The Documentary Podcast

Fifty years on from the first mobile phone call, this programme examines how the device has revolutionised the way we lives our lives. It was 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher made the first mobile phone call to his rival at Bell Labs. The prototype weighed 2 kilograms and measured 23 by 13 by 4.5 centimetres. It offered a talk time of just 30 mins and took 10 hours to recharge. Fast forward five decades and checking the phone is the first thing many people do when they wake up in the morning and the last thing they do when they go to bed. How has the mobile phone revolutionised the way we live our lives?

Hundreds of wildfires are burning across Canada, almost half are classed by officials as ‘out of control’. Their immediate impact is the destruction of homes and businesses, plants and wildlife. But the smoke from those fires is affecting air quality. Maps tracking the spread of the smoke, have shown it covering large parts of Canada, as well as US cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago. We speak to families in Canada and New York who share experiences of the smoke from wildfires in Canada. Plus, mothers from India, Pakistan, and United States discuss the effect of air pollution.

There’s a debate raging in Switzerland over a potential nationwide ban on so-called conversion therapy. We meet Christians whose lives the procedure has changed forever. They explain how growing up in an Evangelical community, they struggled with their faith and sexuality from a young age – driving them to seek help. So-called conversion therapy has been around for centuries. The controversial practice is used around the world to try to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The issue has become a hot topic in in Switzerland, and the parliamentary process to potentially enact a nationwide ban is underway. Claire Jones meets the Christians working to change the law, and those who are against a legislative ban.

An investigation by BBC Eye exposes the men profiting from an ugly business of sexual assault for sale.We find websites selling thousands of videos of men sexually abusing women on trains, buses, and other crowded public places across East Asia. You can even order your own tailor-made assault on these sites.They’re run by a shadowy figure known as “Uncle Qi”. He’s hailed as a guru by an online community of perverts. But who is he?The hunt takes Assignment to Japan, where sexual assault in public is known as "Chikan". We take you inside this dark and twisted world to hear from the perpetrators of these horrific crimes, and meet the women who are fighting back. We visit a “Chikan” sex club where customers can pay to legally grope women in rooms decorated like trains; and we follow plain clothes police searching for sexual predators on Japan’s metro.The investigation goes undercover to expose the identity of the men running these websites who are cashing in on sexual violence.Presenter: Zhaoyin Feng BBC Eye Producers: Aliaume Leroy, Shanshan Chen, Zhaoyin Feng Assignment producer: John Murphy Sound mix: Rod Farquhar Production Co-ordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross Assignment Editor: Penny MurphyThis programme deals with matters of a sexual nature which some listeners may find disturbing.

Producer Steven Rajam travels to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar to meet some of the women challenging convention, tradition and history at home and across the globe, including hip-hop artist Mrs M, Hollywood actress Bayra Bela and traditional throat-singer Zolzaya, whose fiddle is adorned not with the traditional horse's head, but a swan.

In the Studio follows US poet laureate Ada Limón as she crafts an original poem dedicated to Nasa’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon. Her poem will be engraved on the Clipper spacecraft, which will launch in 2024 and travel 1.8 billion miles to reach Europa - a journey that will last six years. We follow Ada’s creative process over several months, from her first meetings with the Nasa team, through many drafts of the poem and a visit to Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in California to see the Europa Clipper under construction. In this update, we hear the finished poem.

The collision between three trains in the state of Odisha claimed more than 280 lives and left more than 1000 people injured. We bring together a volunteer, Govind Dalai, who was one of the first on the scene and doctors Manoj Kumar Barik and Amrit Pattojoshi. Dr Barik was working in the local hospital on the night the crash happened, and Dr Pattojoshi, a psychiatrist, has been involved in identifying those who lost their lives. They discuss the support they are trying to provide to the families of victims. Also, Shweta in New Delhi and Riddhi in Ambala City, talk about their experiences of Indian railways and their concerns about safety.

The work of Florida's Baptist Relief responding to climate events like Hurricane Ian and floods in Kentucky - in support of people whose lives have been turned upside down.

For more than 15 months the Ukrainian armed forces have held out against the superior numbers of the Russian invasion force. But not every Ukrainian man subject to the draft is willing to fight. More than 6,000 Ukrainian men of military age have been granted protection in Romania since the beginning of the war, according to figures supplied by the Romanian immigration authority. Some left Ukraine in order to avoid the draft. Others served on the front before throwing down their weapons. Romania has a 600-kilometre border with Ukraine, which is difficult to cross. The choice is either a short swim across a fast-moving river or a long trek over snow-covered mountains. A number of those who’ve tried have died in the attempt. Nick Thorpe has been to the border region to meet Ukrainian men who do not want to fight in the war.

In 1872, Yellowstone became America and the world's first national park. Alongside erupting geysers, bubbling hot springs, canyons, and bison herds, we uncover the pivotal role of art in winning over the public and convincing politicians to set aside this unique landscape, which today spans 2.2 million acres. Shirl Ireland is a landscape and wildlife painter from Gardiner, Montana, and naturalist and guide Ashea Mills, tread the same terrain as painter Thomas Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson.