Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Viral ballet boy back in the spotlight

Episode Date: April 20, 2024

This week, we meet the teenager whose dancing in the rain in Nigeria brought online fame that's inspired a documentary. Also: The Mongolian Yak herders helping to make fashion sustainable. And how a four-legged tour guide is keeping visitors on the right track.

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. This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in this edition, uploaded on Saturday, April the 20th,

we meet the teenager whose dancing in the rain in Nigeria brought viral fame that's inspired a documentary about him. It's quite a story. I would recommend when you're watching it, have like a tissue box because you're probably going to cry, as I did. The 67-year-old thought to be the world's oldest gorilla. So what's she really like? She's a sweet granny, so we fulfilled her wish.

And now she lives in a great retirement home. Also in the happy pod. I think if you want to imagine them, they're tiny meatballs. We find out why these so-called tiny meatballs are a breakthrough in prenatal medicine. And he's really good about if you're going off the trail, he just sits and he won't go any further until you come back and then he'll correct where you're supposed to go. Find out more about this sure-footed tour guide. Now, you may remember a video that went viral four years ago of a young Nigerian boy dancing

in the rain and pirouetting through muddy puddles. After becoming an internet sensation, Anthony Madu was offered a place at the prestigious Elmhurst Ballet School in the city of Birmingham here in Britain. Anthony, who's now 14 years old, is training to become a professional ballet dancer. It's an amazing journey and Disney Plus has made a documentary about his life called Madhu. I was five years old when I discovered ballet. People think that it's not for boys. It's my dream and I have to follow it. Sarah Montagu spoke to Anthony and asked him how he felt about the film. It was very, very exciting.

One of the reasons why I agreed to make the film was to be able to inspire kids who want to dance or do anything they want to do in life. Right. I mean, obviously, the nature of film has had a profound effect on your life because it was a little viral video that really transformed your life. Tell us what happened. Yes, it was a little viral video that really transformed your life. Tell us what happened. Yes, it was about four years ago. I came into my ballet classes, started practising and then we filmed a video.

It was uploaded on Instagram and then the next day I got told that I went viral, which was surprising. We should say this is a video of you dancing ballet in Lagos and some basically some muddy puddles. And as a result, you had offers. You had offers from America, but then you also had an offer from Birmingham, which is where you are now, Elmhurst. Yes. My decision to come to the UK and stay here was quite hard. I think what really helped was having the support of my mum and my family and stuff. And it's quite hard moving to a different country knowing that you're not

going to be with your family. And the dancing, you must have found the dancing very different. Yes. At Elmhurst right now, we've got a set sort of curriculum for like different year groups. But back then, I didn't really have that because it was just like stuff you find on the internet you're just kind of like trying to do it and all that sort of thing but now it's just based on your year group and your age. So how would you describe what you were doing when you were dancing back in Nigeria? I was doing Alisagong turns and some pirouettes in the rain. And now it's much more structured.

I wonder if some of the joy is removed from it rather than just dancing freely in the puddles. No. Go on. I know that I want to dance and right now I'm focusing on my dance lesson and trying to get better and trying to improve like more and more and paying attention and stuff. Is there someone you'd like to dance like? Yes, Calvin Royal. He's like at the American Ballet Theatre in New York. And that's the dream to dance like him?

Yes. How do you feel when you dance? It's art. You feel the sense of freedom and sort of kind of like peace in some ways. And for me, sometimes it's kind of hard to explain. I just don't really feel any other sort of negative emotions and stuff. I just go with it. Well, for those of us who haven't seen the movie, is it any good?

Yes, it is. I would recommend when you're watching it, have a tissue box because you're probably going to cry, as I did. Antony Madhu. She's just reached her 67th birthday and had a party along with a special fruit platter to celebrate. Nothing unusual there except she is a gorilla and believed to be the world's oldest of her kind.

They don't usually live much beyond the age of 35 but Fatou, as she's known, is thriving as the resident gorilla at Berlin Zoo. I've been talking to Svenja Eisenbart from the zoo about Fatu and her celebratory party. She is a living legend. She's a western lowland gorilla. This is a gorilla species which is found in Central Africa. And Fatu herself has a curious story. A hot drinking sailor used Fatou as a payment in Marseille, France in the 50s. And then Fatou came to Berlin and she was warmly welcomed and given a home for the last 60 years. We took care of Fatou and she is a really nice senior gorilla. She is calm, she's relaxed

and she's a really peaceful animal. Gorillas are always really smooth and calm. But yeah, she don't give a s*** about stress anymore. And I believe you gave her really quite a birthday party. Tell us about that. Fatou always gets a tasty surprise for her birthday. And this year we put together a fruit basket, vegetables, and she liked that really much. For once, there was some fruit in it because you have to know that the fruit that we humans buy in the shops is much more sugary than the fruit in the regions where the animals have their natural habitat. The fruit in the basket was just an exception for Fatou's birthday. Do you think that's why she's lived so long? Because it sounds like it's all pretty zen. We think Fatou receives the best possible care,

just like every other animal here at the Berlin Zoo and the keepers. They are very familiar with keeping gorillas. A few years ago, we realized Fatou could not longer keep up with the other gorillas because male silverbacks are really macho silverbacks and they like to show off. But Fatou is not impressed by that show. She's a sweet granny and she would prefer a little distance from the group. So we fulfilled her wish and now she lives in a great retirement home. But of course, she can still see the other gorillas.

Our advice for gorillas would be be safe, stay healthy, and then you also can be 67 years old. Svenja Eisenbart from Berlin Zoo. Now to a scientific breakthrough in the world of prenatal medicine. It involves growing mini organs in a Petri dish and raises the possibility of treating certain conditions even before a baby is born. Our reporter Rebecca Wood has more. Pregnancy is a time of great excitement for many

but alongside that it can also be a time of great stress and worry especially if there are concerns over the health of a baby. So this announcement by scientists could potentially be great news for many future parents to be. For the first time, mini organs have been grown from stem cells taken from late stage human pregnancy, essentially making tiny replicas of unborn children's own organs so that their health can be monitored from outside the womb. Professor Paolo De Coppi works at Great Ormond Street Institute of Children's Health and was involved in this groundbreaking research. As a fetal surgeon, it's very exciting to have opened up this possibility of really looking

specifically at the organ function, because this can open up various strategies, both to develop new drugs or to test new drugs for these diseases, but also to, in the future, think about these as therapeutic. So, simply put, a doctor could use these tiny organs or organoids to choose the most appropriate drugs to treat a baby, all before it has even been born. The team says the technology isn't complex or expensive. The mother would have a procedure known as amniocentesis, where a long needle is passed through the abdomen into the uterus, and that would collect a sample of amniotic fluid. And it's this fluid that contains the foetus's stem cells. They are then used to grow the organoids. And if, like me, you're imagining a Petri dish with a teeny tiny pair of lungs or a tiny little kidney,

think again. Dr Mitya Gerli, a STEM researcher at University College London, was also involved in the research. He's got another way to describe them. Organoids are pretty much the size of the tip of a pen. I think if you want to imagine them, they're tiny meatballs. It's a little ball of cells, but those cells are tissue-specific, so they resemble the cells of the fetal lung or the fetal kidney or the fetal intestine.

They don't really have the shape that you would expect from a lung or a kidney. They might be tiny meatballs, but they could open up huge new possibilities in prenatal medicine. Although there is perhaps one unexpected downside, especially if you're a fetal surgeon like Professor Coppe. It will maybe make me jobless, which would be fantastic, but we're not there yet. Professor Paolo de Coppe ending that report from Rebecca Wood. To the United States and a story about one woman who's changed the lives of refugee children. Luma Muffler is a football coach in the city of Atlanta. Originally from Jordan, Luma sought

asylum in the US after finishing university there because she feared persecution if she returned home on the basis of her sexuality. One day, persecution if she returned home on the basis of her sexuality. One day, Luma was driving home from the supermarket when she saw a familiar sight. I saw a group of boys playing football. They had a really raggedy football and rocks set up as goals. They reminded me a little bit of home. They were playing barefoot. They were arguing about goals. And it was the way I grew up playing with my brothers and cousins in the streets of Amman. I had a football in my trunk. And so I got out of my car with the ball. They saw it. They ran to me. They wanted the ball.

I wanted to play. And so we played. And I found myself starting to make excuses to leave work early so I could play with them. And we eventually formed our first team. What language did you all speak? Soccer. Football. Right. I mean, that was the thing. That was the universal language.

So we all had to communicate in English because there's so many languages on the team. Despite having to live in refugee camps or flee war. Football was comforting. And this was their sanctuary. This is where they could just escape from everything that was going on and just be kids and play. And then we had to do the team building, right? And part of it is there was like political dynamics coming in. Like we had kids from warring factions on the team. I say, if you want to win, we got to put some of this stuff behind us. It's about the team. Luma was strict off the pitch as well as on. So she would get them to sign up to an agreement. They would be well behaved. They would go to school. They would

get good grades. And so the kids would turn in their report cards. And what happened if they failed their classes? They could still practice, but they can't play in the games till those grades went up. And so I started helping some of the kids with their homework, eventually end up being the whole team. And there's this one day where this one kid, Louis, calls me over. He said, coach, I have a headache. Can you help me with my homework? He was a quiet kid, really good, could articulate himself in English better than some of his peers. He was originally from Sudan. And so I read the worksheet and then filled it out for him. And he paused and then looked up at me and said, Coach, I can't read.

And I was floored. And I couldn't understand how a kid had been in school for three to four years and couldn't read. And so I didn't what any coach would have done. I started a school for him. Wait a minute. What any coach would have done, I started a school. You make that sound so obvious a decision. It's a massive decision to start a school.

What good coaches do is they take care of every aspect of their player's life. I initially tried to see if there are other schools that could take him, and there weren't any. And sending him to a private school, I couldn't afford that. It was actually cheaper to hire one teacher, get six kids. We got a donated church basement, and that's how it started. And then grew from that, and eventually had a school for 100 kids. And then we were asked to open other locations because of the data of the growth that our students showed compared to others in the country. So we see their experience as assets, not as a deficit, right? If you have been forced to leave your country, start anew in a different country, nothing's going to be able to stop you. Luma Muffley speaking there to Jo Fidgen. And you can hear her story in full on Lives Less Ordinary here on the BBC World Service, or by reading her book, Believe in Them,

One Woman's Fight for Justice for Refugee Children. Coming up in this podcast, how these animals... ..are helping to make fashion sustainable. 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 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. to celebrate a new year is taking place. But this isn't Chinese New Year, and lanterns and fireworks haven't been the main attraction, as Kerry Allen has been finding out. In perhaps unusual scenes this week, hundreds of thousands of people have been gathering in southwestern China for what looks like a huge water fight. There have been videos all over Chinese media of crowds of people armed with water pistols running towards things like army trucks and squirting soldiers with them.

There have also been videos of locals running to soak police officers with washing up bowls full of water. These have been scenes from what is known as the annual water sprinkling or water splashing festival. It typically lasts for three days, but some of the festivities continue until the end of the month. It's a major festival of the Chinese Dai ethnic group, that's spelt D-A-I, because it marks the beginning of the new year in the Dai calendar. There are roughly around one million Dai people in China, and communities of this largely Buddhist group can mainly be found in southwestern Yunnan. This week, more than 400,000 people have been gathering to take part

in this giant water fight in the Xishuangbanna region of China's Yunnan province. Armed with anything they can find, buckets, bowls, water guns, the general idea is that the more water people splash on you, the luckier and happier your life will be. In the Dai culture, water is seen as sacred and a symbol of spiritual purification. Splashing people is a gesture of goodwill and a wish for good luck. Many of the festivities take part along the Lansang River, which is the upper regions of the Mekong, one of the longest rivers in Asia. And actually, given its geographical location, the Chinese Water Sprinkling Festival shares roots with a festival in Thailand known as the Songkran,

where people similarly gather to celebrate the Thai New Year and hold public water fights. But back in China, there have been gatherings this week at Buddhist temples, dragon boat races for the festivities, and also folk songs and dances performed by the Dai people. In the evenings, it's also been common to see lanterns taken to the skies, lit by people who want to ask the heavens for their blessings. But obviously the biggest event has been the water fights. Regardless of whatever your job is, however old you are, and whether you know someone or not,

the festival has allowed people to go back to being kids and just having a bit of silly fun. Kerry Allen. Let's head to my homeland now, Scotland, where the discovery of a medieval ring by a metal detectorist got him thinking there may be a much bigger hole waiting to be found. But he had to wait two years until the farmer who owned the field harvested his carrots. The delay paid off and Alan Baxter, the man behind the detector, ended up finding a lot more. Jacob Evans spoke to him about his discoveries. I just couldn't move. There's vines everywhere. I kind of knew in that area it would be good,

but obviously I didn't expect this. So in total you found more than 500 different pieces of stuff? Yeah from the bronze edge to the medieval period and most of it was in pristine condition. Grade A top examples. So when you turned up to this field was it just pinging off every two seconds? Yeah literally just honestly it was every three feet. If it wasn't medieval artefact or coin, it was medieval lead, medieval molten copper. It must be so surreal when you pick something up and to think, this hasn't been touched by another human for hundreds, if not thousands of years. What's that experience like?

You get a tingle up your spine, your hairs stand up on edge. It's just a fantastic feeling. You have to actually dig up an ancient artefact for yourself to experience that. It's just fascinating especially an artefact that's a personal possession like for example the medieval ring. Somebody would have looked at that every day like

putting on a watch every morning and it meant something to them. Once you find something that's relatively old you've got that urge to keep going you just switch off and you just listen to the background drone and your metal detector headphones and you just keep your head down and you just keep going. It's just the will to find something else

just gets into your blood. Have you always loved history? No, I didn't, ironically. You don't understand until you go out and find stuff for yourself, how it can change the way you feel about history and what you can learn as well along the way. You could go out and find something, I don't know, find a medieval coin, you'll get a buzz from that straight away.

You'll be just like, wow, I'm the first person to touch that for 700 years. It's just fascinating, so much has changed in that period of time. I mean, a lot has changed in the last 20 years, never mind in the last 2,000 years. It's amazing. I'd love to go back in time. I'd rather do that than win the lottery. I'd like to see what a medieval settlement looked like. You've got this wee picture on your mind, but to go back and see it would just be mind-blowing.

Alan Baxter. If you think cashmere, you probably think of luxury and warmth and expense. The hair fibres for the material come from a specific breed of goat, which needs to eat so much food that the hairs destroy the environment around them. So the fashion industry has been searching for a more eco-friendly alternative. Enter the yak. Our friends at the podcast BBC People Fixing the World have been to Mongolia to find out about a new luxury product made from yak hair. Yagul Bayambosaran sent us this report from the Gorky Terrial National Park. We are going, backing up and trying to find a safer road.

I'm scared, actually. If we get stuck in the snow, there's no cell reception. We won't be able to call anybody. Literally, we just don't see any road here. We finally arrived to Sadov's place. It's gorgeous here. Winter hasn't left its grip here. The earth here is frozen.

Baby yaks are anticipating to see their mother. And I see here two larger female yaks are approaching this fenced area. They're walking. Yaks are heavily built cattle with big horns and long hair that hangs down below the bellies. They look like cows, but make a sound like a pig. We're BBC. They look like cows, but make a sound like a pig. Okay, we're coming inside Sato's house.

Sato and his family are nomadic herders. During winter, they live in this remote spot surrounded by mountains. But in spring and summer, they move with the animals to find fresh pastures. This has been a way of life from ancient times for Mongolian people. Tending, raising animals and leading a nomadic lifestyle. Yak shed their hair naturally in springtime. And he was only ever used to make rope. But with a growing need for more produce from herding,

a special comb was developed. Previously, we never bothered with it. There was no market for it. But this year, the company who buys the hair are offering some incentives. So we're looking forward to it. The interest in yak down, the soft hair combed by hand from the undercoat has grown, even if it is a struggle to get. It's quite a wrestle. It's difficult in the beginning, but it gets easier.

Glad to hear it. And you can hear more on sustainable fashion by searching People Fixing the World wherever you get your podcasts. And finally, one man's social media post has gone viral after he put up pictures of a cat that takes visitors on guided walks through the local forest and complains via the medium of meows if they go the wrong way. The feline, named Cinnamon, is a tough former Brooklyn street cat, according to his owner, who runs the Airbnb where Cinnamon meets his clientele.

Stephanie Prentice has been finding out more. When Sebastian Kachoba and his girlfriend booked a hiking trip to the Appalachian Mountains in the US, they knew the dense trails could be difficult to navigate. They needn't have worried. The log cabin they booked online came with a tour guide. We pulled up on this sunny Friday morning and immediately we were met by this really curious orange cat. And so we walked to the front of our door where he was just kind of pawing at the door.

We opened it slightly and he immediately just ran in. Enter Cinnamon, the cat. 11 pounds of orange fur, whiskers and sheer determination, as owner Tricia explains. He's a very lovey, lovey cat. He likes to be with humans, although he is a Brooklyn street cat. Well, you know, those Brooklyn street cats, and I have had many, are really quite the things because they're tough. Cinnamon's unique combination of street smarts and a warm heart

made him the perfect tour guide. As soon as we started heading towards where the trail was, the cat was following us. And we couldn't actually find the entrance to the trailhead. We couldn't figure out where it was. And Cinnamon essentially just guided us there. And as soon as we got to the point where Trisha's path met the Appalachian Trail, the cat started walking ahead of us as if guiding.

A beautiful hiking group was born. There were so many moments where the cat would go up ahead and just stare at us. And at one point we got to a part in the trail that makes like a hairpin right turn, but there was also a path leading up towards the top left, or we thought it was a path. So we walked a little bit ahead and then we heard meowing continuously.

And so we backed up. And as soon as we went on the proper part of the trail, Cinnamon continued to follow us again and then started to lead. The woods around the cabin are also home to bears, cougars and wolves, something Cinnamon bears in mind when shepherding his guests. There's a few that come regularly and one of them has a little kid. And they stopped me and they said, you know, we were walking in the woods with our little kid and we would have gotten lost. But Cinnamon was there and Cinnamon really made sure we got home OK. Cinnamon's meow-casa-sue-casa attitude to his home has earned him a loyal fan base with rebookings for the cabin at an all-time high.

You wouldn't believe since that TikTok thing came out, I have had so many people, oh, is Cinnamon going to be there? Oh, I want to see Cinnamon. We have some repeat visitors that come specifically for the cat. As for Sebastian, how would he rate his tour guide out of 10? After all the wonderful guide services, at least a 13 out of 10. Definitely looking out for orange adventure cats in my life, for sure. Stephanie Prentice on Cinnamon, the tour guide cat. And that's all from us for now. Remember, if you'd like to be part of the happy pod, you can email us the sound that brings you joy. We'd also love to hear if you have any stories to share that will make us all smile. As ever, the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Wayne Moses.

The producers were Anna Murphy and Harry Bly. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time. Bye bye. 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 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.