In 1979 scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn opened the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, pioneering a meditative approach to treat pain and depression. In a few decades, mindfulness has gone from being a specialist element of Buddhist teaching to a billion dollar industry. In 2019, Farhana Haider spoke to Dr Kabat-Zinn about the popularising of mindfulness to tackle the stresses of modern life.  (Photo Jon Kabat-Zinn teaching MBSR at the University of Massachusetts Medical School 1992, Credit Jon Kabat-Zinn)

Mindfulness for the masses

History as told by the people who were there.

History

Society & Culture

On 18 April 2014, an avalanche on Mount Everest killed 16 men, who were carrying supplies for commercial expeditions to higher camps. The sherpas were on the Khumbu Icefall, just above Base Camp in Nepal, when the avalanche happened. It resulted in the climbing season being cancelled and sherpas demanding better working conditions on the mountain. Lakpa Rita Sherpa helped dig bodies of his dead colleagues out of the ice, before transporting them home to their families. He speaks to Laura Jones. (Photo: The south-west face of Mount Everest and the Khumbu icefall. Credit: Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Deadly Everest avalanche

The 2014 Ebola outbreak devastated West Africa, killing more than 11,000 people over a two year period. One country that suffered was Sierra Leone. The disease started in Guinea, but quickly spread to neighbouring countries.  Before May 2014, there had never been an outbreak of Ebola in Sierra Leone. By autumn that year, burial teams were struggling to keep up with the number of corpses that needed burying.  Dan Hardoon speaks to Yusuf Kabba, an Ebola survivor from Sierra Leone. (Photo: Headstones in the Waterloo Ebola Graveyard, Sierra Leone. Credit:  HUGH KINSELLA CUNNINGHAM/AFP via Getty Images)

West Africa's Ebola virus epidemic

When the train service between India and Bangladesh was suspended in 1965, following war between Pakistan and India, it lay dormant for 43 years. But in a day of celebration in 2008, the Maitree (or Friendship) Express rumbled into life and connected the two countries once more. In 2020, Farhana Haider spoke to Dr Azad Chowdhury who was on the inaugural train journey.  (Photo: Crowds line the tracks for the train’s first journey. Credit: STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

The friendship train: Connecting India and Bangladesh

A group of men known as the ‘Cairo 52’ were arrested in Egypt in May 2001. They were on board the Queen Boat, a floating gay nightclub on the River Nile. Omer, not his real name, was arrested and imprisoned for habitual debauchery. There is no explicit law against homosexuality in Egypt and Omer was released early following the orders of US president at the time, George W Bush.  Omer speaks to Dan Hardoon about the arrest and its aftermath – in graphic detail. (Photo: Some of the 'Cairo 52', dressed in white with their faces covered, being escorted by security into a court in Cairo. Credit: Marwan Naamani/Getty Images)

Egypt and the ‘Cairo 52’

Hiroo Onoda was an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who spent nearly 30 years in the Philippine jungle, believing World War Two was still going on. Using his training in guerilla warfare, he attacked and killed people living on Lubang Island, mistakenly believing them to be enemy soldiers. He was finally persuaded to surrender in 1974 when his former commander, Yoshimi Taniguchi, found him and gave him an order.  In a televised ceremony, Hiroo presented his sword to the then Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. President Marcos returned the sword and gave him a full presidential pardon and told him he admired his courage. Hiroo died in January 2014 at the age of 91. This programme was produced and presented by Vicky Farncombe, using BBC archive. (Photo: Hiroo Onoda steps out of the jungle. Credit: Getty Images)

Mindfulness for the masses

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