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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 Trump's new world order, to war in Sudan, to the legacy of football icon Mo Salah, The Documentary investigates major global stories.

We delve into social media, take you into the minds of the world's most creative people and explore personal approaches to spirituality. Every week, we also 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, The Fifth Floor and Trending.

The Documentary Podcast

To Italians, bread is life. With 250 varieties across the country, it’s eaten with almost every meal. Its importance speaks to national values of community, tradition, quality and - above all - religion. In this edition of Heart and Soul, Australian-Japanese food writer Emiko Davies takes a tasty journey into the spiritual significance of bread in Italy, her adopted home. 

Davies finds herself in the west of Sicily, where residents honour Saint Joseph by constructing intricate sculptural breads, adorning altars with baked symbols, and staging a ritualised feast attended by the entire community. And then the coast of Puglia, where locals queue to receive blessed loaves in celebration of Saint Anthony. Finally, with food historian Fabrizia Lanza, Davies reflects on the origins of religious superstitions surrounding bread, and what the nation's diverse culinary traditions tell us about faith in Italy today.

Presenter: Emiko Davies
Producer: Jude Shapiro
Executive Producer: Jack Howson
Production Coordinator: Ieva Sabaliauskaite

A Peanut & Crumb production for BBC World Service

Image: Bread display at an altar (Credit: Jude Shapiro)

Blessed with bread

On the outskirts of Hamburg, Dr Gerald Koch is surrounded by wooden objects - chairs, board games, paint brushes - ready for inspection. His team of scientists at the Thünen Institute of Wood Research are known as the timber detectives. They spend their days putting wood samples under the microscope to find out where they've come from, and if they’re suspect. 

Berlin based environmental journalist Becca Warner explores the ongoing problem of illegal deforestation.

Why is it proving so hard to tackle, despite tightening EU regulations? What are the consequences for those living in Papua New Guinea where much of this timber originates? And what makes this group of German scientists so important in the battle to protect the world’s forests?

Presenter: Becca Warner
Producer: Tom Pooley 

A 4 kicks production for the BBC World Service. 

Image: Gerald Koch and Becca Warner inspect timber samples (Credit: Tom Pooley)

Germany's timber detectives

BBC Trending: Why are some Americans yelling at clouds?

On 4 July, just hours after flash floods hit the US state of Texas, killing more than 130 people, social media was inundated with unfounded theories about the causes of this tragedy. 

The main allegation was that the extreme rainfall was somehow man-made, with many users blaming Rainmaker, a weather modification company based in California. 

These baseless claims were quickly debunked by scientists. 

And yet, online, calls for the company’s CEO, Augustus Doricko, to be arrested, punished - or, more sinisterly, executed - continued to multiply. 

Suggestions that sinister forces may be controlling the weather by spraying chemicals in the atmosphere may have once been the preserve of niche websites and forums. Not anymore.

As several US states consider banning weather modification and geoengineering, BBC Trending investigates how fringe conspiracy theories have gone mainstream.
 
Reporter: Marco Silva
Editor: Flora Carmichael

Floods hit Texas, then came the cloud talk

Europe’s largest herd of wild horses, in north-west Spain, is under threat. Numbers have halved in the last fifty years. Now around ten thousand wild horses roam freely in the hills and mountains of Galicia. But they are facing a number of challenges, not least the loss of their habitat and the threat from their main predator, wolves. There are also legal demands imposed by the regional government which have placed added financial burdens on the local people who, in effect, “own” these horses. And yet Galicia’s wild horses have been an integral part of the local culture for centuries, particularly during annual festivals known as “rapas das bestas,” the shearing of the beasts. The horses are also known as engineers of the landscape, credited with boosting the local flora and fauna and with helping to control forest fires.

John Murphy travels to Galicia to hear what is happening to these extraordinary animals and why they are so important.

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

Galicia’s wild horses in peril

The Delacorte Theater, home to New York's beloved free outdoor Shakespeare performances in Central Park, has undergone an $85 million refurbishment. Now clad in redwood timber from disused water tanks from each of New York’s boroughs, the structure has been made accessible for disabled audiences, actors and backstage workers. It's also been made water and raccoon-proof. Presenter Jeff Lunden has been following its progress – from a hard-hat tour in freezing February to the summer previews of a new production of Twelfth Night, starring Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave actor Lupita Nyong’o, Sandra Oh from Killing Eve, and Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage.
This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

The Delacorte Theater

The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs celebrates the life and legacy of Sir Paul McCartney, from his Liverpool roots to Beatlemania and beyond. It is a journey that moves from the late 1950s spanning McCartney’s skiffle start with John Lennon in The Quarrymen, through to his long solo career, taking in Mersey Beat; the rise of the Fab Four to 1960s icons; and Wings’ 1970s success. Susanna learns how The Beatles could only have come from Liverpool, and how a visit to McCartney’s old grammar school led to a significant legacy: the formation of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). Joining Susanna are author of recent biography Fly Away Paul, Lesley-Ann Jones; veteran songwriter and member of 10cc, Graham Gouldman; LIPA founding principal and chief executive, Sir Mark Featherstone-Witty; Beatles historian and author, David Bedford; lifelong Beatles enthusiast Jean Catharell; BBC Radio Merseyside broadcaster Paul Beesley; Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge; plus two LIPA alumni - award winning composer Hannah Peel, and singer, songwriter and guitarist Natalie McCool. Giving the narrative an intimately familial contribution is McCartney’s younger brother, Mike McCartney.

Paul McCartney: Beatles and beyond

Russian soldiers were told that they would be the country's 'new elite' by President Putin. But many of them have reported being robbed and scammed out of the money that they earned fighting on the Ukrainian front lines. They also face mental health problems, and post-traumatic stress disorder after months or years at war, but suitable treatment is scarce and hard for them to find. BBC Russian's Sergei Goryashko has been looking into the soldiers who have been robbed and scammed, whilst Sofya Volyanova has spoken to the people in Russia attempting to treat soldiers for PTSD and depression. 
South Korea banned dog meat in the country last year, and the practice will be entirely phased out by 2027 ending a generations long practice. Hyunjung Kim of BBC Korean has been speaking to people affected by the ban and explains why it got put in place. 

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. This is an EcoAudio certified production. 

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

Scammed, robbed, traumatised – life after war for Russian soldiers

Many parts of Pakistan have been experiencing intense rainfall in recent weeks. Since June, at least 800 people have been killed, homes and businesses lost, and thousands forced to evacuate their communities. In our conversations, we bring together people affected by this year’s monsoon to share their experiences. They include Saad, from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northern Pakistan, who lost his family home and business: “Many of the houses of the people are completely destroyed and those remaining are full of mud and water,” he tells us. Although it only produces a small fraction of greenhouse gas emissions, scientific evidence suggests that Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Three journalists share their stories of the flooding and their perspectives on the challenges the country faces.
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.

Surviving the floods in Pakistan

In the ancient Yererouk Basilica in Armenia, near the border with Turkey, young engineers are using 3D digital technology to scan every part of the building. The aim is to recreate the church on a screen, in full-colour and in three dimensions. This is the digital preservation initiative, created by TUMO, the Center for Creative Technologies, based in Armenia’s capital Yerevan. It is training young Armenians to use new technology and also to connect them to their their 2000-year-old Armenian Christian heritage. In 2023, the country lost control of numerous important religious sites, when the province of Nagorno-Karabakh was taken over by neighbouring Muslim Azerbaijan. The mountainous enclave, known as Artsakh to Armenians, has long been a disputed territory between the two countries. Despite the new peace agreement signed recently, the province is still closed to Armenians. International observers using satellite technology say dozens of important Christian sites have been damaged or destroyed. Julia Paul travels to Armenia to find out how drones and lasers are helping young Armenians to connect to and preserve their ancient Christian heritage.
This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

Digitally preserving Armenia’s Christian heritage

Earlier this year, Chinese student Zhenhao Zou was jailed for 24 years for drugging and raping ten women in the UK and China. He has been described by police as one of Britain’s “most prolific sexual predators”. After his trial, detectives said they feared he may have attacked 50 more women – many of whom are yet to be identified. Following connections on Chinese social media, reporter Wanqing Zhang from the BBC’s Global China Unit has been speaking exclusively to several of Zou’s victims, and a translator who has helped them, revealing shocking details about his crimes.

Student Predator: Surviving Zhenhao Zou

The term “narwhal” derives from the old Nordic for “nár + hvalr”, meaning corpse + whale, which, for these animals, is quickly becoming prophetic. Climate change, with its accompanying increase in human marine activity, has led to the Arctic Ocean becoming noisier. As narwhal rely on sound to communicate and navigate their surroundings, this could result in the extinction of populations like East Greenland's narwhal by as soon as 2025. Mary-Ann Ochota investigates how this issue is at once political, cultural, and environmental and speaks to the scientists, traditional hunters, and activists, who are seeking a solution.

Will the unicorns of the sea fall silent?

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