Best BBC Podcasts, and How to Listen Outside the UK
Sixteen BBC podcasts by subject: which are still running, which are complete, and where to hear them now that BBC Sounds is UK-only.
You’re Dead to Me when you want to enjoy yourself, the Global News Podcast when you want to know what happened today. Both are free BBC podcasts and still putting out new episodes.
BBC Sounds closed to listeners outside the UK on 21 July 2025, so the rest of the world listens on BBC.com, in the BBC app or in a podcast app. Every podcast below has a page on BBC.com that opens from Nigeria, and each one is also in Apple Podcasts under the BBC’s own feed.
World and African news
The Global News Podcast is the World Service’s round-up of headlines and current affairs, with politics, business, climate, technology and health in the mix. It comes out twice a day on weekdays and once a day at weekends, with extra episodes when a big story breaks.
Focus on Africa comes out daily. The BBC’s own description is two essential stories to round off your working day, explaining the news from Africa, and Nkechi Ogbonna hosts. Readers in Africa should take this one, and in Nigeria it is the BBC podcast most likely to cover something that happened near you.
The Documentary Podcast is the pick of the World Service’s documentaries, built around the people living each story. The BBC says it runs every week, all year round, so there is no off season to wait out.
BBC history podcasts
The BBC calls You’re Dead to Me the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Greg Jenner sits a comedian next to an expert historian and they work through one subject, from medieval Korea to the history of tea. It is from Radio 4 and has been going since 2019. Every episode stands alone, so begin with whichever subject you like.
The BBC’s line for In Our Time is “a world-class seminar, every week”, on one idea, person or event. Misha Glenny now hosts the new episodes with a panel of academics, and the feed also carries his picks from the archive, which Melvyn Bragg presented. The feed goes back to 1998, so you will not run out.
With ten minutes to spare, take Witness History: one event, told by someone who was there, in around nine minutes each weekday. It is the easiest show here to fit into a commute.
In A History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor, then director of the British Museum, tells the story of humanity through 100 things people made, one per episode. The series finished in 2010, with an “Object 101” added in 2020. Listeners abroad have a catch: BBC.com lists only two episodes. The BBC’s podcast feed still has all 100, so use a podcast app for this one.
Science and tech shows
The Infinite Monkey Cage puts scientists and comedians on a panel with one subject per episode, from nuclear fusion to eels. Brian Cox and Robin Ince presented it through series 34, and the BBC’s pages announce a 35th series with Adam Rutherford and the comedian Jessica Fostekew as guest presenters.
Tech followers get two shows: Tech Life for the reporting, The Interface for the arguments. Tech Life is the World Service’s weekly programme on how technology changes the way people work, learn and play around the world. It says it holds the tech giants to account, and its recent episodes lean heavily on AI. The Interface is newer and lighter, on apps, gadgets, algorithms and whatever the internet is obsessed with that week. BBC technology journalist Thomas Germain and Professor Jessica Maddox host the second season.
BBC true crime podcasts
The Missing Cryptoqueen is the one story to follow from start to finish, in order from episode one. Dr Ruja Ignatova persuaded millions of people to buy into her cryptocurrency, OneCoin, and then disappeared. Jamie Bartlett has been looking for her since 2019. It began as eight episodes and the BBC keeps adding to it: the feed now runs to 16.
World of Secrets gives each season to one BBC investigation. Earlier seasons covered the former boss of Abercrombie & Fitch and Mohamed Al Fayed at Harrods. The newest, Catching My Teacher, follows students at boarding schools in Indonesia.
Cyber Hack used to be called The Lazarus Heist, about the Lazarus Group, the hackers investigators link to North Korea and blame for raiding the Bank of Bangladesh. It now takes a different hacking gang each season, with Evil Corp and The Conti Files following the two Lazarus seasons. One episode of the second season is titled Hushpuppi.
BBC.com has a True Crime category with more. Two of the BBC’s Africa Eye films also appear in documentaries on YouTube.
Money and billionaires
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy is Tim Harford on the inventions and ideas behind the economy we live in, such as the diesel engine and the Gutenberg press. It is finished, and all of it is still there to hear.
Good Bad Billionaire comes out weekly. BBC business editor Simon Jack and the journalist Zing Tsjeng take one billionaire per episode, explain how the money was made, and then judge whether the person is good, bad or just another billionaire. Subjects range from Beyoncé and Cristiano Ronaldo to MrBeast.
Learning English with the BBC
6 Minute English is a weekly conversation about one topic, with the useful words and phrases explained along the way. The BBC has a whole shelf of these on BBC.com, including Learning English Grammar, Learning English Vocabulary and Learning English from the News.
How to listen outside the UK
The BBC Sounds help pages say it plainly: “BBC Sounds has closed for listeners based outside the UK.” The BBC Sounds site itself tells visitors from abroad to use BBC.com or the BBC app.
BBC.com/audio and the BBC app carry, the BBC says, over 1,000 current and archived BBC podcasts, plus Radio 4 and the World Service live. You do not need to sign in to listen. A BBC account is needed to follow, save or download. Downloading is done in the BBC mobile app, through a Download option on each episode’s page.
Your usual podcast app works too, and will download episodes as well. The BBC says its podcasts are on third-party podcast services and that listening on non-BBC platforms is not affected by the change.
For Radio 1, Radio 2, 5 Live and the other stations, the BBC’s page on the change has a direct link to every one. If you would rather have live radio than podcasts, look at radio apps for Android.
Outside the UK, BBC podcasts are free but carry adverts; the BBC has run them on podcasts delivered abroad since 2018. Some programmes are missing abroad because the BBC does not hold the rights to offer them internationally. And a VPN is not the fix it sounds like: the BBC says that when it detects one, it may block BBC Sounds altogether.
UK residents still listen on BBC Sounds, and the BBC says the app keeps working on holiday abroad for around a month.
Peter Crouch and BBC Earth, no longer BBC shows
That Peter Crouch Podcast has left the BBC. The BBC’s feed stops in May 2021, at 79 episodes, and the show carries on elsewhere: Apple Podcasts lists a second feed of the same name, published by Tall or Nothing, that is still releasing episodes. For football from the BBC, Football Daily from 5 Live is the running show.
BBC Earth Podcast does not turn up in a search of the BBC’s site. Apple Podcasts lists it under BBC Earth with 50 episodes, the last from December 2022.
