Tani Adewumi and his family fled their home in Nigeria under threat from the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. They ended up living in a homeless shelter in New York. It was there Tani discovered a talent for chess. At eight years old, and just one year after he started playing the game, Tani won the New York State Championship for his age group. Tani, his elder brother Austin, his mother Oluwatoyin and father Kayode tell Emily Webb how it all happened.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Andrea Kennedy

Picture: Tani Adewumi

Credit: Micah Kandros

Yeshe Losal Rinpoche is a Lama who runs a monastery and Buddhist centre in rural Scotland. As you might expect his days are filled with meditation and contemplation, but life hasn't always been so serene - he shares tales of a dramatic Himalayan mountain escape, dancing and decadence on the New York disco scene and hanging out with David Bowie.

In 2008, Naomi Jacobs went to bed in her home in Manchester as a 32-year-old woman. When she woke the following morning, her world had changed. Overnight, her memories had gone. She didn't recognise her home, her life, or even her child. Instead, she believed she was a teenage schoolgirl living in 1992. And she was utterly bewildered by how she had ended up in the future. She told Emily Webb how the diaries that held the key to her past eventually got her back to the present.

This progamme was first broadcast on 8 September, 2018.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Maryam Maruf

Image: silhouetted woman opening curtains in the morning

Credit: p saranya/Getty Images

Bonga Kuenda is one of Angola’s most notable musicians, a master of the semba - traditional Angolan music. He was born during Portuguese colonial rule, and before music, Bonga had forged a career in athletics. In the 1960s, he emerged from the shanty towns of Luanda to become the fastest sprinter in the Portuguese Empire, but he was racing for a regime that he despised, one he was secretly trying to bring down. This podcast was first released on 3rd November 2018.

Presenter: Harry Graham

Producer: Maryam Maruf

With thanks to Edward Drummond for the translation

Image: Bonga Kuenda

Credit: Getty Images

Imani Wilmot was born into a surfing family – her father is known as the 'godfather' of Jamaican surfing and her brothers are also avid boarders, so she took to it like a duck to water. She was good too, winning competitions and representing her country with pride. But she soon realised that she was the only top black female surfer at those competitions, and that if she wanted a community around her she’d have to create it herself. Imani spoke to Jo Fidgen about how she set up a surf school for girls and women when she was 17, sharing her confidence and discovering the healing power of the waves.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Thomas Harding Assinder

Picture: Imani Wilmot and her daughter Nya

Credit: Lucy Jane

Noor Huda Ismail believes he narrowly avoided becoming radicalised as a teenager in Indonesia. But he got the shock of his life when he was a journalist covering the 2002 Bali bombings and recognised a familiar face among the suspects – a childhood friend from school. That set him on a mission to understand why and how people end up getting involved in extremist groups. He committed himself to helping de-radicalise former extremists and founded the Institute for International Peace building. He also runs a café in Indonesia where some of his employees are former Islamist extremists - he believes that one of the keys to de-radicalisation is keeping people busy.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Nathan Gower / June Christie

Picture: Noor Huda Ismail

Credit: Courtesy of Noor Huda Ismail

After being involved in a shoot out with an undercover police officer outside her home in Philadelphia, BL Shirelle faced years behind bars. But it was in prison where she would meet her future wife, finally embrace her facial hair and find her voice. She tells Jo Fidgen about how a song she wrote and performed while serving time helped her find a way out of a life previously dominated by drugs, crime and violence. She is now the deputy director of the record label, Die Jim Crow and has recently released her debut album.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Thomas Harding Assinder

Photo: BL Shirelle

Credit: Courtesy of DJC Records

BL Shirelle had a talent for writing poetry from a young age. But while she was growing up in Philadelphia, her mother struggled with addiction and eventually BL became involved with drugs too. By 12 years old she was dealing crack cocaine from their home, but she was still writing raps everyday about the things she saw and experienced. She tells Jo Fidgen how one night, when she was 18, she heard  a commotion on the street and went out to investigate, only to be caught up in a very serious situation. Part two of her story continues tomorrow.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Thomas Harding Assinder

Photo: BL Shirelle

Credit:  Courtesy DJC Records

Travel writer Claire Nelson was hiking in Joshua Tree, California when she slipped off a boulder and fell 15 feet into a canyon. She was trapped, and completely alone in the scorching hot wilderness, with limited water. How would she survive? This episode was first released on 1st December 2018.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Maryam Maruf

Picture: Joshua Tree

Credit: Ernst Haas/Getty Images

Born during a hurricane, Russel L. Honoré grew up as a black man in Louisiana during segregation, but he found his calling in the military. He rose through the ranks to become a Lieutenant General, and when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 he was the man in charge of the joint military and civilian relief effort. Having seen the power and devastation caused by nature during his career, in his retirement he formed a ‘Green Army’ of environmental campaigners in his home state.

 

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Nathan Gower / June Christie

 

Photo: Russel Honoré

Credit: Getty Images / Robert Sullivan