Portugal, drugs and decriminalisation

In 2001 Portugal decriminalised personal drug use to tackle a heroin crisis.

• 24 mins

Life-saving surgery, but not by a doctor

Nurses and midwives in Ethiopia are being trained to perform emergency operations

• 22 mins

Residents turn detective to fight crime

Neighbours in the US are using cameras that read car number plates to cut crime

• 22 mins

The school that puts wellbeing first

One primary school has found a way to deliver therapy to about 10% of its students

• 23 mins

Trieste’s mental health ‘revolution’

How Italy’s radical decision to close its mental asylums shaped the way we think today

• 24 mins

Stopping child marriage with solar lanterns

Solar-powered lamps are giving girls independence and stopping them becoming child brides

• 24 mins

A simple way to help a relative if they’re arrested

A group in California is teaching families how to help loved ones charged with crimes

• 24 mins

Putting a price on carbon

How to increase the cost of causing climate change

• 23 mins

Bangladesh’s biker girls

The motorbike taxi app where the drivers and passengers are all women.

• 23 mins

The concrete cleaners

Making cement that locks in carbon dioxide instead of releasing it into the atmosphere

• 23 mins

Oysters to the rescue

The humble oyster is helping to keep the oceans clean and protect shorelines

• 24 mins

A new way to detect an invisible poison in water

Scientists hope a new test will save millions from drinking arsenic in their water

• 22 mins

Meeting Colombia’s ‘Violentologist’

How a doctor in Colombia changed the way cities monitor and prevent violence

• 24 mins

The snakebite squad

A team in Kenya has introduced motorbike ambulances for people bitten by snakes

• 23 mins

Spotting the sound of a cardiac arrest

Copenhagen is experimenting with a new way of analysing emergency calls

• 24 mins

Turning waste into energy

Instead of sending all our waste to landfill, some companies are using it to make energy

• 24 mins

Shopping for a better life

How a grocery store is bringing health care to people who can’t usually afford it

• 22 mins

The town rethinking the future of energy

Energy companies have come together in Finland to tackle climate change

• 23 mins

Gaming for good

Gamers are helping scientists to analyse research and develop new drugs

• 23 mins

The future of freight

Designing eco-friendly lorries to make cleaner, greener deliveries

• 24 mins

How to save the banana

The banana is under threat from a deadly disease. These people are trying to save it.

• 23 mins

How to stop fires destroying whole neighbourhoods

The innovative fire alarm designed to protect South Africa’s poorest communities

• 24 mins

Stopping abuse with protection dogs

Women who have left abusive partners are learning how to train their own protection dogs

• 22 mins

Saving the World’s Ice

Silica beads and whiter clouds - ideas to stop the world’s ice melting

• 23 mins

Turning kids into entrepreneurs

Children in Uganda are running their own businesses thanks to special classes in school

• 23 mins

Convicting more rapists

Rapists often get away without being convicted – South Africa thinks it has an answer

• 22 mins

Making your deliveries greener

Four clever ways to reduce carbon emissions from deliveries

• 25 mins

Checking in with the problem solvers

Stopping forest fires with goats and more – an update on projects we’ve visited before

• 22 mins

How to move the Earth

The plans to use lasers or asteroids to move our planet away from the sun

• 24 mins

The pharmacists fighting high drug prices

When drug prices went up, pharmacists stepped in to make medicines themselves

• 23 mins

Forecasting volcanoes

Preparing for disasters long before they strike rather than rescuing people afterwards

• 24 mins

Running to do good

Forget the treadmill - these people have turned doing good deeds into a workout

• 24 mins

Fighting depression together

Women in Uganda are learning how to treat their neighbours for depression

• 25 mins

The miracle cure: Exercise

If exercise were a drug, almost everyone over 65 would want to take it

• 24 mins

The good lads

Working with men and boys to tackle everyday sexism

• 23 mins

Meet the neighbours

People in these flats promise to spend two hours a week together to tackle loneliness

• 23 mins

A safe place to be gay

An idea used in video games is helping LGBTQ people in the Middle East talk safely online

• 24 mins

Audience takeover: Your feedback

“Fabulous idea” or “waste of money”? Your thoughts on some of the solutions we’ve covered

• 23 mins

How they’re saving the kakapo

It’s a flightless bird close to extinction, but the kakapo recovery team is on the case.

• 24 mins

How to be a better dad

Teaching men to look after their babies and how this can help cut violence against women

• 24 mins

The treasure in our toilets

How human sewage is being recycled to recover a valuable chemical

• 24 mins

Regrowing the rainforest

It has taken 40 years, but this man has regrown a patch of rainforest in the Amazon

• 27 mins

The big transport swap

Would robot shuttles, buses on demand and free rides persuade you to ditch your car?

• 23 mins

Making the world a quieter place

How sound barriers and noise sensors are helping to make the planet more peaceful

• 25 mins

The farmers moving their fields indoors

We visit farmers growing lettuce, herbs and strawberries indoors in the middle of cities

• 23 mins

The great spreadsheet in the sky

How blockchain could solve some of the world’s problems.

• 24 mins

A Sporting Chance

How sport can change the lives of young people from some of the toughest backgrounds.

• 24 mins

The breath of life

A clever way to provide life-saving oxygen

• 23 mins

Electricity that grows on trees

Scientists are trying to tap unlikely-sounding energy sources - like the leaves on trees.

• 24 mins

The ancient technology getting a second wind

Wind-powered ships are sailing cargo around the world again to help cut pollution.

• 24 mins

No more bosses

How do you make work a better place? Get rid of managers, say some companies.

• 23 mins

Kids fixing the world

Clever inventions by children that could improve our lives, from apps to robots

• 24 mins

Personality tests for loans

How an online test and a phone might be able to help some people with their finances.

• 24 mins

How tech is tackling wildlife trafficking

The exciting new tools helping to save some of our most endangered animals.

• 24 mins

A future without bees

High-tech alternatives to bees include spraying pollen from drones to pollinate plants

• 24 mins

How to get everyone online

Balloons and satellites could help get more people get on to the internet

• 24 mins

New uses for old solutions

How two life-saving apps were adapted to fix problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic

• 29 mins

Life-saving surgery, but not by a doctor

Nurses and midwives in Ethiopia are being trained to perform emergency operations

• 24 mins

Financing the forests

Making rainforests a profitable investment

• 26 mins

Prison Voicemail: Messages from behind bars

Prisoners and their families are keeping in touch with the Prison Voicemail app

• 24 mins

The tech doctors forecasting heart failure

Implanted devices can predict when something is about to go wrong with a patient’s heart

• 24 mins

The mums saving each other from a taboo condition

Mums in Madagascar are ensuring others get the treatment that has transformed their lives

• 24 mins

Could a device invented in the 1930s help end period poverty?

The people hoping to use sanitary pad micro-factories and silicone cups to help women

• 24 mins

Keeping data forever

Three radical new ways to save data – in DNA, glass and magnets

• 23 mins

A happier planet

Looking for the happiest places in the world and finding out what makes them happy

• 23 mins

Smartphones saving the rainforest

Old mobile phones are being used to catch illegal loggers in the rainforest

• 24 mins

How to prevent drowning

AI to help lifeguards in Israel and weather forecasts for fishermen on Lake Victoria

• 23 mins

Getting rid of AI bias

Better facial recognition and changing algorithms - how to fight racial bias in AI

• 23 mins

Training police to patrol each other

US police are being taught what to do if they're worried about a colleague’s actions

• 25 mins

How jellyfish can help us

Jellyfish could be used to filter microplastics from water and develop new medicines

• 25 mins

How to put the internet in a box

Inside the “sneakernet” - the people carrying websites to places that are off the grid

• 24 mins

Saving Cape Cod’s dolphins

Saving dolphins from stranding on beaches - we meet the team improving survival rates

• 25 mins

Teenage inventor special

Brilliant ideas from school kids to help solve crime, make life safer and much more

• 23 mins

Audience takeover: Your questions answered

Answers to your questions about regrowing the rainforest and other stories we’ve covered

• 23 mins

From prison to star employee

Why former criminals are being chosen for jobs at hundreds of companies in a small US city

• 27 mins

Riding the solar railway

How to make train journeys greener using the power of the sun

• 24 mins

Perovskites: The future of solar?

A new kind of solar cell is made by drying a special liquid on a surface

• 23 mins

Building with fungi

Growing packaging, coffins and whole houses out of eco-friendly mycelium

• 23 mins

Making meat in a lab

How meat grown in labs could reduce our environmental impact

• 24 mins

Saving mums and their unborn babies

Women in Nigeria have come up with an emergency transport scheme that is saving lives

• 24 mins

What happened next to our problem solvers

Hydrating sweets for the elderly go on sale and how a housing experiment coped with Covid

• 24 mins

Can doughnuts save the planet?

Doughnut economics in action - how we can live well and save the planet at the same time

• 23 mins

The solutions whisperer

Dhruv Boruah’s mission is to inspire other people to solve problems facing the planet

• 23 mins

A forest down your street

The tiny urban forests bringing nature to the heart of the city

• 24 mins

The spacesuits saving mothers’ lives

Suits originally designed for astronauts are helping midwives save lives

• 23 mins

The breath of life

A clever way to provide life-saving oxygen

• 24 mins

How to store power in soil and salt

Batteries made of building blocks and volcanic rock

• 23 mins

Beating superbugs

The small team of Indian scientists who think they’ve found a new way to kill superbugs

• 25 mins

Tackling sport’s concussion problem

How the latest technology is helping to tackle head injuries in sport

• 24 mins

The secret to making your stuff last longer

Clever ways to persuade people to fix old things instead of throwing them away

• 24 mins

The magic greenhouse

A greenhouse powered by the wind has made it possible to grow crops on arid land

• 23 mins

Using satellite photos to help distribute cash

Togo has found a new way to send emergency cash to people struggling in the pandemic

• 23 mins

How to reuse a demolished building

Can you construct a building by reusing materials from ones that have been knocked down?

• 23 mins

Watching out for Gran with help from her toaster

How we could improve care for the elderly by monitoring their use of home appliances

• 23 mins

Helping animals cross the road and other obstacles

The special bridges that are helping to save slow lorises and reunite rare monkeys

• 23 mins

Shred it yourself: The DIY plastic recyclers

Machines to shred, melt and mould waste plastic are popping up around the world

• 23 mins

Pedal power: How bicycles can change lives

One man’s mission to transform millions of lives by selling them bicycles

• 24 mins

The detection dogs tracking poachers and Covid-19

Marlo is sniffing out coronavirus in the UK, and Thor is tracking poachers in Tanzania

• 23 mins

The forest sound detectives

Scientists are checking up on the health of forests by analysing the sounds in them.

• 23 mins

Turning oil platforms into reefs

A home for marine life, but perhaps not in the place you’d expect

• 22 mins