For many years, Uzbekistan was a particularly dangerous place to be a journalist. Speaking out against the government of former president Islam Karimov could lead to torture and a lengthy spell in prison. So it was a surprise for many when in 2004 secret messages started appearing online, containing what seemed like detailed and scandalous information about the president's household. For years, the identity of the writer was kept a secret, and the messages kept coming. Then one day, an inconspicuous football writer called Bobomurod Abdulla was snatched off the streets by the security forces, and the secret was finally out.

Do you have a fantastic story involving a secret or a lie? We'd love to hear about it. Record a short voice memo or write an e-mail and send it to us at [email protected]. If your story is about someone you know, just make sure they're ok with you telling us about it.

Presenter: Ibrat Safo

Producers: Ibrat Safo & Harry Graham

Secrets & Lies series producer: Fiona Woods

Music: Joel Cox

It's Secrets and Lies season on Outlook and we're revisiting some of the most fascinating stories from our archive on the theme. In this episode we hear about secrets borne out of shame.

When Gail Lukasik was growing up in the US, she'd always wondered about her mother's quirky habits. For instance, she always wore a light foundation before she went to bed. Years later Gail would discover that this had been one of her mother's attempts to hide the fact that she was actually multiracial and had 'passed' as white her whole life. Gail wrote a book about her story, White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing. She spoke to Emily Webb in 2019.

Stanley Underhill is a British priest who—at 91—came out as gay. He spent his whole life facing prejudice because of his sexuality but says that for the first time in his life, he's comfortable in himself. He’s written a book about his life called Coming out of the Black Country. He spoke to Emily Webb in 2019.

Do you have a fantastic story involving a secret or a lie? We'd love to hear about it. Record a short voice memo or write an e-mail and send it to us at [email protected]. If your story is about someone you know, just make sure they're ok with you telling us about it.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Fiona Woods

Orginal story producers: Alice Gioia and Emily Webb

Music: Joel Cox

In this episode of Outlook's Secrets and Lies series we're revisiting two astonishing stories from our archive about life undercover.

As a young woman Ieva Lesinska was faced with an agonising choice. To renounce her father as a traitor, or defect to the US and leave behind everything she knew in Latvia. Ieva says it was like she was living in a spy movie, and a film has now been made about her life, it's called: 'My Father, the Spy.'

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is a trained lawyer-turned-investigative reporter in Ghana, and a frequent presenter of the BBC's Africa Eye. In his nearly 20 years working undercover, he's exposed judges taking bribes for a not-guilty verdict; top football officials for fixing matches; sex-trafficking rings; organ-harvesting operations. To do so, he had to disguise himself as a psychiatric patient, as a janitor in a brothel and even as a rock in a barren landscape. His work has led to numerous convictions, but his methods are sometimes dangerous and controversial.

Do you have a fantastic story involving a secret or a lie? We'd love to hear about it. Record a short voice memo or write an e-mail and send it to us at [email protected]. If your story is about someone you know, just make sure they're ok with you telling us about it.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Fiona Woods

Original story producers: Nathan Gower, Deiniol Buxton, Andrea Kennedy and Harry Graham

Music: Joel Cox

We're delving into the Outlook archive to bring you stories about parents who kept shocking secrets from their children.

In April 1997 a woman dressed as a nurse walked into a Cape Town hospital and left with a new born baby. The baby's name was Zephany Nurse - that child would not discover her true identity for another 17 years. This story was presented by Mpho Lakaje. Miche Zephany's book about her experience is called Zephany, Two Mothers One Daughter.

As a film-obsessed gay teenager, Wes Hurley was thrilled to move to the US from Russia. But his mother’s new husband was moody and homophobic. He told Outlook's Saskia Edwards how they ended up bonding, after a surprise revelation. Wes made a film about his life, co-directed by Nathan Miller, called Little Potato.

And if all this sharing of secrets has got you thinking about a story in your own life, we'd love to hear it. Write to us, or send a short voice memo to [email protected]. The secret could be about you or someone you know, or it could just be a fantastic tale you heard. If your story is about someone you know, just make sure they're ok with you telling us about it.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Fiona Woods

Original story producers: Thomas Harding-Assinder and Saskia Edwards

Music: Joel Cox

It's secrets and lies season here on Outlook and we have two stories about the way lies and fake news online can wreak havoc in our offline lives.

Monika Glennon is a Polish-born estate agent living in the US. One morning she got a frantic call from a colleague: an explicit post had been written about Monika, claiming she had an affair with a client and that she was a ‘homewrecker’. The story was fabricated, but as it became the first hit when you googled her name, Monika began to lose business, fell into a depression, and even feared for her safety. Who was behind the post? She tells Jo Fidgen her terrifying story.

Rema Rajeshwari is an Indian police officer. In 2018, rumours of child kidnappers and violent murders spread throughout her district via messaging apps. Locals were scared and started forming mobs and attacking strangers. Rema had an unorthodox solution: traditional storytelling, inspired by her grandmother. She told Outlook’s Emily Webb how she used storytelling to combat fake news.

Do you have a story about how a secret or lie changed a life? It could be something that happened to you or someone close to you, or it could just be an amazing story you heard. If so, we'd love to hear about it. Record a short voice memo or write an e-mail and send it to us at [email protected]. If your story is about someone you know, just make sure they're ok with you telling us about it.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Fiona Woods

Original story producers: Saskia Edwards and Harry Graham

Music: Joel Cox

Isabel and Susana González hunt percebes, also known as gooseneck barnacles. They're rather ugly crustaceans that can fetch thousands of dollars per kilogram at auction. To collect them, the González sisters must traverse slippery rocks along the Spanish coastline where they risk falling and drowning. Many hunters have lost their lives doing this job.

But this isn't the only danger the sisters have faced in their line of work. When they began there was a lot of discrimination against women, including the fact that they could only catch three kilograms per day, while men had a quota of five. This system was regulated by an association. The sisters figured the only way to achieve equality was to become part of the management of the association. But when Susana ran for the presidency, she faced death threats. Still, they managed to revolutionise their whole industry. This episode was first broadcast on 1st of September 2019.

Reporter: Pablo Esparza Altuna

Producer: Saskia Edwards

Picture: Isabel González collecting barnacles

Credit: Pablo Esparza Altuna

Chris Downey was always an intensely visual person - he was an architect working in California, a baseball coach and an avid cyclist. But at the age of 45 he went blind very suddenly after doctors discovered a tumour on his optic nerve. Chris used his creative skills to navigate the now unfamiliar world around him and as he adapted to his new normal he began to gain a new vision for designing spaces to suit a broader range of experiences. His firm is called Architects for the Blind.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Jo Impey

Picture: Chris Downey's hands reading an embossed architectural drawing

Credit: Fogg Studio

Yoshiki is one of Japan's biggest stars. Although he started as a classical pianist, he went on to become an extraordinary drummer who transformed the music scene in Japan with his wild performances and over-the-top outfits. It all began in the 1980s when he founded the band X Japan and spawned a whole new style. They have fans all over the world, have sold more than 30 million records and have won many awards. This month Yoshiki received Japan's prestigious Medal of Honor for his support of frontline medical workers during the Covid 19 pandemic. This interview was first broadcast on 1st March 2017.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Thomas Harding-Assinder

Picture: Yoshiki from X Japan on stage during Coachella Music and Arts Festival in 2018

Credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images for Coachella

Long stretches at sea are part of life for a merchant seaman so when Indian marine engineer Vikash Mishra accepted a job on a cargo ship in the Gulf, he expected a lengthy period away from his young family. But a few months became years after Vikash's employer ran out of money. They abandoned the broken-down ship, called the Tamim Aldar, 20 miles off the coast of Dubai. Vikash and his crewmates were trapped on the leaky vessel without much in the way of food, fuel or electricity, so they had to learn to survive. When all hope seemed lost, they would make a perilous attempt to reach land. Vikash Mishra and Reverend Andy Bowerman of the Mission to Seafarers speak to Outlook's Kevin Ponniah.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Picture: Vikash Mishra

Credit: Vikash Mishra

For Sue-Ellen Kusher, nee Doherty, growing up in the suburbs of Brisbane was far from normal. Both her parents worked for the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation, ASIO, and in the early days of their marriage, they brought up their three children to be part of the family business. It was the 1950s during the Cold War, and Russian and Chinese communists were regarded as enemies. Sue-Ellen and her siblings would collect information about anyone suspicious - tracking number plates and going to political rallies. And most importantly of all, they learnt to keep secrets and never ask questions. Then when she was 17 her father Dudley, who she idolised, died very suddenly. At least, that's what she was told. He was a man who'd often disappeared on missions - and she was to spend many years waiting for him to return and wondering whether her mother was keeping from her the biggest secret of all.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Katy Takatsuki

Picture: The Doherty family during the 1956 Olympics with Russian defectors Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov (L-R Vladimir Petrov, Joan Doherty, Mark Doherty, Evdokia Petrov, Sue-Ellen Doherty and an unidentified ASIO Officer)

Credit: Sue-Ellen Kusher