The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2015

Forty Five percent of the population of Myanmar is 25 or under. This gives young adults a key role in the country’s first open election in 25 years, to be held on 8 November. Nomia Iqbal finds out how youth radio is helping to shape Myanmar's shift from military rule by spending time with producers at youth radio programme Lin Lat Kyair Sin or Bright Young Stars.

From workaholics to submissive women and bizarre crazes, Dr Christopher Harding explores Western media representations of Japan and asks if these stereotypes have led to the country being misunderstood in West.

Lucy Ash reports on the controversial mayor in charge of Beziers, the largest French city controlled by the Far-Right. Is Robert Menard a pioneer or a provocateur?

Virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie explores the story of the Hang - the tuned metal pan that's become a global success.

Homosexuality in Namibia and the LGBT community's struggle for social acceptance

In the aftermath of 9/11, the United States approved ‘enhanced’ interrogation methods that have been condemned as torture. The most notorious was controlled drowning, known as waterboarding. For Assignment, Hilary Andersson hears from those who approved, ran and suffered the programme in secret CIA prisons around the world. And she experiences some of the techniques herself. Does harsh interrogation yield reliable intelligence in the fight against terror? And what impact has the interrogation programme had on on-going conflicts – did it fuel support for ISIS? Produced by Linda Pressly (Photo: A man sits in a prison cell. Credit: Shutterstock)

Nearly 40 years ago, French polymath Jacques Attali wrote a book called Noise which predicted a "crisis of proliferation" for recorded music – in which its value would plummet. As music sales went into freefall at the turn of the century, his prediction seemed eerily resonant. Singer-songwriter Sam York, now struggling to earn a living as a musician, visits Attali to help get an insight into his own future, and learns that music itself may hold clues to what is about to happen in the wider world.

In 2005 a plan was launched to improve education, health, housing and jobs for the Roma – Europe’s poorest minority. But did it succeed? Ten years later Delia Radu travels across Eastern Europe to find the Roma she spoke to when the plan was launched, to see if it has delivered its promise.

Why Edward Snowden exposed the mass surveillance by American and British intelligence

Two pioneers in AI discuss their work and describe the way in which machine led intelligence is set to remake our world. Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research and Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist of the Robotics firm Jibo join the BBC’s Rory Cellan Jones to discuss the rewards and challenges of AI with an audience in Silicon Valley.

India Rakusen travels to the city of Hamburg to find out why Germany has become the destination of choice for so many of the thousands of refugees heading across Europe.

Should a city owing $18 billion sell its prestigious art collection? The Detroit Institute of Arts' collection is world famous, and includes the first Van Gogh to be owned by an American arts museum, dazzling works by Matisse and Rembrandt, a distinguished selection of German Expressionist paintings, African Art, Native American Art, art from Asia and the Islamic world. Is art still relevant even when you are broke?

The story of how Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the place of women in American politics. Naomi Grimley looks at how life’s disappointments shaped Mrs. Roosevelt and how she learnt to cope with the scrutiny and fascination of the mass media.

Spain's national bullfighting association has warned that the tradition is in crisis. Neal Razzell reports.

Gwendolyn Brooks was an African American poet whose imagination, conscience and passion for words made her the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1950. Narrated by her daughter Nora Brooks Blakely, this is a portrait of her life through the voices of friends and fellow poets - including Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti and Sharon Olds.

The invisible cultural and mental divide between former East Germans and West Germans. Comedian Henning Wehn finds out if the cultural divisions can ever be broken down.

How the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s affected the lives of those caught up in it, and how it has cast its shadow over the region to this day

Jane Deith reports from India on conditions for tea workers picking for some of the UK's best known brands.

Portraits of eminent Indians by Professor Sunil Khilnani. The life of Guru Nanak who founded the Sikh religion in the 15th Century, mystic and poet Mirabai, one of India's most revered saints, Mughal Empire ruler Akbar and Ethipian slave turned king maker Malik Akbar.

More than 2000 civilians have been killed since a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen. The UN is warning of war crimes on both sides and a humanitarian crisis.