Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Saving a drowning man changed me

Episode Date: November 15, 2025

We speak to a woman who saved the life of a kayaker, after spotting him floating face down in Idaho's Snake River. Rachelle Ruffing says knowing CPR allowed her to 'make a miracle' which has changed her, and everyone should learn how to do it. She says she still finds it hard to believe that the man made a full recovery and that attending his recent wedding was a privilege.Also: the Afghan women's football team returns to the international stage, four years after the players fled the Taliban. FIFA changed the venue of the tournament to allow them to take part. Conservationists find a way to save a rare albatross by getting birds from another species to act as foster parents for their eggs. We hear how old home movies are being rescued so people can relive precious family moments decades later. Plus, after the fat bears of Alaska, we find out about the squirrels bulking up for winter in Texas; and we meet the man who can charm animals with his music, even stopping a herd of rhinos in their tracks.Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.

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And don't miss the new season of Karen Piri coming this October. You don't look, let, please. I'll take that as a compliment. See it differently when you stream the best of British TV with Britbox. Watch with a free trial today. This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Oliver Conway, and in this edition... And I just embraced him and hugged him.

I just sobbed and I was just really grateful that he was alive. The woman who saved a man from drowning and then watched him walk down the aisle. A return to the international stage for Afghanistan's women footballers. It is fantastic. We are making a history. And I'm so grateful for FIFA for investing and trusting us and believing in women's empowerment. We meet the team saving the black-footed albatross from extinction. Also, my dad passed away last year. So if he's on here, that will be quite sort of special just to sort of see him at that time.

The festival bringing old family videos. back to life. And after fat bears of Alaska, we hear about the fat squirrels of Texas. We begin on the Snake River in the US state of Idaho. Five years ago, while out paddleboarding, Rochelle Ruffing came across a man who was drowning. Rishel worked tirelessly with onlookers to give the man multiple rounds of CPR, and eventually they managed to restart his heart. Half a decade on, Rochelle attended the man's wedding, a joyful celebration that may never have happened if she and the others hadn't stepped in to save his life that day. To respect the man's privacy, we're referring to him as the kayaker.

Rochelle spoke to Harry Bly about how the day unfolded, and as she put it, the miracle of what happened next. Right, as we were turning to go back to shore, I saw the empty kayak, and then I saw life jacket. His head was suspended under the water. We pulled the kayaker out of the water, got him onto a stand up onto a paddleboard and maneuvered him over to a pontoon boat. I think I did about 12 rounds of chest compressions. I was extremely tired.

And then out of the blue, this really strong man that has a lot of experience, he was a kayaker or a guide. He did the last couple rounds and he was able to really get the heart started. When he came on board, the kayaker was starting to take some breaths. I was starting to fill a pulse, but this gentleman just came on and did the last couple rounds. Then about that same time, the county sheriff showed up with his boat and was able to transport the kayaker to the speedboat and take him back to shore to get on the ambulance. But I laid awake that night with visions of the kayaker in a wheelchair or ventilated or I know too much as a medical provider, right? And I kept thinking, I kept thinking about this poor boy's mom and where is

she and how do I get a hold of her? Because he was clear across the United States from his mom. And she, I was told that she was in route trying to get there. But my heart just, I didn't sleep a wink. You left him in the care of medics. Tell me about the most. moment you realize the kayaker had not only survived, but he was doing okay? So he was traveling with three friends, and they text me, I believe it was about 11 a.m. the next morning on Saturday, and they said, he's walking and talking, and he pulled his tube out. So they had invented, and I didn't, honestly, I didn't believe him. So I called him.

I said, are you sure? And they said, yeah, he's talking. and they are going to discharge him, would you like to go to dinner? And I said, of course. And I just embraced him and hugged him. I just sobbed and I was just really grateful that he was alive. It's hard to put into words. And I told him, I said, seeing you dead was haunting and it was scary.

This was five years ago, but that's not the end of the story. Tell me about meeting the kayaker again at his wedding. What was this reunion like? His dad approached me and he said, are you the one that saved him? And I said, yes, I did, I said, I think I did 12 rounds of chest compressions on him. And he just embraced me and he just sobbed and hugged me. I was really emotional that whole weekend. And I don't, I don't know why.

I just feel like, kind of like he's kind of like one of my children. I have four children and he could easily be one of them. And I still get emotional thinking about it. It was really a privilege to be there. And also, sometimes, like, I can't believe this happened. You know, sometimes it's still good for me to see. Like, he's walking and talking and normal and living a normal life. And he's purchased a home and he's proposed.

And I think he'll become a father. In many ways, you saved his life, but he's changed your life. Yeah. Yeah. But there are lessons from this entire story. here, not only for people to be safe when swimming or around water, but for everyday people to know what to do if something goes wrong, how to resuscitate, how to do CPR. You know, when the accident happened, there were probably 25 people gathered, and I was the

only one that raised my hand when the gentleman says, does anybody know CPR? Wow. And these are people that are outdoors. They're kayaking, they're rafting. they need to know CPR. You never, ever know when the opportunity is going to arise. And it is really important to be prepared because you can make a miracle.

CPR made a miracle. And the kayaker is proof of that. And I would want people in my path to know CPR and just be prepared. Roffing, talking to Harry Bly. Now, it's a comeback four years, in the making. When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, the country's women's football team was banned. But the Afghan players, who live in several different countries as

refugees, have recently returned to international football, taking part in the FIFA Unites women's series. They played Tunisia, Libya, and eventual winners, Chad. And although they only managed one victory, their participation was seen as an act of defiance against the ban on women's sport in Afghanistan. Marion Strawn has the details. There were cheers for the FIFA president Gianni Infantino as he greeted the Afghan women United football team and they gave him a named shirt. FIFA recognised the team in an unprecedented move

against the wishes of a national football federation. For the players, also a significant act of defiance against the Taliban's ban on women's sports. Here's the team's former captain, Khalida Popal. It is fantastic. we are making a history and I'm so grateful for FIFA for investing and trusting us

and believing in women's empowerment. In fact, FIFA changed the venue for the tournament to allow the team to take part. It was originally due to be held in the United Arab Emirates but the Afghan players were denied visas. Goldkeeper Elias Avdari explained what it meant to her.

It was an amazing opportunity for us to be as a team after four years of hardworking and advocacy. Seeing my teammates and reunited and playing once again in exile, it just hits difference and it was so emotional and feeling proud in the same time. The team had a tough task, though, with the players travelling from countries like Australia, England, Italy, Portugal, they had just two training sessions before the games began, but they did improve winning their last match 7-0.

For the final game against Libya, we were quite prepared organised. because we had some trainings together and we were, you know, playing us a team. And it was a really good game. We really enjoyed it. The women say they're using football to raise their voices for the voiceless, the woman back in Afghanistan. Here's Kalida Popal again. We have never given up on the women of Afghanistan. We have never given up the hope.

And we are their voices. We are sending out the message. And I'm so proud of each one of these players standing there with all the challenges that they have gone through, they have not given up and they are celebrating unity and that's the most beautiful thing. Kalida Popal, ending that report by Marion Strawn. Now to a scheme that's using birds from one species

as foster parents for others under threat. The black-footed albatross nests mainly on low-lying islands in Hawaii. These islands are now facing more hurricanes as a result of climate change and could eventually disappear because of the... rising sea levels. So scientists have been moving black-footed albatross eggs from Midway Atoll in the North Pacific to the nests of another type of albatross on a Mexican island off the west coast of Baja California. My colleague Myra Anubi has been finding out more.

My name is Julio Cesar Hernandez-Montoya. I'm lead the Albatross Conservation Project involving Lysan and Black-Footed Albatrosses in Guadalupe Island. It's a species, It's a spectacular species. The wingspan is over two meters wide and they have the ability to stay in the air for months, only landing to feed. Some of them can live up to 40 or 50 years and they form very close social bonds with each other.

So what's the plan? Well, the simple answer is to encourage them to move and set up a new colony somewhere safer. And they do have the perfect place for them to go. Guadalupe Island, of the western coast of Mexico. Guadalupe Island is more than 1,200 meters above sea level and experiences far fewer storms and hurricanes than midway.

Dr. Montoya has worked in conservation on Guadalupe Island for 20 years. He's part of an organization called Grupo de Ecology and Conservation de Islas. Now, they've made their island a haven for seabirds by removing 50,000 goats and 1,000 cats. The residents are very proud of their work, even creating a song about the birds, sung here by Natalia Arroyo. First, they tried to get black-footed adult albatrosses to nest on Guadalupe by setting up replica statues known as decoys on the cliffs and playing recorded courtship sounds. But that didn't work. They decided to move their eggs instead, taking them from the nests in Midway to new homes in Guadalupe. This precious cargo was taken to the nests of another albatross species called the Lézan.

Dr. Montoya and the team had been watching the colony for some time and were able to identify adult Laysan that had lost their own young. We were worried whether the eggs would be accepted by the Laysan foster parents. But we were grateful that they were well-received and they raised the chicks as if they were their own. The truth is, you're actually taking eggs away from another albatross. Do you feel bad about doing this? Yes, definitely.

When you take an egg from an albatross on Midway, you feel the sadness of taking them from the parents. But if you don't, then the next day that egg could be washed away and die. So while you feel uncomfortable, you know it's the best thing you can do for that egg. Every year they moved more eggs and by 2024, 127 black-footed chicks had successfully hatched and flown the nest. You have so many albatross chicks and eggs that are growing. How does it make you feel to see the success of this project?

You feel two different emotions. You feel joy because they've survived and will continue. continue their life on the ocean, but you also feel sadness as you're not sure of their future and if you will see them again. Usually, albatrosses spend the first few years out at sea before returning to the nest. Bruno was the first albatross to return to Guadalupe three years after he left the island. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I don't have children, but I compare it to the day you see your child born. More have been returning every year, and what's really exciting is that some of the young black-footed albatrosses have been observed practicing courtship dances.

In Mexico, there is a saying, El Papas de los Pollittos, which means the father of the chicks, and I am happy to feel that way. Julio, is Anandez Montoya speaking to Myra a newbie for People Fixing the World, which you can find wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And still to come on the happy pod So I usually choose love songs Because I feel like the intent is very important That the animals can feel it somehow The man charming animals with his music In the days before, smartphones and digital cameras,

if you wanted to record moving footage of your loved ones, you had to use cameras with reel-to-reel film or videotape. Decades later, much of this footage is gathering dust in attics, with the machines needed to play it becoming increasingly rare. Back in 2002, a group of archivists decided to start running home movie days, inviting people to dig out old films and have them restored and screen. at events around the world. Will Chalk went to one in London

to witness the excitement of seeing family footage for the first time in years. Hi, I'm Michael. I have got some reels that my grandfather shot, mostly of my older brother, because this was before I was born. So I think it's footage of my mom pushing my brother around in a pram,

playing on a playground. You think, but you don't know. I've seen some, I've held it up to the light and seen through, so I can definitely spot my mom. And so we'll see it. if my dad shows up as well or possibly even my grandfather. I mean, everything is so well preserved because I've still even got the boxes that have my grandfather's name on them,

and I can see that he actually processed them in Texas, so the post date on them is April 21st, 1976. Is everyone that you're expecting to see today still with us? My dad passed away last year, so if he's on here, that would be quite sort of special just to sort of see him at that time. Well, I think the guy's waiting to look at, I'll look at your film, so I'll leave you to it.

My name's Thomason. I'm from Huntley Film Archives. I'm into her movies have been about for 100 years now, so we've got this extraordinary breadth of social history, complete unique documents, brings those photo album pictures to life and you see people moving about again. And, yeah, it's just magical room. I'm Louise Pankhurst. I'm a film archivist, and I run London's Home Movie Day,

which I hold every year. And it's an international day. It was started by archivists in the United States back in 2002 when they realized that no one was giving people advice about the home movies and no one was really collecting home movies at that time. Well, I think we're going to get to see the first reel of the little stack of reels that I brought with me. Oh, of artistic footsteps.

We've got a bit horror film, this one. Yeah. Oh, there's my mom. Oh, it's my dad. So we're watching footage of your dad, your brother and your mom from just before you were born. Yeah. Obviously so much has changed. Especially because my dad passed away last year.

I reflect a lot on the journey that he went on moving to the States at that time. And this is also really hilarious looking at my sibling in the buff in Texas. You know, what my dad, you know, you built a family. and supported us and I'm watching him at the beginning of that journey. That's amazing. My name's Shona.

I'm watching my dad's old home videos filmed probably in early 80s in Zimbabwe. I don't even know what to say because it's good to see my dad and then obviously old family that died ages ago. And this is my husband, obviously.

He's not really, yeah. He knows. never met my dad. He didn't meet most of my uncles. So now I can actually have to tell him, oh, that's Uncle Solomon there. So I've heard all the stories that to see them live in pictures just brings it all to reality. So is your dad passed away then? Yes, he's been gone now 20 years. So what's it like seeing him in his element, moving around, laughing, joking with people? Yeah, young. Oh, it's great. It's great. It's weird seeing your parents as young people.

Yes, like I saw it was with my mom and I was like, oh my mom, yeah, she wasn't hot to there. Shonna, ending that report by Will Chalk. Do you have any idea how many grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine? Well, it is apparently several hundred. But for each grape, there's also waste, most of which is sent to landfill. But in the rolling vineyards of the Champagne region of France, Celiet Roussin is trying to change that.

Jacob Evans has been speaking to her. My company is called Pepe Tresin. It means golden grapes, because we're looking at what is golden in the grapes. And what we do, we value the waste from the wine streams. So what sort of waste is there from wines? Is it like excess grapes from when they make the wine? Or is it the skin of the grapes, what is it? Yeah.

So we're talking about the peeps and the seeds, the skin, and sometimes the little wooden pots left over after pressing the grapes to make wine. And how big an issue is this? And where is your research focused or where does your company work? So the issue is actually kind of big and the opportunity is massive because this biomass, this vegetable waste represent 20% of the overall grape.

And to give you perspective, we're talking hundreds of tons in France and if we had to put all of the wine waste in one city in the world, it would cover the entire city of France. Rome in Italy. That's incredible, isn't it? There's a huge problem. So what normally happens to this waste? So today this waste is valued for cosmetics or biofuel. It goes to land fields and it can pollute the lens and that's a pity because actually this waste has superpowers. It has amazing

molecules into it and this is what we're doing. We're using these molecules as superfood for the vineyards as a substitution to pesticides. So you get the waste. What do you do with it then? We work with partners directly in the vineyards and we extract the grape seed extract that we are using for application on the vaniards to prevent fungal disease or to prevent issues when the crops are going to grow. And has there been big uptake recently?

Did the vineyards appreciate it? Yeah, so the company was created two years ago and we started experimentation with more than five domains next year. It got a major positive answer because there is increasing pressure on regulation and also we all need solutions to go out of pesticides. So, yeah, the answer is good so we can help vineyards to grow better and grow in the future.

Celia Russo talking to Jacob Evans, A few weeks ago, we reported on Alaska's Fat Bear Week, which celebrates the brown bears bulking up for hibernation. But it's not only in the frozen north that animals are getting ready for winter. Down in Texas, they just hosted their first fat squirrel week, and Riley Farrell has been finding out more. Everything's bigger in Texas. And that includes squirrels.

Down in the Lone Star State, 16 squirrels squared off for the inaugural Fat Squirrel Week, Courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife. The goal? Crown the chunkiest champion of hibernation prep. I spoke to Park Ranger Carol Ann Brannan, who came up with the idea and revealed the result. This year's winner of Fat Squirrel Week was Chunkasaurus Rex from Dinosaur Valley State Park.

And how is Chunkasaurus Rex basking in his victory? Chunkasaurus is living his best life these days post-winning and crowning of being the fattest squirrel, especially now that the cold front has hit Texas. How do contests like these impact visitors' connection with nature? I grew up in the outdoors. I grew up camping and hiking, and wasn't until I went to college

and was exposed to people of more different backgrounds that I realize it's a privilege to be exposed to nature in a way that I don't feel uncomfortable in the outdoors. And I say all that because it's been more apparent since becoming a park ranger that, you know, anything from a simple squirrel can scare a visitor. And so I think these kind of campaigns that show the silliness and expose people to the fact that these critters are just existing out here, just like we exist at home and that we can all exist together.

I have to know. Will this competition occur again next year? I think it has to. This year's runners-up? Chunk Norris and Stanley, the Texas state. Tank. Better bulk up next year, fellas, because Fat Squirrel Week is officially a thing. Riley Farrell reporting. Throughout history, there have been stories of people who can talk to the animals from St Francis of Assisi to Dr. Doolittle, but our next tale may have more in common with the Pied Piper of Hamlin. The French singer-songwriter Plum is in demand at zoos and animal sanctuaries around the world for his ability to charm creatures using nothing more than a

guitar and his voice. He's been talking to Nikki Cardwell. In the corner of the paddock, plume sits on a chair and starts serenading the elephants. Almost instantly, the entire herd, including a baby, rushes over. He doesn't flinch at the sudden charge, just carries on singing as the huge creatures stop in front of him, swaying and making sounds. They're completely captivated. But how do Plum discover that he had this very unusual talent? This whole thing began when I read that cows like music, that music is soothing for them.

So at the time I was living in the countryside with my grandma, so I thought, why not try it? There are lots of cows around. And so, yeah, I did, and it was a very magical experience because they all came running to listen to me, and they were, like, rubbing their heads against me, and he was very special. At the time, I was singing the Beatles.

It's my go-to for the human audience, so why not with cows? And, yeah, they seem to like it. So I usually choose love songs because I feel like the intent is very important. And, yeah, I'm, like, convinced that the animals can feel it somehow. So, yeah, it's what I go for. I do French pop folk music. And it's funny because my new song that I've been singing kind of makes animals fall asleep. I guess it's kind of like a lullaby in some way.

So yeah, it's been funny to witness. I know some other animals like parrots, they like something that has more rhythm to it. So I play different kind of songs for them. With animals, you never know what to expect. But I would say the craziest for me has been with the... rhinos. I was thought they wouldn't approach and he came right against me and even like his horn was touching me and stuff. So that was definitely scary, but very special and magical. Plume has now sung for dozens of different species including bears, lions, lemurs, owls and

Okarpi. But there is still one creature he wants to serenade. Actually, there's been otters and I've been told there are two dangerous, which is kind of funny because I just did like elephants and I can do others. But yeah, I hope someday I can manage and find a way to do it. That report by Nikki Cardwell. And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. If you'd like to comment on it or tell us a story you think we should include in a future episode, we'd love to hear from you.

As ever, the address is global podcast at BBC.co.com. And you can now watch some of our interviews on YouTube, just search for The Happy Pod. This edition was mixed by Holly Smith and produced by Holly Gibbs and Rachel Bulkley. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.