The Explanation
BBC World Service · BBC
Show overview
The Explanation has been publishing since 2021, and across the 5 years since has built a catalogue of 336 episodes. That works out to roughly 140 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 23 min and 26 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. It is catalogued as a EN-language News show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 3 days ago, with 72 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2025, with 111 episodes published. Published by BBC.
From the publisher
Where the world is explained. Making sense of the big stories - looking behind the spin. Exploring the important questions about long-running stories and the latest global news. An honest, unvarnished, explanation of the world. Featuring new episodes of The President's Path, Unspun World with John Simpson, and The Media Show.