Featured Documentaries and Podcasts


Please see a list below of all documentaries that have been selected for discussion in RadioDoc Review. Note that separate lists are displayed at the bottom of the page for shows that were produced before the year 2000 or were mentioned in other article sections. If you do not see a certain item in the main list, please check the others for the relevant audio link.

  1. Volume 1, Issue 1 (2014)
  2. Volume 1, Issue 2 (2014)
  3. Volume 2, Issue 1 (2015)
  4. Volume 2, Issue 1 (2015)
  5. Volume 3, Issue 1 (2017)
    • The Eternal Present: The Untold and Short Cuts Series
      (UK, BBC, Dave Howard and Eleanor McDowall, 2016, 28 mins each)
    • Criminal: a Podcast Series
      (US, Radiotopia, Phoebe Judge)
    • Jack and Ellen
      (US, Love and Radio, Nick van der Kolk, 2013, 21mins)
  6. Volume 3, Issue 2 (2017)
  7. Volume 4, Issue 1 (2018)
  8. Volume 5, Issue 1 (2019)
  9. In Articles
  10. HISTORICAL SPOTLIGHT (pre-2000)
    • The Long Long Trail
      (UK, BBC, Charles Chilton, 1961, 58mins)
    • Father Cares: the last of Jonestown
      by James Reston and Noah Adams, produced by Deborah Amos, US, NPR, 1981
      On November 18, 1978, 913 men, women, and children - followers of cult leader Jim Jones -- died during a mass suicide and murder in Jonestown, Guyana. Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown recaptures the final months for the People’s Temple cult. It is based on hundreds of hours of tapes Reston acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. It won major awards including the Dupont Columbia Award, the National Headliner Award and the Prix Italia.
      See also: http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/jonestown.html
    • Tokyo’s Burning
      by Tony Barrell, Australia, ABC 1995, c. 50mins
      Commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the mass firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945 in which 100,000 people died and several million were 'de-housed'. Winner, Prix Italia.
      Audio link broken: TBC
    • Mei Mei: A Daughter’s Song
      by Dmae Roberts, US, NPR, 1989, 26'34"
      Dmae Roberts tell two interwoven stories in this personal documentary: the frustration she feels not living up to her mother's ideal of a perfect Taiwanese daughter and the compassion she has for a mother who as a child suffered abuse, starvation, and the horrors of World War Two.
    • Glocken in Europa/The Bells in Europe
      by Peter Leonhard Braun, Germany, 1973, 50’56”
      Classic feature by renowned founder of International Features Conference in Europe.
    • The Lonesome Train
      (US, CBS 1944, dir Norman Corwin, 27.40mins)
      A ‘folk cantata’ about the repatriation of the body of Abraham Lincoln to his home town for burial.
    • The Lemon Tree
      by Sandy Tolan, US, Fresh Air, 1998 (38’.43”)
      A documentary, told in first-person by an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, exploring the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
      See also: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library/644-the-lemon-tree
    • The Late Macbeth
      (Ireland, RTE, Lorelei Harris, 1992, 43 mins)
    • The Change in Farming
      (Canada, Adam Goddard and Steve Wadhams, 1998, 11.35mins)