{"podcast":{"title":"The Documentary Podcast","slug":"the-documentary-podcast-487670","podcast_index_feed_id":487670,"rss_url":"https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0lx.rss","website_url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nq0lx","image_url":"http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/3000x3000/p0kxnkls.jpg","author":"BBC","episode_count":2000,"summary":"Hear the voices at the heart of global stories. Where curious minds can uncover hidden truths and make sense of the world. The best of documentary storytelling from the BBC World Service. From conflict in the Middle East to the advance of AI, to the front line of the climate emergency, we go beyond the headlines. Each week we dive into the minds of the world’s most creative people, take personal journeys into spirituality and connect people from across the globe to share how news stories are shaping their lives.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T10:20:39.856026+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670"},"episode":{"title":"Sierra Leone: The diamond that saved a thousand lives","slug":"sierra-leone-the-diamond-that-saved-a-thousand-lives","published_at":"2026-05-26T00:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670/sierra-leone-the-diamond-that-saved-a-thousand-lives","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670","url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0nmlt2j","audio_url":"http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss-low/proto/http/vpid/p0nmlctc.mp3","summary":"In 2017, five men digging in an open pit found the third largest diamond ever unearthed in West Africa. It was dubbed the Peace Diamond, in memory of the brutal civil war that had ravaged large parts of the region in the 1990s – a war driven in part by factions competing for control of the diamond trade. When the Peace Diamond sold for $6.5 million at auction in New York, the government pledged some of the profits would provide solar power, a clinic, a school and a road connection for the Sierra Leonean village where it was found. Each of the diggers and the pit’s owner also got a small share of the spoils. Nine years on, Ed Butler returns to Sierra Leone to see how much the government kept their promise and to what extent the discovery really did transform the lives for those involved for better, or for worse. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Assignment.","meta_description":"In 2017, five men digging in an open pit found the third largest diamond ever unearthed in West Africa. It was dubbed the Peace Diamond, in memory of the…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1869,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-documentary-podcast-487670/episodes/sierra-leone-the-diamond-that-saved-a-thousand-lives/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670/sierra-leone-the-diamond-that-saved-a-thousand-lives.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}