PODCAST · society
Crossing Continents
by BBC Radio 4
Stories from around the world and the people at the heart of them.
Episodes
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Nepal: In the shadow of a glacier
As Nepal deals with the aftermath of devastating floods, there have been renewed warnings about the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. As temperatures have risen, glaciers across the region have shrunk and the landscape has become more unstable. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent reports from one...
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Has Poland fallen out of love with Ukraine?
Why has anti-Ukrainian feeling been growing in Poland? In 2022, when President Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland opened its doors and the Poles their hearts to Ukrainian refugees. Millions of Ukrainians passed through Poland, getting all kinds of help from local people and...
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Turkey on Trial: Can Courts Control a Nation?
Political analysts and human rights organisations say Turkey's courts are increasingly being used to silence political dissent and to shape a more socially conservative society. The most prominent defendant is Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, and the opposition figure opinion polls suggest…
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Ukraine: Fighting Russia, Fighting Russian
Russian is the first language of millions of Ukrainians, including many of the country’s frontline troops. But it’s also the language of their enemy. And its public use is increasingly restricted by law, with ever more measures to enforce communication in Ukrainian. Ukrainians are allowed to…
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‘Big Surveillance’, Flock and ICE
AI cameras. Drones. Facial recognition. Sound detection. Flock. The United States is monitored through a growing, high-tech, and increasingly interconnected surveillance network. The police say this is all for public safety - to prevent crime and assist investigations. Critics think it’s an...
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Brazil’s gambling addiction
The figures are startling. 2.1 million Brazilians have a clinical addiction to betting. 7.5 million are problem gamblers. Women now comprise 40% of all gamblers, having been 25% just a decade ago. Online sports and casino betting have exploded in Brazil to make it one of the largest gambling...
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Raiders of the lost art
What do the stolen love letters of John Keats have to do with homicide on the streets of New York? Prosecuting both crimes falls under the remit of assistant district attorney Matthew Bogdanos. A retired Marine colonel with both law and classics degrees, he has been the head of the Manhattan...
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Victoria Falls: Wilderness on the edge
The Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe is one of the natural wonders of the world. It's also one of Africa's great tourist attractions. As both countries seek to grow the tourism economy, there’s been a push to develop land around the Falls. But as Isa Jacobson reports from…
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Getting Gaza back online
How amid the tents and the rubble Gaza is developing once again as an unlikely tech hub. Even before the October 7th 2023 attack and the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, NGOs, with the backing of Google, had sought to develop tech start-ups in the Gaza strip. The digital economy was one…
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Sierra Leone: the diamond that saved a thousand lives
In 2017, five men digging in an open pit found the third largest diamond ever unearthed in west Africa. It was dubbed the Peace Diamond, in memory of the brutal civil war that had ravaged large parts of the region in the 1990's – a war driven in part by factions competing for control of the…
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Victim or Accomplice? The Story of Jeffrey Epstein’s Pilot Girlfriend
Nadia Marcinko, originally Marcinková, was born in Slovakia and met Jeffrey Epstein as an 18-year-old model. Later, she became a successful aircraft pilot. For seven years, she was Epstein’s main girlfriend. And she’s one of four women that US prosecutors named in a 2008 plea deal as his…
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Return to Khartoum: War, loss and hope
Since 2023, Sudan has been engulfed by a brutal civil war. More than 150,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. The war began as a power struggle between the Sudanese military and the powerful paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The capital Khartoum was the...
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Serbia: Under the Canopy
Eighteen months ago, the renovation of the railway station in Serbia’s second biggest city, Novi Sad, led to a tragic accident. A substantial concrete canopy, which ran across the front of the station building, suddenly collapsed, killing sixteen people. The disaster sparked mass protests.…
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Driving Against Net Zero
Is defence of the petrol car and liberated motoring becoming the new battleground for Europe’s populist parties? Chris Bowlby visits one of the homes of German car culture and a populist stronghold, Zwickau, to see how motoring is rising up the German agenda. Is Zwickau a foretaste of something...
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In Iceland's Defence
Iceland is an island of great beauty and even greater strategic importance. Its position in the Greenland Iceland UK Gap, the gateway between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, makes it crucial to Nato operations in the High North. But Iceland is one of the few nations in the world with no military…
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Pakistan: hospitals putting children at risk of HIV
Outbreaks of HIV have become regular occurrences in Pakistan. And too frequently it is the children who suffer. In the city of Taunsa, for example, children have tested positive for HIV while their parents have not. So what’s been going on? In Crossing Continents Ghazal Abbasi investigates what…
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Albania: Land, Money and the Sea
Albania has had many different faces over the last hundred years. Once ruled by the Ottomans, it became a kingdom before turning into a totalitarian communist state after the Second World War. During this time, no one was allowed in or out; all private property became state-owned, and bunkers...
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India's sportswomen playing to be seen
How sport is giving some young women in India a way out of child marriage and allowing them to be seen. Officially, the practice of child marriage is illegal in the country. But UNICEF estimates that over 200 million girls and women in India have been married before they turned 18. Take Munna as…
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Nigeria: Killings, Land and Cattle
On Christmas Day 2025, the US carried out missile strikes on suspected Islamist militants in Nigeria. They came after President Trump said he would intervene to protect Christians amid controversial claims of a “Christian genocide” in the country. The Nigerian government rejects such claims…
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Greece: Rescuers on Trial
In a case with profound implications for European migration policy, 24 former volunteer aid workers have been on trial on the Greek island of Lesbos. Seven years ago, they were arrested after rescuing thousands of migrants from the sea. Now, after many delays, the case involving charges of...
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The Netherlands - ten new cities?
'Start by lighting a candle every morning.’ In other words, pray. That’s the advice on one social media platform to those looking for a rented property in the Netherlands. The pressure on housing is immense: an estimated shortage of 400,000 homes. It was the number one issue in the recent Dutch...
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South Africa and the fight against TB
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, TB is humanity’s oldest contagious disease. It has become something of an afterthought in rich nations, but remains the world’s most deadly infectious disease. In 2024 it killed more than 1.2 million people. South Africa has one of the highest TB...
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When Christian nationalists come to town
People in Gainesboro, Tennessee, have some new neighbours. A conservative developer has bought land just outside the tiny rural Appalachian town, with the aim of forging an 'aligned' community based on shared values like 'faith, family and freedom'. Two of the first people to come to town are...
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Argentina's elusive big cats
After decades of extinction, wild jaguars are once again roaming in Northern Argentina. It has been at least thirty five years since a wild jaguar cub was spotted in this dry and dusty part of Argentina. But in August 2025, a baby appeared on the chocolatey-brown banks of the River Bermejo. Its...
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Stolen brides of Kazakhstan: the fightback
In plain sight, in a modern city, a colleague offers to drive you home after work. How would you respond? One woman in Kazakhstan accepted the lift only to find herself kidnapped or ‘stolen’ as a bride. She got away, rescued by the police, but for many Kazakh women kidnap leads to marriage. Human...
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The struggle of Israel's peace movement
Two years ago a group of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists stood almost alone in Israel in calling for a ceasefire, as Israel launched a massive offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks of 7th October 2023. Emily Wither returns to hear how the lives of these activists have changed....
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The real ‘Yellowstone’: a battle for the cowboy way of life
Ranches, rodeos…and public land. This is the story of a surprising battle raging in the American West, and the unlikely coalition it’s forged. Nearly half of all land in the West of the United States is owned by the federal government. Some people are trying to change that; they argue that part…
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Haitians Living in Fear in the Dominican Republic
How Haitians in the Dominican Republic are being targeted for expulsion. The Dominican Republic is the Caribbean’s number one tourist destination. Last year 11 million visitors came here, many enjoying the five star resorts that skirt the island’s coast. Much of the construction work building…
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‘A new foe’: Conscripting women in Denmark
Denmark is eyeing up the military threat from Russia – and dramatically increasing the numbers in its national service. Now, 18-year-old girls are facing a call up. The BBC has been granted rare access to a military base on the outskirts of Copenhagen to see the newest recruits learn how to…
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Kenya: A Battle for Gen Z
Over the past year, Kenya has been rocked by anti-government protests. What started as a demonstration over proposed tax increases soon turned into a nationwide, youth-led protest over the state of the economy, alleged political corruption and police brutality. But it's come at a cost. Dozens of...
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Saving Gaza's Past
The history of Gaza dates back more than 5000 years. In antiquity, it was a key port on the Mediterranean coast. Assyrians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and the Ottomans have all left their mark on this small territory. This rich history is seen by Palestinians as central to their identity....
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Galicia’s wild horses in peril
Europe’s largest herd of wild horses, in north-west Spain, is under threat. Numbers have halved in the last fifty years. Now around ten thousand wild horses roam freely in the hills and mountains of Galicia. But they are facing a number of challenges, not least the loss of their habitat and the...
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Suing 'Alligator Alcatraz': Immigration in the US
President Trump has called illegal immigration an “invasion” and what's followed is a huge rise in the arrest and detention of migrants. Some have ended up in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ - an immigration detention centre that was speedily constructed in June, deep in the Florida swampland. It has become…
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Europe’s migrant crisis: the truck that shocked the world
In the summer of 2015, tens of thousands of people left their homes in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq in the hope of finding a safe haven in Europe. The journeys they took were often hazardous and not everyone reached their destination. In one of the most notorious cases, 71 migrants were found dead...
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Tajikistan’s Last, Lonely Hyenas
For decades, conservationists in Tajikistan assumed that the striped hyena – a shy, less vocal cousin of the spotted hyena – was extinct there. But in 2017 a motion-sensitive camera trap in the country’s south-western corner, near the borders with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, detected the presence...
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Waiting for my Dad - Ukraine's children of the missing
A pioneering summer camp for Ukrainian children with missing parents. According to the Ukrainian government, more than 70 thousand people are missing in the war, leaving families, including thousands of children, anxious for news of their loved ones and unable to move on. Psychologists say these...
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Colombia's webcam women
Colombia’s second largest city, Medellín, is booming and one of the biggest industries revolves around the city’s live webcam studios which stream women performing sex acts. It’s estimated there are hundreds of studios in the city employing thousands of women and turning over millions of pounds…
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Syria - Return to Ruins
Thirteen million Syrians - half the population - left their homes during their country's 13-year civil war. Seven million were internally displaced. Six million fled abroad. Bringing them home is perhaps the biggest challenge facing Syria's new rulers. But many can’t return, because their homes…
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Russia's Church in Texas
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. The White House sided with the Kremlin at the United Nations, voting against a...
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Leaving Israel for Cyprus
Increasing numbers of Israeli people are moving to the nearby island of Cyprus. Sky high property prices, disillusion with domestic politics and security concerns following the Hamas attacks of 7th October have led several thousand families to leave. They’re building on a rich history of Cypriot...
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Dicing with democracy? Romania’s cancelled election
A cancelled election, a cancelled candidate and a divided country – is Romania’s democracy under threat? Last December the country’s Constitutional Court cancelled the presidential election two days before the final vote, citing outside interference, with the nationalist pro-Putin candidate…
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Spain - can an algorithm predict murder?
Early on a Sunday morning in February in the Spanish seaside town of Benalmadena, Catalina, a 48-year-old mother of four, was killed at home – the building was set on fire. Her ex-partner was arrested and remains in custody. In January, Lina – as she was known to her family and friends – had...
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Unidentified Flying Drones in Denmark
When mysterious orb-like lights were recorded in the sky above Koge, a small port town in Denmark, the UFO scene took notice. But it wasn't just believers who wanted to know what these unidentified flying objects were. Danish police and the Danish security services describe the objects as large...
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Lebanon: Hezbollah in trouble
Hezbollah, the militia and political movement in Lebanon, has been battered by the war with Israel. Its leaders were assassinated, hundreds of fighters killed, and many of its communities now lie in ruins. Until recently a formidable power with the ability to paralyse the country, the group now...
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Reel Revolution? The dramatic rise of Saudiwood
Saudi Arabia is rolling out the red carpet to filmmakers and foreign companies as it sets out to establish itself as a major player in the entertainment industry. After lifting a 35-year ban on cinemas in 2018, the Kingdom is now luring Hollywood with cash incentives to shoot in the desert, and...
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Death Marches: uncovering the truth beneath the soil
How a town in Poland – once in Germany - is discovering its troubling past. 80 years ago Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi extermination camp. Over 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, were murdered there. However, there is an aspect of those terrible days which is less…
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The Gambia: When migrants are forced to go home
Each year young people from the tiny West African nation of The Gambia try to reach Europe through “The Backway” - a costly, perilous journey over land and sea. Many do not make it. In recent years, the EU has done deals with several North African nations to clamp down on irregular migration....
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South Korea: The Feminist Hunters
Why feminism has become a dirty word in South Korea. Being a feminist is now something that can only be admitted in private, thanks to a fierce backlash against feminism. Anti-feminists accuse South Korean women who advocate for equality as being man-haters, worthy of punishment. Online…
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The human cost of developing Cambodia's Angkor wonder
Tourists are flooding to Cambodia's "8th wonder of the world", the ancient temple complex at Angkor. But the rapid expansion of the site comes at a terrible cost, as tens of thousands of people are ousted. The authorities call some "illegal squatters" and claim others volunteered to leave. But...
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Poland's Ghosts, Ukraine's Heroes
Ukraine and Poland are neighbours and close allies in today’s conflict with Russia. But the ghosts of victims of an earlier war have returned to divide them. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by Ukrainians in Volhynia, in what's now western Ukraine, in 1943. Most of the victims still lie…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Stories from around the world and the people at the heart of them.
HOSTED BY
BBC Radio 4
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Crossing Continents currently has 422 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Stories from around the world and the people at the heart of them.
How often does Crossing Continents release new episodes?
Crossing Continents publishes regularly with 422 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Who hosts Crossing Continents?
Crossing Continents is created and hosted by BBC Radio 4.
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