In the West we are used to stand-up comics but in Japan they have sit-down comedy. Chie Kobayashi introduces the ancient story-telling art of Rakugo which dates back to the 18th Century and has changed little over the centuries.

Hugh Sykes travels to Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archepelago in Tanzania, to investigate the religious tensions at play. In South Africa he finds schools still overcrowded and under-equipped - a lingering shadow of the Apartheid education system. He meets the growing business elite with a taste for fine wines, and reports on the increasing influence of China on the region.

Profiles of the Buddha; Mahavira Jain; Ashoka and Aryabhata. Rupa Jha introduces four portraits of eminent Indians by Professor Sunil Khilnani.

In Paraguay, two girls under 14 give birth every day. It’s been called an epidemic. So why are Paraguayan children so vulnerable to abuse?

Stories of change from Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa. Hugh Sykes meets those bringing positive change in the fields of education, health, woman's rights and the media.

A young man vanishes on a night out in Antwerp. His disappearance triggers a massive campaign to find him yet, two years on, no-one knows whether he's alive or dead.

Hip hop, since its inception has been seen by many as the musical voice of modern revolutions. In the Middle East, Arab hip hop became a voice of protest as young Arabic people took to the mic and used this vocal art form as a way of expressing their discontent with incumbent governments. Jackson Allers explores the effect of hip hop on the Arab Spring.

Coastal erosion is washing away a football field of land every hour. Meet one community facing the reality of losing their past and their future.

Could recent developments in 3D printing benefit the natural world or bring extinct species back to life?

Britain’s former mould-breaking ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher., Tom Fletcher. Appointed at only 36 at the height of the Arab uprisings in 2011, Fletcher calls himself the ‘Naked Diplomat’ – a title that suggests a new brand of 21st-century statecraft: flexible, transparent, engaged with the public as much as with political decision-makers.