Podcast Episodes

Lola the bare-knuckle drag queen

Martial arts kept him out of jail, but drag artistry made him whole.

Diego Garijo was bullied for his femininity as a child, so as he grew up he toughened up his image. He was in trouble with the law,…

Published on 2 years, 7 months ago

I was there the night Emmett Till was taken

Wheeler Parker is Emmett Till's cousin and the last surviving witness to his abduction.

Emmett's brutal murder in Mississippi in 1955 sparked a wave of protest in America. The 14-year-old African Amer…

Published on 2 years, 7 months ago

Tanzania’s hip-hop politician

Joseph Mbilinyi pioneered Swahili rap and then turned to politics, but ended up in jail.

In the 1990s he'd become one of Tanzania's biggest stars under the stage name Sugu. He'd released albums, toure…

Published on 2 years, 7 months ago

'Brother. do. you. love. me.' The SMS that changed our lives

Brothers Manni and Reuben Coe, and the text that prompted a lockdown rescue mission.

Manni was living in Spain when he received this troubling text from his younger brother Reuben. Reuben has Down's s…

Published on 2 years, 8 months ago

'Prison Break' and my escape from Manus Island

Tricks from a hit TV show held the key to Jaivet Ealom’s audacious dash for freedom.

As a student in his native Myanmar, Jaivet Ealom became obsessed with the hit US TV show Prison Break. He watched …

Published on 2 years, 8 months ago

The spy who wanted to bring down apartheid: Part 2

ANC spy Sue Dobson infiltrated the South African government. Then her cover was blown.

After training, Sue had got a job within the government's propaganda unit, and she was feeding back good intelli…

Published on 2 years, 8 months ago

The spy who wanted to bring down apartheid, part 1

Sue Dobson was a white South African who risked her life as an ANC secret agent

Sue was a student when she was first recruited as a spy for the African National Congress liberation movement in the 198…

Published on 2 years, 8 months ago

Bringing the Muppets to Moscow

Natasha Lance Rogoff’s daunting task of making Sesame Street in post-Soviet Russia.

In the early 90s, American journalist Natasha Lance Rogoff was covering the collapse of the Soviet Union – until the…

Published on 2 years, 9 months ago

Introducing: Love, Janessa

All episodes of our catfishing podcast are now available. You meet someone online. It turns out many others think they have fallen for the same person. It’s the story of the scammers and the unwittin…

Published on 2 years, 9 months ago

My life in seven swimming pools

Amjed Tantesh is determined to teach kids in Gaza to swim no matter how many pools he has to build.

Finding freedom in the water as a child, Amjed wanted to train the next generation of Gazans for Oly…

Published on 2 years, 9 months ago