Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: AI offers blind runners more freedom

Episode Date: September 21, 2024

We hear about the freedom and independence a visually impaired man found by running with an AI guide. Also: South Africa's hospital train; an usual diplomatic job share; and the dog whose love of binmen has gone viral.Presenter: Jackie Leonard. Music composed by Iona Hampson

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Hi, this is Fatma in Malmo and you're listening to The Happy Pod. I'm Jackie Leonard and in this edition... I felt just one of all of those 18,000 persons,

you know, my disability was not an issue anymore. Celebrating the new technology that enabled a visually impaired runner in Sweden to complete a half marathon. The train bringing affordable health care to communities across South Africa. We meet a man returning to Morocco to thank the villagers who saved him after he was crushed by a boulder. I wouldn't be here without them. It's a very selfless act for them to do that in a time of need. We'll hear about Penn Chan, the escaped penguin who survived thanks to a typhoon, and the couple with a rather unusual job share.

I'm Jovan Berman. And I'm Matthias Lüttenberg. And you're listening to the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. We start with an invention that it's hoped could bring a new sense of freedom and independence to millions of people with visual impairment. It was given a test run, literally, on a half marathon in Sweden. And it's probably best if you're listening to this on headphones. The new system, tested by the former Paralympian Fatmir Seremeti, uses the camera of a smartphone attached to his chest and sends signals to his headphones, telling him there if he's too close to someone or if he needs to go left or indeed right. It's hoped the technology can be improved to allow people with sight problems

to do a wide range of activities independently. Before the event, Fatmir, whose vision has been fading since he was 13, was excited about the freedom of running by himself. So my colleague Andrew Peach asked him, how did it go? It felt great. A sense of freedom, a sense of self-development that everything is actually possible to do. So it was a different experience, but really, really nice. So a lot of people will have seen athletes being supported by someone running with them. Why did you want to do it on your own? Until I got 30 years old, I could see full, I was fully sighted. And I got this eye sickness called glaucoma that took away about 80% of my sight through two years. And after that, it slowly decreased. So now I can just see the difference

between light and darkness. And getting through those years, being afraid of losing your sense of freedom and sense of, you know, being able to do stuff by your own is a huge feeling to bear. So when this opportunity came from Google for me to be part of this project and try to do this, it was, of course, an offer I could not say no to. You know, running is supposed to be one of the easiest sports outdoors things to do. You just put on your shoes and go out and run if you're fully excited. And that's my goal. That's my wish to also be able to do that in the future. You know, just go out and run wherever I feel doing it without having anyone. I'm really excited about what this kind of technology will bring

to us as disabled people in the future. I mean, some people, I suppose, might be fearful to go running without someone there at their side, because I guess you can't be quite as certain that there's nothing there as a danger or nothing in the way or anything of that sort? Well, you know, I've been an athlete basically all my life. I've had the honors of being part of three Paralympics in a sport called goalball. So I'm used to, you know, tough training and a bit rough. So for me, I was not afraid. And I actually, just after a couple of trials with this device, I felt like I can trust the system. Could you use it the whole time? Do you think the AI could get clever enough to be able to guide you through life as a blind person, as well as

when you're in a more controlled environment? Well, I am prepared to go so far as to say that AI will be a game changer when it comes to accessibility for people with visual impairment. I'm sure that this is just a small step of what's waiting ahead. Imagine you could use this kind of programming in every situation in life, even like going skiing or just going to the store to buy products. I'm really hopeful, and I think that this is the future. I get the freedom thing. One of my closest friends is a disabled yachtswoman,

and the important thing about going sailing for her is to find technology that means she can do it on her own, even though she can't use her arms and legs. But the freedom that you then have, which you're denied in many areas of life as a disabled person must be incredible. Well, imagine, you know, the feeling that I had for the first time for being blind so many years now to run to the finish line and know that it's a hundred meters straight ahead. And now I can just do it completely on my own, just being able to run through that finish line and then just hug my teammates. It was like, I felt just, you know, one of all of those 18,000 persons, you know, my disability was not an issue anymore.

And that is the main thing for me in this project. It was like the feeling about, you know, being able to accomplish something like this completely on my own was huge. Atmir Seremeti was talking to Andrew Peach. To South Africa now, and a solution to bring decent affordable health care to people who otherwise wouldn't have access to it. Two trains travel around the country, complete with clinics and a pharmacy. The scheme has been growing since it began around 30 years ago, and last year saw a staggering 640,000 patients. It's so popular that people often have to queue overnight,

but as Mpola Kaja reports from Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, most think it's worth waiting for. As I made my way into the station, I saw a slick grey train, 19 carriages long. It's called the Transnet Pelopepa healthcare train. Pelopepa means good clean health. Besides the train, two rows of white plastic chairs and mostly older women are sitting, waiting patiently to be seen. One of them is Solufele Lutya, who is waiting for a dental appointment. I'm here to come and clean my teeth. I think it's one year I have a problem

with my teeth so I don't like the way I smile. It's much cheaper than when I go to the dentist. There are 22 permanent staff who work, eat and sleep on the train. Nurses and other support workers are employed locally. On the platform, I saw an optician asking an elderly lady to read out letters. Another optician, Komotsopalagangwe, told me they mostly treat older patients. It is really a nice feeling to actually change somebody's world. We get patients that come here and they didn't even know how bad their vision is. They realize that, wow, what I've been seeing is actually not there. And others are desperate to get spectacles because with our government institutions, it takes longer for them to get the spectacles. But then with us, we provide them

with the services in the same day. Passing a lens cutting machine, Agot talking to Zongezile Makubu. Zongezile was prepared to wait as he knew he'd get an eye test and new glasses for 30 rand. That's less than two US dollars. At a local clinic, he would have paid 10 times as much. People do not have money.

People are unemployed. So once an opportunity like this comes, people will come in large numbers. The service is way better than the local clinics. I next headed down the train to the dental clinic. Whoa, lots of children this side of the train. I think they are from the same school because they are dressed in the same

colours. Anyone under 16 gets services on the train for free, as I heard from the lead dentist, Dr Agnes Ramutla. So here we offer services that you find at maybe a local hospital. So that will be your cleanings and your fillings and extractions. So most of our numbers, we get them from actually schools. Obviously, they're desperate for this service. How important is this to you? I like helping communities. It's like we are their last hope.

So a day we can even see more than 100. In a local hospital, I used to see like 28 a day. And that was a lot for me. I see passion in your face. Yes, I'm very passionate about dentistry. I've always wanted to do this my whole life so this is like a dream. The train service really relies on medical students like Tembeli Hedube. Students work on the train for a fortnight during their final year of studies. Usually at school you would see two, three patients a day,

but here we go as far as seeing 120 patients on a daily basis, so it is extremely hectic, but it's extremely helpful. A part of my passion doing dentistry was to help people, and that's exactly what we are doing here, bringing smiles. You know, when people leave, they're like, oh, thank you very much. I can smile now and I'm happier. That's exactly what our job is to do. That report was by Mpola Kaja, and you can hear more about the healthcare trains on People Fixing the World, wherever you get your

BBC podcasts. Now, a bird escaping into the wild to go on an adventure sounds like the plot of the animated Madagascar movies and very much up our street. Pen Chang, the penguin, ran away or rather swam away from captivity in Japan in August. She wasn't expected to survive the ocean or wild weather. And yet this is, after all, the happy part. Abiona Boyer reports. On a hot summer's day in August on the tiny island of Himakajima off the coast of Tokyo, Abiona Boya reports. into the ocean's vast waters. Penn was born and raised in captivity, so she'd never had to hunt or fend for herself, and her swimming ability was not thought to be on a par with wild cape penguins. For two weeks, the fugitive bird evaded her keepers,

who were worriedly searching for her. No one ever expected her to survive more than a week, and all hope was thought to have been lost when sightings of Penn ran dry and Typhoon Shanshan forced search efforts to come to a halt. But by a complete stroke of luck, that same typhoon would prove to be the key to Pen-Chan's survival. The lack of boats and fishing nets in the ocean meant that she could swim about safely. She'd actually travelled 45 kilometres away from home, even going all the way round the tip of the Cheetah Peninsula before being rescued and reunited with her keepers from Gedican Pentas.

The chief keeper, Ryosuke Imai, said that although Penn had lost a little weight, she had no injuries and she'd clearly managed to find sustenance while on her travels, as well as having had a chance to work on her swimming skills. Now, he said, she was in good spirits and sleeping safely next to him. For now, at least, there will be no more escape attempts. Abiyona Boya. Still to come in this podcast.

We're getting comments from people that have said, I've had a really, really hard week. I've just seen this video of Maddie and it's completely changed my outlook and I feel so much better. The dog whose love of rubbish collectors has made her an online sensation. Now to the story of a very grateful man. Kieran Saubura was trekking in the snowy Atlas Mountains of Morocco in February last year when disaster struck. He was crushed by a falling boulder which broke his pelvis and severely damaged his legs and there he lay on that mountainside far from home certain he was going to die. Instead he was saved by strangers. A passing Spanish walker

gave him a sleeping bag and gloves then eight men arrived from a village many kilometres away to carry him to safety. Kieran is now planning to return to Morocco to thank them and to give them the money he has raised running two marathons. Yes, two marathons after those injuries in February last year. He spoke to the Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs, starting with the moment of the accident. My friend all of a sudden screamed my

name. I turned around. A boulder, which my friend believes was over 200 kilos, hit me in my head. I tumbled down 20 feet and once I got to the bottom of the path, noticed that the boulder was rolling down the path and about to roll on top of me which it did and the pain was unbearable after two minutes they managed to get it off I laid back as soon as I literally laid my head back I lost my eyesight for 20 minutes I'd made peace with dying I'd basically um sat there and thought about my family and the life I'd lived. And I was genuinely happy with the life I'd lived. And something crazy happened at that point in time where my eyesight started to come back. I was like, wow, I think I'm going to survive this.

The eight villagers trekked up and they brought rugs, wrapped me in rugs and tied me a rope. And I remember the little old man there, there wasn't enough rope. So he took his belt off and tied his belt around me as well. And then they put me on the stretcher and literally ran me down the mountain in like two hours. How do you even come back from that? Lying there thinking that you were going to die and thinking about all the people that you you love and you're not going to get to see again how do you even begin to get back on track i'll tell you one thing when i actually got back it was probably the best week and a half two weeks i spent with my family ever the good side of humanity well in moments like

that where you you've nearly died you start to see know, no matter what anyone's got going on in their own life, people, they drop it and they come and see you and it just brought everyone together. And yeah, it's a moment I'll never forget. I've realised I had how many good people I had around me. And talk to me about why you want to go back to Morocco and meet the people who saved you. Purely down to the fact I wouldn't be here without them. You know, it's a very selfless act for them to do that in a time of need. And like I said about the side of humanity that many people would like to overlook and what we don't get to see, right? We see so much negative things being portrayed on social media, even news outlets. And it's nice to see and feel and have the experience of what humanity really is.

And for them to do that for me I just want to go back and say thank you I raised money you know running a few marathons for them you know if someone could do that for me I'm sure I can do a few things that are potentially really challenging for myself and give back to them. We talk a lot about kindness on the happy pod and it seems that this is the eight people that saved you. Ultimately, it's an act of huge kindness. Has it made you want to pay it forward? Do you find yourself looking out for others a bit more now you've had those people look out for you? Yeah, my personal mission is just to create as much impact in this world before I die.

I've got given a second chance in my eyes. So for me, I know that my place in this world from this day forward is to create as much impact as possible and help people. And finally, what is your message to those eight people who saved you on the mountain? It's really hard because I haven't actually ever thought about that. But my message would be thank you so much for their act of kindness and just their selfless act of being able to get someone they don't know in a time of extreme need off the mountain safe

and back home to people that love him and also me getting back to the people that I thought I wasn't going to get to say bye to. Kieran Salbura was talking to Holly Gibbs. Now to Belfast where one dog has been brightening up the lives of bin workers on their weekly collection. Maddy, the one-year-old golden retriever, waits patiently every Friday to be petted and has also found online fame with videos of her being a friendly golden retriever attracting millions of views. Our Northern Ireland communities correspondent Mark Simpson has been to meet her.

Hello. Hello, Pop. Hello. Mark and Nathan love Maddy, and Maddy loves Mark and Nathan. And Friday wouldn't be Friday without a get-together. The build-up to seeing Maddy is unbelievable. loves Mark and Nathan, and Friday wouldn't be Friday without a get-together. The build-up to seeing Maddie is unbelievable. So it is.

Ways for us every morning, every Friday morning, to come round, scrape the door, tell us you can get out, she can hear the lorry coming up the street and stuff. I remember when I came on, Nathan's been doing the run longer than me, he says whenever we come up here on a Friday, there's a dog up here. You have to pet the dog and all that, because she waits for us. Does she not hold you up? We don't mind. I could stay here all day.

I could stay here till five o'clock. It wouldn't bother me. Are all dogs like Maddie? I'd like to say they are because I'm a very big dog person. But she is just one of a kind. Maddie belongs to the Fiddes family in East Belfast. Ian and Ruth, their son Josh and daughter Caitlin. We've seen that she likes the bin workers. What about the posties?

She absolutely loves everyone. Anyone who'll come to the garden, she'll absolutely meet them, come say hi. She absolutely loves me and everyone. Maddy has another family too, on social media. National and international followers. And it's all because of videos of the Friday bin collections outside the house. Caitlin takes up the story. So she's now just past the milestone of 20,000 followers on Instagram.

There's a video with 10 million views, one with 6.7 million, another one with 2.2 million, and they are all featuring the bin men. So we try really hard to come up with different content, different ideas and different videos and think, yeah, this is going to be great. And it gets maybe about 20,000, which is still fantastic. And then the video, as soon as the bin man appears, it's like, wow, 10 million views.

Why has this caught fire? Everyone loves a dog video. Everyone knows that. You know, any videos, my mum's always sending me videos of golden retrievers. And I think that's the reason why we ended up getting a dog because she was her feed was being filled with videos of golden retrievers but there's something different about just normal everyday people interacting with the dog and I think it's so lovely to see um what started off as something that was really really innocent actually and just posting videos of our pets smiling and being happy

but actually we're getting comments from people that have said i've had a really really hard week and i've just seen this video of maddie and it's completely changed my outlook and i feel so much better there's comments from people in like south korea brazil france all over the world and thankfully there's a transient button on instagram so we can actually tell what they're saying but it's just blown up in a way that we never could have imagined. While we were filming mild-mannered Maddy didn't bark she just sat there cool calm and like the bins collected. Mark Simpson reporting. Now for a few other stories that we've spotted this week. A sheriff's deputy has been praised for climbing between moving vehicles on a busy highway in Michigan to help a driver who was having a medical emergency. Deputy Nicole Myron was able to stop his truck and get him help. The Maycomb County Sheriff said her quick thinking and selfless actions ended safely what could have

been a tragic situation. San Diego Zoo is celebrating the birth of a Sumatran tiger cub. The species is critically endangered, with just four to six hundred thought to remain in native habitats. The cub was born last month, and it's thought that the mother, Jillian, won't bring it out of their den for a few more weeks to give them time to bond. Zookeepers say they hope the cub will give visitors a greater understanding of what they call this incredibly special species. And after thousands of public votes,

Hawke's Bay Airport in New Zealand has announced the name of its new fire truck. More than 1,500 suggestions have been submitted from around the world, including Spraying Mantis and Trucky McTruckface, of course. But the winner by a landslide was Judy Drench. Employers are often looking for new ways to make jobs more attractive. During Covid, many people acquired a taste for working from home. And since then, there have been moves in some countries towards bringing in a four-day working week. But how would you feel about sharing a job with your partner? Well, that's exactly what two German diplomats have chosen to do.

Over the next four years, Thurman Bellman and Matthias Luttenberg will be sharing the position of Germany's ambassador to Canada. They arrived in Ottawa in July and will take turns with the role, while the other focuses on caring for their three children. They've been talking to Isabella Jewell, starting with Joven, who's the first to take the helm. Normally there is one ambassador to every country. You present your letters of credence at the helm of the embassy and your partner, if you have one, either has a separate job or often partners, it's very difficult for them to work abroad

because of course, if your job is tied to your home country, it's often a challenge. So in our case, we both presented letters of credence to the governor general here in Canada. We'll rotate and inform the Canadians who is in charge each time. An ambassador is actually a wonderful job. Your job is to present your country, foster relations between the countries,

between the people, open up opportunities. There's so much wonderful things to do and great people to meet. Of course, it's very time consuming. You often have appointments the whole day. You travel, you have engagements in the evening. And when you're a family like us with three children, you need to make sure that they get the attention they deserve as well, which is why we have decided to share this job. How are you both finding it so far? I appreciate that you only arrived in Canada a couple of months ago, but how's it been going? It's not always easy when you're used to working full time, to be honest. But of course, for the

kids, it's, I think so far, a very good experience. They always have a parent around to consult, to ask, especially when you're new in the country. There's so many new challenges, be it school or private life, finding friends, and you really need to have some support there from your parents. So this is working well. I think my kids have to get used to my style of cooking. They're not used to this. But honestly, I think it's working pretty well. And we are glad that we have that chance and that the Canadian government agreed for us

to have that model. It's a wonderful job. And Canadians are very welcoming, friendly, helpful people. I mean, everybody has been just wonderful here. And the people we've met together as part of some of the meetings we've done together or as part of meetings we've had in the residence really were very, very gratifying. And I think we will have a wonderful time here. Do you think, Thurvin, that this job sharing model that you're doing with your husband might enable more women in the future to rise the ranks in diplomacy,

which is traditionally seen as a more male-dominated career path? Finding flexible models of work is certainly part of the strategy we have at the Foreign Office and that the Minister really is leading to make it easier for women in the service to grow up in their careers and to get to a more equal percentage between men and women in leadership positions. There are many other elements such as work from home, home office or part-time work when the children are small, which my husband actually has done at a certain point in his career. We've also, both of us, taken turns to stay at home when the children were in their first years.

So there are many, many ways to make our work model more flexible. We want the best and the brightest. And in order for them to find our service attractive, the service has to become more flexible. If you don't mind me asking, how did the two of you meet? You might not be surprised that we met in the Diplomatic Training Academy, which was in our former capital Bonn at that time. However, we didn't become a couple immediately, but only a couple of years later after finishing our first postings abroad. But funny enough, during our joint year in Bonn, we were sharing the passion for theatre and took over the main roles in a very modest theatre production that we organised as a group

of diplomatic trainees. And you might be delighted to hear that it's Shakespeare that we chose, and it was Love's and Labour's Lost where we played the main characters. How romantic, I love it. So do you think that this scheme is perhaps making diplomacy a bit more romantic or paving the way for couples to kind of go forward into the world of diplomacy together? Never really looked at it like this. But in a way, I can only say that sharing a job can be very good for a relationship. A suitably diplomatic answer there. Ambassadors Matthias Luttenberg and Tjurvan Bellman speaking to Isabella Jewell. And that's it from us for now on The Happy Pod. We would love to hear from you.

Do email us. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Ricardo McCarthy. The producer was Rachel Bulkley. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was.

Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads?

Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads?

Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.