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
-
![]()
Tanzania鈥檚 hip-hop politician
Sun 30 Apr 2023
Joseph Mbilinyi pioneered Swahili rap and then turned to politics, but ended up in jail
-
![]()
'Brother. do. you. love. me.' The SMS that changed our lives
Sun 23 Apr 2023
Brothers Manni and Reuben Coe, and the text that prompted a lockdown rescue mission
-
![]()
'Prison Break' and my escape from Manus Island
Sun 16 Apr 2023
Tricks from a hit TV show held the key to Jaivet Ealom鈥檚 audacious bid for freedom
-
![]()
The spy who wanted to bring down apartheid: Part 2
Sun 9 Apr 2023
ANC spy Sue Dobson infiltrated the South African government. Then her cover was blown.
-
![]()
The spy who wanted to bring down apartheid, part 1
Sun 2 Apr 2023
Sue Dobson was a white South African who risked her life as an ANC secret agent
-
![]()
Bringing the Muppets to Moscow
Sun 26 Mar 2023
Natasha Lance Rogoff鈥檚 daunting task of making Sesame Street in post-Soviet Russia
-
![]()
My life in seven swimming pools
Mon 20 Mar 2023
Amjed鈥檚 determined to teach kids in Gaza to swim no matter how many pools he has to build
-
![]()
The Ukrainian opera singer nearly silenced by a bullet
Mon 13 Mar 2023
Sergiy Ivanchuk dreamed of stardom, before he was shot in the chest by Russian soldiers
-
![]()
I didn鈥檛 know I was part of an experiment
Mon 6 Mar 2023
When Greenlander Helene Thiesen was just seven, two Danish men came to take her away
-
![]()
Eyes on the prize: Pakistan鈥檚 first trans film star
Mon 27 Feb 2023
Rejected by family and society, Alina Khan carved her own path to big screen fame
-
![]()
Becoming Blair 'the Flair': a boxer on the run, part 2
Mon 20 Feb 2023
In the ring, Blair finds calm amidst the chaos of his life
-
![]()
Becoming Blair 'the Flair': a boxer on the run, part 1
Mon 13 Feb 2023
From Beverly Hills to hiding from the law with his dad, Blair鈥檚 seen it all
-
![]()
The mystery of the tartan twins
Mon 6 Feb 2023
A baby left in a car, another in a telephone box. It would take decades to find out why
-
![]()
Breaking my addiction to war
Mon 30 Jan 2023
Fergal Keane's work as a war correspondent was destroying him, but he couldn't stop
-
![]()
The fearless former nun fighting for India's seamstresses
Mon 23 Jan 2023
From convent to marriage to factory floor, Thivya will stand up for herself, and you
-
![]()
Learning to live with the voices in my head
Mon 16 Jan 2023
Debra started hearing voices aged five. Comforting at first, they soon took control
-
![]()
Rebel gunmen in Ugandan skies
Mon 9 Jan 2023
Pilot Firoz Khimji witnessed his country's wars from above. Then conflict came for him.
-
![]()
Coming out as India鈥檚 first gay prince
Mon 2 Jan 2023
Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil risked everything when he faced his parents and society
-
![]()
The secrets of a slave ship in an Alabama swamp
Boxing Day 2022
Journalist Ben Raines went in search of a sunken ship with a dark history
-
![]()
Searching for my sister, the "keeper of memories"
Mon 19 Dec 2022
Nakuset blocked out painful memories of being removed from her indigenous Canadian family
-
![]()
Guns, guards, snarling dogs: a child migrant鈥檚 story
Mon 12 Dec 2022
Javier Zamora travelled alone from El Salvador to the US when he was just nine years old
-
![]()
The Palestinian tapes, part 2
Mon 5 Dec 2022
Disco, protest and poetry 鈥� Hanan and Riad鈥檚 story of making the Intifada album
-
![]()
The Palestinian tapes, part 1
Mon 28 Nov 2022
Mo鈥檓in Swaitat鈥檚 magical discovery of lost family music and a mysterious yellow cassette
-
![]()
I hit puberty, then burned down my family home
Mon 21 Nov 2022
At 18 Nikki Owen set fire to the family home 鈥� and she didn鈥檛 know why
-
![]()
He knocked on my door and said: 'I believe you'
Mon 14 Nov 2022
How the friendship of a stranger helped Betsy when she needed it most
-
![]()
My father鈥檚 hidden crimes
Mon 7 Nov 2022
Anal铆a鈥檚 father was accused of being a government torturer 鈥� he said it was a lie
-
![]()
The child spy and her secret agent parents
Mon 31 Oct 2022
Sue-Ellen Doherty was trained by her parents to spy for Australia during the Cold War
-
![]()
A fake billionaire in North Korea, part 2
Sun 23 Oct 2022
Jim is deep undercover in North Korea 鈥� but will he find proof of illegal weapons deals
-
![]()
A fake billionaire in North Korea, part 1
Sun 16 Oct 2022
Jim Latrache-Qvortrup posed as a weapons dealer to expose a North Korean criminal network
-
![]()
Opiyo鈥檚 law: Never let fear rule your life
Sun 9 Oct 2022
Nicholas Opiyo survived civil war to become one of Uganda鈥檚 top human rights lawyers
