BBC DOCS AND 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.

Monthly offerings are available via ContentDepot, complete with promos and billboards. Click on individual titles to visit and subscribe to unique ContentDepot pages, where you can access programs as air windows open.

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The Forum: The Seductive Dance of Charisma

January 25 - February 21, 2025
One hour

Where do charismatic personalities come from? Are they people born with special or even divine gifts? Or have they simply mastered a few effective techniques for cordial social interaction that anyone can learn? As business, entertainment and politics increasingly turn into popularity contests conducted through social media and TV, charisma seems to matter more and more: hence the proliferation of companies offering to teach aspiring leaders how to acquire it. But the influence that magnetic personalities can have on an audience long predates modern screen media: in 1896, a speech brimming with charisma earned one little-known young orator a not just a 20-minute standing ovation but also a US presidential nomination.

Iszi Lawrence explores the role of charisma in politics and business with Julia Sonnevend, Associate Professor of Sociology and Communications at The New School for Social Research in New York and author of Charm: How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics; John Antonakis, Professor of Organizational Behaviour in the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne, and co-author of a political charismometer that predicts US presidential elections among other things; Jeremy C. Young, historian of political culture and social movements, author of The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society; as well as World Service listeners

Uncharted - The golden spike

February 3 - February 22, 2025
Half hour

At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst sparks a global quest to find a ‘golden spike’, the boundary marking the shift into a new geological per iod dominated by humans, not volcanoes or asteroids. From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover reveals a planet profoundly altered. But can they convince their colleagues, and the world, of the extent of this transformation? Meanwhile, in a small Italian city nestled in the Apennine mountains, a series of low-level tremors raise the question: Is this just a passing phase, or a warning of something much more devastating?

Rebellion on the Rhine

February 6 - February 22, 2025
Half hour

In the run up to Germany’s snap general election Jeremy Cliffe goes to Ludwigshafen. In Ludwigshafen, a Rhineland city that is emblematic of the sudden economic shocks battering the nation's industrial heartlands, ordinary Germans are questioning their loyalty to mainstream parties. Jeremy Cliffe meets local leaders and voters to see whether the populists who have been surging in the east can expect similar results here on the back of profound economic discontent.

Uncharted – A Different Kind of Justice

February 10 - March 12, 2025
Half hour

A small, informal survey leads to shocking revelations about the US justice system, with its truths only uncovered decades later. Meanwhile, an ambitious portfolio manager discovers a perfect graph outlining eye-watering profits. But something doesn't seem right. Could the graph be accurate, or is it hiding a far more sinister truth? This story delves into the power of data, the hidden forces behind it, and the unexpected revelations that can change everything

World Wide Waves '25

February 13 - March 12, 2025
Half hour

The Nuxalk people of Canada's Pacific Northwest were almost wiped out by colonisation, but now, a community radio station is reviving their language and culture.

Teaching the language through playful lessons, bilingual weather forecasts and recordings of Nuxalk elders, the station's young staff are immersing themselves in a culture their grandparents were too traumatised to pass on, and bringing the community with them. For Slts'lani, Qwaxw, Tatala and their colleagues, "broadcasting the laws of the lands and the waters" is much more than a linguistic exercise: it's the recovery of a resilient way of living shaped over centuries to withstand catastrophes and dedicated to the health of future generations. Their mission to build a bridge from the past to the future sings out through their music too: An album of new songs made by the radio station blends old and new musical forms, deer hooves and saxophones, antlers and synthesisers.

Ukraine: The Architects' Plan

February 15 - March 14, 2025
One hour

Who will design and re-build Ukraine? Will it be international donors and influential foreign architects who ultimately make the decisions or will Ukraine’s own architects be the ones to create a vision for their country in its post-war future?

This programme looks at the relationship between those offering help from outside and those who live and work in the destroyed country and particularly Ukraine’s architects and citizens. We hear from Lord Foster, the British architect working on a masterplan for the city of Kharkiv, and also look at re-building projects in the satellite towns near Kyiv.

World Questions: Bangalore

March 8 - April 4, 2025
One hour

World Questions comes to India's IT capital, Bengaluru, for a debate about economic growth, equality, working conditions and the environment. Jonny Dymond will be joined by leading politicians and activists, to discuss the big issues of the day in front of a large audience.

The Forum: Libraries in the Digital Age

March 22 - April 18, 2025
One hour

What is the role of libraries in the era of the internet and AI? Whether at a school or in a community, libraries used to be key providers of information and enjoyment for many. But now, in a digital age, more books and periodicals are available online than even the biggest library can hold. It remains to be seen if AI can be trusted to make sense of this information abundance in the way a good librarian can. But even simple online tools, such as being able to do a text search across millions of digitised books, are transforming research. So what is the main function of a library in the 21st century?

The Documentary: The Village of Sex Offenders

March 13 - April 10, 2025
Half hour

Set among endless sugar-cane fields in a remote part of southern Florida, Restoration Destination is a community made up of registered sex offenders. Created by a Christian ministry as a response to state laws which ban them from living close to where children gather, it's now home to more than 100 men who’ve been placed on Florida’s sex offenders register for life. Through therapy, counselling and support, Restoration Destination aims to reduce their likelihood of reoffending and help them reintegrate into society. With the future of the community uncertain and claims Florida’s sex offender residency laws are driving people into homelessness, journalist Conor Garrett goes to Restoration Destination to ask if the men who live there deserve a second chance.

Heart and Soul: Ayahuasca and the new spiritual tourism

March 14 - April 10, 2025
Half hour

For centuries, ayahuasca has been a sacred plant for the Shipibo-Konibo peoples of the Peruvian Amazon. Part medicine, part spiritual ceremony, ayahuasca and other plant medicines are revered practices. But in recent years, a boom in Western interest in psychedelics has started to reshape ayahuasca ceremonies and practise. Fuelled by celebrity endorsements, a new wave of tourists is heading to purpose-built resorts in the Peruvian jungle to take ayahuasca, guided by shamans from the Shipibo- Konibo tribes.

In this episode of Heart and Soul, reporter Janak Rogers travels to the Peruvian Amazon to explore this so-called ‘psychedelic renaissance’. From candlelit jungle ceremonies to bustling tourist strips, Rogers uncovers the allure of ayahuasca for Westerners seeking help and healing. But as the ayahuasca boom transforms local communities, challenges arise: the rise of unscrupulous shamans, the commercialisation of Indigenous knowledge, and risks faced by vulnerable travellers.

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