Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Doggy paddling the waves

Episode Date: September 7, 2024

We dive into the unusual world of dog surfing and meet some of the surfers who take part in the sport's World Championships. Also, why the British rescue team are revisiting Morocco one year on from the earthquake.

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. Life and death were two very realistic co-existing 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. This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in this edition... I've met some of the greatest people that would have never been in my life without this crazy little sport we're doing. The dogs catching waves with their humans.

There were two little boys, no older than six or seven years, stood either side of the road and they saluted the team when they went through, and that will stick with me forever. The British rescue team's revisiting Morocco, a year on from the devastating earthquake. And could we soon have healthy chocolate? Over the past couple of weeks, we've been treated to an array of sports

through the Olympic and Paralympic Games. But here's one you might not have heard of before. Dog surfing. The World Dog Surfing Championships happened earlier this year in California and attracted a crowd of thousands. Two people that took part were James Wall and his dog, Faith, and David Fasoli with his dog Iza. The Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs spoke to them and started by asking them how they got into the sport.

You guys can't see me but I actually have one hand and I was doing some inner peace work in San Cruz, California and Iza was just a puppy at the time. And she learned the waves. And then we got her in the pool. And then I had a board. And it just became one with us. And how about you, James? I lost my previous dog, a Cocker Spaniel. And then I got a new dog. And with that dog, I always said, hey, I'm going to do better with this dog than I did the last.

So I saw on TV dog surfing and thought, all right, that sounds like a crazy idea, but let's do it. So we started out with Raven and she didn't do too well, but then I had adopted Faith. I found her in a parking garage and decided to give her a better life and then decided that, hey, let's give Faith a try. See if she enjoys this surfing thing. And basically ever since then we've been hooked and it's just awesome because she was a rescue dog that was fearful of the world. And dog surfing got her more open, friendly and trusting with everything. And it built a bigger bond with her and I. And we haven't looked back since.

And how do you actually get the dogs on a surfboard? My family, we have two Labradors who absolutely love the water. But I don't think I'd get them on a surfboard. Well, one of the things that's going to sound funny is the dogs need to enjoy the water if they love it. That was my problem with Raven. She was a Dutch Shepherd, Belgian Malinois mix. She loved the water. Any water that was near, she was in it. That was kind of a problem because it was counterproductive is she wanted in the water versus Faith. She tolerates the water. She likes the water, but she has it in her head that if I'm on this board, I'm not forced to swim. And besides that,

you got to do some groundwork at home. Teach them the surfboard's a friend. Feed the dog on the board. Make that board their best friend. If they gain two or three pounds because they learned to love that board, that's not a problem. And David, what do the dogs get out of it? I assume they enjoy it. Once again, my dog has this like little obsessive gene in her head, this little obsession with water fetching. So for her, she gets to be with me. She gets to be in the water. She gets to be on a board. She gets to be in sand. She gets to be at the pool. She gets to be in the water she gets to be on a board she gets to be in sand she gets to be at the pool she gets to be at the lake and all that combined i i enjoy that same thing myself so i think the lining what we both love to do makes it successful for us well that leads me on to my next

question what do you both get out of it james let's start with you how much do you enjoy it for me personally as funny as it's going to sound, I actually hate the beach. I have never dreamed of that this is going to be something I'm going out there doing, going to the beach. But yeah, my dog loves going. And they created a huge bond between Faith and I. And then I've met some of the greatest people that would have never been in my life without this crazy little sport we're doing.

The other thing I've learned is other people crazy little sport we're doing. The other thing I've learned is other people are seeing what we're doing and the fun I'm having with my dog and it makes them happy. So I've gotten, we started a social media page to save photos and share with friends and random strangers have emailed me, messaged me, and they're saying, I had such a horrible day. I went online, I found a picture of your dog wearing sunglasses, riding a surfboard, just enjoying life. And that brought me up. I'm sharing the love of my dog with everyone else.

And finally, in one sentence, could you both sum up the feeling of being in the water with your dogs? Just joy. I was going to say joyful was going to be my word. That was the first thing that came to my mind was joyful. And joy, love. Someone at peace with mind was joyful. Faith is my best friend. She goes with me pretty much everywhere. I've gotten to meet wonderful people, wonderful dogs through this little French bulldog named Isa. James Wall and David Fasoli speaking to Holly Gibbs.

On the 8th of September last year, a devastating earthquake struck Morocco, killing around 3,000 people. The local people there looked after the search and rescue teams, and one British team was so moved by the hospitality, they've gone back to visit. Richard Hamilton has been speaking to some of those who took part in the rescue efforts, and he starts by looking back on the day it happened. Rescue teams in Morocco are battling to reach people still trapped in the rubble following Friday's earthquake. The 6.9 magnitude earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in Morocco's history. The epicentre was about 70 kilometres southwest of Marrakesh, in remote villages dotted among the Atlas Mountains. The quake struck just before midnight on the Friday.

A team of 63 volunteers from ISAR, or International Search and Rescue, flew out to Marrakesh on the Sunday. Their team leader, Russ Gordon, says he was overwhelmed by the welcome from local people. When we got up into the mountain villages, up into the Atlas Mountains, the people, absolutely unbelievable, supportive, offering us water. But it was really, really humbling to see those people when everything around them was falling down,

they still offered us a smile and a welcome. Apart from water, what else did they provide? All assistance, support, obviously, the language barriers for some of us, trying to find out as much information as we can, taking us to other villages that had been cut off, offering a helping hand, unloading of equipment. Were some local people getting involved in terms of getting their hands dirty as well? Absolutely. The best rescuers out there and the people that are at the thick end

before we arrive are the local responders, the families, the people that are there straight after the aftermath. They hold the best information. But the hardest workers because they're absolutely trying to support their local villages, people they've known all their lives. Whereas, you know, we're a search and rescue team coming in to look for those deep-seated victims under the rubble piles, and it's quite challenging.

The ISAR team searched for victims under the rubble of collapsed buildings with rescue dogs and specialist acoustic equipment. They also treated many people for injuries and trauma. Here they are teaching children songs in a makeshift tented camp. And then when it was time to leave, something else happened. There's a significant thing that stuck out in my mind and will live with me forever. We'd done our final shift and we were making the move for some rest and recuperation. There were two little boys, no older than six or seven years, stood either side of the road and they saluted the team when they went through and that will stick with me forever.

I think that said it all for us as thanks. I don't think anybody would ever have to say anything else. Ross Gordon's team also received a personal letter from King Mohammed VI of Morocco thanking them for their help. They've now begun a five-day sponsored walk revisiting villages in the Atlas Mountains and the money raised will go towards building a new school and community centre in the village of Izukak, near the epicentre.

Together with the British ambassador, Simon Martin, they will lay a foundation stone of this new building. It's a symbolic gesture, but also, after the devastation of a year ago, a symbol of hope. Richard Hamilton reporting. Now, have you ever wanted a birthday you could really remember? That was the case for Paul Barton, who's a pianist from England. When he turned 50, he had one wish,

to play the piano for elephants in the wild. And that is exactly what he did. Moby and Azza caught up with Paul and started by asking where this idea came from. It was my 50th birthday and my wife wanted to do something special. I said look my dream would be I'd just love to play one piece of music for an elephant for my birthday. That would be my dream. I thought maybe music therapy could help elephants that had had stressful lives,

that had worked in tourism, logging trade. Maybe the beautiful sounds of soothing classical music played with love and with expression might just bring a little bit of comfort. There was nothing much more than that. So just a really practical question. How do you get such a beautiful piano into that space? Yeah.

When we first started this project, we approached a number of piano stores and asked them, would they hire a piano for the project? And, oh, absolutely no. No, no, no. You've got to keep the piano in a room, not take it outdoors. So the first piano I took, I made myself. My wife and I, we made it out of wood

and we made it like a flat-packed piano to fit into a taxi that we could take out into the wilderness and play for the elephants. And then as time went by, we were able to get acoustic pianos from my sponsor in Vienna. And we took those pianos out into the wilds and we paid piano removers to take them down muddy rocky roads to the river and put them out in

under the shade of a tree and we discovered that it was the wooden acoustic pianos that made the kind of sounds that the elephants responded to most. I'd really like to understand what you see and also what you feel when these elephants are in front of you and you're playing music to them. The younger elephants like to play with certain squeaks of a guitar or a flute. They really want to play with a clarinet. Then there are the young elephants, male and female, or sometimes male and male, or female and female. You play a beautiful piece of melodic music

and they will touch each other's heads with their trunk and they will caress each other by their ears, their face. It's an incredible thing to see that the mood suddenly changes from running through the mountain valley and then they hear the music and then they suddenly stop and then start to caress each other. That was something incredible to observe. Can you give me an example? What would be an example of something that's calming, something that's going to soothe and reduce tension? One of the elephants I played for was called Chai Chenna. He was a very dangerous bull elephant.

Not only dangerous to humans, dangerous to other elephants, and dangerous to himself. Soothing classical music seems to calm the restlessness. So, for example, I would play him a piece of music by Edward Elgar. I trust in these pieces of music that were written, sometimes hundreds of years ago, by great composers. Sometimes I've almost stopped playing because I've been so surprised. They can also lift their trunk and put the trunk over the piano onto the keys and sniff around.

And when they do that, it's, in my experience, it's been maybe the biggest privilege of my life. And you can hear more from Paul on Outlook, wherever you get your BBC podcasts from. On the Happy Pod, we like to find the joy around the world to tell you. But sometimes we stumble across tales that are not necessarily happy, but more weird and wonderful. Like this one. The Estonian police and border guard has gained an unlikely recruit. Here's Vilka and he's a hamster. Here's Tamsin Selby to tell us more.

Vilka is the newest recruit working at the Ida Hariju police station in Estonia. Unlike all the other officers who work there, Vilka is a hamster. The story begins with a couple breaking up and rowing over who got what. When the police got involved and the couple were dividing up their belongings, neither wanted the hamster. Then officer Victoria Muricep stepped in. She's an experienced rodent owner and already has two guinea pigs at home. She adopted Vilka and brought him into work, where he was an instant hit with the other officers. The Estonian broadcaster ERR went to meet Vilka. It reported that he'd undergone observation training and had already attended a meeting. According to Estonian police, there are currently no plans for Vilker to accompany

officers on patrol because, and I quote, he's more suited to office work. Tamsin Selby reporting there. Coming up in this podcast. I'm sending a message in the world and for all the refugees in the world, follow hope, follow freedom, follow peace. Meet the first member of the Paralympic refugee team to win a Paralympic medal. 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. To our listeners with a sweet tooth now, listen up. Scientists in Switzerland have come up with a way to make chocolate using the entire cocoa fruit,

rather than just using the beans and without adding sugar. They hope that this creation will allow people to indulge in their love for chocolate without any of the health risks. They also claim that this so-called healthy chocolate could be better for the environment and better for the cocoa farmers. As the happy pods, as the happy pods, Abiona Boyer has been finding out. Mankind's first luxury, chocolate. Around the world, we're spending over $133 billion on our sweet tooths for chocolate. And this is only expected to shoot up to an eye-watering $182 billion in the next year. This is no ordinary chocolate. No mercy to the sun-ripened cocoa beans. But with a push to healthy eating, how can we reconcile our tastes with clean living?

Well, scientists at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Switzerland, say they have a solution. By mashing up the sweet pulp together with the husk of a cocoa pod and then adding it to the chocolate, they found a way to replace the crystalline sugar that's normally added. Professor Erik Windhab described to us what this healthy chocolate tastes and feels like. It tastes like chocolate with a fruity sweetness, which is a bit peach, lychee-like. This is how people describe it. It has a great melt. It has a great, let's say, after flavour, as we call it, due to this fruity note. The flavour, taste, part is a new one and a fascinating one. And it's not just health benefits that this new chocolate claims to offer.

Its makers say it could also change the way cocoa is farmed and how farmers are paid. The major benefit from a sustainability perspective is you use a big portion of the whole fruit, because otherwise you would have thrown it away. So there is more chances to do also in the country. So we have collaborations in Ghana now. There is now a factory built harvesting these Jews, concentrating the Jews. So all these, this sweetening part of it. And that means there is value creation in the country already quite remarkable.

Explored how can we maybe best pay peer-to-peer in order to have more income to the cocoa farmers. Cadbury Silk Mousse. Scoop into chocolate heaven. Take it easy with Cadbury's caramel. Abiona Boyer reporting. A mother of two is thought to have set a new world record for the fastest female swim across Lake Geneva. The 73-kilometre swim took Sam Farrow 22 hours and 48 minutes of continuous swimming. She only stopped to tread water while she had some food or drink,

or occasionally to relieve cramp and backache. The BBC's Sarah Montague spoke to Sam about her achievement and started by asking her if she'd thought the feat was achievable. When we booked the swim originally, I just wanted to see how far I could go. I wanted to see if I could finish it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be the fastest woman. We went about five hours faster than I was expecting. And why was that? What were you thinking as you were going across the lake? I'm not sure, to be honest. I think I had just, I don't know whether it underestimated my own abilities or whether the currents on the day were just particularly in my favour. I think it was just a really good combination of good weather, good currents,

and just being stronger than I thought I was. It just goes to show what your body can achieve. Congratulations on doing it. You don't quite know yet whether you have set the world record on this for a woman swimming across Lake Geneva. So it is the fastest female time, but it's not officially ratified yet. OK, well, can you talk us through what happens? Because the idea of swimming 22 hours continuously, it's incomprehensible

to a lot of us I felt really good until about 50 55k in actually and which was unexpected my longest previous swim was about 36 kilometers so everything after that was unknown and for myself and the crew and about 55k my back really started to fatigue and that's when yeah the cramps and the pain really started and are you doing one stroke when, yeah, the cramps and the pain really started. And are you doing one stroke throughout the swim? Yeah, the whole thing's on freestyle, on front crawl. And obviously at times you're going, you're in the middle of the night? Yeah, so I had about 10 hours of complete darkness.

How do you mentally, what are you thinking during that time when you're in pain, you're getting cramps and you've got a long way to go? It was just about trying to keep the mind positive. I think your mind gives in long before your body gives in. So if you can keep your head positive, you can get there in the end. So every time that my brain tried to tell me that I couldn't do it, I just tried to try and flip it and think, right, it's 4am, you're in the middle of Lake Geneva, how special is this?

Not many people get the chance to do this. And I was also really lucky that I had two women on my crew, Jane and Claire, who alternated. Claire would swim for an hour with me and then my friend Jane would get in the kayak and kayak for an hour with me. So I was never on my own. It's very much a team sport. It was just a present. So I could just see the light or the odd paddle from the kayak. So it was just knowing that someone was there next to me. And I read that you get chucked food and drink on a rope. What do you eat? What can you possibly eat when you're doing that? So I have carbohydrate powders mixed with cordial. We had vegetable soup. I had Kendall mint cake and things like that, little cakes,

just to keep me going. And then the feeling when you did it, what was that like? A lot of relief that I was on dry land. But also, I don't think it's quite kicked in yet. I've not really had the emotions yet. I think it's all a bit of a shock still. We'll plan another big swim for next year. If we can do 70k, let's see how far we can go, really. Incredible. Sam Farrow there.

And now another sporting accomplishment, this time at the Paralympics, where one woman has become the first member of the Paralympic refugee team to win an Olympic medal. Zakia Kudadadi, who's from Afghanistan, won bronze in one of the para-taekwondo categories in Paris, defying the Taliban's wishes that women do not play sport. She says she hopes her achievement sends a message for all the refugees in the world to follow hope. And she dedicated her win to all the women in Afghanistan. Stephanie Prentice has this report. I'm so happy and I'm so proud for this medal.

Because after three years, I worked hard with regime, with problem, with all that I've been. This is for me a dream and now it's true. Zakia Koudadadi fled her home country of Afghanistan after going into hiding when the Taliban swept into Kabul and seized power three years ago. Since then, the regime has cracked down on women's rights, including playing any sports, and there have been widespread reports of abuse. Today in my country, life is not easy for all the women and girls because Taliban in Afghanistan and everything is finished for all the women. Maybe for this medal, all the women continue life and continue fight with Taliban and maybe we are together win peace in my country. The 25-year-old who competes with one functional arm was given refuge in France

and started a new life in Paris. Back in her home province of Herat, there was always a Taliban presence, even when the group were not in charge and Zakia trained at home in order to feel safe. She says now having the support of the French people and world-renowned taekwondo coaches has allowed her to fulfill her potential. After I left my country, I continue my sport in French. I'm very, very progress in my sport, taekwondo, with my best coach, Habini Aghey. Because in Afghanistan, I continue taekwondo, but it's not very professional because in Afghanistan it's dangerous. But here in French, everything is perfect. Next, Zakia plans to compete at the Los Angeles Paralympics in 2028,

says any medals she gets are for all the world's refugees and that next time she's going for gold. I am sending a message in the world and for all the refugees in the world, follow hope, follow freedom, follow peace. That report was by Stephanie Prentice. Many of us have had that one teacher who made a lasting impact on our lives, whether it was through their passion for the subject, their teaching style, or the way they believed in us.

They leave a lasting legacy, don't they? Mine was Mr Tembi, who managed to inspire me with his joy for mixing up things in the chemistry lab. For many South Africans, their inspiration was William Smith, the famous TV science and maths educator. Tributes have been pouring in following the news of his death after a short battle with cancer. He was 85 years old. Ella Bicknell looks back on the impact he had on his students. So Y is going to be a quarter of X, which comes out to be 2,500,000. Now he has a tricky problem.

William Smith had a simple vision, bringing education to everyone, no matter who they were and where they came from. A top science graduate from Rhodes University, Smith was on track to a lucrative career in the explosives industry. However, his true passion was teaching. In the 1970s, he ran his first multiracial school, despite backlash from apartheid authorities. He also set up Pre-University School, an organisation which prepared students for their first year of studies. It was quickly adopted by all major universities in South Africa.

So Zed's going to be a third of a quarter of X. You know what the answer is. It's 833,333. But he became a universal name with his daytime programme, The Learning Channel. A self-taught filmmaker, he spent years convincing public broadcaster SABC to put him on air and bring his lessons to the masses. Millions of South Africans tuned in to hear his warm, enthusiastic voice and watch his border marker-stained hands break down maths problems step by step. One of those children watching, Johan Ferreira.

He's now a professor at the Universitat Pretoria Statistics Department. Mathematics and science is supposed to be for everyone, even if you do not become a scientist. And I think the digestible way that he introduced and covered concepts was essential. These days, education resources are everywhere, but Johan says Mr. Smith was always ahead of the curve. You can watch YouTube videos, you can watch many different things. But I like to think of William Smith as the original science content creator of South Africa. And it was presented in such a fantastic national free-to-view platform.

As well as an academic resource, for many of those watching, he served a pastoral role. He was a friend, a mentor, a point made by radio presenter Anneli Madoda in her tribute on the 947 Joburg breakfast show. Sometimes that was the only time somebody had a parent to help them with their homework. So the ties are definitely academic, but I think they just run so much stronger. They run into fibre and morals and ethics and love and consistency,

which is what love is. When you'd switch the TV on in the afternoon, William Smith was there. Smith received many notable accolades in his lifetime, including Teacher of the Year and an honorary life membership of the Golden Key International, an organisation dedicated to academics around the world. By far his most significant, the Order of Baobab, the highest accolade bestowed to any South African, presented to him by Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019.

The South African president said William Smith demystified mathematics and science for generations. He was an education and cultural icon. Ella Bicknell. And that's all from The Happy Pod for now. We'd love to hear from you on any of the stories we've covered here. As ever, the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Nick Randall and the producer was Holly Gibbs. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. 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.