The Documentary Podcast

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Europe is once again “at the epicentre” of the Covid pandemic. The WHO reported that deaths from coronavirus in the continent have increased by 5% - making it the only region in the world where the numbers are going up. Host Nuala McGovern hears from doctors in Romania, The Netherlands and Austria about what is happening in their country, the concerns and hopes for the future. We also hear from two Austrians about why they refuse to get a vaccine, despite the rising Covid-19 cases, and why they believe the new restrictions there have serious implications for the future freedom of their country.

President Putin has said that the West was taking Russia's warnings not to cross its ‘red lines’ too lightly. This comes amid rising tensions between Russia and the West. Ros Atkins has been looking into it.

Sockeye and Chinook salmon make one of the world's great animal migrations, swimming 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean up 6,500 feet into Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, where they spawn and die - but that journey may not happen much longer. In addition to the gauntlet of predators the fish face, from orcas to eagles, they are also running into a man-made obstacle: huge concrete dams. Most scientists agree the dams need to go for the fish to live, but the dams provide jobs, clean energy, and an inexpensive way for farmers to get their crops to international markets. However, US Congressman Mike Simpson, a Republican representing Idaho, has a plan to save the salmon. He wants to blow up four dams on the Snake River and reinvent the region's energy infrastructure - a plan which has been overwhelmingly rejected by his own party. Heath Druzin investigates how a bitter fight is now playing out in America's Pacific Northwest, pitting Native American tribes and conservationists against grain growers and power producers. Presented by Heath Druzin Produced by Richard Fenton-Smith(Image: Sockeye salmon. Credit: Mike Korostelev)

New apps that provide access to stock markets are revolutionising the world of trading, but they are also creating problems. A new generation of traders are emerging, fuelled by social media and with dreams of earning a fortune. Seoul journalist Grace Moon visits the Korea Centre For Gambling Problems to explore if easily accessible trading apps are fuelling addictions, before hearing worldwide stories of stock market highs and lows.

In 2009, someone broke into the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in the UK and stole emails. The material was distributed online - mainly on blogs linked to climate change sceptics. It was used to make the case that scientists were surreptitiously twisting the facts to exaggerate climate change. That was not the case. But before that became clear, events would take on a life of their own, sparking a global media storm. BBC Security correspondent Gordon Corera goes on the trail of this ‘cyber cold case’ to try and discover who was behind ‘Climategate’.

Frontline medical teams in the UK have fine-tuned the physical treatment of severely ill Covid patients. But one thing that has gone largely unnoticed is their efforts to help those patients – often on ventilators for weeks – keep up the will to live, and enable their families to stay connected with these patients.

Moving away from the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas has been a major talking point at the COP 26 climate conference. Two coal mine workers in the United States and Canada discuss their concerns for their jobs, families and businesses within their communities. They are unhappy that coal is being painted as the “evil thing” and that all will be better if you get rid of it. They tell us at the moment they are working six days a week and can’t get enough coal out.

The husband of a British-Iranian charity worker held in Iran since 2016 has been on hunger strike again to push for her release. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held there on spying charges, which she denies. Ros Atkins looks at how her story is part of a complicated history between Iran and the UK.

With the UN climate conference in Glasgow drawing to a close Assignment brings us the final programme in a series which has been telling the story of three places devastated by extreme weather events. In this final edition, Maria Margaronis travels to the Greek island of Evia. Here vast areas of centuries old forests, olive groves and houses were burnt by a week-long inferno. And now come the rains, bringing polluted water and mudslides. Presented by Maria Margaronis and produced by Mark Burman(Image: A firefighter tries to extinguish wildfire on the island of Evia, August 2021. Credit: Reuters/Nikolas Economou)

This year Zimbabwe has had a bumper crop of the staple food, maize. It is only the second time in two decades that it has grown enough food for the whole population. Last year they barely had half of what was needed and 7.7 million people went hungry. Better rainfall is largely to thank, but a new farming technique, called Pfumvudza is also being celebrated as having a dramatic impact on the amount Zimbabwe’s smallholder farmers have produced, increasing their yields up to four times. Dr Matthew Mbanga is CEO of the organisation which designed Pfumvudza explains the “more yield, less field” principle, which encourages farmers to more intensively cultivate a smaller area of land.