Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: AI helped find the siblings I didn’t know about

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

Avtar Singh, who was born in India and is now 66 years old, grew up not knowing his Kenyan-born mother, because his father had separated from her and not told him anything about her.One day he typed the few details he had into AI, and found a blog by someone called Nicci Dhamu, who turned out to be his half-sister. Also, viral baby Milani has become the first giraffe to survive a C-section birth. The team at Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Kansas gave her round-the-clock care to make sure she stayed alive. Plus, 88-year-old Mick Wadge has gained hundreds of thousands of views on social media for sharing his weightlifting journey. He started going to the gym after his wife died.Sophie Woods has become the fastest person to complete the Via Alpina, one of the world's toughest endurance challenges, and how one farmer in Canada is trying to stop food waste through an event called "Ugly Potato Day". Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.(Photo: Nicci and Avtar in their late mother’s kitchen. Credit: Nicci Dhamu)Presenter: Holly Gibbs. Music composed by Iona Hampson

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I'm Holly Gibbs, and in this edition... Nikki said, yeah, are you, you know, my mom's son? Then my mind switched and said, oh my God, I'm actually talking to my sister. The man who used AI to try and track down his mother, only to discover he had three siblings. Also on this podcast, it's incredible. I mean, the care and the passion of our team here at Tanganyika is second to none. We have so many people working around the clock to make sure that she had the care that she needed. She is Malani the giraffe.

We meet her and find out how her birth made history. Plus, it's a full workout. When we finished, they carry me out and put me in my car. The 88-year-old who is channeling his grief into weightlifting and... One of the kids' dad visited, he increased his reading levels by two grade levels. It made us feel good like we're actually making a difference in these child's lives. The library on wheels getting children excited about reading. A man in Canada has used AI to find three siblings who,

he never knew existed. Aftar Singh, who was born in India and is now 66 years old, grew up not knowing his Kenyan-born mother. His father had separated from her and not told him anything about her, apart from her first name, which was Savinda. One day, Avtar typed her name, approximate age, and links to Africa and India into AI, and found a blog post by someone called Nikki Darmu,

a jewellery designer in London. Avtar reached out to Nikki, and after talking about their past, the pair realised they were actually half siblings. My colleague, Julian Warwicka, has been speaking to both Aftar and Nikki. I grew up with so much influence, creative influence from my mum. About a year and a half or a year after she died, I think. I wanted to honour her creativity and honour the creative legacy that she's left me,

which is what I expressed through my own work. And obviously her past, which included Avatar, wasn't something that had been discussed at all. Never spoke. She never, never once said anything in a direct sentence that I have been married before. And, you know, I became the detective when I needed to find Aftar for my mom

because in her later years she was crying. She had dementia. She would say Mirabacha in crime, Mirabacha in Punjabi means my child. Avta, having read that, article, what was the next step? I crafted an email that, yeah, I would like to learn more about your mother's life in India because I do feel, just from reading the article, that, yeah, it touched me.

And we might have some family connection. And so I sent that. I read this email and I was just like, whoa, my mind started thinking, is this, is this Dito? Is this mom's son? I must have read it a couple of times and I started getting quite most. I'm not surprised. And I sent him a very polite reply saying I'd be open to having a conversation when we did actually speak.

Padji, why don't you tell them what you were asking me? So I said, you know, can you tell me what your mom's life in India? Then I did ask. I said, well, did she have any children? And Nikki replied with the answer that that kind of made my heart kind of stopped for a few minutes that she had a son. And that silent pauses where the next. words that Nikki said to me just... Yeah, I said, are you?

Yeah. Are you, T2? Are you my mom's son? I just could not believe I heard that. And I just said, you know, pardon, could you kind of repeat that again? And, you know, she said the same name again. And this sheer flood of emotion that I could not control came out. And, you know, I was just in tears because it's a nickname of mine from childhood.

But the pronunciation of saying D2, right, was done by my grandmother when I lived in India. I said, this is my final confirmation. And he stopped crying. I think you both did. I did. I was crying. I'm crying even right now. I mean, this is every time I replay that in my mind, tears comes to my eyes.

Yeah, even I'm choked up now. I mean, it's an extraordinary privilege to sit here listening to you telling that story. Yeah. I wonder sort of months on, how does it? feel now? It is absolutely amazing. You know, I have an older sister. I'm the middle child. I have a younger brother. And now

there's four of us. We have an older brother. You know, Aftar did come over. I did introduce him to my mom's younger brother who remembered him as a child. And I remember my auntie saying it's been so many years and finally

the doors have opened. I didn't really expect to find kind of like, you know, my mother alive. I mean, that would have been a miracle. But what I did not expect at all, when Nikki said, yeah, are you, you know, my mom's son, then my mind switched and said, oh, my God, I'm actually talking to my sister. And then you asked me, are there more of you? Exactly.

Now my crying turned into laughter. I said, oh, my God, I can't believe I actually have this other family out there. I was very content and very happy. But look at this now. This is just like a bonus that I got of not just my three siblings over there, but I've got this large extended family of cousins and nieces and nephews. And the best thing is that, you know, this family has just embraced me with all the love of the world. Avtar and Nikki speaking to Julian Warwicka.

Our next story was sent to us by a listener. So thank you Constanza for this one. A giraffe called Malani was born last month at Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Kansas. But Malani isn't any giraffe. The zoo says she is the first ever to have survived being born by C-section. It was a team effort across multiple animal centres to keep her alive, which included around-the-clock care. I caught up with the director of Tanganyika Wildlife Park, Matt Fawkes.

And as you're here, we were all. also joined by Melani herself. Melani was born on July 11th, and she was actually born by an emergency C-section that we had to do. Her mom had kind of fallen ill and we'd been treating her, but she got to a point where we weren't sure that she was going to make it, and so we chose to do the emergency C-section in hopes that we could save the baby.

For people who can't see you, you are stood next to Malani, who was sat very nicely but is now stood up, Talk to me about the care that she received from the zoo. From the start, you know, it was a mad scramble once. I mean, we had to obviously cut mom open and pull her out. And at that point, she's not moving. She's not breathing.

Her eyes aren't open. And so for giraffes, normally when they're born, they fall about six feet down to the ground. And that kind of signals to their body like, okay, it's time to be alive, right? It's time to wake up. And we had to try and recreate that with Malani. finally she kind of opened her eyes she took a breath and then immediately the team kind of went to work we we had oxygen for we had to get

oxygen to her get her cleaned up get her kind of stable and then once that was done we got her move to a stall that that was a little smaller that we could continue care with her then she's on the move yes milani's just walked off from the interview the camera so then we just needed to get essential like we were using an oxygen mask on her but that one wasn't going to work long term. So we had to find a way to essentially get a two oxygen tube that we could put down her and find a machine that could, you know, do constant oxygen. We scrambled. We were able to work with Dickerson Park Zoo and get some plasma from another giraffe. That was

about a five-hour round trip, but we finally got that and got that in her. I mean, initially, she couldn't even hold her neck up, two people with her around the clock. And a lot of it was just making sure we could keep her head in a position that would allow her to continue to breathe. just during our chat. Melani is up walking about, trying to eat the camera. Tell us a bit about her personality. Yeah, so I mean, kind of remains to be seen still. I think she's, I'm not sure exactly what the phases would be for drafts, but I feel like she's maybe kind of entering the terrible twos phase, you know, where I think she's now starting to kind of find her independence a little bit and, you know, do do her own thing or cert herself. So we'll have to see as she continues

to get a little bit older if she ends up being more friendly and loving of humans or is like, you know what, I've had enough of you guys. I was around you the first, you know, month of my life. Just leave me alone. And how does it feel to be part of a team that managed to keep this baby giraffe alive? It's incredible. I mean, the care and the passion of our team here at Tanganyika is second to none. I mean, like I said, we had so many people working around the clock to make sure that she had the care that she needed. And it literally was just, I mean, minute by minute initially to hour by hour. And finally, we got to maybe day by day and she's doing such a great job. But I really think it illustrates not only how awesome our team is, but just how much zookeepers and wildlife professionals really care about their animals at zoos around the country and around the world.

Sometimes they get a hard time or it's a thankless job, but they really do care about their animals. and they give so much of themselves, blood, sweat, and tears to make sure that these animals have amazing lives. And so just to be part of that, not only on our team, but just in the industry, is incredible. Even though our team, I mean, put a tremendous amount of effort and accomplished something that has never been done before, it definitely was a collaboration that made it possible. I mean, we worked with six or seven different zoos around the United States to make this happen. That was incredibly valuable because, again, this has never been done before. And so just having different resources to call upon to help make sure we had the best possible chance

to help her survive played a critical role. She's bringing a lot of people. Joy, why do you think she's cheering so many people up? I mean, I think it's just an incredible, just heartwarming story. You know, I think our social media team did an excellent job, just really illustrating how much passion our team pours into these animals. It's an incredible story. Anytime you see humans doing amazing things for good to try and help preserve.

of this world, it's just, it's very, very powerful. Our connection to animals is incredibly deep. And so I think this story really resonates with people. That was Matt Faults. Here in the UK, an 88-year-old has gained hundreds of thousands of views on social media for sharing his weightlifting journey. Mick Wodge started going to the gym after his wife Margaret died shortly after their 60th wedding anniversary.

His personal trainer, Ross Starkey, set up a TikTok account for him, where fans have called Mick an inspiration. He began by lifting a broom and milk cartons, but it escalated quickly. I am Mick. I'm 88. One of my favourite exercises to build the shoulders is the lateral raises. A low weight to start with and build up as I go through the sets. It's just a number?

I know, it's just a number. A number? But it's a bloody big number, that's a problem. Hi guys, we're going to try something different. Now, call the piston press. Using one arm at a time, pushing forward. Not done this before, so this is the first. Oh, this is a lot.

I keep coming into the gym and enjoying every minute. Mick and Ross have been speaking to the BBC's Henry Zephman. I do four sessions a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Tuesday I'm coached by Ross we do like about an hour and half with deadlift

we bench press we use the machines and it's a full workout so when we've finished they carry me out and put me in my car and it says here Mick I doubt you're being carried out because it says here that your personal best for a deadlift is 100 kilograms.

Is that right? No. Yeah, you did one. No, we did 110. Oh, okay. Sorry, I'm understating your achievements. Hey, he's trying to knock them down here. No, we did 110.

And one of my targets was the deadlift because I talked a friend of mine with 77, is it? 77, yeah. at 77. I talked them into coming, and they went and lifted 120 on the deadlift. So that were my challenge. And I haven't been able to reach it. So I've fallen out with him now. I'm sure it's just a matter of days, if not even hours after the motivation of having told that story. Ross, give us a sense of what it is like training somebody who is a little older, 88 in Mix-K. Are there particular challenges that you need to be aware of?

Well, I think this is the issue where a lot of people are doing it wrong. They treat old people like old people, and I've never treated Mick like that. I've never changed his training. That's why he's able to do what he can do. People are so scared of hurting old people that they don't ever challenge them and then they never grow. And then you see him with these little plastic weights and these rubber bands. And Mick's older than a lot of these people.

And he's deadlifting 100 kilograms of ease. But this is a journey, what we've done over three years, to get him to this point. You said 100 again, Ross. I think it's 110. I just want to correct you before Mick does. But tell me, what are the benefits for people? I've got to smack him when he's doing.

What are the benefits for people, Ross, who are training when they're older in terms of their lifestyle at that stage of life? I think one of the most important thing is bone denser. As you get older, your bone density starts to decay. But you can actually prevent that with heavy strength training. So if Mick was to fall over, he's not going to like break an ankle or a bone. is really robust now so it falls over, I can get back up. And Mick, you've been praised online by countless people

who've seen the TikTok account, but no less than Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said he loved what you're doing, keep pumping. Tell me what does it mean to get praised like that? Really, it's just amazing. I mean, Arnold was my favourite bodybuilder years ago. I've seen every one of his first. dozens of times.

And for into contact us like that, it's just amazing. I mean, it's well worth all the effort I've put in just for what Arnold's done. He sent us a message. Just great. Mick Wodge and Ross Starkey speaking to Henry Zephman. Coming up on the Happy Pod. We've had people that have come to a dozen ugly potato days. And we've heard that it's the only time making.

have or afford fruit in the summer. And so that warms our heart. You know, we have people that drive sometimes six hours to come to the event. How ugly potato day is stopping food waste in Canada? Growing businesses deal with the same problem. Too many tools, too much back and forth, and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, manufacturing or service, Odu gives you one place to manage your business. Visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's O'D OO.O.com. Get more with BBC Podcasts, wherever you listen. Be the first to listen to your

favorite shows, like Evil Genius, Good, Bad Billionaire, and You're Dead to Me, with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts, add with an Amazon music subscription. You're listening to The Happy Pod. In the United States, three sisters have turned an old school bus into a library on wheels. It's equipped with dozens of books and computers

to help children learn. The BBC's Matthew Carter has the details. When the big blue library bus rolls down the street in Oklahoma City, many children can barely contain their excitement. They know our schedule. They are standing outside waiting for us. they're jumping up and down, they're clapping, they're racing each other to the bus. Like, it is the best thing ever.

Teresa Day converted the bus in 2022, along with her two sisters, in an effort to improve literacy levels among children in disadvantaged communities. We've seen that it was a huge need here in Oklahoma City, so we just acted on that and expanded on what we're experienced in our childhood. The areas that we serve, there's not very many after-school programming for them. and if it is, the parents can't afford it or there's not transportation for them to get there. So that's just give us the inspiration to keep going. Once they're on board, kids have shelves of books to choose from, along with computers with learning games installed.

Teresa says it's had a huge impact on some children. A book can change your life. There's things in books that you would never, ever know about, but you sat down and you learned it. It can change your mindset. said we push it onto these kids. We have gotten some of these kids to want to pursue STEM education, like for nursing, to be a doctor, to be a lawyer. One of the kids that visited, he increased his reading levels by two grade levels.

Like, he struggled really, really bad. And seeing that he was able to get his reading scores up was just such an amazing thing. It made us feel good, like we're actually making a difference in these child's lives. In December 2025, the Seas the Day bus was featured in a Disney Christmas special on TV. After that, thousands of books were donated by people across the United States. The three sisters ended up with so much extra stock that they put on a special book fair, giving away free books to children in need. Teresa says she's benefited from the mobile library just as much as the kids have.

No matter how exhausted or tired, I feel, is always very rewarding, especially to see these kids experiencing things that they have never got to experience, especially seeing that they have an opportunity to have access to this stuff even without having to have any money. It's exciting. It just gives you that dopamine rush to keep it going. Teresa Day, ending that report by Matthew Carter. The Via Alpina is one of the world's toughest endurance challenges,

a 2,000-kilometer trail across the Alps spanning eight different countries. It runs from the Adriatic coast of Slovenia, rising the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 12 times before ending on the Mediterranean coast in Monaco. Earlier this month, ultra-runner Sophie Woods from New Zealand became the fastest person to ever complete it, taking just 29 days. The 42-year-old spoke to my colleague, Regini Vadianathan.

Every day was just really tough. You know, I think when we first planned it, I actually expected to move faster than I did. The terrain was a lot more technical than I was expecting, and we faced quite a few sort of crises along the way. What sort of extreme weather conditions did you personally encounter on your run? So we had two heat waves, which was awesome. I think it probably got up to about 37 degrees,

which is a lot when you're at altitude running. And then we also had some storms to contend with. And then there were just all sorts of things. Like the van had, you know, a flat tire at one point. We had to deal with huge swarms of bugs. And it was, yeah, there was a challenging, a challenging time, not to mention the fact that there were wildfires happening at the same time that we had to actually divert away from because the route went right through them.

How do you prepare for something like this? I've been running ultramarathans for the last decade. I've run in some of the most incredible races around the world. And I think that that really prepares you. It's spending long days out by yourself, learning how to be strong and capable in the mountains and have skills to effectively save yourself in these sorts of conditions.

It's something that you build over years of experience. But leading into this, I was very aware that my body was going to take a pretty big hit. And so I was focusing a lot on my strength work, on making sure that I was eating, like really, well and making sure that I started with as many stores as I could. I've had the most amazing adventure, which is why I got into this sport in the first place, was to have adventures in incredible environments.

And how do you mentally prepare for this? The mental side of it is really important. I just keep moving. No matter what happens, I just keep moving. There's always going to be that little voice in your head being that, just have a wee seat. Why not? There's one there. You know, nothing grows in the comfort zone.

so you just got to keep moving forward. And I think if you practice that enough, it just becomes conditioning. And also the fact that I had so many people out there supporting me and cheering me on. That is invaluable to know that no matter what time of day I was out on the trail, if it was the middle of the night, there were people somewhere in the world checking on my little dot, making sure that I was still moving. That was Sophie Woods. We end in Canada, where a farmer is on a mission to solve food waste.

Tyler Heppel is a fifth-generation farmer in Cloverdale, British Columbia. He got fed up of seeing produce that his family grew being rejected by supermarkets for being the wrong shape or size. So he came up with an idea to host Ugly Potato Day. Last month, the event broke the Guinness World Record for the most fruits and vegetables given away in 24 hours. The Happy Pod's Helena Burke spoke to Tyler about how he started Ugly Potato Day. I had around 50,000 followers and I posted to my community inviting them to come out to our farm on a Saturday and just grab some free potatoes. And we had 12 people come out. And I remember feeling a little discouraged because it was over four hours in the sun.

However, I had a really good conversation with one person who encouraged me to do it again. And so two weeks later, we did it again. And we kept kind of doing it that year every two weeks. And since then, we've done it 24 times. We've definitely cut down the amount of times we do it per year, but we just had 37,000 people out to our last event. And how does ugly potato day work? People have to claim a free ticket. That's just to help us control the crowds.

But the event is absolutely free. We allow 2,500 people in at a time, and then we clear out a big barn. We have these massive macrobins that hold 1,000 pounds of potatoes or 700 pounds of corn, and people can come and grab and fill up their bags. And then some of our higher value stuff like the apples and the tomatoes. We have volunteers that are just monitoring how much people grab. We've had people that have come to a dozen ugly potato days. And we've heard that it's the only time they can have or afford fruit in the summer.

And so that warms our heart. You know, we have people that drive sometimes six hours to come to the event. And we get an array of people, people who can't afford to feed their families of six and people that are doctors. and they just want to be a part of it and they come grab a few potatoes and donate $50 to the cause. There's actually nothing wrong with this produce, is there? It looks strange. It's maybe a bit too big or a bit too small, but does it taste any different? No, and that's why we think it's the dumbest problem ever. It's tastes the exact same. It's still as nutritious and delicious. It's just,

it looks a bit weirder. At this year's Ugly Potato Day, you guys actually broke a Guinness World Record, didn't you? Yeah, we decided to go for the record this year. We were close last year, so we really pushed this year, and we ended up giving out 546,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables fresh. And then we actually gave a bit more than that too, but with the Guinness World Record, we had 24 hours to scan in what we were going to donate before we distributed it. It was very euphoric. I'm happy we did it. I know a lot of farmers and scientists are warning that the increase in extreme heat waves across the world will cause kind of wonky. and misshapen vegetables to become more and more common.

Do you think Ugly Potato Day could be a strategy for dealing with this? Yeah, I think Ugly Potato Day can really be a big solver of food insecurity. We should know now that we actually grow enough food to feed everyone. It's just a distribution issue. What we're trying to do here is show our community that just because produce isn't perfect doesn't mean it's not nutritious and delicious. And it's going to take a lot of work to do that globally. What do you hope that listeners of the Happy Pod take away from your story and everything you've managed to achieve with the Ugly Potato Day?

Don't give up on your beliefs. If I was to give up after 12 people came out to Ugly Potato Day, I would have never been here now. And I wouldn't have found my purpose. Also, I think a lot of people, when they look at what someone has accomplished, you know, having 30,000 people out to their event and they say, I can never have that impact. Well, you know what? You get the same feeling of gratefulness and help. someone, even if you have one conversation with someone at the grocery store and you go out of your way to help them. Don't underestimate the small actions every day because those can compound into doing something great. Tyler Hepple speaking to Helena Burke. And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. We'd love to hear from you. As ever, the address is global podcast at BBC.co.com. UK. The editor of this edition is Karen Martin. I'm Holly Gibbs. Until next time, goodbye. Get more with BBC podcasts, wherever you listen.

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