The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2010

In 1951, a black man named Willie McGee was executed in Mississippi's travelling electric chair - the only one of its kind in the country. His granddaughter explores this lost episode in America's early civil rights history.

Former Beirut hostage John McCarthy has never thanked Giandomenico Picco, the United Nations negotiator who arranged his release. In this documentary John at last travels to meet him and explores the development of the role of the crisis negotiator.

Iran has an enthralling literary landscape. Poetry extends to all areas of Iranian life: scolding children, romanitc encounters and political protest. How has the Persian passion for poetry has shaped Iranian identity?

This week's Assignment comes from Jamaica where there have been pitched street battles between police and supporters of an alleged drugs lord. Nina Robinson has been investigating the power and appeal of Michael Christopher Coke - the man known as Dudus - who's wanted on charges of drugs trafficking by the United States.

The Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote a treatise called The Art of War over 2,500 years ago. From conflicts in Ireland to Iraq, the BBC explores how his words have influenced military warfare since.

The ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals is known as soft power. Philip Dodd examines the areas where this art of persuasion is being used. In part two Philip Dodd finds out if the values and culture of India can rival those of China - to make New Delhi Asia's soft superpower.

Wedge Island is located in a secluded spot on the rugged, windswept Indian Ocean coastline off Australia. It is occupied by squatters who will be evicted when a new highway arrives. How are the people there dealing with this change in fortunes?

In June 2009 the head of the World Health Organisation declared swine flu a global pandemic. Governments around the world sprang into action and ordered millions of doses of vaccine. But in the event thousands, not millions died, and swine flu proved to be less dangerous than ordinary seasonal flu. So why did the WHO announce a pandemic and were they right to do so? Imogen Foulkes visits two countries in Europe, one of which ordered 90 million doses of vaccine and used just ten per cent of them, the other of which ordered none.

A runaway train is heading towards five people. You're standing on a footbridge, next to a very big man and the only way you can stop the train is to push the big man onto the track. His bulk will stop the train and five lives will be spared. Would you do it? Steve Evans explores how these moral conundrums are dealt with in crises like war.

The ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals is known as soft power. Philip Dodd examines the areas where this art of persuasion is being used. In the first part, he takes a look at how China's global charm offensive is taking shape - why they want to be loved and take the world's attention.