Lives Less Ordinary

BBC World Service
  • 4.7 (479)
  • Personal Journals
  • Weekly

Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  1. 3d ago

    A shipwrecked sailor’s return from the dead

    Eleven days lost at sea, presumed drowned. How Mick Doleman made it home to his sweetheart. When 18-year-old Australian sailor Mick Doleman leaves for what should be a routine three-day voyage, he's torn between his two great loves: life at sea and his new girlfriend, Joanie McGrath. They've only been together for three months when disaster strikes. In October 1973, the cargo ship MV Blythe Star sinks off Tasmania, leaving Mick and nine crewmates stranded in a life raft in one of the world's wildest and most remote stretches of ocean. No distress signal has been sent, they have no radio, and nobody knows where they are. Back in Doveton, Victoria, Joanie learns the ship is missing. As the days pass, hope begins to fade. Search aircraft scour the sea, families gather around to watch television reports. Then the search is called off, and the crew are presumed dead. But Mick is still alive. Over 11 days, he battles freezing seas, exhaustion, hunger and despair. Some of the men won't make it home. But through it all, Mick clings to one thought: seeing Joanie again. Mick’s co-written a book called Back from the Dead. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Edgar Maddicott Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  2. Oct 26

    The missionary linguist who lost his faith

    Dan Everett travelled to the Amazon to convert the Piraha people. It didn’t go to plan. Dan was a young Christian missionary, and his talent for linguistics put him on a mission to convert a small indigenous group called the Piraha in the Brazilian Amazon. He had to communicate with them first, and after arriving in their remote village, he got to work cracking their famously difficult language. Over the years he began to understand them, but the things they told him caused his worldview to fall apart. Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Harry Graham Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else's life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  3. Oct 19

    Why didn't they tell me I was black? Part 2

    It took years for Lacey Tezino to discover the truth about her parents – what she found out would upturn everything she thought she knew about her own identity. When Lacey left her rural Texan hometown and went to university in metropolitan Houston, her African American roommates informed her in no uncertain terms that she was black. This raised some fundamental questions for Lacey – she had been raised by a white family, who led her to believe that her father was white, and her mother was Hawaiian, and had died when she was a baby. But it was clear that Lacey looked much more like her new black friends. What followed was a deep dive into everything she'd been told about her parents, and her origins, with truly shocking results. This is part two of Lacey's story. Part one is available on the Lives Less Ordinary website. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producers: Rebecca Vincent and Tommy Dixon Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  4. Oct 12

    Why didn't they tell me I was black? Part 1

    Lacey Tezino grew up in rural Texas in a white family, and was told her Hawaiian mother died when she was a baby. But none of this was true. Lacey was born in the US city of Houston, raised by her single dad who ran a bar there, and whom she adored. When he developed cancer they moved back to live with his parents in Vidor, Texas, a so-called 'sundown town' notorious for its racist past. Nearly everyone there was white, and Lacey says she regularly heard the strongest racial slurs being used both by her white family and the wider community. She knew she looked a bit different from her relatives, but was told this was because her mother was from Hawaii. Lacey never knew her – they said her mother was a drug addict who had died from an Aids-related illness shortly after she was born. Lacey's dad died when she was six and she was brought up by his parents, greatly loved by them and her aunts, uncles and cousins. Lacey would occasionally hear things about her dad, and about her mum, but it was only when she left Vidor to go to university that everything she thought she knew about her family, her heritage and her racial identity came tumbling down. It would take a series of head-spinning revelations to discover who she really was. This is part one of Lacey's two-part story. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producers: Rebecca Vincent and Tommy Dixon Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  5. Oct 5

    Forget Cool Runnings: Inside the real Jamaican bobsled team

    Ex army officer Devon Harris was part of the historic Olympic bobsleigh team that inspired the film Cool Runnings, but Hollywood only got half the story. Devon grew up in a tough area of Kingston, Jamaica, called Olympic Gardens. He dreamed of taking part in the Olympics, but living on a tropical island meant winter sports were never on his radar. For him, school was his haven away from the violence he witnessed in his neighbourhood and he worked hard in the classroom and on the sports field so that he could one day fulfil his dream of becoming an army officer. It was during his time in the Jamaica Defence Force that his sporting talent was spotted and he ended up getting a place on Jamaica’s first-ever bobsleigh team. The Jamaicans made history at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, but this wasn’t anything like Cool Runnings – the 1993 Hollywood film inspired by the team’s story – the reality was much tougher and much more rewarding. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Andrea Rangecroft Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  6. Sep 28

    My mother made me ill for years until a doctor unmasked her

    Nina Blom's early years were plagued by mysterious, serious illnesses. Growing up in the Netherlands in the 1970s and 80s, Nina seemed at first to be a typical child, playing with dolls and enjoying singing and dancing. But soon, her mother became convinced that Nina was gravely ill. She kept sending Nina to hospitals for tests and treatments again and again - 16 times in just a few years. And she seemed to enjoy Nina's sickness and pain. Eventually, Nina was made to use a wheelchair and was told by her mother that she had an unstoppable muscle disease. Please be aware that there are descriptions of medical child abuse in this programme. Many medical professionals saw Nina but they could not work out what was wrong with her. It took one keen-eyed doctor to put the puzzling pieces of Nina’s life together and figure out the true, dark reason for her illness. Paediatric Condition Falsification is also known by other names, such as 'Fabricated or Induced Illness' or 'Munchausen-by-Proxy'. It is a form of child abuse in which the carer - usually a parent - exaggerates or deliberately causes an illness of a child. The reasons why Paediatric Condition Falsification happens are not fully understood. Nina published her experiences in a book called You are a Horrible Child. They also inspired a graphic novel for young people, You’re Going to Die, by Margreet de Heer and Nina. Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Radek Boschetty Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  7. Sep 21

    America’s most wanted: my family on the run, part 2

    When Zayd Ayers Dohrn was born his parents were fugitives. They were the leaders of the Weather Underground – a violent revolutionary group opposed to the Vietnam war. Most members were white, but they worked closely with radical black organisations opposing racism in the US, drawing attention to their cause through bombing campaigns, bank robberies, and jailbreaks. When Zayd’s younger brother came along his mother, Bernardine, decided it was time to hand herself in. They managed to do a deal and most of the charges she faced were dropped. However when Zayd was 5 Bernadine went to jail. Despite having been on the run from the FBI for more than a decade she wasn’t charged with any crime. She went to prison because of her refusal to give evidence against her former revolutionary comrades. For Zayd, as a child it was really difficult to understand his mother's choice. To him at the time, it seemed there was an easy path for her to return to the family which she had decided not to take. This is the second of two episodes featuring Zayd. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Julian Siddle Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

  8. Sep 14

    America’s most wanted: my family on the run, part 1

    In some ways Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s childhood was normal; his parents went to work and played with him in the park. Though in other ways it was anything but: moving between safe houses, fleeing in the night as the FBI moved in. His parents were the leaders of a violent revolutionary group called the Weathermen and then the Weather Underground, which the US government classed as a domestic terror group. They opposed the Vietnam war and racism in American society. They drew attention to their cause though bombing campaigns targeting government institutions from police stations to the Pentagon. The group were largely white college graduates, they worked with militant black organisations such as the Black Liberation Army to organise bank robberies and jailbreaks. By the time Zayd was born his parents had been fugitives for several years. They taught him how to identify the FBI agents who were looking for them and how to lose a tail if he was being followed. For Zayd, as a small child, it was a game – but one with potentially serious consequences as his parents' activities could see them sent to prison for years. However, they wanted him to go to school and for him to do this they decided to hand themselves in. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Julian Siddle Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.   Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784   You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

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4.7
out of 5
479 Ratings

About

Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

Information

  • Creator
    BBC World Service
  • Years Active
    2009 - 2026
  • Episodes
    248
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Show Website
    Lives Less Ordinary

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