The Happy Pod: Meeting a princess while climbing a mountain

10:25Jason Vanporppal:Wow.

10:26Catherine, Princess of Wales:Yeah, 106 days.

10:27Jason Vanporppal:So what is next for the skate park?

10:30Catherine, Princess of Wales:So right now we're focusing on getting land. That was like one of the main things we wanted to get because, like I said, these kids are literally getting kicked out of their own spots to go skate because there's literally 100 kids. So you can imagine how much ruckus they make and how loud they are. So all the neighbors always kicking them out and everything. But yeah, get land. And then I'm going to fly back to Uganda. And we're going to be working with the professional builders. They're going to help us out with the money we have right now. They're going to give us guidance what we could do with it.

11:01Catherine, Princess of Wales:And we're going to be documenting all this. So, you know, people can still follow along, you know, for the people that helped donate into this cause. Like we want to keep them involved as well.

11:10Jason Vanporppal:What was the reaction of the people that you met along the way to you doing this?

11:14Catherine, Princess of Wales:as soon as i entered south africa this is when everything was like it just changed like everything changed like the views the people supporting people running besides me and as i got closer to cape town it just became huge it became like a whole parade every single day and i even to this day i can't believe that happened like i'm like dude like why me you know like what i'm just a skater but i asked so many people asked after i finished and they just said that it was more just about skateboarding. It was just how they're just really excited to see how their country could come together and do something like this for one person.

11:48Catherine, Princess of Wales:And everyone was connected like that. So this was an incredible feeling.

11:53Jason Vanporppal:What do you hope people who use this future skate park, what do you hope that they get out of it?

12:00Catherine, Princess of Wales:I just hope they have the same experience like I did, you know, when I first started it, like I didn't, I didn't know what I want to do with skateboarding. I was just doing it for fun. And even to this day, I do it for fun. But you find something in that. And I want these kids to skate it. And I want them to feel inspired knowing that that skate park was built off of this chasing a dream. And that skate park was just fueled by people saying you couldn't do this. Because a lot of people didn't believe, like, I can even raise$10 ,000 for a skate park. And I want people to skate that knowing they could do way more than what they believe they can do.

12:35Jason Vanporppal:That was Jason Van Porpel and if you've seen a story that you think we should cover, please let us know. Our email address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. To Nigeria next and a wedding with a twist. It involved twin brothers marrying twin sisters in a part of a country where twins are seen as bringing good luck. Crystal Rattri-Callow reports. In the southwest Nigerian city of Ibadan,

13:04Pete Haslam:twins Tewo and Kehinde Ogontoye married identical twins, Tewo and Kehinde Adediran, in a joyous joint ceremony. But their love story has not always been simple. Ten years ago, when the four of them were studying at the same university, a lecturer did try to set them up. But there was no spark of romance, though they did remain friends. Years passed before the brothers reached out again, as life took before in different directions into faraway countries. But Tayro says when they did meet up again, friendship soon grew into love.

13:46Pete Haslam:We've been in relationships with twins before, but sometimes it could be that our characters varied or we weren't compatible, so we couldn't get married. Other twins are also interested in us, but these are who God ordained as our wives.

14:05Pete Haslam:Yarei Deir and sisters are identical, but Kehinde Ogun Toye is confident that that won't be a problem.

14:15Pete Haslam:If you see our wives, they are very identical. Sometimes their relatives mistake them, but as part of our profession, we have mingled with a lot of twins for so many years, and when we talk about it, we know how to identify our spouses.

14:29Jason Vanporppal:In Yoruba culture, twins are considered a blessing.

14:33Pete Haslam:Their names are also predestined. The oldest is called Tewo, meaning the one that tastes the world first, while the younger is called Kehinde, meaning the one that came after. Kehinde Oguntoye says that the brothers had always dreamed of marrying twin girls.

14:54Pete Haslam:We love twins culture so much. This will be a higher pedestal because wherever we went before as Taiwo and Kehinde Oguntoe, we will now go as twin couples. Wherever we went, people saw us as twins. But now that will be doubled. That means quadruple, which implies good things and it will open doors to more blessings, more jobs, more good things. Both couples say that they are looking forward to their lives together and are hoping to have twins themselves

15:24Jason Vanporppal:That was Crystal Ratchry-Cello reporting

15:37Catherine, Princess of Wales:Coming up on The Happy Part It also tells young people like me, young women like me that if I'm able to do this, if I'm able to push myself in any and every field that you find yourself, your dreams are valid and you can certainly do whatever you set your mind to as well.

15:54Jason Vanporppal:The Nigerian chef hoping to inspire others with her new icon status.

16:06Pete Haslam:When you hear the phrase made in China, what do you think? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Asma Khalid. And together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. And today on our show, we look at the origins and evolution of made in China, because it actually wasn't inevitable.

16:22Jason Vanporppal:What we're talking about is the world's largest communist nation is at the beating heart of the capitalist system.

16:30Pete Haslam:For more, listen to The Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2026 World Cup started with 48 teams and we've now reached the knockout stage. records have been broken the way that Messi has been able to score these goals late in his career he's happy to play football and broken records is the consequence for him and new heroes have emerged this country's caught the fever casual fans are now diehard fans and the More Than The Score podcast is bringing you the stories beyond the scorelines More Than The Score from the BBC World Service Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

17:42Pete Haslam:on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

17:50Jason Vanporppal:You're listening to The Happy Pod. A fisherman has survived an accident at sea by clinging for hours to a cool box to stay afloat. It's thought his boat had overturned off the coast of North Wales. The man was eventually found by rescue crews and taken to hospital where he's now recovering. Evo Gwynne from the Lifeboat Service told the BBC's Megan Davis that the family had raised the alarm when he failed to return home.

18:15Pete Haslam:We started the search up and down the estuary, but as we were starting our search, one of our off-duty crew members found the overturned fishing vessel on the beach. So obviously the nature of the call quickly turned from looking for an overdue vessel with its skipper to being one of searching for a person in the water. So obviously far, far more serious. How does that change the search? What then happens? What does that trigger? Well, that triggered for HM Coast Guard to launch their helicopter. Other units, Coast Guard units, were also searching with us. And it just kind of really focuses what we're doing.

18:59Pete Haslam:It changes the nature of where we're looking. So, you know, a vessel will move in a certain way. And so it clearly becomes a lot more serious, but also becomes a lot more difficult because we're looking for a smaller object in the sea. On this occasion, thankfully, and we're not sure how the vessel overturned, but the fisherman landed in the sea and he had a cool box with him that was used for storing fish. He was able to hold on to that cool box and was in the water for about four hours, which is surviving that, even though it's been relatively warm, The sea is still pretty cold. Just surviving that is pretty remarkable.

19:41Pete Haslam:But mercifully, the tides, instead of taking him out into the open sea, took him onto Harlech Beach.

19:48Jason Vanporppal:This must be quite unusual.

19:50Pete Haslam:Obviously, when you hear through the radio that somebody's potentially been in the water for hours, it becomes a very emotionally difficult task because you've got to prepare for something that might not have such a positive outcome. But thankfully, as I say, the individual washed up on or got themselves ashore at Harlech Beach. There was a Coast Guard unit on the beach who were then able to guide the helicopter in. They provided kind of frontline paramedic care there to get his core temperature up a little before the helicopter transferred him then to a Spity Gwynedd.

20:26Jason Vanporppal:Ivor Gwyn. Every year, Guinness World Records awards some of its entrants with icon status for their multiple achievements and long-term dedication. One of this year's winners is the Nigerian chef Hilda Bassi. My colleague James Menendez caught up with Hilda and started by asking her what inspired her cooking records. It's probably watching too much cartoons,

20:49Catherine, Princess of Wales:especially for my second Guinness World Record, because I literally walked into my office one day and I said, I would like to see what like a pot of jollof rice that is as big as my office would look like. So I think that's probably on one hand, but it has always been my dream to push boundaries and see how far I can, you know, I can go.

21:11Pete Haslam:Yeah, I mean, it is quite an achievement doing some of these things. I mean, the marathon cooking spell, that was what, more than 90 hours cooking this huge pot of jollof rice, which I think was something like more than eight tonnes. But food isn't just about these sort of extremes for you, is it? I mean, there's more to it than that.

21:29Catherine, Princess of Wales:Oh, no, it's not just about extremes. It's also about telling a good story about Nigerians, about Africans and about our food. I think for my second Guinness World Record, which was the largest pot of Nigerian jollof, I honestly just felt like, you know, we are the giants of Africa, as we would refer to ourselves and as I believe that we are. I believe that Nigeria makes the best jollof rice in the world. And I thought it would only make sense that Nigeria, being the country that makes the best jollof rice in the world also makes the largest pot of jollof rice in the world so it was a lot of things and it also tells young people like me young women like me that if i'm able to do this if i'm able to push myself in any and every field that you find yourself your dreams are valid and you can certainly do whatever you set your mind to as well as you know hilda there will be people

22:25Pete Haslam:listening to this at lunchtime who will be choking on their lunch when you say that Nigeria makes the best jollof, especially people in Ghana and other countries in West Africa. What makes Nigerian jollof better? They will be saying, no, no, no, there's no way it's the best.

22:41Catherine, Princess of Wales:They all have their unique taste and they bring their unique flavors. But I believe as a Nigerian chef that ours is the best.

22:49Pete Haslam:On a more serious note, do you worry that, you know, as in many countries and especially people living in cities, that people's diets are getting worse. People are eating too much processed food. They perhaps don't have time to cook proper, fresh, healthy food.

23:03Catherine, Princess of Wales:Yes. One thing that I am known for as a chef is I am actually a very fast cook. So I teach people how to do that. It's not as cumbersome as how our mothers used to teach us. You know, that's one of the anchors of the Hilda Barsi Academy.

23:17Pete Haslam:And I hate to say it. I mean, too much jollof rice can be bad, can't it?

23:22Catherine, Princess of Wales:You know how they would always say sometimes it is not what you're eating it's also the quantity the portion you know makes the difference.

23:30Pete Haslam:Have you got another record in mind or are those days behind you now?

23:35Catherine, Princess of Wales:I'm not saying I'm not going to break any records but if I do it might not be the most intentional process.

23:43Pete Haslam:You talked about fast cooking maybe that's it maybe you can cook a thousand dishes of something in the least amount of time. Maybe that's the way to go.

23:51Catherine, Princess of Wales:If you're going to be my sous chef, just maybe I would consider.

23:56Pete Haslam:I could do some chopping for you, no problem. Fantastic.

23:59Jason Vanporppal:That was Hilda Bassi speaking to James Menendez. And finally, we end this edition with a tale of a red carpet film premiere, a global megastar and some very surprised schoolchildren. Stephanie Prentice has this report.

24:15Catherine, Princess of Wales:For one group of kids turning up to school, excited for the annual trip to a museum or a farm.

24:21Pete Haslam:But who's really excited for the trip?

24:24Catherine, Princess of Wales:Things were about to get better.

24:26Pete Haslam:Who has no idea where we're going?

24:30Catherine, Princess of Wales:The seven to nine-year-olds from Suffolk in England were told they were off to London for some sightseeing.

24:36Pete Haslam:Who's ready for an adventure?

24:39Catherine, Princess of Wales:But head teacher Daniel Woodrow had a secret plan. and within an hour the kids came face to face with an a-lister at a red carpet premiere

24:50Pete Haslam:ladies and gentlemen boys and girls please make some noise for the man the myth the maui Dwayne Johnson

24:58Catherine, Princess of Wales:back in January the children had recorded a video for the school's Instagram account begging The Rock the Hollywood actor to comment on it

25:11Catherine, Princess of Wales:saying if he did their teacher had promised them a trip to the cinema to see his new film the live-action moana they waited and waited and a few months later daniel called an assembly

25:25Pete Haslam:that video has been seen millions of times and one person who saw it liked it so much that they want to send you a video of Arrow. Would you like to see that video? Yeah!

25:42Pete Haslam:I saw a video that just blew me away, and the request was, oh, maybe The Rock can comment on our video. Well, I'm going to find a theater. I'm going to rent it out, and as a gift from me to you, because you guys have been just such awesome fans, You guys are going to see live-action Moana on me.

26:06Catherine, Princess of Wales:But far from the usual trip to the cinema, Daniel and The Rock himself had been scheming to go one better. The pupils ended up not just at the cinema, but a one-day Moana immersive experience inside a Pacific-inspired village filled with singing, dancing, games, a pig-petting farm, a karaoke booth and unlimited food and drinks. as well as the whole cast of the film, including, of course, The Rock himself.

26:36Pete Haslam:All right, world, I'm with the coolest kids in the world, St. Greg's Primary. Here they are, look. We just met The Rock. Yeah! It was a complete surprise. Yeah, we didn't know. We did not know. All of us was really excited. And some of us got high fives from him. He made sure we all enjoyed the time.

26:58Catherine, Princess of Wales:And they weren't the only ones. The Rock told us he felt the same.

27:03Pete Haslam:It was awesome. I'm here in London, this big event, I meet all of them. They're going crazy. And, you know, we have this awesome event planned for them with their own theatre. And I reminded them again in front of their teachers and their parents, like, hey, it's all the candy and soda and all the sugar for free. I'll apologise to your parents later. And one of the kids was like, you don't have to apologise.

27:29Catherine, Princess of Wales:so potentially a bad day to be a parent a great day to be a child with unlimited sugar resources and the best day for saint gregory's head teacher for the biggest movie star on the planet to spend

27:41Pete Haslam:so much time with the children and you can see how excited they were he said happy birthday someone's birthday was took a video with them the children have all been in a movie with dwayne johnson now which is incredible it's been an amazing day and at the start of the day the children had no idea it was even going to happen. So it makes it even more special. All right. What's up, guys? All my students from St. Gregory's or St. Greg's primary school. It's DJ here, also known as Uncle Maui. I am so excited for you guys to watch the movie. I love seeing all your happy faces. So I want you guys to have the best time watching Moana.

28:15Pete Haslam:And of course, I got to end it the only way I know how. What can I say except you're welcome.

28:31Jason Vanporppal:The Rock and the Children of St Gregory Primary School, ending that report by Stephanie Prentice.

28:44Jason Vanporppal:And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. We'd love to hear from you. As ever, The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed and produced by Rachel Bulkeley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Holly Gibbs. Until next time, goodbye.

29:07Pete Haslam:Is the American dream still possible? I'm Asma Khalid, one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. One of the most successful exports the United States has ever sold the world is the American dream, that tantalizing promise of a better, freer, richer life. But is it still attainable? I feel like the American dream is alive, but not well. For more, listen to The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.