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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Digital Dolittles: Talking to the animals?
Air window: September 20 - October 17, 2025
One hour
Humans have always dreamed of talking to other animals. Some hold out the promise that AI and new technologies could help us to communicate with elephants, bats or whales in their own sonic terms. We listen in and ask, Is that really possible? And if so, what would we say?
The Global Jigsaw: Nuclear tensions in the Middle East
Air window: October 4 - October 31, 2025
One hour
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hasn’t just threatened to redraw the map of Europe - it has transformed the global security landscape. The ripple effects have been felt way beyond the borders of the continent, reigniting fears not felt since the Cold War - of a new nuclear arms race.
In this episode of The Global Jigsaw we take stock of the narratives in the nuclear hotspot of the world - the Middle East. We go back to the beginnings of nuclear ambitions in the region, assess the reasons why countries want to go nuclear and weigh up the consequences for the world today.
World Questions: Peru
Air window: October 11 - November 7, 2025
One hour
Peru’s economy bounced back from the pandemic and is now one of the fastest growing in the world. But organized crime is surging, homicides have soared and complaints of extortion have almost quadrupled in the last three years. Political instability is a long-running problem and most of Peru’s Presidents this century have been jailed for corruption. Can the country achieve more stability and build its democracy at the same time? Can Peru restore law and order without sacrificing human rights?
And in a country where twenty-five percent of the population is indigenous, and which stretches from arid Pacific plains to the Amazon rainforest and the peaks of the Andes, how can it exploit its resources and protect its extraordinary diversity?
The Evidence: Weight loss jabs - A medical game changer?
Air window: October 18 - November 14, 2025
One hour
Medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy are proven to be highly effective for weight management. They are also increasingly being found to treat other conditions and reduce the risk of disease, promising health benefits far beyond the treatment of obesity. But these drugs generally need to be continued for weight loss to be maintained, so there are big questions to be answered about their use and significant challenges to overcome around access and availability.
In front of a live audience at the Wellcome Collection in London, Claudia and her guests explore the potential and negatives of weight loss injections and ask whether they really are the next wonder drug.
A People’s History of Gaza
Air window: October 25 - November 21, 2025
One hour
An oral history of Gaza, from the creation of the Strip in 1948 to the eve of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, told through the experiences of ordinary people - a teacher, a doctor, a smuggler, a bird-watcher, a musician and others. Tim Whewell finds out how Gazans survived exile, invasions, wars and blockade, how hopes for peace rose and fell, how they lived, worked and died over 80 years - under Egypt, Israel, and Hamas.
World Questions: Greenland
Air window: November 8 - December 5, 2025
One hour
What’s next for Greenland? Jonny Dymond brings together a panel of leading politicians and academics to discuss the big issues facing the territory.
Heart and Soul: Two Families from Sarajevo
Air window: November 15 - December 12, 2025
Half hour
For five centuries, Jews and Muslims in Sarajevo have lived together peacefully. In Sarajevo, Alex meets members of the modern day Jewish and Muslim communities to find out how they are continuing to stand together.
Born into a Bosnian Muslim family, Salih Hardaga grew up knowing that his family had done a very courageous thing. During the Nazi occupation of Sarajevo, his parents, Mustafa and Zeinaba, sheltered their Jewish friends, the Kabiljos, even though their home stood opposite a Nazi headquarters. After the second world war, the Kabiljos moved to Israel, but the families kept in touch - and in the early 1990s, the tables were turned. When war broke out in the former Yugoslavia in 1992, the Kabiljos were horrified to see that their former hometown of Sarajevo came under siege. They decided to try to rescue their old friends.
Alex Strangwayes-Booth tells the story of the two families, meeting Salih Hardaga, now in his eighties and hearing his memories of his parents’ brave actions. She finds out how the Kabiljo family in Israel enlisted the help of the authorities to rescue Salih’s mother, husband and daughter from the Siege of Sarajevo. And Alex meets younger members of the Hardaga family who lived through the events, and reflects on the offer of rescue they received.
People Fixing the World: Helping and healing in Sierra Leone
Air window: November 15 - December 12, 2025
Half hour
An in-depth look at the rehabilitation of the west African nation of Sierra Leone.
Thousands of people in Sierra Leone lost limbs during the brutal civil war, and many more have struggled to overcome the mental as well as physical burdens of the conflict. We visit the Farming on Crutches program where amputees are trained in agricultural skills which they can use to start their own farms and teach others in their communities their skills.
Plus, how former addicts are helping others in their communities to stop using kush, a deadly blend of addictive substances that has become a scourge of parts of West Africa.
Discussion and Documentary: The Great Hunger - Stalin's famine in Kazakhstan
Air window: November 22 - December 19, 2025
One hour
Few people outside Kazakhstan know of the famine that left nomadic life destroyed in the 1930s. Even within Kazakhstan you can meet people who have no idea that a third of their population perished just within the living memory. Why is the cloak of silence around this calamity - in contrast to the well-known Holodomor in Ukraine during the same period? Rose Kudabayeva's grandparents didn't breathe a word. Now she travels through Kazakhstan trying to piece together what happened.
Discussion and Documentary: Young and Stateless
Air window: November 29 - December 26, 2025
One hour
Allan Little hears the stories of young stateless individuals around the world - in a program that shows first-hand the challenges and stigmatization they face, their frustrations as they navigate a Kafkaesque web of bureaucracy, and how the issue of statelessness is a widespread and systemic issue.
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