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BBC World Service

A window into our world, through in-depth storytelling from the BBC. Investigating, reporting and uncovering true stories from everywhere. Award-winning journalism, unheard voices, amazing culture and global issues. 

From China’s state-backed overseas spending, to on the road with Canada’s Sikh truckers, to the frontline of the climate emergency, we go beyond the headlines.

Every week, we take you into the minds of the world's most creative people and explore personal approaches to spirituality. And we bring together people from around the globe to discuss how news stories are affecting their lives. 

A new episode most days, all year round. From our BBC World Service teams at: Assignment, Heart and Soul, In the Studio, OS Conversations and The Fifth Floor.

The Documentary Podcast

A raw and intimate perspective on the terror, anger, and hope of living through war.

As bombs hit ever closer to her home in central Gaza, Hanya Aljamal spots her elderly neighbour tending to his garden. “He's been raking the earth,” she says, “prepping the soil for new seeds. Given everything that's already happening, it's quite interesting seeing him do that right now. I mean, if grandpa thinks it's a good time to put seeds in, then I don't know, maybe there's hope.”

In audio diaries sent from her balcony over four months, Hanya sees impromptu volleyball matches, flying shrapnel, and a hastily constructed tent village as Israel expands its military action. But after she questions whether she will live to see the end of the conflict, a fragile peace is finally agreed and Hanya’s personal situation changes dramatically.

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

Four Months in Gaza

People in Gainesboro, Tennessee, have some new neighbours. A conservative developer has bought land just outside the tiny rural Appalachian town, with the aim of forging an “aligned” community based on shared values like “faith, family, and freedom“. Two of the first people to come to town are controversial Christian nationalists who talk about civilisational collapse and the “imperative for like-minded Christians to gather and fight”.

Their extreme views on women, civil rights, and the role of the Church have attracted the attention of critics both locally and further afield. In Gainesboro itself, a resistance movement has formed and the battle lines have been drawn.

This small town of 900 people has become a symbol of the next frontier of America’s political warfare. Is the new development a haven for hate and extremism, with the newcomers looking to take over local power? Or are they just conservative businessmen catering to a renewed demand for the rural, traditional lifestyle? What actually is Christian nationalism? And what is it like for the locals, whose little town has been thrust into the spotlight? Ellie House reports from Gainesboro, Tennessee.

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

When Christian nationalists come to town

Following his time at Cern, Haroon Mirza has been creating a major installation based on his research there. The piece, made with his collaborator Jack Jelfs, is a sculptural art work which uses a circle of eight speakers, a large screen and an octagonal chandelier sculpture of LEDs to compose light, sound and video. Combined with a careful manipulation of spatial acoustics, the viewer is cocooned in a truly immersive experience. Oonagh Cousins joins Haroon in his studio as he and Jack work on the installation, to discover the creative processes behind his art. What are the technical challenges in creating this kind of piece, which has to be reassembled in different spaces? And will the final installation and rehearsals go according to plan?
This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

Haroon Mirza: Creating a sculpture with light, sound and video

James Coomarasamy speaks to BBC correspondents around the world about the people and places, trends and technology that they are going to be keeping an eye on over the next 12 months. 

Much of that will be shaped by what has already happened in 2025 - we entered the year still focused on the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan. Now, people are worried about conflict spreading further. 

Topics like trade, technology, migration and the health of democracy have helped shaped our politics. Will they continue to be the pressing issues for the year ahead?

Join Anthony Zurcher, senior North America correspondent, Asma Khalid, co-host of the The Global Story podcast, Faisal Islam, economics editor, Laura Bicker, China correspondent, Lyse Doucet, chief international correspondent and Mayeni Jones, Africa correspondent as they ponder what might lie ahead for 2026.

Producer: Ben Carter and Lucy Proctor
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Sound engineer: Gareth Jones

BBC correspondents' look ahead to 2026

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.)

Not-so-golden weddings

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

Why I chose to adopt

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 lord and dance: Michael Flatley

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.

The gift of science

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.

Bonus: 2025 in conversations from The Interview

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.

The gift of science

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