Lives Less Ordinary Podcast
The most incredible true stories from around the world, told by the people who lived them. Step into someone else鈥檚 life and expect the unexpected.
Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the 蜜芽传媒 World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Step into someone else鈥檚 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 Rio. And their stories can be about anything: tales of survival, humour, resilience and intrigue. From the mind-blowing account of the Japanese man trapped in his own reality TV show, to the Swedish women rescued from lions by a tin of spam. It鈥檚 life鈥檚 wild side, in stereo.
Lives Less Ordinary is brought to you by the team behind Outlook, the home of true life storytelling on 蜜芽传媒 World Service radio for nearly 60 years.
Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
You can read our privacy notice here:
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Episodes to download
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The long climb back
Mon 6 Jan 2025
It started as a magical day for two friends but then a rock came loose
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The journalist who took down a billion-dollar company
Mon 30 Dec 2024
Dan McCrum investigated a story at Wirecard that had him fearing for his safety
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The cricket star who learned to fly
Mon 23 Dec 2024
Ricky Ellcock鈥檚 rollercoaster life as a fast bowler and airline pilot
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The bullet that ended our friendship
Mon 16 Dec 2024
Paul Rousseau was accidentally shot in the head by his best friend and flatmate
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After doomsday: I outgrew a cult and became a professor
Mon 9 Dec 2024
When the world fails to end Jerald Walker is left searching for something to believe in
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Naked and alone: the comedian trapped in a reality TV show
Mon 2 Dec 2024
Nasubi had no idea his 15-month fight to survive was being broadcast on Japanese TV
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How my mysterious childhood became a best-selling novel
Mon 25 Nov 2024
Trent Dalton discovered he was on the fringe of one of Australia鈥檚 biggest crime stories
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The sports scandal scoop that almost destroyed me
Mon 18 Nov 2024
In 1998 Finnish journalist Johanna Aatsalo published a story that made her a hate figure
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Saved by goats after my fall from the sacred mountain
Mon 11 Nov 2024
When he slid off a 40-metre cliff in the jungle, Morgan Segui thought he was sure to die
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Looking for my son for 58 years, part 2
Mon 4 Nov 2024
Bestselling writer Lesley Pearse never stopped looking for her son
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Looking for my son for 58 years, part 1
Mon 28 Oct 2024
Bestselling writer Lesley Pearse's own story is wilder than any romance
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The Wicker Man: Learning to love the film that broke us
Sun 20 Oct 2024
The director's obsessive quest to make this iconic horror film would devastate his family
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"He counted 3, 2, 1 鈥� then stabbed me in the heart"
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Kieran Quinlan was on his way to a party when a man with a knife attacked him
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The US鈥檚 first black astronaut trainee reaches space at 90
Sun 6 Oct 2024
In May 2024 Ed Dwight became the oldest person to travel to the edge of space
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Love, grief, and an AI chatbot
Sun 29 Sep 2024
Joshua created an AI simulation of his deceased fianc茅e to help him deal with his loss
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A love story and a battle cry in the Ecuadorian rainforest
Sun 22 Sep 2024
Nemonte Nenquimo is an indigenous leader who fought back against the oil giants
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The boy who hid from Nazis in the woods, part 2
Sun 15 Sep 2024
Maxwell Smart survived the Holocaust by living in a makeshift bunker on the forest floor
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The boy who hid from Nazis in the woods, part 1
Sun 8 Sep 2024
Maxwell Smart survived the Holocaust by living in a makeshift bunker on the forest floor
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Never ever give up: how Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Florida
Sun 1 Sep 2024
American endurance swimmer Diana Nyad's thirty-year dream to swim from Cuba to Florida
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The hungry boy who devoted his life to muscle
Sun 25 Aug 2024
Gilbert Alaskadi was sick of being bullied; he wanted to be invincible.
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Buddhist chants and Ibiza trance: A Spanish boy鈥檚 odyssey
Sun 18 Aug 2024
Osel Hita Torres was a baby when he was recognised as a reincarnated spiritual leader
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The Lost Boy: A never-ending journey, part 2
Sat 10 Aug 2024
Salva Dut returns to Sudan to find his dad and decides to get clean water to his village
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The Lost Boy: A never-ending journey, part 1
Sun 4 Aug 2024
As a survivor of Sudan's civil war, Salva Dut's will to keep going has taken him far
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Britain鈥檚 infected blood scandal, my quest for the truth
Sun 28 Jul 2024
When he was four, Jason Evans鈥� dad died after contracting HIV from contaminated blood
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The family hiding in the bush after leaking Russian secrets
Sun 21 Jul 2024
Nick Stride said too much about his former boss, one of Putin鈥檚 closest allies
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'It's much easier for them to create a spy than catch a spy'
Sun 14 Jul 2024
Anoosheh Ashoori was imprisoned in Iran, having been falsely accused of espionage
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Dead Man Walking: The US nun who took on the death penalty
Sun 7 Jul 2024
When Helen Prejean wrote to a death row inmate, she had no idea what was coming
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My father Faiz: Pakistan鈥檚 revolutionary poet, part 2
Sun 30 Jun 2024
How Salima Hashmi and Faiz defied a dictatorship through satire and poetry
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My father Faiz: Pakistan鈥檚 revolutionary poet, part 1
Sun 23 Jun 2024
Salima Hashmi grew up with puppets and poetry, inspiring her own career in performance
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The man who finds water in the desert
Sun 16 Jun 2024
Why Alain Gachet quit a lucrative career in oil to search for water underground
