The Documentary Podcast

A top Russian archaeologist is currently under arrest in Poland. Alexander Butyagin is waiting for courts to decide on a request from Ukraine for him to be extradited. He is a scholar at the Hermitage, Russia's largest art museum in St Petersburg, and has been digging in an ancient site in Crimea since 1999. Ukrainian authorities claim that he is criminally damaging and looting the site, making the most of Russian occupation, Butyagin himself denies all charges. It is a story that Grigor Atenesian of BBC Russian has been looking into.
The Kalbeliya community is a nomadic tribe from Rajasthan in India, known for its distinctive folk music and the Kalbeliya dance form. Traditionally, Kalbeliya families have led a nomadic life, though some have settled permanently over the years. They follow a type of Hinduism in which burial, rather than cremation, is a religious requirement after death. Community members say that even those who are settled often do not have legal access to land for burial, leaving families struggling to perform last rites. Ashay Yegde, who reports for the BBC in India, recently travelled to meet the Kalbeliya to hear their story.
AI-generated caricatures of middle-aged men decked out in street wear, clutching an iPhone have gone viral on social media in South Korea. They are being called 'Young 40s' by younger generations. Teasing of an older person is very unusual in South Korea, where age difference, even by a year, forms the basis of social hierarchy. But the Young 40 memes also represent Korean youth's growing scepticism of this reverence for elders. Hyojung Kim of BBC Korean has been looking into the internet phenomenon, and shares what it tells us about South Korean society today.
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.
Presented by Faranak Amidi
Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have become a visible force on American streets. Accused of using aggressive tactics, they often cover their faces and have cast a shadow of fear over migrant communities. In the city of Minneapolis, some 3000 agents have made hundreds of arrests, and two US citizens have been shot dead. We hear from migrants in the city, including a man arrested by ICE agents, and bring together people in the local community. President Trump was elected on a platform of cutting illegal immigration and, with efforts in recent days to reduce tensions in the State, we also get the perspective from Republican party supporters.
This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives.

*** This episode contains distressing content, including references to suicide, drug use, and sexual and violent material ***
Mick Fleming turned to drugs to numb the trauma of a childhood shaped by violence and fear. What followed was a life of escalating crime - one that pulled him further from himself and those around him. Then, in the midst of committing a serious offence, Mick experienced an overwhelming light that stopped him in his tracks. That moment marked the beginning of a profound turning point. What followed was not an instant transformation, but a long and difficult journey that eventually led him to the priesthood and later to becoming a bishop. Reporter Shiroma Silva travels to Burnley in the north of England to meet a man who draws inspiration from his own lowest point, when the kindness that sustained him did not come from within the church, but from a homeless man sleeping in a shop doorway.

In April 2026, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces fresh parliamentary elections. He has been in power since 2010, and his party's grip on the Hungarian media and civil society means many felt his place in office was permanently secure. However, discontent over allegations of corruption and his brand of "illiberal democracy" has been growing, led by a new challenger, Peter Magyar. His growing party, Tisza, has shown signs of being able to unite wide swathes of Hungary's disjointed opposition, and Orban is suddenly well behind in the polls. Magyar himself is a former member member of Orban's party, Fidesz. Nick Thorpe travels across Hungary meeting activists and voters mobilising for the contest.

Africa's 250 million nomadic herders, or pastoralists, are the invisible keystone of the continent's food system. They provide 50% of Africa's meat and 75% of its milk, moving livestock across vast rangelands in response to seasons, weather and grazing patterns that have sustained communities for millennia. Yet pastoralists are routinely dismissed as backwards, a relic in the way of progress and modernisation. Climate change, land grabs, and conflict force them off ancestral routes. Their knowledge is often ignored. But in the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, a different story emerges - one where these herders aren't obstacles to climate solutions but pioneers of them.