The Documentary Podcast

Edward Stourton examines America's long history of resistance to free trade, and asks why it has again become such a potent political force. Donald Trump's most consistent policy has been opposition to free trade agreements, which he sees as unfair, particularly with China. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders has been equally opposed, if for different reasons, while Hillary Clinton has had to tack away from her previous support for free trade pacts.

Graffiti’s modern role is evolving rapidly. From Europe to Brazil, street artists are displaying their anger about inequality, invisibility, corruption and control. Artists including Blek Le Rat (the “father of stencil graffiti”), Roc Blackblock, Suriani and Vegan Bunnies defend their actions, and discuss whether such “freedom of expression” on walls should have any limits.

Radio producer Penny Boreham and Sierra Leonean storyteller, Usifu Jalloh, travel from the UK to Kailahun district, the remote eastern area of Sierra Leone bordering Guinea and Liberia, to meet the children they have been working with remotely in a radio project.

Ed Butler explores the secretive and shocking world of Malawi’s 'hyenas'. These are the men hired to sexually initiate adolescent and pre-adolescent girls – some said to be 12 years old, or even younger. It’s a traditional custom that is endorsed and funded by the communities themselves, even the children’s families. We meet some of the victims, the regional chief campaigning to stop the practice, and the hyenas themselves, and ask if enough is being done to stamp out a custom that’s not just damaging on a human scale, but is also undermining the country’s economic development.

Reported and produced by Ed Butler.

Mukti Jain Campion attends regular yoga classes and enjoys its many physical and mental benefits while believing it to be the “timeless Indian discipline” so often described in yoga books. But recent research challenges this common assumption. Could modern yoga classes, as now taught all around the world, actually be the product of 19th Century Scandinavian gymnastics as much as ancient Indian philosophy?

On the eve of the Olympics, Shakespeare’s mix of sex, politics and intrigue plays out in Rio. 400 years after Shakespeare’s death, his plays have come to Brazil and are being played to packed houses in front of enthralled audiences who respond instinctively to their passionate mix of political corruption, violence, sex, death and the supernatural.

This summer, a unique collaboration between international directors, academics and Brazilian actors has brought one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, The Tempest – in which he writes about the ‘brave new world’ of the Americas – to Rio de Janeiro.

This programme hears from Suellen Carvalho, who will play Miranda in The Tempest. High in the hills overlooking Copacabana she explains how she turned her back on the drug gangs to take up Shakespearean acting. Her brother was killed in gang warfare and so her family has suffered from the violence that plagues the city of Rio. It was Shakespeare that helped her escape. “I thought the language of Shakespeare was very difficult at first”, she says, “But when I heard Shakespeare being spoken by black actors from the favelas (shanty towns) of Rio then it’s another language. I thought, I can do that too.”

For Suellen it has been an extraordinary journey. As a black actress she had no hope of playing the part that she saw as exclusively for white performers. “When I was told I would play Miranda I was amazed! Black actors in Brazil are normally given the roles of the house servant, prostitute or drug dealer.”

Presented by Professor Jerry Brotton, Queen Mary College, University of London

Image: Suellen Carvalho, Credit: Mark Rickards

The first footsteps on the Moon were one giant step for 'man', but from the early days of aeronautics women have also been involved in space travel. In Women with the Right Stuff, presenter, pilot and aspiring astronaut Wally Funk pays tribute to the pioneers, meets some of those involved within today’s space industry, and hears from the woman who might be among the crew for the first human mission to Mars.

Image: A Wally Funk playing card, Wally was one of the original Mercury 13, Credit: BBC

Barcelona is one of the most visited cities in Europe, but has it become a victim of its own tourism success? Millions of tourists visit every year, crowding the narrow streets and public spaces, bringing noise and anti-social behaviour to once peaceful residential neighbourhoods. Local businesses have given way to tourist tat and multinational chains, and some residents are being driven out as apartments are rented to tourists. Tourism is a huge economic boost for Barcelona, but as well as those who are benefiting, Pascale Harter meets locals who are taking to the streets in noisy protests about the impact on their neighbourhood. Are they right to blame home-sharing websites like Airbnb? And all eyes are on Barcelona’s mayor Ada Colau, a former activist and one of the key representatives of the so-called “new politics” in Spain. Can she resolve a tension being felt by cities around the world - between the economic opportunities of tourism and keeping the soul and character of the city that its residents cherish. Pacale Harter/James Fletcher

On 12 December 2015, a man’s body was found by a moorland track on Saddleworth Moor in northern England. He had nothing on him showing his identity. No-one knew who he was. And he had died from a rare kind of poisoning.

Who was this man? Where did he come from? Why has nobody reported him missing? Their biggest lead was brought to the mortuary within the body itself. It was inside his left leg. And it’s a clue which took the inquiry to Pakistan. Police believe he took his own life but did he travel nearly 4000 miles to die in this particular place?

Image: Saddleworth Moor, Credit: Shutterstock

Ghana's World Cup boycott of 1966 was a protest at the number of places at the World Cup given by FIFA to Africa. It is a story of politics, decolonisation and pan-Africanism.

African champions in 1963 and 1965, and Olympic quarter-finalists in 1964, Ghana would have been the favourites to qualify for England – but the team, nicknamed the Black Stars, never got their chance. Missing the World Cup meets two players who regret their World Cup absence to this day – Osei Kofi and former team-mate Kofi Pare – and those close to the key agitators of the boycott, with another Ghanaian, Ohene Djan, eloquently leading the protest alongside the remarkable Ethiopian Yidnekatchew Tessema, a onetime Confederation of African Football president who was also a star player, coach and administrator.