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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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
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Kill or be killed: a climber鈥檚 dilemma, part 2
Sun 9 Jun 2024
Beth Rodden escaped her kidnappers, but the moment would haunt her in the years to follow
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Kill or be killed: A climber鈥檚 dilemma, part 1
Sun 2 Jun 2024
Beth Rodden was on the expedition of her dreams in Kyrgyzstan when she was kidnapped
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The Hiroshima survivor who's still shouting for peace
Sun 26 May 2024
Setsuko Thurlow knows what nuclear war looks like
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Lost in lion country and saved by Spam
Mon 20 May 2024
Two friends stranded in the desert, only a discarded tin held the key to their escape
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Painting, prison and two decades in Guantanamo
Sun 12 May 2024
Mistaken for a terrorist, Ahmed Rabbani was detained without trial. Art became his refuge
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How I convinced police my dad was a murderer
Sun 28 Apr 2024
On the day his mother disappeared, 11-year-old Collier started looking for evidence
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Balochistan鈥檚 mystery benjo man, part 2
Sun 21 Apr 2024
How Ustad Noor Bakhsh, a Pakistani shepherd in his 70s, became a folk music star
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Balochistan鈥檚 mystery benjo man, part 1
Sun 14 Apr 2024
The epic quest to find an elderly Pakistani musician and his unusual stringed instrument
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Exposing Silicon Valley's multimillion dollar fraud
Sun 7 Apr 2024
Erika Cheung went from a trailer park to a top tech company job, but something was off
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My grandmother walked the rabbit-proof fence
Sun 31 Mar 2024
Maria's grandmother was forcibly taken by Australian officials, but made a daring escape
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How to talk to guerillas
Mon 25 Mar 2024
Leyner Palacios grew up around volatile armed groups so he learned to negotiate with them
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I cycled across Africa for a place at my dream university
Mon 11 Mar 2024
A handwritten map is all Mamadou Barry had to guide him from Guinea to Egypt
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Going cold turkey in a Bangkok prison
Mon 4 Mar 2024
Holly鈥檚 life was shaped by heroin addiction. At rock bottom, she finally got clean
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The Pacific odyssey of a runaway rebel
Mon 26 Feb 2024
Ruth Shaw spent years on ships and islands, trying to outrun her past
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Fugees Family: the football team who became my life
Mon 19 Feb 2024
The extraordinary coach who started a football team but built something much bigger
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My dad was Britain's 'most wanted'
Mon 12 Feb 2024
Without realising it, Nick Reynolds had been living his childhood on the run
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Trapped in an icy hell: my 72 day mountain escape
Mon 5 Feb 2024
After crashing high in the Andes, Nando Parrado had to go to the extreme to get out
