Journeys to Understanding

Available for over a year

Owen Bennett Jones introduces stories from reporters and writers who have taken some very different roads to knowledge. In Chongqing, the BBC's China correspondent Carrie Gracie joined a group of Communist Party members who are being shown around sites commemorating the Party's early martyrs, as part of a nationwide campaign against corruption within the State, which hopes to root out spreading graft and the loss of idealism. Robin Denselow has been to a unique festival of Sufi arts from across the Muslim world, celebrated in Konya, central Turkey. It is never easy to arrange this event's dazzlingly cosmopolitan mix of artists and audience - but this year, he heard, the instability of Turkey itself has made things no easier. Damien McGuinness explains from Berlin why Germany's press, politicians and public are so baffled by British negotiating tactics and rhetoric over Brexit. In a country where a tray of biscuits is rarely offered twice, they cannot understand when others won't take "no" for a straight answer. And Lindsay Johns goes from Harvard to Harlem - finding unexpected signs of other Americas in both places, from the Black Lives Matter banners festooning one of the world's most prestigious universities to the hipsters and joggers now to be found above 110th Street. (Photo: A guide talks to visitors within the dome printed with pictures and names of 310 martyrs, at the Hongyan Soul Exhibition Hall, Chongqing Municipality, China. Credit: Getty Images)