--:-- Andrew Peach: This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. American Social Casino Download the Moto Casino app today. Go on, get a little out there, into the big heart of Nevada, where you can go off-road and off the map, on two lakes or on horseback. Dip into hot springs and dive into deserts. Climb a mountain or make your best effort. See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise? There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- Andrew Peach: If it starts like this... We did it! We won! I still can't believe it. And also has this... When I saw it, I smiled because I knew this transformation was going to be good. It must be the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. This is Andrew Peach and among the uplifting news stories we've got for you this week, saving antelopes from extinction in Kazakhstan. Scientists who found a new way to spot brain tumours.
--:-- Andrew Peach: I feel of course positive. I feel a little bit lucky that it worked. A survival story from the Himalayas. We started to look on the rock and see where there would be ice that would potentially be melting in the sun so that we could somehow put our water bottles underneath some drips and try and essentially just get a few mouthfuls of water just to keep us a little bit hydrated. And treadmills for bats.
--:-- Andrew Peach: The one that we got wasn't made for vampire bats, but they are little champion runners. Let's start in South Africa, where the winners of this year's Earthshot Prize were announced by Prince William. Good evening and hello to everyone joining us live across Africa. Sunny Bonani.
--:-- Sunny Bonani: This award recognises initiatives designed to combat environmental challenges. There are five winners. They get around $1.2 million each to help expand their projects. As our correspondent Daniela Relf told me from Cape Town.
--:-- Daniela Relf: The focus this year has been on young people and their contribution to beating and tackling environmental challenges. So there has been definitely an energy about bringing the prize to Africa and looking for the solutions here in some of the younger people working in their communities around South Africa. But it is a global prize. It is a prize that rewards environmental innovation globally.
--:-- Daniela Relf: Let's talk about some of the winners. There's a list of amazing looking projects here. The one that caught my eye was the antelopes, the antelopes in Kazakhstan. Oh my goodness, yes. I have to say that was one of my favourites too. It's an extraordinary tale, and I was speaking to Vera Voronova, who was the woman behind that particular project in Kazakhstan.
--:-- Vera Voronova: It's about the Seigur antelope, which was basically on the verge of extinction in Kazakhstan because there just were no habitats for it to live in. And so Vera and her team tried to recreate the habitats for this antelope and tried to give it a home, effectively, over a period of time.
--:-- Vera Voronova: We do have solutions that exist and can be applied to different countries, to the globally, to the regionally, to really track all the climate crisis we have, natural loss we have. It's like we hear from every corner that nature is under the threat. But there's examples, and the example from Kazakhstan is the good one.
--:-- Vera Voronova: Whatever we give a space for nature and the conditions that really show a great ability to be recovered. And this example with the Saiga antelope, it's a good example to prove this concept. And what they managed to do was stop the move towards extinction happening, which is incredibly rare with big animals.
--:-- Vera Voronova: It's almost unheard of that once you are on the path towards extinction, reversing it is incredibly difficult. But she has achieved that with this extraordinary story of saving the Seygrantle and it is now thriving in Kazakhstan. She was telling me that they are now working on wild horses and reintroducing wild horses back into Kazakhstan.
--:-- Vera Voronova: So she has a whole list of animals that she wants to sort of bring back from the verge of extinction. So it's a really, really impressive project. And she was one of the Earthshot winners in the category that was about protecting and restoring nature.
--:-- Daniela Relf: Quite a few of these stories, Daniela, are from Africa. There's one about waste management. Tell me about that.
--:-- Daniela Relf: It was interesting, Andrew, actually, at the Earthshot Prize ceremony because I was sitting backstage. Whenever there was an African nominee or an African finalist and two African winners, as there were, there was an absolute eruption by all the staff at the ceremony, those working there for the African winners.
--:-- Daniela Relf: GAIO, which stands for the Green Africa Youth Organization, is a project that is based in Ghana. It is focused on the work of young people. It's a youth-orientated project. And it is about a waste management system, but it's actually targeted at the waste pickers, the people that pick up the litter, and to try and give them more support.
--:-- Daniela Relf: Because what they are doing, by doing that more effectively and more quickly, they will reduce air pollution. And I spoke to Desmond Alaguna, who is the co-founder of GAIO, about his big million pound win as a winner of one of the Earthshot prizes.
--:-- Desmond Alaguna: We did it. We won. I still can't believe it. How's it feel?
--:-- Desmond Alaguna: Excited. Delighted. My brain is frozen.
--:-- Daniela Relf: And what happens for the winners next, Daniela? They're being given a big wadge of cash. What do they spend that on? And what happens as far as these ideas are concerned going forward?
--:-- Daniela Relf: For the next year, they get the full package of attention from Earthshot. So there's the money. They have financial advice on how they should use it. They are given support from organisations, businesses and experts who can really help them scale up their business.
--:-- Daniela Relf: And that is a really important thing about Earthshot. Some of these businesses and projects will stay quite small and not for profit, but they will be improved and made bigger and more effective. Others could potentially become multi-million pound businesses.
--:-- Andrew Peach: And I imagine you and I do this for a living. I imagine meeting some of these people makes you go, wow, how did you come up with that? What an amazing thing.
--:-- Andrew Peach: I have to be honest, what it makes you feel is a little bit like you've underachieved in life because it has been really inspirational to meet so many amazing people with these great ideas. Many whom are just looking for support and people to help them so they can make them bigger, make them better and spread the word about what they're trying to do.
--:-- Andrew Peach: They all ultimately, though, have one goal, which is to make the world a better, cleaner and more sustainable place. And, you know, it has been, I have to say, a real privilege to meet so many of them this week in South Africa.
--:-- Andrew Peach: Daniela Relf with me from Cape Town. Here in London, two brothers are also helping to make the world a cleaner place. 23-year-olds James and John McIndula have been busy cleaning public spaces that no one else seems to want to. And videos of their projects are taking social media by storm. Harry Bly reports.
--:-- Harry Bly: I'm James, I'm John and yes we clean this.
--:-- James McIndula: When I saw it I smiled because I knew this transformation was going to be good.
--:-- James McIndula: Whether it's decluttering an overgrown garden, cleaning road signs, or scrubbing grime off public bins So like for this one we applying a little degreaser to see if we can get some of the grease off to lift this But I don't think we'll be able to lift most of it just because people have burnt cigarettes. So I think that will be the difficult part about the bin.
--:-- James McIndula: Identical twins James and John Macangiola have made it their mission to keep London clean, free of charge. And they've taken on some mammoth projects too. Like cleaning the entire London Underground.
--:-- James McIndula: Today we're going to be cleaning the tubes. Where sometimes they invite passengers to help. Does anyone want to help us clean? You see? No? Really? Does anyone want to help us clean today? Anyone want to help us clean the train?
--:-- James McIndula: We've already got one person today. with varying levels of success. I will help you clean. You help? Yes. Yes, what's your name?
--:-- James McIndula: I'm Fraser.
--:-- Andrew Peach: The boys say they fell in love with cleaning at the age of 11, when their mum would encourage them to help clean the entire house every Saturday morning. But at just 15, James and John were made homeless.
--:-- Andrew Peach: We went from place to place, then we then settled down, finished GCSEs, because that happened when we were doing our GCSEs, Then we then did that, went to sixth form, went to uni, graduated and started a company.
--:-- Andrew Peach: And alongside their cleaning business, they started posting videos of their cleaning jobs, which to date have amassed them more than 200,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
--:-- Andrew Peach: Only until people started saying it that we realised that we were giving back to it. Initially, that never crossed our mind. We love you, boys. Thank you. Thank you so much.
--:-- Andrew Peach: For their next cleaning projects, the twins have big ambitions. The next place we're trying to clean is either Formula One or it's an airplane. And if you have a story about how people have made a difference where you live, we'd love to hear it. Email globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.
--:-- Andrew Peach: Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel. Now an international team of scientists have found a new way for it to help us. Graphene is being used to help detect cancerous cells in the brain. A chip the size of a postage stamp can differentiate between cancer cells and healthy cells.
--:-- Andrew Peach: Costas Kostarilos is a professor of nanomedicine at the University of Manchester. The particular technology that we are developing in the clinic for clinical use at the moment is based on two aspects of graphene.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: The first aspect has to do with the fact that it's the thinnest material. Therefore, it allows us to design, fabricate at the micro-nano scale, which means hundreds of thousands of times smaller than human hair.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: And at the same time, the discovery that graphene is a seamless material in terms of allowing electrons to move across its planar axis.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: What does that mean if it sounds too scientific? It means that it's extremely sensitive in picking up signals from neurons. Neurons are giving us very subtle signals. Neurons are the fundamental cells in our brains, and they are the cells that are really participating in the primary function of our brains.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: Therefore, understanding and picking up, collecting, recording and understanding signals as minute as possible and as widely distributed as possible from those neuron cells will allow us to understand much better a variety of diseases.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: And obviously there are lots of different brain conditions. strokes would perhaps be the most common but there are others too does this technology potentially help with those conditions correct not in the same exact manner of course but what the combination and the commonality if you wish between the diseases is using these devices and this technology is around the fact that we can precisely monitor neuronal tissue we can precisely record and read the way in which neurons behave in the context of different pathology.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: How does the graphene do it? How does the graphene distinguish between healthy neurons and cancer cells?
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: The combination of thinness and miniaturization of the contacts allows us to collect many different contacts from many different neurons with the devices because they're so small.
--:-- Andrew Peach: When you describe now the short and long-term implications of what you found, how does that feel?
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: I feel, of course, positive. I feel a little bit lucky that it worked because you remember this is a 10-year-old project, now 12-year-old project. When we set out, I remember us having long conversations trying to identify one or two medical applications.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: We didn't have the resource to explore widely. So we knew from the beginning that whatever we try to do, it better have as much potential, not only to be transformational, but also have scientific and credible hypothesis, but by which graphene will reveal itself as an advantageous material.
--:-- Costas Kostarilos: So the fact that it actually is giving us more and more evidence that it is indeed advantageous and it is pushing the envelope and it's really pushing the current state of the art is very fulfilling.
--:-- Andrew Peach: It's true that when you're developing an advanced novel material, you need to look at it from a time frame of decades, particularly when it comes to clinical translation, because of the complexity of the application.
--:-- Andrew Peach: We managed to at least get graphene in the clinic as a first in human trial within 10 years. For me, that's the biggest accomplishment, to be honest.
--:-- Andrew Peach: Meanwhile, in Canada, researchers have found an unusual way to study vampire bats by getting them to run on tiny treadmills. The team at the University of Toronto wanted to find out how the animals use the blood they eat to create energy.
--:-- Andrew Peach: They say their results could help show how humans could adapt to high protein diets. Ken Welch is an associate professor of zoology.
--:-- Ken Welch: We got ourselves a tiny little treadmill and found out that these bats are actually willing little participants. Once we got them trained, they were great little runners.
--:-- Ken Welch: There's a big industry out there, relatively big, for biomedical researchers that are studying mice and rats and they want to study exercise in these animals so there are these tiny little treadmills and the one that we got wasn't made for vampire bats but vampire bats are about the same size as a lab rat and we gave it a shot and uh yeah you can you can see the videos uh they are little uh champion runners galloping along ken welch from the university of toronto
--:-- Andrew Peach: Coming up in the Happy Pods Our time on this planet is finite Don't waste your time worrying about stuff that isn't that important Focus on your family, the people in your life That thing that you've always planned to do one day Why not do it today?
--:-- Andrew Peach: A new battle for an Olympic champion moto casino america social casino welcome to moto casino where the excitement never ends with thousands of the hottest free social casino games fastest payouts and the best promotions in the industry No tricks or gimmicks Owned and operated in the USA Moto Casino is a free-to-play social casino. No purchase necessary. 21 plus to play. Void or prohibited. Sign up today for a generous welcome bonus. Moto Casino. America's social casino. Download the Moto Casino app today.
--:-- Andrew Peach: Go on, get a little out there into the big heart of Nevada where you can go off-road and off the map on two lakes or on horseback. Dip into hot springs and dive into deserts. Climb a mountain or make your best effort. See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise? There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- Andrew Peach: confidence is beautiful. Learn more at MeaningfulBeauty.com.
--:-- Andrew Peach: According to a nationwide survey conducted by GeneSight, nearly 9 in 10 Americans who've been diagnosed with depression or anxiety believe that mental health medications are somewhat or very effective. However, despite that belief, more than half of those individuals say they have avoided taking medication due to concerns about potential side effects.
--:-- Andrew Peach: That's why Dr. Whitney Brown, a family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner based in Alabama, often recommends genetic testing to our patients as part of their treatment journey.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: As part of my treatment plan, I offer the GeneSight test, which analyzes how a patient's genes may influence how they metabolize or respond to certain mental health medications. It gives me insights and takes out some of the guesswork that can be associated with prescribing them.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: If you or someone you love is facing challenges with depression or anxiety, Talk to your doctor about how genetic testing may help. To learn more, visit genesight.com. That's genesight.com.
--:-- Andrew Peach: When two experienced climbers lost half of their equipment in a rock fall high in the Himalayas, their disappointment at not being able to achieve their goal soon gave way to fears they might not survive. Michelle Vorjak from the US and Faye Manners, who's originally from the UK, had hoped to become the first to reach the summit of Chakuhamba 3.
--:-- Andrew Peach: After two nights sheltering on a tiny ledge without a tent, food or water, it became clear that rescue helicopters couldn't see them. But as they began a dangerous attempt to abseil down the rock face, they spotted a group of climbers from Faye's base in the French Alps.
--:-- Andrew Peach: She spoke to my colleague, Paul Henley.
--:-- Paul Henley: on the end of the rope was our haul bag full of all of our safety equipment and climbing equipment that we would need to be able to retreat from the mountain that we were on so i was pretty horrified no food no water and that's crucial because everything was frozen and you didn't have a stove to melt ice what did you do well to get water we waited till um the next day and we
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: We started to look on the rock and see where there would be ice that would potentially be melting in the sun so that we could somehow put our water bottles underneath some drips and try and essentially just get a few mouthfuls of water just to keep us a little bit hydrated.
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: You had one sleeping bag, is that right? Between two of you, I mean.
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: We did, but actually it was a double sleeping bag. So luckily we could both fit in it quite comfortably.
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: Did you stay warm enough?
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: I was close to hypothermia. Michelle was warmer than me, mainly because the bag that we dropped, it had all of my warm clothes in it, whereas the other bag that we had had some of Michelle's warmer clothes in it.
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: So it was Michelle's job to try and keep me warm.
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: What stage did you know that your emergency call had worked?
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: A helicopter came at one point, didn't it?
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: Yes, well, on the first day, the helicopter couldn't come because there was extreme fog and we knew that there'd be no visibility for the helicopters to fly but actually the next morning we did see two helicopters fly around searching for us but unfortunately they couldn't see us.
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: So tell us about the point when rescue did come.
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: So when rescue came it was actually on the third day so we'd already been waiting quite a while and at this point we were extremely worried for our health and we kind of lost hope that the rescue was going to be able to find us but um yeah on the third day as we were retreating ourselves and abseiling down the mountain luckily we actually had three climbers three french climbers that had been alerted and were in the nearby mountains and had decided to take it upon themselves to try and come to our rescue and at that point was when i really felt the relief that we might be okay that there was someone else out there that was able to help us
--:-- Michelle Vorjak: how did you react i started crying and michelle had said that she's never seen me cry before i think it was just i'd been stressed so long and trying to be really practical about how we can survive that when they finally got there and i realized that you know there was someone else that was going to help us and there might be a chance that we can survive it just i was it was almost like i was allowed to be emotional so I yeah started crying I was really happy.
--:-- Andrew Peach: The climber Faye Manners. To Madagascar next and more stories of people helping to protect their local environment and their own livelihoods. The second largest island nation in the world lies off the coast of southern Africa and nearly 90% of its plants and animal species can't be found anywhere else in the world but much of their habitat is being destroyed.
--:-- Andrew Peach: Sarah Thierry has been to meet some of those finding ways to help.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: Most farmers don't know how to keep the soil fertile, so they burn whatever is left of the forest to plant on the fresh land. This is Tanya. She created an organization that's trying to fight this problem by teaching farmers how to grow food and trees at the same time, addressing two of Madagascar's biggest problems at once, deforestation and food insecurity.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: Together we're visiting a hillside just north of the capital Antananarivo, where she and the farmers are running an experiment, turning this dead patch of land into a special kind of forest that will help feed plenty of families in this area.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: So for example, this here is an avocado tree, and around it they've grown vegetables. One of the farmers is dropping a large pile of dry weeds and leaves into the holes. like this the water will be stored there then we plant fruit trees in the hole and vegetables around it we also plant lemongrass to stabilize it and other crops to nourish the fruit tree the key here is to ensure the water doesn't just flow away tanya and her husband trained over 60 farmers across the region who now use these methods
--:-- Sarah Thierry: In classrooms and in the field the farmers learn all they need to know to become more resilient growing enough food and even generating a small income without destroying the forest
--:-- Sarah Thierry: The World Wildlife Fund estimates that more than 140 million US dollars is lost every year in the southwest Indian Ocean to illegal shrimp and tuna harvesting. And there's one ethnic group in particular, the Vesu, whose survival really depends on the ocean's health.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: They're a tribe of nomadic fishermen, but now more and more are forced to set up their lives on a remote group of islands, because that's the only place where they can still find fish.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: This is the biggest of a total of nine remote islands, a simple sandbank in the midst of the ocean. I'm here to visit Amilson and his father Gervais.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: When we first arrived here generations ago, the nature here was really healthy. There were seagrass beds and coral reefs. But now so many people are fishing here that our natural world is suffering.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: Gervais is the chief of this village. Normally, the Vesu take everything they can from the sea until almost nothing is left. But now some of them are using their exceptional diving skills not to fish, but to protect the ocean by monitoring fish stocks and convincing their communities to adopt more sustainable methods.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: If the coral ecosystem degrades, the fish living there will flee, and that's a really scary thought. Amilson and the other divers were trained by Blue Ventures, a marine conservation organization.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: They now work almost autonomously, diving one week a month and leading regular meetings with their community to discuss how to react with new local policies. Some are not yet on board, but most accept that we need more conservation.
--:-- Sarah Thierry: It's better to start early so that my children can witness my efforts and carry on my work so that we can preserve our culture for future generations.
--:-- Andrew Peach: That report from Sira Thierry. and you can hear more about those projects on People Fixing the World wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
--:-- Andrew Peach: As one of the most successful Olympians in the world, he's been inspiring people with his sporting achievements for many years. Now Sir Chris Hoy is determined to help those facing a far greater challenge, incurable cancer.
--:-- Andrew Peach: The cyclist has revealed he's been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer which will eventually prove terminal but says he wants to use his profile to show people in his position can still find joy and hope.
--:-- Andrew Peach: His decision to go public has already led to a surge of people getting tested for the disease. And Sir Chris has been talking to my colleague Sally Nugent.
--:-- Sally Nugent: It was the biggest shock of my life. I remember the feeling of just absolute horror and shock. And this is therefore, you know, this is a terminal illness and it's about how do we manage this rather than how do we cure it.
--:-- Sally Nugent: I'll never forget the words, you know, it's incurable but it's manageable. I don't think we necessarily give ourselves enough credit for what we're able to deal with and as humans we can tolerate a lot of difficulty and stress and it puts into perspective riding bikes for a living you'd realise that was just a bit of fun really if you've got family history of it like I have if you're over the age of 45 go and ask your doctor
--:-- Sally Nugent: I am sure you have been inundated with messages what messages are you getting?
--:-- Sally Nugent: So many messages and it's so many people. It really is wonderful. I guess it's during these really testing times, that's when you find out the real people that are there to support you and stand up and be counted.
--:-- Sally Nugent: We've had so many messages of support and of what can we do practically. You want to help out. We're going to be doing a charity ride next year called the Tour de Four. I want to hopefully to be as many people who have stage four cancers of all sorts that might want to come and get involved with the ride or be there at the event at the end.
--:-- Sally Nugent: And I think it's going to be it's going to be a celebration. And it's to try and change the perspective of stage four cancers and make people realize, you know what, this is, you know, this is what stage four cancer is right now. You know, you can still many people can still have very full and, you know, happy lives and healthy lives dealing with it.
--:-- Sally Nugent: you know if somebody's watching this right now who's just had a horrendous diagnosis like me to sort of look and think well blimey I didn't think you could look like that or be still be living a full life a year on from from getting that diagnosis well I'm not the only one you know and it's I'm not saying everybody's in the same boat but there's hope out there.
--:-- Sally Nugent: You must recognize on some level that your years of training and practice and getting a hold of your emotions must now be helping you in some way.
--:-- Sally Nugent: Do you think so?
--:-- Sally Nugent: Definitely, definitely. The stakes are much higher now. It felt like life and death in the moment when you were battling it out for an Olympic gold medal. But the stakes have changed dramatically and it is life and death. But I guess the principle is the same. It's about focusing on what you have control over and not worrying about the stuff that you can't control.
--:-- Sally Nugent: People talk about battles with cancer. For me, the biggest battle is between your ears. It's the mental struggle. terminal illness terminal cancer you just have this image in your head of what it's what it's going to be like and everybody's different and not everybody is given the time that i've been given you know and that's why i feel lucky you know we feel we genuinely feel lucky as crazy as that might sound because we've got the time no matter what challenges you're facing you can get through them you can get through them and it doesn't doesn't mean that there's going to be happy ending i'm not saying like i'm not i'm not delusional i know what the end result will be but that's not changed.
--:-- Sally Nugent: You know, we all, nobody lives forever. Our time on this planet is finite. Don't waste your time worrying about stuff that isn't that important. Focus on the things that are important. Focus on your family, the people in your life. That thing that you've always planned to do one day, why not do it today?
--:-- Andrew Peach: Sir Chris Hoy with Sally Nugent. We end with a welcome sound from Paris. The bells of Notre Dame Cathedral ringing out together for the first time since the devastating fire of 2019.
--:-- Andrew Peach: The 850-year-old building, widely thought of as one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, will reopen to the public next month after years of restoration work to repair the damage.
--:-- Andrew Peach: And that's it from us for now. Now, before we go, though, one last thing. We'd love to give you the chance to introduce The Happy Pod. All we need is a voice note telling us a bit about you, where you are and why you listen. Then just end with the words, you're listening to The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service.
--:-- Andrew Peach: The address, globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. And you might hear yourself next week.
--:-- Andrew Peach: This edition was mixed by Callum McLean. The producers were Holly Gibbs and Rachel Barkley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening. And until next time. Goodbye.
--:-- Asma Khalid: America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
--:-- Asma Khalid: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London. And this is The Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
