The Documentary Podcast

For most people in the West, the swastika remains inextricably linked to the atrocities committed by the Nazis. But there have been calls to reclaim the symbol from its Nazi links and restore its origin as an ancient symbol for good luck. For many, such a suggestion is an outrageous affront to good taste. Can these two views ever be reconciled?

In the wake of the global economic crisis, what does capitalism mean to us today? Stand-up comedian Colm O’Regan visits the Kilkenomics Festival of economics and comedy in Kilkenny, Ireland, and heads to New York to ask what people really understand about capitalism.

For Assignment, Chris Rogers goes undercover to reveal the hidden shame of Guatemala’s hospital for the mentally ill.

In 1974, New York City became the canvas for a new generation of Graffiti pioneers. Who were the teens behind the 'tags' - now the veterans of the scene? Why did they create this movement? We meet some of those who defied the law (and their parents) and diced with death to chase fame and acceptance of their peers.

Two decades after the death of notorious drug baron Pablo Escobar in 1993, he still looms large in the Colombian psyche. In some quarters, there is an ambivalence towards this ruthless killer, an admiration for the man who made an estimated US $20 billion and built homes for the poor. But many reject the Robin Hood image, and see his legacy as deeply corrosive. Linda Pressly meets victims, a cartel-insider, and Pablo Escobar’s sister as she finds out how the story of this most notorious drug baron still resonates in the city of Medellin.

Director Orson Welles was asked to write his life story in his later years. He declined but was convinced by his friend Henry Jaglom to discuss his life over a weekly lunch at their favourite Hollywood restaurant, Ma Maison. The hundreds of tapes, recorded from 1983 to 1985, reveal extraordinary, frank, conversations between Welles and the independent director Jaglom.

Gabriel Gatehouse and his team go in search of Annie and along the way meet the medics and families on the front line of the Ebola crisis.

Former commander of the British and Coalition forces in Helmand province Major General Andrew Mackay, embarks on a personal journey to find out what has been achieved by the 14-year-campaign in Afghanistan.

The story of Canadian-born Aimee Semple McPherson and how she went from farm girl to invent broadcast evangelism, becoming among the most famous and glamorous women in America in the 1920s and 30s.

British journalist Nick Baker and Anglo-Cuban journalist Arnaldo Hernandez Diaz discover a vivid snapshot of Cuba including topics around the internet and online communication, LGBT issues and a surprising medical story.