Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: The model redefining beauty norms

Episode Date: February 14, 2026

We meet a Ghanaian woman who is challenging stereotypes of beauty and disability by modelling with her prosthetic leg wrapped in colourful kente fabric. Abena Christine Jon'el had her leg amputated when she was just two years old because of an aggressive form of cancer. She says she's fought through so much to survive that she's determined to fight for anyone who's ever felt defeated by life.Also: A mobile gaming app that's helping teenagers in Brazil learn how to support their friends with mental health issues. A scheme teaching gardening skills to prisoners in the UK to help cut the numbers who reoffend after their release.The Washington museum curator who's adopted Gen Z slang to get younger people interested in its works of art. Alison Luchs has attracted over nine million views with two social media posts, and is challenging others to submit similar videos about other exhibits.Plus big baby elephant news, some unusual guard animals, and how one new family helped bring an entire community together, just by showing they cared.Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.(Photo: Abena Christine Jon'el on the catwalk in Ghana. Credit: Vino Studio / Nineteen57 Events)

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I've spent the last three decades trying to better understand money across the border room, the newsroom and the trading floor. That's longer than most podcasts hosts have been alive. But even though I've got questions, join me, Maren's Upset Web, every week for my show Meryn Talks Money from Bloomberg Podcasts, where I have in-depth conversations with fund managers, strategists and experts about her markets really work.

And join me for a separate episode where I answer listener questions and how to make those markets work for you. Follow Merrim Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm on criticise and in this edition. This is for those kids, anybody who has just ever felt like, I just want to quit. Like, this is for the people who feel like that, like they have no choice but to just lay down and let life beat you because I get it.

I decided no. But Guinean model on a mission to change perceptions of disability and beauty by proudly showing off her prosthetic leg. Also, could gardening help reduce the number of prisoners who commit further crimes? The gaming app teaching young people how to support others with mental health issues and why a museum curator has gone viral. Chad, peep this bust and clay dish from the 16th century. Look how broke-laced it.

He went goblin mode with all the... these colours. And we can't make a difference on a global scale, but we can definitely, and we are making a difference here, which is what counts. Be positive. Be helpful, be kind. It doesn't cost you anything. The family who took over a village post office and used it to bring the whole community together to help each other. We start in Ghana where one woman is on a mission to redefine how the country views people with disability. Abina, Christine Jonell, was just two years old when she developed a rare aggressive cancer called Rabdo Mayo Sukuma in one leg. Her mum was faced with a difficult decision.

Radiation therapy, which could have left her needing to use a wheelchair or amputation. She chose the latter. Now age 33, Abner is a writer and model walking runways proudly displaying her prosthetic leg, which is wrapped in Kente. That's a colourful gun-in fabric, with the aim of showing people with disabilities as confident, powerful and beautiful. The happy part of Tam's in Selby has been speaking to Abner, starting with what it was like for her to have cancer at such a young age. My diagnosis was delayed.

I was diagnosed at stage three, almost stage four, was very aggressive. So it was in my right calf. It was a size of a great fruit. My mom had a lot of apprehensions about amputating my leg because she didn't want me to hate her, basically. She didn't want me to be mad at her for the decision. And so when I was older, and she told me that, options were between that and then me doing radiation, which would have had me as a full-time wheelchair user. When I look at everything that I have accomplished, how, you know, I've done

cheerleading, I've done basketball, I've done track, you know, I've climbed trees. There's, there's nothing that I do that I could have done if she not made this decision. Talk to me about how that event has shaped your life from two onwards, the things that you were able to do and the things that maybe were more difficult to do. Being alive was difficult to do. One of the reasons why I didn't understand that I had cancer until age five or six posted was because no one wanted to talk about it.

And because my family didn't talk about it, I didn't talk about it, which means that the schools didn't talk about it and the kids didn't talk about it. And I struggled very much in every way to find community, to find safe space. It brought negative attention to me, while at that same time, I have always had this like fire and gusto about me that I am probably going to yell at you for treating me wrong and I'm going to stand my ground and tell people that this is not the way that you're going to treat me.

It shaped who I am because I'm stronger because I feel like as a kid you have this romanticized idea of what life is. I didn't get that opportunity. Life showed me it's ugliness from from the start. But I just continue to just keep going no matter what life just kept throwing at me. And I've continued to throw stuff at me for a very long time. I'm just not living. I suppose in your career now as, you know, you're a model, you're a public speaker. I guess a lot of that is to counter so many of the negative views that people had towards you. I don't think it's fair for people who have disabilities or challenges or just look different than, you know,

the cookie cutter status quo of what society likes. I don't think we should have to fight to exist in those spaces. I will happily fight. I have all this passion and fire inside of me. So especially when it's directed towards me, I will happily fight to help others open the door and usher what change can look like, especially because I know that I do push back on the stereotypes. But most importantly, this is for those kids, for the girls, the little boys,

anybody who has just ever felt like, I just want to quit. Like, this is for the people who feel like that, who feel like they have no choice but to just lay. down and let life beat you because I get it. It was kicking my ass for decades and I decided, no, this is my life. I fought through so much to be here and I started living for me. So it's to show people, yes, this is what disability can look like. This is what accessibility can look like. This is what inclusion can look like. But also this is what life looks like when you get past the hard spot. We got in touch with you because we obviously saw you walk this runway in Ghana looking,

beautiful with your leg wrapped into a colorful African print. What did that experience mean to you and what do you think it meant for people seeing you? The experience was really big for me on being the 15 year anniversary. Kentee addition. My leg is a kentay. Let's do something new. I don't think anybody knew what to expect. Even when I walked down the runway, no, everyone was just like, pause and all in shock. They didn't know what to expect. And that's what I wanted. I wanted. I wanted you to question your boundaries, what you view as beautiful, what you view as welcome, what you view as inclusion, and then see me and see that I'm going to make space for myself. Sharing my truths, my vulnerabilities and getting love back is really beautiful.

And often I find myself just to take a step away. I just like, oh my gosh, me, like, are you for real? Like me? and I struggle with still taking positivity and things like that. I mean, someone couldn't tell me I was beautiful five years ago without me feeling uncomfortable about it. So, yeah, it's been nice. It's been very, very positive. I've been crying every day in case you can't tell me.

What would you say to say, you know, 10-year-old you? I wouldn't say anything first. I think first I would really just hug myself. Just say, you're so powerful. is so strong, you're so beautiful, and you are going to inspire the world girlfriend. You are going to do it. Let her know, girl, we're going to do some things.

I'm late until you get older. And I'm happy that I'm happy I lived. I'm happy I survived. That was Abner, Christine Janelle, speaking to the Happy Pods, Tam's in Selby. Prison overcrowding is a problem faced by many countries around the world. Here in the UK, prison populations have reached record highs. Charities campaigning for prison reform describe a crisis of unprecedented proportions

of which high rates of re-offending are seen as one of the main contributing factors. Some prisons are running rehabilitation projects to break the cycle of residivism. Now, Peter Goffin has been finding out about a program that gives prisoners the skills and confidence they need to rebuild their lives after they're released. Their names have been changed for privacy reasons. This is peppermint. My beetroot and my parsnips. It's a chilly afternoon in the English countryside,

but I'm protected from the elements in this polytunnel, a kind of greenhouse made of plastic sheeting. Mary is giving me the grand tour. The last time I put in there was green peppers, aubergines, marrow. You could forget, almost, for a moment, that all of this is happening behind the walls of a women's prison. Mary is serving a sentence here.

HMP Send, near London, gives inmates the option of working in ornamental and vegetable gardens on site. And it hosts a scheme run by a charity called The Clink that helps prisoners gain professional qualifications in horticulture. Steve Head is the garden manager for the program. We are rebuilding an individual. We are helping them see that this is probably what will be the worst place they're going to be. and we're providing them with an opportunity in to say, right, you're a rock bomb. This is your chance to rebuild and to redevelop. That training, having a vocation and being employable,

can mean the difference between leading a successful life after prison and returning to a life of crime. Data from the UK shows that people who found work within six weeks of being released were 50% less likely to re-offend. We have a lot of individuals in this estate who have mental health issues, they're recovering from addiction, they've been subject to physical, mental, sexual abuse. Our program with the Kling, and in particular Kling Gardens,

we're using horticulture as a therapy. Students take part in classroom lessons and get hands-on experience, designing, planting, tending and harvesting their own gardens. All of the fruit and veg they grow is served up by the prison kitchen. I just remember doing my first lettuce, where I've done it from seed. It grew, and I just remember

going up to like Steve and that, look, look what I crew. And it was a lettuce. And yet I was so happy. Susan has already completed her qualifications with the clink. I think the program and the clink is a brilliant idea. Because as I say, I come down here broken. With the help, support and everything, and for your mental health to be out in the open is a brilliant thing to do. They treat you as an individual, no judgment.

they treat you as a person. The Kink Charity has trained thousands of at-risk people inside and outside prisons in horticulture and hospitality skills. At Brixton Men's Prison in London, students cook and serve at a restaurant on site, which is open to the public for posh lunches. For the people completing these programs, it's a chance to prepare for life after prison. The area is my potato area. I won't be growing anything else there because,

getting the roots of potatoes out. Mary is responsible for everything that grows in this polytunnel, one of 15 at Send. She's still working towards her qualifications, but she's already thinking about the future. I love growing. It's such a perfect rehabilitation process for me. It's certainly a stepping stone for you.

You know, you can go into a different area of your future work. I cannot go back to what I was. And this is my way forward, basically. That was Mary ending that report by Peter Goffin. To Washington now and a rather unusual internet star, a museum curator. Alison Lux, who works at the National Gallery of Art, has racked up more than 9 million views on Instagram with just two videos. That's more than double the number of people who visit the gallery in a year.

She teamed up with an intern to explain the beauty of ancient artifacts to a young audience. And as the happy pods, Riley Farrell has been finding out the secret to her success lies in her unusual choice of words. Chat, peep this bust and clay dish from the 16th century, made in the workshop of an Italian Rizzler named Dorotio Pompeii. That is Alison Lux, a 77-year-old curator at the National Gallery of Art, diving into Genzi slaying to meet a new audience where they live online.

They asked if I'd be willing to make a social media video speaking in Gen Z slang. And I was kind of bewildered. I wasn't sure exactly what they meant or why or who would want it. But I thought, well, if it's a chance to bring a new audience for the sculpture and decorative arts collection and for the early works in the collection, why not? We could give it a try. Look how broke-laced it. He went goblin mode with all these colors.

high-key tough materials to work with. The language is so new and young, and I guess hearing somebody with my white hair speaking this way is funny. Some traditionalists might say humor risks oversimplifying or trivializing art. I think it's a fair concern. For this particular format or medium, I think you do simplify because it's an introduction. I think I'm a gateway drug for a new.

audience. Sydney Myers is the museum's senior manager of social media. People are delighted by this because it's kind of breaking their brains in a fun way. Some people were even asking if she was AI. I'm happy to report she is not. This is our concert effort to specifically reach younger audiences and primarily Gen Z. We notice that they come here, but we see that they aren't returning at the rates that we want them to. This golded red-purple stone called porphyry. was yonked out of a mountain in ancient Egypt. Then the Romans snatched it and turned it into a column. And then Renaissance artists leveled up

and turned it into an urn. Some of the comments we were really delighted by people saying, I did not expect to be served this in the Algo today. And wow, it's crazy that this is coming from the National Gallery of Art. So I think really helping people to see that we don't take ourselves too seriously,

and we can have fun and embrace the things that they're interested in. is appealing to people and resonating. I asked a few younger visitors for their takes. I kind of like it in an ironic way. If it hadn't been Alice and it was somebody else delivering it, I probably would have brushed it off. I'm not gonna lie, but using it in that context,

especially around classical art, I thought it was pretty creative. I thought it was very interesting because I just wouldn't expect her to use that language, so it immediately made me pay attention. Unk is mewing. He's looking low-key chopped, but the lion does not concern himself

with the opinions of Sheep. Doing that and putting it on social media makes me want to go see the, the mewing urn that was turned into a column and then returned. Between the Renaissance artists, the Romans, and the ancient Rez Egyptians, this piece represents the ultimate collab over thousands of years. All facts, no printer. People have been remixing art from day one. I don't know, like, all the art history lingo, so sometimes I feel like I can't really approach it, but she definitely captured me. If you could debunk one myth young people have about museums or classical art, what would it be? Maybe that museums are stuffy or formal or that you should be intimidated by them.

I think instead it's an adventure. Museums are doorways into a new world. They can open a whole new kinds of knowledge and experience to you, the experience of people hundreds of years ago, which might turn out to be not totally different from yours. Pick an artwork from our collection. Send us your ideas for how you'd or a farm it. No cap. The 50 Vibius submissions will receive $3,000 each. They'll be featured right here on the Algo and IRL inside our museum.

So smash that link in our bio and mock us with your creativity. Do you think that worked? Will they do it? I hope so. Alison Lucks, ending that report by Riley Farrell. Coming up on this podcast, how an intruder was apprehended by llamas. They let out a warning cry. So he was captured in the middle of the circle with llamas hockering around him. If there was a big rant button that would just demolish the internet.

I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is the interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life, and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. To Brazil now, where a gaming app is teaching young people how to help each other with mental health issues. Academics at Brasilia University and the University of Oxford worked on a joint project,

to develop an interactive game that gives young people the skills to support their friends. Myra Anubi has been talking to some of those involved. For us, it's really important that we equip young people with skills, so how to identify that a friend is unwell. For example, young people are really well placed to identify whether there is a problem with a peer. Professor Gabriela Pavarini at Oxford University in the UK. She joined up with Dr Sheila Marta at Brasilia University and a team of young people to come up with a solution.

Rafa Ribeiro is one of those students. I got really happy. I was really excited because I grew up in a Havela, in the outskirts of Brasilia. And doing a project with Oxford was amazing. And the whole idea was to create an intervention applyable in public high schools from Brazil that could engage young people towards promoting mental health.

So incredible. Together, they developed an interactive app where players can learn about common issues affecting their friends and how to assist them. It's called Where is Kaui? So young people choose from predefined options. So it's a scripted adventure, if you like. And through interactions with different online characters,

they learn how to support others in their communities. Now, the team surveyed loads of teenagers to find out what issues were most affecting them and incorporated them into the app. So issues like sexism, racism and exam pressure. Now, I enjoy a good game, so I decided to have a go. In the game, I assume the character of one of the students in a high school. We voiced the characters to give you an idea of how it all works.

It's the morning of the school play and your best friend, Kauwe, has disappeared. You see Giselle on her phone. You look around the room and see a costume hanging up. Giselle, the designers made a mistake with the size, you know. It's quite close, feel. fitting and I'm curvy. It kind of glues to my body and some guys started staring at me, you know. Now, even though all this was happening on the app, I did empathize with Giseli and her situation. If you continue playing the whole thing, the missing student, Kauai, is found hiding in the

school bathroom, struggling with anxiety. The students in the game then decide to cancel the play and put on a new show about mental health instead. According to Rafa, who we heard from earlier, there are many other characters in the game addressing different problems, characters like Priscilla. So Priscilla is a young teenage black woman. She takes care of her siblings and she's studying really hard to get to university.

That was based on the information we got from other young people. They always have like a Priscilla. That is a friend that goes through a lot of hard stuff and problems with family, especially related to poverty. And there's another character in the app that the team thought was crucial. So we had teachers who helped us develop the story as well.

So we had within the story also a teacher character. And one of the skills that they practiced is how to reach out to an adult. Over 5,000 Brazilian teenagers have played the game so far. And on average, they said they felt more motivated to support their peers and to talk about mental health. The project has also secured further funding to refurb. find the story and create teaching resources to go with it so it can be used in class. Here is Raffa again. In the future, and that's my dream, when we prove that it can be effectively used in schools in

Brazil for mental health, I believe we can present it to the education ministry. It is something that we can apply in schools all over Brazil. And you can hear more on people fixing the world wherever you get your BBC podcast from. Now, time for a quick update on a story we brought you a few weeks ago. The pregnant elephant at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington has now given birth to a female healthy calf. It's the first Asian elephant to be born there for 25 years and staff say the new arrival has filled them with joy. The calf will make her public debut in a few weeks and the zoo's inviting people to vote on what to name her. Now, while elephants are perhaps most associated with having a good memory,

What does your mind to conjure up when you think of a llama? An expressive face, long neck, cuddly looking wool. Well, I imagine security guard wouldn't be high on the list. But you might be surprised to hear that a herd of the herbivores have helped to catch a suspected thief. Heidi Price says she and her partner were alerted to the presence of an intruder at their farm in central England and found the terrified suspect encircled by their llamas before the police arrived and arrested them. I was told that my llamas were heroes. They let out a warning cry.

So he was captured in the middle of the circle with llamas hockering around him. So basically, the lamas made citizens arrest. Guard lamas are actually already used in farming, especially in North America, to protect sheep, goats and other livestock from predators. Scarlet Moon, who also owns lamas, says their response to, danger is rather unusual for a herbivore? I think it evolves from, well, steps from them evolving in countries like South America where there's lots of predators and are very open spaces.

So they've had to adapt to survive. So, yeah, they're fantastic guard animals. They're very aware of their surroundings at all times. They don't tend to run or flee like many other prey animals. They stand their ground. They stand tall and they would attack mostly with their front legs. and they do chase as well. So they've had to be brave to evolve.

They're very territorial. They'll know what to expect in their surroundings, and that intruder could be a risk to any of the herd. Whether they're guarding other animals or not, they're still protecting each other as a herd animal. So in order to protect themselves, they've obviously worked together to stop the intruder. We end with a family who have been praised for transforming the lives of everyone in their community.

The parricks run a local post office and shop. in the small Welsh village of Capulhendra. Jane McGubbin went along to find out more. They are very passionate about their post office in this little corner of South Wales. There's too much nastiness in the world, isn't there? Which is why Hillary Jones wanted to share the story of Vipple Perret and his family. I am locally known and by everybody, friends' family as Vips.

Yes. What can we do for you, Hillary? You know why we're here? Oh, Hillary, come on, you're going to get me crying. You've been wonderful. heart of our community. You're the beating heart. Oh, come over here. They were the strangers who moved into their local post office

during the quiet of the pandemic and quickly made everyone feel less alone. Well, when we first came into the post office, there was a general run behind the counter with a mask on and they'd only just taken over the post office. There was a baby in an arm's. They'd come from Birmingham to live down here. I didn't know a soul. And within weeks, they knew everybody by, they first name. They knew the background of people. They were interested in all their customers and friendships developed within the community. And laura land of war, laura laura they did it. They opened a cafe and asked if anyone could help teach them Welsh. That turned

into free weekly Welsh lessons for the whole community. They organise a reward scheme for local school children. Oh, they're different. They're definitely special. You know, you always hear of the bad people. What about the good people? And they are good, you know. Vips saw their customers' lives, and he wanted to help. I was diagnosed with Parkinson's three years ago.

Vips had noticed Hillary's decline, and when her symptoms improved, he noticed that too. Vips could see the difference in me. And he said, I've got to ask you, Hillary, what have you been doing? doing. She had been making a 20 mile round trip to play table tennis in another village, but it was working. He said, I've got an idea. What if I get some table tennis tables? Will you help me out? It's gone from one day a week to one morning a week and two evenings a week. We have Lois. She's also a superstar. You get a lot of fun because we're chasing balls everywhere. Have you got Parkinson's too. I've got Parkinson's and Crohn's, and I've got an 18-month-old hip, new hip, so...

Looking good on it. Yeah. Are we having a laugh? We're sharing memories, and life is about caring and sharing. And this is what this community has done, caring and sharing for each other. That's it. Go on, Jait. There's such a lot of love, isn't this? You've seen it today. We've seen it? Yes. And it's...

It's touching to see that amount of love. They don't have to. They could come and just do their transaction and go. I'm going to. But they choose to give us that love, and we choose to give that back. We can't make a difference on a global scale, but we can definitely make a difference

together with Hillary, all our volunteers. We can definitely, and we are making a difference here, which is what counts. We're part of Capulendre and Saran. We don't see as a place of where we do our business. We see it as our home. Be positive. Be helpful.

Be kind. It doesn't cost you anything. Vipalparach, ending that report from Jane McCubbin. And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. And if you have a story, you'd like to share or a comment on anything in this episode, then we would love to hear from you. As ever, the address is global podcast at BBC.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Ben Andrews and the producers were Holly Gibbs,

Tams and Selby and Rachel Bulkley. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm uncritusai. Until next time, goodbye. I've spent the last three decades trying to better understand money across the border room, the newsroom and the trading floor. That's longer than most podcasts hosts have been alive. But even though I've got questions, join me, Maren's Upset Web, every week for my show Maren Talks Money from Bloomberg

podcasts, where I have in-depth conversations with fund managers strategist and experts about her markets really work. And join me for a separate episode why I answer listener questions and how to make those markets work for you. Follow Merrin Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.