Gaudí: God’s architect
In one of his final official acts before he died, Pope Francis put Antoni Gaudí, Spain’s most famous architect, onto the path to sainthood. Gaudí's masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, is a towering basilica, strangely designed and bursting with colour. It stands in the heart of Barcelona and its walls recount the entire story of the Catholic religion. After 140 years, having survived wars, arson attacks and dictatorship, it is still under construction. As Gaudí worked on it throughout his life, he became obsessive and it intensified his devotion. By the end of his life he was living like a monk. The BBC's Max Horberry has been to Barcelona to see Gaudí's work and speak to the people who have been working to finish the Sagrada Familia and campaigning for Gaudí's sainthood. He finds out more about the path to sainthood and how architecture, nature and religion intertwine in Gaudí’s life. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.
22 Aug 26min
White Coats v the White House
Science journalist Roland Pease asks whether the rounds of cuts, reorganisations and political strong-arming in US science can be weathered, and how they will likely affect us all. Eighty years ago Vannevar Bush proposed what became the pact between government and universities that led to decades of global scientific dominance. Today, US scientists fear the Trump administration is ripping up that agreement, mandating what and what can’t be studied, who can study it, and redefining expertise. The specialist agencies are either being closed down or defunded to the extent that tens of thousands of government scientists are already unemployed. Multi-year experiments are being closed down uncompleted. Top universities are besieged by mandates on who and how they hire, tied to their future funding. Data streams that benefit researchers around the globe are being switched off. Even definitions of what counts as evidence are being redrafted. Can the administration's declared aim of "restoring gold standard science", be achieved?
21 Aug 27min
Dan Meis: Designing Everton Football Club's new stadium
The inaugural premier league football match at Everton’s much anticipated new stadium will kick-off on 23 August 2025, as the home side play against Brighton & Hove Albion. Everton Football Club's radical new home was designed by innovative sports architect Dan Meis, who has developed a reputation for out-of-the-box, innovative thinking while creating projects that redefine their respective building types. This includes the design for the Staples Centre in Los Angeles and “transformable” venue in Japan that mechanically changes from arena to stadium. In 2021, former professional footballer Neil Danns joined Meis as he commenced the design process for the Everton's new football stadium. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.
20 Aug 27min
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 in the back of a refrigerated truck on a motorway in Austria. They had all suffocated. Could this tragedy have been prevented? For Assignment, Nick Thorpe speaks to two of the people smugglers who are now serving life sentences in a Bulgarian prison. He visits a man in northern Iraq who lost his younger brother and two children aboard the truck and asks the police in Hungary if they could have acted sooner.This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.
19 Aug 26min
The Herds: Life-sized puppets flee climate change
A vast herd of life-size puppet animals travel from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, to flee the effects of climate change. Following their internationally successful project, The Walk with Little Amal, in which a 13-foot puppet visited 17 countries, drawing attention to the vast numbers of children fleeing war, violence, and persecution, David Lan, previously the artistic director of the Young Vic and Amir Nizar Zuabi the celebrated Palestine theatre director, have created a new global project, The Herds. Concerned with raising awareness of climate change, it is inspired by the notion that animals are the first to sense environmental disaster and respond alarmingly. The animals, designed in Cape Town by the Ukwanda Puppet Collective and replicated by partners along the route, reflect the countries through which they passed. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.
18 Aug 26min
Ghost cities FC
Qarabag FK is not only a refugee football club but also the most successful team in Azerbaijan. Located in Baku, they originally hail from the 'ghost' city of Aghdam, in the Nagorno Karabakh region of the South Caucasus. When a war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the late 1980s, Armenia forces seized Nagorno Karabakh - a disputed territory that both countries claim - and laid waste to Aghdam. The club relocated to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku and rebuilt. But after the second Nagorno Karabakh war, which Azerbaijan won, the government has begun to rebuild Aghdam at breakneck speed. The centre-piece will be Qarabag's regenerated former stadium. The football club is a symbol of an Azerbaijani return to lands the government describes as "unlawfully stolen". But as one team returns, another has been forced out. Lernayin Artsakh FC was based in Stepanakert. As Azeri troops bore down on the city in September 2023, its players, officials and families fled for Armenia, an act that the Armenian government called "ethnic cleansing". The team is now based in Armenia, playing in the second division.As one team prepares to return to a city they once fled, another prepares for a life in exile. James Montague travels to Nagorno Karabakh to visit the two refugee football clubs who once played in the same league but who have come to represent division and displacement in the region. Presenter: James Montague Producer and Sound Mix: Ben Wyatt A Comuniqe production for the BBC World Service.(Image Credit: James Montague A no-score draw in Nagorno Karabakh
17 Aug 49min
Comedians and Afghan weddings
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, they introduced many controversial measures, including a ban on music. How do people celebrate special occasions, like weddings? BBC Pashto’s Payenda Sargand recently attended a wedding in the southern city of Kandahar and tells us about the other forms of entertainment that were on display, including poetry, singers performing without music and stand-up comedians. The tradition of ‘money spraying' is a major part of Nigerian wedding celebrations, but now you could face a hefty fine or even a prison sentence if you’re caught doing it. Make-up artist Abdullahi Musa Huseini, also known as Amuscap on social media, was recently sentenced by a high court in the northern city of Kano for throwing cash at his own wedding, and he’s currently serving a six-month jail sentence. Mansur Abubakar from BBC Africa has been reporting on this story. Tuareg communities in North Africa traditionally celebrate weddings with a 7-day party. The BBC Arabic's Xtra TV producers were invited to a wedding in Gath, in the south of Libya, and got to know the groom, Jamal, a young man who said he had to save for years to be able to afford such a feast in the current cost-of-living crisis. Saif Rebai reports. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. This is an EcoAudio certified production. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
16 Aug 26min
Messages from Sudan's war
Few people in Sudan have been left untouched by the civil war. More than 150,000 people have died, 12 people million have been forced to leave their homes and millions face starvation. The conflict broke out in April 2023 after a vicious struggle for power between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group – the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Today, the front lines are in the south and the western Darfur region. We hear messages from people inside the besieged city of el-Fasher and bring together displaced families in conversation to share their experiences.
16 Aug 23min
