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:
/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice
Episodes to download
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Unmasking my best friend
Mon 27 Nov 2023
Reality TV producer Johnathan found himself in a plot he couldn't have dreamt up
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Becoming Gamal, part 2: Behind the badge
Mon 20 Nov 2023
Gamal Turawa has lived many lives - but never fitted in
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Becoming Gamal, part 1: Magic and misadventure
Mon 13 Nov 2023
Gamal Turawa has lived many lives - but never fitted in
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The fisherman and the 'spy whale'
Mon 6 Nov 2023
Joar Hesten's mission to save a whale rumoured to have escaped from the Russian navy
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Brazil's loneliest fan and his footballing fairytale
Mon 30 Oct 2023
Tiago Rech went viral when he was the only supporter in the stands at his club's game
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Love, Loss and 'Project 22'
Sun 22 Oct 2023
Fleur Pierets and Julian Boom wanted to wed in every country that allowed gay marriage
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38 days: a family adrift in the Pacific
Sun 15 Oct 2023
The Robertsons' boat was attacked by killer whales and started to sink fast
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"My friends were arrested, or simply disappeared"
Sun 8 Oct 2023
Tahir Izgil is a Uyghur poet who lived through a Chinese state clampdown
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Bringing home the prime minister鈥檚 gold tooth
Sun 1 Oct 2023
Juliana Lumumba had to fight to reclaim the remains of her father, Patrice Lumumba.
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The Godmother of Beirut's nightlife
Sun 24 Sep 2023
Under the boot of the Syrian army, Nicole Moudaber brought raves to Lebanon
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The invisible child who now shines at Eurovision, part 2
Sun 10 Sep 2023
From the page to the stage: William turns childhood fantasies into reality
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The invisible child who now shines at Eurovision, part 1
Sun 3 Sep 2023
A bond between brothers, a coming-out story, and an international song contest
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Miracle on the ocean floor
Sun 27 Aug 2023
Harrison Okene spent three days trapped in an air pocket in a sunken ship
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Indiana Jones: The kids who remade a blockbuster
Sun 20 Aug 2023
In 1982, two Mississippi boys recreated a $22m film, shot-for-shot, on their pocket money
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The woman who fell from the sky, part 2
Sun 13 Aug 2023
How a jump changed daring parachutist Tony Osornio's life forever
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The woman who fell from the sky, part 1
Sun 6 Aug 2023
Tony Osornio would go to dangerous extremes to keep skydiving
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Bradford 12: The Asian youth who took on the racists, part 2
Sun 30 Jul 2023
Self-defence is no offence: how anti-racist activist Tariq Mehmood made UK legal history
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Bradford 12: The Asian youth who took on the racists, part 1
Sun 23 Jul 2023
Immigrant teen Tariq Mehmood led a movement to resist violent racism in 1970s Britain
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I save chimpanzees and they've saved me
Sun 16 Jul 2023
Stany Nyandwi's rescued chimpanzees helped him through war and loneliness
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Who is this kneeling man?
Sun 9 Jul 2023
My search for the truth about my father and Martin Luther King鈥檚 assassination
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How I survived a pirate hijack
Sun 2 Jul 2023
Marine engineer Chirag Bahri was trapped for eight gruelling months on a chemical tanker
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Love, war, and the cutting room floor
Sun 25 Jun 2023
Mariam and Mohammed are Yemeni filmmakers who turned the lens on their own relationship
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He was almost a mass shooter 鈥� an act of kindness stopped him
Sun 18 Jun 2023
Aaron Stark now works to raise awareness around why mass attacks happen
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Teenage dreams on the Indian Ocean
Sun 11 Jun 2023
At the age of 13 Laura Dekker fought for her right to sail solo around the world
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'Don't anger the monster', part 2
Sun 4 Jun 2023
Rowena Chiu was kept silent for 20 years by former film boss Harvey Weinstein
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'Don't anger the monster', part 1
Sun 28 May 2023
Rowena Chiu on surviving the Hollywood sexual predator Harvey Weinstein
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Sugar sandwiches and smarts: a poor kid's fairytale ending
Sun 21 May 2023
Raised by addicts, Dr Katriona O'Sullivan defied the odds to become a university lecturer
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Lola the bare-knuckle drag queen
Sun 14 May 2023
Martial arts kept him out of jail, but drag artistry made him whole
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I was there the night Emmett Till was taken
Sun 7 May 2023
Wheeler Parker is Emmett Till's cousin and the last surviving witness to his abduction
