The Documentary Podcast

Fred Hammond is one of the biggest names in Gospel music, with 15 Grammy awards, and a career that spans over 40 years, from playing bass in The Winans to more recently his Tiny Desk Concert. His songs are loved by Christians around the world, and gospel fan and radio presenter Swarzy Shire wants to learn more about the man behind the music and how his faith has kept inspiring that music. Fred has faced ups and downs publicly from his divorce and the impact that has had on his family, to his physical suffering with multiple knee operations and a fall from stage just two years ago. He shares with Swarzy how his faith and music have helped him overcome the painful periods in his life.

Forty years ago, an iceberg broke away from the Antarctic ice shelf. But this was no ordinary iceberg. A colossal chunk of ice which covered an area twice the size of London, it was as deep as the Empire State building is high and it weighed a trillion tonnes. For nearly four decades A23a was the world's largest iceberg. Glaciologist Dr. Catherine Walker tells the story of A23a from its origins, its ice being laid down deep in the Antarctic over millennia, through to its final chapter - shrinking, melting and feeding the ocean from which it came. Catherine talks to glaciologists who study the vast cracks which propagate across the Antarctic ice shelf and to scientists who have seen A23a up close and followed its journey and its impact as it released a trillion tonnes of fresh water and nutrients into the marine environment.

Presenter Becky Green lost one of her twins to sepsis in 2018. It is a condition that, according to the World Health Organization, is implicated in one in five deaths worldwide - more than bowel, prostate and lung cancer combined. Sepsis can begin as a simple infection and escalate within hours, overwhelming the body and causing organ failure. It is a race against time that too often goes unrecognised until it is too late. But around the world, that is starting to change. Becky speaks to Dr Kissoon of the Global Sepsis Alliance about how our understanding of sepsis has changed. In Malawi and Uganda, she meets the team behind the APT Sepsis programme. By educating healthcare workers on hand hygiene, infection prevention and early detection they have cut maternal deaths and severe infections from sepsis by 32%. In Madrid, Dr Rosa Mendez explains how a hospital-wide "sepsis code" - mirroring fast-track protocols for heart attacks and strokes - has brought sepsis mortality down from 24% to 17%. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from People Fixing the World, looking at people and projects trying to make the world a better place.

AI cameras, drones, licence plate readers, sound detection, Flock - the United States is monitored through a growing, high-tech, and increasingly interconnected surveillance network. In some cities, like Houston, Texas, the true extent of this system is a secret. Law enforcement says this is all for public safety - to prevent crime and assist investigations. Critics think it is an invasion of privacy, open to misuse, and a sneaky tool aiding ICE in President Trump's deportation drive. One company is bearing the brunt of the backlash: Flock Safety. Its network of AI-powered licence plate readers spans over 6000 communities, generating 20 billion vehicle scans a month. Vigilantes have been cutting down Flock devices. Social media is full of tips on how to obstruct or disable the cameras. Ellie House is in Houston, Texas, to investigate the surveillance network authorities do not want you to know about. She sees how Flock has been used by police to fight crime, gets inside the anti-surveillance techlash, and she sits down with Flock CEO Garrett Langley in his Atlanta HQ. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Assignment.

The Made in Turkey label found in so much of our clothing could disappear as the industry faces competition from countries like Egypt. Turkey is battling huge inflation and hundreds of clothing factories are going bankrupt leaving tens of thousands out of work. Emily Wither reports from Istanbul.

Colombia is reeling from the False Positive scandal. Incentivised by the government, soldiers abducted and killed over 7,000 innocent civilians, falsely presenting them as guerrilla fighters in an attempt to convince the nation they were winning a bloody civil conflict that had raged for over 50 years. We meet Blanca Monroy, the mother of a murdered young man, who battled the establishment to bring the scandal to national attention. We join forensic anthropologist, Cesar Medina as he hunts for the bodies of the missing. Jaime Trujillo is an ex-soldier, desperate to atone for his role in around 40 of the murders. Now he has turned whistleblower, providing detailed evidence to the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) – the special tribunal established under Colombia's peace agreement to investigate crimes committed during the conflict. But can an innovative system of justice bring those responsible to justice?

The spoken languages in Hong Kong and Taiwan differ, with Cantonese being spoken in Hong Kong and Mandarin preferred in Taiwan, but the two territories use traditional Chinese characters for reading and writing. This has created a strong bond between them in the field of book publishing, with many books which are published in Taiwan being sold in Hong Kong. This year, authorities in Hong Kong have cracked down on booksellers under national security laws. Hong Kong's government argues they are necessary steps to maintain stability in the territory, but critics say they're crushing dissent. Concern is now being felt in the publishing industry in Taiwan. Joyce Li from BBC Chinese is based in Taipei, and Abel U, also from BBC Chinese, is based in Hong Kong, and they join to share their insights.Since 2024, a neighborhood in the Moroccan capital of Rabat has been undergoing demolition and eviction operations carried out by Moroccan authorities. Residents have been left uncertain about their futures, and the lack of transparency has also left people questioning what the real reasons are, behind the demolition campaign. Hanan Razek from BBC Arabic, has been following the story and speaking to locals.The last day of exams is always a big deal. It's when you might blow off some steam and have some fun with your friends after some tough months of studying. For a recent pharmaceutical technology student in eastern Nigeria, he left his last exam and ended up going viral on social media due to a special gift that was waiting for him, a goat. Adesola Ikulajolu of BBC Pidgin reported on the story.The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia's youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin's network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Flags are at half-mast across the United States following the death of Dolly Parton at the age of 80. Born in poverty in a log cabin in rural Tennessee, she went on to sell more than 100 million records and became one of the most influential figures in country music. Dolly Parton was also a highly successful entrepreneur and philanthropist and gave away millions to fund child literacy, conservation and healthcare. In our conversations, we bring together female country musicians – including Rhonda Vincent and Rissi Palmer - to share their memories of Dolly Parton and discuss her achievements. We also bring together people who worked with Dolly Parton to share their stories.

rk Franklin is one of the biggest names in Gospel music, with 20 Grammy awards, and a career that spans over 30 years. From classics like ‘Why we sing' to the mainstream hit ‘Stomp', so many of his songs are loved by Christians around the world. Gospel fan and radio presenter Swarzy Shire wants to learn more about the man behind the music and how his faith has kept inspiring that music. Despite many public ups and downs, Kirk reveals why his faith has been a constant source of support in his life. From being adopted as a young child to facing public criticism, he always returns to his faith in God and shares how he finds comfort in similar stories reflected in people's lives from the Bible.

Throughout August, the Lives Less Ordinary podcast is sharing extraordinary love stories from around the world. To listen to the season, search ‘Lives Less Ordinary' wherever you get your BBC podcasts. In this episode: in the 1970s, Mark arrived in the UK from the Bahamas and fell in love with a woman called Penny. For Penny, it felt like the beginning of everything- until, without warning, Mark broke things off and disappeared from her life. Devastated and searching for answers, Penny spent decades believing she was to blame, carrying that loss into the rest of her life and never quite finding the happiness she once imagined. Nearly forty years later, a message out of the blue from Mark brought them back into contact, and with it, revealed the sad truth about what drove them apart. This programme contains references to suicide. If you've been affected by any of the issues raised in this episode, you can find support at befrienders.org Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else's life and expect the unexpected.For more episodes, just search 'Lives Less Ordinary' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.

In the 30 years since its invention the ready-to-use therapeutic food Plumpy'nut has saved the lives of millions of children and protected countless others from the effects of malnutrition. Jewel Kiriungi explores its origins and ongoing legacy. The brainchild of two Frenchmen, Doctor Andre Briend and Michel Lescanne, a food processing engineer, they set out to put the power to feed children back into the hands of parents. With the help of organisations like Unicef they created a system of manufacture and distribution that would not only feed the hungry but benefit the economies of the countries where Plumpy'nut was needed.

The figures are startling - 2.1 million Brazilians have a clinical addiction to betting and 7.5 million are problem gamblers. Women now comprise 40% of all gamblers, having been 25% just a decade ago. Online sports and casino betting have exploded in Brazil to make it one of the largest gambling markets in the world. The self-help group Gamblers Anonymous says it is receiving thousands of calls each month and millions of Brazilians are estimated be suffering financial, emotional or relationship problems as a result of betting. Camilla Mota talks to football fans in Sao Paulo about why they are gambling on their team's result. She speaks to a man who gambled away $75, 000 on a corporate credit card, a businesswoman who locked herself in the toilet of her family home in order to bet in secret and meets two psychiatrists offering treatment to addicts at a special clinic. What can be done to protect problem gamblers and avoid driving legal gambling underground?

Lucy Sparrow stitches life into everyday objects, creating vibrant felt worlds that look just like the real thing. Following the success of her hand-stitched felt fish and chip shop, she has recreated a Walmart convenience store from the 1980s, complete with TV dinners and a felt photo booth.

Roland Pease explores how decades of strategic investment and diligent educational reform have brought China to the brink of global scientific dominance. As the world's other scientific superpowers seemingly retreat from their historical high ground, how has China achieved such remarkable progress, both in applied and fundamental sciences? And what might that mean for the rest of us?Image: A humanoid robot competes in the 1500m final at the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, China on 15 August 2025 (Credit: Tingshu Wan/Reuters)

In a sprawling prison in the Asir province of Southwestern Saudi Arabia, hundreds of young Ethiopian men are currently sitting on death row, not knowing when their name might be called and to be told that it's their turn. In the hope of getting their voices heard some of the prisoners managed to get hold of the phone number for the BBC's Tigrinya language service. One of the journalists working for the service is Aklilu Tsegay and he tells us what it was like to speak to those prisoners, sometimes multiple times a day, when reporting on the story.In India, July saw some of the biggest protests in the country for many years. The protesters were young people, particularly students, and they came together under an unusual symbol, the cockroach. They call themselves the Cockroach Janta Party or CJP, and they are demanding change to the education system in the country. Starting as an online joke a couple of months ago, the CJP is now one of India's most visible youth movements. Sumedha Paal reports for the BBC in India, and brings us the story.The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia's youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin's network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Noisy and disruptive children can turn a normal flight into a living nightmare. Earlier this month, a flight in Canada was cancelled after a young child refused to wear a seatbelt. The incident has opened a debate about how airlines should deal with these situations and how parents should control their children. In our conversations we bring together three parents to share their experiences. We also bring together three flight attendants to share their experiences of dealing with disruptive passengers, while keeping everyone on board safe.

AI isn't just occasionally going rogue…(Open AI and Meta we're looking at you) it's also changing the world of work. Nearly 70% of college students in the US said they thought AI would make it harder to find a job in a recent survey - and 22% said that they've changed what they're deciding to study at university because of this. They're not the only ones… students all over the world are thinking about how to AI-proof their future careers.In this episode, we go to the University College London campus to speak to three students: Omer, who's studying French and German, Zahra, who's studying entrepreneurship, and Allie, who's just graduated from Kings College after completing her law studies. They tell us how they think AI could change the course of their careers, how they're adapting to the new technology, and if their degrees will still be helpful in the face of AI.For more episodes, just search 'What in the World' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.

As Silicon Valley races to build machines that can think, create and perhaps surpass human intelligence, the Vatican has emerged as one of the most prominent global voices questioning the path the tech billionaires are setting for us. Pope Leo XIV, in his recent document on AI, warned of “the risk of dehumanisation.” Behind that warning lies a question that has occupied philosophers and theologians for centuries: what does it mean to be human?In Rome, Isobel Cockerell explores whether the answer to that age-old question survives contact with the era of artificial intelligence. She turns to Father Michael Baggot, a Catholic priest and professor who teaches courses on AI, ethics and transhumanism at Vatican universities. A regular at meetings between clergy and tech leaders, he sees Silicon Valley's vision of AI as quasi-religious in its claims to end uncertainty, suffering, and even death. “I also belong to a religion that believes in eternal life,” he says. He's conflicted about the ambitions of the tech elite. He hopes AI can lead to “human flourishing” but sees, in his pastoral life, how AI can devalue the very human acts of caring and sacrificing for the good of others.Isobel also speaks to tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, known for his radical efforts to defeat human ageing and live forever. He tells us that in building superintelligent AI, humanity may in fact be building God. He points to a future in which “this emergent structure of power is no longer human-centric.”This episode of Heart and Soul examines whether an institution built on ancient tradition can meaningfully shape the direction of the most disruptive technology of our time. And it invites believers and sceptics alike to consider what impact artificial intelligence might have on humanity.

On 7th January 2025, the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighbourhoods of Los Angeles suffered two of the most destructive fires in the city's history. Twenty-one people died and 15,000 buildings were destroyed over a combined area the size of Paris.The city is still reeling from the scale and intensity of the fires, and the challenge of rebuilding areas in which almost nothing remains standing. As the first tentative shoots of recovery begin to appear, Jonathan Glancey meets locals, including architects Scott Uriu and Michael Kovac. Like Dustin Bramell, co-founder of the Case Study: Adapt programme, they lost their own homes in the fires. Others, like architect and social justice advocate Steven Lewis, or Cynthia Siegler and Alex Athenson, founders of the Foothill Foundation Catalogue, saw their neighbours and communities displaced. Now they're trying to help replace what has been lost while looking for better ways of building, in a land where earthquakes, drought and fire are an ever present threat. As man-made climate change and urban growth worsen the risk and impact of fires, Jonathan asks experts including Dan Turner, a retired fire chief and executive director of Cal Poly's Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute, and architecture critic Frances Anderton if and how this city can reshape itself for a better future.

When the BBC's Richard Hollingham and his producer, Will Grant, arrived with their bikes in Kansas City, Missouri in 2008, it had just been named as the worst city for cyclists in the country. The resulting radio show became a “wake-up call” that has since inspired new cycling groups and millions of dollars of investment in cycling and walking initiatives. Now the BBC team is back to see what's improved and what other communities around the world can learn from the city's experiences. In their travels, Richard and Will join a group cycle, meet volunteers fixing bikes and find out about putting roads on "diets". The team also join a school cycling initiative in a deprived area of the city and learn how bicycles are giving students skills and mobility. Kansas City has focused on easy to achieve, low-cost solutions that give quick results, but cars remain dominant. Can the city now get even more people on their bikes?

What do the stolen love letters of John Keats have to do with homicide on the streets of New York? Prosecuting both crimes falls under the remit of assistant district attorney Matthew Bogdanos. A retired Marine colonel with both law and classics degrees, he has been the head of the Manhattan District Attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit since its creation in 2017. In his time on the job, the office has has seized more than six thousand pieces of stolen art and antiquities from various museums, art galleries and private homes in order to return them to their countries of origin. Sandra Kanthal travels to New York to learn more about this special unit of law enforcement, and the reasons why one man thinks tracking down stolen treasures of the art world and reuniting them with their rightful owners is vitally important to our past and for our future.

Antonia Quirke goes behind the scenes of Bookish, the murder mystery series written by Matthew Sweet and Mark Gatiss, who plays an amateur detective and bookshop owner called Book. Antonia hears from Matthew as he works on the script, crafting a cliff-hanger and deciding just how many red herrings there should be in one episode. He reveals the secrets of his working relationship with Mark, and we join them as they travel to their place of work, a film studio in Belgium, where they discuss which character they are going to murder that day - and how the crime will be committed. Clue: it involves a box of chocolates.When it comes to murder mysteries, Mark has form. He is the co-creator of the hit TV series Sherlock, where he plays Holmes' brother Mycroft. He has also starred in Game of Thrones, Dr Who and cult comedy series The League of Gentlemen, which he also co-wrote. Matthew Sweet is a broadcaster and expert in Victorian literature, and author of Shepperton Babylon, a best-selling book about the darker sides of British cinema. The pair have been friends for more than a decade, and Bookish is the first TV series they have written together.

In 2025, Voice of America was thrust into the spotlight when the bulk of its funding was taken away. But in an era shaped by the internet and social media revolutions and with the West's funding priorities changing, it was not the first international broadcaster to go quiet. The soft power war of the airwaves has now moved to a decisive phase.Josephine McDermott traces the start of international radio and its heyday through World War Two and the Cold War as a tool of soft power. Hear the hosts of shortwave radio, from the Nazi propagandists Lord Haw Haw and Mildred Gillars to Doris Maxina, the presenter of Soviet radio's Moscow Mailbag, plus June Taylor, the New Zealander who became the global voice of communist Albania.Tune in to the sounds lost to time from Radio Netherlands' Happy Station Show to Radio Berlin International, and the Russian version of the British institution, The Archers, which came about following the collapse of the USSR.Featuring Thomas Witherspoon, creator of the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive; Jamie Shea, Nato spokesperson from 1993 to 2000; Sir John Tusa, managing director of the BBC World Service from 1986 to 1992; Ivana Stradner, research fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in the United States and Nic Newman, senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, UK. With archive from the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive, including recordings from Thomas Witherspoon, Paul Watson, Greg Shoom, Mark Hirst, Tom Gavaras and Keith Perron. Moscow Mailbag recording from KSN's Tech Topics on YouTube.

More than four years after Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, the war continues to shape almost every aspect of life in both countries, including the challenge of finding enough people to serve on the front line. In Ukraine, videos showing violent confrontations between recruitment officers and members of the public have sparked angry debate about how the country's draught system is working. In Russia meanwhile, the authorities have tightened conscription rules and introduced new digital tools aimed at successfully recruiting more young Russians. With BBC Monitoring's Vitaly Shevchenko and BBC Russian's Yaroslava Kiryukhina. A new kind of spirit, very similar to tequila, is gaining popularity across India, thanks to the unassuming-looking agave plant. Unlike in Mexico, where agave is grown on a commercial scale for tequila production, in India, it grows wild and until recently, its only use was for farmers to make fences from its thorny trunk. But it is slowly transforming the lives of farmers across the country, as Priti Gupta, reporting for BBC Gujarati, has been finding out.This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean.

It's been several weeks since there has been any significant rainfall in many parts of the world. Across Europe, a prolonged heatwave and little rain have dried-up waterways, hit crop production and have contributed to the wildfires that continue to burn in many areas. In our conversations we hear from Germany and Hungary – areas where low water levels are impacting transport and tourism - and we speak to Austin from Florida who used to run fishing tours. We are also joined by farmers in India, France and the UK, where the lack of rain has hit crop production, which will affect the quality and cost of food.

Laurent de Cherisey was fresh out of business school and looking forward to earning a lot of money when his sister had a car accident that left her severely disabled. This led him to rethink everything. Including finding faith. He founded what has become a string of houses where accident victims and non-accident victims live side by side. They're called the Simon of Cyrene houses, named after the man Jesus chose to help him carry his cross. The project was financed in part by the box office receipts for the hit comedy Untouchable at the request of the aristocratic tetraplegic accident victim whose story inspired the film. We talk to Laurent about his journey and to some Simon of Cyrene house-dwellers about what's good about these places - why it works bringing together people of very different social classes, ethnic and religious backgrounds and, above all, very different physical and mental capacities. Producer/presenter: John Laurenson Series producer: Rajeev Gupta Editor: Chloe Walker Production coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno

How has botany been able to function as one of the longest-lasting soft powers between the two world powers - China and the US? Journalist and producer Finn Aberdein has been focused on China for over two decades. He hears from policy analysts, supply chain diplomats and leading Chinese and US botanists working tirelessly to keep their boots on the ground trips operating. From the secretive walled-gardens of China's communist elite, to the gingko picnic spaces of Bostonian college lawns, and ancient forest canopies of the Sichuan basin, a portrait emerges - one of a borderless community of plant specialists practising a special kind of soft power. How has the quiet work of botanists helped weather political storms?

When it opens in December, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will be the largest in the world. Stretched over a 10-lane freeway, it is meant to save the California Mountain Lion population, which has become fragmented by the highway. It could also serve as a model for other projects, as crossings of this kind have often been viewed as too large to be effective. So, will the crossing work? We examine the construction and the existing scientific data to find out.

The Victoria falls, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, is considered one of the natural wonders of the world. But as Isa Jacobson reports, there is concern that development around the waterfall could threaten the delicate ecosystem and exacerbate conflict between humans and wildlife.

South African police detective Frans Mathipa told his boss he feared that he would be killed by the country's military. Two days later he was found shot dead in his car by the side of a motorway.At the time of his death, Mathipa had been investigating whether special forces soldiers were behind the disappearance of Abdella Abadigga, a suspected member of so-called Islamic State or ISIS, and his bodyguard. So was Mathipa killed, as his colleagues believe, because of fears about what his investigation threatened to reveal?Dino Mahtani and Yeshiel Panchia investigate an extraordinary case that sets one arm of the South African state against another.Presenter: Dino Mahtani Producer: Ed Main Executive editors: Nick Norman-Butler and Andy Bell Editor: Rebecca Henschke Studio manager: Sam DickinsonArchive: SABC and Facebook

In Lagos, a vast patch of scrubland is being imagined as the future home of Kebulania: an ambitious African film city on the edge of Nigeria's biggest metropolis, and one of the centres of Nollywood, the country's multi-billion dollar film industry. Nigerian journalist Samuel Okocha follows the project in its earliest, most uncertain days – when the vision is big, but the buildings are yet to rise. At the proposed site, he joins community members, contractors and staff from Del-York Creative Arts, a Nigerian conglomerate film and media training company, as traditional leaders offer prayers and blessings.

New Bell Prison in Douala, Cameroon, operates a bit like a city within a city. The facility has its own "taxis" (inmates who hand deliver messages), its own law enforcement (prisoners who help police the facility) and a market. The jail is overcrowded and under-resourced, and the occupants of New Bell have sometimes adapted the jail's overstretched systems to work for them. An on-site music studio and label, Jail Time Records, has also sprung up and found an international audience. Wedaeli Chibelushi, journalist for BBC World Online, Africa, tells the stories of some of the inmates involved.  In Egypt, Christians are a substantial minority, making up 10 to 15% of the population, but they're not always represented fairly in employment and public life. This month, the case of 13-year-old Makary Younan, who despite his talent was initially passed over for selection by a major Egyptian football academy, has led to a public debate over anti-Christian discrimination. BBC Arabic's Ahmed Omar has the story.  Wang Jibing, a Chinese food delivery rider in his fifties, has found a huge online following with reflective poems capturing his daily life and routines. Now, he's won one of China's top literary prizes. After growing up poor and doing many different jobs, Wang became a food delivery rider 2019. He often scribbles poems on scraps of paper between deliveries, but the prize he's won is named after poet Lu Xun, seen by many as the father of Chinese literature. Koh Ewe from the BBC's Hong Kong Bureau explains why so many Chinese people have taken him to their hearts. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Ariana Grande says she will be taking ‘a step back' from public life. The reason, it seems, is the constant public commentary she faces – particularly surrounding her appearance. We bring together fans of the multi-award-winning singer and Oscar nominated actor to discuss the scrutiny facing women in the public eye. We also hear from women who have received abuse after posting on social media, including Ella, a high jump athlete from Finland. “I never imagined when I started doing sports as a little girl there would be a moment when I would receive messages that I should kill myself because I didn't perform well or that I am the greatest embarrassment Finland has ever had” she says.

In Lithuania, singer Rūgilė Daujotaitė was becoming a familiar face on television. She was performing at major music events, competing for a place at Eurovision, and building a life that, from the outside, appeared successful. But privately, she says she was struggling. Raised in a family shaped by New Age spirituality and occult beliefs, Rūgilė grew up searching for God through a mixture of traditions. As an adult, she moved to Amsterdam to study jazz, became involved in shamanic practices and Santo Daime ceremonies, and began taking ayahuasca - a powerful psychedelic brew used in some religious rituals. Colm Flynn travels to Vilnius to meet Rūgilė in the home where she first encountered many of the ideas that shaped her early life. She reflects on leading retreats, introducing others to practices she has since rejected, and the moment she began reading the Bible and questioning the world she had embraced. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

In the late '90s, in daring feats of DIY networking on rooftops across Romania's capital, Bucharest, teenagers are stringing computer cables between tower blocks to share an internet connection. This guerilla infrastructure starts out scrappy, but it sprawls into an impressive improvised network that catches the attention of telecom giants. Told by those who built it, this is the extraordinary story of how a homemade system became the backbone of a city - a reflection of what the internet was meant to be and what it became.

Aviation is being reimagined for a changing planet: Vertical take-off passenger cars for city centres. Hydrogen powered planes for zero carbon travel. Hyper-sonic flights to take the London to Sydney journey to under two hours. Kelly Latimer, US Aerospace engineer, flight test pilot, and former Flight Test Director of Virgin Galactic; Rob Miller, Net-zero aviation pioneer and Director of the Whittle Lab at Cambridge University, UK and Daniel Moczydlower, president of the Brazilian future aircraft innovators, Embraer-X, join BBC presenter Caroline Steel on stage in London, to discuss their trailblazing work and answer questions from a live audience at the Royal Geographical Society, London.

Amid the tents and the rubble Gaza is developing once again as an unlikely tech hub. Even before the 7 October 2023 attack and the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, NGOs, with the backing of Google, had sought to develop tech start-ups in the Gaza strip. The digital economy was one of the few areas in which young Gazans in particular could seek to earn money for their families. During the two years of war they struggled for food and water. Forced to move from place to place, most of them lost their homes, their work, sometimes their laptops and plenty lost family members. Now 80% of Gazans are unemployed and have no income. Many of them live amid the rubble in tents. Stable electricity and internet are difficult to come by. And yet co-working hubs have begun to pop up, giving well educated graduates a chance to work remotely for foreign companies as coders, software engineers and app developers.. Yolande Knell reports on how its tech workers give a glimpse of a brighter, possible future, open to the world beyond Gaza's borders. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Assignment.

Nine Yards, the designers behind the Paris 2024 Olympic skatepark, get to work on their next big challenge: the rebuild of Olympiaplein, one of Amsterdam's oldest and most cherished skating spots. Sean Allsop joins designers Jesper Kuipers and Jeroen Van Eggermond in the Netherlands, as they work through sketches and plans before presenting their vision to local skaters for crucial feedback. Then the team head out onto the building site, with concrete trucks, tight deadlines, and one shot to get the surface smooth for skaters of all levels, before the gates open and a community gets to skate again. We explore how skating has evolved from an underground sport into an established movement, the community within skateparks, and the intricate detail that goes into every park.

The extremist content quietly spreading on TikTok and Instagram, targeting unsuspecting young people. Through what is disguised as innocuous lifestyle content, supporters of jihadist groups like IS and al-Qaeda reach audiences outside their echo chamber. This is a recruitment drive that signals a move from direct operational instructions to “do-it-yourself jihad", with the aim of potentially inspiring lone wolf attacks. The Global Jigsaw explores the tactics used to obscure and evade detection, the challenges this poses for platforms, and how it has become a relentless game of whack-a-mole.Find out more about BBC Monitoring on our website: monitoring.bbc.co.ukContributors: Mariam Soussi, Mina al-Lami Producer: Kriszta Satori, Elchin Suleymanov Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham

When Chinese policeman Dong Guangping wrote an article commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, it kicked off a chain of events that led to him serving jail time and losing his job. But it also sparked the beginning of a deep desire to live more freely. So Dong began planning how he might escape China. Just a few weeks ago, back in late May, he finally achieved his dream, having taken the huge risk of crossing China's Yellow Sea in a dinghy to reach South Korean waters. Phoebe Kong, based in the BBC's Hong Kong bureau, explained how rare Dong's achievement really is. Yemen has faced decades of economic hardship and war, but the khat industry is thriving. Khat is a plant, and when chewed it acts as a stimulant. It is estimated to consume one-third of Yemen's groundwater and occupy much of the country's agricultural land. Dalia Haidar of BBC Arabic has been looking into Yemen's relationship to khat and the problem it can cause.The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia's youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin's network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Wildfires continue to burn across the continent. Thousands of people have been evacuated on the Greek island of Crete, as well as in western France, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. A blaze in central Spain has burned almost 80,000 hectares over the last week and is now considered the largest recorded wildfire in Spanish history. With temperatures hitting more than 40 degrees Celsius in south-western France, firefighters, planes and helicopters have been battling fires there. Muriele in France and Julian in Spain share their experiences of escaping the flames. Robin – on holiday with his family – describes what it was like as the fire approached their French campsite. “The pool was getting filled up with ash, you could see all black pine needles, bits of bark that were burnt, it blocked out the sun,” Robin tells us. We also bring together volunteers in France, helping to provide food and shelter for people displaced from their homes.

What does it mean to inherit a faith that served as a fortress for your father, but feels like a contradiction to you? Throughout his childhood in Oxford, Silas Gray was surrounded by the sights, sounds, and symbols of his father's Rastafarian identity. He was even named after the Rastafarian spiritual figurehead, Emperor Haile Selassie I. But this legacy weighs heavily. It anchors him to a complex world leader he's not sure he's aligned with. And he feels like an imposter carrying a name associated with a faith he doesn't practise. Desperate to find a version of this legacy he can comfortably own, Silas decides to do what his father spent forty years dreaming of but never actually did: he books a flight to Ethiopia and travels to the Rastafarian spiritual motherland of Shashamane, the land granted to the global black diaspora by the Emperor himself. Silas encounters a living, breathing community where three generations of Rastafarians exist under one roof. This is a deeply personal pilgrimage about a son trying to see what his father sees, heal a generational disconnect, and finally make peace with his name.