The Documentary Podcast Folgen

Journalist Kathleen McLaughlin investigates the multi-billion dollar global plasma industry. Kathleen needs $15,000-a-dose medication to treat her rare autoimmune condition. While she sits for hours at a time, just down the block is one of over 1,000 blood donation centres in the USA extracting plasma, which forms an essential part of her treatment. Kathleen investigates the origins of her plasma-based medication and learns why people are resorting to plasma donation to stay out of debt, who is profiting from this booming trade and why the burden of global production is rooted in the US.

During the last year of Bashar al-Assad’s rule of Syria, Reporters Without Borders ranked the country second to last in the World Press Freedom Index. The country was incredibly dangerous for journalists who had to manage strict government censorship. But in December 2024, Assad’s rule was toppled by a swift rebel offensive that took the capital city Damascus within a few days. The country then experienced a level of press freedom it hadn’t seen for decades. Dalia Haidar of BBC Arabic worked as a journalist in Syria whilst Assad was in power, she joins us to describe what it was like and what the hopes are for the future. Plus, a tour of Chiclayo, the Peruvian city Pope Leo XIV used to call home, with José Carlos Cueto from BBC Mundo; and how a Ferrari flag became a symbol of protest, with Slobodan Maričić from BBC Serbian. Presented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Caroline Ferguson and Alice Gioia(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Prostate cancer has been called the silent killer and it is the second most common form of cancer among males in the world. Yet, despite the fact that it only affects men, many are reluctant to talk about it. Following former president Joe Biden’s announcement that he has an aggressive form of the disease, we hear from two men about their diagnosis, their fears, the stigma and the reality of dealing with side effects like erectile dysfunction and incontinence after surgery. Leslie, a 46-year old DJ in Britain, is black and he discusses why black men are at higher risk from the disease with an oncology specialist from Nairobi, Kenya. And, 65-year-old Guy Jenkins also has prostate cancer and his daughter, a pharmacist, is helping her father cope with the condition.