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By BBC World Service
Extraordinary first-person stories from around the world. An archive of Outlook podcasts from 2016-2022. For new episodes from the team, subscribe to Lives Less Ordinary.
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The podcast currently has 1,478 episodes available.
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Dr Karen Nyberg has many talents. She's an engineer and astronaut, but she's also an avid quilter, so when she joined the International Space Station in 2013, she took her sewing kit with her. She created a nine-inch, star-themed quilt square in orbit which inspired over two thousand other quilters to do the same. Karen tells Jo Fidgen about the challenges of quilting in zero gravity and of leaving her three-year-old son and husband - also an astronaut - behind on earth. She's now designed a collection of fabrics called Earth Views based on photographs she took from Space. The archive clips you heard came courtesy of NASA. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: June Christie Get in touch: [email protected] (Photo: Dr Karen Nyberg with her quilt square in space. Credit: NASA)

Nigerian Ruona Meyer was inspired by her famous journalist father - Godwin Agbroko - to become an investigative reporter like him. When he was killed, her grieving brother became addicted to codeine cough syrup. Ruona - clad in bullet proof vest and blue lipstick - risked her life to uncover the black market trade in the medicine that’s become a street drug. Her documentary Sweet, Sweet Codeine has been nominated for an Emmy. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Constanza Hola Image: Ruona Meyer Credit: BBC Get in touch: [email protected]

As a 16-year-old boy in Togo, Tété-Michel Kpomassie knew he had to escape. It was the late 1950s, and his father had ordered him to train as a priest in a snake cult. But Tété-Michel was terrified of snakes after a close encounter up a coconut tree that had nearly cost him his life. One day, he came across a book about Greenland. He read that there were no reptiles, only ice, and he was intrigued by the Inuit people. So he set out on an odyssey to reach this mysterious country, full of images of icebergs and sledding and hunting. It took him eight years to travel through Africa and Europe, all the while doing clerical odd-jobs, before final reaching the south of Greenland in the mid-60s. He was the first African they had ever seen, and was offered a warm welcome. For 18 months, he learnt the culture and way of life; dog-sledding, seal-fishing and acclimatising to the cold. Then, he returned to Togo as a different man - he shared his story and built a bridge between Africa and Greenland. Now 80, he speaks to Jo Fidgen about his extraordinary adventure and his hopes to return this year to buy a house and spend the last part of his life there. Michel The Giant: An African in Greenland is by Tété-Michel Kpomassie. Get in touch: [email protected] Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Katy Takatsuki (Photo: Tété-Michel Kpomassie in the 60s. Credit: Tété-Michel Kpomassie)

In 2006 Thomas Schultz and his business partner Lawrence Joseph made a business plan. They were looking for a property to buy, do up and sell. Thomas had his eye on a little cottage near his home in Bellport, a small coastal village to the east of New York City. It was old, dilapidated and needed a lot of attention. But when he crawled through the broken garage door he found something entirely unexpected - 7,000 pieces of art, stacked in piles, rolled up canvasses and strewn across the floor. It turned out to be the work of an unknown artist called Arthur Pinajian and a discovery that would change Thomas' life. Search online to find out more about Arthur Pinajian. Get in touch: [email protected] Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Andrea Kennedy (Photo: Thomas Schultz in front of an Arthur Pinajian oil painting. Credit: The Estate Collection of Arthur Pinajian)

Anna Shechtman began writing crossword puzzles as a teenager - but developed an eating disorder around the same time. She became one of the youngest crossword creators to publish a puzzle in the New York Times newspaper and now writes crosswords for the New Yorker magazine, but during her recovery she sometimes feared that her illness and her love of creating crosswords were inextricably linked. She tells Emily Webb about the art of cruciverbalism, 'crossworld', and why the creation of crossword clues is a political act. Get in touch: [email protected] Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Laura Thomas (Photo: Anna Shechtman. Courtesy of Emily Shechtman)
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