The Documentary Podcast

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Heart and Soul: Synagogue for sale Sep 06, 2024

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Dr Aleksandra Janus is a Polish Cultural Anthropologist with a Jewish background from Warsaw, Poland. Living in the capital flattened by Nazi bombs and then recreated by Communism, her multi-layered identity has always conjured mixed feelings about former Jewish memory and cultural spaces. As President of the organisation, Zapomniane Foundation (which means forgotten in English), one of her jobs is to trace mass graves in forests, cityscapes and death camps across the country in cooperation with local villagers, WWII survivors and non-invasive scanning technologies. Alerted by her friend Karolina Jakoweńko, she's come across an interesting proposition – an historic synagogue in the area of Poland that belonged to Germany before WWII. Once owned by a thriving Jewish community who were exterminated by the Nazis, now decades later the synagogue is in the hands of a private owner and Jewish people no longer live in the village. Synagogues in Germany were at first destroyed by the Nazis but not this synagogue – it miraculously survived. So, she's trying to grapple with the idea - does she buy a synagogue back to revive it or leave it where it belongs - in the past. The BBC’s Amie Liebowitz travels across Poland to explore the daily life of Aleksandra and her quest to both bury the dead and re-sanctify spaces. Driving through cities, forests and villages in between, Amie and Aleksandra alongside her colleagues unpacks what this purchase could look like and what post-Jewish, post-German spaces represent in modern Poland. Presenter/ Reporter: Amie Liebowitz

Bonus: CrowdScience - How do fish survive in the deep ocean? Sep 05, 2024

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In a bonus episode from CrowdScience - How do fish survive in the deep ocean?

When listener Watum heard about the Titan submersible implosion in the news in 2023, a question popped up in his mind: if a machine that we specifically built for this purpose cannot sustain the water pressure of the deep ocean, how do fish survive down there?

In this episode, we travel with marine biologist Alan Jamieson to the second deepest place in our oceans: the Tonga trench. Meanwhile, presenter Caroline Steel speaks to Edie Widder about the creatures that illuminate our oceans, and travels to Copenhagen to take a closer look one of the strangest deep sea creatures and its deep sea adaptations.

But even fish have their limits! Scientist Paul Yancey correctly predicted the deepest point that fish can live, and it all comes down to one particular molecule.

So is there anything living beyond these depths? Well, there is only one way to find out…

CrowdScience takes your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontier of knowledge. For more episodes just search for CrowdScience wherever you got this podcast.

Contributors: Prof Alan Jamieson, University of Western Australia Luke Siebermaier, Submersible Team Leader, Inkfish Dr Edie Widder, Ocean Research & Conservation Association Peter Rask Møller, Natural History Museum of Denmark Prof Paul Yancey, Whitman College

Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Florian Bohr Editor: Martin Smith & Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood

(Image: Deep-sea fish - stock photo, Credit: superjoseph via Getty Images)

West Bank: Settlers, guns and sanctions Sep 03, 2024

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For more than six months, a BBC Eye team has been investigating extremist settlers establishing a new type of illegal settlement known as a “herding outpost”. Some have been sanctioned by the UK and US governments for forcing Palestinians from their homes as part of a “campaign of violence and intimidation”. We tell the story of the Palestinian communities living on the frontline of their outposts. We expose how some of these settlers have been supported by two powerful organisations in Israel, one which describes itself as “an arm of the Israeli state”.

Assignment: The 'ghost city' of Cyprus Sep 03, 2024

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The once glamorous Cypriot beach resort of Varosha has stood empty and frozen in time since war divided the island 50 years ago, but it is now partially open to tourists and there are hotly contested plans for its renewal.

Maria Margaronis speaks to Varosha's former inhabitants - mostly Greek Cypriots - who fled in 1974 when Turkish troops invaded the island and have been unable to return ever since, after Turkey fenced off the town as a bargaining chip for future peace negotiations.

Some of these Varoshians want to rebuild the resort together with the island's Turkish Cypriots - a potential model for diffusing hostilities across the whole island - and the UN says its original inhabitants must be allowed to return. But, following decades of failed peace talks, the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which controls Varosha, now says it intends to re-open and redevelop the entire town.

In the Studio: Laurie Anderson Sep 02, 2024

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American artist Laurie Anderson is putting the finishing touches to her new album Amelia at Miraval Studios in southern France. This is Laurie's first record in six years, and she tells the story of renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight in 1937. Earhart’s plane disappeared without trace over the Pacific as she attempted to circumnavigate the globe. The fate of Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan became one of the most enduring mysteries of the last century. This 22-track album has been almost 25 years in the making, and Laurie has come to Miraval Studios in southern France to work with Emmy-winning sound engineer Damien Quintard. We go behind the scenes as they collaborate on a complex mix, which includes the Filharmonie Brno orchestra, a string trio and other solo musicians.

Global Dancefloor: Tbilisi Sep 02, 2024

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Frank McWeeny heads to Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, to meet the underground music community leading protests against government clampdown on freedom of expression and civil society groups. How vital is dancing in a country going through the biggest political and social crisis of its generation? We hear from the city most important techno club Bassiani, militant radio station and event space Mutant Radio, and members of the nightlife scene.

Three Million: 8. Road to the past Sep 01, 2024

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Kavita Puri goes to India to meet the last survivors of the 1943 Bengal famine. She looks for traces of how war and famine impacted Kolkata and then travels from the city along the road to where the story of famine begins. Kavita goes deep into the countryside and the jungle in West Bengal to find people who lived through that devastating time more than 80 years ago. For the past year and a half Kavita has been asking why there is no memorial to the three million people who died. But then in the Bengal jungle she finally finds it – and it’s not what she expected.

The Fifth Floor: Ukraine's 'Memory Cafés' Aug 31, 2024

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Could a cup of coffee become an act of love and remembrance? BBC Ukrainian's Ilona Hromliuk speaks to the relatives of fallen soldiers who have opened 'memory cafés' to pay tribute to their loved ones. Plus, Alfred Lasteck from BBC Africa tells us about a pioneering conservation project that helped restore the coral reef around the Mnemba island in Zanzibar, and sports journalist Emmanuel Akindubuwa meets the power couple of Nigerian para table tennis.

Produced by Alice Gioia and Hannah Dean.

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

BBC OS Conversations: Three years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan Aug 31, 2024

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The withdrawal of US troops in 2021 prompted the collapse of the Afghan military, an interim government and then a power grab by the hardline Islamist regime. Since then there have been increasingly harsh restrictions on everything from freedom of movement to clothing. Women and girls are now longer able to attend school after the age of 12 or university and must not speak in public. Host Luke Jones brings together three women in Kabul and in the nearby Ghazni province to hear about their lives, ambitions and how the latest laws make them feel.

Heart and Soul: Afghanistan 20 years on Aug 30, 2024

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Twenty years ago, reporter Julia Paul was teaching media to young women in an Afghanistan where the Taliban were in retreat, if only temporarily. Now she has tracked down two of them again to find out how their lives have fared in the decades since. Some have fled abroad while others are still in Afghanistan, imprisoned in their homes. But even for those who have escaped, life is far from easy. As one of the army of secular western aid workers that flooded Afghan society all those years ago, Julia discusses with the women whether or not the West should have intervened in the first place.

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