The Real Story

Mar 29 2024 444 ep. 49 mins 21k

The Real Story Podcast artwork

Global experts and decision makers discuss, debate and analyse a key news story.

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Bonus: Evan Gershkovich - a year since my friend was jailed in Russia

Mar 29 2024 24 mins

The Wall Street Journal reporter, who is the first US journalist charged with spying in Russia since the Cold War, has now been imprisoned for a year. His detention has been repeatedly extended and he is yet to face trial. His family, colleagues and the US government vehemently deny the accusations.We talk with two BBC journalists who know Evan - Will Vernon and James Beardsworth.

Is the future of journalism in crisis?

Mar 29 2024 48 mins

Over the past year thousands of journalists have lost their jobs as mass media news organisations struggle to make ends meet. Ad revenue is down, many publishers are struggling to gain subscribers, and social media has resulted in plummeting traffic to homepages. More than a third of people worldwide say they sometimes or often actively avoid the news, many citing their mental heal

Bonus: Hidden reality of frontline combat through the eyes of Ukraine's soldiers

Mar 28 2024 26 mins

A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast.In a new BBC documentary, a single Ukrainian infantry company find themselves in a life or death battle to defend the eastern front against intense Russian attacks.Jamie Roberts tells us how he managed to get such rare access and what the fate of these men tells us about the reality of the frontlines in Ukraine.The Global Story brings y

Bonus: Sam Bankman-Fried's multibillion dollar FTX fraud

Mar 27 2024 26 mins

A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast.Sam Bankman-Fried was the golden boy of cryptocurrency. He was dubbed the king and saviour of the industry. But this week he will be sentenced to possibly decades in prison for fraud and money laundering, and his firm, FTX, went bankrupt.Joe Tidy, the BBC's cyber correspondent tells us about SBF - the man he interviewed before his trial

Bonus: The curse of the world's fastest growing economy

Mar 26 2024 27 mins

A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast.When Guyana discovered huge offshore oil reserves in 2015, it transformed the prospects of a country which had a been an economic and political backwater. But, as one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, will drilling for oil be a windfall or a curse in the long run? Stephen Sackur has just returned from Gu

Bonus: Insight on Islamic State Group + Miami stops the party

Mar 25 2024 27 mins

A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast.On this episode, we’re covering two very different stories. After the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on a concert hall in Moscow, we’re revisiting a previous episode asking how much of a threat the group still pose. Mina al-Lami from BBC Monitoring tells us that the groups fortunes fell in 2023, with them

How can Boeing win back trust?

Mar 22 2024 49 mins

The plane maker’s safety record is in the spotlight after a series of incidents. In January an unused door blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines shortly after take-off. An initial report from the US National Transportation Safety Board concluded that four bolts meant to attach the door securely to the aircraft had not been fitted. Prior to the incident, there ha

Should we be afraid of TikTok?

Mar 15 2024 50 mins

The US House of Representatives has passed a landmark bill that could see TikTok effectively banned. It would give the social media giant's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell its controlling stake or the app would face blocks in the US. Supporters of the bill say the app’s links with China make it a national security risk. Opponents argue that tens of millions

Can Haiti break free from its history?

Mar 08 2024 49 mins

The Haitian government declared a 72-hour state of emergency on Sunday. It follows the storming at the weekend by gangs of two prisons, with some 3,700 inmates escaping. The gang leaders want the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, with one of them (Jimmy Cherizier, aka Barbecue) saying there will be civil war if Mr Henry does not go. Mr Henry had travelled to Kenya to discu

What's fuelling the war in Sudan?

Mar 01 2024 47 mins

At the Munich Security Conference in February a senior UN official described the war in Sudan as “not a forgotten crisis, but a wholly ignored crisis”. And yet the impact of 10 months of fighting is huge - nearly eight million people have had to leave their homes, more than in any other current conflict.Just last week the UN pointed to multiple indiscriminate attacks by both th