Raised by addicts, Dr Katriona O'Sullivan defied the odds to become a university lecturer.  Her parents were addicted to heroin, she was neglected and not fed. But for the care she received from two influential teachers and the occasional stroke of luck, life may have gone in a very different direction. Katriona's written a book about her life called Poor. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Edgar Maddicott

Sugar sandwiches and smarts: a poor kid's fairytale ending

Have you ever locked eyes with a stranger and wondered, "What’s their story?" Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Extraordinary stories from around the world.

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

In 2016, when Jenny Söderqvist and Helene Åberg’s car exploded in the middle of the vast Kalahari desert, their supplies and only lifeline to the outside world went up in flames. No rescue would come. The two friends from Sweden would spend the next five harrowing days lost in the wilderness and stalked by lions, until their salvation appeared to them in the most unlikely of forms: a tin of Spam. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Edgar Maddicott Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Lost in lion country and saved by Spam

Mistaken for a terrorist, and detained without trial. Art became his refuge. Pakistani taxi driver Ahmed Rabbani was arrested in 2002, labelled a terrorist and spent 21 years in US detention, including time in a CIA secret prison. Incarcerated without trial or charge, Ahmed was subject to enhanced interrogation, or what he describes as 62 different types of torture. When he was transferred to a cell in Guantanamo Bay, Ahmed would pick up paint and pastels and find solace through art – creating vistas he could only imagine. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Voiceover: Mohammed Hanif Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Painting, prison and two decades in Guantanamo

In this podcast, Nicky Campbell talks to extraordinary people and explores what it means to be different. Is it how we think? Or how we act? From those who’ve survived extreme experiences to people with unique jobs, listen to hear something different each week.
 
For every episode, just search for Different wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Introducing… Different

On the day his mother disappeared in December 1989, 11-year-old Collier Landry started looking for evidence.   He suspected his father, a rich and well-respected town doctor, had something to do with it. This is the story of Collier's fight to get justice for his mother, and the detective who believed him. Collier's film is called A Murder in Mansfield.   Presenter: Asya Fouks 
Producer: Helen Fitzhenry Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

How I convinced police my dad was a murderer

How Ustad Noor Bakhsh, a Pakistani shepherd in his 70s, became a folk music star After hunting for four years, Pakistani ethnomusicologist Daniyal Ahmed finally finds Ustad Noor Bakhsh, an elderly shepherd and master of the electric benjo – an obscure stringed instrument with typewriter keys. With Daniyal’s help, Ustad Noor would go from serenading his goats in the jungles of Balochistan to performing for revellers on the European festival circuit. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Translation: Wajid Baloch Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Sugar sandwiches and smarts: a poor kid's fairytale ending

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