The Happy Pod: An island of strangers saved our wedding
00:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing.This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret,of the school's head teacher.This was someone I respected above anyone else.And the investigation led by students, he's trying to silence.If this is leaked to the media, I'll be destroyed.This is World of Seward.
00:30Secrets, Catching My Teacher. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your BBCpodcast.This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service.I'm Holly Gibbs and in this edition, it was a joke at first. I was like, why don't we justinvite the entire islands? And then everybody actually really liked the idea.We went to bed Thursday night and we didn't have a venue. We didn't have anything planned.And Friday morning we wake up and there's an entire wedding plan for us.Find out how one island and hundreds of strangers saved their wedding day.
01:12Also on this podcast, the Labrador that's been crowned animal of the year.I'm completely unnaturally proud of her.She does deserve actually getting rewarded for the work that she does because she's an amazing dog.Plus, could archaeologists have found the world's oldest shipwreck and...You have a lot of patience for whom when they lost their...hair. They describe it as losing a limb. So the idea that you have an option to give a good number ofthese patients their hair back is incredibly exciting. The drug trial, which could bring hope to peopleliving with alopecia. When a storm washed out the only road connecting North Carolina's outer banks,
01:55one couple thought their dream wedding on Hatteras Island had been ruined. Kimberly and Jaden Sink wereleft without suppliers, guests and even a wedding cake. That was until they appealed to the localcommunity for help. To their amazement, the island rallied together to put on their special day,and in the end, the couple estimated that between 500 and 800 strangers attended their wedding.The Happy Pod's Riley Farrell has been speaking to Kimberly and Jaden about how it all started.Back when we first heard that we needed to get to the island a little bit early,just because the road was going to possibly be closed, we kind of expected it just to be closed for a day,which would have been Thursday.
02:36So by the time Friday rolled around, we thought that all of our family and stuff would be able to make it over.But when we got there and really saw the conditions, I believe there was like winds that were 45 miles per hour.The waves, they were like absolutely just beating the sand dunes in the back of our Airbnb where we were staying and planned to have our wedding originally.It honestly looked like the waves that any minute were going to come over the dunes and flood the backyard.It was very upsetting to kind of see everything piece by piece fall apart.But at the same time, I knew that Jaden did everything that he could in order to put my dream wedding together.He worked hard all year.So you tried to stay positive about everything.
03:16And even if we didn't get to celebrate our wedding, we could have at least made a vacation out of it.But he was definitely more upset than I was.Oh, yeah.I mean, imagine you put aside $30,000.It felt really defeating.Like, all my work that could have went to, you know, progressing us further in life, went to this thing that isn't even going tocome to fruition. You know, the wedding we wanted was supposed to be intimate. We wanted to be a littlebit of a celebration. You know, we were okay with 45 people, but we felt like 45 people was a lot.
03:45So the five to 800 people that showed up, that was a lot. Oh, my God. I wouldn't have had itany other way, honestly, at this point. And Kim, how did the idea go of, you know, let's invitethe whole island, that maybe started as like an idea or a joke? When did that become a plan? Take me to thatmoment. Thursday night. We were all sitting outside on the porch just kind of talking about how everythingwas kind of a bummer and how we were kind of discouraged and everything. But then I made,it was a joke at first. I was like, why don't we just invite the entire island and see how it goes?And then everybody actually really liked the idea. So Jaden went ahead and told his friend Brandon andBrady and then Brandon's girlfriend Lexi, too. She started posting all over the internet,
04:38trying to find a different venue for us. And what was your reaction on the internet? You know,hundreds of strangers started responding to y'all online. Tell me what you thought about that.I was absolutely astonished. I did not expect the post to get as much traction as it did.And I didn't expect so many people wanting to, you know, go to a stranger's wedding either.but I guess everybody was getting a little stir crazy being stuck in the house and on the island as well.Was there a moment where you first thought, okay, this actually might be awesome.Our wedding might be saved.Yeah, that was first thing Friday morning.
05:18We went to bed Thursday night and we didn't have a venue.We didn't have anything planned.We had people that were interested.We had a lot of people that were interested in coming to our wedding.But we didn't have a venue.So we had nothing, basically.Friday morning, we wake up and there's a lot of.an entire wedding plan for us at Frisco Woods Camp.
05:35And so by the powers infested by Almighty God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,the state of North Carolina, and the Universal Life Church, I now pronounce you.What did you learn about people from this wedding experience?There are good people out there.Absolutely.Never seen a community come together like this and just for, you know,complete strangers at that just to celebrate them and, you know, us spending the rest of our livestogether.
06:10Yeah, absolutely.It definitely restored my faith in humanity a little bit.Let me change the way I think about community and what a community is supposed to be and what kindof community do I want to be a part of.That's definitely something I've been reflecting over.Yeah, it was absolutely unbelievable.Yeah, we got stranded on the island and our plans were ruined, but then the island came togetherto save our day and celebrate us.
06:35It was amazing.I've never seen or had anything like this happen.Kimberly and Jaden Sink speaking to Riley Farrell.Here in the UK, a black Labrador has just been named as animal of the year.Six-year-old skier sniffs out an invasive marine creature called the Carpet Sea Squirt.Dr. Texas Sim is a marine mammal ecologist and skier's handler.I caught up with her and started by asking her why this species is simply.so dangerous? The problem with the species like this is that when it arrives in places that it shouldn't,
07:08which is essentially why it's invasive, it can cause big problems with the native ecosystemand often also comes hand-in-hand with economic issues faced by marine space users. So the speciesgrows very fast. If it gets split apart, it can regrow and it will smother infrastructure,and it will smother the seabed as well if it gets out of control. So these things,things do make it essentially a bit of a threat to places it shouldn't be.And you've trained Skiya to smell this out yourself, haven't you?Yeah, so I first started working in the fields of ecology detection dogsquite a number of years ago and realized that this was an incredible thing to do with dogs.
07:53In 2024, I started my own little microbusiness called Conservation Detection Dogs.when a species is something that we want to train on,there's a very rigorous training and testing kind of protocol that we go throughto ensure that the dogs are trained to the highest standardsand they can actually do what we want them to do.Could you tell me a bit about Skiya?Yeah.Skiah is a fiercely independent dog.
08:20I would say she's quite sassy,but that independence allows her to think for her.herself, which is quite important for this kind of work. And also for for mountain rescue as well,which is the other job she has. How proud are you of Skiya that she's been named Animal of the Year?Oh, I mean, yeah, I can't really believe it. I think it hasn't really sunk in until obviouslyreally now. And I'm completely and utterly proud of her. She does deserve actually getting rewarded forfor the work that she does because she's an amazing dog.And there's a lot of people out there that would say,
09:02this is a story about a cute dog sniffing out something bad.What would you say to that?Why is this actually important?Ecology dogs are used in all sorts of different ways.And this is just one kind of piece of an entire fieldof people using professional dogs to locate speciesof all different types in different places to help conservation.And wild dogs are, they're often.
09:27a tool in the toolbox, so they're not usually the solution to many things, but they allow a muchmore flexible way of locating certain species in difficult terrain where humans struggle to work aseasily, and they can do it with such precision and accuracy. What's next for you in Skiah?Well, once we've finished with the war ceremony and we'll probably have some decompression time,I think, but for project-wise, we've got quite a lot in the pipeline.I mean, the carpet sea squirt project, and what we can offer with it is definitely developing.And then there's other species in the pipeline.We are also working on the American Slipper Lumpet, which is another marine invasive species,
10:15which has recently kind of popped up in Scottish waters.And Skiers kind of stealing the limelight here, but this is also an award for you.I came into this field, obviously from Mountain Rescue initially working with dogs,so had to learn an entire new skill set to take this on seriously and really learn from someincredible handlers. It's amazing to be kind of recognised. But my plan, I've never finishedlearning and I will continue to strive to be the best dog handler that I can be. So there's lots of learningand knowledge sharing still that I will be in really happy and excited to be doing.Yeah, it's just, it's amazing.
10:59That was Dr. Texas Sim.As you might have heard in the Global News podcast,archaeologists have found what they believe to be the world's oldest shipwreck.It's just off the coast of Turkey, and it's thought to be 4,500 years old.Although the ship's wooden structure has not survived,some of the contents are still lying on the seabed.Dr Karen Suwada from McQuare.University in Australia examined the ceramic jugs and other objects that were recovered.
11:26She told my colleague Sarah Montecue that they gave a good indication of how old the wreck was.It's possible to see the date through the cargo that has been deposited on the ocean floor,and so which is essentially anchors and ceramic pots.And ceramic pots are like plastic. They are virtually indestructible and just collapse intosmaller and smaller pieces. But this wreck has quite a lot of material.still visible, embedded in the barnacles of the rocks on the ocean floor.How significant is the find overall, do you think?I think this is a very significant find.
12:01This does fill in a missing link in the trade relations of the 3rd millennium BC.We now know that, and as indeed we have suspected for a long time,that these trade networks continued from the Middle East across southern Turkeyand into the Aegean region.I mean, the ceramic pots, there's no carbon here, so you can't carbon date it.So how do you tell the age?If one thinks of Coke bottles, they have been manufactured for decades.And the shape of Coke bottles has changed over time, in accordance with materials,
12:34the marketing plans of companies.And the same is with ceramics.Ceramics changed over time according to preferences, personal taste, and the needs of the consumer.And so the analysis of pottery, the shape, the method of manufacturing,particular, all helps to actually identify the date of the pottery. When you saw them, did you knowimmediately that we're talking about something that's that old? I did because that's why I wasinvited to the mission, because I'm a specialist in transport amphra of the third millennium.I was pretty confident that this was material from the third millennium. It was a case of trying
13:11to identify which part of the third millennium do these vessels come from, given that the shapesof transport amphra change over that long period of time.The fact that we had these transport amphra's that had contents inside them at one point as wellenabled us to see that we were looking at a trading vessel and the direction in which it was goingwas a little bit hard to see from simply having the wreck on the bottom of the sea,but certainly a trading vessel that was plying its trade along that east-west route below Turkey.Okay.So you must have been excited when they came up when you saw them.
13:49Oh, absolutely.and many of them were intact, having a look inside.There were actually remains of contents sticking to the wall.I mean, I was absolutely shocked when I saw that.After 4,500 years underwater, there's still the contents can be seen.Gee, I was so surprised.Can you explain that?I mean, as you say, they've been underwater for so long.
14:11Why has that not been washed away?Well, that was my first reaction.And then when I took a torch, looked inside it,and could see that these were glossy black residues.They almost look sticky, although they weren't,but they were adhering to parts of the interior of the vessel.So I could see them on the base, I could see them on the walls, the sides of the vessel.And I thought, well, straight away, that gives me a clue as to what the material might have been.
14:43I mean, it's obviously not olive oil, but it is something else that is perhaps something with bitumen,or something that's very, very sticky and has impregnated the clayand hardened in a way that meant it has not actually dissolvedafter 4,500 years underwater.Dr Karen Sawada speaking to Sarah Montague.Coming up on the Happy Pard.I got loads of messages afterwards saying that people were supportingand then there was people down the road and they're like,
15:15oh, you're supporting Ethan as well.Honestly, it was the whole way around.It's such a pick-me-up as well.The marathon runner, who's...who had quite the shock when strangers turned up to support him.It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing.This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret,of the school's head teacher.
15:45This was someone I respected above anyone else.And the investigation led by students, he's trying to silence.If this is leaked to the media, I'll be destroyed.This is World of Secrets, Catching My Teacher.Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.You're listening to The Happy Pod.An ongoing drug trial has suggested that a common arthritis medicinecould help people with alopecia regrow their hair.
16:20It was discovered when a patient with hair loss was being treated for arthritisand their hair unexpectedly grew back.Dermatologist Arash Mostagini is the lead.author on the paper. I caught up with him and started by asking him about the medication.This is a study for a medication called apatacidnib.Apatacitinib is a medication that's in the family of medications called jack inhibitors.It's a daily pill that impacts the immune system. And it's used for a lot of differentinflammatory conditions. In this study, we were studying the impact of apatocitinib to regrow hair
16:53in patients with alopecia Ariata, which is an autoimmune disease of hair loss.Prior to 2022, there were no FDA-approved or European-approved medications for Alopee Sheriata.So the first drugs that really worked well came at that time.All of these drugs have been in this same family of medications called Jack inhibitors.What this study showed was that the patacitinum worked incredibly well for patients with alpiciariata,particularly those with severe hair loss, those who have lost over 50% of their hair,which is the group of patients that was included in the study.And not only did it regrow hair, but seem to do so much better than the existing drugs on the market.
17:34So it's really a major step forward for patients with this condition.What has the feedback been from the people who have taken part in the trial?One of the most joyful things that you can do as a dermatologist who runs clinical trials,which is something that I'm fortunate to be,is to be with people who have regrown their hair in a study or from a medication that you've given them.And hair is such an important part of who we are.And losing hair is really associated with a lot of psychosocial challenges.So you have a lot of patients for whom, when they lost their hair, they describe it as losing a limb.
18:08So the idea that you have an option to give a good number of these patients their hair back is incredibly exciting.Why did you want to research this?My story is a personal one.my daughter, who is now 17, amazingly, when she was five, she lost all of her hair. She developedalopecia Ariata, and when you lose all your hair on your scalp and your body, so this includeseyebrows, eyelashes, the rest of your body hair, that's called alopecia Universalis. And, you know,my work is at Harvard Medical School where I see patients and I also do research. And I felt thatas a dermatologist who was in an academic center, I had skills in health services outcomes and
18:49clinical trials research that I could apply to this setting. It just happened that the timing that I was doingthis coincided with those development of the new medications in Alopee Serriata, which was a reallyexciting time to enter the field. It's been really joyful from both a personal standpoint and alsoreally wonderful to see the progress we've made in the field to help patients. Well, that leads meon to my next question, which is how does it feel to be part of research that is going to help peoplewith a really serious health condition? It's incredibly affirming and exciting. You know, what's funnyyou have these individual moments like the publication of this study, which are exciting and celebratory moments.And what people don't see is the, you know, thousands of people who did, you know, tens of thousands of hours of work,
19:31sometimes for very mundane, basic things to make sure that we have the quality of effort and execution and,and understanding to know how to construct these trials so we can really come up with answers for patients.It all sounds very, very promising and hopeful for people with alopecia. What is next?So next, hopefully we get approval for this medication in the United States.And then if this drug is approved, we'll have four medications for Alfishariata approved.All of them are in the same category.And it's so wonderful to have medications.But this is a little bit like going to an ice cream shop and they say we have, you know,
20:07six flavors and all of them are vanilla, you know.So there may be slight variations or differences between them, but the theme is very similar.But the next step is really, as we begin to understand better, the biology of alopee chariata,to move towards making drugs that are more.specific toward the inflammation at LAPHiairata and leave the rest of the immune system intact.That was a rash mostagimi.Now, to the fastest sport in the world.That's top fuel drag racing.
20:37Unlike most motorsports, women are dominating at the highest level.Men and women race head to head and female drivers have won seven of the past nine European championships.Sweden's Suzanne Callin has been the driver to beat, taking the title for the title forthe past two years. The Happy Pods, Helena Burke, spoke to Suzanne about why women are thrivingin this high-octane sport. Dragon Singh is the quickest accelerating sport on Earth. So we basicallyjust try to go as quick as we can on a quite a short distance, like on a straight distance.And how does it feel to be sitting in the car as it's accelerating to over 300 miles an hour?It's a very, you know, rushing, you know, like the adrenaline is definitely flowing when we sit in the cars.
21:27And I have about around 5Gs, positive Gs in the start, maybe 4 to 5.But the big thing is that on the other end of the track, when we're going to try to break these 300 miles per hour,because we don't have any actually breaks as such, we do have these parachutes that come out and it takes a long time to slow down.And how did you get into top field drag racing?Because obviously it's quite a niche sport.Yes.So I think there's not many people, especially girls, that sort of wake up out of the bluelike one day, like I want to do drag racing.
21:59But it's very common that it is generational things.And my family, my dad and my uncle and my cousin raised.And I was always at a racetrack from, I was very, very little.So I always used to come with them and just, you know, hanged out and loved it.When you were younger and starting out in the sport, was there a lot of femalerepresentation in the sport even then or is that a more recent thing? I think female representationhas been there and even though Dragasang has done, you know, it's such an amazing job and it tooka long time before I even realized that Dragersing is different in the whole gender equality.
22:35But even if you look at it, it's still, the majority is still by far men. So there's no gettingit's not getting around that. You know, when I was a little girl, I mean I started racing, I'mSwedish. I grew up and raised in Sweden. And then there were women doing even Top FuelDen or other classes. They've always been around and always been role models and they all donetheir jobs. It's not really a big deal when I started because it's always sort of always been thecase. Yeah, I've seen drag racing being described as the most gender equal motor sport of all of them.Would you say you agree with that? Do you feel that women are welcomed and respected in the sport?Yes, I would totally agree that is the most gender.
23:16equal. And when I started, I did not think of it that much. It's only now, you know, growing upand realizing and having a look at other sports to actually think like, oh, hang on, this isn'tthe case everywhere. And even more recently, a part of this whole more than equal study andeverything, just realizing what the case is in go-karting and, you know, growing, you know,in all this whole Formula One and women. And then I said Drag-Sing should be extremely proud andeveryone is. But it's also, we don't make that much of a big deal about it. It is, it is normal.It's how it's always been. And it's just, it's just how we do it. And what would your advice be towomen and girls who are wanting to get into a sport? I think my advice to be, I mean, I can't
24:00really speak for the other motorsports, but when it comes to drag racing, it's just to come to an event,come and see what it's all about, come and talk to people. And I can absolutely go andto you that people are going to help you. I think I can always go into it. It's something youremember for life. You've won the top field European championship for the past two years in a rownow. Can you talk me through what it was like when you realised you'd won the title?We worked so hard and all my team and all the guys. And so we were super happy. So we're superproud and done it two in a row and maybe even three sounds even better.Helena Burke speaking to Suzanne Callan. We end in Chicago with a tale
24:42of strangers coming together.Ethan Woodhead traveled thereto compete in the city's marathon.He went alone with nobody to support him.Or so he thought.Sarah Lewis has this report.Imagine running a marathon,thousands of miles from home,
25:04thinking nobody knows you,only to find strangers cheering your name.Ethan Woodhead traveled across the pond aloneto compete in the Chicago Marathon.I didn't expect one person,You know, I traveled out here on my own.I don't know anyone here.I don't know anyone that lives here.
25:22I fully expected to come here, run the marathon, go home, and that be that.It really has been the whole of Chicago.I mean, it's wonderful.It's social media put to the correct usage.I mean, I had more support here than I did in Guernsey.And that's saying something.That's my home marathon.But here it was, it was wonderful, really.
25:38It's, I can't really put it into words.You know, I had confetti.I had people screaming my name.I had homemade banners.I mean, it's like, you can't really write it.I've just, I'm lost.for words. This whole thing has just been such a special experience.Ethan's uncle, Phil Woodhead, just wanted to do something nice for his nephew.
25:56So he posted an appeal on Facebook, asking people to cheer him on.He says he had no idea how far that post would reach.What they've done for him has just been beyond what I was hoping for.I was hoping for one or two signs.I was hoping for him to have a surprise cheer.He's gone 5,000 miles away.and, you know, I was hoping someone might hold up a sign with his name and for him to be shocks as he ran past.You know, that's how I envisaged it in my mind.
26:22I really wanted Ethan to have some level of support over there when his friends and family were absent.On Friday evening, I was at home and I thought, you know what, why don't I ask, people go and spectate the marathons without anyone to cheer for.Why don't I ask and see if someone can cheer for Ethan on my behalf?I found the most prominent Facebook group for the Chicago Marathonand I just put a very simple postand I just said my nephew's flying over a solohe's running the marathon without friends or families, they're on his own.I said if you're going and you have no one to support,
26:59please consider cheering for my nephew on my behalf.That was on Friday evening and it very quickly picked up traction.So I woke up on Saturday morning and I think two and a half thousand peoplehad liked the post. Did you ever even expect the post to get that much attention?Of course not. No. I mean, look, I'm an old man. I don't know how social media works.I genuinely thought that maybe if I could get one or two people to cheer his name and, like I said,surprise him, I'd have been incredibly happy. We had a commitment from so, so many people.It blew me away. It became incredibly overwhelming in the most wonderful, wonderful way.
27:35Ethan says the support made a huge difference.I got loads of messages afterwards saying that people were supporting and then there was people down the road and they're like, oh, you're supporting Ethan as well.Honestly, it was the whole way around. It's such a pick-me-up as well. I mean, a marathon's not, you know, an easy thing.So to have that kind of support, I mean, it really just, it gets you, it gets you around the call so much easier.What's actually going through your mind? Like when you're in the middle of a marathon, you're trying to get a really good time and you've got all these strangers holding signs and cheering for you saying,Go, Ethan, like supporting you back from Chicago to help your uncle, stuff like that.Like, how did that make you feel?Oh, it's wonderful.
28:17I'm very happy with my time.I did two hours, 31, 31 seconds, which is a big PB from my current PB, which I did in,or my last PB, which I did in Guernsey this year.To be honest, you kind of forget that you're racing.I mean, I did anyway.I was so overwhelmed and taken back from all of these kind people on the side of the road.I mean, they don't know me.They didn't have to do that.
28:36You know, I took it all in.I soaked it all in.you know, I was blowing people kisses, you know,I was high-fiving people, you know.Kind of the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.So it was mixed emotions, but I'm just so grateful.It's been their best experience.Ethan Woodhead, ending that report by Sarah Lewis.
28:58And 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.uk.The editor of this edition is Karen Martin.I'm Holly Gibbs. Until next time. Goodbye.It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing.This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret.Of the school's head teacher.
29:32This was someone I respected above anyone else.And the investigation led by students, he's trying to silence.This is to be destroyed.This is world of secrets, catching my teacher.Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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