Documentaries & Specials
Each month, the BBC World Service offers new documentaries and specials selected specifically for U.S. audiences, with in-depth, relevant reporting. Typically one-hour, or two half-hours on a similar topic, they offer great content for any time of day, and satisfy audiences' needs for deeper narratives and more reflective listening.
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The Forum: Airports
Air window: April 26, 2025 - May 23, 2025
One hour
Airports: at their most basic level are places to fly from to reach destinations near and far, and yet they are so much more. Iszi Lawrence and guests take a look at the evolution of airports, from their beginnings as military airstrips to the modern-day behemoths with their luxury shopping outlets, gyms and restaurants.
The early European airports were modelled on railway stations, as that was the only blueprint for a transport hub. The public became so enthralled by air travel that airports eventually became popular as destinations in themselves. Airports today are places filled with emotion: the scene of farewells and arrivals, as well as the stress of international travel in an age of terrorism.
Iszi will be joined by a panel of experts including the American cultural historian Alastair Gordon, author of Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Revolutionary Structure. Plus a range of Forum listeners from around the world contribute their personal experiences of airports.
The Call of Anastasia
Air window: May 6, 2025 - June 2, 2025
Half hour
We investigate what’s behind a Russian new age movement that has taken hold in Germany.
Members of the new age ‘Anastasia’ movement promote strong family values, farm small plots of land and try to educate their own children outside the public school system. Originating in Russia, the quasi-religious group has now spread to Germany, where there are more than a dozen ‘Anastasia’ rural settlements. But , are they more than just a harmless fringe group?
Reporter Johannes Dell goes back to his native Germany to discover what the group stands for. He speaks to a former Anastasia member and to a German journalist who spent two years tracking the group. A government intelligence officer tells him why three German states have designated the group as extremist. As Johannes finds out, beyond their eco-friendly exterior, Anastasia members display sinister traits of racism, anti-Semitism and far-right ideologies.
Russia’s church in Texas
Air window: May 6, 2025 - June 2, 2025
Half hour
Not that long ago many church-going Americans saw Russia as a godless place, an “evil empire” in the words of Ronald Reagan. But in President Trump’s second term, US-Russia relations have been turned on their head. This seismic shift is also being felt in parishes across America. Increasing numbers of US Catholics and Protestants are embracing Eastern Orthodoxy.
Many converts disillusioned by the showbiz elements in many megachurches, say they are drawn to a faith with enduring traditions. Some, uneasy with social and demographic change, believe the churches they were raised in have lost their authority by going “woke”. Some converts have hundreds of thousands of followers online and push Kremlin narratives that Putin is the devout leader of the world’s last bastion of true Christianity. A few of the most radical have even emigrated to Russia. Lucy Ash has been to Texas – one of the most religious states in the US – to meet some new converts.
Women Warriors
Air window: May 17, 2025 - June 13, 2025
One hour
In the last few decades western militaries have been training more women for combat than ever, yet female recruitment and retention is stalling. But with warfare changing, new technologies and new threats, women soldiers are a vital resource.
Victoria Hollingsworth talks with different women around the world, some on the frontline and others about to go, and explores the motivations and the challenges they face. This documentary relives some of their terrifying experiences of war in Iraq, Ukraine and Afghanistan and asks why their contributions are rarely celebrated. Many have families and find juggling these two lives very hard with little support. Away from the frontline many have faced sexism and worse from their own colleagues. There are some in society and the military that believe there is no place for women in combat. It’s a polarizing view that is at odds with progressive modern militaries yet one that appears to be gathering momentum in some parts of the world, especially in the USA right now. Yet despite this, Victoria discovers that almost all women with military experience feel that it was the making of them, one of their best experiences and all would recommend it to other women.
How does the heat affect our health?
Air window: May 24, 2025 - June 20, 2025
One hour
What effect will warming temperatures have on health?
One place to look for answers is Bulgaria. In the summer of 2023, Bulgaria experienced numerous heatwaves, leading to the country experiencing one of the highest rates of heat mortality in Europe. But how are these numbers calculated? How exactly does heat affect us? Who is most likely to suffer from ill health due to heat? And how can we protect ourselves in an increasingly warming world? Along with a panel of experts, Claudia Hammond will explore these questions and more with a live audience at the Sofia Science Festival in Bulgaria. Are we prepared for how rising temperatures will affect our health?
Nostalgia - A bittersweet emotion
Air window: May 31, 2025 - June 27, 2025
One hour
Nostalgia is one of those complicated emotions: we long to be transported to a place or moment in the past that we have loved, but at the same time feel sad that it has gone forever. Beyond personal recollections, business uses it to sell all manner of things and some politicians skillfully deploy it to hide their real objectives. So what actually is nostalgia?
Iszi Lawrence explores the past and present of nostalgia with Dr. Agnes Arnold-Forster, author of Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion, Prof. Krystine Batcho who devised the Nostalgia Inventory and Dr. Tobias Becker author of Yesterday, A New History of Nostalgia. We also hear WS listeners’ views on nostalgia.
Witness History: Pride Month
Air window: June 1, 2025 - June 30, 2025
One hour
A new collection of remarkable stories of LGBT+ rights, told by the people who were there.
World Book Club: N.K Jemisin
Air window: June 7, 2025 - July 12, 2025
One hour
In this episode of World Book Club, Harriet talks with one of the world’s best-loved sci-fi and fantasy authors, the four time Hugo award winner N.K Jemisin.
Which of her plethora of books did we choose? Her 10th novel, and love letter to New York, The City We Became. The story takes place in a world in which major cities become conscious, living beings. After New York is attacked by an otherworldly enemy, five people, champions representing each of the city’s five boroughs, must band together to save the city, but also humanity itself. Rich with sharp social commentary, vibrant characters, and breathtaking world-building, it’s a gripping, imaginative tale of identity, belonging, and the power of unity in the face of otherworldly, eldritch chaos.
N.K Jemisin answers questions from our World Book Club - including how she created characters that embody each of New York’s five boroughs, what makes a city ‘alive’, and how she confronted, and subverted, Lovecraftian tropes to create the enemy of all humanity, the woman in white.
World Questions Malaysia
Air window: June 14, 2025 - July 11 2025
One hour
Corruption, tariffs and Malaysia's balancing act between China and the US.
US tech money is pouring into the country, but as President Trumps tariffs prepare to bite, should Malaysia look to China or to the West as its key strategic partner? The former Prime Minister is in jail for corruption; the new PM has promised an ethical society but does Malaysia have the institutions to deliver that? Jonny Dymond is joined by a panel of political leaders to debate important questions raised by an audience in Kuala Lumpur.
Australia’s Extinction Crisis
Air window: June 21, 2025 - July 18, 2025
One hour
Why are so many of Australia’s unique animals now under threat of extinction? Ruth Evans investigates Australia’s extinction crisis, and explores what can and should be done to prevent further casualties and turn things around.
Roughly a third of all global mammal extinctions in the last 500 years are thought to have occurred in Australia. At least 34 species have now gone extinct since European colonization, and over 2,000 species of mammals, birds and invertebrates are now listed as critically endangered or threatened. Without substantial and rapid change, this list is almost certain to grow.
Broadcast Rights
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