From convent to marriage to factory floor, Thivya Rakini will stand up for herself, and you. From an early age she's fought for what's right. As a child living in Tamil Nadu, she stopped eating so her parents would send her to the school of her choice. She left behind life in a convent, then a marriage, and went on to defy expectations as a working single mother. She’s now the leader of a union advocating for seamstresses making fast fashion for international chain stores and has negotiated an historic deal. Presenter:  Jo Fidgen
Producer:  June Christie

The fearless former nun fighting for India's seamstresses

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.

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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

Balochistan’s mystery benjo man, part 2

The epic quest to find an elderly Pakistani musician and his unusual stringed instrument Daniyal Ahmed is a flute player and anthropologist who spends his time searching out and documenting folk music across Pakistan. In 2018, he was mesmerised by a video clip of an elderly man – described as a “poor fisherman” – expertly playing a benjo, an obscure stringed instrument that looks like a cross between a guitar and a typewriter. So began Daniyal’s hunt for this mystery master musician. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Maryam Maruf Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

The fearless former nun fighting for India's seamstresses

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