The Documentary Podcast

Until the end of March this year, BBC News Russian was the only source of independent reporting in Belarus, where journalism has been suppressed. Around two dozen independent journalists are currently behind bars, with many more forced into exile by the government of Alexander Lukashenko. Then, on March 25th, Belarus added the BBC to a list of extremist materials, meaning that it is now an offense for people in Belarus to even like or share BBC content.
BBC Russian's Alina Isachenko came into The Fifth Floor studio to explain how the BBC is trying to keep its readers in Belarus safe.
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.
This is an EcoAudio certified production.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

It’s just over six weeks since the ship, MV Hondius, left Argentina for a cruise visiting remote islands in the South Atlantic. A month later, three passengers had died. The World Health Organisation identified the probable cause as hantavirus – a rodent-borne disease that the victims most likely contracted in south America. We bring together Christian in Germany and Lorne in Canada to share their experiences of the virus and their own brush with death. “My heart failed, and I apparently died for 11 minutes,” Lorne says. We also bring together three experts to discuss how the disease spreads, its prevention and treatment.

Anna was just 25, and newly married living near Oxford when she suffered a massive stroke, caused by a tumour in her heart. It initially left her locked in – unable to let the world around her know that she was even conscious. Mike Wooldridge hears Anna’s extraordinary story: the sheer terror she felt when she realised she was unable to move a muscle or make a sound; the confusion of not knowing where she was and what had happened to her; and the spiritual struggles as Anna, who had been brought up a Christian, became convinced that she must have done something terrible for God to punish her in this way. Gradually, Anna learnt to communicate again and came to realise that God still loved her. Today Anna is playing a healing role in her church community. And she says she thanks God every morning that she’s still alive.
This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

The Natural History Museum of London is getting ready to move 28 million of its precious specimens to a new state-of-the-art home. Imagine moving tens of millions of delicate animal and plant specimens, gathered from all across the world, over the centuries. Some are as big as a bus, some so tiny you need tweezers to pack them. Some are millions of years old. How to move 350 taxidermy tortoises? The biggest weigh half a tonne. Then there is the ten-metre anaconda. The team may have to get him out through the lift shaft. What if moths get in? What if something gets lost? It is a logistical puzzle on a mind-boggling scale. When the collections eventually arrive in their new home, scientists and researchers present and future will be able to explore the specimens’ vast amounts of data, much of it yet untapped, using the latest digital, analytical, and genomic technologies. With Dr Jeff Streicher, senior curator in charge, Amphibians and Reptiles and Richard Sabin, principal curator, Mammals.

First, the story of Mike Flynn whose remarkable resilience and incredible fitness helped achieve his goal to play college football at the age of fifty-nine but at its heart, his is a story of redemption. Living with pain is sadly all too common. That was the fate that befell Meg Robson Austin. But she never allowed herself to think it was too late to win back her life and so she set about a journey that ended with her claiming the crown of the World's Strongest Woman. Arshay Cooper, born and raised in Chicago's notorious West Side could easily have slipped into gang life and violence, but he carved a different path through sport - Arshay's sporting journey was in a boat as a rower. It is just over a year since the world lost "Big" George Forman, and whilst revered for his fights with Muhammad Ali, his Olympic gold in 1968 and of course his grills, it is his longevity and his "it's never too late" attitude we are focusing in on because back in 1994 George Foreman shocked everyone by winning a second world title at the age of forty-five!