The Documentary Podcast Folgen

As Silicon Valley races to build machines that can think, create and perhaps surpass human intelligence, the Vatican has emerged as one of the most prominent global voices questioning the path the tech billionaires are setting for us. Pope Leo XIV, in his recent document on AI, warned of “the risk of dehumanisation.” Behind that warning lies a question that has occupied philosophers and theologians for centuries: what does it mean to be human?In Rome, Isobel Cockerell explores whether the answer to that age-old question survives contact with the era of artificial intelligence. She turns to Father Michael Baggot, a Catholic priest and professor who teaches courses on AI, ethics and transhumanism at Vatican universities. A regular at meetings between clergy and tech leaders, he sees Silicon Valley’s vision of AI as quasi-religious in its claims to end uncertainty, suffering, and even death. “I also belong to a religion that believes in eternal life,” he says. He’s conflicted about the ambitions of the tech elite. He hopes AI can lead to “human flourishing” but sees, in his pastoral life, how AI can devalue the very human acts of caring and sacrificing for the good of others.Isobel also speaks to tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, known for his radical efforts to defeat human ageing and live forever. He tells us that in building superintelligent AI, humanity may in fact be building God. He points to a future in which “this emergent structure of power is no longer human-centric.”This episode of Heart and Soul examines whether an institution built on ancient tradition can meaningfully shape the direction of the most disruptive technology of our time. And it invites believers and sceptics alike to consider what impact artificial intelligence might have on humanity.

On 7th January 2025, the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighbourhoods of Los Angeles suffered two of the most destructive fires in the city’s history. Twenty-one people died and 15,000 buildings were destroyed over a combined area the size of Paris.The city is still reeling from the scale and intensity of the fires, and the challenge of rebuilding areas in which almost nothing remains standing. As the first tentative shoots of recovery begin to appear, Jonathan Glancey meets locals, including architects Scott Uriu and Michael Kovac. Like Dustin Bramell, co-founder of the Case Study: Adapt programme, they lost their own homes in the fires. Others, like architect and social justice advocate Steven Lewis, or Cynthia Siegler and Alex Athenson, founders of the Foothill Foundation Catalogue, saw their neighbours and communities displaced. Now they’re trying to help replace what has been lost while looking for better ways of building, in a land where earthquakes, drought and fire are an ever present threat. As man-made climate change and urban growth worsen the risk and impact of fires, Jonathan asks experts including Dan Turner, a retired fire chief and executive director of Cal Poly’s Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute, and architecture critic Frances Anderton if and how this city can reshape itself for a better future.

When the BBC’s Richard Hollingham and his producer, Will Grant, arrived with their bikes in Kansas City, Missouri in 2008, it had just been named as the worst city for cyclists in the country. The resulting radio show became a “wake-up call” that has since inspired new cycling groups and millions of dollars of investment in cycling and walking initiatives. Now the BBC team is back to see what’s improved and what other communities around the world can learn from the city’s experiences. In their travels, Richard and Will join a group cycle, meet volunteers fixing bikes and find out about putting roads on "diets". The team also join a school cycling initiative in a deprived area of the city and learn how bicycles are giving students skills and mobility. Kansas City has focused on easy to achieve, low-cost solutions that give quick results, but cars remain dominant. Can the city now get even more people on their bikes?