The Happy Pod: From security guard to sculptor at the Met Museum

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the Apartment Bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service.

0:49Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and in this edition, from guarding art to exhibiting his own at a world-famous museum. I never remember one day I would be standing in the middle as an artist in a major exhibit. It's surreal, it's magical. We meet the security guard whose kindness to a visitor led to his own work going on display. Also... It was just instant, absolutely amazing. I was in disbelief. Now I've got the confidence to go out and meet people again. A new treatment that can improve the lives of people with Parkinson's. The potential health benefits of non-alcoholic beer? The longest story ever told.

1:32And why a tiny kingdom known for keeping global influences out has welcomed one of the world's biggest stars. The Bhutanese are very in tune with pop culture, be it Western pop. I don't think it will be corrupting.

1:49But we start with the remarkable story of a man who's gone from guarding works of art to having his own sculpture on display at one of the world's most famous museums. Amir Khalil graduated from art school in his home country of Egypt, but after moving to the US in 2006, he ended up working as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In his free time, he kept up his passion for sculpting, and one day a chance encounter led to an opportunity he'd always dreamed of. Amir told Holly Gibbs how the Met Museum had inspired him almost since he arrived in New York. Once I moved, of course, the reality was different.

2:27It's not like a movie. I mean, struggling to live and find a place to sleep. And it was really kind of struggling to make some art or back to my tools. Of course, it's not easy. And I got sick a little bit because of the wizard. So the Met was the very first museum and almost like first place ever to visit in New York. How does that feel now that you have your own sculpture on display there? That must be really surreal. It is really surreal for me and it's overwhelming now and I'm really grateful, of course, but it's really surreal still, by the way, even though I talk about it and I'm trying to understand it because I never planned this, even though in my dreams, I never dreamed I would like one day I would be standing in the mat as an artist in a major exhibit.

3:19It's surreal. It's magical. It's so divine. And you worked there as a security guard surrounded by the art that you loved and the art that you knew you could make. How was that? Was that frustrating? Oh, yeah, of course. I've been working now for this is almost my 13 now. I'm going to my 13 years surrounding like by all kinds of arts. and history from all over the world. Because I mean for everybody here at the Met, it's the museum, our museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has an amazing collection of all kinds of arts and history from all over the world. So it's really an amazing place. And I like walking every day in the galleries, looking to the art around me.

4:01Of course, it's really inspiring and it's really amazing feelings to be surrounded by all this art and artists and their spirits around. it's really an amazing experience. And it was a chance encounter that led to you having your artwork on display in the Met. Talk us through that. How did that happen? It was almost, I would say, early August 2023 and it was just like a very normal day for me as a security officer and I was like trying to help one of the visitors at this point. He seemed for me like he's a normal visitor coming around and you can tell from his face that he's looking for something.

4:39So I approached him trying to help, and his answer, yes, I'm looking for a painting. The name of this painting was Flight into Egypt. Of course, I knew it, and I knew it, and I told him, yeah, let me walk you. It's in my galleries. And just in a few seconds, we were talking, and I was really curious to know why he's looking for this painting. And I told him that, of course. I told him I'm Egyptian, too, and I'm an artist. and he got his badge, the museum's badge, and showed it to me. He said, my name is Achille Tomasino. I'm the creator of modern contemporary art here at the Met. And the conversation now is like totally different.

5:13He told me about his plan. He's planning for a major exhibit under the same name of this painting that we are standing in front of, which is Flight into Egypt. And that was the start. And tell us about your sculpture that's now on display there. The sculpture, of course, is inspired by the Egyptian art and it was carved out of one piece of wood. Ash Wood and I made it especially for this show after our talk and after I was inspired by his invitation and his generosity actually. I wonder if you could cast your mind back to the day that you were walking around the Met as one of the first places that you visited after you'd moved what would you tell yourself now if you could go back and tell yourself that your art would be on display?

5:57Oh my god I still by the way I still remember that feeling and still see myself walking in the galleries as a visitor. It's kind of a real question for myself because now I work at the Met as a security officer and I know the galleries. I know the places I visited in 2006. Almost I can see myself walking. I was really kind of flying and happy, kind of virtually hugging the arts and the Egyptians, of course. Yeah, I would say I'm still happy. That was really kind of an inspiring visit, really an amazing experience. And I still have it. It's still as it happened to me like 10 seconds ago. You made it.

6:40Yes, ma 'am. And I'm grateful. I'm really grateful. It's been really amazing. I mean, amazing for me. It's more than home. Amiya Khalil talking to Holly Gibbs. Now to a high-tech treatment that could significantly improve the lives of people with Parkinson's disease. As you may have heard on the Global News podcast a few days ago, it involves an implant in the brain that can control tremors using tiny pulses of electricity, deep brain stimulation as it's known. Unlike older versions that had to be reprogrammed in hospital, this new one can read a patient's brain signals and help manage their symptoms straight away, all controlled by a tiny computer in their chest.

7:22Julian Warwicker has been speaking to Akbar Hussain, one of the first doctors in the world to offer this new treatment, and to his patient, Kevin Hill. Partinson's affects different people in different ways and with me it was a tremor and it was getting worse by the week and I was finding that I wasn't going out and socialising, I was hiding myself, I was getting withdrawn, it was affecting my mental health. Because you'd been diagnosed, what, five years prior to that, I think, hadn't you? Yeah, that's true, yeah. You'd got that gradual deterioration in your overall state of health over that. Yeah, and I would say things were getting worse and worse as it progressed.

7:57So when this option of the implant was put in front of you, what did you think? I was in two minds, whether they were a go-for or not, because it seemed to be a big operation to go through, and it wasn't a promise of success. And when it was turned on, what happened? I'd been shaking for years. My wife was there, and they went on a computer, and it was just instant, absolutely amazing. I was in disbelief, so I just all just stopped the shaking. And it's continued like that ever since, has it? I've had me good days and bad days, but I have more good days than I do bad days. Akbar, tell us a bit about this device, how it's fitted, how it works.

8:37So it's in two parts, really. The main part is the battery itself, which contains the computer chip as well. It's developed from cardiac pacemaker technology. But instead of hooking it up to wires that go to the heart, I hook it up to wires that have implanted into the middle of the brain. once it's in the right place you can then send little pulses of energy to these deep brain structures and the wiring or the electrical activity that is not quite working well in these different disease processes such as Parkinson's disease or dystonia or essential tremor we can fine-tune the stimulus so we can get rid of some of the symptoms that the patient's suffering from it's effective and helps about 80 percent of people who have the deep brain stimulation device but there is a group of people that it might not help as well as this helped Kevin.

9:23Kevin, on that quality of life point, what are you able to do now that you couldn't do before? Now I've got the confidence to go out and meet people again so I can go to the pub. I don't mind going out. I used to like to go out and ride on my bike. That's one thing I couldn't do because I was in aches and pains. I like a game of snooker and now I can play snooker again. What are the potential risks, downsides that might be present here? I mean, this is complicated. it's invasive surgery there must be risks there's no such thing as brain surgery without any risks unfortunately but out of all the different types of brain surgery that we do this is probably the safest one we do because it's very minimally intrusive and once it's making a difference I mean once somebody is significantly better as a result of having this fitted as Kevin clearly is I mean is there any reason why that situation cannot continue I mean can you put a time scale on for how long something like this can be realistically effective?

10:21The deep brain stimulation doesn't modify the disease process. You still have Parkinson's disease. The symptoms will progress over time. Now, how long it takes to progress as an individual is different for different people. I don't think that we'll have to worry about the longevity being just a couple of years. I think it is, we're talking about decades. It's excellent news. I think we'll get 20 years out of this is amazing. Absolutely amazing. Parkinson's patient Kevin Hill, who's playing snooker and riding his bike again thanks to Akbar Hussain, neurosurgeon at Newcastle Hospitals here in the UK.

10:54Next to Morocco, where storytellers from 33 countries have broken a world record by recounting their tales continuously for more than three days. Their recital in the main square in Marrakech lasted 80 hours and 34 minutes. The event was part of the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival, which also included workshops in local schools. Our very own storyteller, Richard Hamilton, was there. This is the Jamar al-Fanar, the famous square right at the heart of the ancient Medina of Marrakesh. And it was here a thousand years ago that storytellers began telling tales in the square. They'd stand in a circle of onlookers and tell ancient tales.

11:37And this carried on for hundreds of years until, in the 1970s, as Moroccans got televisions, radios, then later the internet, social media. The young generation forgot about storytelling and it began to die out. But now the Marrakesh International Storytelling Festival is trying to revive an interest in storytelling. As part of that, they're trying to break the record for the longest continuous storytelling session. Bird's Nest spoke. Governor, I can only give you one advice. Be good. Just do good. And Bird's Nest said, Governor, a five-year-old can understand this, but a 78-year-old still finds it difficult to understand what I've just said.

12:36Grab them by the knee. Grab them by the ankle. or you can hold on like a handle. Do not do what Wee Tom did. Wee Tom was grabbed by the shoe with no lace in it and he went out of the window and up into the air. High, high, high, high, high, high, high. He suddenly saw that in front of him, in the place where the dove should have fallen, there was a wall, a stone wall made of fine old bricks. He has never seen a wall in this forest. It was something new, as if the wall appeared by magic. And then he discovered a door. And it was a fine carved door made of sandalwood. And the door was not closed.

13:27It was open. My name is Brahim Daldari. I am a storyteller from Safru. A storytelling festival in Marrakesh has opened a big door for me to meet author, to meet also academic people. So it's a huge opportunity for me. So many young people, they are working, they are learning how to become a professional storyteller. We teach young storytellers to be professional. So storytelling family starts growing.

14:06I'm John Rowe, Artistic Director of the Marikosha International Storytelling Festival. How important is the festival in terms of reviving the tradition? I prefer to call it a resuscitation because it never quite died, but it was in need of a little help. We're just one part of a process, I think, but a very important part. bringing it back to the square, making it a spectacle again, because that was part of the problem. It was no longer a spectacle in the square. So are you reclaiming the space? Because this was always traditionally a cultural, sacred space for storytelling. Are you reclaiming it?

14:48Well, that is exactly the... I stand up and say, ladies and gentlemen, Assembled Company, we are reclaiming the square for storytelling. The square was for a thousand years. had storytelling and it was one of the most important parts of the square, apart from the 6 ,000 camels.

15:10John Rowe, ending that report from Morocco by Richard Hamilton.

15:19And still to come on the Happy Pod. Often got a fantastic view, you're getting lungfuls of oxygen and then as you come out, body steaming, and you're embracing all the elements. Almost the worse the weather, the better it is. Why a traditional Nordic relaxation method is becoming increasingly popular.

15:44If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

16:22Millions of people around the world have just finished dry January, giving up alcohol for a month as a New Year resolution. For those who switch to alcohol-free beer, there could be added health benefits compared to having soft drinks and even water. In addition, firms have been working on improving the taste with alcohol-free beer the fastest-growing sector of what was known as the alcoholic drinks industry. Marnie Chesterton went to the Belgian town of Leuven to find out more. This is an experimental brewery that actually can create whatever type of beer we want to make. My name is David de Schutter and I'm heading research and development globally for ABM.

17:02We're always pursuing a better beer, especially for no-alcohol beer. David and his team use a newer innovation called vacuum distillation. The boiling point of the alcohol reduces, then you don't harm the beer. Prost? Prost. So it has been through the vacuum distillation, and then we applied our aroma technology to bring back the beer flavour to life. You need to add the gas as well back, so you need to recarbonate the beer. But there is another way to make non-alcoholic beer, and that's to not brew the alcohol in the first place. We're in the lab of Kevin Verstreppen, world expert on yeast, at the University of Leuven and the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology.

17:48So in total we have something like 20 ,000, 25 ,000 different yeasts. Kevin's lab studies yeast for multiple purposes, one of them being to make better yeasts for the beer industry. And so how do you make a non-alcoholic beer? For that you use a different yeast, one that doesn't produce alcohol, but has a metabolism similar to humans. We also eat sugar but we don't make alcohol, we make water and carbon dioxide. Once you take the alcohol out, you end up with quite nutritious drink. Alcohol itself also contains quite a few calories. Alcohol-free beer has some antioxidants, has some vitamins, some lipids.

18:27And is there anything specific coming from the yeast? What the yeast will do is it will take the refined sugars and eat those. So it takes those bad sugars away for us. It's for sure more healthy than sugar-containing soda. It's a pretty good sports drink. I know that even the German Olympic team or the soccer team, I think at some point was allowed to drink alcohol-free beers. We checked. It was the Olympic team. And actually, it was thanks to the doctor for the German Olympic ski team who conducted a study on marathon runners, finding that non-alcoholic beer reduced inflammation and respiratory infections.

19:06Now, why would that be? Well, there seems to be one more thing that non-alcoholic beer can offer us. I'm Claudia. I'm a nutritionist and I'm a professor of nutrition and metabolism at Nova Medical School in Lisbon, Portugal. Claudia Marquez studies the effects of food and drink on our gut microbiomes. So one group drink alcoholic beer and the other one drink non-alcoholic beer. It was one bottle of beer per day. And after four weeks, this consumption increased the diversity of microorganisms that we have in our gut. A good diversity is usually associated to health. So what's in beer that's helping diversify our gut microbiomes?

19:52Polyphenols can be responsible for these effects. Polyphenols are chemicals that we found in plants. We feed the good bacteria instead of feeding the bad bacteria. They can also have other properties such as anti-inflammatory effects. We probably need more research looking into these polyphenols to really understand the health benefits of non-alcoholic beer. Claudia's study is just the beginning. Modern non-alcoholic versions are a better brew taste-wise. They also have fewer calories than beer. and offer the chance to socialise in a drinking culture without drinking pints of fruit juice or sodas.

20:33They might even have the edge over water, thanks to the polyphenols that feed your gut microbiome. Marnie Chesterton, and you can hear more about non-alcoholic beer on CrowdScience, wherever you get your podcasts. The Himalayan state of Bhutan generally avoids Western cultural influences like fast food restaurants or coffee shop chains. It's trying to protect its traditions and values. But now Ed Sheeran has become the first major Western artist to perform there, taking to the stage in a football stadium in the capital Timpu, following local support act Rebellions.

21:24Well, John Harrison, editor of the Daily Bhutan newspaper, spoke to my colleague Rebecca Kesby. The whole town is just full of excitement about this concert. In fact, there was no one really paying attention to work. I couldn't get any emails done today. Really? So four hours prior to the concert, people are already on the ground. We might just have the biggest crowd ever in Timpu, Chimilangtang Stadium. Bhutan generally avoids everything Western and Western culture, doesn't it? So why Ed Sheeran? I don't think Bhutan avoids Western culture. Although TV and internet arrived in 1999, which is probably the latest in all the countries, but the Bhutanese are very in tune with pop culture, be it Western pop.

22:14So yes, Bhutan has their own local pop culture, Bhutanese songs, but they do listen to music from all over the world. But in terms of actually having an artist visit, I mean, was the thought that Ed Sheeran wouldn't be a corrupting influence on the culture? I don't think he'll be corrupting. I think music is in every Putanese, sing and dance. That's part of their culture. Tell us a bit more about the strategy of why it's being held now, though, because we understand the king has got ambitions to build a new city, a mindfulness city, which would be more open for tourists. The king has identified a piece of land about four times the size of Singapore to build the Gullifu Mindfulness City that is infused with spirituality and mindfulness to attract like-minded businesses and entrepreneurs and citizens to come and work from this city.

23:16Bhutanese people are often considered to be the happiest on earth, aren't they? Something about the culture and the way of life. What do you think the rest of us could learn in terms of the approach to life that might make us all a bit happier? Bhutanists believe it is very much rooted in spirituality. The medium that they use to reach spirituality is Buddhism. Bhutanists are naturally very spiritual. It's got to do with the land, that they respect every part of the land, be it the water, be it the trees, be it the rocks. These are all entire environment in Bhutan is respected by the people. John Harrison, editor of the Daily Bhutan newspaper.

23:59Now, for many, this is the sound of pure relaxation.

24:08Water hitting the hot stones of a traditional sauna. In Nordic countries, outdoor saunas, often complete with ice-cold plunge pools, are seen as essential to physical and emotional well-being and date back thousands of years. But amid the stresses of 21st century life, they've grown in popularity elsewhere in the world. Here in the UK, the number has more than trebled in the past couple of years. Liz Watson, who runs a sauna on a beach in southern England, interviewed some of her regulars for the BBC. It's a little bit of an escape out of my week and it's nice to have something just down the road that feels like you're completely sort of back into the nature.

24:46You know, being out here at any time of day, you've got the fire, you've got the saunas, you've got the hot, the cold, and it just makes you feel alive. Almost like a moment of, like, mindfulness. Just to, yeah, just switch off, especially in the silent one. Yeah. Ooh, just getting into an ice bath. Ooh. Ooh. I've been coming now for about a year, and I'm sort of making it sort of a weekly thing, and it just totally sorts my head out. I mean, I've got a very stressful job and it's just time to come and sort of just reflect. Liz also spoke to my colleague, Johnny Diamond. We're nicely sort of tucked away and as you arrive, there's a little sort of wooden fence in a circle and then you see a sort of corral of saunas and horse trailers that are converted into saunas, some that have been built from scratch and little changing rooms and a fire pit in the middle and three sort of plunge pool areas.

25:49So, yeah, it's interesting. It's a whole community you've got there. Yeah, it really is. What is it about outdoor saunas? I suspect a fair few listeners may sort of know of the sort of slightly smelly sauna that's at the back of the changing room in the squash courts or something like that. Outdoor saunas are rather different though, aren't they? As you said, the gym sauna is often filled with chlorine gas and you can't put water on the rocks. The spa sauna is often the same. It's next to the pool and it's like a little dry box and you're sitting in there saying, what am I meant to be doing now?

26:20You go to an outdoor sauna, often got a fantastic view. You're getting lungfuls of oxygen. And then as you come out, your body's steaming and you're embracing all the elements. It doesn't matter whether it's raining, snowing, windy, almost the worse the weather, the better it is. The critical question, I'm sure for a fair few listeners, will be, do you need to be naked in the sauna? Aha! It doesn't know if you're German or not, really. But we're not. Well, I had a naked event hosted by a German. For Germans, it's disgusting to be in a sauna with a costume on because you're not allowing your body to sweat enough.