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BBC Witness History

Sweden's fight for gender-neutral personal pronoun ‘hen’. Maddy Savage speaks with Nasim Aghili from the queer art collective Ful, for the BBC World Service 'Witness History' strand. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3c3l

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Ukraine to Korea: The Documentary

Ethnically-Korean refugees fleeing war in Ukraine. Produced by Amanda Hargreaves for the BBC World Service, presented by So Jeong Lee

Sweden's Summer Shutdown

In the summer of 1978, many Swedish workers relished the chance to take longer, paid vacations than ever before.This was thanks to an update to Sweden’s Annual Leave Act - or Semesterlagen in Swedish - passed the previous year.

The law guaranteed all employees four consecutive weeks of vacation, and increased their total annual leave to five weeks, giving them some of the longest paid holidays in the world.These policies transformed the way Swedes do business. Many factories and offices shut down for an entire month during the summer. Today,Sweden retains its strong reputation for work-life balance, and the annual leave act has given rise to the 'sommar jobb' - short summer jobs that help cover holiday absences.

(Photo: Inga Persson. Credit: Inga Persson)

Producer: Maddy Savage

A Bespoken Media production for BBC World Service.

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Amazing Sport Stories: Chasing Mountains

Five of the world’s top female climbers are thrown into a race to be first to climb all of the world's 14 highest mountains. For the BBC World Service - listen here.

A Northerner's Guide To London

In this satirical audio fiction, in the style of a 1940s public information film, lost northerner Ben is given crucial support on a make-or-break work trip to London.

A Bespoken Media production for BBC Radio 4

Commissioned in association with the Multitrack Audio Producers Fellowship for new talent in feature-making.

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