The Documentary Podcast

From deepfakes to the fear of AI taking jobs, to the social media giants making money from abusive content, our technology dominated world is in a crisis – what are the solutions?AI researcher Kerry McInerney applies a feminist perspective to data, algorithms and intelligent machines. AI-powered tech, and generative AI in particular, pose new challenges for cybersecurity. Kerry proposes a new take on AI, looking at how it can be used on a small scale, acknowledging culture and gender, tailoring the technology for local applications rather than trying to push for global, one size fits all strategies.And in addressing corporate responsibility for Big Tech, Kerry discusses how tackling harassment online requires an understanding of the social, political and psychological dimensions of harassment, particularly of women in the wider world, as opposed to seeing this as a technical problem.Dr Kerry McInerney is a research fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, and the AI Now Institute.This is the last of four programmes from the Oxford Literary Festival, presented by Nuala McGovern, produced by Julian Siddle.Recorded in front of an audience at Worcester College Oxford.

For three decades Armenians ruled Karabakh – literally “Black Garden” – an unrecognised statelet inside neighbouring Azerbaijan. Many saw it as the cradle of their civilisation. But as Azerbaijan retook control last autumn, the entire population fled in just a few days. It was a historic catastrophe for Armenia. But the world barely noticed. How is Armenia coping with its loss? Can 100,000 refugees rebuild their lives? And will the cycle of hatred that caused the conflict ever be broken? Grigor Atanesian reports.

Philip K. Dick's novella The Minority Report was famously adapted into a science fiction blockbuster by director Steven Spielberg in 2002. More than 20 years later, it is now being adapted for the stage by writer David Haig and director Max Webster. Mark Burman goes behind the scenes of this bold adaptation, as the clock ticks down to opening night.

A bonus episode from the What in the World podcast. Korean shamans hold significant cultural importance in Korean society. They are often portrayed in Korean dramas and films, adorned in shiny and colourful traditional attire, dancing on sharp knives, summoning spirits, and banishing demons. They offer fortune telling services and perform rituals to help people with their personal issues. In South Korean media, shamans are often portrayed as deceitful characters who misuse their status to manipulate people and profit from others… but that negative image is slowly changing as young shamans are modernising their approach. They now have shrines in the busy centre of Seoul and they've become big on social media, even offering consultations online. BBC journalist Soo Min Kim has been speaking to shamans and their customers about why people go to see them and how social media is making them more accessible.Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworldWhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.ukPresenter: Hannah Gelbart with Soo Min KimProducers: Emily Horler and Adam ChowdhuryEditor: Julia Ross-Roy

How do you prepare for the worst-case scenario? Juna Moon has been talking to young people in South Korea about how they perceive the threat of war in the region and how they’re planning for it. Growing up in Taiwan after the 1999 Jiji earthquake, Joy Chang has been trained on what to do in case another quake hit. So when the ground started to shake in early April, she knew exactly what to do. Plus Hernando Álvarez shares the life advice he received from Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, and the story behind a handwritten note listing the author's favourite books.Produced by Caroline Ferguson and Alice GioiaGabriel García Márquez' list of essential classics:1. The Bible 2. One Thousand and One Nights 2 (a) Plato and Aristotle 3. The Odyssey 3 (a) The Illustrious Philosophers. Diogenes Laertius 4. Sophocles: Oedipus 5. The Twelve Caesars (Suetonius) 6. Plutarch 7. The Divine Comedy (Inferno) 8. Horace (Poetry) 9. El Cid (Ballads) 10. Amadis of Gaul 11. Don Quixote 12. Poetry: Spanish Golden Age 13. Gargantua and Pantagruel 14. Paradise Lost - Milton 15. Chroniclers of the Indies(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich)

The situation in the Middle East is being described as uncharted territory following strikes involving Iran and Israel. This is framed around the war between Israel and Hamas, now in its seventh month. Three people in Israel share their experiences with host James Reynolds. Avi, Lianne and Liah describe what it was like when Iran launched drones and missiles at their country and how the Hamas-led attack of 7 October continues to impact every moment of their lives.

What if you carry an inherited surname that you feel is profoundly un-Christian? Should you keep it or change it? Robert Beckford is going through this dilemma. His surname is a slave name, a brand of ownership passed down from his enslaved African ancestors in Jamaica. Over time, Robert has grown deeply uncomfortable with the meaning of this name and now wants to find a more spiritual alternative. He embarks on a journey of self-discovery, considering whether he should change or keep his inherited name.

An eight-year-old girl holds two cards in her hand. She places several plastic poker chips into the middle of the dining room table and makes a bet. Science writer Alex O’Brien has been teaching her daughter how to play poker for three years. She believes that the game will give her daughter important life lessons for the future - critical thinking skills, empowerment, controlling emotions and understanding psychology, probability and risk. But when the game is associated with casinos, gambling and men (95% of players are male), not every one agrees with her decision - including poker players.

Could going vegan help feed the world and save the planet? While industry and energy production are often singled out as the main drivers of climate change, the global meat production industry is a bigger polluter. Veganism advocate Gary Francione and nutritionist Dr Ron Weiss join Nuala McGovern to discuss the pros and cons of veganism. While it might make sense from an ethical and climate change perspective, it is a massive cultural leap for many. We ask whether veganism could really be useful in places where food might not be readily available. And answer concerns over whether a non-meat diet can provide adequate nutrition.

Reggaeton’s the soundtrack to Puerto Rico. The globally popular music reflects what’s going on in the cultural and political scene of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean Island.It started out as underground music in marginalised communities but was criticised for allegedly promoting violence and being too sexually explicit. Reggaeton has since been used as an anthem to overthrow a local governor and a way to criticise the island’s complex relationship with the United States. It’s also evolved from misogynist roots to reach new audiences in the LGBTQ community. Jane Chambers travels to Puerto Rico to meet the people and hear the music which is both maligned and revered.

A special bonus episode on the Iran-Israel attacks from The Global Story podcast. Israel says 99% of the missiles and drones fired by Iran on Saturday night were intercepted without hitting their targets. Iran said the assault was in response to a deadly attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria two weeks ago. Now all eyes are on how Israel will respond to Iran's unprecedented move. James Reynolds talks to the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, who says the attack marks “a whole new chapter” in the relations between Iran and Israel. James is also joined by the BBC’s security correspondent Gordon Corera and Siavash Ardalan, from BBC Persian, to discuss how the players at the centre of this confrontation might decide their next move. The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We’re keen to hear from you, wherever you are in the world. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at theglobalstory@bbc.com You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480. The Global Story is part of the BBC News Podcasts family. The team that makes The Global Story also makes several other podcasts, such as Americast and Ukrainecast, which cover US news and the war in Ukraine. If you enjoy The Global Story, then we think that you will enjoy some of our other podcasts too. To find them, simply search on your favourite podcast app. This episode was made by Richard Moran. The technical producer was Annie Smith. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Danish landscape architect Helle Nebelong is a pioneer of the natural playground movement. Natural playgrounds are made of natural materials, rather than plastics, but they also encourage creativity and independence rather than rule-based games. In The Studio follows Helle as she faces her biggest challenge yet - designing one of America's largest natural playgrounds, at Colene Hoose School in Normal, Illinois.

Dr Zoe Williams talks to researchers and clinicians around the world as she investigates how and why the care of women has been so neglected, and what moves are afoot to change that. She examines the historical inequalities in the diagnosis and treatment of women, particularly in the area of heart disease. There is an abiding myth that men are much more likely to suffer heart attacks than women, but heart disease is the number one killer of women in the US, and the British Heart Foundation estimates that nearly 10,000 British women would still be alive over the last decade alone had they received the same quality of care as men. This is a global problem. Dr Zoe Williams is a general practitioner in the NHS. She's also the resident doctor on ITV's This Morning and a regular expert on the BBC's The One Show. Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith Executive producer: Susan Marling

What is it like to work in Jerusalem right now? BBC journalist Shaina Oppenheimer shares her experience of living in Israel and monitoring the conflicting narratives published on Israeli and Palestinian media. Plus, BBC Mundo's Alicia Hernandez explains why Equatorial Guinea is the only African country which has Spanish as one of its official languages and shares the unusual local Spanish words she discovered.

Sudan has experienced a year of civil war. It’s been described by the United Nations as “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”. Over the past 12 months, we’ve heard from people in Sudan living through the violence and destruction. More than 14,000 people have died and more than 8 million people have been driven from their homes . In this edition, with Luke Jones and James Reynolds, we hear from Omnia, a recent college graduate, whose been separated from her family for a year. Her life stopped when the fighting began: “I have experienced displacement four times. I have experienced living in a war zone under bombings and shellings and mass shootings. Life has changed completely from what it was. But I would also say it’s a year of resilience and strength that I did not know I had in me.” Another of our guests is Samreen. She is an aid worker in Sudan, herself displaced by the war. She describes how overwhelmed she can be by requests for help: ”Knowing that you’re an aid worker, they ask you for stuff, they ask you to flee the country, they ask you to get to other safer locations, they ask you to help them in asylum seeking and there’s so little that we can do.” A Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC OS team.

A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast: Washington’s antitrust cases against Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta The US government is suing some of the biggest tech companies on the planet – Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta – in antitrust cases. The face of Washington’s crackdown is Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, the youngest person ever to hold the post.So, who is the woman taking on Silicon Valley? And can she succeed? To answer these questions, host Adam Fleming speaks the BBC's North America business correspondent Michelle Fleury and former North America tech reporter James Clayton.

An episode of Heart and Soul from our Archive. Dr Jennifer Bryson interrogated suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists at the infamous Guantanamo Bay. She worked at the detention centre in Cuba for two years and says that some of the inmates bragged openly about helping to organise the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that killed 3,000 people. Bryson was the first woman to take up the role of lead interrogator at Guantanamo, and the first who was not a member of the military. She would carry out interrogations herself but was also responsible for signing off methods and techniques used by other interrogators. After some time, she started to feel uneasy about some of the 'enhanced interrogation' methods she was asked to approve, such as playing extremely loud music to inmates for prolonged periods, exposing them to strobe lighting, etc. In her gut, she felt something was not right. She says it was her faith-formed conscience that led her to deny her colleagues’ requests to use such interrogation techniques.What are the moral challenges of this work for a person of faith? Are 'enhanced interrogation techniques' ever justified? What if these methods help to prevent more deaths in the future? In this edition of Heart & Soul for the BBC World Service, Colm Flynn explores these questions with Dr Jennifer Bryson. He discovers how her faith guided her through what she regards as the most radical time of her life.Producer/ Presenter: Colm Flynn Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta Production Coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno Editor: Helen Grady

A bonus episode from the What in the World podcast. When it comes to elephant conservation, Botswana is the world leader. It is now home to more than 130,000 elephants — or around a third of the world's elephant population. But this growing number poses major problems for humans: the animals destroy homes and crops, and even injure and kill people. To manage its elephant population, Botswana allows so-called “trophy hunting”. Hunters from abroad pay for permits to shoot and kill elephants — and can then take a piece of the elephant home. Botswana then re-invests this income into conservation efforts. It’s a controversial practice. Animal rights activists want Botswana’s government to seek alternatives to trophy hunting, which they deem as cruel. And in Germany — Europe’s biggest importer of African elephant trophies — the government has suggested there should be stricter limits on importing them. The president of Botswana recently threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany as part of the dispute. Shingai Nyoka, a BBC reporter in neighbouring Zimbabwe, explains the laws that govern trophy hunting and why they’re up for debate. And John Murphy, a BBC News reporter in London, recounts his experience visiting an “elephant corridor” — regular routes taken by elephants in their daily commute between their feeding grounds on one side and water on the other. Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk Presenter: Hannah Gelbart with Shingai Nyoka Producers: Alex Rhodes and William Lee Adams Editors: Verity Wilde and Simon Peeks

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered a previously unknown kind of star, the Pulsar. A Nobel prize followed, but not for Jocelyn; her male boss took the honour. Jocelyn has never been bitter about the award, but says that today things should have moved much further than they have. More women are working in space research, but is it enough? In conversation with Nuala McGovern, she argues that different perspectives are essential for moving the science forward. One of these is a more global, inclusive vision to exploring the cosmos. India and China have prestigious space programmes, and the low-key space missions of Japan and South Africa collaborate with international partners from around the world. We discuss how global enthusiasm for space research can be used to propel change. Jocelyn Bell Burnell is professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford.This is the second of a series of four programmes from the Oxford Literary Festival, presented by Nuala McGovern, produced by Julian Siddle.Recorded in front of an audience at Worcester College Oxford.

New Caledonia is an island archipelago in the south Pacific. It has an incredible diversity of birds and plants. Its history includes a period serving as a 19th Century penal colony for the French colonisers and being an allied naval base during World War Two. An agreement signed 26 years ago about how the islands are run is expiring. But talks to make a new one have stalled, as the opposing sides - French settlers and indigenous Kanak - both demand their rights. Peter Hadfield has been to New Caledonia to see if a new deal can be made.