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The Happy Pod: Climbing a mountain 64 times to inspire others
00:27:27
Happy stories and positive news from around the world - our weekly collection
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- [00:00]
Alex Ritson
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk. Packages by Expedia. You were made to be rechargeable.
- [00:12]
Tunde Onakoya
We were made to package flights, hotels.
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Alex Ritson
And hammocks for less. Expedia Made to travel.
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Mihael Mercado
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Tunde Onakoya
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- [00:53]
Alex Ritson
This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and in A woman who nearly died on South Africa's famous Table Mountain has climbed back up 64 times and hopes to inspire others in the way others inspired her.
- [01:16]
Tania Morkul
I couldn't believe that I am now inspiring other people. For me to be on the Happy Pod. I cannot tell you how incredible because you've been my inspiration. Now I can inspire other people. The thing that's extremely important to me is to understand that you are so, so much stronger than you think.
- [01:36]
Alex Ritson
Also the children who used a computer game to design their own real life park in Bolivia. A chess master returning to the poor Nigerian neighborhoods he grew up in to urge young people to dream big.
- [01:49]
Tunde Onakoya
I don't want to be remembered as a guy who could beat multiple people at chess or break world records, but as a guy who could help those children believe that they could also do.
- [01:57]
Alex Ritson
Great things for small places and why a group of businessmen in Japan have taken up cheerleading. We start with a remarkable story of recovery and endurance from one of our listeners. In September 2023, Tania Morkul, an experienced trail runner and mountain guide, fell 18 meters down a ravine while hiking on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. She was 64 at the time and sustained numerous life threatening injuries, including a broken back, a skull fracture and a brain hemorrhage. But inspired by other stories of resilience she's heard here on the Happy Pod, Tania vowed to return to her beloved mountain and has just completed 64 climbs in 64 days. To raise money for the Wilderness Search and Rescue Service that helped save her life, she's been speaking to Holly Gibbs, starting with the moment the ground just disappeared under her feet.
- [03:03]
Tania Morkul
I didn't have the opportunity to say to my husband, I love You. Goodbye. It was just absolutely no warning. And suddenly I was gone. So I was knocked out. Immediately. My niece phoned my son, and she said, your mom just had a fall, and I don't know if she's alive. Please come. Immediately. She phoned the search and rescue. We were incredibly lucky on that day. There was an Austrian nurse, and she'd actually taken the wrong route. And she came across my niece who was calling out for help. And she was able to get very fast down a very precipitous area and get to me. She woke me up, and I just felt somebody stroking my hair. And she said, you're a strong person. You're going to survive. And that was the message that was encoded into me right from the beginning. Even when the rescue teams arrived, she said, this woman is strong. She'll survive.
- [04:02]
Holly Gibbs
What was going through your mind when you were being rescued?
- [04:05]
Tania Morkul
The one thing that really stood out for me was this incredible calmness. It was quiet. They worked with so much efficiency, and they calmed the entire situation down. So I was moving my feet so that they could see that my spinal cord is not broken. And I wanted for. In case they were called out to a much younger person on the mountain, I wanted them to say, no, this woman, you know, she really has Faetano, so we've got to keep going. As I was airlifted, I remembered a story just a few months before on the happy pod, actually, of these people in Pakistan that were dangling in a cable car. And I remembered so clearly their voices and this incredible rescue operation. And I felt so held by that. My happy part has been every Saturday I go for my walk with my dogs and I listen to it. And I've had so many of these stories that actually sustained me as well when I was in hospital.
- [05:09]
Holly Gibbs
Well, we are totally honored to have played any part in your recovery. Do you hope that sharing your story might do the same to someone who might find themselves in a similar situation to you when they've just had a really bad accident?
- [05:21]
Tania Morkul
Yes. You know, I spent three weeks on a ventilator in hospital. I just needed to push through this time. And I often thought of people that had actually pushed through. You know, this is the thing. I remember that very distinctly as well. Somebody who'd dived into a dam, and he knew he was paralyzed from the spine down. He said to himself on the way, I will never say why. Why me? And I decided to make that my mantra. I will never say why me? And that is the advice I give to absolutely everyone. And no matter how severe your injuries. You can get up and you can fight back. It was extremely hard to sometimes come out of a coma and not know where I was. I did not know even who I was. And a nurse came, he looked me in the eye and you just believe that you can do this. So I had to often trust in the people around me. And I remember my trauma surgeon one day came to me, said, you're going to climb the mountain again. I can't believe that I will, but if you think so, I would absolutely, you know, love to do that. That day it just turned for me.
- [06:36]
Holly Gibbs
And now you have climbed Table Mountain 64 times in 64 days.
- [06:43]
Tania Morkul
Oh, my goodness, yes. So I got these incredible physios. I said to them, I have the dream to do the mountain 64 times, to actually give back to the people who saved my life. And they said, of course, and if you want us to, we'll come up the mountain with you. We're going to train you for this. The search and rescue people even joined me on a number of them. And I cannot tell you how incredible it is to be surprised. Supported by the people of Cape Town and by all the tourists that came up that heard about my story. And I couldn't believe that I am now inspiring other people. For me to be on this, on the happy pod, I cannot tell you how incredible because you've been my inspiration and now I can inspire other people. The thing that's extremely important to me is to understand that you are so much stronger than, than you think you are. You have to surround yourself with positive people and never give up.
- [07:47]
Holly Gibbs
Tanya, this is so inspiring. My final question for you is, how is your life different now? Has your outlook on life changed?
- [07:57]
Tania Morkul
It's almost like a sea color, more enhanced. It's as if the sky is bluer for me than it ever was. I feel so incredibly lucky to be alive.
- [08:08]
Alex Ritson
Tania Morkul and our thanks to her stepdaughter Danielle for getting in touch. If you have a story to share about something that's inspired you and helped you in tough times, please send us an email or a voice note. Globalpodcastbc.co.uk. for the past 16 years, kids and adults alike have used the video game Minecraft to create their own virtual worlds. In the so called sandbox game, players are able to build things with blocks ranging from houses and cities to tools to take on adventures. Well, now a group of children in Bolivia have used the game to design a real life park in their city. As Isabella Jewell reports.
- [08:58]
Holly Gibbs
It's the best selling video game of all time, with tens of millions of active players every month. Minecraft has captivated gamers since it was first released in 2009, many of them drawn to the creative freedom the online playground provides. Now the virtual world has been brought into reality by a group of children in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba. Working with the local authority Save the Children and UN Habitats, they spent a few months designing their dream public space on Minecraft. Hayden, who's 11, was one of the 20 children involved.
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Hayden
This is an unforgettable project because we are redesigning Cochabamba.
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Nicole
We want to make people comfortable and.
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Hayden
Happy in our city.
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Nicole
So we design squares, parks, gyms, football.
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Hayden
Fields and schools all on Minecraft.
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Holly Gibbs
A neighborhood in the south of Cochabamba called Barrios Unidos was the focus of the project. It's an area that, despite having four schools, doesn't have much in terms of child friendly public spaces. That's something 14 year old Nicole said she wanted to change. We came up with so many ideas.
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Hayden
We really wanted the authorities to help.
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Nicole
Us make our designs.
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Holly Gibbs
The children involved in the project had lots of ideas and after months of work, they had pulled them together into one coherent plan for a central park. As Bernardo Castillo from Save the Children.
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Mihael Mercado
Explains, part of the experience is to.
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Alex Ritson
Realize what are the real possibilities of the municipality and the real needs of the neighborhood.
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Mihael Mercado
So at the end of the project.
- [10:50]
Alex Ritson
They have made a design that includes.
- [10:53]
Mihael Mercado
A park, playgrounds, an outdoor gym and skating rinks.
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Alex Ritson
All these things were things that the.
- [11:01]
Mihael Mercado
Municipality agreed to build and that were needs that the children have identified in a democratic way.
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Holly Gibbs
An urban planning expert was brought in to adapt their plans so they complied with health and safety requirements and planning rules. The design for the United Ideas park was then proposed to the local government and the authorities agreed to fund it.
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Mihael Mercado
My name is Mihael Mercado, I am.
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Alex Ritson
An architect and I am currently serving as the Secretary of Planning and Environment.
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Mihael Mercado
It has been a passionate effort as.
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Alex Ritson
The children were working and playing at the same time. And the community showed remarkable openness towards this kind of project development process for the benefit of the community.
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Holly Gibbs
The use of Minecraft in urban design is unusual, but after the success of this project, Save the Children and UN Habitat are hoping to replicate it with other groups of children across Bolivia. Mihail Mercado again.
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Mihael Mercado
We believe that with.
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Alex Ritson
This project we are building a new society, the society of the future, because the children are being taken into account in the construction of cities.
- [12:20]
Holly Gibbs
So Perhaps this will be the start of a new approach in design for children by children.
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Alex Ritson
Isabella Jewell reporting. Now, it's long been known that how we feel emotionally can affect our physical health too. But research suggests that happiness could even boost the effects of vaccinations. A small study of 184 people having MRNA vaccines for Covid found those in a more positive mood had a better immune response, making more of the antibodies needed to fight the virus. Health psychologist Kavita Verdara from Cardiff University in Wales spoke to my colleague Claudia Hammond.
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Hayden
We've been working in this area for a couple of decades, as have others, but this new study is particularly exciting because it's doing two things that are different. Different. Previously, my work has focused on older adults where we know they already have a declining immune system. So there's a greater potential for you to see an effect of mood or anything else. This population, in our current publication were younger adults, an average age of around 30 years. And the second aspect that's really interesting is that we're looking at positive mood and very briefly at the time of vaccination, which completely transforms or opens up whole new avenues for intervention. So why might this happen? What could the mechanism be? That means that because you're in a good mood, your body for some reason mounts a better immune response when you get the vaccine. So we don't exactly know, but there are some things that we could consider that are plausible. One of the things that seems unlikely is that it's behaviour, because of course we're talking about something that's happening in a very short term context. So it's not likely that sleep or diet are the pathways driving this. So it's much more likely to be physiological, where we're seeing potentially a decrease in the amount of inflammation and that might enable vaccines to produce that antibody response more robustly in the first phase. And so that decrease in inflammation might just come about because you're in a better mood at that moment. Yes. Does that mean there needs to be some way of putting everyone in a good mood while they're in the waiting room? I've heard it called an inoculation of fun. What kind of fun would we be talking about? I don't know, playing people comedies or videos of penguins. They're used a lot in psychological studies, aren't they? Because they put people in a good mood. They are. Well, I'm pleased you asked that because actually we have put together a very brief package of only 15 minutes, four older adults, which does appear to do a great job of improving positive mood. It doesn't include penguins, I'm afraid, but it does have the Two Ronnies, a little bit of Elvis, a bit of Fawlty Towers. And what we're really evoking there is this kind of nostalgia of the comedy of, you know, 30, 40 years ago. And what we find is that actually it has pretty good reliable effects, improving positive mood and even decreasing negative mood, even in people whose mood's pretty good, even when they. Before they start. So we might, in the future see a day when we go and, I don't know, sit for 15 minutes first watching lovely comedies before we have our vaccines. Well, that's exactly what we've been working on for a couple of years now, is trying to find exactly the right sort of audio, visual content. We focused on older adults, so we've specifically chosen content suitable for them. But of course, you can imagine that we would use different content for different groups. I can see episodes of Friends coming on here. That's a brilliant idea. Thank you, Claudia.
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Alex Ritson
Professor Kavita Vidara from Cardiff University. Coming up in this podcast, we actually.
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Nicole
Have put black rhinos back into the wild, and the science behind it absolutely has made a difference. So I have a lot of hope for the future.
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Alex Ritson
A surprising way to help rhinos breed. It's possible to do great things from small places. That's the motto that Tunde Onakoya says has helped him go from a childhood of extreme poverty in Nigeria to to becoming a chess master. Last month, he set the world record for the longest ever match, playing against Shawn Martinez in New York's Times Square for a staggering 64 hours. The event helped him raise money for the charitable organization Tunde founded, Chess in Slums, Africa, to help children growing up in similar circumstances to his own. He's been speaking to Katie Smith.
- [16:54]
Tunde Onakoya
Every person that has done very meaningful things in the world, it all really started from a small place. And I remember writing it down and just putting it on the wall in my room that it is indeed possible to do great things from a small place. And as long as that remains a possibility, then I have to try to help even children believe that.
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Holly Gibbs
You broke the world record for the longest chess marathon, and you did it alongside Sean Martinez.
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Tunde Onakoya
I think the real beauty of. Of that moment was that we shared so many other. So many other people. Right. And when you push that limit of human capacity, you give the world something new to believe in. And that is always an inspiring thing that we can push. What human limitation is. Everyone gathered around us and just feeding up that energy just, just kept me going. That this was now so much more than the chess, the game, even the record. It was about having people share this moment with us. I mean, just kept going.
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Holly Gibbs
So you've done a great thing. Can we go back to that small place? Maybe go back to when you started playing chess? When did you fall in love with the game?
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Tunde Onakoya
21 years ago. You know, I was nine. You know, we grew up in, in some hardship, so sometimes I would go out to help my mom sell food. And I just stumbled into this chessboard. It wasn't a barbershop at the time. I've called it love at first sight. And I think chess is one of those really captivating things, even by design, that triggers curiosity in a child's mind. And I molded the chess pieces myself and I got a cardboard and I draw the checkered squares. So by just watching, I was able to pick up the rules of the game. I'll teach my brother so I could beat him, you know. Then one day, eventually they called me to the table to play. And I was so excited to show them all the things I learned. But I ended up losing in tombs. I was checkmated in tombs. And I remember he gave me a book to read. I struggled to read it, but I read it eventually, like cover to cover. And after reading the book was when I got my first win against him. It felt like I had found the one thing I could succeed at, right. There was a lot of things in my life that I couldn't control. Sometimes we'll go to bed without food, right? But the first time I had found this magical world of 64 squares I could always escape to. And he taught me an important lesson about consequences, you know, a reward for hard work. And also knowing that all growth comes from, from knowledge. If I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't have discovered new knowledge. And that knowledge helped me to beat this, this master.
- [19:24]
Holly Gibbs
And it's now valuable lessons like these through chess that Tunde is passing on to others through the organization that he founded, Chess in Slums Africa.
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Tunde Onakoya
Thankfully, true chess, I've been given the privilege of, of dining with the very successful people and being in all of these places, traveling the world to share, you know, my talents. But the real truth here is that, and they are just children of those ones, I can do even better. But then opportunity, my old entire, like ideology is turning that spotlight into flashlights and illuminating the things that I do and the things that I see that the world probably wouldn't see, but because they See me. They will see those children and also appreciate their talents. See, I don't want to be remembered as a guy who could beat multiple people at chess or break world records, but as a guy who could help those children believe that they could also do the same thing and do great things for small places.
- [20:18]
Alex Ritson
Dunde Onikoya talking to Katie Smith for Not by the Playbook, which you can find wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Eastern black rhinos are among the world's critically endangered species. But global breeding programs are starting to make a difference. And one of the secrets to success is what scientists are able to learn from hormones in their droppings. Technology reporter Alastair Keane went to Chester Zoo in Northern England to find out more.
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Nicole
Emma, Come on, lady. Come on. I'm up early to join Callum Garner, one of the black rhino keepers at Chester Zoo. This is Emma in front. She got lovely long hairy ears, so we can tell there's her. And then this is Kasulu. So Kasulu is in like a yellow young teenage years at the minute. Being a zookeeper might sound like a fun job, but we've got a slightly more grim task to do today. You got a sample bag? You ready to collect some poo? Let's go and do it. Yeah. So you want to break the ball apart and then you just want to pinch bits out of the middle. The poo is actually really important to us here, collecting M4 samples every week. From that, our scientists can tell us when's best to mix our rhinos because they're part of the European breeding program and it can be dangerous mixing them. But if we know she's in estrus, it's more likely that it could go well, and hopefully it will go well. The efforts here are part of a global conservation program. The zoo is home to Europe's newest and largest endocrinology lab, analyzing samples sent from all over Europe.
- [22:03]
Tunde Onakoya
Hello.
- [22:03]
Alex Ritson
Hi.
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Nicole
I've got a sample for you. Thank you. John o' Hanlon is one of the scientists. The challenging bit is particularly a rhino. So because of what they eat, they're browsers, so they'll eat trees, grass. There's a lot of bark in the samples themselves. And so what we want, you want the pooey bits. The ultimate goal is to see populations of critically endangered species grow in the wild. Dr. Sue Walker is the head of science at Chester Zoo. I firmly believe we can actually make a difference. I've seen it happen in my lifetime. So when I was younger and started off as a scientist, I ran hormones in the lab for black rhinos and I never conceived of the fact that the next generation, their prodigy, would be returning, but they have. So we actually have put black rhinos back into the wild and the science behind it absolutely has made a difference. So I have a lot of hope for the future. While science still struggles to keep up with the rate of extinction, advancements in tech are bringing new hope of saving these animals in the wild.
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Alex Ritson
Alastair Keane reporting. And you can see rhinos Emma and Kosulu on the Tech now programme on the BBC website. A homeless man has been inundated with job offers from around the world after his sign asking for work went viral online. Mark Hamblin from South West England had been self employed before having to take time off to care for his father. Jasmine Kettyboer Foley has more details.
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Tunde Onakoya
I never thought I'd be here, you know, I've always worked hard all my.
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Alex Ritson
Life, earned good money. You know, sitting on the street asking for money from strangers, it's hard, it's humbling.
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Holly Gibbs
After writing a sign that said he wanted work, not money, Mark, who's homeless, has been inundated with job offers from all over the world. His call for help was shared on Facebook where it was met with a huge response.
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Alex Ritson
I've got work from Scotland, Tuscany, South America, which I said yes to all of it.
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Tunde Onakoya
I haven't replied to everybody here.
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Alex Ritson
Some like 500 responses so far.
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Tunde Onakoya
I've only got through like a quarter of it, so it's been overwhelming, innit?
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Holly Gibbs
Mark was a self employed roofer, but his work dried up whilst caring for his dying father. His situation forced him into homelessness, but in a dramatic turn of events, he's now looking forward to starting a new job.
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Tunde Onakoya
I've got more than enough job offers.
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Alex Ritson
At the moment, but yeah. Any more trips abroad?
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Tunde Onakoya
Yeah, maybe.
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Alex Ritson
Jasmine Kettyboer Foley and Mark Hamlin. Many people working in full time jobs like to blow off steam on days off. But a group of men in Japan is taking this to a whole new level by cheerleading around 30 businessmen, many of whom did cheerleading at university, are picking up their pom poms and meeting at weekends. But there's a twist. Harry Bly reports.
- [25:10]
Mihael Mercado
Meet the Cheery Mans, a group of male cheerleaders in Tokyo who perform wearing suits. The name is a mashup of cheerleading and salaryman because these men all work in traditional corporate roles and this is their way of unwinding and de stressing from the busy office. Cheerleading, for those not familiar, involves lifting teammates in the air, tumbling jumping and performing other acrobatic moves, all while in sync with each other and following the rhythm of the music. Sho Hayashi is part of the team. I was scared at first for sure, but I got used to it and felt secure knowing that my teammates would catch me. So I'm no longer afraid of that technique. 21 year old Soichiro Kakimoto has a typical routine for a white collar worker. From Monday to Friday he commutes to and from his software development job on a crowded train, often working late and many nights a week goes out drinking with colleagues. Weekends though are for the Cheery Mans.
- [26:18]
Nicole
On weekdays I use my brain and on Saturdays and Sundays I use my body. Even if one isn't well, the other might be and that's contributing to my overall mental health.
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Mihael Mercado
Satoi Mochizuki is one of the co founders of the Cheery Mans.
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Tunde Onakoya
They're all just regular salarymen. In my case I work for a general trading company and I usually go out drinking after work or do overtime. So you can really say that I'm balancing this with being an everyday salaryman.
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Mihael Mercado
And as for why the team perform wearing suits?
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Tunde Onakoya
We chose to wear suits for our performances because there's this common image in Japan and probably the whole world of the typical salaryman in his suit working day after day as a cog in society and we thought it would be a good contrast for us to express ourselves through our performances, wearing suits and doing what we love with all our might.
- [27:13]
Mihael Mercado
For training, the team often uses a college gymnasium borrowed from a conventional female cheerleading team. There, in exchange for biscuits, the Cheery mans can often be found performing, transforming to the public in local shopping malls, spreading joy to passersby.
- [27:33]
Alex Ritson
Harry Bly and that's all from the Happy Pod for now. But if like Tanya, you have a story you'd like to share, we'd love to hear from you. Just email or send a voice note to globalpodcastbc.co.uk and you can now watch some of our interviews on YouTube. Just search for the Happy Pod. This edition was mixed by Chris Hanson and the producers were Holly Gibbs and Rachel Bulkley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time. Goodbye.