The Documentary Podcast

American historian David Blight explores the legacy of the American Civil War - especially regarding the issue of race-relations. He joins the dots between events from 150 years ago through to the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s to more recent protests in the US cities of Baltimore and Ferguson.

Natalia Antelava asks if the creeping influence of the Orthodox Church in Georgia’s schools is turning them into a breeding ground for radical Christianity.

Following the end of World War Two, the BBC began a series of special radio appeals on behalf of a group of children who had survived the Holocaust but were now stranded as orphans in post-war Europe. Alex Last finds out what happened to the 12 children named in the recordings.

Tarek Osman considers how the impact of the Arab Uprisings of 2011 was felt in Saudi Arabia. The country’s growing youth population faced high unemployment and was well adapted to social media. But unlike other Arab countries, they did not take to the streets. And, As King Salman takes power, what is the future of this traditional society and global banker of oil?

Dominic Casciani explores the way the so called Islamic State use social media to recruit people to their cause, and what can we be done combat this. Dominic travels to Canada to meet a mother whose son was recruited by IS and executed by the FSA, and the police chief who says a lot more needs to be done to counter IS online

Lucy Ash investigates the mass rapes committed by Soviet troops in Germany at the end of World II - in part as revenge for Nazi atrocities in the Soviet Union.

In India, a wrestler in the family can mean a ticket out of poverty. Rupa Jha meets the young fighters determined to get to the top and overcome India's complex caste system.

Tarek Osman investigates the rise of the Kindgom of Saudi Arabia. In this second episode he sees how Saudi Arabia was suddenly challenged at the end of the 1970s by the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which gave rise to religious extremism, as well as the Arab uprisings.

American satirist PJ O’Rourke travels across Britain trying to work out why party politics in the UK is being shaken up. He meets politicians, pundits and voters, to find out what it takes to get elected to the UK Parliament in 2015.

Will Coley listens to the stories of Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants who have made the often lethal journey across the Sahara, and then the Mediterranean, to arrive in Sicily asking for political asylum. Once the news cameras have left them on the beaches, Italian squatters are helping them to occupy the opulent empty homes of a Sicily in decline.