The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2014

The richest man of all time was 14th Century monarch King Mansa Musa, who reigned over Mali from 1312 to 1337. His fortune came from gold and salt, and control of trade routes.

A startling 300-year journey of a Stradivarius violin through the lives of geniuses, dictators, refugees, and the Milwaukee thieves who stole it from violinist Frank Almond.

How ordinary people – soldiers, mothers, nurses, even children – experienced World War One and the little-known human side of the world's first truly global conflict. With stories of love, loss, hope and fervour.

Assignment follows Abdi Nor, a winner of the annual US green card lottery, as he attempts to escape from a life of poverty in Kenya and realise the American dream.

Is karaoke now an art form? Music critic Katie Puckrik hits the clubs in Portland, Oregon, to find out.

Tupac Shakur trained as an actor, posed as a street thug and became a best selling rapper, but he died in 1996. Mythologised and revered, is Tupac a modern Black American folk hero?

The Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste or Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra, is the only symphony orchestra in Central Africa. It was founded in the mid-1990s by Armande Diangienda. In the beginning a small handful of would be musicians, made long arduous daily journeys to rehearsals that lasted seven hours, Monday to Friday. They waited patiently to take turns on the few available instruments - and gradually taught themselves to play.

Music pulsates in Lisbon, from the traditional and dramatic Fado to the contemporary Kuduro – a strain of Angolan dance music that combines electronic music with Caribbean inflections, born in the late 1980s. Musicians, such as the modern fadist and guitar player Lula Pena, the post-bossa nova Antonio Zambujo, and the incandescent Buraka Som Sistema, echo this rich musical landscape.

An international NGO, Women without Borders, based in Vienna, with years of experience working in the field of counter terrorism, is pioneering a strategy of using mothers of Jihadist fighters and supporters to help counter the radicalisation of young men and women.

Tim Whewell gains rare access to the shadowy world of Russia's radical nationalists fighting in eastern Ukraine for Novorossiya, or New Russia, and a dream of empires past.

A vivid portrait of the everyday lives of girls and women at a turning point in Afghan history. Lyse Doucet visits Kabul to see how the lives of Afghan girls and women have changed since the fall of the Taliban 13 years ago, and to hear concerns that these hard-won gains are already being threatened as the troops depart.

For 100 years, an intriguing mix of people have been criss-crossing the US by Greyhound bus. To mark the company's centenary, Laura Barton sets off on an unplanned journey ‘to look for America’. She is conscious of the discrepancy between what the bus line represents in the collective imagination – an idea of freedom, adventure and possibility – and the realities of cross-country coach travel.

Mike Wendling explores the controversy surrounding the Washington Redskins. It's one of the most popular American football teams but many Native Americans say the name is racist.

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.

How Ebola is affecting not just health services in West Africa, but tourism, agriculture and investment across the entire continent. Paul Moss travels to Ghana and Senegal to assess the wider impact of Ebola in Africa.

Mobeen Azhar is in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, where police are fighting an increasingly desperate war against the Taliban. Every day an officer is killed in the struggle.

The Star-Spangled Banner is embedded in American national identity and yet it only became the official national anthem in 1931. Erica Wagner returns to its origins, the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, to find out how Francis Scott Key came to write these lyrics about the American flag

There are now more pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea than off the coast of Somalia - once considered the global 'piracy hotspot'. The BBC’s Mary Harper travels to Lagos, one of the busiest ports in Africa, to explore the highly complex world of piracy.

Natalia Antelava charts the downfall of Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the Uzbek president. She hears an inside account of the family feud from Gulnara’s son, Islam Karimov Jr.

In August 2013 the Assad regime in Syria was accused of deploying chemical weapons against its own civilian population. President Obama – who had described the use of chemical weapons as a “red line” – was planning airstrikes against the Syrian government. In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron was determined to stand with him - but first he had to win Parliament’s approval.

Can the world come together to beat diseases with pandemic potential? We've spoken to four expert witnesses, including a doctor who helped to eradicate one of the world's oldest diseases and a man who discovered one of the world's newest ones.

Allan Little returns to Sarajevo to explore the role of the arts in restoring the city's identity, 20 years after the siege which saw its cultural life flourish against the odds. How are the citizens of Sarajevo fulfilling that basic human need for art in a transformed cultural landscape?

Hidden away in the backrooms at Humbolt University and the Ethnological Museum in Berlin are some of the most remarkable sound recordings ever made. They date back to World War One and capture the voices of some of the ordinary men who fought in ‘the war to end all wars’. What happened to these men and how did they die?

Ali Hamedani has been to Turkey to meet the Iranian lesbian and gay people who’ve fled home after facing pressure to change their gender.

When the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards, riots erupted across the city to avenge the killing. Bobby Friction went into hiding with his family to escape the mobs. He returns with professor Swaran Singh, 30 years on, to talk to the children caught up in the riots.

Mustafa Nayyem is one of Ukraine's leading investigative reporters, who has controversially decided to leave journalism and enter the political arena. Andriy Kravets from the BBC’s Ukrainian Service travelled back to his homeland ahead of the recent parliamentary elections to find out more about Mustafa. How did an immigrant boy from Afghanistan manage to make his mark in Ukrainian society? And has this leading anti-corruption campaigner sold his audience short - or is this an attempt to kick-start much-need changes in Ukrainian political life?

Kavita Puri goes to Switzerland to hear the extraordinary stories of survivors who lived as indentured child labourers.

Linard Davies is a baggage attendant at San Francisco airport. He deals with the packages that the airlines won't touch. Clown shoes, 10ft carved wooden doors, fresh moose antlers are just some of the strangest artefacts he has dealt with.

What are changes in voting laws doing to demoracy in the USA? Rajini Vaidyanathan travels to North Carolina to investigate voting rights in the United States.

In the Indian capital Delhi stands India Gate, the largest memorial to the war for which 1.5 million Indian men were recruited. But Anita Rani discovers that World War One is something of a forgotten memory today, seen as part of its colonial history. She sets out to uncover some of the forgotten stories.

Women abused in institutions run by the Catholic Church are demanding answers from religious authorities and the government. But will the latest inquiry give them any peace?

Ebola is now regarded as an international threat to peace and security, according to the World Health Organisation. Up to 10,000 people a week could soon be infected in west Africa, with cases also reported in Europe and the US. Simon Cox asks why it took so long for the world to wake up to the threat posed by Ebola.

Texas is crucial in the race for national power. Gary O’Donoghue travels to the Lone Star State to find out about the challenges the Republicans face on divisive issues like immigration and shifts in social attitudes - and what this could mean for the party and Texas

Music from the rising stars of Africa, including wordsmiths M.Anifest from Ghana and Tumi from South Africa, whose conscious rap uses lyrics to challenge and delight. Also featuring Aziza Brahim from western Sahara, Songhai Blues from Mali, Lala Njava from Madagascar, Nigerian pop diva Omawumi, and The Good Ones from Rwanda.

Tim Whewell is one of the few foreign reporters who’ve made it to Tobruk, last toehold of Libya’s elected authorities – holding out against a growing jihadi menace

India is falling in love with Western classical music. In his home-city Mumbai, Zareer Masani encounters the country's first national ensemble, the Symphony Orchestra of India. He visits Furtado's, the city's oldest music shop, which sells hundreds of pianos a year, and discovers that thousands of children learn a Western instrument. Yet, Zareer finds that this is not the total success it seems.

Everything's bigger in Texas and that goes for the personalities who run for election there. While the Republican party is dominant, Democrats believe that they can change the reddest of the red states blue in the coming years. Can the Democratic Party make big gains in the mid-term elections?

Linda Pressly travels to Kosovo and meets the sister of ISIS’ first suicide-bomber from the Balkans. How could Europe’s most pro-American state have fostered such extremism?

In recent years, sperm has been shipped out of Denmark at an astonishing rate, producing thousands of babies worldwide - many in the UK. In 2006, the UK was not importing any Danish sperm, but by 2010 Denmark was supplying around a third of our total imports. Why are Danish donors in such demand? Kate Brian investigates.

Orania, South Africa, remains a 'whites only' town despite the end of apartheid 20 years ago. BBC reporter Stanley Kwenda travels to Orania to explores whether the people of Orania are clinging to a racist past – or whether it is a close-knit community that just happens to be white.

Neal Razzell goes to work with Copenhagen’s hot dog vendors who tell how the humble sausage is a barometer for changing attitudes to class, identity and immigration.

Since the 18th Century, Tamil fishermen have claimed to navigate by the mysterious music of the singing fish of the Batticaloa lagoon in eastern Sri Lanka. The fishermen's ancient name for the creature is Oorie Coolooroo Cradoo (crying shells); scientists believe that the underwater choristers are some kind of fish. But, after 30 years of civil war and the ravages of the tsunami, does any evidence of this strange nocturnal chorus remain?

The rockets and missiles fly, from Israel into Gaza, from Gaza into Israel. It is the latest iteration of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours, which has flared since the very founding of the Jewish state in 1948. Why does this particular conflict, above all others, attract the attention it does?

Tim Mansel on the lives of people in Sierra Leone as they face a three day "lock-down" designed to counter Ebola which has already killed nearly 500 of their compatriots.

In the late 1930's a young Mildred Cummings from Dayton, Ohio is barefoot, standing in the spotlight on stage, wearing that same old shabby dress and a broken straw hat. This is Little Miss Cornshucks and she has the audience in the palm of her hand, a unique act and larger than life personality. By the 1940's she made top-billing at nightclubs across America, performing heartbreaking ballads. But who remembers her now?

Music from the most promising bands of the Mexican music scene. Hear rapper Eptos One, the rock anthems of Zoé, Mexico’s biggest rock band, and happy-go-lucky artist Caloncho. Plus, we talk to the diva of Mexican pop, Julieta Venegas, Centavrus, Hello Seahorse and Little Jesus.

In Ivory Coast, men are going back to the classroom. It's an innovative project dubbed the 'school for husbands' - and designed to save the lives of mothers and children.

The legacy of jazz pianist James Booker. Classically trained in piano and a child prodigy, Booker toured with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin and played on sessions with Fats Domino and Little Richard. But, gay at a time when homosexuality was a huge taboo and black in a divided America, Booker died alone, aged 43, after a life of drug and alcohol abuse.

After becoming a Paralympics champion, Oscar Pistorius rose to fame as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. He became a hero to millions – until the fateful night when he shot dead his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp.

Hilary Andersson investigates the more than one million mentally ill prisoners held in US jails and prisons, most of whom are incarcerated for relatively minor offences.

Ten years ago, Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. In the decade since, countries across the world have passed smoke-free laws of their own. Denis Murray looks at the impact of this type of anti-smoking legislation across Europe - and considers the future of tobacco.

Could women's football provide a new, more sustainable model to the men's game? Yvonne Macken hears from young women in Trinidad and Tobago, Iceland, Brazil, Japan, the UK, the USA and Africa.

At least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the northern English town of Rotherham by gangs of men who were predominantly of Pakistani origin between 1997 and 2013 according to an independent inquiry, by Professor Alexis Jay. How did police, press, politicians and professional agencies fail to deal with it?

Natalio Cosoy meets the miners of northern Spain who sing to their patron saint, Santa Bárbara Bendita, in the hope that she will watch over them in the uncertain times ahead.

Giving Africa's obscure musical gems a new lease of life - meet the fans of rediscovered sounds. Among them is ethnomusicologist Brian Shimkovitz who's trying to track down musician Ata Kak.

King George VI spoke to the world about the declaration of war on Germany in 1939. Listen to the story of how it was broadcast around the world 75 years ago.

Air traffic controllers have guided trans-Atlantic flights since 1919. As Creative archaeologist Christine Finn discovers, datalink - effectively text messaging - is increasingly being used, so that voice communication is on the wane.

Pentecostal churches in Guatemala run many of the country's compulsory drug rehabilitation centres. But just how safe and effective are they? Linda Pressly reports.

Million's Poet is a hugely popular televised competition to find the best poet in the Middle East. Poetry has always had an essential role to play in Arab literature and the tradition is thriving.

TV made in the USA by tribal people, for tribal people covering everything from whaling rituals to canoe journeys and watched, at its height, by 50 million people.

Did President Johnson take the US to war with Vietnam on a lie, or was he misled? DD Guttenplan explores what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964.

As more young people leave Ireland, Gaelic Football is losing its lifeblood. John Murphy reports on the struggle to keep alive the game that is at the heart of Irish identity.

Rastafari's global impact after the explosion of Jamaica's Roots Reggae scene in the 1970s. Does this spiritual and cultural movement still have relevance today?

The classic novel, a parable of America's Great Depression, as applied to the US today. Mark Mardell considers John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.

The BBC's China Editor investigates an elusive cult at the centre of a grisly murder that has shocked the nation.

How Rastafari turned from an ostracised religious sect into a global phenomenon - and its role in replacing the shackles of colonial rule with a forgotten African identity.

The Helmand valley dam complex, is the biggest engineering project in Afghanistan. How has it withstood the Soviet invasion and the conflict that began in 2001?

Presenter Nihal Arthanayake visits UK immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal who gives advice to migrants seeking visas to work and live in Britain.

As Ukrainian holidaymakers stay away from Crimea's beaches following Russia's annexation of the peninsula, Lucy Ash meets the Russians who are reclaiming their bit of paradise.

David Loyn investigates how a lost document is helping Afghanistan come to terms with its painful past. A war crimes trial in the Netherlands has unearthed a list of 5,000 prisoners detained, tortured and killed by the radical communist regime that ran the country in 1978-79 - a "death list".

Forty years on from President Nixon’s resignation we hear from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate story. Did their reporting make Americans more mistrustful of government and ready to believe the worst of their leaders?

In Colombia’s Marxist guerrilla war, thousands of rebel fighters have been female. When they got pregnant, they were forced to have abortions or give their babies up. Now, many of these rebel mothers have demobilised and are desperate to find their children.

Tim Whewell meets the dynamic young women in Turkish Kurdistan who are defining the future of their society.

Theatre director Mehmet Ergen guides us through the politically charged arts scene of his native homeland Turkey, as he negotiates national and cultural borders to stage work that is as unpretentious as it is provocative.

‘I’ll marry your sister if you marry mine. And if you divorce my sister, I’ll divorce yours.’ That is Yemen’s ‘Shegar’, or swap marriage, an agreement between two men to marry each other’s sisters, thereby removing the need for expensive dowry payments. But the agreement also entails that if one marriage fails, the other couple must separate as well - even if they are happy.

***WARNING: This programme includes graphic descriptions of sexual violence*** 'A humanitarian crisis', that's how the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers describes the levels of violence against women they are dealing with in Papua New Guinea - levels they usually only witness in war-zones. Russian photojournalist Vlad Sokhin reports on the untold stories of women subjected to the most extreme violence perpetrated anywhere on earth, including the brutal torture of women accused of witchcraft.

Six talented young writers under 35 explore a great grandparent or grandparent's involvement in World War One. This centenary offers a chance to reflect on the gulf that separates young people from the war. Each writer attempts to bridge the gap, to question what the values and sacrifices of the war mean today.

What do you do when a twisting funnel drops from the sky with tearing winds of up to 500 km an hour? Neal Razzell goes out and about with the storm chasers in Oklahoma City, USA.

As Nato troops withdraw from Afghanistan, British and Afghan women share their stories of being widowed by the same war. Zarghuna Kargar hears how the lives of four women changed the moment they received the news of their husbands' sudden deaths, how they have coped in the aftermath and what they feel about war today.

Following recent botched executions in several states, Rajini Vaidyanathan asks whether the future of the death penalty in the US is itself now in question. Is it possible that the United States could give up on the death penalty?

Claire Bolderson reports from Kentucky on how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is changing lives. But can the doubters be won over?

In 1896 the British sent thousands of labourers from India to Kenya, to build the Uganda Railway from Mombasa on Kenya's coast to Lake Victoria in Uganda. During the '60s and '70s, facing uncertainty in an independent Kenya, many used their link with Britain to settle in the UK, causing alarm among the government and public. Neil Kanwal explores their experiences of empire, identity, discrimination and migration.

Ahead of sporting mega-events such as the Olympic Games, local people are being given a "clean-up" and training. For this summer's Commonwealth Games, 10,000 Glaswegians are getting tutoring how to speak 'properly', project positive body language and maintain eye contact whilst talking to visitors.

Fifty years ago, at the height of the Cold War and at the time of increasing tensions between East and West, Satish Kumar hit the headlines around the world when he walked 8000 miles from New Delhi to Moscow, then on to Paris, London and Washington DC, delivering packets of 'peace tea' to the leaders of the world's four nuclear powers.

Yalda Hakim hears from residents deep in Boko Haram territory, in northern Nigeria, who are caught between the Islamist militant group and the Nigerian military.

Sarfraz Manzoor charts the extraordinary story of jazz in India when some of the world's most accomplished musicians including Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong brought their talents to the east and mixed with performers such as Chic Chocolate, Micky Correa, Teddy Weatherford and Frank Fernand - all regarded in India today as jazz legends.

Meet New York's rookie cabbies - fledgling taxi-drivers trying to earn a living in the most stressful city in the world. Most are immigrants, already grappling with the challenges of a new language and a new culture. Now they have to deal with long hours, short fares, and grumpy passengers in the back.

Are international regulations designed to stop money and equipment reaching terrorist organisations curtailing vital aid programmes in some of the world's most troubled regions?

Baroness Oona King, former British Labour MP, discovers her American family's role in the fight for equality. Her grandfather and uncles worked with Martin Luther King in The Albany Movement, a campaign that tried to desegregate their home town in Georgia. Oona travelled to Albany to speak to members of the movement on the 50th anniversary of the passing of The Civil Rights Act.

Alvin Hall delves into the inspirations and fears that influence people’s differing attitudes towards money. He speaks to Peter de Savary who has bought hotels and boats, living around the world in luxury resorts that he’s owned, but says it’s not the money he craves. He finds out about the man who left $187 million to charity, and the men who pay serious cash to spend time with college-educated beauties.