A window into our world, through in-depth storytelling from the BBC. Investigating, reporting and uncovering true stories from everywhere. Award-winning journal...
In 2019, performer and writer Rochi Rampal found herself attending 10 funerals in one year. To contend with this, she embarked on her own “crash course” to better deal with death, and felt she had found a new attitude to both grief and dying. But Rochi was then given a new diagnosis that forced her to face the threat to her life that she thought she was ready for and the composure she thought she had was shaken. So Rochi wants to begin again and turns to faith and spirituality for answers.
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Witness History: US Black History Month special
Extraordinary stories from African-American history, told by the people who were there. We hear tales of bravery and survival against all odds, from the first African-American woman to lead a World War Two battalion, to a Black Panther Party leader in exile, to one man’s incredible escape from the Tulsa Race Massacre. This is a special collection of stories from Witness History, from the BBC World Service, to mark Black History Month in the United States.
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BBC Trending: Quadrobic panic in Russia over craze to dress and walk on all fours like animals
There’s a moral panic in Russia and several former Soviet states about a craze in which teenagers and children dress up as animals and walk on all fours like their favourite animals. In one TikTok video, a group of youngsters are seen scampering across Moscow’s Red Square wearing fox masks and tails. Politicians and religious leaders have warned the trend is a threat to civilised values and a cover for LGBT and western ideology. Legislation is now being considered to ban quadrobics and fine or arrest parents of enthusiasts. But quadrobics has a longer history as a form of exercise. We speak to the pioneering Japanese athlete who holds the world record for covering 100m on all fours in 15.7 seconds, which he set in 2015.
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Assignment: The village that came back from the dead
In Germany some 300 villages have been destroyed since the Second World War because of the coal that lay beneath them. Villagers have grown up in the knowledge that one day their house will be torn down and generally they’ve accepted the deal on offer: the mine buys their house and they build a new one in a brand-new village. But the demands of climate change and the need to curb CO2 emissions has changed attitudes to fossil fuels. In one region west of Cologne all mining activity will cease by 2030, 15 years earlier than planned. Which means that villages designated for demolition are now going to survive. That news isn’t always welcome. Tim Mansel has visited one of them.
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In the Studio: Jennifer Walshe
Dublin-born Jennifer Walshe is one of the world’s most bold and imaginative contemporary classical composers, and holds the prestigious post of professor of composition at Oxford University. Whether it is Barbie dolls or recipe books, the mundane and strange materials of life are central to Walshe’s work. Now, for the Irish National Opera, she is developing a major new work set on Mars. Walshe’s opera will respond to astrophysics data, Martian meteorites, trashy sci-fi, eco-anxiety in young people, and tech billionaires’ obsession with conquering space. Broadcaster Katie Derham tracks Walshe as she launches into the project, with months of immersive intergalactic research.
A window into our world, through in-depth storytelling from the BBC. Investigating, reporting and uncovering true stories from everywhere. Award-winning journalism, unheard voices, amazing culture and global issues. From former prisoners in Syria, to the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh, to Nigerian women protecting their community from violence, The Documentary investigates major global stories.We delve into social media, take you into the minds of the world’s most creative people and explore personal approaches to spirituality. Every week, we also bring together people from around the globe to discuss how news stories are affecting their lives. A new episode most days, all year round. From our BBC World Service teams at: Assignment, Heart and Soul, In the Studio, OS Conversations, The Fifth Floor and Trending.
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