View all podcasts

Nicola Sturgeon for BBC Sounds

The story of Scotland's longest-serving and first ever female First Minister. Available on BBC Sounds

More like this...

July Morning

We're at the Black Sea coast on the last night of June. Everything is building up to the sunrise. This is Bulgaria’s ‘July Morning’ observance - somewhere between a counter-cultural musical festival, and a secular pilgrimage marking the start of July. It revolves around reaching the coast in time to meet July’s first sunrise. This celebration has an unlikely origin story - a 1971 song, also called July Morning, by English rock band Uriah Heep.

With thanks to Kmetal Tsonko Tsonev, Alex Boreva, Katie Revell, Andrea Morán and Cicely Fell.

Producer: Carys Wall

Executive producer: Dave Howard

Sound designer: Jonathan Webb

A Bespoken Media Scotland Production

Click here to listen.

Sweden: living with guns and gangs

For the BBC World Service, Maddy Savage on how Sweden has become Europe's gun crime hotspot.

BBC World Service: Only Bleeding

BBC Stockholm correspondent Maddy Savage on provocative and practical ways Swedes made menstruation less taboo. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct2zjj

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.