The Compass

BBC World Service•www.bbc.co.uk

Surprising stories from unusual places. With ideas too big for a single episode, The Compass presents mini-series about the environment and politics, culture and society.

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Episodes

America in Black and White: Looking Ahead

How are black Americans represented and what does it mean to be black in America today? Rajini Vaidyanathan discusses with those involved in politics, culture and activism. Travelling widely across the country she hears from families in Atlanta, activists in Missouri and academics in New York City. She speaks to the artist Kehinde Wiley about his subversive attempts to literally paint power differently; to the poet Tracy K. Smith about the vital role stories can play in encouraging empathy and h...

Jan 25, 2016•27 min

America in Black and White: Segregation

Rajini Vaidyanathan examines segregation. The Brown versus the Board of Education case and the civil rights movement were supposed to have brought Americans together, but in Kansas City Rajini sees for herself the much more complicated legacy of desegregation. On the one hand, splintering solidarity in the black community; on the other a city where white and black Americans still live quite separate lives. Demographers suggest America is becoming less segregated, but in Atlanta, one of the big s...

Jan 14, 2016•27 min

America in Black and White: Economic Opportunity

Rajini Vaidyanathan explores economic opportunity – or lack of it - amongst black Americans. She speaks to the academic whose study suggests employers think being black is as bad as having a criminal record but that they weren’t trying to be racist, and hears from senior corporate executives who have witnessed the subtle ways racial prejudice operates in the workplace. In Kansas City she explains how government rules established during the New Deal locked black Americans out of home ownership fo...

Jan 14, 2016•27 min

America in Black and White: Criminal Justice

Rajini investigates the criminal justice system. In Nebraska she visits the conservative politician promoting laws to reduce the number of people behind bars. Will that help black Americans? “I hope so” he answers. Elsewhere she hears from critics who argue that the system can never be reformed, only broken; that the system is not fair, the police need to be disarmed. She visits the police chief advising President Obama on the way forward, who acknowledges the problem but argues that “all black ...

Jan 07, 2016•27 min

Local Warming: California

During the last four years California has been ravaged by drought and wildfire that has left people without homes and farmers without crops. Unlike a lot of American states most Californians acknowledge climate change is contributing to serious environmental problems and Governor Jerry Brown is leading the way in developing strategies to try and combat it. In the final programme in the Local Warming series presenter Sasha Khokha takes a trip around her home state of California to see what climat...

Dec 03, 2015•27 min

Local Warming: The Philippines

Extreme weather has claimed many lives in the Philippines. The archipelago has been battered by so-called ‘Super Typhoons’ and only last month, Super Typhoon Koppu wreaked havoc in the northern island of Luzon, killing 60 and leaving hundreds of thousands evacuated from their homes. Another storm two years ago left thousands dead. Meanwhile, climate change is said to be impacting crops and reducing yields. So it might come as a surprise that Filipinos, as a nation, are far from the most climate ...

Nov 26, 2015•27 min

Local Warming: Nigeria

The first episode focuses on Nigeria, where migration caused by desertification is leading to bloodshed as cattle herders move south from their traditional routes and into conflict with settled farmers. Meanwhile, increasingly intense rainfall in southern Nigeria causes flooding and creates enormous gulleys which are swallowing houses, farmland and even schools. Presented by Ugochi Oluigbo - a business and environment correspondent and news anchor for TVC News in Nigeria – the programme asks how...

Nov 19, 2015•27 min

Waithood: Could Delaying Adulthood be a Good Thing?

Is prolonged adolescence actually a good thing? Jake Wallis Simons explores whether life choices offered up by delaying financial independence, marriage and forming a family are actually better for you. We hear how the transition to adulthood in the UK has extended over the last 50 years with young people having the opportunity to develop their own selves, travel and form their own identities. Jake also looks at what role class and wealth play in shaping the life choices and the waiting period f...

Nov 12, 2015•27 min

Waithood: Trying to Grow Up in Italy and Spain

A trip to Italy where one of Ghana’s most respected hip-hop artists, Sarkodie, is set to perform in Modena. It is home to a large Ghanaian diaspora but what is life like for young Ghanaians who have moved abroad? We also hear from young people in Italy where almost a third of adults live with their parents, and in Barcelona where the economic crisis is still affecting the young, who discuss what it means to become a grown up in the 21st Century.

Nov 05, 2015•27 min

Waithood: The Passage to Adulthood in Ghana

What does it mean to be a grown-up in the 21st Century? If the path to maturity is about stable work, marriage and a home for your family where does that leave those who haven't achieved these goals? In the first of three programmes Jake Wallis Simons meets young graduates in Ghana who dream of greater things but find the passage to adulthood blocked. Jobs are hard to come by and one student, Kwabena Ankrah, tells us that if you are a graduate in Ghana, you are in the wrong place. If you don’t h...

Oct 29, 2015•27 min

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