The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2013

Graphene is a super-strong and super-conductive material. Gerry Northam looks at its move from the laboratory to the commercial world.

The US Federal Reserve, America's central bank, is one hundred years old. Simon Jack tells its surprising story.

Brazil's anti-slavery hit-squads are unique. Linda Pressly joins a raid with a committed band of labour inspectors on an alleged slave labour operation in deepest rural Brazil.

Childcare options in Fiji, where children are taken care of by the community, and China where infants as young as three might live away from their parents in boarding kindergartens. Madeleine Morris reports.

The emerging Jihadi challenge across the Sahara and Sahel regions of Africa. Are there links between various Islamist groups?

Farhana Haider investigates the prosecution of alleged war criminals from the conflict of 1971 and asks if the trials are being used to target the opposition.

The story of Kampala Music School told by its pupils and teachers. Kampala Music School began life in 2001 in the basement of the YMCA but is now the international centre of musical excellence in Uganda.

When a group of young Texan women found naked pictures of themselves online, they wanted justice, but their critics accused them of trampling on freedom of speech.

Forty years after the premiere of Jamaican cult film The Harder They Come, Chris Salewicz asks whether a whole generation of musicians were directly inspired to live a life of crime by the film.

Mandela's 1962 pan-African journey to explain the mission of the ANC and seek political support, money and military training. What impact did these travels in free Africa have on Mandela the man - and Mandela the politician?

Nelson Mandela on the struggle against apartheid, with words from those who fought with - and against - him. One of the most comprehensive oral histories of apartheid in South Africa ever broadcast.

A look back at the life of Nelson Mandela by the BBC's former South Africa correspondent, Allan Little.

One year on from the horrific attack on a student in Delhi, Joanna Jolly hears from three women who've chosen to report a rape in a country that is just waking up to the problem.

The cult classic Jamaican crime film The Harder They Come, its reggae soundtrack - and its legacy. Meet the people who made it and starred in it: Jimmy Cliff, Chappy St Juste and Carl Bradshaw.

Pope Francis is being acclaimed for his leadership of the Roman Catholic Church - but why did his predecessor suddenly resign? Mark Dowd travels to Rome to investigate.

Be it in Lagos, Minneapolis or Rio de Janeiro, how have shopping malls become such a permanent fixture in modern cities?

Vladimir Hernandez meets the Mexican Catholic priests who believe the country's drug wars mean it's in the grip of the devil - and who are fighting it through exorcism.

How decisions noted by Ebenezer Morley in 1863 allowed football to become the most successful of international sports.

Tiny Moldova is the world's 7th biggest wine exporter so a ban on exports to Russia has hit hard. Tessa Dunlops asks if Russian politics will crush this thriving industry.

Are military metaphors such as 'battling' always appropriate when it comes to dealing with cancer? Andrew Graystone explores the language used to describe cancer.

People with a perspective on the assassination and death of John F Kennedy in Dallas: former secret service agent Clint Hill, witness Gayle Newman, former journalist Hugh Aynesworth, doctor Kenneth Salyer and retired dective James Leavelle.

With rare access to the government's rehabilitation programme Tom Esslemont meets children as they attempt to find their way to back to their families and society.

Jamaica's gay rights and anti-homosexuality movements: what it is like to be a gay person in Jamaica from day-to-day.

Can Indonesia create the world's largest public health system? Claire Bolderson investigates.

Madeleine Morris explores alternative childcare with a visit a boarding school where children as young as two are educated away from their parents.

Melilla is one of Europe's most southerly land borders with Africa, a town under intense pressure from migration, Linda Pressly investigates.

Childcare - its costs and its developmental implications - has become one of the most vexed issues for new parents in the developed world. Madeleine Morris looks around the world at alternative approaches to childcare. In the first programme, she visits Fiji.

The inside story of the world's most successful gang of jewel thieves, nicknamed The Pink Panthers.

Neal Razzell spends days and nights in Lagos with the electricity teams who are working to literally bring power to the people.

Emma Barnett examines which countries in the world do allow women to serve, and contrasts the experiences of three women to present a picture of life for women on the military front line.

The toils and tribulations of Polly Apio a smallholder in rural Uganda, where men own the land, but women toil in the fields to provide the food to feed their families.

James Fletcher travels to Alice Springs in Australia to hear first-hand how alcohol is affecting the Aboriginal community there.

As the global population ages, is it time for a re-think about how we view elderly people? Listen to four very different stories of growing older and how the world cares about ageing.

"Anything that can happen on earth, at some point happens in the sky." Air hostess Betty Thesky shares the weird, wonderful, and wacky things that happen on a plane at 35,000 feet.

Cancer-fighting BBC foreign correspondent Helen Fawkes shares her list of things she wants to do before she dies... a bucket list, or as she likes to call it, a list for living.

The dramatic, disturbing and inspiring story of Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head for campaigning for the right of all girls to an education. She talks about her life in her own words, in an exclusive interview with Mishal Husain.

More than a thousand garment workers died and several thousand were injured in the collapse of the 8 storey factory in Dhaka. Jane Deith reports on whether anything has changed.

The BBC's North America Editor, Mark Mardell, travels to China to explore the most important geopolitical relationship in the world today, between China and America.

Lucy Ash looks at the conflicts within Iraq between 2005 and 2012, told from the point of view of senior decision-makers.

Man is a social creature, so how does he cope in situations of isolation - bereft of human contact - or in situations where he or she is confined in the company of just a few individuals for long periods of time? Anahi Aradas explores the effects of isolation and confinement in a tiny community in the Antarctic, speaks to former astronauts in the US and visits a Swedish prison, where inmates are encouraged to practise yoga to help them cope.

The BBC's Anne Soy reflects on what these last few days will mean for the future of her city, Nairobi.

Ed Butler follows consumer's quest for goods, the phenomenon of widespread smuggling, and asks whether the government has a plan to tackle the sense of looming economic crisis.