

World Questions
BBC World Service
The public's questions about issues affecting their country, recorded in a different global location each month
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 14, 2016 • 49min
Colombia and Peace
BBC World Questions comes to Bogota, Colombia, as the country seeks a recipe for peace and an end to one of the world's longest running conflicts. President Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, but the people rejected his deal with the leader of the Farc in a referendum. A new deal has been signed, but will it have legitimacy without a second referendum? BBC World Questions, staged with the British Council at Bogota's Luis Angel Arango Concert Hall, provides an opportunity to discuss the future for Colombia at this key moment in its history. Featuring a distinguished panel of guests including Sergio Jaramillo, Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace; Senator Ivan Duque, of the Movement Democratic Centre; Mariela Kohon, Director of Justice for Colombia and Advisor to the Peace Delegation of The Farc; and Dr María Emma Wills Obregón, who leads the Department of Gender and Women at Colombia's Historical Memory Commission.(Picture: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (L) and the head of the Farc guerrilla Timoleon Jimenez, aka Timochenko (R), with Cuban President Raul Castro (C) holding their handshake. Credit: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images)

Nov 11, 2016 • 50min
World Questions: Europe and Hungary
In a lively and frank debate at Corvinus University, Budapest, a large public audience debates freedom, democracy and immigration with a panel of politicians and thinkers chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby. Sixty years after the Hungarian Uprising against Soviet control, what is Hungary’s future within the EU?

Oct 1, 2016 • 50min
Reporting Terror: A Dangerous Game
A string of terrorist attacks in France and Germany dominated the news agenda in summer 2016. Now, some journalists are asking if their approach needs to change. Can a balance be struck between reporting terrorism whilst suppressing terrorist propaganda?

May 21, 2016 • 50min
World Questions: Britain and Europe
Stay or Leave? A panel in London debate the issues on Britain's EU membership.

May 7, 2016 • 50min
World Questions: Germany and Europe
As Europe faces some of the greatest crises of modern time, Germany’s leadership in the Europe Union has been put under pressure. In Berlin, Jonathan Dimbleby invites an audience to put questions about Germany and Europe to a panel of opinion-formers and decision-makers.

Mar 13, 2016 • 50min
World Questions: Latvia and Europe
We're at the National Library of Latvia in the capital, Riga, for the third of our series of debates across Europe. Questions on the challenges and opportunies ahead for this northern European Baltic state - which lies on the EU's border with northern Russia - are answered by a panel of Latvian politicians and thinkers: Nils Ušakovs, the ethnic-Russian mayor of Riga; Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in parliament; and Baiba Rubesa, chair of the new Rail Baltica project, intended to link the Baltic states to the European rail network. They are joined by Magnus Christiansson, a Swedish security strategist specialising in NATO and the Baltic states. Questions come from the audience in Riga, and also BBC World Service social media followers.
(Photo: National Library of Latvia) (Credit: Indriķis Stūrmanis)

Mar 12, 2016 • 50min
Exchanges at the Frontier: The Search for Neanderthal Genes
From his early work with Egyptian mummies to his breath taking achievement of sequencing the genome of our nearest ancient relatives - the Neanderthals - professor Svante Paabo has changed how we think about ourselves. He and his team have found a comparatively small number of changes in the genes between us and Neanderthals, including changes in the brain. Could these differences explain what makes us human?

Mar 12, 2016 • 50min
The Search For Neanderthal Genes
How the Neanderthals live on in our genes. Robin Ince interviews Svante Paabo in Leipzig.

Mar 5, 2016 • 50min
Supermassive Black Holes and the evolution of galaxies
A once in 10,000 year event gave astrophysicist Thaisa Storchi Bergman her eureka moment

Feb 29, 2016 • 50min
World Questions: Greece and Europe
From Athens the BBC's Jonathan Dimbleby discusses Greece and its relationship with the EU with a panel of politicians and thinkers - The Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos; the former Mayor of Athens and former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis; underwater archaeologist and union official Despina Koutsoumba; and Josef Janning, Senior Policy Adviser at the European Council on Foreign Relations.


