The Documentary Podcast

The Philippines is one of the most at risk countries in the world from the effects of climate change, with typhoons becoming more severe. At the same time, it has some of the most expensive energy in Southeast Asia. The country currently relies heavily on imported coal. But a recent report by the NGO Climate Analytics found that, by 2050, the Philippines could get its energy entirely from renewable sources.

In this episode Hannah Gelbart is joined by three Filipinos - a journalist, an activist and an engineer - to talk about the future of energy in the Philippines. Jhesset Enano, Mitzi Jonelle Tan and Joshua Miguel Lopez also discuss the importance of protecting indigenous communities, and they share examples of how localised solar panels have helped power rural communities.

In 2020, the people of Portland, Oregon - a famed city of progressives and counterculture - voted to pass Measure 110, the USA’s boldest drug policy reform yet. It came after years of campaigning, and was aimed at inverting the thinking of the war on drugs.

Measure 110 decriminalised possession of all illicit substances, including heroin, methamphetamine and oxycodone. The campaigners accurately predicted that the new law would ease tensions around racial disparities within policing, but it also coincided with the spread of the deadly and addictive drug fentanyl, and a tidal wave of homelessness.

Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin, and is now the drug of choice for nearly all heroin users. It’s also more deadly - activists and the police now regularly carry the opioid-blocking drug Narcan to treat people overdosing on the streets. Homelessness also continues to rise as the cheap and available fentanyl spreads, creating an epidemic on two fronts.

Local journalist Winston Ross explores the complex issues behind Portland’s fentanyl crisis, speaking across the political divide and to many of those in the eye of the storm.

A story of humanity in the face of inhumanity.

It starts with women from Malawi who travel to Oman in the hope of improving their lives. Instead, they find themselves trapped in servitude as domestic workers. BBC Africa Eye has spent months uncovering evidence of physical and sexual abuse through voice notes, videos, and texts. But as reporter Florence Phiri reveals, there’s a network of women working across continents, fighting to try to bring them home.

Warning: Some people may find details in this story distressing.

Presenter: Florence Phiri

Irish author Colm Tóibín is among the world’s most celebrated contemporary writers. His works includes novels such as Nora Webster and The Blackwater Lightship, but also journalism, criticism, drama and more. His book Brooklyn was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Saoirse Ronan, and his writing has been translated into over 30 languages. Alongside the release of his debut collection of poems, Vinegar Hill, Colm gives fellow Irish writer Helen Cullen an insight into how he works, taking her through his writing process, how he gathers his ideas and his approach to refining his work.

A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast. Panama Canal: It's running dry and it's going to cost us. The Global Story brings you one big story every weekday, making sense of the news with our experts around the world. Insights you can trust, from the BBC, with Katya Adler. For more, go to bbcworldservice.com/globalstory or search for The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Haiti is facing its most most acute humanitarian crisis for more than a decade. There’s been a surge in violence with armed gangs in control of most of the capital. The prime minister has resigned, there’s a month long state of emergency and a curfew has been extended. The gangs have destroyed police buildings and, after storming a prison in the capital Port-au-Prince, thousands of escaped prisoners are back on the streets. Hosted by Lukwesa Burak and Luke Jones, they hear from Haitians caught up in this latest violence

They are the top questions asked to anyone who is fasting for Ramadan: no food or water? But what is Ramadan? Why Fast? And how do young Muslims manage Ramadan in their respective lives and work? Former teacher turned journalist Mehreen Baig goes in search of the answers by speaking to Muslims from different cultural backgrounds. She explores all aspects of fasting like abstaining from food, sex, music and of course…water.

this edition was first published in 2022

In 2018 the US government under President Trump introduced a policy of “Zero Tolerance” at its border with Mexico. Anyone attempting to enter the US without documentation would be prosecuted, even if it was a first offence. If they were travelling with children, their children would be taken from them. The policy was cancelled within weeks but not before thousands of families had been separated. Six years on, several hundred are still to be reunited.

Linda Pressly hears about the pain of separation as experienced by a man from Guatemala; speaks to the people still trying to put families back together; and asks if a new administration might turn again to Zero Tolerance in an attempt to deter would-be migrants to the United States.

It is hard to believe but the world is running out of sand. Our insatiable appetite for the substance that makes everything from skyscrapers to smartphones has led to environmental destruction in countries like Cambodia, where there has been a long history of illegal sand mining along the Mekong river. We are in the rapidly developing city of Phnom Penh to hear from the people whose lives and livelihoods have been threatened by the struggle for sand. Those who have fished the river for decades are finding that their nets are empty as the sand miners move in. People living alongside the Mekong have seen their houses crumble into the water as the riverbanks collapse.

A bonus episode from Lives Less Ordinary podcast. Miracle on the ocean floor. Have you ever locked eyes with a stranger and wondered, "What’s their story?" Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Extraordinary stories from around the world. For more, go to bbcworldservice.com/liveslessordinary or search for Live Less Ordinary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Producers: Eric Mugaju and Harry Graham