The Documentary Podcast Folgen

Natalya Filonova is a former kindergarten teacher, a mother, a grandmother. But she’s also an activist and in 2022 she was arrested during a demonstration against the war in Ukraine. Nina Nazarova from BBC Russian has been trying to find out what happened to her. Plus, how a homeless bumblebee brought a community together, with Joao Fellet from BBC Brasil.Prestented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Alice Gioia and Caroline Ferguson(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

After 19 months of war, Israel says it is preparing to expand its military campaign in Gaza. The aim is to defeat and dismantle Hamas, regarded as a terrorist organisation by many countries and bring home the remaining 59 hostages. They have been held in captivity since Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October, 2023. There have been several strikes on Gaza within the last week alone, with reports of dozens of people killed and wounded. We hear from women and men in the Palestinian territory about the bombings, the food shortages and their fears for another looming crisis ahead. Aid agencies have warned that, since Israel cut off humanitarian aid on 2 March, after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire, mass starvation is imminent.

Throughout his life as a theologian, Christian minister and cosmologist, Prof David Wilkinson has been asking - what does God do when I pray? The question became acutely personal after his wife, Alison, developed first ME and then crippling rheumatoid arthritis. As everyone prayed for her recovery, but no healing appeared to come for many years, the couple and their children felt their faith come into sharp focus. For their children, now both working for the Church, there was a profound crisis of faith which left them unable to pray. For David, anger and confusion that his wife, also a minister of a growing church, was left in pain and unable to walk, let alone lead her church. Naomi Wellings meets a family whose faith was shaken, but ultimately strengthened.