Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Tutus and triumph

Episode Date: April 27, 2024

This week, we meet one of the hundreds of ballerinas who balanced on their toes in New York to set a new world record. Also: how a generous stranger gave a kidney to a five-year-old girl. And we hear from Europe's best seagull impersonator.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Lots of moving from one country to another on The Happy Pod this week with stories from Australia and Finland. And after 353 ballerinas set a new world record in New York,

I'll talk to one of them. Hi, I'm Sally Caruso from California, and you're listening to The Happy Pod. I'm Andrew Peach. Also on the way, we'll meet Liffey, the generous stranger who gave a kidney to a five-year-old girl. Knowing that I've played a part in helping her just lead a normal life, that's enough for me. How TikTok is teaching Oliver to read. I'm sitting in my car right now, I never learn to read. But at the end, they're like, I just picked up a book at the library.

I'm like, hey, since you went, I'm going to go today. A holiday with a difference for Pam from Newfoundland. While we're not back in the days when we're, you know, chopping our wood and lugging the water, the weather is still a real big drag here in Newfoundland. And... ..Europe's best seagull impersonator, a nine-year-old called Cooper. We begin at one of New York's famous and glamorous landmarks,

the Plaza Hotel. Go! That was the moment that scores of ballerinas took on the Guinness World Record for the largest number of dancers to be on point, balanced on the tips of their toes for a whole minute at the same time. Not easy, especially as they didn't have enough dancers to do it until the very last moment. I spoke to one of the organisers, Sergei Gordeev from the renowned ballet programme Youth America Grand Prix, who was in New York, as well as 16-year-old dancer Sally Caruso, who was at home in Orange County, California. 353 ballerinas from all around the globe gathered there and it was really something

truly epic. Yes it was so exciting it was such a beautiful atmosphere everyone was wearing white tutus white leotard with this beautiful warm light and it was really truly magical and something that I will definitely remember for the rest of my life. Take me into this room then. There are 353 ballerinas from all over the world about to break a Guinness World Record. What does that look like? Pure chaos, you know, and I laugh. I laugh because, gosh, you know, life is beautiful, you know, and it's unpredictable. We, you know, we have 2000 plus ballerinas and we knew that the room could only hold maximum of 450 dancers. And we put out a call to our finalists. We said, okay, there is this opportunity to be in the room. You know, why don't you come and be a part of it? But

we knew the capacity was 450. So we said, we cut it off at 450. Then time to break the record. The entire world is there. You know, the New York Times, the Associated Press, all the television stations, the world's eyes are on us. So we're here to break the record. We're so happy. Well, 200 ballerinas show up. We're like, what's going on? So, you know, if we succeed, the world's eyes are on us.

If we fail, the world's eyes are on us. And some dancers were late. Some dancers couldn't find the plaza. Some dancers, they were just saving their energy and decided last moment not to show up. Long story short, the previous record was 306. And so we're 200-something dancers. We're missing 100 dancers to beat the current record.

And so we put out this call on social media for whoever can come. Our board members who used to dance, stuff the point shoes with toilet paper to make sure they fit and get on the point. Ultimately, dancers showed up, but even board members, two of our board members, berated on point for one minute to make sure we do this. So 353 by the skin of our teeth, we beat that record. Just describe to me, Sally, what on point means. Being on point is something that you have to build up to. You practice so much being on flat shoes,

and then once you hit a certain age, you get to go on point. How much of a challenge is it to be on point for a minute? It's definitely a challenge with over 350 people in a room. But being on point, you need to have strength, and you need to be able to have those muscles in your feet to be on point. How did you know the record had been done? Did someone blow a whistle or something to say the minute was done? When the minute was done, everyone was screaming, cheering. Three, two, one.

Such a happy environment. It was so exciting. Something that I will definitely remember. And Sergio, you sound like a serial record breaker when it comes to this. So no doubt in a year's time we'll be talking about you having done this with 450 dancers or something. Look, it's a gimmick. It's a happy thing to do. It's not obviously what Youth America Grand Prix does as an organization, but also it's a family whose members are ages 9 to 19, right? It's the world's largest dance family.

It's not about just attracting attention to us. It's also about giving the family members a chance to be together, to celebrate. You know, we should have more joy in our lives. Dance is such a magical way for humans to communicate to each other about the human experience. It heals us without us even knowing. Those of us who can't do it struggle to imagine you're doing anything other in a dance studio than trying not to look a fool, you know, and trying not to get it wrong.

But if you're brilliant at it, of course, you can escape to a whole different world. Yes, it's quite magical. I love it. And may I just add, I would like to offer a correction. There are no people who can't do it. There are people dancing in wheelchairs. There's actually a dance company here in the United States of people in the wheelchairs dancing. And if you can walk, you can dance. If you can't walk, you can dance. If you can move your eyes, you can dance with your eyes, right? It's not just, oh, you have to be

brilliant at it. It's a way for you to express this glorious experience of living in a human body and hearing music vibrations, right? So what is dance? Dance is movement to music. So if you can hear music and if you can react to music, then you can dance. I'll have to take Sergei and Sally's word for it. Five-year-old British girl Destiny Ray had spent a total of six months of her young life hooked up to dialysis machines and the odds of her getting a new kidney were desperately low. In the UK, the shortage of donor organs from ethnic minorities means black patients wait on average 10 months longer on the transplant list for a new kidney than white patients.

Now, thanks to a chance encounter with a kind stranger in an online chat room destiny ray's search for a kidney is over this is part of a new scheme where those wanting to help others can give away an organ while they're alive usually one of their kidneys or part of a liver but if they're not a direct match for a person they want to help they go into a pool so others can benefit harry takes up the story when five-year-old Destiny Ray was just 10 months old, her kidneys stopped working. She had to begin dialysis treatment three times a week for five hours at a time. This is her mum, Maria. The pair scheme is amazing. So basically, it's a scheme that all other families are in whose donor doesn't match the child that

they want to donate to. So for me, for instance, my donor, she's not a match for Destiny, unfortunately. But there's other families who are in the same position, who their donors don't match. So we all go into a big pool. The run happens maybe every three months and they just literally do a cross match. Maria, speaking to the BBC before her daughter, received a successful transplant. And this is exactly what happened for Destiny Ray. Maria went online and found a chat room where she asked for some support.

On there, she met Liffey, a woman who was willing to donate a kidney. But Liffey wasn't a match for Destiny, so they approached the organ swap scheme. After two attempts, they found a match and completed the circuit. Swaps only go ahead if every patient can be matched with a donor, so no one misses out. Maria spoke to the BBC again after the operation. I am so relieved. Oh my gosh, it was literally, I felt like a lifetime was waiting for this situation to happen.

And when it finally happened, I was like, oh, my gosh, I was so nervous. You can imagine going down for surgery with her, like holding her, saying this is what we waited for. Literally like four years of dialysis. It's just been so surreal. So defining that we're here now and we're in isolation at the moment. But once we're out of it, I feel like life can finally begin. Destiny is recovering at home and getting used to life with her new kidney. What's your kidney name? Jojo. Yeah, she calls it Jojo.

Maria says she's never been able to take Destiny Ray on holiday so the pair have big plans for life going forward. Where do you want to, she wants to go Disneyland, that's her dream. I don't want to go to Disneyland. Where do you want to go now then?

Africa. You want to go to Disneyland. Are you going to go to Disneyland? Where do you want to go now, then? Are you sure? Africa. You want to go to Africa? OK. Maria and Destiny Ray planning a holiday. Now, one of the joys of a holiday is getting away from it all with close family or friends. But would you fancy one with hundreds of people who live near you? At least 250 couples from the small Canadian island of Newfoundland coincidentally booked the same Caribbean cruise. That's around one in every thousand people who live there.

Pam Pardee was one of those on board. We started to find out that there were other Newfoundlanders on there probably about December. We started to see posts from friends. At first I was kind of like, oh God, that's going to be horrible. And my partner is all about it. He's like, he's getting the Newfoundland flags ready.

He's out looking for Newfoundland hats. And a little bit before we went, I guess about two weeks, we received a package that included an invitation, an actual invite to a Newfoundland kitchen party on the ship. And it was so much fun.

I don't know, there was just something so familiar and comforting, but at the same time exotic, because we were in this warm climate with the tropical cocktails and the little breeze. If you take a look at a map and you see where Newfoundland is when we land in the ocean. And while we're not back in the days when we're, you know, chopping our wood and lugging the water, the weather is still a real big drag here in Newfoundland. And traveling and getting off the island is a real challenge. And we probably celebrated our heritage more there than we would randomly at home. It was incredible. It was a lot of fun. Now, Pam's story got me thinking about bumping into people you know

a long way from home, away from your home country. I bumped into a friend of mine called Lynn once at the railway station in Paris. Neither of us had any idea we were going to be there. So has this happened to you? If you have a story,

we'd like to hear it. Global podcast at bbc.co.uk. If you've ever experienced the stress of a pet going missing, imagine that happening just before you were moving house to the other side of the world. Milo, the Jack Russell Cross, escaped from an airport handler in Melbourne, Australia, just hours before he was due to fly to his new home in Wales. Not New South Wales, but Wales in the UK. Three weeks later came the reunion.

Milo. Hey, love. Hi. Milo, my little boy. Come here, mate. Hey, baby. Now, you can see this video at bbc.com slash news. You can hear how emotional Jason Milo's owner is.

What you can see in the video is Milo leaping into Jason's arms, giving his face a good lick. His tail could not be wagging more excitedly. Jason Watnell spoke to the BBC's Rick Edwards. We dropped off Milo for his final vet check and he was handed over to the pet company. Essentially, an hour later, we're driving home to get ready for our own flight and I got a call saying that he'd escaped from the handler and he was loose around the suburbs of Melbourne. So

very concerning. We headed back and tried to help look for the whole day, but yeah, with no luck, unfortunately so so what did you delay your your own flight out i mean it must have been an impossible situation for you yeah well look my partner nick was on a six-month visa and we're literally on the cusp of that expiring so we had no choice but to fly back um so yeah we kind of searched for the two days prior to our travel. But, yeah, we ultimately had to get on the flight and head over. So from the UK, I kind of like managed, you know, volunteers and the community. And I did everything I could from over here just to conduct the search and get everyone helping. I cannot imagine how sick you must have felt getting on that flight, not knowing where Milo was.

Oh, yeah. No, it's been a month-long nightmare. I've hardly slept, you know, very stressful, wondering whether we're going to get Milo back, whether he'd be found or, you know, whether he was gone for good. So, yeah, an array of emotions have gone through. It's been crazy. Yeah, I guess now, talk me through how you felt when you first heard that he'd been found. Yeah, so when he'd been found i just saw the emotions overcome me and i cried and you know we celebrated and just to know he'd um you know he was safe and sound in the secure you know comfort of the people that were

looking after him just give me a huge sense of relief um and then to finally reunite with him being just unreal can't believe he's actually over here. And the new company that's taken over has given him an A-class treatment, come over on a first-class flight. He's been treated like a little superstar. It's amazing. That's probably what he was pushing for all along. It's true.

So I think I can travel a bit better, eh? Is he with you now? Yeah, he's just cuddled up, sleeping. He's been probably recovering from his jet lag after the 24 hours of flying. So, you know, probably impact him just like it does us humans. Jason Watnell with Rick Edwards and Rachel Burden. It's time to come finding happiness in a new country.

And if you're a regular listener to The Happy Pod, there are no prizes for guessing which one. You're never far away from a forest or a lake or the seaside in Finland. And you'll hear from the scientist who's using new technology to stop northern white rhinos becoming extinct. Hi, it's Dr Erin Wilder in San Diego, California, and you're listening to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News,

AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Now, my teenage children love TikTok, and I guess the reason they and millions around the world are hooked

is its personalised algorithm, giving you an endless stream of videos it kind of knows you're going to like or at least click on. Here's a story about TikTok encouraging people to learn how to read. 35-year-old Oliver James couldn't read when he left school. In the last few years he turned to social media and was amazed to find a supportive online community. Mara Anubi has more. What's up? I can't read that well. When Oliver James left school, he could barely read. But the 35-year-old fitness instructor decided to do something about it. We got us a book. A lot of, a lot of. He opened up about his struggle on social media and then challenged himself to read a hundred books online. Incredible, incredulous, incredulous, incredulous. Oliver was helped by the BookTok community, which shares a love of reading online.

He gets lots of support in the comments, and people share their stories. What keeps me going is the people out there who send me a random message, and they're like, hey, I'm sitting in my car right now, I never learned to read. But at the end, they're like, I just picked up a book at the library. I'm like, hey, since you went, I'm going to go today. So it's kind of like a pinball effect. Around 700 million adults around the world can't read. And many more, like Oliver, struggle with literacy.

For him, this has been an emotional journey. I'm going to tell you something. If you don't know how to read and you're an adult and you're going to start learning how to read, you will not get through this without any vulnerability. I'm like you. Oliver reckons his reading skills have improved from about the age of a seven-year-old to a ten-year-old, and he now speaks in schools and communities across the US, spreading the word about literacy.

Myra Anubi reporting. Now, we've talked before on The Happy Pod about efforts to bring the northern white rhino back from the brink. Just two northern white rhinos are left on the planet. Both are female, so no reproduction is possible. But now scientists think they have the technology to develop northern white rhino embryos and plant them in other animals. Dr Erin Wilder from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance told me more about the science of saving a species. We're in the midst of a sixth mass extinction right now where extinction rates are elevated

and species are going extinct faster than we can save them. So being able to restore a species from the brink of extinction or an extinct species means that we get a second chance to save these species. Now, there are two northern white rhinos left right now. Can you describe them to us? The two individuals that are left are a mother and a daughter, and both of them are non-reproductive females, so they can't produce offspring of their own. And what do they look like? How big are they?

You know, that's a good question. They're about rhino size, but I couldn't give you a number. Oh, that's OK. No, just getting a sense of whether they were the size of a, I don't know, a Tyrannosaurus rex or a cat. Yeah, yeah. Somewhere in between a Tyrannosaurus rex and a cat and much closer to the Tyrannosaurus rex. Tell me what scientific process you're going through in order to try and eventually be in a situation where northern white rhinos can be saved. Thanks to biobanking that has been done over the past few decades, we've saved material from a number of individuals banked in our frozen zoo. And we also have some banked sperm and eggs from these animals. And so from this material, we can eventually produce new embryos that could grow into mature northern white rhinos and create a new population. The idea of having a frozen zoo of cells and sperm and eggs of different species is like

something out of a Hollywood movie. It's an initiative that we at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance have been working to promote around the world. So, you know, the more of these frozen zoos we can get up and running and the more representation we have of species, the more opportunities we will have to restore genetic diversity that's been lost from these endangered populations. I'm imagining some kind of situation where, I don't know, someone breaks into the frozen zoo and starts using sperm and eggs from different species and mingling them together and all sorts could result. Yeah, that does seem pretty unlikely because, you know, it's already a challenge for us to tinker with these, even with full access. What are the things that remain in

the way of the technology that you can envisage actually being able to save creatures like these white rhinos? Well, in order to create sperm and eggs from these fibroblast cell lines, we need to reprogram them into stem cells. And that we've actually been able to do and do pretty efficiently. From there, we need to direct the stem cells to become germ cells, and then we need them to mature into fully functional sperm and eggs. And that process has only been done so far in mice. It must feel odd to be working on something that could have such radical implications, but those implications might not come during our lifetime. Yes, that is true. But we know that the progress that we make for this species will benefit other

species as well. So even if we don't get to the point where we have a restored northern white rhino population using these methods, what we learn in this species can be applied to other species. Dr Erin Wilder with me from San Diego. If you were with us for the Happy Pod a few weeks ago, you might remember we heard from the journalist Erika Benke about a remarkable rescue in Finland. Erika used to work with me here at the BBC in London, then she moved to Finland, and she always talks so passionately about it. Made me wonder whether moving to a new country makes you happy.

So Erika's been telling the HappyPod team more about making such a big change. Every time I went to Finland, I found that, hmm, I'm feeling really happy. I'm happier than I am in London. I think it was mostly because of nature. You're never far away from a forest or a lake or the seaside in Finland. And you have personal space, which we haven't really got in London. I had been living in London for 20 years and the

contrast was so huge. So basically, I fell in love with Finland. I was really sad every time I was coming back. So you traveled to Finland a few times. But when you moved there, what was your first impression when you decided, right, this is where I'm staying? I've got a year here. What was your first impression? My first impression was how everything just works. So the Wi Fi always works. Everything just works. Everything is on times. The trains are usually on time. Must be nice. There are no signal failures. It's just a country that works. And nature that I get out of my house, I close the door and I'm either in the forest and if I turn the other way,'m on the seaside and I live in a big city a biggish city with 200,000 people. It all sounds very exciting but it can't have been entirely

plain sailing were there any challenges or culture shocks? No not at all it was plain sailing. What about the language because I've heard the language is incredibly difficult. Well the language is difficult but there are two buts. One is that Finnish people speak very, very good English. The other thing is the Finnish, the authorities provide every help you can imagine for you to help Finnish if you want to. So there are free courses for immigrants and they are very good. What would your advice be to anyone listening who's considering making that jump and moving somewhere completely new? Oh, do it. It's amazing. I mean, it really worked for me. That was Erika Benke with Anna and Harry from the HappyPod team.

If you've found happiness by moving to a new country, do tell us the story. Why did you decide to move? How did you overcome the challenges you faced when you arrived? The email globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You'll have heard us before ask our guests to give us an idea of what the animals they're talking about sound like. We heard this whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. If you've heard him, please give us a whoop. Well, this story's a bit different because it's not about a real bird.

It's about a boy who's won a European championship for screeching like a seagull. Harry can tell us more. I like the noise and just how they act and the look and how they swoop around a lot. His name is Cooper. He's nine years old and he likes to make seagull noises. This week, Cooper, who's from the English town of Chesterfield, won the EC gull screeching competition in Belgium, which welcomes participants from all over Europe. He was accompanied by his mum, Lauren.

I just thought my son was just really quite annoying, to be honest, and making a really loud noise. It's a competition held every year, an attempt to improve the reputation of seagulls, which some people see as a nuisance. Jan Seys is a marine biologist specialising in seabirds and one of the judges. Seagulls have a very rich variety in how they can make noise. What we expect from a participant, and particularly for those who want to win the contest, is that they can prove that they have

listened very carefully and observed the seagulls very well. That's what Cooper did fantastically well, I must say. For me, he was not only the winner of the juvenile contest, but he was the best overall. One might say he's the best in the world. Yeah, now he's the best in the world, yes. Cooper's achievement has made him somewhat of a national hero here in Britain. He's appeared across TV and radio. I'm so happy that I brought back gold for England. It reminds me of like the Olympics. Cooper's screeching has inspired people too. Here's the BBC's Mariam Mashiri. I can feel that you really want me to do an impression of a seagull. So I'm going to give

it a go. I'm hearing in my ear that I've been sacked. Oh! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! I'm hearing in my ear that I've been sacked. Oh, well, c'est la vie, as they say. And the British singer Olly Alexander. Oh! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! But on whether Cooper will expand his repertoire to perhaps another species of bird or even a different animal altogether, Cooper says no, He has other ideas.

Maybe not other animals or birds, but it's a trumpet definitely. Oh, a trumpet. Go on. And Cooper brings this week's Happy Pod to an end. That's all from us for now. If you'd like to get involved and be part of the Happy Pod in future, global podcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Craig Kingham. The producers were Anna Murphy and Rachel Barkley.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening. And until next time, goodbye. podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

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