Crossing Continents

Jan 27 2025 378 ep. 28 mins 47.7k

Crossing Continents Podcast artwork

Stories from around the world and the people at the heart of them.

Society & Culture

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Reel Revolution? The dramatic rise of Saudiwood

Jan 27 2025 28 mins

Saudi Arabia is rolling out the red carpet to filmmakers and foreign companies as it sets out to establish itself as a major player in the entertainment industry. After lifting a 35-year ban on cinemas in 2018, the Kingdom is now luring Hollywood with cash incentives to shoot in the desert, and playing host to a glitzy international film festival. The move is all part of Crown Prin

Death Marches: uncovering the truth beneath the soil

Jan 20 2025 31 mins

How a town in Poland – once in Germany - is discovering its troubling past. 80 years ago Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi extermination camp. Over 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, were murdered there. However, there is an aspect of those terrible days which is less well known and which 80 years later is still being uncovered and still resonating: the

The Gambia: When migrants are forced to go home

Jan 13 2025 28 mins

Each year young people from the tiny West African nation of The Gambia try to reach Europe through “The Backway” - a costly, perilous journey over land and sea. Many do not make it. In recent years, the EU has done deals with several North African nations to clamp down on irregular migration. Though human rights groups say the treatment of migrants can be brutal - allegations t

South Korea: The Feminist Hunters

Jan 07 2025 30 mins

Why feminism has become a dirty word in South Korea. Being a feminist is now something that can only be admitted in private, thanks to a fierce backlash against feminism. Anti-feminists accuse South Korean women who advocate for equality as being man-haters, worthy of punishment. Online witch-hunts - spearheaded by young male gamers - target women suspected of harbouring feminist v

The human cost of developing Cambodia's Angkor wonder

Dec 30 2024 28 mins

Tourists are flooding to Cambodia's "8th wonder of the world", the ancient temple complex at Angkor. But the rapid expansion of the site comes at a terrible cost, as tens of thousands of people are ousted. The authorities call some "illegal squatters" and claim others volunteered to leave. But human rights groups say the evictions are forced, illegal and target families who've work

Poland's Ghosts, Ukraine's Heroes

Dec 23 2024 31 mins

Ukraine and Poland are neighbours and close allies in today’s conflict with Russia. But the ghosts of victims of an earlier war have returned to divide them. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by Ukrainians in Volhynia, in what's now western Ukraine, in 1943. Most of the victims still lie in unmarked graves, and Ukraine has only just lifted a ban on exhuming the bodies. Tha

Argentina - Milei's Chainsaw

Dec 16 2024 28 mins

It has been a year since chainsaw-wielding Javier Milei won the Presidency in Argentina. During his campaign, his chainsaw became a symbol of how quickly and drastically he wanted to cut the Argentine state. And he has slashed government budgets and sliced subsidies on power, food and transport. He stopped printing money to try and halt inflation which was running at 211.4% annuall

Mining the Pacific – future proofing or fool’s gold?

Dec 09 2024 28 mins

Climate change is intensifying, sea levels are rising and the very existence of low-lying Pacific Islands is under threat. The Cook Islands, though, has a plan to assure their peoples’ future. Enter deep sea mining, harvesting metallic nodules on the bottom of the sea floor for use in things like electric car batteries and mobile phones. Its supporters say it’s a climate change

France: trouble on the vine

Dec 02 2024 32 mins

Low harvests, economic and climate batterings, changing tastes - is French wine in crisis? The French wine harvest has dropped 18% in one year. For some famous French wine-making regions the reduction has been much more. A combination of factors, including climate, finances and changing drinking habits has brought some wine-makers to the brink. Thousands of hectares of vineyards ar

Our whole life is a secret

Nov 25 2024 28 mins

The Taliban edict that women's voices should not be heard aloud renders women up and down Afghanistan inaudible as well as invisible in public. Women are already denied most forms of education and employment. They are not allowed to go outside without a male guardian, and have to be completely covered up, including their faces. Now the new rules say they should be quiet too. Women