The Documentary Podcast

Mariko Oi returns to her home country to witness the astonishing incentives encouraging young people to marry and have children. Japan’s birth rate is plummeting, its population is ageing and a demographic disaster is looming. In the next 40 years, Japan’s population is expected to fall from 127 million to 92 million, squeezing the economy and causing national debt to soar.

How one of the world’s greatest wildlife reserves has built its success on a hardline conservation policy that includes shooting suspected poachers

Real Madrid are the world's most valuable football club. They're the reigning European champions and have won more European Cups than any other club in history. Now they've opened their doors and their books to outside scrutiny for the first time, giving Columbia Business School professor Steven Mandis unprecedented access to every part of the business.

How does an organisation co-owned by 92,000 fans operate? How was the club transformed from the brink of bankruptcy 16 years ago? What's the relationship between success on the pitch and off the pitch? What role do values play in the business? What lessons are there for other sports teams and for businesses more widely?

Through conversations with fans, players, coaches and board members - including a rare in-depth interview with club president Florentino Perez - Professor Mandis uncovers the secrets of Real Madrid's sporting and financial success.

(Image: Professor Mandis and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. Credit: Real Madrid)

Just outside Lynchburg, Virginia, there is a sprawling mental institution on a hill with a sinister history. For decades, the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, (now called Central Virginia Training Center) participated in America’s forgotten eugenics program. In a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court case of Buck v Bell, eugenics became the law of the land, and set a legal precedent for sterilising anyone deemed “unfit”. Thus began one of the darkest chapters in American history; between 60,000 and 70,000 people were forcibly sterilised across the country.

The solution is logical and simple. Bermuda's only source of natural water is rain and so every drop of rainwater is collected from roofs, where it drains into a tank and is then pumped towards taps when it's needed.

1.2 billion people live in areas where water is scarce and experience water shortages. Could Bermuda's harvesting system work elsewhere?

Find more innovative ideas from the first series go to www.bbcworldservice.com/perfectcountry

Economic growth benefits the poorest families in Peru. A fast-growing economy provides funds for social projects, such as giving $30 a month to each female head of a household.

The poverty rate in Peru has halved in ten years from 55% in 2005 to 22% in 2015. Can poverty continue to be cut further?

Find more innovative ideas from the first series go to www.bbcworldservice.com/perfectcountry

Futons and martial arts-trained police play a part in Japan's low gun crime. Just one person was killed with a gun in 2015 – a mob crime boss – and in the same year, just six shots were fired by the nation's law enforcers.

A pacifist culture and stringent tests, inspections and penalties also contribute to the absence of gun violence.

Find more innovative ideas from the first series go to www.bbcworldservice.com/perfectcountry

A Muslim country with a cosmopolitan outlook, Tunisia is both liberal and conservative. The code of personal status introduced by Tunisia's first president Habib Bourguiba established equality laws for women after Tunisia's independence.

But inequalities and violence towards women persist. How long will it be before there is true equality?

Find more innovative ideas from the first series go to www.bbcworldservice.com/perfectcountry

Becoming a maths master is within reach for every pupil taught the Shanghai model for teaching maths.

There is no streaming according to ability, a highly trained, specialist teacher moves slowly through topics and does not move on until every single pupil gets it.

But does the method come with too much pressure?

Find more innovative ideas from the first series go to www.bbcworldservice.com/perfectcountry

Bollards disguised as cigarette butts indicating smoking areas, high prices, compulsory plain packaging, advertising campaigns showing how smoking damages your health, an app to support giving up, and a culture of shame: anti-smoking messages come at Australians from all angles. Only around 13% of Australians smoke.

Find more innovative ideas from the first series go to www.bbcworldservice.com/perfectcountry