The Documentary Podcast

We look at three solutions connected to the “three Rs” – reduce, reuse and recycle. The city of Brussels in Belgium is in the process of moving all 40 municipal nurseries over to reusable nappies – and have managed to do it without their staff kicking up a stink! Also energy companies around the world have found ways to encourage customers to reduce their consumption by making it fun, and lastly we meet Makafui Awuku in Ghana - a man on a mission to turn used plastic into school desks.

Katy Watson highlights Australia’s complex, turbulent and evolving relationship with their number one trading partner - China. Having signed a free trade agreement eleven years ago, in recent years there has been a marked shift in relations, with Canberra balancing its security dependence on Washington with its economic reliance on Beijing. From businesses, diplomats and military personnel, Katy Watson asks if China is Australia’s enemy or friend? Or as some critics suggest, are they a ‘frenemy’?

Political analysts and human rights organisations say Turkey's courts are increasingly being used to silence political dissent and to shape a more socially conservative society. The most prominent defendant is Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, and the opposition figure opinion polls suggest is most likely to beat President Erdoğan at the ballot box. İmamoğlu has been held in Silivri prison since March 2025 and now stands trial alongside more than 400 co-defendants in a sprawling corruption case. Other elected mayors have been removed from office and replaced by government appointees. Emily Wither speaks to a former judge punished for criticising the changes to Turkey's judiciary, mayors held for months without conviction, court reporters accused of spreading "disinformation," and performers prosecuted for what they said on stage.

Economic unease is growing among Russian workers as fuel shortages and Ukrainian drone strikes disrupt key sectors of the economy.
Ed Butler examines the pressures facing businesses, workers and consumers, from damaged refineries to attacks on Wildberries warehouses.
As concerns grow over prices, jobs and supply chains, what do these disruptions reveal about the resilience of Russia's wartime economy?
Presenter: Ed Butler

In May, the Chief Justice of India unwittingly gave a name to a generational protest. He called unemployed young people “cockroaches” and the mass youth movement that had begun in the wake of the sudden cancellation of a national exam took on the title - the Cockroach Janta party. But India has not been the only country that has seen Gen Z - people aged between 14 and 29 - engaging in mass protests this year. It has been happening all over the place, from Serbia to Kenya. Different grievances, different circumstances, but the same generation. So what are the youth revolting about, and are they winning?
Our panel of guests include Dr Nayana Prakash, research affiliate at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge; Erica Frantz, associate professor in political science at Michigan State University and Matthew Cebul, lead research fellow at the Nonviolent Action Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School.