The Documentary Podcast

How did the disease originate & how was its deadly progress checked? Statistician Hans Rosling & the WHO's Margaret Lamunu discuss their experiences of fighting the disease.

Detroit Soup is an innovative crowdfunding dinner which has raised more than $85,000 for community projects in Motor City - but could it work elsewhere? The BBC takes Detroit Soup founder Amy Kaherl to Nepal, to inspire a new crowdfunding culture, Kathmandu-style.

Lyse Doucet talks to journalist Safa al-Ahmad about her recent reporting trip to Yemen to cover the takeover of the capital Sanaa by Houthi rebels from the north of the country.

Bhutan is a landlocked country in the eastern Himalaya, best known as a Buddhist kingdom where the policy of ‘Gross National Happiness’ replaced GDP. Anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin documents the country’s endangered oral traditions. Can Bhutan’s languages and cultures be preserved in the face global influences through television and the internet?

Journalist Rupa Jha travels to her own state of Bihar, where nearly 10% of the population now live, and who face many of the issues confronting the average citizen. In part two Dalit student Sunil hopes his exam results will help lift his entire family out of poverty.

Theo Leggett looks at our apparent addiction to economic growth as the secret to prosperity and cure for global poverty. In a finite world with limited resources, can economies continue to grow indefinitely, or will physical and environmental constraints have the final word?

Has Eritrea reached its Millenium Development Goals target early? BBC’s Yalda Hakim finds out in areas such as child mortality, maternal health and HIV/Aids and malaria.

In a rapidly changing Russia, Sasha Tsaliuk continues to fight for the existence of his beloved Moscow Acapella Jewish Choir. Formed as the Soviet Union collapsed around him, Sasha came to the choir as conductor when it was a potent, exciting and hopeful symbol of the new Russia. Here was music both sacred and folk that had been arrested, buried and silenced by Communism, anti-semitism and the hammer blow of war.

India is home to an extraordinary number of people, languages and religions, but one of the more surprising statistics is that hundreds of millions of people still live on, or below, the poverty line. Indian journalist Rupa Jha starts her journey in Patna, capital of the state of Bihar. She gets to know four local residents, who come from very different backgrounds, but are unified by their sense of ambition.

As evidence grows that major historical sites are being looted in Syria, how much are groups such as Islamic State profiting from the global trade in illicit antiquities?