Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: From pollution to paradise

Episode Date: May 11, 2024

The volunteers restoring the beautiful beaches of Bali and beyond by clearing plastic pollution from Indonesia's rivers, and upcycling it into chairs. The profits are used to fund more river clean ups. The deaf toddler who has near normal hearing after groundbreaking gene therapy. Why are hundreds of sea lions gathering at Pier 39 in San Francisco? After seagull boy, we bring you lion girl - the five year old whose amazing lion roar has been viewed millions of times. We chat to two old friends who reconnected -- and then studied why old friends find it hard to reconnect. And we meet the football fan who moved to a new country to support his team in the English Premier League.Our weekly collection of the happiest stories in the world.

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. This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. Hi, I'm Sam Benchegib, co-founder of Sunwatt from Indonesia, and you're listening to The Happy Pod.

Hear how we give value to river trash. And I'm Janette Jalil. Also in this edition, a groundbreaking gene therapy treatment that means a deaf child can now hear. They played us the sounds that she was turning to and we were quite mind blown by how soft it was, how quiet it was. They're sounds that I think in day-to-day life you might not even notice yourself sort of thing.

And a welcomed invasion of San Francisco. It is crazy. I've never seen that many sea lions in one place. It's just so cool to see them all here. They're so loud. Hundreds of sea lions stopping by. Also in this podcast... Reconnections might remind you of kind of old versions of yourself, old memories, wonderful times. Might open a whole wonderful series of memories that you can kind of reflect upon.

The joy of reconnecting with old friends. And after Seagull Boy, we bring you Lion Girl. I know my aunt's from Lion Valley. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Self-proclaimed lion expert Riley, who's five. They thought they'd landed in paradise. Three siblings moved from France to the Indonesian island of Bali as teenagers. And it was idyllic, except for one huge problem, the tide of plastic washing up on the

tropical island's beaches and rivers. But Gary, Kelly and Sam, or perhaps I should say Gary, Kelly and Sam, were not going to let that spoil their new home, as Sophie Smith found out. Men, women and children are clearing mounds of plastic that float along this river in Bali, Indonesia. They're collecting rubbish that's trapped against a wooden barrier, deliberately placed there to stop it flowing into the sea. It's all part of a cleanup by 27-year-old Sam Bencheghib and his siblings Gary and Kelly, who founded their organization Sungai Watch three and a half years ago. Here's Sam. So we moved to Bali, Indonesia in 2005. And when we moved, you know, Bali is a really beautiful paradise island, but we quickly started seeing more and more plastics wash up on our beaches. And we realized that most of the plastics

in the ocean comes from rivers. And Indonesia being the been ranked for many years as the second biggest polluter to the ocean, we started focusing our efforts on cleaning rivers and making sure that plastics doesn't reach the ocean in the first place. Since setting up the organisation, Sam and the rest of the team have pulled 2 million kilos of rubbish out of Indonesia's rivers. They have installed 275 barriers and now pull out 4,000 kilos of plastics every day. We're really looking for ways to localise our efforts. So right now at Snow Eyewatch, we have 140 full-time staff that are really our heroes. We call them our river warriors. They're the ones that are jumping into rivers every day. And half our team is in our

facilities sorting through the trash that we collect. Sam, Gary and Kelly's team also work upstream at the root of the problem. They speak to schools, governments and local communities to try and stop the plastic from getting into the river in the first place. We don't want to be cleaning rivers for the rest of our lives. You know, we want to put ourselves out of business. That is essentially our goal. And for that, we really need to make this as local as possible and that's why our name is Sungai Watch. Sungai means river in Indonesian. You know, when you see a polluted river and you can't see the water,

it feels like sort of an apocalypse and you really think that the world is ending. So having this idea that people can take these rivers and clean them up for themselves and really see the before and after, I think that's probably the most inspiring part of our work. The team has also started a new venture, Sungai Design, which launched in March this year. This is where the trash gets turned into value, or to be more specific, where plastic bags get turned into chairs. Each chair is made from 2,000 plastic bags that volunteers have collected. The revenue that's made from selling them goes back into the charity to help clean even more rivers.

You know, we thought, what if we could take every single piece of trash out there that's in a river and upcycle it and turn it into something that's cool, that's practical, but more importantly, that replaces new virgin materials. So what's next for Sam and the rest of Sungai Watch? Right now, we're working on a project to extend our work outside of Indonesia. How can we potentially bring this work to other countries? We get so many reach outs every day, people saying, can you please come do what you do here?

And I think for us, that really shows us the potential that Sungai Watch has, not just in Indonesia, but really across the world. Now to an amazing medical breakthrough that's brought hope to the parents of deaf children. In a world first, 18-month-old Opal Sandy, who was born deaf, now has near normal hearing thanks to a gene therapy study running in the US, the UK and Spain. And just six months after the treatment, she's learning how much fun sounds can be. Holly Gibbs reports. Opal's time.

Opal, who lives in southern England, was treated shortly before her first birthday. She can now hear sounds as soft as a whisper and is even starting to say words like mama, dada and uh-oh. Her mum Jo says they had been nervous about taking part in the trial. It was really scary but I think we'd been given a really unique opportunity with no real evidence that any harm or adverse effects was likely to come to her and I think a lot of parents with regardless of their difficulties their children face to be given an opportunity to potentially make obstacles easier for her to overcome was a risk definitely worth taking. Jo and her husband James were stunned by the result.

They described the moment they realised their daughter could hear. Absolutely mind-blowing. I was at work at the time and you messaged me to say what had gone on and I'm not sure I believed it at the start. I think I said it was just a fluke. She must have reacted to something else. I got home from work and was straight away. That was 24 weeks post-surgery

and we heard the phrase near normal hearing. She was turning to really soft sounds. They played us the sounds that she was turning to and we were quite mind blown by how soft it was, how quiet it was. There are sounds that I think in day-to-day life you might not even notice yourself sort of thing. Doctors in other countries including China, are exploring similar treatments for the gene mutation that Opal has, and it's hoped the technique could be adapted to help treat other genetic conditions. It's estimated that more than 30 million children worldwide have some sort of hearing loss,

and 40% of cases have some genetic link. Dr Richard Brown, one of Opal's doctors at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge in eastern England, says the gene therapy fixed the faulty cells that carry signals from the ear to the brain. The lovely thing about this condition when you're thinking about it as a candidate for gene therapy is that everything is anatomically absolutely perfect. So Opal's cochlea, which is a little shell-shaped organ in her inner ear that allows you to hear sound is structurally perfect and all that we need to do is to drop in the gene therapy with the working gene and then the cochlea will start speaking to that nerve that then takes the signal

to the brain. This has been really exciting for us because it means that there's a tiny little target for the gene therapy so we can deliver the gene therapy just locally to the inner ear without needing to give a big dose to the rest of the body and that means that we can be much more assured that it will be safe and that the gene therapy won't cause any adverse effects. Then the news of course that it worked for Opal and that she could hear with a very near normal thresholds on our audiology testing was just really exciting for us. This is what we sometimes refer to as a one and done therapy. So you can do a treatment that we hope will be a cure for this type of hearing loss and

potentially we could develop other gene therapies for other genetic hearing loss and even other conditions such as neurology, metabolic and haematological conditions. If you can treat those children early in a one and done way that doesn't then require ongoing care, lots of sort of technological support, additional equipment, which is the case for some forms of hearing support and of course other types of support necessary in medicine, potentially you can see that this might be an exciting development for the developing world. Dr Richard Bram. Now if you've been thinking about trying to reconnect with an old friend but have been hesitating about making the first move, a new study may help you go for it. The researchers say people who overcame

their reluctance and reached out reported feeling happier and that old friends appreciated even more than you might expect. And the study was carried out by two friends who had reconnected themselves, Dr Gillian Sandstrom, an expert in the psychology of kindness at the University of Sussex in southern England, and Dr Lara Aknin, who runs the Helping and Happiness Lab at Simon Fraser University near Vancouver in Canada. Lara told me how their own reunion inspired their work. So Gillian and I are friends from graduate school. And over the years, we've worked together on multiple projects. About two years ago now, I was missing Jill, our projects had kind of wrapped up, but I waited until New Year's Day

until I kind of had a reason to reach out to her. And I said, of wrapped up, but I waited until New Year's Day until I kind of had a reason to reach out to her. And I said, I miss you. We should find a new project to reconnect over. All of a sudden, our text messages started pinging back and forth and we were back in touch. And, you know, we kind of said maybe we should take some inspiration from our experience and start studying what might help people reach out to old friends.

And Gillian, how did you feel about this? You know, the fact that it was, it felt so difficult to reach out when it hadn't been objectively that long since we talked made me wonder how much harder it must be to reach out when it's been a longer time since you've been in touch with someone. So tell us about this research and why it is that you think that it is so hard for people to reconnect with old friends that they've lost touch with? In general, humans seem to feel like they're better than average. So we think we're a better driver than other people, or we're more honest than other people. But in terms of social stuff, social skills, we seem to think we're worse than other people. And it's the only domain that we really know of where this is true. So you enjoy talking to someone else, but you think they don't enjoy talking to you

as much as you enjoy talking to them. So there's this gap. We feel like people don't want to hear from us, that it might be a bit awkward. We feel guilty that we've lost touch with them. We feel like it's all our fault. Part of the reason is that we just seem to feel that way in general about many of our social skills. While I can kind of sympathise and understand where a lot of people are coming from about talking to strangers, it seemed especially puzzling to me that people might be so reluctant to reach out to old friends. And yet, Gillian, we see with the two of you, it worked out really well. And so you're an inspiration perhaps to people listening

who might want to reconnect with an old friend. What would you say to someone who's listening right now and is still hesitating to get back in touch with someone from the past? I mean, I guess one of the things that I think about is what do you have to lose, right? It could feel a little bit bad if they don't respond, but we're more resilient to these kind of things than we think we are. And we don't have to take it personally. There's lots of, you know, lots of reasons why someone might not respond. They might be too busy or they might be dealing with something really stressful in their life. It might not be about you. So we can choose, you know, how we interpret that lack of response if that were to happen. But if you think about what the best case scenario is, it means, you know, reconnecting with someone

that you, you know, spent good times with. And the fact that this offers the potential to bring more social connection into your life is just a really positive thing. And Lara, there is something special about old friendships, isn't there? There is certainly a valuable source of connection and meaning, just like, you know, we might receive from long standing close ties. But reconnections, especially with people from distant past, a distant past might remind you of kind of old versions of yourself, old memories, wonderful times, it might open a whole wonderful series of memories that you can kind of reflect upon.

Lara and Gillian talking about their research and their friendship. As well as your stories about reaching out to someone you've lost touch with, we also wanted to know if you'd bumped into old friends or acquaintances far from home. After we covered the remarkable coincidence of more than 500 people from the Canadian island of Newfoundland ending up on the same Caribbean cruise. Several of you have been in touch, including Forrest. Hi, my name is Forrest Tild. I'm from Washington State, USA. And in the summer of 2013, I was in Costa Rica helping teach English and doing renovations on a local rural school

in the central highlands of the country. I was there for a month and a half, and on my way back, I ran into my high school Spanish teacher, Dan, and his family at the airport in San Juan. We swapped stories, and before we knew it, we were flying the same flight back, went through customs together, caught the connecting flight back to Colorado, where I lived at the time. And we said goodbye to each other at the baggage claim. Dan, if you're hearing this, I hope you're doing well. And thanks for everything that you taught me.

At least you didn't call him sir, which is what I did when I bumped into a much-loved teacher years after leaving school. Let us know your stories. And as it's just been Teacher Appreciation Week in the US, we'd also love to hear about any of your teachers who made a big difference in your lives. Send us an email or a voice note. The address, as ever, is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. If you've already been in touch with your own chance meeting, thank you, and we're hoping to include you in future editions. Still to come in the Happy Pod... I've loved every minute of it. I've met some great people.

You know, if I wouldn't have done it, I'd be looking back regretting it. So there's plenty to do in life. You don't have to sit around thinking and procrastinate. Just go and do it. The man who moved halfway around the world to support his football team. 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. You may remember in an earlier edition of The Happy Pod, we brought you a nine-year-old boy who'd won a European competition for his seagull impression. Well, it seems Cooper might have some competition in the form of five-year-old Riley, who's a self-proclaimed expert in roaring like a lion.

And in case you're having difficulty telling them apart, the real lioness was the second one. Well, Riley's impression has been watched by millions online. In a video posted on her mum's TikTok account, Riley and Amy, she explains how to master the roar. Right, Rai, do you know that so many people loved your lion noise yesterday? They thought that your lion noise was really good. Everyone thought it sounded so real. It is real. is super real and it rewinds how did you get so good at that noise i practice you know and I am with her. I say, war, war, and I don't say, war, war, and I say, war, war, war. I can't do it.

How can you do that? We may get some air and blow. You want me to practice? My mum knows you're good at it. I am an expert. She ain't lying. Riley is an expert lion impersonator. If your child or you think you can impress with your impression of a lion, a seagull or any other animal, we'd love to hear it. Send us a recording, including your name and where you are, to the usual email. Now, from lions to sea lions. That's the sound of hundreds of the big-eyed, long-whiskered sea creatures stopping off at San Francisco Bay in the US to refuel and rest on their journey south.

The spot, Pier 39, is famous for attracting migrating sea lions. But this spring has seen the highest numbers for 15 years, with more than 1,000 recorded there in the past few weeks. Visitors have been impressed by the site and have given their seal of approval. It is crazy. I've never seen that many sea lions in one place. I heard about that place and we came here a few minutes ago and it's awesome to see them. It's very loud, of course, but it's really nice to see all of them and it's funny to watch them fight and relax in the sun.

It's not like in a zoo. They're not trapped. They can be here if they want to be here, but it's just so cool to see them all here. And it's so interesting. They're so loud. Sheila Chandler, the harbourmaster at Pier 39, says it's great to see such large numbers return. When they first came here in the early 90s, we did have these kind of numbers. In fact, they got up to 1,700 sometimes. But over the years, that's dwindled down to an average, I would say, between 300 and 400 in the winter. And as the spring comes in, maybe up to 700. So you're looking at almost double the numbers.

And the reason they've arrived is there's a huge school of anchovy that was off the Farallon Islands that's in the bay right now. So it's all about the seafood. It's all about the food. And these animals, a lot of them are on their way down south at the moment. A big herd of them are on their way down south for the mating season. It's a very good way to put it is that they're fueling up for the mating season and you know it's spring you know they're ready to rock and roll down in the Channel Islands and

we're a nice little pit stop with some great seafood. The bay is very healthy right now if it wasn't we wouldn't see these kind of numbers for sure so it's good news all around. Sheila Chandor, and talking about food, a picnic can be a great way to relax and catch up. All you need is some great food, friends and hopefully sunshine. A bit of a challenge here in often grey, rainy Britain. But for neurodivergent people such as those with ADHD, autism or bipolar disorder, attending a social gathering like this can be overwhelming. Well, an organisation called the Peruvian Neurodivergent Coalition has found a solution, a unique type of picnic, one with no social norms or rules, where everyone feels relaxed and welcome.

The Happy Pod's Anna Murphy found out more from the organisation's co-founder, Carolina Diaz. When you are neurodivergent, you feel that the challenges that you face are unique. Like, you are the only person in the world that feels that way. But when we started the picnics, we discovered that we were not alone in the world. What's it like to be at one of these picnics? Can you describe it for me?

How does it work? What do you do? What's the atmosphere like? We try not to have rules. We have what is called rules, no rules. We always say it's not mandatory to look in the eyes of other people. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. You just can stay there and enjoy and do whatever.

You can read a book. You can go. If you feel tired, you don't have to give us an explanation. We want it to be a different space that we face every day. And we use this system when we put different colored bracelets, red and green. For the people, imagine if someone doesn't feel the need to speak, is tired, is overstimulated. So that person can choose the red bracelet. So it's about making an environment where people feel that they can socialise and be together,

but without any pressure or expectations. We were told they feel some pressure to talk so that system is very helpful and the new people when we talk about that they feel very calm, they feel very safe there. People all the time are telling us that they don't feel as lonely anymore, they feel like they found that place where they belong. The first time that somebody told me, you saved my life, I didn't believe it. Never in my crazy dreams, I would thought that somebody would tell me that I will be considered an important part of their life. Not only you go to the picnics, you have online community with different groups.

We have groups for parents, groups for video game lovers to find jobs. We have groups for exercise. So they also feel empowered to do their own stuff. Like there are people who become advocates to talk about their experience openly, and they feel free to share. And we love that. So it's not only that they attend the picnics, but that they feel empowered to talk about their experience.

And sometimes they think they are the only people in the world that feel that way, and they discover they are not alone. Carolina Diaz. Here on The Happy Pod, we've been asking for your stories about how going to live in a different country has made you happier. Now, I know lots of people who've moved from Britain to Australia because they like the weather, the beaches or the lifestyle. But here's one guy who's made the move from Australia to Britain. And why has he come to the UK from

halfway across the world? Luton Town Football Club. Yes, that's right. 50-year-old plumber Dave Burton is such a fan that when Luton were promoted to the English Premier League, he decided to up sticks from Sutherland Shire near Sydney, where he's lived all his life, to come to Bedfordshire in central England. He told Justin Dealey he'd inherited his love of Luton from his dad, who was born in the area. He moved over in the early 70s, late 60s, early 70s. He immigrated to Australia and I was born then, 73. So you grew up listening to all these stories about Luton Town through your dad? Yeah, definitely. He was a season ticket holder. So from a young age, I was right

into it. So when was your first Luton game? The old Division 1. My first game was when I was 12. We'd come over for about five games. So you went to the playoff final at Wembley, which was amazing. When did you think to yourself, I'm going to move my life from Australia

to Luton for a year to enjoy the Premier League? Why not? You've got to do these things. When did you make to yourself i'm going to move my life from australia to luton for a year to enjoy the premier league why not you got to do these things when did you make that decision probably a couple of weeks after they won i've paid my mortgage off so i own the place so i can just close the door i'm not married and i've got a british passport so i said let's go happy day sadly your dad has died but you've left your mum and sister in Australia. What do they think about what you've done? Oh, it's madness. But they come over Christmas.

We had Christmas here with relatives. But they were like, why not? You only do things once. Or, you know, like, you've got to grasp it while it's hot. So I did. So I come over. How have you found being in Luton, watching Premier League football for this year that you've decided to do this? Yeah, I've loved every minute of it.

I've met some great people. As I've gone along, I've met more fans. More fans have helped me out. People that can't go to games have given me the first bite of their tickets, like season ticket holders. So I've managed to get to about nearly 15 games, I think. I've been fortunate in those regards. And, you know, I can't thank a lot of people enough, really.

You know, if I wouldn't have done it, I'd be looking back regretting it so that's how it is and we're staying up so well this was going to be my final question if they stay up and you have tickets for the fulham game yeah the last game of the season if they stay up are you staying here in luton or no well i'm i'm going the week after because i'm going home for our winter so i can go and play football and um a bit of surfing because i've going home for our winter so I can go and play football and a bit of surfing because I've been surfing for six months and it's killing me. And after that, I'll be probably coming back at Christmas. If you're not going to come back full-time, it'll just be the odd game you come back.

No, no, no. Look, I don't plan things. So it might be after Fulham if they stay up. You say, right, that's it. I'm coming back for another year. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I hope they stay up for you. Yeah, yeah. And it's a great story it's a great story of being spontaneous well that's you know a lot of people should take you know should think about those sort of things as well like

there's plenty to do in life you don't have to sit around thinking and procrastinate just go and do it you know glass half full in it now that's what I call a dedicated fan. Luton Town supporter Dave Burton. And that's all from us for now. Remember, if you'd like to be part of the Happy Pod, you can email us the sound that brings you joy. We'd also love to hear if you have any stories to share that will make us all smile. As ever, the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.

This edition was mixed by Sid Dundin. The producers were Anna Murphy, Holly Gibbs, Sophie Smith and Rachel Bocley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janette Jullio. Until next time. Goodbye. 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.