Podcast Episodes

The Ukrainian opera singer nearly silenced by a bullet

Sergiy Ivanchuk dreamed of stardom, before he was shot in the chest by Russian soldiers.

He was a volunteer helping refugees escape Eastern Ukraine during the early days of the 2022 invasion, when his…

Published on 2 years, 9 months ago

I didn’t know I was part of an experiment

When Greenlander Helene Thiesen was just seven, two Danish men came to take her away.

In 1951, Greenland native Helene Thiesen was just seven years old when two Danish men knocked at the family home. …

Published on 2 years, 9 months ago

Eyes on the prize: Pakistan’s first trans film star

Rejected by family and society, trans actor Alina Khan was forced to spend time on the streets of her native Lahore as a child. Through dance, she found an escape and a living, but also encountered p…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Becoming Blair 'the Flair': a boxer on the run, part 2

In the ring, Blair finds calm amidst the chaos of his life. Back in the US Blair Cobbs falls again on hard times; homeless in Philadelphia his boxing dream seems out of reach. But a string of lucky …

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Becoming Blair 'the Flair': a boxer on the run, part 1

From Beverly Hills to hiding from the law with his dad, Blair’s seen it all. To help him get through the tough times – and there’d be quite a few of those – Blair created a separate persona. This was…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

The mystery of the tartan twins

A baby left in a car, another in a telephone box. It would take decades to find out why.

When he was just a baby, David McBride made headline news in Northern Ireland. He had been discovered in the fr…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Breaking my addiction to war

Fergal Keane's work as a war correspondent was destroying him, but he couldn't stop.

It was his job as a BBC journalist to help the audience make sense of the madness of war, but he knew there was ano…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

The fearless former nun fighting for India's seamstresses

From convent to marriage to factory floor, Thivya Rakini will stand up for herself, and you. From an early age she's fought for what's right. As a child living in Tamil Nadu, she stopped eating so he…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Learning to live with the voices in my head

Debra Lampshire started hearing voices aged five. Comforting at first, they soon took control.The voices became so visceral and intense that Debra had to spend 18 years in a psychiatric hospital. The…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Rebel gunmen in Ugandan skies

Pilot Firoz Khimji witnessed his country's wars from above. Then conflict came for him.

For most of his life, Uganda had been unstable, but he'd been able to train as a commercial pilot despite the vi…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago