The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009

In this special edition of Assignment, John Simpson reveals how the protests, and the police reprisals that followed, are intricately linked to the rivalry inside the clique of clerics who created the Islamic state.

When the dried blood of Naples' patron saint fails to liquefy, Neapolitans believe great misfortune will descend upon them. With Mount Vesuvius overdue for a major eruption, Malcolm Billings investigates if tragedy awaits this historic city.

After 28 years in power, President Mubarak's promise of shepherding his country into a stable democracy has all but dissipated.

In a programme first broadcast in April, Ed Butler reports from New York on how the super rich have been dealing with the impact of the financial crisis.

In the final part of this series, Mike Gallagher meets a British farmer working vast landholdings in Hungary and Serbia. Does 'going global' in agriculture really offer a better future?

After 28 years in power, Mubarak's promise of leading Egypt into stable democracy has dissipated. Magdi Abdelhadi reports.

Listen to the story of Suzanne, a single woman in her forties who opted for a trans-racial adoption and became the mother of an African-American baby.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled from Somalia since civil war broke out there in the early 1990s. Many of them go to refugee camps in Kenya, others to Tanzania - and many have spent more than 15 years living in those camps. But one group has been more fortunate than others - the Somali Bantu, whose ancestors were taken to Somalia as slaves from southern Africa in the 19th Century. In 2001 the Somali Bantu were recognised as an especially vulnerable group by the United States and two years later 12,000 of them were airlifted out of the camps and flown to new, permanent homes in the United States. In this week's Assignment Tim Mansel visits one group of them in the western city of Boise in Idaho.

In this series, Mike Gallagher meets two farmers working outside their own countries. In programme one, a young Ecuadorian visits Hawaii. What farming techniques can he take back to Ecuador?

Justin Webb goes beyond his role as a journalist to explore the issue from the perspective of a parent who is desperate to know what the future holds for his child.