Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Rodent on the run returns

Episode Date: June 7, 2025

Joy in China as Beanbag the Capybara returns after months on the run. The giant rodent's adventures had gripped social media. Also: an ingenious idea making cities greener; and the flatpack furniture world champion.

This is the HappyPod from the BBC World Service. I'm Moira Alderson and in this edition… Binbag, you're finally back! We've missed you so much! Joy in China as a much-loved giant rodent is found after months on the run. How a tiny plant is breathing new life into cities by turning buildings from grey to green. Mars is a very special, tiny little plant. It does so much for the world.

It's called a pioneer, the pioneer of life. The woman who's become a world champion at building flat pack furniture. It's the end result. It's something to be proud of, really, when you've done it. A lot of people, they struggle with it, but I never let nothing defeat me. And a taxi driver who became a star of The Lion King reveals he succeeded in musicals by hiding the fact he's partially deaf. Since I decided that I'm going to speak about

it, the weight off my shoulder has been amazing. As Mufasa says, I remember who I am. We start with a happy ending to a runaway drama that's gripped animal lovers in China. At the start of April, three capybaras broke out of Jiuyu Bay Nature Reserve in Yangzhou. If you've never seen one, they're the world's largest rodents, with adults growing to over a metre long and 50 centimetres tall, and are often said to resemble giant guinea pigs. And while two were soon found, Dou Bao, or bean bag, remained on the run, sparking wanted posters and mounting fears for her safety. But as Kerry Allen explains, she's finally made it home.

Beanbag, you're finally back. We've missed you so much. This is a message that was posted on Tuesday by the Zhuyulbei Nature Reserve in the East China city of Yangzhou. Beanbag, or Doubao as the female capybara is known in Chinese, had gone missing on the 3rd of April and people in China have been captivated online over whether she would eventually be found. Local media have even shared wanted posters with a mugshot of beanbag, encouraging people to carry out search parties. She's a one-year-old capybara, weighing roughly 21 kilograms and had last been seen on security camera at the reserve staging an on-foot escape with two of her friends,

Bazong and Dordo, whose English names are Overlord and Dodge. Overlord, the leader of the pack, had smashed a wooden window in their enclosure and had led the great escape. He was caught first, casually swimming in the swamp next to the park. And Dodge was found shortly after, having played hide and seek with members of animal control at a nearby canal. But Beanbag had been nowhere to be found and so people had feared the worst. But in the middle of May, about 50 days after she'd gone missing, droppings were found, as her staff at the nature reserve put out pleas for locals to help find her. We've had a runaway capybara. She literally ran off by herself, but she's also amphibious.

She's a protected animal. If you see her, take a picture, tell us where you were and at what time you remember seeing her. We know that Bean Bag is in the swamp area in the surrounding reserve. But because there are lots of reeds, we've still not been able to capture her. She's easily scared. We've tried using food to lure her and unmanned machines. If you try to grab her, she's easily startled and will run in the direction of the river. On Tuesday, two whole months after Beanbag went missing, she was finally found and there was huge delight on Chinese social media. Beanbag had walked into a humane trap set

by searchers and activated a gate which had closed behind her. Media report that rather than showing signs of distress, she appeared slightly chubbier from her two month wander in the wilderness and had gained over a kilo in weight during her adventures. Capybaras, part of the cavey family, are highly sociable animals. I should know, I own guinea pigs. And so media have reported that there's been a happy reunion among Beanbag, Bazong and Dordor. The zoo has now added secure mesh to prevent the three friends from escaping again. And it's hoping that they can go back to enjoying the docile and slow-paced lifestyle they had before.

I mean adventures are one thing, but that lifestyle doesn't sound too bad to me. Our China media analyst and guinea pig owner, Kerry Allen. Now to an amazing invention that can make cities greener, cleaner and healthier to live in, all by using a tiny, often overlooked plant. When we think of urban green spaces, we usually think of parks or gardens filled with trees, grasses and sometimes flowers. But now, two entrepreneurs in the Netherlands have found a way to make the buildings themselves green literally, using a special type of concrete that grows moss. Our reporter Katie Sollivelle spoke to the founders of Respire, Alcoblay and Ardil Aarhus. So why moss?

I think moss is overlooked. Moss is a very special tiny little plant, but it does so much for the world. It's a very special, drought resilient species that basically enables other life to flourish and to contribute. It's called a pioneer, the pioneer of life. So why moss in general? That would be my answer. Why moss for us is because it's very easily grown

on a vertical surface, which makes it very special. And for us, greening vertically is very important because the horizontal square meters in cities, they are too expensive and too scarce to actually make green. And all those vertical surfaces, we can just grow mosses on top of it and make them contribute and actually live and breathe.

I mean, the question really is why not moss at the end of the day? Why not moss, exactly. I should have started with that. Yeah. So what is moss concrete? How does it work? why not moss? At the end of the day. Why not moss? Exactly. I should have started with that. Yeah. So what is moss concrete? How does it work?

Basically, it's a concrete recipe which invites mosses to come and live on it. So if you take regular concrete, it's basically a dead static material. It's quite polluting. There's a lot of CO2 emissions going with it. So what we strive to do is to actually reverse that, make concrete not static, make it alive. And now we grow muscles on top of it, which allows us to actually make buildings live, make buildings breathe and eventually cities. Make cities breathe.

It's a good tagline. And so obviously this is to do with breathing. What are the benefits that it brings to an urban area? We specifically focus on breathing. And this is something cities have actually forgot, but it's also super hot and air polluted. And this air that it's air that we breathe in 20,000 times a day. And the reason for this air pollution, you can go two routes, but it's probably the combination of a lot of traffic and a total lack of nature.

And we're trying to actually prevent or solve that second problem. So we're cleaning the air. Does it bring any other benefits? Yeah, a lot. Too many to name. There's a lot more going on with moths. Of course, I think one of the first things that we should note is the amount of biodiversity it increases. So having a piece of moth is not only having a piece of moth, but it's around 20,000 other species that will live in it. And those are microorganisms which are just as important as the bees living around it.

And then of course cooling down cities. And then of course there are things like noise reduction and reducing runoff of rainwater. Are there actually any drawbacks apart from general maintenance that you need to do for these walls? I think if you compare it with like gray alternatives like brick and mortar or like steel constructions, then it is a little bit more complex than the materials that have been used for hundreds of years by now.

That said, if you relate it to like other urban greenery alternatives, then it's actually like extremely simple compared to those. I think the other huge advantage is the fact that you can basically use this material when building the thing that you want to build. So like a tree having leaves, you could actually create a building having moss. It's a living building. So it's entirely different from any other systems, which is always exterior. How does it feel to see your product being used on so

many different areas, buildings, countries now? Yeah, it feels great. I don't know what to say. Being able to go from a small lab skill to something that is bigger than that is already like ecstasy. In our case, there was this common denominator that we like to solve this entrepreneurial puzzle with something that's actually beneficial to the world and to the environment that we live in. Keeping that sustainability mindset whenever you go and do entrepreneurship, I think that's the way to actually naturally contribute to the world because then it means that it will never run out. Elke Bley and Adil Aarhus.

What's a task that's almost guaranteed to be frustrating, confusing and cause arguments? Building flat pack furniture. But apparently there are some people who are actually exceptionally good at it. And one British woman has been crowned the world champion of flat packing in a new contest. The Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs has been finding out more. We all know the pain of putting together flat pack furniture. But have you ever put a bedside table together in 9 minutes and 33 seconds? Hayley McCauley has.

I just opened the toolbox, I tipped it upside down and when I'd finished there was nothing left over. I'd done it that quick, I managed to pack my toolbox away as well. Hayley's putting her tools away. In my business I use a pink drill so I could have done it in about five minutes if I'd used my drill but I had to use a screwdriver. Hayley, who is 33, from Wigan in the north of England has become the first person to be crowned the Flatpak World Champion at the inaugural Flatpak World Championships in London. The contest saw eight competitors take part in two rounds making a bookshelf and a bedside table. So we did, it was four, the first four building a Billy bookcase. I was in the second round of four.

And from them two, the quickest in them two went to the final and we built a two-draw side unit. I put all the bits in first and then just throw it together. At the odd time, I will have to glance at instructions if it's a new build, but more often than not, I don't need them. There was a lot of spectators as well on the day. Everybody was, they were really good. For Hayley, she loves the sense of achievement. It's the end result. It's something to be proud of really when you've done it. A lot of people, they struggle with with it but a few of my friends, I've said

to them, I said I'll show you how to do it, said you'll be so chuffed with the end result. And for me it's what you build in the end. I never let nothing defeat me. So what's the secret? Hayley, who runs a small business building flat pack furniture, explains. Separate all your screws, separate your screws and make sure you read things twice because once you put a big screw through something that's not supposed to be, it's done with. Holly Gibbs. Coming up in this podcast. It started off as a creative idea. How can we make things unique by repurposing,

by reusing, by practicing zero waste that it's become part of who we are. The refugees helping themselves and their host country by turning rubbish into new products. We often ask you, the listener, for stories you think we should cover. Well, Debbie got in touch to tell us about a project that's helping people with addiction problems by getting them to give back to their local community. Getting Clean supports people recovering from drug and alcohol dependencies. Its volunteers undertake useful tasks like cleaning up areas of a city, challenging perceptions and giving them back a sense of self-worth. Recently, they planted a thousand sunflowers around the city of Leeds in the north of England,

which Debbie says has spread smiles and showed that recovery can truly bloom. They also run a scheme called Soap is Hope, which raises money by selling bars of soap handmade by the people it helps. Tamsin Selby spoke to the founder Chris Sylvester who's a former addict and to Cheryl Robson who was helped by the project and now supports others. I realised that I could do something different and help get to the root cause of people's problems, helping people understand that they were assets to the community,

that they had skills and strengths and empowering people. I got involved about a year and a half ago, but I was at a place in my recovery where, although I was clean and sober, I had multiple kind of health issues going on. And the less I did, the worse I felt the more depressed I got the more pain I was in So I went down to the first session and was made really warmly welcome and straight away in that first session Chris looked at what strengths I had and what I had to offer and I realized that I had got myself in a frame of mind where I believed I would never work again

I had been dismissed from a past of mind where I believed I would never work again. I had been dismissed from a past job due to my drugs and drink that had really been my life, it had been my career before and I had this belief that I would never be able to to work again after that happening. So for Chris to be able to see the strengths and actually, you know, give me the opportunity to apply them again, I feel so much better, you know, give me the opportunity to apply them again. I feel so much better, you know, the depression's raised, but when you're doing things, things like my arthritis, my pain reduces. So yeah, it's been amazing to be part of. And Chris, I mean, you must have seen the change in Cheryl. Like, describe that, that light coming back to her eyes, like working together on the

Soap with Hope initiative. I'm a big believer in people having purpose and that purpose allowing people to develop and and and cheerle and people in organisations, seeing them being brought back to life, seeing them focusing on helping and supporting other people is nothing short of inspirational, transformative. It makes me proud, it makes me passionate, it drives me to be of service to other people and to being part of it's just overwhelming. I have to pinch myself lots of times. I think for me as well to be able to role model to my children that we go through hard times but then it's how we come back from it and you know for my children to look at me and

see me as an employed person, as having purpose, it's much wider than just the you know the person in recovery or the addict that's involved. It spreads out to the family as well making better outcomes. Are there any stereotypes that you think we need to challenge as a society for us to kind of get a better understanding of people living with addiction? Addiction doesn't discriminate. There's people that suffer addiction from all classes, you know, all societies, genders, religions, faiths, you know, it doesn't discriminate. But the biggest thing is, I think that people are scared to talk about it because of the stigma

associated. And my own personal judgment is it's no different to any other illness. If you have an illness, people will offer support and help you through it. We need to be brave and we need to actually have these open conversations around it. Exactly, it's about challenging stigma, it's about looking at things from a different perspective, it's about showing empathy, understanding it and that willingness to support because we're all sort of consumed with fear, we won't talk about things for how it may well be perceived. But the biggest sort of strength and courage that I have is that willingness to communicate what's going on and how I feel. And to ask other people how they're feeling. You know, it really is about challenging that stigma. And what would be your message to people wanting to make a change in their own community like you've done here?

I'd ask them, I'd say, do you know what your neighbours called? And I'd say, start talking to people in your community. Don't be scared. You know, be open-minded, be objective, be willing to contribute. Chris Sylvester and Cheryl Robson. Remember if you have an inspiring story you think we should cover, please do send us an email or even send a voice note to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

That proverb is exactly the thinking behind our next story. It's a solution to a mounting problem with rubbish, while enabling refugees to earn a living. Malawi doesn't have the infrastructure needed to cope with the waste produced by its growing population. It's estimated more than 70% of trash is currently either burned or dumped in unofficial heaps around the country. But the Kibbebe workshop in the Zalaika refugee camp is helping people recycle some of it into new products. Myra Anubi went along to find out more. I've come into the workshop and I'm just standing at the centre. I can see probably about 20

people and lots of sewing machines. Everybody's hard at work. One of the artisans, Claudine, is enthusiastically sewing away. How are you? Thank you very much. Now, already I can see there's plastic spread out on her table that would have been used to package milk, long life milk, actually.

This is all from the supermarket. So she says she's going to use these and she's going to make a bag that you would use at the supermarket. I watch as she neatly attaches ten used plastic milk bags together to form the inner waterproof lining of the bag. She will then use a brightly colored African fabric called kitenge to make the outer part of the bag. Claudine was born to refugee parents from Burundi. Now she's had to move many times to many different countries before eventually ending up in Malawi with her husband back in 2002. So she says she's here with her family and four children. When you moved here, how easy was it to get work or money? So she says when they moved here it was hard to find work and they relied a lot on what

the UNHCR was providing them, but they would give them enough for maybe two months, maybe three months, so life was really hard. Claudine tells me that what she got wasn't enough to sustain her and her family, but things started to shape up when she joined Kibbebe back in 2013. What kind of impact has this made on your life? She says all her children have been able to go to school, they didn't have school clothes, they now can get clothes that they need and it's made a difference in her life. Maria Chiponde, the manager, is right here. Now tell me more about Kibibi. When we started recycling, it started off as a creative idea.

How can we make things unique? What can we use to replace high-cost materials? Right? And then you became into this thing by repurposing, by reusing, by practicing zero waste, that it's become part of who we are. On average, in a good month, one of our artisans is able to earn at least 80,000 Malawi kwacha. 80,000, so that's almost $50.

Yeah. Currently we are working with about 26 artisans. This is worth male and female, 90% of whom are refugee. We teach them our products and they start to generate a decent income. I wander around the workshop meeting other artisans. A cheerful man called Nahimana from Burundi catches my attention. Now it's interesting because I've seen one of these rattles in a shop somewhere in Milongwe and you're telling me you're the one who made this. Just to describe.

So the powdered coffee tin is what he's using. And you're telling me you're the one who made this? Yeah. Just to describe. So the powdered coffee tin is what he's using. He's also placing inside them to make that noise, the bottle caps that you would find on water bottles, and that's what makes this sound. There is now a face of... It's a pig. It's a pig. Oh, wow. Look at that. Lovely.

Do your children play with these? What do you talk about? They play with these. They like it. This is nice. Nahimana says Kibbebe has given him much more than just financial security. When he was just staying in the camp, his thoughts, you know, it really affected his mental health and he was low.

And he says being at Kibbebe, they took him with open arms and they've helped to teach him how he can change his own life by the things he's doing. That report was from Myra Anubi and you can hear more ingenious solutions with her on People Fixing the World wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Philip Brown has had quite the career change. He went from driving buses in London's West End to starring in some of its biggest musicals. His story's already shown how perseverance and a bit of luck can make dreams come true. But now he's revealed he also had to overcome a devastating infection that left him deaf in one ear,

with doctors saying he'd never be able to sing and talent agents refusing to represent him. Philip had given up hope until a chance meeting with an old friend who persuaded him to just go to an audition. He's been speaking to my colleague, Sean Williams. I just decided I'm going to have to learn to work with this disability at any cost because I really want to sing and I want to do this. And I just decided if I don't talk about it ever again, it's not going to control me. So I never ever spoke about my deafness to anybody. If I panic, my ear, my bad ear goes crazy, it makes a lot of noise but if I'm calm my ear is really quiet and I just had to compose myself, let the pianist play and

I just had to make it work and then eventually I had my final audition. There was no comeback next week so I was really disappointed. I went back thinking I think I think I'm done, I think that's it. I think it's over Anyway, two days later. I'm in the garage. I'm just about to drive out of the garage and my phone rings. I Answered a phone and said hello Philip It's Disney and I said yes, we're gonna offer you the job in the Lion King Yes, well, thank you very much. That's absolutely lovely. Thank you So I've got the part as first cover to King Mufasa. I remember going to work on the first day.

There was a joy that I've never felt in any musical I've ever done since that day. And I remember sitting there for a little while, all I was thinking about is, I should be at work. And I thought, Phil, you've got to let it go. And then they started singing the song. From the day we arrived and my head was exploding and the woman was there I'm there my hair was standing on my I was like oh my lord this is like the movie this is insane and then finally the day comes I'm sitting there at home phone call comes in Philip the guy who plays

Mufasa his way for about three weeks you're going to be taking the role of King Mufasa for three weeks Mufasa is the father of Simba and he is the king of the Lion King one of the things all I was thinking about is I pray to God that I can hear the music that was one thing that was always in the king of the Lion King. One of the things all I was thinking about is I pray to God that I can hear the music. That was one thing that was always in the back of my head. Never leave, the deafness never leaves you and I was thinking I can do this, I can do this and I put on all the uniform and I literally felt like the king and I started to walk up Pride Rock as Mufasa and I thought I'm gonna own this and then at the end of

the song it goes... In the circle, the circle of life and then it goes... Pfff! And everyone goes... Yeah! And for me it was like a flashback of the school gates, church, everything, all this stuff just started flashing and I thought, I'm deaf, I'm dyslexic and I heard that doctor going, you'll never sing again and now I'm Mufasa. It is almost like you sort of got your life back, all these rejections, all the times where you didn't fit in,

and here you are at the top of Pride Rock. Do you still question yourself now? I do, and to be honest, this is the first time I ever spoke, I've never spoken about being deaf in one ear in the entire 24 years I've been in musical theatre, because I always felt like I wouldn't get the job or they're going to feel like I'm going to let them down because I'm not going to be able to hear the music. But it's only recently I decided to own it and I think some of my friends will hear this story and be like no way, I've known Phil for years, there's no way he's deaf in one ear. But since I decided that I'm going to speak about it,

the weight off my shoulder has been amazing. But now, as Mufasa says, I remember who I am. Philip Brown. And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. But if like Debbie, you have a story you think we should cover, please do get in touch. The address as ever is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. And you can now watch some of our interviews on YouTube. Just search for the HappyPod. This edition was mixed by Mark Pickett and the producers were Holly Gibbs, Harry Bly and Rachel

Bulkley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Moira Alderson. Until next time, goodbye.