The Documentary Podcast

First, the story of Mike Flynn whose remarkable resilience and incredible fitness helped achieve his goal to play college football at the age of fifty-nine but at its heart, his is a story of redemption. Living with pain is sadly all too common. That was the fate that befell Meg Robson Austin. But she never allowed herself to think it was too late to win back her life and so she set about a journey that ended with her claiming the crown of the World's Strongest Woman. Arshay Cooper, born and raised in Chicago's notorious West Side could easily have slipped into gang life and violence, but he carved a different path through sport - Arshay's sporting journey was in a boat as a rower. It is just over a year since the world lost "Big" George Forman, and whilst revered for his fights with Muhammad Ali, his Olympic gold in 1968 and of course his grills, it is his longevity and his "it's never too late" attitude we are focusing in on because back in 1994 George Foreman shocked everyone by winning a second world title at the age of forty-five!

Since 2023, Sudan has been engulfed by a brutal civil war. More than 150,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. The war began as a power struggle between the Sudanese military and the powerful paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The capital Khartoum was the epicentre of the conflict. Millions fled as fighting wrecked the city. In 2025, the Sudanese military finally retook the capital from the RSF. One year on, Mohanad Hashim returns home to Khartoum to see how life is slowly returning to the battered city.
This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Mika Obanda creates vibrant mosaics using egg shells in his Kenyan studio. He gets the eggshells from local hotels and paints them after cleaning and shaping them.
Last summer Frenny Jowi visited him as he prepared his latest collection, Trying to Blossom, for an exhibition. But then disaster struck - so Frenny has been back to find out how Mika has coped with hardship, with support from his local community.

Why don’t I have a father? Cathy is 10 years old when she starts asking questions. The secret her mum Maggie is forced to reveal changes everything. Years later, when lawyers and a geneticist turn up in their hometown in Kenya to take DNA samples, Maggie hopes they can help her finally learn the truth. Presented by Ivana Davidovic.

At 93, Paul Biya is the oldest head of state in the world. In November he will have been the leader of Cameroon for 44 years and is currently serving his eighth consecutive term. It was announced in April that for the first time in Biya's leadership, the position of vice-president would be created in the country. This new post has drawn attention to the lack of certainty within Cameroon over who will take over from Paul Biya once he is no longer in office. BBC Africa's Paul Njie is from Cameroon himself and has been looking into the story.
A Thai drag performer has won the latest series of the television show RuPaul's Drag Race: UK versus The World. Gawdland is the first Thai winner of the all-star series and also the first non-native English speaker to take the title. Her triumph took some by surprise, but for fans of Drag Race, she's seen as a trailblazer for East Asian drag queens. Panisa Aemocha of BBC Thai explains what makes Gawdland such a stand-out performer.
Like anyone forced to leave their home country against their will, Russians who've sought asylum abroad face a variety of painful realities. Besides homesickness and the challenges of adapting to a new country, they also cannot safely return home to visit loved ones. For many years, exiled Russians could reunite with Russian family and friends in a wide variety of European and other countries, including the Baltic states. But as the rift between Russia and the rest of Europe deepend in the wake of the war in Ukraine, visa restrictions changed, leaving Russians with only a small handful of countries in which they could meet people from home. Recently, an exiled Russian man in his twenties, Sasha, planned and filmed a unique reunion with Russian friends. BBC Russian's Tatiana Kovtun tells Sasha's story and discusses the online response.
The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts.
 
Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.
 
If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.
Presented by Faranak Amidi.
Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson
(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)