The Documentary Podcast

Catherine Carr travels to Tijuana in Mexico, and asks strangers - where are you going?

The Polish property scandal now being linked to a brutal and unsolved murder

We visit the mayors of cities from Helsinki to Bogota, from Los Angeles to Rotterdam and Cape Town to discover why citizens are putting their faith in the ability of local government and a charismatic mayor to deliver a better quality of life and solutions to 21st Century problems.

Why do populist politicians across the West want warmer relations with Russia? Are they just Kremlin agents? Or are they tapping into a growing desire to find common cause with Moscow – and end East-West tension? Tim Whewell travels from Russia to America and across Europe to unravel the many different strands of pro-Moscow thinking, and offer a provocative analysis which challenges conventional thinking about the relationship between Russia and the West.

Phil Kemp meets some of the hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children stranded in Greece in camps and shelters on the islands and the mainland.

Over her 40-year-career Dalida sold 170 million records, won 55 Gold Record awards and had 19 number one singles in Europe, Middle East, Canada, Russia and Japan. Despite her success, the former Miss Egypt is remembered for a personal life mired in tragedy. In 1987, following the death of her beloved bulldog, Dalida took her own life. Her suicide note read - "La vie m'est insupportable...pardonnez-moi." - Life has become unbearable for me..Forgive me.

Have you ever heard a woman being described as “pretty for a dark skinned girl”? This podcast hears frank and often painful first-hand stories about 'shadeism' or 'colourism' – discrimination based on skin tone. We are told how decades ago, some African American organisations used the “brown paper bag test” to decide who could become members, with those with darker skins excluded. And we investigate how this prejudice is still affecting people, including in their relationships. For many, the former First Lady, Michelle Obama, has become a role model. By being married to a man with lighter skin, has she changed how black women and girls see themselves? Contributors include the singer-songwriter India Arie.

A crash in the Egyptian currency has left a critical lack of drugs, and left thousands desperate for help. For some of those in need, it’s a race against time.

Media headlines often fuel fear about refugees and amongst refugees. But what happens when refugees pick up the microphones and tell their own stories? Refugee Radio Network, in the German city of Hamburg, is a project that is tapping the power of community radio stations and the internet to give voice to refugees from wherever they have come.

Aboriginal people from across Australia share their words, wisdom and concern for the future of that crucial resource, water. Watched by crocodiles on the bank of a tropical Northern Territory stream; sitting in a peaceful desert water dreaming place; interpreting a significant rock art site; dancing and singing the country back to life - water is embedded in identity, culture, spirituality and survival.

Brad Moggridge, a Murri from the Kamilaroi Nation, is a hydrogeologist who’s passionate about promoting Aboriginal ecological knowledge and he links the traditional with a contemporary scientific take on water management.

In this, the driest inhabited continent on earth, understanding water has been essential for tens of thousands of years. Today, as Brad says, "Mobs all over the country still talk about water places, dream about water places, have laws about water places and teach the next generation about water places. Water is a key part of who we are".

Image: Water at Bermagui Yuin Country, Credit: BBC