The Compass

In May 1952 East Germany sealed its entire border with the capitalist west. Over the next 37 years 75,000 people would be arrested trying to flee the Communist East and hundreds would die in the attempt. Today the barbed wire and machine guns are gone and the old border has been transformed into a protected wildlife zone. It's a home to lynx, wolf and wildcat and a vital corridor for migrating birds and mammals. Mary-Ann Ochota begins her journey along the old border, meeting the people doing their bit to turn a birdwatcher's fantasy into the world's longest nature reserve.

(Photo: Mary-Ann Ochota walks the route of the Iron Curtain through central Germany)

Ladakh is a region at the centre of the 50-year-long border dispute between India and China, which flared up again in June 2020. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas speaks to local village leaders whose communities are struggling to preserve their lives and livelihoods amidst perpetual military unrest. He also speaks to former politicians and political experts about the consequences of what happens here for the wider geopolitical stability of Asia’s two biggest countries, and those caught in between.

(Photo: Himalaya monks. Credit: Dinesh Deokota)

If the Himalayan glaciers melt, a billion lives and whole ecosystems will be at risk. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas joins innovative community projects in Ladakh and Nepal looking to mitigate the impact of climate change now and in the future. Their success or failure will determine the future environmental security beyond their local region, to all of Asia.

Presenter: Ed Douglas

(Photo: A valley in the Himalaya mountain. Credit: Ed Douglas)

Spanning five countries, the Himalaya is home to peoples who have adapted to living in the harshest of conditions. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas, author of the first major history of the Himalaya has been visiting these remote communities for 30 years. Now they are opening up to him about the challenges of living on the roof of the world.

Ed's friends from the Sherpa and Rai groups in Nepal reveal how genetically and practically they have evolved to be able to live long term at such altitudes and how seismic political and economic shifts in lands far below are forcing fundamental changes in their way of life up above. Ed also reveals the often overlooked cultures and achievements of the diverse ethnic groups that make up this region including interviews with artists, musicians and record breaking athletes.

Presenter: Ed Douglas

(Photo: A Nepali woman in the mountains. Credit: Dinesh Deokota)

Do we still have faith in money? Trust expert and fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, Rachel Botsman, investigates the shifting power plays in the global management of money, gathering pressures towards decentralisation and optimism in the world of finance.

Presenter: Rachel Botsman

A Storyglass production for the BBC World Service

(Photo: A man uses contactless payment with QR code in supermarket. Crdit: Getty Images)

Rachel Botsman, a Trust expert and fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, looks into the psychology and the morality of money. Among others, she talks to Jain accountant Atul K. Shah, activist and onetime refugee Ghias Aljundi and psychologist and happiness guru Dr. Laurie Santos.

Producer: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick

(Photo: Businessman reaching out for falling bank notes. Credit: Getty Images)

A Storyglass production for BBC World Service

In the second episode Rachel explores the subject of value. Beginning with the volatility of Bitcoin, she goes on to find out about growing up in Brazil's years of hyperinflation, living in the gift economy of an Indonesian island and whether money is the root of happiness.

Producers: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick

(Photo: A representation of the virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Credit: Edgar Su/Reuters)

A Storyglass production for the BBC World Service

Do we still have faith in money? Trust expert and Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, Rachel Botsman, talks to people from all over the world about their relationship with cash, with banks, with currencies, with credit cards and crypto. In this first episode she asks how much we should trust money. With politician and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, economist and author Eshwar Prasad and investor and entrepreneur Soulaima Gourani.

(Photo: Thousands of citizens gathered in front of the Greek parliament and around the Constitution Square, to protest against the vote on second bailout reforms. Credit: Dimitrios Sotiriou/Getty Images)

The newest player in the Niger Delta is not a multinational company, it is Nigeria’s enormous illegal oil industry. Oil thieves cut the pipelines, siphoning off oil, which they refine in the bush and sell on the black market.

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones meets an oil thief king pin, as well as an exuberant local politician, taking on this illegal business and treks deep into the forests of the Niger Delta to visit an underground refinery.

And we catch up with Victoria Bera. For decades, she has been in a prolonged legal battle against Shell in courthouses around the world. Will she finally get the justice she seeks?

Presenter: Mayeni Jones

(Photo: Illegal oil refinery in Emuoha, Niger Delta. Credit: Fyneface Dumnamene)

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones travels to the creeks of the Niger Delta to investigate the impact that oil pollution continues to have on communities and their environment. What she finds is alarming. And she speaks to Shell to ask them who is to blame for the ongoing environmental damage.

Presenter: Mayeni Jones.

(Photo: Landscape destroyed by oil pollution. Image courtesy of Fyneface Dumnamene)