves, and Ukraine has only just lifted a ban on exhuming the bodies.

That followed heavy diplomatic pressure by Poland, about to take over the presidency of the European Union. It threatened to block moves towards Ukrainian integration with the EU unless the ban were lifted.

But Poland’s demand has stirred a controversy inside Ukraine about one of the darkest periods of its history. Ukrainian nationalists who were involved in the massacre - and their leader Stepan Bandera - are regarded by many Ukrainians as heroes.

Reporter Tim Whewell travels through Poland and western Ukraine to try to find out what really happened in 1943, and ask whether Poland and Ukraine can ever lay a fiercely-contested history to rest. And can the record of Ukraine's Second World War nationalists be openly discussed without giving a propaganda victory to Russia, which has tried to use the subject to vilify Ukraine?

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