PODCAST · society
The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009
by BBC World Service
The BBC World Service's wide range of documentaries from 2009.
Episodes
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24 Hours in Tulsa
A midget street thug on a kiddy bike. Incompetent thieves who resort to stealing air-conditioning units. A woman too drunk to notice a police car heading towards her with all lights flashing. These are just some of the criminals and junkies, the faithful and forlorn encountered by one police...
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John Simpson Returns to 1989 - part three
Twenty years ago, on November 9th, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. The greatest symbol of the Cold War, which many never dreamt they would see disappear, was overwhelmed by people power. This momentous event precipitated largely peaceful revolutions across Eastern Europe as people shook off…
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Assignment: Vancouver Gangland
The Canadian city of Vancouver is routinely named as one of the best communities in the world in which to live. But the city, which is to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in the coming weeks, is fast developing another reputation: one built on illicit drugs and guns. Bill Law reports for Assignment…
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Defining the Decade - Part two
Back in the year 2000, the world's leaders did not seem to be troubled by the notion of global warming, so what has changed? Edward Stourton tries to make sense of a decade in which history has been put on fast forward.
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Defining the Decade - Part one
What have been the defining moments of the decade? Edward Stourton explores Google's mighty impact on the internet and finds a world of complex moral and legal pitfalls beneath the promise.
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Internet Cafe Hobo
Nick Baker is on a mission to connect people, stories and places via internet cafe. Via Kenya and France he finds a remarkable story in Benin of a young man for whom a single search changed his life.
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State Secrets - Part two
It's estimated that up to one million people were killed during communism in Eastern Europe, but there's no clear figure for those imprisoned, persecuted or spied on. While few have been put on trial for those crimes, most countries have started to open their secret police archives and some have...
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Assignment: Latvia: Coping with Crisis
Until recently, little Latvia appeared to have a rosy future. It was the fastest growing economy in Europe. But now that boom looks like a mirage. No country in the EU has been worse hit by the global recession. Its economy has been in freefall, property prices have collapsed, unemployment has…
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Internet Cafe Hobo
Nick Baker is on a mission to connect people, stories and places via the internet. His journey takes him to New York, China and London.
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Orphans of '89 - Part Two
Quentin Peel, International Affairs editor of the Financial Times, looks at the communist regimes and movements orphaned by the collapse of the governments of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. In Programme Two Quentin looks at the new self-proclaimed "radical" governments in Latin America…
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State Secrets - Part One
To what extent did communist regimes intrude into the lives of ordinary people? And how are they dealing with those transgressions now the files have been made publicly available?
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Assignment - Return to Nablus
Six years ago, the second Palestinian Intifada – or uprising – was raging in the West Bank town of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied territories. This was an era when Palestinian militants regularly battled the Israeli Defence Force in the streets. The BBC’s Alan Johnston reported from Nablus during...
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Can China Go Green? Part two
The second part of Jonathon Porritt's report from China, where, amidst the toxic power stations and burgeoning numbers of cars, he finds some extraordinary and pioneering green solutions. In two provocative and counter-intuitive programmes, Jonathon Porritt flies in the face of international...
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Orphans of '89
Quentin Peel, International Affairs editor of the Financial Times, presents the first of a two-part series looking at the communist regimes and movements 'orphaned' by the collapse of the governments of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.
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StoryCorps - Part Two
Did I turn out to be the son you wanted? What was the saddest moment of your life? Questions like these have arisen out of StoryCorps - an American oral history project described as "a story-foraging mission of epic proportions".
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Assignment - Bhopal
Twenty-five years ago, a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal killed 8000 people. Allan Little returns to the scene of the disaster to find out why people are still suffering.
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Can China Go Green? Part One
Jonathon Porritt reports from China, where, amidst the toxic power stations and burgeoning numbers of cars, he finds some extraordinary and pioneering green solutions. In two provocative and counter-intuitive programmes, Jonathon Porritt flies in the face of international protest and fear at what...
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The Crescent and the Cross - Part Four
In the final part of this series, Owen Bennett-Jones examines the Islamic leader who confronted the might of the British Empire. The Mahdi was a devout man, who developed a huge following. This programme examines his rise to power and his clash with the British General, Charles Gordon.
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StoryCorps - Part One
How would you like to leave a record of your life for your great-great-great-grandchildren? That's the future for participants of StoryCorps, an American oral history project. What do people choose to talk about?
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Assignment Malvinas War Crimes
Twenty seven years after Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falklands, or the Malvinas islands, Argentine army officers are facing prosecution. Not for the way they treated the enemy, but for crimes allegedly committed against their own troops.
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Assignment - The Congo Connection
In Assignment Peter Greste investigates whether Rwandans in France and Germany are controlling a deadly African militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For the last 15 years, the rebels of the FDLR have enforced their control through a series of brutal atrocities. Now Assignment has secret...
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Short Changing the Planet
The BBC World Service has been investigating the controversial issue of whether poor countries have ever seen all of the money promised by industrialised countries in 2001. According to some less than 10 percent of it has been paid: others disagree.
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The Crescent and The Cross: Part Three
In the third instalment of The Crescent and the Cross, Owen Bennett Jones examines one of the most important Muslim empires in history - the Ottoman Empire. In particular, it focuses on the time of Suleiman The Magnificent, a towering figure in the rivalry between Christianity and Islam, and a...
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John Simpson Returns to 1989 - Part Two
The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life. Through personal stories, he traces the different roads that East Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania have taken since 1989. In part two John returns to Prague to speak to those who lived through…
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A Dollar A Day - Part Three
In Nepal, severe drought and unreliable monsoon rains have led to acute food shortages. The impact is felt most by people like Charuri who is struggling to feed three children and cannot afford the medical help she needs.
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The Crescent and The Cross: Part Two
Owen Bennett Jones explores five crucial battles in the relationship between Christianity and Islam. This episode looks at the Crusades.
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Africa's Forgotten Soldiers
Seventy years after the start of the Second World War the overwhelming impression is of a conflict fought on the battlefields of Europe by white troops. Britain’s war effort was bolstered by soldiers from the white Commonwealth – Australia, Canada and New Zealand and later by the United States.…
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Assignment: Better Banking
As governments struggle to curb the so-called “casino-banking” practices which some blame for the global financial meltdown, Michael Robinson now reports on growing concerns over super-fast, computerised share-dealing systems which are earning massive new profits for banks.
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A Dollar a Day - Part 2
Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted. School enrolment has shot up, small businesses are...
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The Crescent and the Cross - Part One
The Crescent and the Cross, a four-part series, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones, examines several turning points in the relationship between Christianity and Islam covering Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for Africa. Part One starts by look going back over 1,000...
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Youssou N’Dour at 50
To mark the 50th birthday of Youssou N'Dour, Robin Denselow travels to Senegal to profile the best known African musician of recent times.
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Assignment - Guinea on the Brink
Mark Doyle reports from Guinea in West Africa on the harrowing events of 28 September when government troops crushed an opposition rally in the centre of the capital, Conakry. This programme contains some graphic description of sexual violence.
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A Dollar a Day - Part 1
What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution.
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Russia's all-female military regiments
The extraordinary but little-known tale of Russia's three all-female regiments that flew more than 30,000 missions on the Eastern Front. At home they were celebrated as 'Stalin's Falcons' but terrified German troops called them the 'Night Witches'.
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Public Places, Private Lives - Part Two
Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons. The second programme is set in the Taj Mahal, where we hear the…
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Assignment - Dying to Give Birth
Jill McGivering travels to Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, to meet a doctor who is battling against the odds to prevent women from dying in childbirth. Listeners may find parts of this Assignment programme distressing.
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Rebranding Nigeria - Part Two
Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment. Reporter Henry Bonsu follows the many steps of this charm offensive.
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MI6 - A Century in the Shadows - Part Tree
The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service Sir John Scarlett, talks for the first time about the interrogation of terrorist suspects and MI6’s role in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
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Public Places, Private Lives - Part One
Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons.
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Assignment - Protecting Britain's Children
When a 17 month-old London child died after horrific abuse by his family, it unleashed a barrage of criticism against British social services. For Assignment Catherine Miller gains rare access to the people whose job it is to protect Britain's vulnerable children.
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Rebranding Nigeria - Part One
Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image? Is changing Nigeria's image an impossible mission?
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MI6 - A Century in the Shadows
In Programme Two, we find out what were spies really up to behind the Iron Curtain. MI6 chief John Scarlett describes his clandestine meeting with an agent, and the Russian defector Oleg Gordievsky talks about his reasons for coming over to the other side.
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Assignment Armenia: The cleverest nation on the planet
Every two years teams from all over the world compete with one another in the Chess Olympiad. In the last two Olympiads, the winning medal has gone to a small country in the Caucasus. How has this nation done it? Gabriel Gatehouse investigates.
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John Simpson Returns to 1989
The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life. Through personal stories, he traces the different roads that East Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania have taken since 1989.
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MI6 - A century in the shadows
An unprecedented look inside MI6 - Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, which marks its centenary this year. Programme One - Gadgets & Green Ink explores the early years of MI6, set up by Sir Mansfield Cumming, a formidable figure known as 'C' who signed his name in green ink.
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Memento, part two
Imagine that conflict and violence force you to flee your country, leaving behind all that you know and love. In the chaos and panic, you have to choose a single object to take with you - something so full of resonance that it will always remind you of the life and people that you left behind. In...
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Assignment - Three Strike Lifers
A life sentence for stealing a pair of socks. In California the tough 'three strikes' law is sending people to prison for life even if their third crime is a non-violent one. Now a group of law students is trying to change things. Rob Walker reports.
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Yiddish - a Struggle for Survival - Part One
Yiddish was the language of the Jewish Diaspora, the language of a people on the move across Europe. It has suffered a dramatic decline over the last century. What will become of it now?
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The Crash: Back from the brink
The third part of the BBC's definitive series on the banking crash tells the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learnt from the entire calamity. Could it happen again?
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Memento, part one
Imagine that conflict and violence force you to flee your country, leaving behind all that you know and love. In the chaos and panic, you have to choose a single object to take with you - something so full of resonance that it will always remind you of the life and people that you left behind.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009 have?
The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009 currently has 189 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009 about?
The BBC World Service's wide range of documentaries from 2009.
How often does The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009 release new episodes?
The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009 publishes regularly with 189 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Who hosts The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009?
The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009 is created and hosted by BBC World Service.
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