The Documentary Podcast

More than 50,000 Covid cases have been recorded in the UK for the first time since mid-July. Hospital admissions are also rising, however, daily deaths have fallen slightly. Ros Atkins examines what’s behind the infections and what should happen next.

A unique project aimed at reducing harm to women selling sex in Copenhagen… Every weekend night in Copenhagen’s red light district of Vesterbro, a group of volunteers pull up and park a Red Van. This is no ordinary vehicle. The interior is lit with fairy lights. There is a bed – and a ready supply of condoms. The Red Van constitutes a harm reduction strategy like no other. It is designed for use by women selling sex on the streets – somewhere they can bring their clients. Just as health workers might argue addicts should have a safe place where they can take their drugs to prevent overdoses, the Red Van NGO’s volunteers believe they are creating a more secure environment for Copenhagen’s sex workers or prostitutes.

Producer / presenter: Linda Pressly

(Image: The Red Van with some of its volunteers – Pauline Hoffman Schroder, Sine Plambech and Aphinya Jatuparisakul. Credit: BBC/Linda Pressly)

After recovering from pneumonia for the third time, journalist James Nestor took decisive action to improve his lungs. He questioned why so many humans - and only humans - have to contend with stuffy noses, snoring, asthma, allergies, sinusitis and sleep apnoea, to name but a few. James hears remarkable stories of others who have changed their lives through the power of breath. His deep dive into the unconscious and oft-ignored act of human respiration offers us all a way to breathe easier.

Justin Rowlatt discovers how phosphorus may have held evolution back for a billion years. How plants first colonised the land - precipitating an ice age in the process. And why volcanoes have both rescued and almost wiped out life on the planet, thanks to the carbon dioxide they emit. Anjali Goswami of the Natural History Museum takes Justin on a tour of the big five mass extinction events in the fossil record over the last half billion years.

It began in March of 1987, when the playwright Larry Kramer gave a speech at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York’s West Village, telling half the room to stand up. He bluntly informed those in attendance, that many people would be dead from Aids in just a few years, if they didn’t fight back. The US government’s response to the HIV-Aids crisis had been slow, with President Reagan reticent to offend the conservative morals of the Christian Coalition who helped secure his election. In response, the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power - Act Up - took to the streets to demand politicians and public health agencies do more.

Forgiving someone who has hurt us badly can seem impossible. Bearing a grudge can feel like carrying a bag or rocks. Can we learn to move on and forgive?Author of Universal Human, Gary Zukav, offers insights to Joey from Lebanon, now living in Germany, as he struggles to forgive his brother for creating problems in his marriage and seeks to heal the rift it has caused in his family.

World leaders, scientists and activists are preparing for next month’s UN climate change summit in Scotland. These talks have been taking place for decades - but you sense the world is watching like never before, as awareness increases around how the planet is changing. In 1992, a 12-year-old called Severn Cullis-Suzuki from Canada gave a rousing speech and appeal for action at the Earth Summit in Rio. Severn and her father remain long-term environmental activists and host Nuala McGovern brings them together in conversation to hear their thoughts on whether Severn’s speech would be any different today.

In recent weeks, China has sent a record number of military jets into Taiwan’s air defence zone. The Taiwanese Defence Minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, has said that tensions between China and the self-governing island are the worst in 40 years. Ros Atkins examines what is behind China’s military pressure on Taiwan.

In August, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, was expelled from Russia – a country she’s reported on from the start of Vladimir Putin’s presidency over two decades ago. Now she has been designated a ‘national security threat’ and barred indefinitely. The move against the BBC comes at a time of unprecedented pressure on critical voices in Russia – from opposition activists to independent Russian journalists, who are now blacklisted as ‘agents’ of foreign states. For Assignment, Sarah Rainsford explores what happened to her and what this says about the country she’s been forced to leave.

Producer/presenter: Sarah Rainsford

(Photo: Sarah Rainsford. Credit: Jonathan Ford)

The sailors held captive for years, and the man who managed to free them.

Somali pirates made millions of dollars hijacking ships and holding their crews hostage, if no ransom was paid though, sailors could spend years languishing in captivity.

When retired British Army Colonel John Steed set out to try to free what he called "Somalia’s forgotten hostages" he had no money and no hostage-negotiation experience, so how did he do it?

Colin Freeman, who was himself taken hostage in Somalia, hears the remarkable stories of the sailors and their saviours.

Producer: Joe Kent

(Image: Armed Somali pirate standing on the coast looking to sea. Credit: Mohamed Dahir/AFP/Getty Images)

ARCHIVE: Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures) directed by Paul Greengrass