The Happy Pod: Our best stories of 2025

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. You're listening to The Happy Pod, best stories of 2025.

0:55I'm Harry Vly. And I'm Holly Gibbs. and for our last edition of 2025, we're looking back at some of our favourite stories from the past year, including... I was just doing it to help a mother out. You know, I thought, what if the shoes were on the other foot? And I thought, you know, I can help this one person out and make their life a little bit easier. The man who created a video rental corner in his convenience store for his most loyal customer. You don't know where the story's going to take you and it's always surprising and it's always beautiful. And this project has been really about just untapping that extraordinary story that everyone has.

1:35We spoke to Will, who went around asking strangers if they would like a cup of tea. Also, the survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bomb told us why we should strive for peace. Plus... Here now, we really have a bright light on the horizon. We have a new test that could really be a game changer. The blood test which could detect ovarian cancer in its early stages. The woman who climbed up Table Mountain 64 times after she nearly died falling from it. And Logie, the litter-picking Labrador who's taken the internet by storm.

2:15Let's start in the small American town of Pocatello in Idaho with a story about kindness. Dave Craning ran the last video rental store in town and almost every day for decades was visited by Christina, who has Down syndrome. He knew it was an important part of Christina's routine. So when he had to close the store, Dave was determined to keep a pocket of it open, especially for her. I spoke to Dave and to Christina's mother, Toni. It's part of just, you know, the fabric of her life. It's woven in. And I mean, I have a cabinet full of videos, the same movies that she goes and rents. So it's going to rent the movies that she loves.

3:01Since the mid-2000s, as streaming services became mainstream, most stores have closed. And last year, Christina's favourite video store began to struggle. Dave Craning is the store owner. The yard costs were going up, but the revenue was going down. And it just kind of got to a point where I just felt that just maintaining the video store wasn't feasible. Well, he let it go on, you know, the loss of revenue because of her. So then it happened. The hammer came down and it was like, oh, no. But when it came time to close the video store, Dave came up with a solution to create Christina's Corner in the neighbouring convenience store, which he also owns.

3:48So I thought, well, I could build just this version of this corner of the store that looks like the video store, put her favourite movies in there. It was like having a prison sentence lifted. I think she'll be able to do it as long as he's the owner. Truthfully, when I did this, you know, I was just doing something nice for just a customer that's been loyal just for decades. You know, I was just doing it to help a mother out. You know, I thought, what if the shoes were on the other foot? And I thought, you know, I can help this one person out and make their life a little bit easier. I went to thank him and no words came.

4:37I just burst into tears. So about a week or two later, I saw him and I said, promise not to cry. And I thanked him then with words. You know, it's just when they treat people like my daughter, I mean, they see them as a human. and they're willing to go the extra mile, you know. Yeah, there are a lot of good people and kind people, but they don't understand disabilities. They're afraid when they see people with disabilities. So when somebody steps out like that, now there's a special place for them in heaven, you know. People are always saying it's everything to me. So I didn't want to use that phrase, but really it is.

5:36It's everything. Christina's mother, Toni, and Dave Craning. How do you feel about talking to strangers? Most people here in London tend to avoid it, but back in March I spoke to a man who goes around parks in the city offering people he's never met a cup of tea. Excuse me, I don't suppose you'd like a cup of tea, would you? Why are you inviting me? I'm a filmmaker. 28-year-old Will Shears chats to them about their lives and posts the videos on social media in a project he's calling A Mug of Life. He told me he was inspired by being given tea on a beach in Morocco. One day I just got out of my flat and I went to the local park and I said to someone, I was like, excuse me, would you like a cup of tea?

6:22And the first person I went up to said, yeah. And I was petrified at the start. I was like, is anyone actually going to say yes to this? The majority of times I go up and say, do you want a cup of tea? People say, yeah. And you don't know where the story is going to take you. And it's always surprising and it's always beautiful. And this project has been really about just untapping that extraordinary story that everyone has. And you get these amazing stories by just asking them something so simple as, would you like a cup of tea? Is that what you would encourage other people to go out and do? I have never felt better.

6:54And like, yeah, we obviously we need to be cautious about talking to strangers. But I do think we've built this world where we're like, we think it's weird to go and talk to a stranger. Or when a stranger tries to start talking to you, you go, oh, and your guard goes up. Like, that's certainly for me. The nice thing about this project is it's made me realise that actually, when you do go up and ask someone and you start talking, you feel so much better. And it's just so good for your mental health. I've loved it. And on the reaction from social media and people that have watched your videos, has that surprised you that millions of people have watched it and millions of people are enjoying it?

7:31I have been blown away, Holly, by the response, by how many people have watched it. People from all around the world, all parts of the globe. And the messages that come in with so much positivity about how it's helped them with their day-to-day life. It's amazing to know that people through watching it, it's inspiring other people, it's making people feel better. And the way to describe how I feel afterwards sometimes is like honoured. I couldn't recommend it enough. If there was one life lesson that you could sum up that you have learnt throughout this project, what would it be? I think it's this, it's been don't put barriers up.

8:07And I think that that would be my one bit of advice. Just strip any barriers that are stopping you from doing that thing you wanted to do in your life. Because when you open your door and you get out of the house that day and you start it, then you're going to feel so much better. Will Shears. In November, we were in Germany for the One Young World Summit in Munich. Among those sharing ideas on how to change the world were survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the US during the Second World War. Shigemitsu Tanaka was just four years old at the time and lived close to Nagasaki, where the second bomb fell.

8:49The only aim of nuclear weapons is extinction, and they are evil. That's why they cannot coexist with humans. We shouldn't use them at all. And all the world has to raise their voices to abolish them. Suzuka Nakamura is a third-generation hiboksha, a term that refers to people affected by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the age of 25, she is determined to encourage peace across the world. I guess it's very simple. Listening to a lot of stories of hiboksha, I started to think why people made nuclear weapons and how can we abolish them. I started my career as a peace activist and I met more Hibakshab working hard for this issue and I was very moved.

9:41When we want to start making action, if we are all alone, the pressure is so huge. But with friends around you, we can share our thoughts or ideas. Innovation doesn't happen only in one person. I guess there should be a lot of people around there. When I do these kind of activities, I always have anger because looking around the world, when I see those leaders talking about using nuclear weapons so easily, I always remember about the Hibakusha who suffered a lot from nuclear weapons. And I can't imagine how scary they are. Like maybe the nuclear weapons might be used again. And now we are sharing the same fear.

10:30But at the same time, I also have hope because there is many people willing for peace. Every year, more than 300 ,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. and it's often not detected until it's in the later stages, leading to low survival rates. But in September, we heard from researchers in the US and the UK who have created a new blood test that detects the disease in its early stages in around 90 % of cases. It allows for earlier treatment and improves the chances of survival, as Professor Emma Crosby from the University of Manchester and Dr Kian Babak from the University of Colorado explained.

11:10We know that if we can find this cancer earlier, that the survival goes up to about 80 to 90 percent. Here now we really have a bright light on the horizon. We have a new test that could really be a game changer. I've been contacted by numerous patients, their family members, people who are having symptoms, who are very keen to have access to this new test and people whose loved ones have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the past and we're just really delighted to see the progress that's being made in this area. We have jumped leaps ahead in technology. Our patients that are enrolled in the prospective trial that's going on now are very excited that they may not have to suffer.

11:58So we unfortunately do manage patients who have got ovarian cancer and perhaps it's been diagnosed at a late stage. People who are essentially devastated by this new diagnosis and have to go through very challenging treatment. So to actually be involved in a research study that can help to diagnose people at a much earlier stage where their chance of cure is greater, the chance that they will live and see their children grow up is absolutely fantastic. It's essentially why we became doctors and researchers. is to see these exciting research ideas being put into practice and actually making a difference for our patients.

12:40Next, to a remarkable story of recovery and endurance from one of our listeners. In September 2023, Tanya Morkel fell 18 metres down a ravine while hiking on Table Mountain in Cape Town with her niece. She was 64 at the time and sustained numerous life-threatening injuries. But inspired by stories she had heard here on the Happy Pod, Tanya vowed to return to her beloved mountain and, in May, completed 64 climbs in 64 days. She told Holly all about the help she received from a nurse who happened to be hiking nearby when she fell. She woke me up and I just felt somebody stroking my hair and she said, you're a strong person, you're going to survive.

13:28And that was the message that was encoded into me right from the beginning. Even when the rescue teams arrived, she said, this woman is strong. She'll survive. As I was airlifted, I remembered a story just a few months before on the happy pod, actually, of these people in Pakistan that were dangling in a cable car. And I remembered so clearly their voices and this incredible rescue operation. And I felt so held by that. My happy part has been every Saturday, I go for my walk with my dogs and I listen to it. And I've had so many of these stories that actually sustained me as well when I was in hospital.

14:14Well, we are totally honoured to have played any part in your recovery. Do you hope that sharing your story might do the same to someone who might find themselves in a similar situation to you when they've just had a really bad accident? Yes, you know, I spent three weeks on a ventilator in hospital. I just needed to push through this time. And I often thought of people that had actually pushed through. You know, this is the thing I remember very distinctly as well. Somebody had dived into a dam and he knew he was paralyzed from the spine down. He said to himself on the way, I will never say, why me?

14:54And I decided to make that my mantra. I will never say, why me? And that is the advice I give to absolutely everyone. And no matter how severe your injuries, you can get up and you can fight back. I had to often trust in the people around me. And I remember my trauma surgeon one day came to me and said, you're going to climb the mountain again. I can't believe that I will. But if you think so, I would absolutely love to do that. That day, it just turned for me. And now you have climbed Table Mountain 64 times in 64 days. Oh, my goodness. Yes, I got these incredible physios. I said to them, I have the dream to do the mountain 64 times to actually get back to the people who saved my life.

15:45And they said, of course. And if you want us to, we'll come up the mountain with you. We're going to train you for this. And I couldn't believe that I am now inspiring other people. For me to be on this, on the happy pod, I cannot tell you how incredible because you've been my inspiration. and now I can inspire other people. The thing that's extremely important to me is to understand that you are so much stronger than you think you are. You have to surround yourself with positive people and never give up. Back in August, we heard about an unlikely social media star helping to clean up our oceans.

16:29Logie collects bottles, cans and other rubbish from the waters around the southwest of England. The twist? Logie is a dog, a four-year-old black Labrador. His owner, James Westgate, told us why he decided to hone Logie's natural retrieval instincts towards litter picking. We live near the sea and we're probably down swimming twice a day, once a day, and usually there's litter in the sea. As an ecologist, seeing it in the sea was really making me feel unhappy. knowing the damage it can cause and logi can swim really well he can retrieve really well so why doesn't he just go and get it and and then i take it away put it in the bin and recycling as soon as he sees a bit of litter he just lights up he is so driven to go and get that piece of litter sometimes i have to be like okay chill dude because he'll go for things like traffic cones which are like the size of him, really heavy, like 10 kilogram traffic cones.

17:27But him going down, especially onto the beach, he will just see something from really far away and he will just go for it. I think if people see a dog who's really happy and picking up litter, they want to watch it and it's a really fun thing to do. And I'm hoping in the background of people's consciousness, they're going to realise that, wow, that's actually horrible that all this litter's in the sea. maybe I won't chuck it away or chuck it outside maybe if I can just impact one or two people just to think twice about chucking a piece of litter down on the floor it might end up in the sea you know that kind of thing the whole beauty of me and Logie's relationship is we're doing something that makes us both happy he's down at the water and he's loving life he's retrieving bottles and he's like yeah let's go let's go and get another one let's go and get a traffic cone that crisp rapper got my name on it.

18:19But I am incredibly happy because I see him having fun. I also get to clean up the environment. I call it a match made in heaven. James Westgate. And if you want to see Logie, you can do so on the BBC World Service Instagram account.

18:38Coming up in this podcast, we continue to reflect on our happiest stories of 2025, including... It's amazing what Deborah's found and it means so much to my family and I guess Deb means a lot to our family now too because she's gone to the effort to bring it home and extract the letter out of the bottle. The letters that made their way back home 109 years later.

19:09If 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.

19:47Welcome back. We've heard about a number of medical breakthroughs in 2025, including the first ever treatment for the devastating brain condition Huntingdon's. This inherited disease is caused by an altered gene and resembles a combination of dementia, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease. In September, scientists announced they had found a way to slow its progression by 75%. That means the decline people would have experienced in a year would take four years instead, extending lives and improving their quality of life. Deborah Goodman's father, grandfather, two brothers and aunt all had the disease.

20:29I actually feel quite emotional because people with Huntington's disease are desperate for some kind of treatment that works. So I just want to thank Sarah and her team because they're so desperate for this treatment. I'm really, really, really pleased to hear about it. I was told the only way to stamp out the disease was not to have children. I chose not to because I didn't want a child of mine to go through what I went through. The breakthrough raises the prospect that younger people who have the Huntington's gene could be treated to prevent the disease from being triggered and developing. Like 30-year-old Jack May Davis.

21:11It does make the future seem a little bit brighter but it's definitely going to help, you know, definitely going to help with knowing that I have got more time here than perhaps I first thought. Professor Sarah Tabrizi led the research team at University College London. I've been working in Huntington's disease for nearly 30 years and for the first time these data which show a 75 % slowing is to me the most clear data that this gene therapy slows and modifies the progression. Once someone has symptoms of the disease the time from symptom to death is between 10 and 20 years so a 75 % slowing is going to keep people in work longer, functioning longer, delaying symptoms of disability.

22:06This is truly a game-changing result. For the community that we work with and the patients and families, I am absolutely passionate about getting this treatment to as many people as we possibly can. Professor Sarah Tabrizi. To Tokyo now, where one small cafe has become famous for far more than its cake and coffee. The Orange Day Cafe is a monthly pop-up created to give people with dementia a place to volunteer. Our correspondent Shaima Khalil went along. My name is Morita Toshio. I know the U.S. school. 87-year-old Morita-san has been living with dementia for years. He's one of the volunteers at the Orange Day Cafe, or the Cafe of Mistaken Orders, as it's now famously known.

22:55Morita-san welcomes customers wearing an orange apron, a black and white headband, and a charming smile. This monthly pop-up gives people with dementia a chance to volunteer and connect with the community for a few hours. You can see just how much Morita-san enjoys it. It's fun and lively here when there are many customers. I'm excited when I see people enjoying their drinks and when they start chatting to me. Mix-ups can happen, of course, but it's all part of the experience and all taken in good humour. Morita-san is supported by another younger volunteer. The menus and tables have been colour-coded to make it easier for the elderly waiters to take the orders.

23:37We have six tables here, so we put the six colours of the flowers on each table. Aki Kokanna is the founder of the Pop-Up Cafe. It's starting with my father got dementia. People want to draw a line, a person who is not disabled and able. I don't like that. And everybody needs a place to be needed. I think they need identity. They need a place to be himself or herself.

24:11It's been just over a year since Morita-san started working here. His wife Masako comes with him every time. When I say that your orange day's shift is approaching, he replies, when, what time? He's looking forward to it. Japan has increasingly turned to technology, especially robots, to help tackle its dementia crisis. But in this tiny cafe, it's the human connection that makes the real difference. Memories may slip here, but hope, humor and dignity are still very much on the menu.

24:49Back in April, we heard about a remarkable rodent that had saved thousands of human lives by detecting tuberculosis. Tests that are done by clinics in Tanzania and Ethiopia aren't always 100 % accurate, so samples which come up negative are routinely double-checked by rats because of their incredible sense of smell. Carolina, a giant African pouched rat, successfully detected more than 3 ,000 cases over her seven-year-long career, saving many thousands of other people from being infected by the highly contagious disease. Fidelis Ghali and the team at the Apopo Centre in Dar es Salaam, where Carolina worked, gave her a special send-off.

25:40Carolina, she's an excellent animal. Carolina likes to be cuddled, you know. She's very, very calm. She's very excited when taking her to work. She snipped 208 ,235 patient samples.

26:03It was very special. So we prepared banana and avocado and she was very happy. It was a party, you know. We prepared a cake, some drinks, so we enjoyed that day. She's resting, just eating and sleeping, exercising, that's all. You know, she was saving life. She saved life. She saved a lot of lives.

26:38To Western Australia now and the discovery of some very old messages in a bottle. Deborah Brown's daughter Felicity found the bottle while cleaning up rubbish on Wharton Beach. Inside were handwritten letters from two Australian soldiers who served in the First World War, Private Malcolm Neville and Private William Harvey. After searching for relatives online, Deborah found Herbie Neville, Malcolm's great nephew. I spoke to Deborah and Herbie and started by asking them what the letter addressed Malcolm's mother said. You have no idea what it felt like to read that, and I get quite teary. His letters were so well maintained, and it says, Dear Mother, having a real good time.

27:19Food is real good so far, with the exception of one meal which we buried at sea, accompanied by a mouth organ band. The dear old Ballarat, which is the ship, is heaving and rolling, but we are as happy as Larry, your loving son Malcolm. It just tore at our heartstrings. And then more and more through that same day when we discovered that he had died a year after. And how does it feel giving Herbie's family part of their history? That is just incredible. and they've all been calling me and sending me messages and Herbie's going to come all the way across Australia. He's going to come and visit us.

28:00It's amazing what Deborah's found and it means so much to my family and I guess Deb means a lot to our family now too because she's gone to the effort to bring it home and extract the letter out of the bottle. How did you feel when you heard what the letter had said? I was in disbelief and when I rang the other members of all our family, they were in disbelief too. I think they were in shock. What an amazing thing and it's unbelievable. They are so grateful that they've received that letter and it's quite moving actually to know that he's reached out to his mother and he was happy. What would you say to Deborah and her family for finding this letter and reaching out to you?