The Explanation Podcast
Where the world is explained. Making sense of the big stories - looking behind the spin.
Where the world is explained. Making sense of the big stories - looking behind the spin. Exploring the important questions about long-running stories and the latest global news. An honest, unvarnished, explanation of the world.
Featuring new episodes of The President's Path, Unspun World with John Simpson, and The Media Show.
Episodes to download
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The Global Jigsaw: Wagner after Prigozhin
Fri 29 Sep 2023
What next for the notorious group after the plane crash that wiped out its leadership?
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Unspun World: What has changed for women in Iran, a year after Mahsa Amini's death?
Sat 23 Sep 2023
Iranian women are still fighting for freedom, despite government crackdowns
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The Global Jigsaw: Grain deal special
Sat 9 Sep 2023
Russia and Turkey failed to reach an agreement to bring Ukrainian grain to the world
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Could Puerto Rico become America's 51st state?
Sat 26 Aug 2023
BBC Mundo’s Ronald Avila-Claudio discusses what the future might hold for his homeland
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The EU
Sat 29 Jul 2023
How the European Union evolved from a six-nation club to a major global player
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Who are the Rohingyas?
Sat 22 Jul 2023
How the Rohingyas fled Myanmar to become the world’s largest stateless population
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Unspun World: Is it time to return looted art?
Sat 8 Jul 2023
What should we done with stolen treasures? Katie Razzall confronts colonialism's legacy
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Haiti's gang crisis
Sat 8 Jul 2023
How competing gangs are carving up Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince
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How Lebanon’s economy collapsed
Sat 1 Jul 2023
Protests, the port explosion and power cuts – what’s next for Lebanon?
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Unspun World: Is Putin's time up?
Fri 30 Jun 2023
The editor of the BBC’s Russian service, Famil Ismailov, analyses Vladimir Putin's future
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Unspun World: Xi Jinping: President or emperor?
Sat 24 Jun 2023
What do the growing ambitions of China's leader mean for the rest of the world?
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What is the Wagner Group?
Sat 24 Jun 2023
The mercenary organisation's operations have extended to many nations, but who are they?
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Unspun World: Who can challenge Trump?
Sat 17 Jun 2023
The race for the 2024 Republican White House nomination is about to heat up
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Unspun World: What's it like reporting on the war from inside Russia?
Sat 10 Jun 2023
Steve Rosenberg on the challenges for journalists still in Russia
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Unspun World: Can the US transform the world's economy?
Sat 3 Jun 2023
President Biden puts America first. So will he succeed in reshaping the global economy?
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Unspun World: Could AI outsmart humanity?
Sat 27 May 2023
Reporting from Ukraine's battlefields. Plus, how worried should we be about AI?
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Unspun World: Is Ukraine's counter-offensive a turning point?
Sat 20 May 2023
Ukraine prepares a renewed offensive. Plus, what is a pangenome and how will it help us?
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How the Good Friday Agreement helped bring peace to Northern Ireland
Sat 4 Mar 2023
Denis Murray reflects on the legacy of the 1998 agreement
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Ethiopia, Eritrea and border wars
Sat 25 Feb 2023
Kalkidan Yibeltal explains the complex history between the two countries
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Sudan’s journey from independence to revolution
Sat 18 Feb 2023
Mohanad Hashim explains some of the complex history of the country he grew up in
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How Yemen has been engulfed by civil war
Sat 11 Feb 2023
Nawal Al-Maghafi explains how war has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises
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Who are the Uyghurs and why are they being persecuted?
Sat 4 Feb 2023
John Sudworth tells the story behind China's treatment of its Uyghur minority
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Cuba–United States relations
Sat 28 Jan 2023
How a long, complex history between neighbours led to such an uneasy relationship
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Roe v Wade and abortion in America
Sat 21 Jan 2023
Katty Kay explains how abortion became central to American politics
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How Syria's peaceful uprising became a civil war
Sat 14 Jan 2023
Lina Sinjab tells Claire Graham about the conflict in her native country
