Lives Less Ordinary

Latest Episodes:

The invisible child who now shines at Eurovision, part 2 Sep 10, 2023

Show notes

From the page to the stage: William turns childhood fantasies into reality.

In London, William Lee Adams is feeling disillusioned with his job, when a Romanian singer on a horse appears on his computer screen and he's inspired to start writing about the Eurovision Song Contest. Wiwibloggs is born, and grows to be the world's most-followed independent blog and video channel about Eurovision. In the process, he gets to visit some of the far-flung places he escaped to as a child in the US reading encyclopaedias.

William has written a memoir called Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Rob Wilson

The invisible child who now shines at Eurovision, part 1 Sep 03, 2023

Show notes

A bond between brothers, a coming-out story, and an international song contest.

William Lee Adams is one of the leading voices covering the Eurovision Song Contest, criss-crossing the continent to interview stars and live-stream shows. But as a child growing up in small-town America, he was made to feel invisible; encouraged to suppress his Vietnamese heritage and questions about his sexuality. He found solace in caring for his brother, John, who had severe physical disabilities due to a brain condition. Even so, he needed an escape route.

William has written a memoir called Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Rob Wilson

Miracle on the ocean floor Aug 27, 2023

Show notes

Harrison Okene spent three days trapped in an air pocket in a sunken ship.

Harrison was the ship's cook, and he'd been in the bathroom when the tugboat he worked on had suddenly capsized in bad weather. The vessel sank 30 metres to the seabed, upside down, and Harrison was trapped inside.

Days passed, and up on the surface a mission was launched to recover the bodies of the tugboat's crew. Divers descended, but they never expected to find anyone alive.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Eric Mugaju and Harry Graham Editor: Munazza Khan Sound design: Joel Cox

Archive was courtesy of DNC Diving

Indiana Jones: The kids who remade a blockbuster Aug 20, 2023

Show notes

In 1982, two Mississippi boys recreated a $22m film, shot-for-shot, on their pocket money.

Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala were aged 10 and 11. Their mission would take them seven years to complete, and it would push their friendship to the edge. There’d be amateur stunts, fires, visits to the emergency ward, production shut down by angry parents and many fallouts. It would swallow them whole.

But decades later a lost tape would be unearthed, bringing Eric and Chris back together for their final scene and face-to-face with one of their heroes.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Edgar Maddicott Editor: Munazza Khan

The woman who fell from the sky, part 2 Aug 13, 2023

Show notes

How a jump changed daring parachutist Tony Osornio's life forever.

Tony was Mexico's best precision skydiver and the first woman to join her country's army. She says she "belonged to the skies", and became a member of an elite team of performance skydivers called the Crazy Birds. She was prepared to sacrifice everything for her love of parachuting - until a jump went badly wrong.

If you need support relating to any of the issues we've covered in this interview, you can find more information on the BBC Action line website or at Befrienders.org

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Louise Morris

The woman who fell from the sky, part 1 Aug 06, 2023

Show notes

Tony Osornio would go to dangerous extremes to keep skydiving.

She was born into a conservative family, and decided to marry the first man who asked in order to escape the restrictions of home.

Her husband was a Mexican military officer with access to the planes used by elite paratroopers. With his help, Tony would sneak on board too, parachute strapped to her back. In love with jumping, she decided she needed to join the Mexican army herself, something no woman had done before.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Louise Morris

The audio has been updated since first published for technical reasons

Bradford 12: The Asian youth who took on the racists, part 2 Jul 30, 2023

Show notes

By 1981, Pakistani-born immigrant Tariq Mehmood had endured years of violent racism in Britain. When he heard that gangs of white skinheads – with a history of attacking Asians – were coming to his home in Bradford, Tariq and his neighbours took desperate measures to defend their community. Underpinning their actions was the principle, “self-defence is no offence.” Tariq would end up being arrested, charged with conspiracy to make explosives, and facing life imprisonment. What followed was the landmark legal case of the Bradford 12.

Hand on the Sun, the novel that Tariq wrote in prison over 40 years ago, has been re-released with a new update.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: Maryam Maruf and Lina Chang Editor: Munazza Khan

Bradford 12: The Asian youth who took on the racists, part 1 Jul 23, 2023

Show notes

As a Pakistani immigrant teenager in 1970s Britain, Tariq Mehmood endured homelessness and years of violent racism. He found shelter and wisdom in a library, and the strength to stand up to the racists. He co-founded the Asian Youth Movement, and their slogan “self-defence is no offence,” would galvanise an entire generation. But it’s a rationale that would see Tariq in court – facing life in prison – in the groundbreaking case of the Bradford 12.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: Maryam Maruf and Lina Chang Editor: Munazza Khan

I save chimpanzees and they've saved me Jul 16, 2023

Show notes

Stany Nyandwi's rescued chimpanzees helped him through war and loneliness.

As a young boy Stany made money selling sugarcane and worked as a 'houseboy' for families in Burundi's capital city Bujumbura. But later, a job with rescued chimpanzees became about more than just money. When ethnic conflict in Burundi escalated into civil war, Stany fled to safety with the chimps who, with histories of their own, gave him companionship and a ticket to a future without war.

Stany is a chimp specialist and his behaviour should not be copied or emulated in any way.

He has co-written a book called The Chimpanzee Whisperer: A Life of Love and Loss, Compassion and Conservation.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: May Cameron Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Who is this kneeling man? Jul 09, 2023

Show notes

My search for the truth about my father and Martin Luther King’s assassination.

Leta McCollough Seletzky grew up knowing that her father was the ‘kneeling man’, photographed tending to the head wound of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr just moments after he was shot in April 1968. As a teenager she stumbled across an alarming detail about why her father was there on that infamous day; it plunged her into the world of conspiracy theories and family secrets. It would take her many years to dig out his true story.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Rebecca Vincent