Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: From security guard to sculptor at the Met Museum

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

We meet security guard Armia Khalil, whose kindness to a visitor led to his sculpture being exhibited at New York's Met Museum. Also: new hope for Parkinson's; beer that's good for you; and Bhutan welcomes Ed Sheeran.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection, written and presented by bestselling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity. Busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever.

Somewhere, when we weren't looking, it's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Berkman, Epidemics of Modern Life, available to purchase wherever you get your audio books. This is the HappyPod from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and in this edition, from guarding art to exhibiting his own at a world famous museum.

I never dreamed that one day I would be standing in the middle as an artist in a major exhibit. It's surreal, it's magical. We meet the security guard whose kindness to a visitor led to his own work going on display. Also. It was just instant, absolutely amazing. I was in disbelief. Now I've got the confidence to go out and meet people again. A new treatment that can improve the lives of people with Parkinson's. The potential health benefits of non-alcoholic beer? The longest story ever told.

And why a tiny kingdom known for keeping global influences out has welcomed one of the world's biggest stars. The Bhutanese are very in tune with pop culture, be it Western pop. I don't think he will be corrupting. But we start with the remarkable story of a man who's gone from guarding works of art to having his own sculpture of Egypt. But after moving to the US in 2006, he ended up working as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In his free time, he kept up his passion for sculpting. And one day a chance encounter led to an opportunity he'd always dreamed of. Amir told Holly Gibbs how the Met Museum had inspired him almost since he arrived in New York. Once I moved, of course the reality was different. It's not like a movie.

I mean, struggling to live and find a place to sleep and it was really kind of struggling to make some art or back to my tools. Of course it's not easy and I got sick a little bit because of the wizard so the Met was the very first museum and almost like first place ever to visit in New York. How does that feel now that you have your own sculpture on display there? That must be really surreal. It is really surreal for me and it's overwhelming now and I'm really grateful of course but it's really surreal still by the way even though I talk about now and I'm really grateful of course but it's really surreal still by the way even though I talk about it and I'm trying to understand it because I never planned this even though my dreams I never planned like I would like one day

I would be standing in the Met as an artist in a major exhibit. It's surreal, it's magical, it's so divine. And you worked there as a security guard surrounded by the art that you loved and the art that you knew you could make. How was that? Was that frustrating? Oh yeah, of course I've been working now for, this is almost my 13th now, I'm going to my 13 years, surrounding like by all kinds of arts and history from all over the world. Because I mean for everybody here at the Met, it's the museum, our museum, the Metribal Museum of Art has an amazing collection of all kinds of arts and history from all over the world.

So it's really an amazing place and I like walking every day in the galleries looking to the art around me. Of course, it's really inspiring and it's really like amazing feelings to be surrounded by all this art and artists and their spirits around. It's really an amazing experience. And it was a chance encounter that led to you having your artwork on display in the Met. Talk us through that. How did that happen? It was almost, I would say, early August 2023 and And it was just like a very normal day for me as a security officer. And I was trying to help one of the visitors at this point.

He seemed for me like he's a normal visitor coming around. And you can tell from his face that he's looking for something. So I approached him trying to help. And his answer, yes, I'm looking for a painting. The name of this painting was Flight into Egypt. And of course, I knew it and I told him, yeah, let me walk you, it's in my galleries.

And just in a few seconds, we were talking and he was really curious to know why he's looking for this painting and I told him that, of course. Told him I'm Egyptian too and I'm an artist. And he got his badge, the museum's badge, and showed it to me. He said, my name is Akili Tommassino. I'm the creator of modern contemporary art here at the Met. And the conversation now is like totally different. He told me about his plan. He's planning for a major exhibit under the

same name of this painting that we are standing in front of, which is Flight into Egypt. And that was the start. And tell us about your sculpture that's now on display there. The sculpture, of course, inspired by the Egyptian art, and it was carved out of one piece of wood, ash wood. And I made it especially for this show after our talk and after I was inspired by his invitation

and his generosity, actually. I wonder if you could cast your mind back to the day that you were walking around the Met as one of the first places that you visited after you'd moved. What would you tell yourself now if you could go back and tell yourself that your art would be on display? Oh my god, I still, by the way, I still remember that feeling and still see myself walking in the galleries as a visitor. It's kind of surreal question for myself because now I work at the Met as a security officer and I know the galleries. I know the places I visited in 2006.

Almost I can see myself walking. I was really kind of flying and happy, kind of virtually hugging the arts and the Egyptian, of course. I would say I'm still happy. That was really kind of an inspiring visit, really an amazing experience and I still have it. It's still as it happened to me like 10 seconds ago. You made it. Yes, ma'am. And I'm grateful. I'm really grateful. It's been really amazing. I mean, for me it's more than home.

Amir Halil talking to Holly Gibbs. Now to a high-tech treatment that could significantly improve the lives of people with Parkinson's disease. As you may have heard on the Global News podcast a few days ago, it involves an implant in the brain that can control tremors using tiny pulses of electricity, deep brain stimulation as it's known. Unlike older versions that had to be reprogrammed in hospital, this new one can read a patient's brain signals and help manage their symptoms straight away, all controlled by a tiny computer in their chest. Julian Warica has been speaking to Akbar Hussain, one of the first doctors in the world

to offer this new treatment and to his patient, Kevin Hill. Partincin's affects different people in different ways and with me it was a tremor and it was getting worse by the week and I was finding that I wasn't going out and socialising. I was hiding myself. I was getting withdrawn.

It was affecting my mental health. Because you'd been diagnosed what? Five years prior to that I think hadn't you? Yeah that's true, yeah. You'd got that gradual deterioration in your overall state of health over that. Yeah and I would say things just getting worse and worse as it progressed. So when this option of the implant was put in front of you, what did you think? I was in two minds whether to go for it or not because it seemed to be a big operation for it to go through and it wasn't

a promise of success. And when it was turned on, what happened? I've been shaking for years, my wife was there and they went on a computer and it was just instant, absolutely amazing. I was in disbelief, it just all just stopped, the shaking. And it's continued like that ever since, has it? I've had me good days and bad days, but I have more good days than I do bad days. Akbar, tell us a bit about this device, how it's fitted, how it works.

So it's in two parts, really. The main part is the battery itself, which contains the computer chip as well. It's developed from like cardiac pace maker technology but instead of hooking it up to wires that go to the heart, I hook it up to wires that I've implanted into the middle of the brain. Once it's in the right place you can then send little pulses of energy to these deep brain structures and the wiring or the electrical activity that is not quite working well in these

different disease processes such as Parkinson's disease or dystonia or essential tremor, we can fine tune the stimulus so we can get rid of some of the symptoms that the patient's suffering from. It's effective and helps about 80% of people who have the deep brain stimulation device but there is a group of people that it might not help as well as has helped Kevin. Kevin on that quality of life point, what are you able to do now that you couldn't do before? Now I've got the confidence to go out and meet people again so I can go at the pub. I don't mind going out. I used to like to go out and ride on my bike. That's one thing I couldn't do because I was in the aches and pains.

I like to game a snooker and now I can play a snooker again. aches and pains. I like to game a snooker and now I can play a snooker again. What are the potential risks, downsides that might be present here? I mean this is complicated, it's invasive surgery. There must be risks. There's no such thing as brain surgery without any risks unfortunately but out of all the different types of brain surgery that we do, this is probably the safest one we do because it's very minimally intrusive. And once it's making a difference, I mean once somebody is significantly better as a result of having this fitted as Kevin clearly is, I mean is there any reason why that situation

cannot continue? I mean, can you put a time scale on for how long something like this can be realistically effective? The deep brain stimulation doesn't modify the disease process. You still have Parkinson's disease. The symptoms will progress over time. Now, how long it takes to progress as an individual is different for different people.

I don't think that we'll have to worry about the longevity being just a couple of years. I think it is, we're talking about decades. It's excellent news to think we'll get 20 years out of this. It's amazing, absolutely amazing. Parkinson's patient Kevin Hill who's playing snooker and riding his bike again thanks to Akbar Hussain, neurosurgeon at Newcastle hospitals here in the UK. Next to Morocco where storytellers from 33 countries have broken a world record

by recounting their tales continuously for more than three days. Their recital in the main square in Marrakesh lasted 80 hours and 34 minutes. The event was part of the Marrakesh International Storytelling Festival which also included workshops in local schools. Our very own storyteller Richard Hamilton was there. This is the Jamar-e-Alfanar, the famous square right at the heart of the ancient Medina of Marrakech. And it was here a thousand years ago that storytellers began telling tales in the square. They'd stand in a circle of onlookers and tell ancient tales.

And this carried on for hundreds of years until, in the 1970s, as Moroccans got televisions, radios, then later the internet, social media, the young generation forgot about storytelling and it began to die out. But now the Marrakesh International Storytelling Festival is trying to revive an interest in storytelling. As part of that, they're trying to break the record for the longest continuous storytelling session. Bird's Nest spoke. Governor, I can only give you one advice. Be good.

Just do good. And Bird's Nest said, Governor, a five-year-old can understand this, but a 78-year-old still finds it difficult to understand what I've just said. Grab them by the knee. Grab them by the ankle, or you can hold on like a handle.

Do not do what we Tom did. We Tom was grabbed by the shoe with no lace in it, and he went out of the window and up into the air. Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi. He suddenly saw that in front of him, in the place where the dove should have fallen there was a wall a stone wall made of fine old bricks he has never seen a wall in this forest it was something new as if the wall appeared by magic and then he discovered a door and it was a fine carved door made of sandalwood.

And the door was not closed, it was open. My name is Brahim Daldari. I am a storyteller from Sefru. A storytelling festival in Marrakesh has opened a big door for me to meet author, to meet also academic people. So it's a huge opportunity for me to meet author, to meet also academic people. So it's a huge opportunity for me. So many young people, they are working, they are learning how to become as a professional storyteller.

We teach young storytellers to be professional, so the storytelling family starts growing. to be professional, so the Torieson family has started to grow. I'm John Rowe, artistic director of the Marrakesh International Storytelling Festival. How important is the festival in terms of reviving the tradition? I prefer to call it a resuscitation because it never quite died, but it was in need of a little help. We're just one part of a process, I think, a very important part. Bringing it back to the square, making it a spectacle again. Because that was part of the problem, it was no longer a spectacle in the square. So are you reclaiming the space, because this was always traditionally

a cultural sacred space for storytelling. Are you reclaiming the space? Because this was always traditionally a cultural sacred space for storytelling. Are you reclaiming it? Well that is exactly what I stand up to say ladies and gentlemen, Assembled Company, we are reclaiming the square for storytelling. The square was for a thousand years, had storytelling, and it was one of the most important part of the square apart from the 6000 camels. John Rowe ending that report from Morocco by Richard Hamilton. And still to come on the happy pod.

Often got a fantastic view, you're getting lungfuls of oxygen and then as you come out, body steaming and you're embracing all the elements, almost the worse the weather the better it is. Why a traditional Nordic relaxation method is becoming increasingly popular. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection, written and presented by bestselling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity. Busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity, and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity.

We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere, when we weren't looking, it's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Berkman, Epidemics of Modern Life, available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks. Millions of people around the world have just finished Dry January, giving up alcohol for a month as a New Year resolution. For those who switch to alcohol-free beer, there could be added health benefits compared to having soft drinks and even water. In addition, firms have been working on improving the taste with alcohol-free beer, the fastest growing

sector of what was known as the alcoholic drinks industry. Marnie Chesterton went to the Belgian town of Lueven to find out more. This is an experimental brewery that actually can create whatever type of beer we want to make. My name is David de Schutter and I'm heading research and development globally for ABMF. We're always pursuing a better beer especially for no alcohol beer. David and his team use a newer innovation called vacuum distillation. The boiling point of the alcohol reduces then you don't harm the beer. Prost. Prost. So it has been through

the vacuum distillation and then we applied our aroma technology to bring back the beer flavour to life. You need to add the gas as well back, so you need to recarbonate the beer. But there is another way to make non-alcoholic beer and that's to not brew the alcohol in the first place, we're in the lab of Kevin Verstrepen, world expert on yeast, at the University of Leuven and the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology. So in total we have something like 20-25 000 different yeasts. Kevin's lab studies yeast for multiple purposes, one of them being to make better yeasts for the beer industry. And so how do you make a non-alcoholic beer? For that you use a different yeast, one that doesn't produce alcohol but has a metabolism

similar to humans. We also eat sugar but we don't make alcohol, we make water and carbon dioxide. Once you take the alcohol out you end up with quite a nutritious drink. Alcohol itself also contains quite a few calories. Alcohol-free beer has some antioxidants, has some vitamins, some lipids. And is there anything specific coming from the yeast? What the yeast will do is it will take the refined sugars and eat those, so it takes those bad sugars away for us. It's for sure more healthy than sugar containing soda.

It's a pretty good sports drink. I know that even the German Olympic team or the soccer team I think at some point I was allowed to drink alcohol-free beers. We checked. It was the Olympic team and actually it was thanks to the doctor for the German Olympic ski team who conducted a study on marathon runners finding that non-alcoholic beer reduced inflammation and respiratory infections. Now why would that be? Well, there seems to be one more thing that non-alcoholic beer can offer us.

I'm Claudia. I'm a nutritionist and I'm a professor of nutrition and metabolism at Nova Medical School in Lisbon, Portugal. Claudia Marquez studies the effects of food and drink on our gut microbiomes. So one group drink alcoholic beer and the other one drink non-alcoholic beer. It was one bottle of beer per day and after four weeks this consumption increased the diversity of microorganisms that we have in our gut. A good diversity is usually associated to health. So what's in beer that's helping diversify our gut microbiomes?

Polyphenols can be responsible for these effects. Polyphenols are chemicals that we found in plants. We feed the good bacteria instead of feeding the bad bacteria. They can also have other properties such as anti-inflammatory effects. We probably need more research looking into these polyphenols to really understand the health benefits of non-alcoholic beer. Claudia's study is just the beginning. Modern non-alcoholic versions are a better brew taste-wise. They also have fewer calories than beer and offer the chance to socialise in a drinking culture without drinking pints of fruit juice or sodas.

They might even have the edge over water thanks to the polyphenols that feed your gut microbiome. Marnie Chesterton and you can hear more about non-alcoholic beer on Crowd Science wherever you get your podcasts. The Himalayan state of Bhutan generally avoids Western cultural influences like fast food restaurants or coffee shop chains. It's trying to protect its traditions and values. But now Ed Sheeran has become the first major Western artist to perform there, taking to the stage in a football stadium in the capital, Timpu, following local support act Rebellions. Well, John Harrison, editor of the Daily Bhutan newspaper, spoke to my colleague Rebecca Kesby. The whole town is just full of excitement about this concert.

In fact, there was no one really paying attention to work. I couldn't get any emails done today. So, four hours prior to the concert, people are already on the ground. We might just have the biggest crowd ever in Timpoo, Chimilantang stadium. Bhutan generally avoids everything Western and Western culture, doesn't it? So why add Sheeran? I don't think Bhutan avoids Western culture. Although TV and internet arrived in 1999, which is probably the latest in all the countries, but the Bhutanese are very in tune with pop culture, be it Western pop.

So yes, Bhutan has their own local pop culture, Bhutanese songs, but they do listen to music from all over the world. But in terms of actually having an artist visit, I mean, was the thought that Ed Sheeran wouldn't be a corrupting influence on the culture? I don't think he'll be corrupting. I think music is in every Bhutanese, sing and dance. That's part of their culture. Tell us a bit more about the strategy of why it's being held now though, because we understand the King has got ambitions to build a new city, a mindfulness city, which would be more

open for tourists. The King has identified a piece of land about four times the size of Singapore to build the Gullifull Mindfulness city that is infused with spirituality and mindfulness to attract like-minded businesses and entrepreneurs and citizens to come and work from this city. Bhutanese people are often considered to be the happiest on earth, aren't they? Something about the culture and the way of life. What do you think the rest of us could learn in terms of the approach to life that might make us all a bit happier?

Bhutanese belief is very much rooted in spirituality. The medium that they use to reach spirituality is Buddhism. Bhutanese are naturally very spiritual. It's got to do with the land, that they respect every part of the land, be it the water, be it the trees, be it the rocks. These are all, the entire environment in Bhutan is respected by the people. John Harrison, editor of the Daily Bhutan newspaper. Now, for many, this is the sound of pure relaxation. Water hitting the hot stones of a traditional sauna. In Nordic countries, outdoor saunas often complete with ice cold plunge pools are seen as essential to physical and emotional

well-being and date back thousands of years. But amid the stresses of 21st century life, they've grown in popularity elsewhere in the world. Here in the UK, the number has more than trebled in the past couple of years. Liz Watson, who runs a sauna on a beach in southern England, interviewed some of her regulars for the BBC. It's a little bit of an escape out of my week and it's nice to have something just down the road that feels like you're completely sort of back into the nature. You know, being out here at any time of day,

you've got the fire, you've got the saunas, you've got the hot, the cold, and it just makes you feel alive. Almost like a moment of like, I think, just like mindfulness. Mm. Just to, yeah, I think, just switch off. Especially in the silent one. Yeah. Ooh, she's just getting into a nice bar.

I've been coming now for about a year and I'm sort of making it sort of a weekly thing and it just totally sorts my head out. I mean, I've got a very stressful job and it's just time to come and sort of just reflect. Liz also spoke to my colleague Johnny Diamond. Nicely sort of tucked away and as you arrive there's a little sort of wooden fence in a circle and then you see a sort of corral of saunas and horse trailers that are converted into saunas, some that have been built from scratch and little changing rooms and a fire pit in the middle and three sort of plunge pool areas. So yeah, it's interesting.

It's a whole community you've got there. Yeah, it really is. What is it about outdoor saunas? I suspect a fair few listeners may sort of know of the sort of slightly smelly sauna that's at the back of the changing room in the squash courts or something like that. Outdoor saunas are rather different though aren't they? As you said the gym sauna is often filled with chlorine gas and you can't put water on the rocks. The spa sauna is often the same, it's sort of next to the pool and it's like a little dry box and you're sitting in there saying what am I meant to be doing now? You go to an

outdoor sauna often got a fantastic view, you're getting lungfuls of oxygen and then as you come out your body's steaming and you're embracing all the elements. It doesn't matter whether it's raining, snowing, windy, or almost the worst the weather, the better it is. The critical question I'm sure for a fair few listeners will be, do you need to be naked in the sauna? Ah, ah, it depends if you're German or not really. But we're not!

Well, I had a naked event hosted by a German. For Germans it's disgusting to be in a sauna with a costume on because you're not allowing your body to sweat enough. We're just a little bit more prudish here still and we're perfectly comfortable with you coming in with everything covered up unless it's a designated event. Okay, Liz Watson, all power to your sauna. Thank you so much for joining us. In the interest of balance, I should say that other forms of relaxation are available. They're just not as good. Johnny Diamond talking to outdoor sauna owner Liz Watson. And that is all from the HappyPod for now. If you'd like to get in touch about any of

our stories or if you have one of your own to share, you can send us an email or voice note to globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Daniel Fox and produced by Holly Gibbs and Rachel Balkley. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by. And in 2017, Miranda, a university tutor from London, joins a yoga school that promises profound transformation. It felt a really safe and welcoming space. After the yoga classes I felt amazing. But soon, that calm, welcoming atmosphere

leads to something far darker. A journey that leads to allegations of grooming, trafficking and exploitation across international borders. I don't have my passport, I don't have my phone, I don't have my bank cards, I have nothing. The passport being taken, the being in a house and not feeling like they can leave. World of Secrets is where untold stories are unveiled and hidden realities are exposed. In this new series we're confronting the dark side of the wellness industry, where the hope of a spiritual breakthrough

gives way to disturbing accusations. You just get sucked in so gradually, and it's done so skillfully that you don't realise. And it's like this, the secret that's there. I wanted to believe that, you know, that whatever they were doing, even if it seemed gross to me, was for some spiritual reason that I couldn't yet understand. Revealing the hidden secrets of a global yoga network.

I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this and to put my reputation and everything else on the line. I want truth and justice. And for other people to not be hurt, for things to be different in the future. To bring it into the light and almost alchemize some of that evil stuff that went on and take back the power. World of Secrets, season six, The Bad Guru.

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