Stay ConnectedDiscover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.
A weekly programme looking at common challenges around the world and the creative ways people are trying to tackle them.
Presenter Myra Anubi speaks to reporters, experts and innovators to investigate how effective different solutions are, share their successes and inspire listeners with what is possible.
Copyright: © (C) BBC 2022
The Data Donators
Meet Becky. She suffers from arthritis and is in constant pain. Like lots of people – patients and doctors alike – she has a hunch that bad weather could be exacerbating the problem.
It’s a question that has been asked for at least 2000 years, but we have never had the tools or resources to answer it. That is, perhaps, until now. Dr Will Dixon has set up a mass participation study that takes advantage of smartphone technology. More than 13,000 people have downloaded an app that has provided his team with a massive set of data, and by combing through it he hopes to answer the question once and for all. It’s not the only project of its kind, either. Around the world more and more people are launching similar projects – asking thousands of volunteers to donate their data for the greater good.
Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporter: Nick Holland
Image: Overlay of highlighted bones of woman at physiotherapist / Credit: Shutterstock
On the island of Jersey, postal workers don’t just deliver the mail. They also check up on elderly people during their routes. In a five minute chat, they check they’ve taken their medication and if there’s anything else they need. It’s popular with older people and their relatives, and the project has caught the attention of post offices - and health professionals - around the world. Could a chat on the doorstep help solve the social care crisis? We travel to Jersey to meet the man behind the idea, and join a postman on his round.
Presenter: Tom Colls Producer: Elizabeth Cassin
Image: Jersey postman Ricky Le Quesne / Credit: BBC
Parents struggling with childcare costs in London are banding together to care for each other’s kids. They run a super-cheap nursery where mums and dads take on half of the childcare. It’s a throwback to the childcare movement of the 1970s but can it work in the modern age?
Presented by Sahar Zand. Produced by William Kremer.
Image: Drawing of a family / Credit: BBC
There are no sewers in Haiti. 26% of Haitians have access to a toilet, so a lot of the sewage ends up in the water supply. Currently, Haiti is battling the biggest cholera epidemic in recent history and thousands are dying. We travel there to meet a team of women who are trying to solve this massive problem. They have set up an NGO called Soil which delivers dry, compost toilets to peoples’ homes. Alternatives to water guzzling flushing toilets - which need infrastructure such as sewers - are drastically needed in many parts of the world. And there’s a bonus to this scheme too.
Also on the programme, a radical suggestion for airports: build circular runways. Are the current straight ones really the best way to take off and land?
Presenter: Sahar Zand Reporters: Gemma Newby & Dougal Shaw Producer: Charlotte Pritchard
Image: The women of Haiti who work for the NGO Soil / Credit: BBC
Could we build cities using solar panels instead of walls? That’s the dream that Huang Ming, a wealthy entrepreneur in China’s Shandong province, has had since the 1980s. He’s become known as the ‘Sun King’ after building a vast solar park, including a showcase hotel, to prove a new kind of solar architecture is possible. So why hasn’t it caught on? We check into a room in the solar hotel and examine the vision and sometimes unfulfilled dreams of solar architecture in China. Plus, why do bins in Copenhagen have shelves built into them? Clue: it helps the city’s poorest people.
Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporters: Emma Wilson and Harriet Noble
(Image: Huang Ming and his solar hotel, Credit: BBC)
An innovative housing project in Amsterdam is attempting a new way of integrating refugees into the local population. In prefab flats, refugees from the Syrian war live next door to young people in need of cheap rent. They eat together, learn language together, and develop the networks that researchers say are critical to successful integration.
Presenter: Charlotte Pritchard Reporter: Jo Mathys
Image: Young people living in the Startblok / Credit: BBC
Air pollution is a huge problem for China, but did you know it’s actually getting better? The Air Quality Index in several cities is improving, because of a variety of experimental projects that are being rolled out. In this special edition of World Hacks as part of the #SoICanBreathe season, we are in Beijing to gather together some of the thinkers and entrepreneurs leading China’s efforts to clean its air. We work through their ideas with an audience of students and entrepreneurs, as well as hearing reports about clever pollution solutions from around the country.
Presented by Mukul Devichand and Vincent Ni. Additional reporting by Emma Wilson and Ruhua Xianyu.
Image: A woman wearing a face mask in central Beijing / Image credit: BBC
Voter turnout is a problem around the world, particularly in local elections. But a small group of academics and activists in the US are experimenting with a new way of getting people to turn up and put their cross in a box – a lottery. Every voter is entered and one lucky winner gets a big cash prize. World Hacks investigates whether it works.
Presenter: Kathleen Hawkins Reporter: Gemma Newby Producer: Tom Colls
Image caption: Lottery balls about to be drawn, Image credit: Thomas Samson / Stringer / Getty Images
Food waste is a massive global problem: the EU alone throws away 88 million tonnes a year. Much of this ends up in landfill and produces dangerous greenhouse gasses which contribute to climate change. In Europe 53% of food waste comes from households, and one woman has made it her mission to stop Danes throwing away food. We travel to Copenhagen to meet Selina Juul, a key part of Denmark’s food waste revolution.
Food waste is a massive global problem: the EU alone throws away 88 million tonnes a year. Much of this ends up in landfill and produces dangerous greenhouse gasses which contribute to climate change. In Europe 53% of food waste comes from households, and one woman has made it her mission to stop Danes throwing away food. We travel to Copenhagen to meet Selina Juul, a key part of Denmark’s food waste revolution.
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