The Happy Pod: Rodent on the run returns

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.

0:49I'm Moira Alderson, and in this edition...

0:55Beanbag, you're finally back. We've missed you so much. Joy in China as a much-loved giant rodent is found after months on the run. How a tiny plant is breathing new life into cities by turning buildings from grey to green. Well, it's a very special tiny little plant. It does so much for the world. It's called the pioneer, the pioneer of life. The woman who's become a world champion of building flat pack furniture. It's the end result. It's something I've been proud of, really, when you've done it. A lot of people, they struggle with it. but I never let nothing defeat me. And a taxi driver who became a star of The Lion King reveals he succeeded in musicals by hiding the fact he's partially deaf.

1:39Since I decided that I'm going to speak about it, the weight of my shoulder has been amazing. As Mufasa says, I remember who I am.

1:54We start with a happy ending to a runaway drama that's gripped animal lovers in China. At the start of April, three capybaras broke out of Juyubei Nature Reserve in Yangzhou. If you've never seen one, they're the world's largest rodents, with adults growing to over a metre long and 50 centimetres tall, and are often said to resemble giant guinea pigs. And while two were soon found, Doubao, or beanbag, remained on the run, sparking wanted posters and mounting fears for her safety. But as Kerry Allen explains, she's finally made it home. Beanbag, you're finally back. We've missed you so much. This is a message that was posted on Tuesday by the Zhuyubei Nature Reserve in the East China city of Yangzhou.

2:44Beanbag, or Doubao as the female capybara is known in Chinese, had gone missing on the 3rd of April, and people in China have been captivated online over whether she would eventually be found. Local media have even shared wanted posters with a mugshot of beanbag, encouraging people to carry out search parties. She's a one-year-old capybara, weighing roughly 21 kilograms, and had last been seen on security camera at the reserve staging an on-foot escape with two of her friends, Bazong and Dordor, whose English names are Overlord and Dodge. Overlord, the leader of the pack, had smashed a wooden window in their enclosure and had led the great escape.

3:24He was caught first, casually swimming in the swamp next to the park. And Dodge was found shortly after, having played hide and seek with members of animal control at a nearby canal. But beanbag had been nowhere to be found, and so people had feared the worst. But in the middle of May, about 50 days after she'd gone missing, droppings were found. And so staff at the Nature Reserve put out pleas for locals to help find her. We've had a runaway capybara. She literally ran off by herself, but she's also amphibious. She's a protected animal. If you see her, take a picture, tell us where you were and at what time you remember seeing her.

4:10We know that beanbag is in the swamp area and the surrounding reserve, but because there are a lot of reeds, we've still not been able to capture her. She's easily scared. We've tried using food to lure her and unmanned machines. If you try to grab her, she's easily startled and will run in the direction of the river. On Tuesday, two whole months after Beanbag went missing, she was finally found and there was huge delight on Chinese social media. Beanbag had walked into a humane trap set by searchers and activated a gate which had closed behind her. Media report that rather than showing signs of distress, she appeared slightly chubbier from her two-month wander in the wilderness and had gained over a kilo in weight during her adventures.

4:54Capybaras, part of the Cavey family, are highly sociable animals. I should know, I own guinea pigs. And so media have reported that there's been a happy reunion among beanbag Ba Zong and Dordor. The zoo has now added secure mesh to prevent the three friends from escaping again. And it's hoping that they can go back to enjoying the docile and slow-paced lifestyle they had before. I mean, adventures are one thing, but that lifestyle doesn't sound too bad to me. Our China media analyst and guinea pig owner, Kerry Allen. Now to an amazing invention that can make cities greener, cleaner and healthier to live in, all by using a tiny, often overlooked plant.

5:31When we think of urban green spaces, we usually think of parks or gardens filled with trees, grasses and sometimes flowers. But now two entrepreneurs in the Netherlands have found a way to make the buildings themselves green, literally, using a special type of concrete that grows moss. Our reporter Katie Soloveld spoke to the founders of Respire, Alkeble and Ardil Arus. So why moss? I think moss is overlooked. Moss is a very special tiny little plant, but it does so much for the world. It's a very special drought resilient species that can basically enable other lives to flourish and to contribute.

6:12It's called the pioneer, the pioneer of life. So why moss in general? That would be my answer. Why moss for us? It's because it's very easily grown on a vertical surface, which makes it very special. And for us, greening vertically is very important because the horizontal square meters in cities, they are too expensive and too scarce to actually make green. And all those vertical surfaces, we can just grow mosses on top of it and make them contribute and actually live and breathe. I mean, the question really is, why not moss at the end of the day. Why not moss, exactly. I should have started with that.

6:46Yeah. So what is moss concrete? How does it work? Basically, it's a concrete recipe which invites mosses to come and live on it. So if you take regular concrete, it's basically a dead static material. It's quite polluting. There's a lot of CO2 emissions going with it. So what we strive have to do is to actually reverse that make concrete not static make it alive and now we grow mosses on top of it which allows us to actually make buildings live make buildings breathe and eventually cities make cities breathe it's a good tagline and so obviously this is to do with breathing what are the benefits that it brings to an urban area we we specifically focus on breathing.

7:35And this is something cities have actually forgot, but it's also super hot and air polluted. And this air that it's air that we breathe in 20 ,000 times a day. And the reason for this air pollution, you can go two routes, but it's probably the combination of a lot of traffic and a total lack of nature. And we're trying to actually prevent or solve that second problem. So we're cleaning the air. Does it bring any other benefits? Yeah, a lot. Too many to name now. There's a lot more going on with moss. Of course, I think one of the first things that we should note is the amount of biodiversity it increases.

8:14So having a piece of moss, not only having a piece of moss, but it's around 20 ,000 other species that will live in it. And those are microorganisms, which are just as important as the bees living around it. And then, of course, cooling down cities. And then, of course, there are things like noise reduction and reducing runoff of rainwater. Are there actually any drawbacks apart from general maintenance that you need to do for these walls? I think if you compare it with grey alternatives like brick and mortar or steel constructions, then it is a little bit more complex than the materials that have been used for hundreds of years by now.

8:55That said, if you relate it to other urban greenery alternatives, then it's actually extremely simple compared to those. I think the other huge advantage is the fact that you can basically use this material when building the thing that you want to build. So like a tree having leaves, you could actually create a building having moss. It's a living building. So it's entirely different from any other systems, which is always exterior. How does it feel to see your project being used on so many different areas, buildings, countries now? Yeah, it feels great. I don't know what to say. It's being able to go from a small lab skill to something that is bigger than that is already like ecstasy.

9:42In our case, there was this common denominator that we like to solve this entrepreneurial puzzle with something that's actually beneficial to the world and to the environment that we live in. Keeping that sustainability mindset whenever you go and do entrepreneurship, I think that's the way to actually naturally contribute to the world because then it means that it will never run out. Al-Khoblay and Ardil Arous. What's a task that's almost guaranteed to be frustrating, confusing and cause arguments? Building flat pack furniture. But apparently there are some people who are actually exceptionally good at it.

10:20and one British woman has been crowned the world champion of flatpacking in a new contest. The Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs has been finding out more. We all know the pain of putting together flatpack furniture.

10:36But have you ever put a bedside table together in nine minutes and 33 seconds? Hayley McCauley has. I just opened the toolbox, I tipped it upside down and when I'd finished there was nothing left over. I'd done it that quick. I managed to pack my toolbox away as well. Hayley's putting your tools away. In my business, I use a pink drill. So I could have done it in probably about five minutes if I'd have used my drill, but I had to use a screwdriver. Hayley, who is 33, from Wigan in the north of England, has become the first person to be crowned the Flatpak World Champion at the inaugural Flatpak World Championships in London.

11:19the contest saw eight competitors take part in two rounds making a bookshelf and a bedside table so we did it was for the first four building a billy bookcase um i was in the second round of four um and from them to the quickest in them two went to the final and we built um a two draw side unit i put all the bits in first and then just throw it together at the odd time i will have to answer instructions if it's a new build. But more often than not, I don't need them. There was a lot of spectators as well. On the day, everybody was, they were really good. For Hayley, she loves the sense of achievement.

11:59It's the end result. It's something I've been proud of, really, when you've done it. A lot of people, they struggle with it, but a few of my friends, I've said to them, I said, I'll show you how to do it. I said, you'll be so chuffed with the end result. And for me, it's what you build in the end. I never let nothing defeat me. So what's the secret? Hayley, who runs a small business building flat pack furniture, explains. Separate all your screws, separate your screws and make sure you read things twice. Because once you put a big screw through something, what's not supposed to be, it's done with.

12:35Holly Gibbs.

12:40Coming up in this podcast. It started off as a creative idea. How can we make things unique by repurposing, by reusing, by practicing zero waste, that it's become part of who we are. The refugees helping themselves and their host country by turning rubbish into new products.

13:08If 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.

13:46We often ask you, the listener, for stories you think we should cover. Well, Debbie got in touch to tell us about a project that's helping people with addiction problems by getting them to give back to their local community. Getting Clean supports people recovering from drug and alcohol dependencies. Its volunteers undertake useful tasks like cleaning up areas of a city, challenging perceptions and giving them back a sense of self-worth. Recently, they planted 1 ,000 sunflowers around the city of Leeds in the north of England, which Debbie says has spread smiles and showed that recovery can truly bloom.

14:21They also run a scheme called Soap is Hope, which raises money by selling bars of soap handmade by the people it helps. Tamsin Selby spoke to the founder Chris Sylvester, who's a former addict, and to Cheryl Robson, who was helped by the project and now supports others. I realised that I could do something different and help get at root cause of people's problems, helping people understand that they were assets to the community, that they had skills and strengths in empowering people. I got involved about a year and a half ago, but I was at a place in my recovery where although I was clean and sober, I had multiple kind of health issues going on.

15:04And the less I did, the worse I felt, the more depressed I got, the more pain I was in. So I went down to the first session and was made really warmly welcome. And straight away in that first session, Chris looked at what strengths I had and what I had to offer. and I realised that I had got myself in a frame of mind where I believed I would never work again. I had been dismissed from a past job due to my drugs and drink that had really been my life, it had been my career before and I had this belief that I would never be able to work again after that happening. So for Chris to be able to see the strengths and actually give me the opportunity to apply them again, I feel so much better.

15:48you know the depression's raised but when you're doing things things like my arthritis my pain reduces so yeah it's been amazing to be part of and chris i mean you must have seen the change in cheryl like describe that that light coming back to her eyes like working together on the soap with initiative i'm a big believer in people having purpose and that purpose allowing people to develop and and cheerle and people in organizations seeing them being brought back to life seeing and focusing on helping and supporting other people it's a it's nothing short of inspirational uh transformative you know it's it makes me proud it makes me passionate it drives me to to be of service to other people and to being part of it's just it's overwhelming i have to pinch myself lots of times.

16:41I think for me as well to be able to role model to my children that we go through hard times but then it's how we come back from it and you know for my children to look at me and see me as an employed person as having purpose it's much wider than just the you know the person in recovery or the addict that's involved it spreads out to the family as well making better outcomes. Are there any stereotypes that you think we need to challenge as a society for us to kind of get a better understanding of people living with addiction addiction doesn't discriminate there's people that suffer addiction from all classes you know all societies genders religions faced you know it's it doesn't discriminate uh but the biggest thing is i think that people are scared to talk about it because of the stigma associated and my own personal judgment is it's no different to any other illness if you have an illness people will offer support and uh and help you through it we need to be brave and we need to actually have these open conversations around it exactly it's about challenging stigma it's about looking at things from a different perspective it's about showing empathy understanding it and that willingness to support because we're all sort of consumed with fear.

18:03We won't talk about things for how it may well be perceived. But the biggest sort of strength and courage that I have is that willingness to communicate what's going on and how I feel and to ask other people how they're feeling. You know, it really is about challenging that stigma. And what would be your message to people wanting to make a change in their own community like you've done here? I'd ask them, I'd say, do you know what your neighbour's called? And I'd say, start talking to people in your community. Don't be scared. You know, be open-minded, be objective, be willing to contribute. Chris Sylvester and Cheryl Robson.

18:46Remember, if you have an inspiring story you think we should cover, please do send us an email or even send a voice note to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. One man's trash is another man's treasure. That proverb is exactly the thinking behind our next story. It's a solution to a mounting problem with rubbish while enabling refugees to earn a living. Malawi doesn't have the infrastructure needed to cope with the waste produced by its growing population. It's estimated more than 70 % of trash is currently either burned or dumped in unofficial heaps around the country. But the Kabebe workshop in the Zalaika refugee camp is helping people recycle some of it into new products.

19:29Myra Anubi went along to find out more. I've come into the workshop and I'm just standing at the centre. I can see probably about 20 people and lots of sewing machines. Everybody's hard at work. One of the artisans, Claudine, is enthusiastically sewing away.

19:52Now, already I can see there's plastic spread out on her table that would have been used to package milk, long-life milk, actually.

20:05So she says she's going to use these and she's going to make mfuko, your supermarkets, a bag that you would use at the supermarket.

20:16it. I watch as she neatly attaches 10 used plastic milk bags together to form the inner waterproof lining of the bag. She will then use a brightly colored African fabric called kitenge to make the outer part of the bag. Claudine was born to refugee parents from Burundi. Now she's had to move many times to many different countries before eventually ending up in Malawi with her husband back in 2002. So she says she's here with her family and four children. When you moved here, how easy was it to get work or money? So she says when they moved here, it was hard to find work and they relied a lot on what the UNHCR was providing them, but they would give them enough for maybe two months, maybe three months, so life was really hard.

21:16Claudine tells me that what she got wasn't enough to sustain her and her family. But things started to shape up when she joined Kibebe back in 2013. What kind of impact has this made on your life? She says all her children have been able to go to school. They didn't have school clothes. They now can get clothes that they need. And it's made a difference in her life. Maria Chiponde, the manager, who's right here. Now tell me more about Kibebe. When we started recycling, it started off as a creative idea. How can we make things unique? What can we use to replace high-cost materials, right? And then it became into this thing by repurposing, by reusing, by practicing zero waste, that it's become part of who we are.

22:03On average, in a good month, one of our artisans is able to earn at least$80 ,000. Malawi quarter. $80 ,000, so that's almost$50. Yeah. Currently, we are working with about 26 artisans. This is both male and female, 90 % of whom are refugee. We teach them our products, and they start to generate a decent income. I wander around the workshop meeting other artisans. A cheerful man called Nahimana from Burundi catches my attention. Now, it's interesting because I've seen one of these rattles in a shop. somewhere in Nelongwe. Yes. And you're telling me you're the one who made this. Yeah. Just to describe.

22:44So the powdered coffee tin is what he's using. He's also placing inside them to make that noise the bottle caps that you would find on water bottles. And that's what makes this sound. There's now a face of... It's a pig. It's a pig. Oh, wow. Look at that. Lovely. Do your children play with these? What's it? One of the children. Uh-huh, on a panda kapsa, they like it. Oh, this is nice. Nahimana says Kibebe has given him much more than just financial security. Yes, when he was just staying in the camp, his thoughts, you know, it really affected his mental health and he was low. And he says being at Kibebe, they took him with open arms and they've helped to teach him how he can change his own life by the things he's doing.

23:34That report was from Myra Anubi, and you can hear more ingenious solutions with her on People Fixing the World, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Philip Brown has had quite the career change. He went from driving buses in London's West End to starring in some of its biggest musicals. His story's already shown how perseverance and a bit of luck can make dreams come true. But now he's revealed he also had to overcome a devastating infection that left him deaf in one ear, with doctors saying he'd never be able to sing and talent agents refusing to represent him. Philip had given up hope until a chance meeting with an old friend who persuaded him to just go to an audition.

24:18He's been speaking to my colleague Sian Williams. I just decided I'm going to have to learn to work with this disability at any cost because I really want to sing and I want to do this. And I just decided if I don't talk about it ever again, it's not going to control me. So I never, ever spoke about my deafness to anybody. If I panic, my ear, my bad ear goes crazy. It makes a lot of noise. But if I'm calm, my ear is really quiet. and I just had to compose myself, let the pianist play and I just had to make it work. And then eventually I had my final audition. There was no comeback next week so I was really disappointed.

25:00I went back thinking, I think I'm done. I think that's it. I think it's over. Anyway, two days later I'm in the garage. I'm just about to drive out of the garage and my phone rings. I answered the phone and I said, hello Philip, it's Disney. And I said, yes, we're going to offer you the job in The Lion King. And I went, yes! Well, thank you very much. That was absolutely lovely. Thank you. So I've got the part as first cover to King Mufasa. I remember going to work on the first day. There was a joy that I've never felt in any musical I've ever done since that day. And I remember sitting there for a little while.