The Documentary Podcast

The Bamboo club was built for the people of St Pauls, in Bristol, England - the people who were victimised or not welcome elsewhere because of the colour of their skin. We hear from dozens of people who were members, musicians, or simply occasional visitors. They all share the same idea that there were two themes running through the club – community and music.

Acclaimed percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie has a lifelong passion for understanding how we are impacted by rhythm. She explores the evolution of musical rhythm over several millennia through different cultures, demonstrating how migration has impacted many different styles of music across generations and regions, and how the resulting fusions gave rise to new rhythms in contemporary music.

There’s a shortage of criminals in the Netherlands. What are the Dutch doing about it?

For Dan Jeffries, an act of kindness proved to be a turning point that saved his own life. Robert Maxim, faced homelessness but found a way to survive for three months, and Alan Pickard turned his social life around – with dance. Also, Festo Michael Kambarangwe who lived with 50 siblings and 14 stepmothers; Oladipupo Adeola meets a Muslim for the first time and Pam Hawley finds love in an unexpected way. With contributions from Alla Salah, Misha Anker, Saba Fahim, Jean Richter.

A family stranded in a snowfield. A woman with vertigo on a mountain. A hiker falling in lava. These are just some of the jobs for Slysavarnafélagið Landsbjörg (Ice-SAR): the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue. Ice-SAR is an elite national emergency militia with a gallant reputation in Iceland. In place of an army, its skilled volunteers, all unpaid, are expertly trained, well equipped, self-financed and self-sufficient.

How has the US changed since 2008? As the world chews its nails, waiting to see how the US election story ends, Lizzie O’Leary tries to do something a little different: looking at data to figure out how America is different now, in November 2016, from the country which elected its first black president eight years ago. Lizzie – from the US radio show Marketplace – is joined in New York City by the political analyst Amy Holmes, demographer Bill Frey and the journalist Meghan McArdle. She’s also armed with audiographs, illustrating some surprising data in sound.

Gavin Lee documents the final days of France’s notorious migrant camp, meeting inhabitants from as far afield as Gambia and Afghanistan to ask what the future holds for them now.

A panel of writers talk to Audrey Brown about the African books which have had the biggest impact on them, their writing and the wider world. What makes a great book? On the panel are black British rapper-poet Akala; Abdilatif Abdalla, the Kenyan poet and activist; Nigerian novelist Sarah Ladipo Manyika; and Yewande Omotoso, South African poet and academic.

In April 1995 a devastating bomb ripped through the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and 168 people died and many more were injured. Emma Barnett travels to Oklahoma City to find out what happened afterwards. She hears stories of resilience, defiance and success against the odds as the city came together to support and help those who suffered.

How synthetic psychoactive drugs produced in China make their way onto Britain’s streets.