Lives Less Ordinary BBC World Service

Mistaken for a terrorist, and detained without trial. Art became his refuge.
Pakistani taxi driver Ahmed Rabbani was arrested in 2002, labelled a terrorist and spent 21 years in US detention, including time in a CIA secret prison. Incarcerated without trial or charge, Ahmed was subject to enhanced interrogation, or what he describes as 62 different types of torture. When he was transferred to a cell in Guantanamo Bay, Ahmed would pick up paint and pastels and find solace through art – creating vistas he could only imagine.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Voiceover: Mohammed Hanif
Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

In this podcast, Nicky Campbell talks to extraordinary people and explores what it means to be different. Is it how we think? Or how we act? From those who’ve survived extreme experiences to people with unique jobs, listen to hear something different each week.

For every episode, just search for Different wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Afghan taekwondo champion Marzieh Hamidi’s hard road to the Paris Olympics
A sport that involved kicking and punching was a natural fit for this Olympian-to-be, who spent her teens fending off men on the streets of Kabul. At just 21-years-old, Marzieh has had to be a fighter in most aspects of her life. As she gets ready to represent the Refugee Team at this year's Paris Olympics, she tells the full story of her and her family's remarkable quest for freedom for the first time.
Correction: we originally stated in this podcast that Marzieh is 22. She is in fact 21.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producers: Laura Thomas and Kevyah Cardoso
Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

On the day his mother disappeared in December 1989, 11-year-old Collier Landry started looking for evidence.
He suspected his father, a rich and well-respected town doctor, had something to do with it. This is the story of Collier's fight to get justice for his mother, and the detective who believed him.
Collier's film is called A Murder in Mansfield.
Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Helen Fitzhenry
Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

How Ustad Noor Bakhsh, a Pakistani shepherd in his 70s, became a folk music star
After hunting for four years, Pakistani ethnomusicologist Daniyal Ahmed finally finds Ustad Noor Bakhsh, an elderly shepherd and master of the electric benjo – an obscure stringed instrument with typewriter keys. With Daniyal’s help, Ustad Noor would go from serenading his goats in the jungles of Balochistan to performing for revellers on the European festival circuit.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Translation: Wajid Baloch
Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

The epic quest to find an elderly Pakistani musician and his unusual stringed instrument
Daniyal Ahmed is a flute player and anthropologist who spends his time searching out and documenting folk music across Pakistan. In 2018, he was mesmerised by a video clip of an elderly man – described as a “poor fisherman” – expertly playing a benjo, an obscure stringed instrument that looks like a cross between a guitar and a typewriter. So began Daniyal’s hunt for this mystery master musician.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784