Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: The dolphins who 'smile' at their friends

Episode Date: November 23, 2024

Researchers have found that just as we smile at friends, dolphins change their expression too while interacting. Also: the college baseball star with a prosthetic leg and the first robotic double lung transplant.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. A search for the truth behind an international drug smuggling plot. How are we going to unravel this all? From the BBC World Service, this is World of Secrets, season five, Finding Mr. Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Search the world of secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. I'm Nicole Evans, currently living in Bavaria in Germany. You're listening to the HappyPod from the BBC World Service. I'm Jonathan Joliot and in this edition we hear about a surprising similarity between us and dolphins.

When the first dolphin starts smiling, the other dolphin, most of the time, responds with the same facial expression. A medical breakthrough with the world's first fully robotic double lung transplant. It's amazing what it's done for me. Thank you is not a good enough word. This has gave me my life back. And the more stressed you get about not being able to talk you get even more dysregulated which makes it even harder to talk. How clothes are making it easier for autistic people to communicate. communicate. Researchers have found that just as we smile at friends, dolphins change their expressions too when they're interacting. They can often be observed playing with objects and chasing each other seemingly just for the fun of it. Now researchers

have found that bottlenose dolphins have an quote, open mouth expression that they use to communicate with each other during play, like a human smile. The research published in the journal Eye Science looked at 22 bottle-nosed dolphins and found that when they open their mouths at their friends, they would often mimic the facial expressions back. Dr. Elisabetta Pelagi from the University of Pisa described the findings to the Happy Pods Isabella Joule.

The main conclusion is that animals that usually play a lot like dolphins seem to use visual cues while working together. When we went for the first time to gather data collection on dolphins, we had not in mind any hypothesis about the use of visual cue and facial cue in this species, because as many scholars and people know, these species strongly rely on acoustic cues to communicate. cues to communicate. So we were really surprised to see and observe opening the mouth while playing together. And what we discovered is that they very, very rarely open their mouth during solitary play, but they open their mouth when they have the opportunity to play

with individuals of the same species. It seems that while opening the mouth, dolphins were attentive to the other's faces in order to be sure or to increase the probability to be seen by the playmate. We know that humans smile generally to communicate friendliness or happiness. Do we know anything about what the dolphins are trying to communicate with their open mouth expressions? Yes. Also, when we laugh and we laugh together with other people, we tend to interact in a face-to-face interaction. And when we engage the other gaze, our laughter is much more. Look at each other in the eyes. It seems to be extremely important

to advocate the similar facial expression. And it is exactly what occurs also in dolphins. So when the first dolphin starts smiling, the other dolphin, most of the time, respond with the same facial expression within one second, which is the same criteria used for humans for rapid facial mimicry. Since our facial expressions are the same,

the emotion underlying this facial expression are probably the same too. So if I smile, a new smile, probably we are in the same mood of pleasure. Of course, is this difficult to say if this facial expression of dolphins is a smile, is a true smile, but the similarities in which they use their open mouth, it is incredibly similar and seems to have the same function that has been found in other species. Dr. Elisabetta Palagi talking to Isabella Joule. Now to an exciting medical

achievement, the first fully robotic double lung transplant. Cheryl Merkau, who's 57, had the operation in New York last month and is already able to walk around unaided. This way of carrying out surgery builds on minimally invasive procedures and aims to shorten hospital stays as well as speeding up the healing process. Stephanie Zakristen reports. In an operating room on Manhattan surrounded by monitoring doctors, it is a robot that is the star of the show. The Da Vinci Cheese multiple white tall arms are slowly performing a double lung transplant on 57-year-old Cheryl Merker. Cheryl, a paramedic, had suffered with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for a decade, becoming even more fatigued after a bout of Covid. She needed at-home oxygen therapy and

her husband retired to become her carer before she became eligible for a transplant. Once they put me on the list I figured okay I have a couple more months to go and five days later I got the call. They said they have a 98 percent match and how soon can you get here and my first reaction was holy you know what and I'll be there in two hours. The team at NYU Langone Health Center had already broken medical ground earlier this year when they performed the country's first ever fully robotic single lung transplant. Now Dr. Stephanie H. Chung was taking on the challenge of conducting the operation with two lungs.

We've made lots of advances with robotic technology for lung cancer surgery, lots of other thoracic surgery and even heart surgery and so this is really the first major step towards moving it towards lung transplantation. Robots assisted surgery has been in development for decades. With the first recorded use of a surgical robot in 1985, then a PUMA 560 was used in a brain biopsy procedure to reduce movement due to hand tremors. As the technology has progressed, robots have been put to use in more and more types of surgery, ranging from orthopedic to gynaecological procedures. Earlier this year the world's first fully robotic heart transplant was performed in Saudi Arabia. During Cheryl's procedure, the

team of doctors worked in tandem with the robot as it entered the body, removed the diseased lungs and then implanted the donor lungs, all through a small cut on each side. As a result, compared with typical lung transplant surgeries, the use of a robot minimises blood loss and the incisions are significantly smaller, as Dr Stephanie H. Chang explains. Instead of something that is probably eight inches in terms of an incision, we can get it down to a two-inch incision. So there's significantly less trauma on the chest wall, so better healing for the patient and less

post-operative pain. Roughly a month after going under the knife, Shera Merka is already up and walking around the hospital where she's co-molassing. When I walk around, I don't need oxygen to do that and I can breathe. Sometimes my legs get a little tired but at least I can still breathe. It's amazing what it's done for me. Thank you is not a good enough word. I don't know what word to use. This is huge. This has gave me my life back. Cheryl Merker ending that report by Stephanie Zakrason. Now to an innovative

way of helping autistic people to express their emotions, something many of them often struggle with. May found it difficult to be at school and gave up college at 16 because of mental health issues. Then a couple of years ago May, who uses the pronouns they and them, hit on the idea of what's become known as communication clothing. William Kramer has been finding out more and spoke to Myra Anoubi. So it's a black hoodie or sweater and it has baby bats with different facial expressions.

What's going on here? So yeah, on the front of the sweater there's five super cute pictures of bats doing different things. So the one on the left is flapping its wings in a sort of excited way, sort of a bit buzzy. Then the next one is maybe looking a bit sad. The next one is happy. The idea is that if somebody's wearing that jumper and they find that they can't talk, they can point at one of these pictures and the person they're with will understand how they're feeling. There's also, if you look on the sleeves, it says yes on one sleeve and no on the other. So they can answer questions. May explain to me that when they get really overwhelmed, without a way to communicate,

things can actually spiral out of control. The more stressed you get about not being able to talk, you get even more dysregulated, which makes it even harder to talk. I used to get a lot of panic attacks or it causes full meltdowns or something like that. So it's like a negative cycle of non-communication and stress. And I met a young boy who lives near London who, just like Mae, is really affected by this. Hi, I'm Astin. I'm 10 and I like playing video games.

I also like animals. Ashton, I'm 10 and I like playing video games. I also like animals. Now like a lot of autistic people, Ashton suffers from anxiety. When I'm meeting new people, when I'm going places that I haven't gone before, sometimes I can lose my words and... When you're tired as well, isn't it darling?

Yeah, when I'm tired, I lose my words. Now in that clip, you can also hear Asin's grandma Gloria. Recently for Astin's birthday she gave him a communication jumper. Now Astin's jumper wasn't designed by May but by Keon Lawn who started a company recently called My Best Interest. Myra I've got one just like Astin's here. Take a look. Okay, so it's another hooded jumper, but I'm noticing this one has little animals on the sleeves. We have an overwhelmed owl with ear defenders. We also have a hungry fox and a very sick hedgehog. Also on the other sleeve we have, let's see, this is a bird that wants to fly home, a happy frog and a sad badger.

My gosh, he was so excited. It had to be put on straight away. We were going to go out for an evening meal, so I'm wearing this, I'm not changing, Mummy Leap, bring me a posh shirt, I'm wearing this. And in actual fact, it came in very handy walking to the pub, didn't it? Because he suddenly got very quiet and he looked at me and he tapped my arm and I went, are you all right darling? And he went overwhelmed. Just to be clear, Aston wasn't saying the word overwhelmed, but he was pointing at the picture of the overwhelmed owl on his new jumper. So we had a little chat and I said, well, it's been a long day. It's been your birthday.

You don't usually go out in the evening to eat. So you're probably also, where's the hungry one? Hungry. You're also probably hungry. And he went, yes, I am, I am, I'm very hungry. I find it really interesting in that Aston's grandma worked with him using the jumper to work out what his emotion was and

figure out that he was hungry. And actually with this clothing, although it was designed really for autistic people, a lot of professionals have been buying them. So for example, special needs teachers at school have been buying them and using them in the class to help them communicate with their children. And May, who we heard from earlier, has sold 10,000 sweaters with their company inside my head and they ship them all around the world. May says that this has completely transformed their own life. It's given them a sense of purpose. Growing up, I had very, very, very low self-esteem. When I think about my 15-year-old self who

just believed the world is better off without them, And now I think about my 21 year old self who helps 10,000 people. That's like such a big full circle moment. I'm so happy that I stayed and did this and tried and now I actually help myself and so many other people, which is just wonderful. And you can hear more on people fixing the world wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Coming up in this podcast. My mom was staying with me that night. She kind of knew that I was down, which isn't typically me. And she was like, what's wrong? And I was like, mom, I don't think I'll ever be able to play baseball again. The man who turned a life- changing accident into a major sporting achievement.

A search for the truth behind an international drug smuggling plot. There's something on this boat. The tan of cocaine. There was a on this boat. The 10 of cocaine. There was a lot of adrenaline. I couldn't believe what was happening. And the Man Brazilian Police believed to be at its centre. Fox. Fox.

Fox called the shots. From the BBC World Service, this is World of Secrets, Season 5, Finding Mr Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You may remember the story of four children, one of them a baby, who were lost for 40 days in the Amazon rainforest after surviving a plane crash which killed their mother and two other adults. The search and rescue mission that followed caught the world's attention in 2023 and has now been made into a Netflix documentary.

For several days there has been no evidence that the children are alive. Brothers have faith. Children please if you can hear this stay where you are. We are going to bring those four kids back. hear this, stay where you are. We are going to bring those four kids back. The ages of the four indigenous children were 13, 9, 4 and nearly one year old. The documentary shows how the children managed to survive thanks to the 13-year-old's knowledge of the jungle's many dangers. And it also depicts the gruelling search by the Colombian military and indigenous volunteers to try to locate the children and bring them home safely. The film's director Orlando von Einsiedel spoke to Krippapatti.

I suppose like tens of millions of other people around the world, the moment I heard about this operation playing out, I was completely gripped and I followed it until the children were found. But it was really when I learned about the actual search and rescue operation that I became interested. This story of two groups of people, the Colombian Special Forces and these indigenous volunteers who historically have had a lot of mistrust and animosity between each other and how they

had to come together and work together for this shared goal. You know, we live in a very polarised world and this felt like a story that we could all draw inspiration from. When I was watching it, I found that there were so many themes in the documentary, human instinct, survival, culture, trust, and you show how the Colombian military and indigenous people work together to overcome their mistrust. Exactly, and it was unbelievable how deep that mistrust lies. There had been decades of war in Colombia. So, you know, everyone went into this with enormous amounts of apprehension

and resentment, and actually watching how they ended up coming together to achieve something extraordinary was quite beautiful. MS. in Columbia and she had some skills, she knew about what fruits that the children could eat while in the forest and she knew about gathering water. But ultimately the fact that they could survive 40 days with no medical supplies and they'd survived the plane crash as well is extraordinary. I mean, I guess the story ends happily in some way but it's a story with a lot of tragedy at its heart, not just the children's family, but also, you know, what we tried to do in the film is tell the wider story about Columbia and Columbia's history. And that's been a very difficult history.

it's almost a parable, is about the best things about humanity, the things that bring us together rather than divide us, the strength of the human spirit, human resilience, and that's the film that I've tried to make. Orlando von Einziedel who directed the documentary The Lost Children. Now to San Marino where the tiny landlocked country's football team have made history despite being the world's lowest ranked. They've been promoted in the Nations League after their first ever win away from home against Liechtenstein. It was also the first time they scored more than once in a competitive game going on to win 3-1. Matthew Amwaluwala caught up with San Marino's team manager, Michele Raschi. They are all happy. They maybe still have to realize what they did, but they wrote an historical page of football in San Marino and for European football,

because half of our team is made by workers that during their daily life, at the end of their work, they go to the pitches to train with their club, while the other half of the team is composed by people that is playing in the Italian Championship and the group is made of young people and young professional players that are growing up all together and they did something extraordinary and we hope to do even better in the future even better by the way we join the moment and we enjoy their party and so so they're still celebrating but it is still sinking in just what they've actually achieved yeah maybe in two or three days when they will so all the newspapers they will realize they did something great. Yeah tell me as a

manager look you won that first game a couple of months ago at home now you've won away what have you done differently because it's been 20 years since you've had any sort of win. I'm team manager since this January 24 and the people who were before me in this role made a great job to create a group that did something great in the last Nations Leagues. I think the technical staff made the difference in this year's World Cup because in 11 months our head coach and his technical staff changed the mind of the players. That's incredible. San Marino going to actually play in the Qualifiers for the World Cup. I just

want to ask you a word about the supporters because what do you make of them? They for years have followed you around Europe watching the team get absolutely thumped. So what is it like now when they actually get to see you win? It's incredible because even the group of supporters are growing better and better and more and more and we beat the record of way traveling supporters since there were around 50 supporters in Liechtenstein. In Gibraltar in October they were around 40 so their group is growing and they are involving more and more people from all the world, not only Europe. It's fascinated by the San Marino national football team and they love our romantic history of local football

that play internationally. San Marino's team manager Michele Raschi. In today's hyper-connected world telephone scams have evolved into sophisticated operations catching even some of the most vigilant off-guard. Well one telecom operator in the UK has come up with a way to use artificial intelligence to reduce the number of suspect calls received by its customers. Daisy, the AI granny, works around the clock answering calls that have been marked as spam, wasting the scammers' time. Our reporter, Will Chalk, has been speaking to Daisy. Oh, my dear, I'm not too comfortable sharing that.

I'm a bit cautious with personal information. This is Daisy, a lovable old lady with a passion for knitting. And I'm trying, in a admittedly cack-handed way, to scam her. You couldn't just give us your bank details, could you? Oh, bless your heart. That's very kind of you, but I don't think I should be giving out my bank details to anyone." Except Daisy isn't really an old lady and I'm not really trying to scam her. She's an AI chatbot designed to waste the time of fraudsters and she's been developed by the

British telecoms giant Virgin Media 02. As part of a launch event they've allowed journalists like me to talk to her. Hello is that Daisy? Oh bless yes dear it's Daisy here. How can I help you today? What was the name of the street you grew up on Daisy? Oh dear, that's a lovely question. I grew up on Willow Lane in Malmesbury. Such fond memories there. We had the most beautiful gardens. Do you have a favorite street from your child?" The company is clearly proud of Daisy and says she's indistinguishable from a real person. But is she? As well as the very noticeable delay, she also garbles some of her sentences. But then again, over a bad line, these could probably pass as connection

issues. And given Daisy's designed to waste people's time, it's not necessarily a bad thing. According to her creators, she really does work. They've posted her phone number on forums known to be used by scammers and say since then she's taken a thousand calls and has kept some of them on the phone for up to 40 minutes. Hi, I'm Murray McKenzie. I'm director of fraud for Virgemedia 02.

I think the key thing that we've got to remember here is we're not talking about one fraudster in a basement making a lot of phone calls. There's huge numbers of people involved in these criminal gangs. There are teams that are professional call centers targeting people and for them to all be educated about what one scam bot sounds like is incredibly tricky for fraudsters to manage. This is a great example of us doing what we can to make the life of a criminal significantly harder. Can you please come to the home page in your computer? Oh, I'm so sorry dear. I'm doing my best. For now, AI bots like Daisy are relatively small fry in the global battle against scams.

But as the tech improves and becomes more widely available, AI could become an increasingly useful tool for both the people looking to fight scammers and the scammers themselves. increasingly useful tool for both the people looking to fight scammers and the scammers themselves. We'll talk. Two years ago, after a boating accident which led to one of his legs being amputated, 18-year-old Parker Bird, a talented baseball player, thought his dreams of sporting glory were over. But in a remarkable comeback, he has become one of the first, possibly only the second man to play in a Division 1 college baseball game with a prosthetic leg. Now Parker is dreaming

of making it to the major leagues, he spoke to Caroline Barker. 10 yards or so from the boat, the driver put the boat in reverse, we got it not in reverse somehow and essentially ended up sucking me under the boat which led to the propellers hitting both of my legs and my left hand as well. All the guys started tying, turning control on my legs the best they could with their shirts while trying to wave down other boats for help because our boat wasn't able to move due to the rope being called the propeller. The second boat stopped and on that boat were two couples, one of the ladies was actually a nurse. So she knew

more what to do. I stayed in the hospital for a total of four weeks and had 22 surgeries in a matter of 45 days. It was definitely a long two months for sure. Gosh, your whole dream, you know, baseball was everything. The minute you know you're going to lose your leg. What's going through your head then? A lot of questions. Not only baseball related, but just life in general. Like maybe a week or so, like the baseball factor definitely kicked in. I was like, my mom was staying with me that night. I was just talking to her and she kind of knew that I was down, which isn't typically me. And

she was like, what's wrong? And I was like, well, I don't think I'll ever be able to play baseball again. What was it like that first moment then when you were back in your uniform, ready to just throw a ball about? I mean, the emotions were really unreal. So kind of a moment that I'll never forget because I mean, the crowd, the atmosphere, the milestone was awesome. Your family there? They were, yeah. They captured a great video of them and I mean that makes me emotional every time I

see it just because of how emotional they are. I mean they were there every step of the way and they know that how important it was. It was a cool moment. What was the reaction from your teammates? They were pumped. They were there all the way too. Some of the guys that were on the boat were in the dugout watching. So I think it was a really cool moment, just a full circle moment that I was back and I

think it was just as special as them and it wasn't me just because they're my brothers and they were there every step of the way. Just finally, you talked about wanting to change and be inspiration for so many people. Have there been kids that have reached out to you and said, thanks for what you're talking about? I've seen kids start playing baseball that were missing some form of limb that they never thought they would be able to just because they thought it was impossible because, I mean, like I said, not many people do it,

but now I've honestly seen probably 10 amputees start playing baseball just from my story, which is awesome. And those are the only ones that have reached out. So Lord knows how many actually started or not only baseball, just another sport in general or just facing some form of adversity. I never thought they'd be able to do. So it's really cool to see those moments because it's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day

life and the ground of things. But when you see stuff like that, it really allows you to step back and kind of see the bigger picture and understand like, hey, I'm doing this for more than just myself. Inspirational baseball star Parker Bird, and you can hear the full interview on Sportsworld wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And that's all from the HappyPod for now. If you'd like to introduce a future episode, you can send us a voice note saying your name, where you are and the words you're listening to the HappyPod from the BBC World Service. And you can add a bit more about why you listen, like

Nicole. Nicole Hedges Listening whilst commuting 40 minutes by bike each day ensures a dose of positivity and an insight into some of the incredible things being achieved by people from all walks of life across the globe. It definitely starts each day with a smile. Callum McClaim As ever, the address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Callum McClaim, the producers were Holly Gibbs and Rachel Bockely.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janet Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. Hello I'm Simon Jack. And I'm Simon Jack. And I'm Xing Xing. And together we host Good Bad Billionaire, the podcast exploring the minds, the motives and the money of some of the world's richest individuals. Every episode we pick a billionaire and we find out how they made their money. And then we judge them.

Are they good, bad or just another billionaire? Good bad billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.