Artist Maleonn spent his childhood in the back of a theatre, watching his parents at work. Maleonn’s mother was an actress, and his father directed “very noisy” and “incredibly colourful” Beijing opera performances. Though his father was keen, Maleonn was determined not to follow in his directorial footsteps and instead chased his passion for art. But when his father began to lose his memory in 2014, Maleonn decided to create a play just for him, he called it Papa’s Time Machine. Maleonn wanted to give his father the gift that he had always dreamed of - but it was a race against time.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Fiona Woods

Picture: One of the puppets in Papa's Time Machine

Credit: Papa's Time Machine

Brent Underwood is a young American entrepreneur who spent his life savings on the remains of an abandoned 19th century mining town in California. He was fascinated by its Wild West history, but when he got trapped there by heavy snow earlier this year, all alone, the ghostly tales about the place began to feel all too real.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Rebecca Vincent

Picture: Brent Underwood at Cerro Gordo

Credit: Brent Underwood

South African rugby star Siya Kolisi came from a poor township and tells Outlook's Mpho Lakaje about his journey from water boy to becoming the national team's first black captain and leading the Sprinboks to World Cup victory. Siya and his wife Rachel have set up a charity, The Kolisi Foundation, to help vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in South Africa.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Deiniol Buxton

Picture: Siya Kolisi and the Springboks team after their Rugby World Cup win.

Credit: Cameron Spencer/ Getty Images

Tricia Davies Nearn’s father, David, was killed in the Vietnam War when she was just two years old. Growing up without him, she knew there was something missing, even with a loving family around her. Her mother, an ardent fan of Broadway musicals, liked to sing along to A Chorus Line while vacuuming, but there was one musical she never played: West Side Story . The discovery of an extraordinary archive of tape recordings, made while David was posted in Vietnam, eventually helped Tricia to understand why - and to get to know her father better.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Emily Webb

Picture: David Davies

Credit: Tricia Davies Nearn

With only five and a half months of training, Thomas Page McBee became the first transgender man to box at the famous Madison Square Garden arena in New York City. He's an author and journalist by trade so this was quite a departure for him. His journey to that day wasn’t driven by dreams of record-breaking, instead, it was prompted by a desire to better understand the different ways to be a man and specifically the relationship between masculinity and violence. Thomas had grown up with an abusive step-father and he knew he wanted to be different. When he began transitioning from a female to a male body in adulthood he noticed a change in the way the world was treating him. Women were crossing the road when they encountered him walking late at night, rooms fell silent when his deep voice spoke up in conversations, and he was no longer encouraged to hug because “men shake hands”. So in an attempt to learn the many different ways to be a man Thomas set himself a challenge - a boxing match.

Presenter: Anu Anand

Producer: Sophie Eastaugh and Andrea Kennedy

Picture: Thomas Page McBee

Credit: Amos Mac

Today, Jesse Thistle is a celebrated professor of Indigenous history in Canada. But as a child, he was a high school drop-out, raised by his disciplinarian white paternal grandparents and cut off from his mother and his Métis Cree roots. It set him on a self-destructive path to drug addiction, homelessness and prison. In jail and in his 30s, Jesse learned to read. After he was released, he would reach the pinnacle of academic success – finding his identity, his calling and along the way, his long-lost mother. Jesse’s memoir is called From the Ashes.

Presented by Anu Anand

Produced by Sophie Eastaugh and Maryam Maruf

Image: Jesse Thistle

Credit: Lucie Thistle

When India went into lockdown in response to the coronavirus crisis, millions of migrant workers staying in the cities were left unemployed and stranded. Jyoti Kumari and her dad Mohan Paswan were among them. With no work, they were running out of food and couldn't pay rent. Many migrant workers were travelling hundreds of kilometres on foot to get back to their home villages, but Mohan had been injured in a rickshaw accident and couldn't walk. So Jyoti bought a heavy old bicycle, sat her dad on the back, and cycled 1200km across the country. They spoke to Outlook's Nitin Srivastava.

If you make a phone call in India at the moment, chances are you'll hear Jasleen Bhalla's voice. She's the voice artist giving public service announcements, telling people to stay safe during the pandemic, before any call is connected. With millions listening every day across the country, the messages have elicited some strong reactions. Some call Jasleen a 'corona warrior', others find the messages very annoying.

Presenter: Nitin Srivastava

Producer: Harry Graham

Picture: Jyoti Kumari and Mohan Paswan on their bike

Credit: BBC

Daniele Davoli was a DJ playing the clubs of Italy when he produced a song with his band Black Box that would define 1980s house music. Ride on Time became a smash hit in the UK, with its driving beat, catchy piano riff and powerful sample from American soul singer Loleatta Holloway. But that sample would land the band in a whole lot of trouble, especially after they hired a French model to mime along at their live gigs. When word got out, fans were furious.

Presenter: Harry Graham

Producer: Deiniol Buxton

Picture: Black Box performs Ride On Time on Top of the Pops

Credit: BBC

Just two months after Cristina Zamora had given birth to her baby daughter in 1974, she was taken by Augusto Pinochet's security forces and thrown in jail where she found a creative way to cope. Embroidery, knitting clothes and stitching tiny love letters helped political prisoners like Cristina to survive. Afterwards, Cristina didn't discuss her nightmarish experience but over 40 years later when her daughter, Jimena Pardo, saw the prison crafts in an exhibition, Jimena plucked up the courage to ask her mother about her early life. It also gave Jimena an idea for something she knew could help other survivors.

The exhibition is called 'Crafting Resistance' and can be seen here: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/exhibitions/craftingresistance/photos/

Picture: Jimena Pardo and Cristina Zamora with their embroideries

Credit: Jimena Pardo

Presented by Grace Livingstone

Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Noura Ghazi is a human rights lawyer from Damascus, campaigning for people and prisoners who were forcibly disappeared by the Assad regime. Right at the start of the Syrian uprising, she met software engineer and activist, Bassel Khartabil. Their love blossomed at anti-government demonstrations and on long late night phone calls. Even Bassel’s eventual arrest couldn’t stop them from getting married through the bars of his prison cell. But when all trace of him disappeared, Noura did everything in her power to find her husband. Hers and Bassel's story is featured in the documentary, Ayouni.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Maryam Maruf

Picture: Bassel Khartabil and Noura Ghazi

Credit: Courtesy of Ayouni / Free Bassel Campaign