Please check with your local public radio station to find out when these programs will air in your area. Note that due to the topical nature of these programs, they are subject to change.

Gold

The BBC’s Nick Rankin unlocks the history and enduring fascination of the rare yellow metal that has been integral to economic exchange systems for millennia. From King Midas to “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” the allure of gold mesmerizes and brings ruin. Join Nick Rankin as he descends into the deepest gold mine on earth, in South Africa, and examines the racial aspects of gold mining in South Africa.

This program will be available online after August 9th, 2010.

Freedom

John McCarthy, Britain's longest-held hostage in Lebanon, was set free after more than five years in captivity in 1991. In 2010, he met with and thanked Giandomenico Picco, the United Nations negotiator who arranged his release - at no small risk to himself. In this documentary produced for the BBC World Service, McCarthy makes a deeply personal journey to New York to meet Giandomenico. He also explores the development of the role of the crisis negotiator and looks closely at the history and philosophy of negotiation.

In the second half-hour, we focus on Aung San Suu Kyi , political icon, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and the charismatic leader of Burma's struggle for human rights. Under house arrest for many years, unable to watch her children grow up, and excluded from public life, her plight is ongoing. This moving portrait talks to friends and loved ones, colleagues from her days at Oxford and fellow dissidents, as well as world statesmen and women. We present a complex picture of the person behind the icon.

This program will be available online after August 11th, 2010.

Home From Home

How do we become who we are? We look at identity through two personal journeys that probe the intergenerational effect of relocating to another country.

Nihal's mother never spoke much about her father, a lawyer who was shot dead while sitting on his porch with his children in 1940. Now, 70 years later, Nihal goes to find out the truth with fascinating results. Nihal also discovers how his life in the UK has been affected by his Sri Lankan roots and the legacy of his grandfather.

Bobby Friction grew up in the UK. While his side of the family stayed in the UK, another branch moved to Canada. Bobby travels to Toronto to meet his cousins to find out what his life might have been like if he’d grown up elsewhere, and to see how his Indian roots have played out in another country.

This program will be available online after August 18th, 2010.

The Crescent and the Cross, Part 1

Christians and Muslims have co-existed for millennia. As we know, the relationship has not always been a peaceful one. In this special two-part series for the BBC World Service, Owen Bennett Jones explores several key turning points in the history of Islam and Christianity.

We begin by going back more than a thousand years to what is currently Spain. Al-Andalus, as it was known then, was the heart of Islamic culture in Europe. Muslim forces had conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th Century. The BBC’s Owen Bennett Jones reports from Cordoba on history’s impact on modern-day politics. Then, in the second half-hour, Bennett Jones reports from Israel on the lasting significance of the Crusade that pitted legendary Muslim leader Saladin against King Richard the Lionheart.

This program will be available online after August 25th, 2010.

The Crescent and the Cross, Part 2

The BBC’s Owen Bennett Jones continues his exploration of key turning points in the history of Islam and Christianity. Malta was the site of one such turning point. In the mid-16th century, Malta was controlled by a group of devout militant Christians, now known as the Knights of Malta. These Knights ran afoul of the Ottoman Emperor, Suleiman the Magnificent. Bennett Jones takes us back to the legendary siege of Malta. He then concludes this series with a look at the siege of Khartoum. Owen Bennett Jones tells how the son of a Sudanese boat builder successfully took on the might of the British Empire.

This program will be available online after September 1st, 2010.

Young Voices

Although quite young, Thembi Ngubane was courageously open about living with AIDS in a South African township at a time when most people in South Africa kept quiet about it. In this moving and personal audio diary, Thembi recorded her experience of the pain of having to break the news to her parents, of visits to the doctor, of her great love for her boyfriend Melikhaya and her daughter Onwabo, and of her thoughts of not being around any more.

The village of Alert Bay is perched on a tiny island off Canada's Pacific coast. It's the only settlement on Cormorant Island, an island that is less than 2-and-a-half miles long. Recently, a group of teenagers there were given recording equipment. They were asked to capture their lives and their community. This documentary weaves together their earnest stories about youth, boredom, their love of home and their longing to leave it.

This program will be available online after September 8th, 2010.

China: Shaking the World, Part 1

Napoleon once said, "China is a sleeping giant. When she awakes, she will shake the world." China endured decades of occupation, division and international isolation since that 19th-Century warning. When it finally opened to the rest of the world, foreign money and expertise flooded in. Now, little more than a generation later, China is poised to overtake Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. Its unprecedented growth in exports has left it holding more foreign currency than any other nation, financial power which China is beginning to use to challenge the US dollar's long-standing dominance as the medium of international trade.

This program will be available online after September 15th, 2010.

China: Shaking the World, Part 2

China's economic resurgence has lifted hundreds of millions from poverty and helped the Communist Party maintain its authority and control. But potential dangers lie ahead. Internally, there's a housing and construction bubble that could burst, spreading problems far beyond China's borders. Externally, there are threats of trade sanctions from recession-hit America, where many accuse China of manipulating its currency to gain unfair advantage. We examine the political, economic and cultural mechanisms of China's growing global influence. Michael Robinson assesses the prospects and problems of a shift of power from West to East.

This program will be available online after September 22nd, 2010.

Spanning The World

We examine the unique political, metaphorical, structural or aesthetic significance of special bridges around the world.

We begin at the Oresund Bridge-Tunnel between Denmark and Sweden. Opened to the public ten years ago, it is a bridge that has forged a connection between two countries with a difficult past. In London, we examine a bridge that has become more famous for its tendency to collapse than for its initial construction. London Bridge has been built and rebuilt on the same site since 50 A.D. It has served as a crossing, a shopping district, a housing settlement and a platform for the grotesque display of criminals’ heads. Most famous for ‘falling down,’ it has also been burnt down, shattered by tornado, rammed by a warship, destroyed by Queen Boudicca and dismantled and flown to Arizona by an American oil magnate. We probe the past, present and future of this ever-changing bridge.

This program will be available online after September 29th, 2010.

Information is accurate at the time of production