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PODCAST

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC World Service

Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Our guests come from every corner of the globe: from Burundi to Beverly Hills, New Zealand to North Korea, Rajasthan to

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

41:22

Laughter saved me: the comedian turning tragedy into...

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2026/01/19

When she was 14, Krystal Evans survived a lethal house fire. Years later, to come to terms with what she’d experienced, she turned it into a stand-up show. The women in Krystal's family have always been funny, she says; her mother was no exception. But as well as being hilarious she also struggled with mental illness, and life in Krystal’s childhood was chaotic. With very little money, the family would move from place to place, Krystal would miss months of school and often be left to take care of

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44:20

Living a lie: discovering my dad faked who he was

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2026/01/12

Joanne Briggs had always thought of her dad as a bit of a superhero. But he was hiding a dark secret.She only saw him a couple of times a year during her childhood in the UK, but that was because Professor Michael Briggs was off travelling the world being a very important scientist. Or at least that was the story she grew up to believe. It was only in 1986, when Joanne was 23, that she first got a glimpse of who he really was. The Sunday Times newspaper exposed him as a scientific fraud, leaving his

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40:35

Fatima Whitbread: from abandoned baby to world champion

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2026/01/05

Fatima Whitbread grew up in a UK children’s home. She found both a mother and a coach in one person – going on to break the javelin world record and become an Olympic medallist.Fatima spent her first 14 years in a series of institutions after being abandoned as a baby. She longed for stability and love, and found both in an unexpected place – on the sports field. Coach Margaret Whitbread spotted her talent early, and when she discovered that the young Fatima was growing up without a family, invited

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40:30

One suitcase, three kids: a broke scientist pursues a...

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/12/29

When Ijeoma Uchegbu arrived back in the UK as a single mum of three young children she soon found herself living in a homeless shelter; now she is a pioneer in the field of nanoparticles in medicine.Ijeoma Uchegbu has dedicated her career to studying pharmaceutical nanoscience, seeking out ways to carry medicines to parts of the body that are notoriously hard to reach. But as a schoolgirl in the UK her aspirations were to work in a shop and earn enough to go dancing at weekends. It was when her

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41:06

I broke the most important rule: don't get attached

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/12/22

Swedish youth worker Nicolas Lunabba had one strict rule: never get attached to the kids you help. Then 13-year-old Elijah moved in — and turned his mentor’s flat into a home.In Malmö, Sweden, where poverty and violence shaped young lives, detachment was Nicolas' survival strategy. Then he met Elijah, an eight year old with a mohawk, a basketball under his arm, and a fearless, sometimes dangerous streak. They bonded over basketball and five years later, Elijah arrived at Nicolas’ flat and made a

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39:10

Tulisa: I wanted fame, but it almost destroyed me

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/12/15

N-Dubz singer Tulisa Contostavlos survived betrayal and a tabloid sting.Tulisa was born into a family of musicians in Camden, London, and says music was part of her everyday life. But her childhood was impacted by her mother's severe mental health episodes that would often end up with her being held in psychiatric institutions. After her parents divorced, Tulisa would frequently have to care for her mother by herself. Tulisa escaped into music, and although she was initially determined to become a

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40:52

The ragtag boy who was taken in by a football icon

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/12/08

The incredible story of the football icon who changed a boy's life. Craig Bromfield's start in life was difficult: there was often no electricity in his childhood home, and he didn’t even own a coat. He was in and out of the social care system, and would ask for money on the street. This is what 11-year-old Craig was doing with his brother Aaron, one fateful day in 1984, on a windswept seafront in the North East of England when he crossed paths with the era’s most famous football manager, Brian

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41:20

My private trauma was leaked to the press – so I...

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/12/01

When Jenny Evans was sexually assaulted and confidential details appeared in a national newspaper, she decided to investigate – uncovering police corruption, tabloid spying, and phone-hacking. Jenny got a role in her first feature film when she was just 19 years old. At a film party in London she became separated from her friends and was sexually assaulted by a public figure she'd just met. At first she was too traumatised to report what had happened. But later, when other women came forward with

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38:08

How Paramore’s singer revived her grandad’s lost album

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/11/24

Hayley Williams’ grandpa Rusty nurtured her musical dreams – now, she’s returning the favour.As the lead singer of American rock band Paramore, Hayley Williams has won three Grammy Awards and toured the world. Behind the scenes, her grandad Rusty has been her biggest supporter and musical hero, nurturing her childhood passion and later her career. Rusty is the one who taught Hayley how to play the drums and the piano. He even followed Paramore’s tour bus around the US in his car with Hayley’s

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41:38

Miriam Toews: A loud voice in a town once ruled by...

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/11/17

The award-winning author who used her strict Mennonite upbringing to tell its unspoken stories.Miriam Toews is one of Canada’s most acclaimed novelists, but her journey began far from the literary world. Raised in the conservative Mennonite town of Steinbach, Manitoba, she grew up surrounded by deep faith, strict expectations, and a culture where silence often covered over difficult truths. The town didn't even have a train station to keep it separate from the 'worldy' practices of contemporary

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4:21

Introducing Cyber Hack: Evil Corp

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/11/14

Accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars – Russia’s most wanted hackers. Just who are Evil Corp? In season 3 of Cyber Hack, we follow the years’ long trail with investigators as they try to track down the man alleged to be at the centre of it all, hacker Maksim Yakubets. Search for Cyber Hack wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And don’t forget to follow or subscribe, so you never miss an episode.

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38:33

Trapped underground: my 54-hour cave rescue

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/11/10

Trapped underground: my 54-hour cave rescue. For George Linnane, an experienced caver from England, being underground is his happy place, somewhere he can feel calm away from the chaos of daily life. But when he and two friends set out for a routine trip in the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system in Wales one Saturday lunchtime in November 2021, they couldn’t know it would turn into a nightmare. After a stone bridge gave way underneath him, George fell ten metres onto solid rock and couldn’t move. He

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37:55

Stabbed as a boy – and becoming a poet for a lost...

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/11/03

Aged 16, coming out of an audition, budding British actor Dan Whitlam was caught up in a fight with a group of boys in London. He was stabbed twice in the back with a screwdriver. The wound pierced and collapsed his lung. The physical scars healed quickly but the mental ones took a lot longer. For years Dan battled with panic attacks and anxiety. He was plagued with worries that his lung had collapsed again, his father became his chaperone as he was afraid to walk the streets alone.Two years later,

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37:34

Tim Berners-Lee: The man who dreamed of a World Wide Web

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/10/28

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, on the unique upbringing that inspired a tech revolution. Tim Berners-Lee has well and truly changed the world. For under-35s it's almost impossible to imagine what life might have been like without him. But when he launched the World Wide Web in December 1990, no-one knew the success it would become - and most struggled to understand why the world needed the Web at all. Tim, however, grew up steeped in the knowledge that computers held the key to

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39:56

The baby-dinosaur hunter who ended up in Hollywood

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/10/20

Jack Horner inspired a character in Jurassic Park after the dino discovery of a lifetime.Jack has been fascinated by fossils for as long as he can remember. He spent his childhood digging around in the fossil-rich earth of Montana, as his father was involved in the gravel-extraction business. By the age of eight he was rewarded with his first big treasure – a real piece of dinosaur bone. As Jack's fossil collection grew, so did his passion for palaeontology. But he struggled at school, where severe

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42:27

The escape from Vietnam that tore my family apart

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/10/13

In the chaos of the helicopter evacuation from Saigon in April 1975, Doan Hoàng Curtis' sister was somehow left behind. It would haunt her family for years. Doan was just three years old when her family made it onto one of the last helicopters to leave Saigon as troops from the communist North took over the city and the Vietnam war came to an end. Her father was a major for the South Vietnamese air force and if he'd stayed in Saigon he could have been killed. Leaving Vietnam was an extraordinary

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28:44

Enter the new dragon: the Bruce Lee of Afghanistan

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/10/06

Abbas Alizada was nine when he first saw a Bruce Lee film. He fell in love with kung-fu, copying his hero’s moves and his look before an online post shot him to overnight fame.Abbas was born in Kabul in 1993, the youngest of nine siblings. His family are Hazara, an ethnic minority who have historically faced violence and persecution in Afghanistan, and were partcularly targeted when the Taliban first took power in 1996. During this time, music and movies were banned, and Abbas’ family kept a low

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24:12

Jane Goodall: In her own words

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/10/02

This extra edition of Lives Less Ordinary is to remember the remarkable conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall, who has died at 91. The life she lived alongside great apes revolutionised the way we see them – and ourselves. It was 65 years ago that a young Jane left England to travel to the Gombe Stream National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganika. She was there to observe chimps in their natural habitat – and her discoveries were game-changing. It was the first time anyone had seen a

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40:03

Sweet surprise: I found my birth mother in my local...

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/09/29

Vamarr Hunter always felt a special bond with the owner of his favourite local bakery — but never imagined she could be his long-lost birth mother. Vamarr loved to visit the bakery in his home neighbourhood in Chicago, enjoying the cakes, pies and cookies, but also the warm company of the owner, Lenore Lindsey. Vamarr had had a tricky time growing up, and only discovered he was adopted when he was in his thirties. Initially he had no interest in searching for his birth mother, but years later a TV

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41:18

Zarna Garg: The rise of an ‘unstoppable’ comedy star

Lives Less Ordinary ·

2025/09/22

Once a homeless teen in Mumbai, now Zarna Garg’s a top comedian, touring with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.Zarna Garg was in her 40s living in New York City when she went to an open mic night for the very first time. Before that, she’d never even heard of stand up comedy and was only there, resentfully, at the insistence of her children who were convinced their mother would be a success. The kids were right, and Zarna – who was desperate for a new career – found her calling in comedy. Zarna has spent

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207 results

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