The Compass

Rajini Vaidyanathan examines segregation. The Brown versus the Board of Education case and the civil rights movement were supposed to have brought Americans together, but in Kansas City Rajini sees for herself the much more complicated legacy of desegregation. On the one hand, splintering solidarity in the black community; on the other a city where white and black Americans still live quite separate lives. Demographers suggest America is becoming less segregated, but in Atlanta, one of the big southern cities supposedly driving the desegregation, she finds the reality doesn’t quite match the statistics. Catching up with a family featured throughout the series, she finds estate agents steering black families away from white neighbourhoods. She discusses that with Julian Castro, the US Housing Secretary, and hears about his new rules to get communities integrating. And in Connecticut she sees a community which has spent 20 years integrating its schools, without requiring it of anyone.

Rally in Brooklyn, New York City 2015 against documentation that showed that black and hispanic students are increasingly confined to worst performing schools. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Rajini Vaidyanathan explores economic opportunity – or lack of it - amongst black Americans. She speaks to the academic whose study suggests employers think being black is as bad as having a criminal record but that they weren’t trying to be racist, and hears from senior corporate executives who have witnessed the subtle ways racial prejudice operates in the workplace.

In Kansas City she explains how government rules established during the New Deal locked black Americans out of home ownership for a generation, in west Philadelphia she meets the civic leaders with a comprehensive plan to improve the city’s poor, black neighbourhoods, and she hears from the San Francisco non-profit trying to reduce the very high cost of being poor.

(Photo: A man and woman on a street in Baltimore, Maryland. Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Rajini investigates the criminal justice system. In Nebraska she visits the conservative politician promoting laws to reduce the number of people behind bars. Will that help black Americans? “I hope so” he answers.

Elsewhere she hears from critics who argue that the system can never be reformed, only broken; that the system is not fair, the police need to be disarmed. She visits the police chief advising President Obama on the way forward, who acknowledges the problem but argues that “all black lives matter”, including those killed by crime, and that protesters must accept that the police are part of the solution. Rajini also spends time with the police force teaching all its officers how to be ‘ethical protectors’.

Protests against shootings of young black men by the police have pushed the issue of race to the top of the public agenda in the United States. Now BBC Washington correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan, who has covered many of the recent protests, sets out to examine some of the deep, underlying structural issues which America still has with race.

(Photo: A 19-year-old resident of Cleveland (holding sign), marches with other activists on St Clair Ave, Cleveland, Ohio, 2015. Credit: by Angelo Merendino/Getty Images)

During the last four years California has been ravaged by drought and wildfire that has left people without homes and farmers without crops. Unlike a lot of American states most Californians acknowledge climate change is contributing to serious environmental problems and Governor Jerry Brown is leading the way in developing strategies to try and combat it. In the final programme in the Local Warming series presenter Sasha Khokha takes a trip around her home state of California to see what climate change means to people and how far they are willing to go to address it.

(Photo: Interviewee Jessica Pyska infront of her burnt home. Credit: Sasha Khokha)

Extreme weather has claimed many lives in the Philippines. The archipelago has been battered by so-called ‘Super Typhoons’ and only last month, Super Typhoon Koppu wreaked havoc in the northern island of Luzon, killing 60 and leaving hundreds of thousands evacuated from their homes. Another storm two years ago left thousands dead. Meanwhile, climate change is said to be impacting crops and reducing yields. So it might come as a surprise that Filipinos, as a nation, are far from the most climate aware people on earth. Indeed some of the most vulnerable, living in isolated rural areas, might know little about the issues around emissions and global warming. In this programme, Filipino reporter Nicole Jacinto asks why, and meets some of those determined to change the situation.

(Photo: A man shelters from the wind in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan. Credit: Getty Images)

The first episode focuses on Nigeria, where migration caused by desertification is leading to bloodshed as cattle herders move south from their traditional routes and into conflict with settled farmers. Meanwhile, increasingly intense rainfall in southern Nigeria causes flooding and creates enormous gulleys which are swallowing houses, farmland and even schools. Presented by Ugochi Oluigbo - a business and environment correspondent and news anchor for TVC News in Nigeria – the programme asks how far Nigerians can afford to take action over global matters like climate change. Yet somehow the country has to adapt. Ugochi explores how climate change is making an impact on women in rural Nigeria. She also discovers how young people in Nigeria are engaging with the issue. (Image: Ugochi Oluigbo and Prof. Damian Asawalam examine an erosion gulley in Imo State, Nigeria. Credit: BBC)

Is prolonged adolescence actually a good thing? Jake Wallis Simons explores whether life choices offered up by delaying financial independence, marriage and forming a family are actually better for you. We hear how the transition to adulthood in the UK has extended over the last 50 years with young people having the opportunity to develop their own selves, travel and form their own identities. Jake also looks at what role class and wealth play in shaping the life choices and the waiting period for young people.

(Photo: Jack from Camberwell, London, UK. Credit: Sophie Wedgwood)

A trip to Italy where one of Ghana’s most respected hip-hop artists, Sarkodie, is set to perform in Modena. It is home to a large Ghanaian diaspora but what is life like for young Ghanaians who have moved abroad? We also hear from young people in Italy where almost a third of adults live with their parents, and in Barcelona where the economic crisis is still affecting the young, who discuss what it means to become a grown up in the 21st Century.

What does it mean to be a grown-up in the 21st Century? If the path to maturity is about stable work, marriage and a home for your family where does that leave those who haven't achieved these goals? In the first of three programmes Jake Wallis Simons meets young graduates in Ghana who dream of greater things but find the passage to adulthood blocked. Jobs are hard to come by and one student, Kwabena Ankrah, tells us that if you are a graduate in Ghana, you are in the wrong place. If you don’t have a job then it is hard to attract a wife. And, if you do not have a wife you are seen as irresponsible, impotent.

For Dr Samuel Ntewusu from the University of Ghana, the problems of waithood are caused by impatience and consumerism. He feels that many would not accept jobs in the north or west of the country - instead they feel their futures lies elsewhere. A large proportion of Ghana’s young hope to leave for Europe and America but do their dreams match the reality?

(Photo: Eric and David, bus driver and his apprentice in Ghana)

Costa Rica has implemented a progressive energy policy that is leading the way in the race to be carbon neutral. Although the country covers only 0.1% of the world’s landmass, it is home to 5% of its biodiversity, and has the greatest density of species in the world. A quarter of the country is protected land, including 26 national parks. While lucrative timber logging once eroded the country’s forests, using a programme of financial incentives from the government, deforestation was reversed. Costa Rica went from having one of the worst rates in the world to almost zero by 2005.

In 2007 the government announced Costa Rica would be the first carbon-neutral country by 2021 – a race that includes Iceland, Norway and New Zealand. In 2015 this small Central American republic achieved another environmental milestone by generating all its electricity using 99% renewable energy.

Do Costa Rica's green credentials make it a contender for the perfect country policy pile? Fi Glover and digital entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox debate, with the help of professor Henrietta Moore from the Institute for Global Prosperity and Ilimi Granoff from the Overseas Development Institute.

(Photo: The hydroelectric dam in Cachi, Cartago, 40 km west San Jose. Costa Rica expects to conclude an energy matrix made in a 97.1% of renewable sources, making the country one of the cleanest in the world. Credit: Ezequiel Becerra/AFP/Getty Images)

Fi Glover and digital guru Martha Lane Fox look at the digital revolution pioneered by the government in Estonia – where people vote, get their medical prescriptions even pay for their parking, online. With the help of Professor Henrietta Moore from the Institute for Global Prosperity and Taavet Hinrikus from Transferwise they ask - could it work where you are?

Estonia’s digital services have revolutionised the country since its independence from the Soviet Union with 600 services now being available online. E-Estonia has the fastest broadband speeds in the world, was the first to allow online voting in a general election, all classrooms are online, all medical records online, and it has more start ups per person than Silicon Valley in California. But does the networked society come at a price?

(Photo: People gathered on 20 August 2010 in Toila, Estonia for the world's first ever digital song festival. Credit: Raigo Paulla /AFP/Getty Images)

Misha Glenny's final programme on Russia - what it is and where it came from - looks at the country's attitude to war. What has been the long lasting effect of the great patriotic wars against Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte? Plus the Poles, the Mongols, and the British in Crimea.

With contributions from Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad, Robert Service, author of the Last Tsar, Kateryna Khinkulova of BBC World Service, former ambassador to Moscow Rhodric Braithwaite, and Dominic Lieven, author of Napoleon against Russia.

Producer: Miles Warde

(Photo: World War Two, Russian front. Street fight in Stalingrad, October 1942. Credit: Roger Viollet/Getty Images)

It was Peter the Great who created a new capital on the Baltic, and Catherine the Great who extended Russian influence south and west. Sweden, Poland, and the Ottomans all felt the Russian expansion in a century of geopolitical drama. This, says presenter Misha Glenny, is all part of the build up to today's war in Ukraine.

With contributions from Virginia Rounding, biographer of Catherine the Great; Prof Simon Dixon of University College London; Prof Robert Service, author of The Last Tsar; Prof Janet Hartley, author books on the Volga and Siberia; and Dr Sarah Young of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Producer: Miles Warde

(Photo: Portrait of Empress Catherine II (1729-1796), 1780s. Artist : Rokotov, Fyodor Stepanovich 1735-1808. Credit: Getty Images)

Russia's massive empire was not like that of Britain or France. It expanded across the land, making it more like the United States of America. And from very small beginnings, it became the biggest contiguous landmass in the world.

Presenter Misha Glenny speaks to James Hill of the New York Times about travelling to the edges, and also to Janet Hartley, author of Siberia: A History of the People. Plus further contributions from Ukrainian academic Olesya Khromeychuk, Anna Reid, the author of Borderland and Leningrad, and the Tblisi-based journalist, Natalia Antelava, editor-in-chief at Coda Story.

Producer: Miles Warde

(Photo: The imperial procession coming out of the Winter Palace to go to the Cathedral, celebrations for the 3rd centenary of the Romanov dynasty, St Petersburg, Russia, photograph by Bulla-Trampus, from L'Illustrazione Italiana, Year XL, No 12, March 23, 1913. Credit: Getty Images)

Countries look so cohesive on the map - sturdy borders, familiar shapes. Don't be misled. They didn't always look like this. This is the story of Russia, biggest contiguous country on the planet, told from the time when it was still very small.

With contributions across the series from Janet Hartley, author of a history of the Volga; Rhodric Braithwaite, former ambassador to Moscow; historian and sociologist, Mischa Gabowitsch; Anthony Beevor; Natalia Antelava; Kateryna Khinkulova; Dominic Lieven; Olesya Khromeychuk; and James Hill of the New York Times.

Producer: Miles Warde

(Photo: View of the Moskva River and the Moscow Kremlin. Credit: Vlad Karkov/Getty Images)

Tel Aviv is a bustling place and for a blind person it can be a little daunting, as BBC journalist, Peter White, discovers. The narrow streets in the older parts of town are full of open air cafes, buskers and people visiting the markets and local shops. It is a lively place and Peter's first challenge comes when he tries to navigate the local busses, only to find that without being able to see them approaching, it is virtually impossible to get them to stop!

Today signs of expansion are evident in the building works going on everywhere and Peter hears from young people concerned about political, social and environmental pressures.

The city is home to some exciting activities, including tandem bike riding, with a local club attracting 70 plus blind and partially sighted members. As he walks around he becomes aware of some of the steps being taken to make things more accessible, including the addition of sound systems on public crossings that at least offer protection from the constant and sometimes fast flowing traffic.

In the local parks Peter hears from people about other fun activities offered locally, from outdoor gyms through to long meals taken with friends and family. Younger people he meets share their hopes and dreams and explain what it has been like growing up with a disability in Tel Aviv.

(Photo: Peter White and his guide walk along the streets of Tel Aviv)

In a new series of Sounds of the City Peter White, who has been blind since birth, uses the sounds to guide him as he explores new parts of the globe.

In Los Angeles the sea quickly beckons and although it's a struggle, Peter dons a wetsuit and prepares for his first surfing lesson! He also explores the huge metropolis by metro, comes across tales of political intrigue and meets up with a blind friend, who explains how she uses smell as well as sound to guide her on her travels.

One thing that’s clear from the moment he arrives, is how many homeless people Peter encounters as he moves around LA. He meets some of those living rough and joins them at an impromptu meal prepared by volunteers from a local church. When he leaves, he threads his way across several blocks to find a charity warehouse where the clothes are stacked high in huge bins. People rummage all day in the hope of finding bargains and gleefully share tips of their greatest finds.

(Photo: Peter White surfing.Credit: Peter White)

When one of journalist Rajkumar Keswani's friends dies at the Union Carbide plant after exposure to toxic gas, he decides to investigate. Local government officials dismiss him, but safety reports smuggled to him open his eyes to the potential for disaster. Rajkumar Keswani wrote his first article 40 years ago, warning of the dangers posed by safety lapses and poor maintenance at the chemical plant. During a dogged investigation pitting him against political power, corporate money and the indifference of the media and public opinion, he never gave up.

This cinematic documentary - narrated by Narinder Samra and featuring key witnesses - tells Keswani's courageous story for the first time.

Producer: Neil McCarthy (Death in Ice Valley podcast)

Giles Edwards looks inside the private clubs of former world leaders to see how they are still trying to influence global politics.

(Photo: Helen Clark speaks at a 2022 meeting of the Global Leadership Foundation)

Giles Edwards investigates the many opportunities offered by globalisation, and speaks to some of the former presidents and prime ministers who have run, or worked for, international organisations from civil society to the United Nations.

(Photo: Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, June 2022. Credit: Ritzau Scanpix/Philip Davali/Reuters)

What happens to presidents and prime ministers when they stop running their countries, and leave politics behind? Giles Edwards has spent 10 years finding out what they do next. He shares some of his conversations with former world leaders, takes us inside their organisations and helps us understand their thinking.

Giles begins at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, where he speaks to presidents and prime ministers about how they use their influence, and what they contribute when they speak out.

(Photo: Bill Clinton speaks at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Manhattan in September 2022. Credit: David Delgado/Reuters)

The town of El Triunfo in Tabasco state is not far from the Mexican border with Guatemala. Translated from Spanish, ‘El Triunfo’ means ‘The Triumph’ and being miles from the nearest city, with just over 5000 inhabitants, it does not usually attract much attention. However, that changed in 2018 when Tren Maya was announced and China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) arrived to help build part of the brand new train line, connecting the ancient Mayan ruins across the Yucatán Peninsula.

Seen as the pet project of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Tren Maya is one of the biggest news stories in Mexico, and has had its fair share of opposition from archaeological and environmental groups. The government hopes it will boost tourism, trade and access throughout the regions it traverses, and it has been declared as a project of national importance.

Katy Watson, the BBC’s South America correspondent, visits El Triunfo to discover how a town has been transformed, asking if Mexico can ever follow other countries in the region and sign up to China’s Belt and Road initiative?

Presenter: Katy Watson Producer: Peter Shevlin A C60Media production for the BBC World Service

(Photo: Construction workers prepare the ground forTren Maya. Credit: Peter Shevlin)

From highways to hospitals, Chinese construction firms continue to work on a number of high-profile projects across Jamaica. In the face of soaring debts they have not proceeded without controversy, with particular criticism of the use of Chinese labour for jobs that Jamaicans might do, and concerns of so-called ‘debt-trap diplomacy’.

‘Highway 2000’ is a 66 kilometre motorway connecting Kingston and Montego Bay funded by a loan of over 700 million dollars, and built by a Chinese contractor. It is just one of a series of Chinese mega-projects in Jamaica, who have received more loans from the Chinese government than any other Caribbean island nation, officially joining China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Covid pandemic has led to Jamaica’s deepest economic contraction in decades, due in part to the drop in tourism earnings, which account for more than 30% of GDP and over a third of all jobs. Yet through the ‘Medical Silk Road’, China has helped Jamaica during one of the most turbulent times in its history.

The BBC’s South America correspondent Katy Watson explores what impact Chinese aid and infrastructure is having on Jamaica.

(Photo: Construction in progress for foundations of hotel development in Jamaica. Credit: Getty Images)

The Panama Canal is a great feat of engineering and a place of huge global significance for trade and shipping. An artificial waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, literally dividing North and South America, whilst saving thousands of miles of shipping time round Cape Horn at the very southern tip of South America.

The Americans built the canal and operated it for decades, but today there’s a new global superpower hoping to make their mark. In 2017, Panama became the first country in the region to sign up to China’s Belt and Road initiative, shortly after they had cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of Beijing.

Five years after signing up, what impact has the new Silk Road had on this small Central American nation with strong historical ties to the US? Travelling from one coast to the other, BBC South America correspondent Katy Watson aims to find out.

Presenter: Katy Watson Producer: Peter Shevlin A C60Media production for the BBC World Service

(Photo: Panama port. Credit: Peter Shevlin)

The Cordillera del Condor mountain range in the east of Ecuador is where the mountains meets the jungles and the Andes meets the Amazon. In this region a Chinese run copper mine, Mirador, has grabbed the headlines over recent years, leading to controversy, resistance and talk of impending disaster. It has become a huge challenge for a government trying their utmost to support mining projects that might help boost a fragile economy.

On the other side of the country, shrimp farms line mile upon mile of Pacific coastline, helping a nation of 17 million people to become the largest exporter of that popular crustacean in the world. Ecuador now provides over half of all the shrimp consumed in China, and as the price of shrimp increases, so does its appeal to modern-day pirates who regularly raid shrimp farms and their workers in the Gulf of Guayaquil, hoping to plunder their precious catch.

In the first of a new, four-part series, Katy Watson, the BBC’s South America correspondent explores how China’s ambitious New Silk Road is impacting the lives of people in Latin America and the Caribbean. Beginning in Ecuador, Katy looks at how mining and shrimp farming are helping to drive President Xi Jinping’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative in one of the most environmentally diverse countries in the world, where the ‘rights of nature’ are protected in the constitution.

Presenter: Katy Watson Producer: Peter Shevlin A C60Media production for the BBC World Service

(Photo: Ecuador mine. Credit: Peter Shevlin)

Tim Marshall on Narva where The EU, Europe and Nato meet the Russian Federation. It's a city in Estonia where 95% of the population are ethnically Russian. Identity crises are nothing new in Narva which has found itself on the edge of empires, kingdoms and duchies during its long history. Today residents cannot trace family here back further than the second Word War. That is when Stalin deported the locals and replaced them with Russians. Somehow however the collective memory in Narva, a border town forever on someone else's periphery, has re-asserted itself among the city's population. As a place founded on trading they remain open to everyone but look to themselves.

Tim Marshall delves into the strange story of Kinshasa and Brazzaville the only capitals straddling a border. Their peoples share a common culture but were split by Empires and now kept apart by a river border which has no bridge.

Presenter: Tim Marshall Producer: Kevin Mousley

(Photo: Sapeurs from a group belonging to Papa Griffe, a Sapeur leader, walks on Avenue De La Democratie, in Kinshasa, DRC. Credit: Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Tim Marshall considers Niagara Falls, the busiest crossing point on the world’s longest border. The fortunes of the two cities either side of the famous Falls have varied over the years as the advantages of being one side of the line, or the other, have played out. Today it is the Canadian side in ascendance but as Tim finds out, the border continues to shape the communities in different ways as it becomes a less informal, so-called ‘friendly’ border and a more of sophisticated digital one.

(Photo: A general view of Niagara Falls State Park in Niagara Falls, Credit: Kevin Mousley)

Tim Marshall profiles Maastricht, the city where 30 years ago the European Union was born. Have these economic measures dented relations between the communities that sit on one of Europe’s linguistic and cultural fault lines?

(Photo: Aerial view of the city of Maastricht. Credit: N. Bellegarde/Getty Images)

Writer and environmentalist Isabelle Legeron is in France to see how cultivating a healthy soil, teeming with fungi and microbes, can enhance the flavour profile of food and drink - from cheese to coffee to wine. She explores the fundamental role soil plays in the notion of “terroir’ - the conviction that the natural environment in which plants are grown, can be experienced in the taste and texture of the food and drink made from them. Isabelle speaks to a cast of soil microbiologists, land managers and taste experts - Lydia and Claude Bourguignon (France), Anne Biklé (USA), the Le Puy vineyard in Bordeaux, Barry Smith (UK), Darek Trowbridge (USA) and Hans-Peter Schmidt (Switzerland).

Presenter: Isabelle Legeron Producer: Sasha Edye-Lindner A Cast Iron Production for BBC World Service

(Photo: A vineyard)

Isabelle Legeron travels to Giessen in Germany, to the original laboratory of Justus Von Liebig the brilliant 19th century chemist whose work made way for the 20th century Haber and Bosch process. Liebig joined the spirit of the Industrial Revolution, where technical solutions were set to end starvation; he set out to make the soil more productive, echoed through the 20th century with the Green Revolution. But at what cost to the soil?

With Environmentalist, Tony Juniper and Soil Scientists: Margaret Glendining, Aislinn Pearson, Hans-Peter Schmidt, Wogmar Wolters, Gerd Hamscher, Jan Siemens, Christophe Muller and Richard Bardgett.

Presenter: Isabelle Legeron Producer: Kate Bland and Anja Krieger A Cast Iron Production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Dried, cracked soil in a maize field near Hajduszovat, Hungary. Credit: Zsolt Czegledi/EPA)

Isabelle Legeron travels to California, a part of the world whose soil holds a complex history. She meets the indigenous Californians reviving ancestral methods of tending to the land, and the soil scientists exploring the impact of colonisation and agriculture on the soil of the Golden State. With indigenous Californian land steward Redbird (Pomo/Paiute/Wailaki/Wintu), director of the California Indian museum Nicole Lim (Pomo), indigenous ecologist Dr Melissa Nelson (Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian), indigenous educator Sara Moncada (Yaqui/Irish), professor Paul Starrs (USA) and soil scientists Suzanne Pierre (India/Haiti/USA), Kenzo Esquivel (Japanese/Mexican/USA) and Yvonne Socolar (USA).

Presenter: Isabelle Legeron Producer: Sasha Edye-Lindner/ Kate Bland A Cast Iron production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Native crops at Heron Shadow, California. Credit: Sara Moncada)

How is the world going to get to net zero by 2050 and who is paying the bill? Former governor of the Bank of England, and UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, Mark Carney, recently put the figure we need to spend at 100 trillion dollars at least. Switching to renewable sources of energy, needs the global financial markets to pay for the necessary infrastructure. Costs will come down as the technology improves; take the example of solar panels where the last two decades have seen an astounding 96% drop, from 10 dollars a watt to 25 cents.

Allan Little investigates innovate companies investing in green energy; direct air carbon capture technology and a plant producing the greenest aluminium in the world thanks to geothermal power. But the road to net zero is fragile, and vulnerable to geopolitical events. Every solution to global warming has an impact and unintended consequences. What is the real cost of getting to net zero?

Presenter: Allan Little Producer: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter Editor: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Solar power plant, in Fujian Province, China. Credit: Getty Images)

For over 100 years, Iceland has produced renewable energy from geo-thermal and hydro power to heat its homes and power industry. Iceland harnesses the volcanic hot water under the earth’s crust and the energy from damming its plentiful rivers and waterfalls that run through the island.

It produces five times more green energy than its population needs. But decisions Iceland has made in how best to use this surplus energy and the environmental and moral impact on its landscape and population have sparked controversy. There have been protests about the international aluminium companies; heavy users of electricity and the more recent advent of data-processing centres like the bitcoin and crypto-currency companies based there. These companies sell their green credentials to customers while consuming all the country’s excess power. When should Iceland say enough is enough?

Presenter: Allan Little Producer: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter Editor: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Allan Little visits a deep drilling project in Iceland. Credit: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter)

Allan Little investigates the best way to capture, store and redistribute the renewable sources of energy freely available all over the world – wind, solar and hydro. The sun gives earth enough potential power in one hour to provide the total energy needs of the globe for a year – if only we could catch and store it.

From a purely economic angle, the costs of renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels. So what is holding us back from harnessing the power of the sun and wind to secure our net-zero future? Vested interests in traditional energies for one, but also local controversies over the disruption involved in building big, renewable power stations; they’re often unwelcome and unwanted.

Allan heads to one of the windiest places on earth, the Shetland Islands, north-east of the Scottish mainland. A remote, beautiful, isolated collection of archipelagos, Shetland is leading the way for transitioning out of fossil fuels to on and off-shore wind farms, green hydrogen production and the laying of thousands of kilometres of cables under the sea to the mainland. But opposition is vocal and sustained; parts of the local community feel the environmental damage to the natural peatlands, which are natural carbon capture havens, and the physical change to Shetland’s landscape with vast wind farms being put up, are a step too far. They back green energy - but just not the vast amounts being planned.

Presenter: Allan Little Producer: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter A Just Radio production for BBC World Service

Image: An overhead view of a wind turbine, part of the Burradale wind farm, outside Lerwick in the Shetland Islands on September 8, 2021 (Credit: William Edwards/AFP via Getty Images)

Allan Little looks at the challenges we face as we wean ourselves off gas and oil to renewable sources powering our cars, trucks, ships and aeroplanes. Green transport is crucial to a net zero future, but how transparent are the supply chains bringing the world the components we need? And how green is the electricity we are using to power electric cars anyway?

Cobalt and Lithium, two essential minerals crucial for electric car batteries are mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chile - and at great human and environmental cost. Transport accounts for over a third of our Carbon Dioxide emissions worldwide; there is no other option but to switch to electric vehicles. However motorists are often still sceptical about electric cars; they’re perceived to be expensive, difficult to recharge and unable to manage long distances.

One of the biggest motor companies in the world, Ford, has just launched its first Electric Truck – targeting America’s blue-collar workers with this rugged, powerful, green machine. Will it work? Apart from driving, it is being marketed as offering independence and freedom from the grid; at the flick of a switch the trucks can send electricity back the other way, and can power a home for days.

Image: A miner collects small chunks of cobalt inside the CDM (Congo DongFang Mining) Kasulo mine in Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 (Credit: Sebastian Meyer via Getty Images)

As the former ‘British Empire Games’ draws nearer, actor and musician Kema Sikazwe finds out what the world of museums can learn from the communities, artists and curators who are struggling to reclaim global stories about their culture and identity.

Kema sees photographer Vanley Burke’s new exhibition, Blood and Fire, curated with Candice Nembhard at Soho House, former home of Matthew Bolton. At the Museum and Gallery, he meets members of We Are Birmingham who have remodelled the iconic round room.

With the Commonwealth Games in full swing, Kema also hears how refugees, and members of the LGBT+ communities are ensuring their voices are heard within the cultural festival accompanying the sporting events

Presenter: Kema Sikazwe Producer: Will Sadler and Andy Jones A Radio Film production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Kema, Gaby and Masharah. Credit: Andy Jones/Radio Film)

Travelling from Lusaka to the Gwembe Valley and then on to Kabwe, Kema Sikazwe hears from people living in communities where artefacts were taken.

In the shadow of the Kariba Dam, Kema meets people who were forced from their land when the valley was flooded who explain how promises made at the time have not been kept.

Finally, at the lead-mining site where the Broken Hill Skull was discovered in Kabwe 1921, Kema meets former workers who describe how their homes remain contaminated, more than 25 years on, the UN estimates they are among 300,000 people living on toxic ground.

Producer: Andy Jones and Will Sadler A Radio Film production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Kema Sikawaze stands next to the Broken Hill man skull. Credit: Radio Film)

Returning to Zambia for the first time since he was three years old, Kema Sikazwe continues his journey exploring the impact of colonial legacies through museum collections.

Since 1972, Zambians have campaigned to reclaim the ‘Broken Hill Skull’ from Britain. Kema learns what has led to the current stalemate, as the repatriation movement gathers pace.

Kema also meets Zambian creatives who are fabricating their own interpretations of history with ‘digital repatriation’ initiatives, creating new artefacts in response to stories inspired by 3D scans and photographs.

(Photo: Kema Sikazwe holds up a matchbox designed using motifs inspired by Zambian objects taken from the country. Credit: Radio Film)

Actor and musician Kema Sikazwe is on a mission to uncover his own personal history as he leaves the UK to return to his homeland of Zambia for the first time since he was three years old.

As Kema travels, he learns how museums are telling the uncomfortable stories behind some of the objects in their collection. He joins pupils from his old primary school learning why The Great North Museum in Newcastle is offering to return an ancient musical instrument to Nigeria. Arriving in Birmingham, Sara Wajid, co-director of Birmingham Museums explains how 'decolonising museums' goes way beyond returning objects. He also meets legendary photographer Vanley Burke, putting together a new exhibition with curator Candice Nembhard at the former home of a famous industrialist in Handsworth.

Meeting the young members of We Are Birmingham, Kema hears how they have been challenged to transform the iconic round room at Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery, and seeks their advice on how best to approach his own forthcoming journey.

Presenter: Kema Sikazwe Producer: Andy Jones and Will Sander A Radio Film production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Kema holds up a coin in the Future Coin museum)

The borders of the Balkans have been splintered, cracked and remade countless times over centuries. Suspicions and hatreds, ancient and modern, still scar the landscape. Travelling through the southernmost regions bisected by the Iron Curtain, Mary-Ann Ochota meets the conservationists convinced that a shared love of the region's landscape and wildlife can heal division.

From Trieste in Italy, a staging post for generations of refugees- including the Ukranian exodus of 2022- she travels south-east to Lake Prespa where North Macedonia, Greece and Albania meet.

Conflict and poverty have driven people from this beautiful place but in their absence nature has thrived. Can joint efforts to protect the region's bears, lynx and endemic fish and flora boost the economy and persuade the young people to stay and the diaspora to return?

(Photo: Three Cold War borders meet in the centre of Lake Prespa, one of the most wildlife-rich places in Europe)

In May 1952 East Germany sealed its entire border with the capitalist west. Over the next 37 years 75,000 people would be arrested trying to flee the Communist East and hundreds would die in the attempt. Today the barbed wire and machine guns are gone and the old border has been transformed into a protected wildlife zone. It's a home to lynx, wolf and wildcat and a vital corridor for migrating birds and mammals. Mary-Ann Ochota begins her journey along the old border, meeting the people doing their bit to turn a birdwatcher's fantasy into the world's longest nature reserve.

(Photo: Mary-Ann Ochota walks the route of the Iron Curtain through central Germany)

Ladakh is a region at the centre of the 50-year-long border dispute between India and China, which flared up again in June 2020. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas speaks to local village leaders whose communities are struggling to preserve their lives and livelihoods amidst perpetual military unrest. He also speaks to former politicians and political experts about the consequences of what happens here for the wider geopolitical stability of Asia’s two biggest countries, and those caught in between.

(Photo: Himalaya monks. Credit: Dinesh Deokota)

If the Himalayan glaciers melt, a billion lives and whole ecosystems will be at risk. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas joins innovative community projects in Ladakh and Nepal looking to mitigate the impact of climate change now and in the future. Their success or failure will determine the future environmental security beyond their local region, to all of Asia.

Presenter: Ed Douglas Producer: Clem Hitchcock Editor: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC World Service

(Photo: A valley in the Himalaya mountain. Credit: Ed Douglas)

Spanning five countries, the Himalaya is home to peoples who have adapted to living in the harshest of conditions. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas, author of the first major history of the Himalaya has been visiting these remote communities for 30 years. Now they are opening up to him about the challenges of living on the roof of the world.

Ed's friends from the Sherpa and Rai groups in Nepal reveal how genetically and practically they have evolved to be able to live long term at such altitudes and how seismic political and economic shifts in lands far below are forcing fundamental changes in their way of life up above. Ed also reveals the often overlooked cultures and achievements of the diverse ethnic groups that make up this region including interviews with artists, musicians and record breaking athletes.

Presenter: Ed Douglas Producer: Clem Hitchcock A Just Radio Ltd production for BBC World Service

(Photo: A Nepali woman in the mountains. Credit: Dinesh Deokota)

Do we still have faith in money? Trust expert and fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, Rachel Botsman, investigates the shifting power plays in the global management of money, gathering pressures towards decentralisation and optimism in the world of finance.

Presenter: Rachel Botsman Producer: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick

A Storyglass production for the BBC World Service

(Photo: A man uses contactless payment with QR code in supermarket. Crdit: Getty Images)

Rachel Botsman, a Trust expert and fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, looks into the psychology and the morality of money. Among others, she talks to Jain accountant Atul K. Shah, activist and onetime refugee Ghias Aljundi and psychologist and happiness guru Dr. Laurie Santos.

Producer: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick

(Photo: Businessman reaching out for falling bank notes. Credit: Getty Images)

A Storyglass production for BBC World Service

In the second episode Rachel explores the subject of value. Beginning with the volatility of Bitcoin, she goes on to find out about growing up in Brazil's years of hyperinflation, living in the gift economy of an Indonesian island and whether money is the root of happiness.

Producers: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick

(Photo: A representation of the virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Credit: Edgar Su/Reuters)

A Storyglass production for the BBC World Service

Do we still have faith in money? Trust expert and Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, Rachel Botsman, talks to people from all over the world about their relationship with cash, with banks, with currencies, with credit cards and crypto. In this first episode she asks how much we should trust money. With politician and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, economist and author Eshwar Prasad and investor and entrepreneur Soulaima Gourani.

(Photo: Thousands of citizens gathered in front of the Greek parliament and around the Constitution Square, to protest against the vote on second bailout reforms. Credit: Dimitrios Sotiriou/Getty Images)

The newest player in the Niger Delta is not a multinational company, it is Nigeria’s enormous illegal oil industry. Oil thieves cut the pipelines, siphoning off oil, which they refine in the bush and sell on the black market.

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones meets an oil thief king pin, as well as an exuberant local politician, taking on this illegal business and treks deep into the forests of the Niger Delta to visit an underground refinery.

And we catch up with Victoria Bera. For decades, she has been in a prolonged legal battle against Shell in courthouses around the world. Will she finally get the justice she seeks?

Presenter: Mayeni Jones Producer: Josephine Casserly Editor: Bridget Harney

(Photo: Illegal oil refinery in Emuoha, Niger Delta. Credit: Fyneface Dumnamene)

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones travels to the creeks of the Niger Delta to investigate the impact that oil pollution continues to have on communities and their environment. What she finds is alarming. And she speaks to Shell to ask them who is to blame for the ongoing environmental damage.

Presenter: Mayeni Jones. Producer: Josephine Casserly Editor: Bridget Harney

(Photo: Landscape destroyed by oil pollution. Image courtesy of Fyneface Dumnamene)

In the 1990s, as oil spills devastate the environment, Shell becomes persona non grata in Ogoniland. Then, when Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ledum Mittee and other activists leading the charge against Shell, are accused of incitement to murder, they come face to face with the power of Nigeria’s military government.

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones investigates a miscarriage of justice which has become an infamous moment in Nigerian history.

Presenter: Mayeni Jones Producer: Josephine Casserly

(Photo: Ken Sara Wiwa Credit: Tim Lambon/Greenpeace)

When oil company, Shell D’Arcy first struck black gold in Nigeria, there were celebrations on the creeks of the Niger Delta. Many of the locals had no idea what this thick black substance was, but it would go on to shape their lives and those of everyone in the region for decades to come.

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones hears about how hope and hospitality turned to resentment in the early days of oil in Nigeria.

Reporter, Mayeni Jones Producer, Josephine Casserly Editor, Bridget Harney

(Photo: A man holds a pool of black oil in the palm of his hands, collected from oil pollution caused by a damaged pumping station in Nigeria. Photographer: George Osodi/Bloomberg, courtesy of Getty Images)

Psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden Jones talks to June Angelides about how she set up Mums In Tech on maternity leave, and how she was inspired by her entrepreneurial family in Nigeria, and particularly by her late grandmother. June reveals why she gave up a good job to set up the first coding academy in the United Kingdom for young mothers. And talks about the stress it caused but also knew that the time was right for her to do this. June followed in the footsteps of her uncle Ben Murray Bruce, who built the first multiplex in Nigeria and went on to become a senator. For her services to women in technology, she received a MBE in 2020. But it was not always easy growing up in Nigeria, with regime changes and sporadic rioting, as well as living with the fear of home invasion.

Presenter: Henrietta Bowden Jones

(Photo: June Angelides. Credit: David Aiu Servan-Schreiber,/MTArt Agency)

Halima Begum is the CEO of the race equality think tank The Runnymede Trust. Her career as a civil rights campaigner began when she formed Women Against Racism in 1993, which was forged by her experiences of being racially abused by the National Front every day she went to school in East London. She reveals just how her mother coped with the threats that the family received on a daily basis. And it how it contrasted sharply with the welcome and love that Halima received from the teachers in her local school.

Her parents had already known conflict in their homeland, as Halima was born two years after the brutal civil war between Bangladesh and Pakistan, which traumatised many Bangladeshis. She tells psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden Jones how those experiences have shaped her life and opinions.

Musician Maya Youssef talks about her painful decision not to return to her parents' house in Damascus when the civil war in Syria began. She reveals how playing music brings back such vivid memories of her homeland that she feels she has returned to her birthplace, even though she has not been there for over a decade.

(Photo: Maya Youssef and her qanun. Credit: Igor Studio)

Psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden-Jones talks to novelist Dina Nayeri about her experience of escaping Iran and seeking asylum. The author of The Ungrateful Refugee reveals why she left her homeland without her father, her "co-conspirator in life", and why that sense of loss that has always stayed with her.

(Photo: Iranian American novelist Dina Nayeri during the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019, Scotland. Credit: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images)

When noise levels rise, birds react. Noise is one of the top environmental hazards to which humans are exposed. It has also been linked to reduced breeding success and population decline in birds. So what happened to birds during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown when our cities fell silent? Many people said they could hear birds as they were singing louder. Did their singing change and if so, how and why? What can we learn about noise pollution and its effects on us from the birds?

Presenter: Mya-Rose Craig Producer: Sarah Blunt

(Photo: Zebra Finch Zebra Finch - Poephila (also: Taeniopygia) guttata. Credit: Science Photo Library)

Just like us, birds can become infected with viruses – and some of these can be transferred to us. As we’ve seen with the coronavirus pandemic, there are real challenges when it comes to controlling the spread of viral infections. Any attempt to try and stay one step ahead of a virus requires really good monitoring, especially as many birds travel long distances and migrate. Birds are invaluable as sentinels in our attempt to map and control the spread of infection. In this episode we look at how water birds, poultry, jays and sage grouse have alerted us to the spread of diseases which affect them and us in the environment.

(Photo: A chicken)

How the deaths of vultures and sparrowhawks have alerted the world to serious environmental problems. Like the canaries which were used to detect toxic gases in coal mines, birds play a vital role in alerting us to substances which can damage a healthy environment. The price they pay to alert us can be losing their lives.

Presenter: Mya-Rose Craig Producer: Sarah Blunt

(Photo: White-rumped vultures, slender-billed vultures and Himalayan griffons feed on a dead cattle. Credit IUCN/Sarowar Alam)

Many of today’s old people grew up in an era when life was hard, retirement short, and opportunities for play limited. But as we live longer, we need to seek out playful activities, for both physical and mental health.

We visit a bridge club for older people, where many members started to learn the game after they retired, to keep their brains sharp and give them social opportunities. We visit a care home in Scotland where the management frequently organise play sessions, such as pretend weddings, and where disco bingo is a regular event. And in Jerusalem, we meet two older men, one Arab, one Jewish, who come together over a shared love of backgammon. But will the old people of tomorrow want to move beyond these traditional games, and if so, what will the play of the future look like?

As an adult you have responsibilities, and life settles into routine. Researchers have found that even in the most boring jobs, workers find ways to introduce elements of play to make the time pass, while people with more creative occupations use play to free their imaginations and release creativity. The Situationist art movement of 1950s Paris thought that play was a political act, and that the city could be used as a playground to rebel against the restrictions of capitalism. Their legacy lives on in the immersive “street games”, such as snakes and ladders played in multi storey car parks and city-wide zombie hunts. But this natural tendency to play is also being co-opted by employers, some of whom want to “gamify” boring jobs, to make workers more productive by turning the tasks into a game, or who encourage their employers to play at work to make them more creative. Can workers really be asked to play on demand, and what happens when they play in ways that the employers never expected or wanted?

Presenter: Steffan Powell Producer: Jolyon Jenkins

(Photo: Performers of The Free Association. Credit: Lidia Crisafulli)

As we grow into adolescence, the playfulness of childhood seems to disappear. Teenagers discovering their identity are engaged in a serious quest. There are unwritten rules to learn and to follow, and to be too spontaneous puts you at risk of ridicule. But while teenagers are less playful they are playing nonetheless, the obvious examples being sport and video games. As today’s teenagers live in a culture where the boundaries of the real and virtual are ever more fluid, video games offer a space free of adult supervision, where they can make friends (both on and offline), rehearse their identities, and accumulate “cultural capital”. Far from the stereotypes of the solitary gamer playing violent shooter games, many of today’s successful video games help teenagers to navigate issues of anxiety, depression, and identity. In Lagos, we find researchers using virtual reality games to help schoolchildren to understand and develop empathy for those from different ethnic backgrounds. And we ask whether playfulness can help teenagers and young adults communicate messages to potential partners.

Presenter: Steffan Powell. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins

(Photo: A teenager smiles as he plays a video game. Credit: Getty Images)

In the earliest years of our lives, play is crucial to building our understanding of our surroundings, culture and even ourselves. The UN considers play to be a fundamental right for every child, and a growing body of interdisciplinary research is leading to greater implementation across the globe. But how do we begin to define something that is so intrinsic to our human nature?

We look into the very beginnings of play and how our first interactions with adults have a lasting impact on the way we deal with later life. In Bangladesh, we drop in on Play Labs run by international development organisation BRAC which works to empower preschool children in deprived and fragile communities.

We learn about a Boston elementary school which uses guided recess – not only to keep kids physically and mentally well, but to teach them skills such as conflict resolution and leadership. How does play in those first few years of life affect the way we communicate, engage with, and understand the world? What’s at stake if we lose out?

Presenter: Steffan Powell Producer: Amelia Parker

The road to democracy is rarely straightforward. There are steps forwards, and backwards, and times when it feels like you’re just not going anywhere at all. So what does the future hold for the countries of the 2011 Arab Spring Revolutions? Where can people look for hope now?

Abubakr and Ella al-Shamahi explore if Tunisia’s new democracy is at risk, after what some are calling the coup of July 2021, when the Tunisian President sacked the PM and assumed executive power. They ask what the solutions are for the war-torn countries of the Arab Spring, like Syria and Yemen, and consider what the legacy of 2011 is. Is it the youth who have an awareness of a revolutionary history and how far people will go to gain their freedom? Are the youth where we look for hope now?

(Photo: A Tunisian protester sits on top of a gate outside the parliament building in the capital Tunis, July 2021 follow the president's dismissal of Prime Minister, Hichem Mechichi. Credit: EPA)

While movement of people was a feature of the Middle East and North Africa (as it is worldwide) before the revolutions of the Arab Spring, there are now 11.7 million internally displaced people in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, and more than 2.7 million refugees across the region.

People are fleeing war and humanitarian disaster, economic problems and political persecution. Many have fled their homelands entirely, and many more have had to leave their homes and move to different parts of their home countries.

Brother and sister Abubakr and Ella Al-Shamahi speak to displaced people, all with different reasons for leaving their homes, and with different experiences in the years since 2011 - from a man living in a camp for internally displaced people in the last rebel held area of Syria, to their cousin, a political refugee living in exile in the UK.

Freedom is important - but what is the use of freedom if you can’t put food on the table? Ella al-Shamahi and Abubakr al-Shamahi look at the importance of the economy in starting the protest movement itself, and how the citizens of these regions view their economic standing a decade on. They speak with young Tunisians who are bearing the brunt of a devastated economy, and investigate how power is still tied up within economic opportunities under the rule of President Al Sisi. And they hear from one of the few monarchies in the region to experience protests - Jordan.

(Photo: A protester raises a loaf of bread in protest against police brutality, marginalisation and the economic, social crisis in Tunisia. Credit: Chedly Ben Ibrahim/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Across the region in 2011, protesters in their hundreds and thousands were all asking for the same thing - their freedom. Journalist Abubakr al-Shamahi and presenter Ella al-Shamahi examine how far human rights have progressed in the countries of the Arab Spring, turning first to the country so often held up as the success story of the Spring - Tunisia. Women were central to the mobilisation of protests here; Abubakr and Ella speak to activists and lawmakers to find out whether women are better off now than under Ben Ali’s dictatorship, which crumbled in 2011.

Then to Egypt, where quickly after the euphoria that erupted with the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians witnessed a military coup that plummeted the country into an even tougher political climate. How do Egyptians keep hope alive now?

Producers: Sasha Edye-Lindner and Gaia Caramazza

(Photo: Supporters of Nahda Movement attend a rally marking the eighth anniversary of the Arab Spring, Tunis. Credit: Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Katy Long hears stories from refugees who have returned to their homeland, to those who have been resettled, and to those who are still in limbo, she examines how does a refugee crisis end.

(Photo: Afghan refugees seen during a protest outside the UNHCR office for various demands, 24 August, 2021, New Delhi, India. Credit: Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Getty Images)

Katy Long hears stories from refugees and those who work to support them from Rwanda to Russia, and Israel to Paraguay. She asks what do we owe refugees?

(Photo: A person holding a "refugees welcome" placard seen in the crowd. Credit: EPA)

In the aftermath of World War One, as Turkey filled with refugees fleeing a brutal civil war, the first refugee camps appeared and the international community stepped in to appoint the first High Commissioner for Refugees. In this first episode Katy Long hears stories from refugees and those who work to support them from Rwanda, Germany and Russia, as she examines how refugee crises begin, and who is considered a refugee.

(Photo: A queue of refugees awaits the assistances of Turkish relief organisations in Pazarkule camp on the border between Turkey and Greece. Credit: Belal Khaled/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

Does the misunderstanding of science begin in schools? Science journalist and former BBC Science correspondent, Sue Nelson visits the UK’s National Space Centre to discover how space is being used to entice children into studying science. She also speaks to teachers around the world about the challenges of ensuring the next generation better understand the scientific and technological world around them.

Presenter: Sue Nelson Producer: Richard Hollingham

(Photo: Pupils of the Ecole Vivalys elementary school, wearing spacesuits costumes for their project Mission to Mars. Credit: Stefan Wermuth/Getty Images)

Sometimes it’s right to be sceptical about new technologies. US tech reporter Katherine Gorman joins Sue Nelson to report on artificial intelligence and how it’s rapidly pervading our lives. Katherine reports from New York on controversial facial recognition cameras and we hear how regulators are struggling to keep up with innovation.

Image: Concept illustration of an electronic eye (Credit: ValeryBrozhinsky/Getty Creative)

Across Europe, activists fearful of 5G technology have attacked phone masts. Science journalist and former BBC Science correspondent Sue Nelson teams up with science reporter Hidde Boersma in the Netherlands to find out how conspiracy theories take root and what can be done to combat them. She also hears how scientists can improve their communication and what they have learnt from debates around climate change.

(Photo: Protesters march against 5G technology in 2019, The Hague, Netherlands. Credit: Michel Porro/Getty Images)

Anti-vaxxers, flat Earthers, 5G arsonists and climate change deniers – why have so many people given up on science and where are governments, scientists and the media going wrong?

As Covid-19 continues to affect us all, what is the best way to communicate public health messages, when the bottom line is saving lives? Umaru Fofana reports from Sierra Leone on the Ebola prevention and vaccine campaigns and former BBC science correspondent, Sue Nelson, speaks to public health experts and fact checkers about efforts to combat misinformation.

(Photo: Pupils look at an Ebola prevention poster during a sensibilisation campaign provided by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in Abidjan. Credit: Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images)

Lainy Malkani looks into the story of sugar in Thailand, now the second biggest exporter of sugar in the world. We hear how farmers there are coping with climate change, what sustainable production might look like and what sugar cane can be used for once the sweet juice has been removed, from fuel to water bottles. Lainy looks at the future of sugar, talking to those experimenting with sugar to try to make it healthier, like the company Douxmatok, who are hacking sugar crystals at a structural level in an effort to help us eat less of it without compromising on taste.

Presenter: Lainy Malkani Producer: Megan Jones

Lainy Malkani focuses on the story of sugar in the USA. From one of the oldest confectionery shops in New Orleans where the local delicacy of pecan nut pralines are made every day, to a former sugar plantation along the Mississippi river, she hears about the role of sugar in the history of Louisiana.

She speaks to Khalil Gibran Mohammed about the legacy of sugar and slavery in the region, and hears from the manager of the Whitney plantation about what remains there today. From there to the sugar beet plains of the mid-West, Lainy looks at how sugar has influenced government policy over time, and how the commodity has become central to American culture, its diet and economy today.

Humans have always been delighted by sweetness. In this three part series Lainy Malkani explores how sugar forged the modern world, from its role in the slave trade and the European colonisation of the Americas, to the consequences of our dependency on it today. For some countries, their past is built on it; for others, their futures depend on it. Across Britain, the USA and Thailand, Lainy digs into the past, present and future of sugar.

Beginning in London, Lainy samples sweet treats in Brick Lane with the food writer Ruby Tandoh, examines sugar cane in the tropical Palm House at Kew Gardens with botanist Dr Maria Vorontsova, and traces sugar’s journey from luxury to necessity centuries ago with the historian James Walvin. She visits the West India Docks on the River Thames where sugar - harvested by slaves in the Caribbean – arrived for refining in the early 1800s, and considers how sugar has shaped the city today.

(Photo: Spoonful of sugar added to coffee)

A decade after the end of dictatorship, Libya is gearing up for planned elections at the end of this year that many hope will finally bring a peaceful and democratic future. The country is slightly more stable since the end of civil war two years ago. But despite a peace agreement, it is still effectively split in two, politically and militarily. Separate forces control the two halves of the country, backed by different foreign powers. And some think war will break out again.

BBC reporter Tim Whewell, travels around Libya to find out what progress is being made towards building a state. He visits a spectacular horse-racing event - a sign of increasing prosperity. Travel around Libya is easier now. Some armed groups have been integrated into official police and army structures. Tim visits a new government checkpoint. But he discovers many people are still terrified of militias that appear to have been "regularised" in name only.

Activists and journalists who voice opinions that armed groups dislike can be threatened, and even abducted - with courts often powerless to intervene. One radio station which sprang up as a lively forum for debate after the revolution no longer dares to broadcast talk shows. Tim talks to a former presenter who was jailed and tortured by a militia after taking part in a young people's protest against corruption. He also interviews former interior minister Fathi Bashagha, who hopes to lead Libya after the elections. What is his plan to achieve security and justice? And what can be done to stem the rising numbers of Libyans attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean, seeking a new life in Europe?

Presenter: Tim Whewell Producer: Bob Howard

(Photo: Traditional Libyan horseman in Misrata, Libya Credit: BBC)

BBC reporter Tim Whewell, who covered the 2011 uprising, returns to the country to ask why plans to integrate the militias into a unified national army came to nothing. He talks to past and present militiamen - including the young man Wadah al-Keesh, who later left his group in disgust - and Mohammed al-Durat, truck-driver turned police commander, who has reunited with a band of friends to fight in every major battle over the last ten years - and believes he will in future too. Tim talks to revolutionary politician Abdul-Rahman al-Suwayhli and famous brigade commander Salah Badi about the lead-up to civil war - and hears too about its human cost from a young woman, Rasha Akhdar, who lost her father in fighting around Tripoli. Back in Britain, he learns the inside story of the UK's failed attempt to train a new Libyan fighting force from senior military officer Hugh Blackman - and asks former foreign secretary William Hague whether foreign powers could have adopted different policies to help stabilise Libya.

In February 2011, the arrest of a human rights lawyer in Libya sparked an uprising against the 42-year dictatorship of Col Muammar Gaddafi. The Revolution spread - supported by foreign airstrikes - and within eight months Gaddafi was killed, his regime overthrown. It was one of the climactic moments of the 'Arab Uprisings’. But what happened afterwards to Libya's Revolution? Ten years on, it is still unfinished. It has brought thousands of deaths, civil war, a strategically vital and oil-rich country still effectively divided in two. BBC reporter Tim Whewell, who covered the 2011 uprising, returns to Libya to find out what went wrong.

Tim meets the lawyer Fathi Terbil - the "spark of the revolution", and Iman Bugaighis, spokesperson of the rebel government. Former British foreign secretary William Hague discusses the calculations that led to foreign intervention. Does he still believe the West was right to get involved?

(Photo: Libyan rebels and Benghazi residents celebrate the passing of a UN resolution on 18 March, 2011 in Bengazi, Libya.Credit: Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images)

International economist Jim O’Neill asks economists and historians if President Biden’s ambitions to ‘build back better’ - with a new focus on investing in human capital and addressing racial and financial inequalities - could result in fundamental changes to the characteristics of America’s economic system. Has the resilience that is critical to the DNA of America's economic system - its capacity to weather recurring financial storms and bounce back - survived Covid?

(Photo: US President Joe Biden speaks as Vice President Kamala Harris (L) looks on at an event marking the day that families will get their first monthly Child Tax Credit relief payments through the American Rescue Plan. Credit: Alex Edelman/ EPA)

International economist Jim O’Neill explores the implications for the dollar of America’s response to the Covid-driven economic crisis. With help from economists and historians, he asks if China can challenge the dollar's dominant place in the global economy - or whether digital currencies, such as bitoin, could prove more disruptive in the long term?

(Photo: Representations of the Ripple, Bitcoin, Etherum and Litecoin virtual currencies on a PC motherboard. Credit: Reuters)

Prior to Covid, the US economy had been declining compared with other countries, and the pandemic itself highlighted existing weaknesses. Now America’s economy is surging, powered by President Joe Biden’s massive financial stimulus plan. International economist Jim O’Neill hears from economists who argue that new fiscal policies could support a transformational moment for America’s economy - and from others who warn that dangerous inflationary pressures are being stoked.

(Photo: President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the state of his American Rescue Plan from the State Dining Room at the White House, Washington, D.C. Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Jewellery designer, Rajvi Vora discovers more about precious gold as she looks ahead to the future of gold. With cryptocurrency snapping at its heels, can it remain a financial powerhouse? Ravi unearths what goldmines are doing to our planet and to the people who work at them, including the Indonesian families being poisoned by the goldmines on their back doorsteps. But there is a good side to gold too. She hears from the scientists beginning to tap into the potential of using nanogold to treat cancer.

Jewellery designer Rajvi Vora discovers more about the precious metal that has had such an impact on her life, and the world. Rajvi is learning about gold’s current role across the globe and hoping to understand the many faces of it. From where it starts life in the goldmines of Colombia - hidden in lush forests that serve their communities, to Ghana where illegal goldmines are killing crops and livelihoods. She also speaks to celebrity jewellers making extravagant creations for the rich and famous in LA, and dip down into Dubai’s gold vaults where gold is stashed away as a safe haven investment.

(Photo: 818 Vault, Dubai. Credit: Vikram Jethwani)

Throughout time our definition of what is valuable and what is rare changes. Yet as economies boom and bust and fashions come and go, one thing seems to remain both financially valuable and personally precious - gold.

Across three episodes for The Compass, we will explore gold's past, present and future and humanity’s obsession with it - from being worshipped in the ancient world, to changing immigration forever during the Gold Rush, and the part it plays in our jewellery, coinage, finance and medicine.

Presenting this programme is jewellery designer Rajvi Vora. As a third generation Kenyan of Indian origin, she understands the cultural importance of gold first hand, and takes us on a journey to discover more about this precious metal that continues to shape the world.

Speaking with a variety of experts and working Americans, Daniel Susskind considers how we might negotiate a world without work. He hears the story of Youngstown, Ohio, where the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s led to severe job losses and created a perfect storm of societal problems that a fresh wave of rapid automation could replicate on a mass scale. If we’re to avoid such a future, we’re going to have to rethink our attitudes towards taxation, wealth distribution, and even the nature of work itself.

Economist Daniel Susskind asks what the new wave of high-tech automation means for jobs. He hears from a company leading the way in the development of driverless trucks, and a long-haul truck driver who’s deeply worried about it. If jobs like trucking disappear, many of America’s millions of drivers may be forced into sectors like the service industry, but, as we hear on our visit to the world’s first automated restaurant, that isn’t immune to automation either. With technology already encroaching on traditionally white collar jobs as well, there’s only so much education and retraining can do.

Technology has complemented our work since the invention of the wheel, but we may finally be approaching a point where automation stands to replace some human jobs entirely. Economist Dr Daniel Susskind explores how automation is affecting work in the United States, from fully automated restaurants to driverless trucks, and hears from the people whose livelihoods are being affected. A world without work could be a utopia, but without the correct policy to ensure people still have incomes and a sense of purpose, it could look more like a nightmare.

Daniel discovers just how advanced the field of robotic is becoming with a visit to the Oxford Robotics Institute, before heading to the US to hear how automation is already everywhere you look.

He delves into the surprising history of automation in supermarkets, from the first forays of the 1930s to the fully automated shops we are starting to see today, and hear how the advancement of artificial intelligence has brought us to this point.

Finally, we visit the Tyson Manufacturing Research Centre to hear how in America’s enormous meatpacking industry robots are increasingly doing work that until very recently could only be done by humans.

Producer: Ned Carter Miles

Native American Tribes have flipped their fortunes by building casinos on their land, but that is under threat from the new players in the market - the online sports betting companies. Dr Heather Wardle meets Greg Sarris, Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Northern California, who shows her why his tribe’s casino is a lifeline to the local community, and how online betting on smartphones is the new threat to his tribe’s survival.

(Photo: USA Graton Casino, owned by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria)

Albania was plagued by problems caused by gambling; high levels of debt, divorce and suicide triggered the government to ban it. But it did not have the desired effect. Instead the ban sent the industry underground and into the hands of organised criminal gangs. Dr Heather Wardle sets Fatjona Mejdini, a journalist who writes about Albania’s development, the task of investigating the state of gambling in her country and asks whether banning betting can solve the problems caused by it.

Jonah is a university student, and a gambler. For him it is the only way he can earn a living. He explains why there are so few opportunities for young Kenyans like him and why betting on foreign football matches has become such an attractive and easy way to make money to fund his university studies. Gambling behaviour expert, Dr Heather Wardle, wants tougher laws on gambling but she wonders how that might impact the University students who need the money they earn from betting.

Producer: Lydia Thomas

(Photo: Jonah betting on the Premier League with his friends)

Water is at the heart of many of the most serious ecological crises we face, including the biggest one of all: the climate emergency. Alok Jha shows how water itself may offer solutions to give us hope.

Alok witnesses nuclear fusion in action at an experimental reactor in England. Simple seawater provides the fuel for this futuristic technology that has the potential to solve the world’s energy problems and eliminate fossil fuel power generation.

Meanwhile chemist Fernando Romo walks us through the fascinating science of artificial photosynthesis, which allows humans to mimic plants, drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing energy in the process.

But water historian Terje Tvedt cautions that the more reliant human societies become on water technologies, the more vulnerable we make ourselves to changes in the water landscape. An innovative 3D mapping project by activist geographer Hindou Ibrahim shows how technology must be married to grassroots organising and political action if it is to break out of the lab and help secure our water future.

(Photo: Water droplets on a leaf. Credit: Getty Images)

Journalist Alok Jha argues that if humans are to survive and thrive for the rest of the 21st Century we must urgently transform our relationship with water.

Many of the serious geopolitical tensions over water as a resource that we looked at in the previous episode of this series are rooted in worsening ecological crises. In this episode, Alok shows how the global water crisis is inextricably linked to the climate crisis – and how neither can be dealt with alone.

In Bangalore, we hear how incredible pollution levels led to a lake catching fire, before revealing how local water management decisions play into the global groundwater emergency. Then former Nasa scientist Jay Famiglietti provides a satellite perspective on the problem, showing how water disasters are both a result of the climate crisis and help fuel it.

Back on earth, we hear what this means for Hindou Ibrahim’s pastoralist cattle herder community living on the edge of the rapidly shrinking Lake Chad, and Alok puts water lobbyist Maggie White on the spot to ask why water is not the urgent global priority it should be for leading politicians and policymakers.

(Photo: Aerial photo of the Lake Chad, in the Bol region, 200km from Chad capital city N'Djamena. Credit: Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images)

Journalist Alok Jha shows how the way we are using freshwater has made it a precious finite resource. And it’s a resource on the edge of collapse. By 2050, over half the world’s population will live in a water-scarce region. But rather than working together to manage crucial water supplies, powerful states are manoeuvring to control the remaining stocks for themselves.

Beginning with one family’s well drying up in the desert of Arizona, and following the story all the way to political tensions in the Middle East, Alok argues that we need to recognise water as the most important shared resource in the world and take advantage of its cross-border nature to encourage international cooperation.

(Photo: The Jordan river on mountainside. Credit: Getty Images)

Journalist Alok Jha argues that if humans are to survive and thrive for the rest of the 21st Century we must urgently transform our relationship with water. To change that relationship, we first need to understand how the relationship evolved. Alok looks at cultural history to understand how water shaped our deepest psychology.

Alok finds that our relationship with water – always struggling for a balance between too much and not enough – fundamentally influenced the religious and spiritual worldviews of early civilisations. And we still feel the effects of this in our attitudes towards water today.

Alok uncovers a dark and compelling story of child sacrifice in 15th-Century Peru, hears how the water landscapes of Mesopotamia and Scandinavia shaped very different religious beliefs, and learns that many Islamic teachings about water have been echoed by modern science hundreds of years later.

(Photo: Waterfall in a rainforest near Palenque, Mexico. Credit: Getty Images)

Writer Jessica J Lee, sets out to describe the myriad ways that forests operate in our lives and the life of the planet. In the final part of ‘Under The Canopy’, Jessica looks for stories of hope to set against the headlines depicting the mass deforestation that continues to take place around the world. She speaks with a variety of groups - in Canada, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Germany and Great Britain - who are finding different ways to re-invigorate forests, whether through peaceful protest, re-forestation programmes or internet start-ups. Jessica considers the best ways of re-building the strong, mixed forests that will prove so important in our battle against climate change.

Forest sounds appear courtesy of the 'Sounds of the Forest' project Original musical composition: Erland Cooper Spells written by Robert Macfarlane and these are read by Maxine Peake and the Bird sisters

Photo credit: Geoff A Bird

Writer Jessica J Lee, sets out to describe the myriad ways that forests operate in our lives and the life of the planet. She outlines the exciting developments that have taken place in our understanding of the ways forests work over recent decades, with science offering radical new ways of recognising these places as communities of mutually supportive trees rather than competitive spaces where individual trees fight one another for survival. She speaks with Peter Wohlleben who is one of the chief communicators of this ‘Wood Wide Web’ idea, and also expert on fungi Merlin Sheldrake about the crucial importance of mycorrhizzal networks in forest life. Jessica also hears from biologist Diana Beresford Kroeger and Haida leader Miles Richardson about how this new science is built on the back of much older, traditional knowledge held within indigenous communities.

Forest sounds appear courtesy of the 'Sounds of the Forest' project Original musical composition: Erland Cooper Spells written by Robert Macfarlane and these are read by Maxine Peake and the Bird sisters

Photo credit: Geoff Bird