The Happy Pod: The teenager empowering thousands to succeed

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 Jannat Jalil and in this edition... I saw the challenges in my family, the people around me, the community, etc. That is what inspired me to push me harder. A remarkable 18-year-old who's won a global prize for helping thousands of others get the skills and support they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Also, how other teenagers are learning life lessons from three-year-olds. She teaches me that I need to be more confident so I can communicate and help other people. We celebrate the fat bears of Alaska as they bulk up for winter. They were playful, they were mating, bears that normally would fight, were getting along.

1:34If bears are relaxed and well fed, they're happy. So people and bears, they have a lot in common as far as this goes. And? It helps me to see the game how I want to see it. And it allows me to see the players, I can see the skills. How new technology is helping partially sighted football fans see the beautiful game in all its glory.

2:04he's only 18 but Indian student Adash Kumar is celebrating a remarkable achievement brought up by a single mother he grew up in poverty in rural Bihar and aged just 14 he left home with ten dollars to get a better education a year later on a tiny budget with a second-hand laptop bought with his mother's life savings, he created a non-profit organization to help underprivileged young people get skills, mentorship and opportunities. Since then, 20 ,000 students across India have benefited and Ardosh has just won a global student prize of $100 ,000 from US-based educational technology company Chegg.org for his efforts.

2:53He was selected from more than 11 ,000 students worldwide. I couldn't believe you know that okay this is actually happening and you know there's you know been so many first things for me during this trip this is the first time I've been traveling apart from India so this is like first abroad trip for me so I couldn't believe it you know everything has happened in such a short span of time but at the same time it was full of gratitude was full of emotion. And it's all the more remarkable because Because you grew up in a part of rural Bihar where there weren't many opportunities. You had limited access to things like electricity, internet, and you were brought up just by your mother.

3:31Yeah. I think, you know, growing up in Bihar, specifically the rural part, is, you know, what has made me what I do today. I saw the challenges, you know, in my family, you know, the people around me, the community, etc. That is what sort of inspired me to, you know, to push me harder. what I believe is that you know internet has played a very important role in my life and like any other kid I also started searching things like how to hack service of a game you know temple run etc etc but I stumbled upon things like coding entrepreneurship and you know because I had seen so many problems entrepreneurship coding technology seemed to be a solution to do those and every day there's been some challenge in life or you are reading stuff online and you're getting inspired to do something you're you're reading out Mahatma Gandhi you know great leaders of the world, Nelson Mandela.

4:17And he's so inspired to do something. So that curiosity led me to learn about a lot of things and, you know, take action. That's why I started my first startup in grade 8. How were you able to access the internet? My mother spent, you know, her entire life saving to buy me a secondhand laptop. So that's how I got the internet and the laptop, you know, to do work. So your mother is clearly a big inspiration in your life. Thousand percent. I remember, you know, like when like my mom actually moved out of the village and she used to work for kilometers just, you know, and she used to say, OK, if I pay for this public transport, you know, I'll spend, you know, 10 rupees, which is not I don't know.

4:54It's not even half cent here. So she used to always tell us we can buy potatoes with vegetables for this money. So all of those things, I think, stayed within me. And I was too young. So like all of those have been instilled inside me. and I think the most important I've learned, you know, hard work, grit and frugality from my mother, which I use in my daily life, startups, you know, whatever I do. I mean, you're clearly very talented, but what inspired you to create a mentoring scheme for so many other young students when you yourself have a lot of obstacles that you had to overcome? Yeah, yeah.

5:28So as I mentioned, when I got the internet, you know, I was doing a lot of stuff and I was trying to learn skills myself. So while I was learning skills, you know, sitting in a village, I face a lot of challenges in terms of getting exposure, getting mentorship, getting opportunities, getting recognition, you know, looking for people who can just believe in you and say that, oh, just go for it. You can do it. And when I moved out of my hometown at the age of 14 and when I met all of these great people, I thought, why not connect both of these networks? OK, now I have access to mentors. Now I understand that pain point.

5:58Now I understand that problem. So I can't wait for someone else to solve this. So let's solve this. And entrepreneurship is all about problem solving. And tell me, what will you do with the money you've won$100 ,000? That's a very good question. I think, you know, this money has come for a purpose. As, you know, some great person said, great power comes with great responsibility. So I think I'm mostly going to spend the money, use the money very well for the impact, creating a better quality impact and also increase in terms of numbers, so quantity and quality. You're only 18 now. The world is your oyster.

6:32what's your end goal? When I was very very young I think I was still young but when I was very very young I wanted to make a utopian world I wanted to make everything perfect no one should be hungry no one should be illiterate everyone should have access to everything now growing up after having years of experience I think I've realised I've narrowed down and what I want to do is that I want to use policy education, entrepreneurship to bring change in society and in fact in the world and I always say this that my first step of changing world is to change Bihar, which is my home state. So I'll start from there, changing the lives of people, you know, doing social development, and hopefully, you know, bring it to the world, entire world.

7:13Inspirational student Ardash Kumar, the founder of the mentoring scheme Skillzo. This time of year sees students returning to school in many countries around the world. And while many children swiftly get back into the swing of things, for others, it's not so easy. One charity here in the UK has come up with an unusual idea to help teenagers who struggle with attendance and engagement. As Rebecca Wood reports, it involves pairing them with pre-school children. 13-year-old Sienna never thought she'd be taking life lessons from a three-year-old. She teaches me that I need to be more confident so I can communicate and help other people.

7:55I thought it'd just be something fun to do, but it's helped me really a lot. Sienna's part of a scheme that pairs teenagers with toddlers from a local nursery in a bid to help their engagement with school and learning. Before meeting three-year-old Tia, she says she was often absent. I'd never been to school. I'd be like hiding somewhere or I'd be at home. I just had a lot of anxiety. But then ever since I came here, I've learned more about how to communicate. so it's been a lot better and then my attendance has improved. The issue of school avoidance is a big one around the world. Many assume it's a problem accelerated by the Covid pandemic when schools were shut for long periods of time.

8:36In reality, statistics appear to show global attendance has seen improvements since then, but for many countries such as the UK, persistent absence rates remain a concern. 12-year-old Miller is another pupil taking part in the scheme. He's struggled to stay in class because he has a lot of energy, making it hard for him to sit still. But after his sessions with three-year-old Andrew, he's been able to focus more on his schoolwork. I was a bit nervous. It took me two weeks to say yes, because I was really energetic. And this will just make me really, really calm. Power 2, the charity that runs the scheme, gets referrals from schools, then takes teenagers out of class for one afternoon or morning a week to mentor their nursery buddy.

9:23Sam Marcus is the director of services and says a lot of thought is put into the pairings. We try and match them on personality so we might have some young people who really struggle to contain their energy so we pair them up with similar types of smaller children and it just helps them to balance out. I think it's more often than not young people are not given those positions of trust and responsibility and they really thrive in that environment. And it's not just the teenagers who benefit. Often the toddler has additional needs such as speech and language delays or difficulty making friends.

9:57Lisa, who teaches at one of the nurseries involved, said it has a big impact on the younger children too. They know it's their special person and just having that one-to-one time for that hour each Friday. It's just lovely to see when the teenagers come in, them children going over, hugging them and it's just amazing. Dr Daniel Weisberg is a consultant clinical psychologist and regularly works with young people who are feeling disconnected from their education. So why do schemes like this work? Think about when children are at school. There's a lot of rules and none of it is under children's control.

10:27This programme in particular says, what if we give them a responsibility? If children are responsible for a little child, they feel empowered, they learn from what works and what doesn't, and children feel like they're making a real difference. And while this scheme is just one small programme aiming to help with a very complex issue of school avoidance, it's something, or indeed someone, so small that can sometimes make the biggest difference. Rebecca Wood. Countries can get competitive about their national dishes, and Nigeria has just turned up the heat in a food debate that has lasted for decades.

11:04Who makes the best jollof rice? It's a popular meal across West Africa, typically made from long grain rice, tomatoes and spices, often with other vegetables or meat. But each country has its own version. And in a friendly rivalry known as the Jollof Wars, people clash over the origin of this staple dish. And, of course, whose tastes best? Now, as Kieran Galpin reports, a woman in Nigeria has secured the Guinness World Record for the largest ever pot of it. Music, 10 chefs and 9 ,000 kilos of food, all for a Guinness World Record attempt in Lagos, Nigeria. While many of us are bored by the humdrum of daily cooking, one woman had a different view, cooking as much jollip rice as she possibly could.

11:55This announcer narrated her effort. You want to make history right now. You're about to do something amazing tonight. You ain't slipping. The dish required a huge amount of ingredients, 4 ,000 kilos of rice and 170 kilos of goat meat, for example. And 300 people took two months making the pot, which still broke as the dish was weighed. But there was enough evidence to win her world record. Here's the head chef, Hilda Bassi. We always say Nigeria, we are the giants of Africa. And Jala Price is a discourse that has been happening within so many African countries. and sometimes if you go to random countries, you would find someone and say you're Nigerian and the first thing they ask you is about jollof rice, right?

12:40So I figured as the giants of Africa, it only makes sense that we are the ones that pioneer making the largest pots of Nigerian jollof rice. Those who had queued up to watch got behind her attempt and were supportive of her culinary patriotism. She's placed us on the map and she's doing it again. It's amazing, like setting a very good record for Nigeria and Nigeria. She's representing everybody, so it's amazing. I'm so happy. Jollof rice, you know the vibe now, how they talk about Ghana Jollof and Nigeria Jollof. Nigeria Jollof, the best. Some felt the Jollof Wars were settled after United Nations cultural organisation UNESCO declared Senegal the originator of the dish.

13:22But with this Guinness World Record, Nigeria can claim a different piece of Jollof heritage. That report by Kieran Galpin.

13:38still to come in the happy pod i've got the best mates ever yeah they might think i'm a little bit weird or different but that's exactly why they like me because being different isn't a bad thing it's just me how a 12 year old is helping to improve our understanding of autism

14:04If 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.

14:44Now to Alaska, where the race has been on to crown the winner of the prestigious annual Fat Bear Week. People have been voting for their favourites in Katmai National Park as the bears eat their way to adequate fatness to prepare for winter hibernation. Organizers encouraged voters to pick the one they believed best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears. And this was the announcement on TV. We have a winner. Chunk, a towering brown bear with a broken jaw, has taken the top prize in Alaska's popular fat bear contest. This is Chunk's first win after narrowly finishing in second place the three previous years.

15:28The annual competition, for those who haven't been following it, allows viewers to follow 12 bears on live webcams. Then they can cast their ballots in a bracket-style single elimination tournament. By the way, Chunk weighs an estimated 1 ,200 pounds. I know, and he's a broken jaw. So he's playing injured, and he still prevails. Yes. What an athlete. Well, Chunk took the title from two-time winner Grazer, but Grazer's cub Little Miss Biggie was crowned junior champion. Adrienne White spoke to a park ranger at Katmai, Christine Loberg. What we like to do with this celebration is to celebrate these bears and how they're going to survive through hibernation.

16:09It's definitely from an environmental perspective. It's to keep people involved with the environment, to learn about bears, to learn about our national parks, all those three. And it does work. People, they watch these programs. They do want to come to parks and see bears or just enjoy wildlife in general, which is really important. This year at Katmai National Park, we had a record salmon run. It was one of the biggest salmon runs in, wow, it could have been a hundred years even. And the bears did amazingly fine this year, eating plenty calories by taking advantage of the salmon run. They could go anywhere to get salmon this year, which was really exciting.

16:50You could walk along anywhere and see bears. And they were playful. They were mating. Bears that normally would fight were getting along. It was just to show us what happens when people are relaxed, how they act. Bears are the same way because if people are relaxed, they're happy. If bears are relaxed and well fed, they're happy. So people and bears, they have a lot in common as far as this goes. People are mainly interacting with the bears virtually, aren't they? How do you think having people engage that way that plays an important role in preservation of environment? It does play a big role because this way people, if they cannot make it to Katmai or any national park, they still could enjoy wildlife in their living room.

17:30And so this is really nice that explore.org has these cameras, not just at Katmai, but all over the world. You could go to Africa. You could go to other places to watch, you know, other animals. It educates people how important our world is and how important wildlife is in our world and how important preservation of these amazing animals all over the world, not just at Katmai happens to be. because our planet's an amazing planet and we have amazing animals and we need to preserve all these wild creatures that are roaming around the earth. I love just enjoying and looking at what we have to offer to show people from all around the world in our national parks.

18:11And one thing that our national parks do is they preserve land. So it won't be developed. So it's pretty much the way it was found a long time ago at the beginning of time. So the habitat is there, it is protected, so we can have wildlife in all our national parks. And this is everywhere from Katmai National Park in Alaska, Denali National Park, all the way down to the lower 48s where we have Yellowstone, Yosemite, Tetons. All parks have something different to offer. Even the Everglades, every park has something unique to offer. And people will go to their nearest national park to explore the animals.

18:51It could even be sea animals. It could be the Channel Islands. It could be whatever. And they have these amazing experiences interacting with nature and wildlife. And then they want to be out in wildlife and nature as well. Why do you think people love bears so much? I think they love bears because they are a mystery. I mean, let's face it. We don't know too many animals the size of a bear. they'll go on hibernation for many months and then come out and just start acting, you know, living life again. That's very fascinating to many people. And people, I believe, love looking at anything that's untamed in today's world that seems like it's shrinking.

19:29To know that there's somewhere in the world where animals are still like they were hundreds of years ago, living like they were hundreds of years ago, in places that aren't developed, it makes it special for them because they go back in time and they're really having a nice experience by just enjoying nature up close and personal in their living room or in person. Katmai National Park Ranger Christine Loberg. And you can see the bears and animals from across the world at explore.org forward slash livecams. New technologies helping football fans with sight problems to get more out of going to live games.

20:06It's being developed with the English Premier League club Crystal Palace and 12-year-old Sophia, who is registered blind, is one of the first to try it. Ricky Boleto went to meet her.

20:20It's match day at Crystal Palace. We're here at Selhurst Park where loads of people are getting excited for kick-off, including superfan Sophia. I've been a fan since I was nine years old. Since you were nine. What do you love about the game? I love the atmosphere, the crowd, the goals. Sophia is now 12 and is registered blind due to a rare condition called bimacular atrophy. Can you remember what it was like when you went to your first match? I couldn't really see the players' facial expressions or who scored that goal. I can't really see all of the detail in the game. It's very blurry for me and also I can't really see the players kicking the ball.

21:08According to the Royal National Institute of Blind People, blind and partially sighted fans are half as likely to attend live sporting events compared to the UK average. But now thanks to cutting-edge tech and a South London football club willing to lead the charge, that might be about to change.

21:29crystal palace has become the first football club in the world to offer new sight enhancing headsets at home games helping visually impaired fans experience football like never before when i put it on it helps me to see the game how how i want to see it and it allows me to see the players i can see their skills. So you're seeing all of that footage which could be so far away up close in front of your eyes. The technology is made by London-based startup GiveVision. Joanna Lidington explains how it works. The headset Sophia's using works in two main ways. There's a camera on the headset itself which Sophia can choose to look at whatever she wants to.

22:15With this joystick you can zoom in, you can zoom out. But the other function is she can connecting with the TV cameras. So around the pitch, there's lots of different people filming what's going on. And that's what you see at home. And she's getting what you see at home in her headset in real time at the stadium. And the difference for Sophia has been remarkable. Before it made me disconnected. And now I feel like I'm part of the crowd. As the game begins, a wider vision takes shape and the hope that other London clubs will follow Palace's lead. This could be a goal!

23:00And after the final whistle, a surprise. Sophia meets her hero, Palace captain Mark Gay. Did you know you were going to meet Mark today? No. No! So this is a huge surprise. It's so important that Sophia's here today because she's using this special kit to make sure that she can see. Do you think it's something that lots of children should be able to get access to? I think so. I think so. Giving children the opportunity to experience what we experience and maybe things that they're not able to experience to the fullest. Definitely something that I think everyone should be able to do. Would you agree?

23:33Yes. Good, good, good. This could be the beginning of a brighter, clearer future for fans with sight loss. That report by Ricky Boleto. We've been hearing how the internet helped a poor boy from India to achieve great things as well as winning a big prize. And another wonderful thing about the internet is that however niche your hobby is, you can probably find an online community of people who share it. Facebook alone claims more than one and a half billion people use its groups every month. But what about running these online communities? giving up your free time to approve posts and stop the endless, inevitable arguments.

24:15Our reporter, Will Chalk, has been meeting people who do it and asking them why. My name is Geoff DeJombo. I'm turning 40 in a couple of months. And yeah, I guess years and years ago, I got fired from my job and got into Simpsons memes and wound up co-creating Simpsons board posts. site. Jeff's Facebook group is for people who like to make memes based around American TV show The Simpsons. They'll take a freeze frame from the show, modify it or put some text over it to make a joke and post it in the group. If you think it sounds niche, you're wrong. It's got more than 400 ,000 members from all over the world and running it, Jeff says, can feel like a full-time job.

24:58If you're not good with boundaries, it could take up your entire day. The bulk of the work, according to Jeff, is making sure new posts follow the group's rules and the arguments in the comments section don't violate Facebook's rules and get the group banned. Jeff has never made a single penny for his efforts. So why do it? Well, his answer is more life affirming than you might expect. We really tried to have a culture of encouraging people to create a new meme for the very first time. And then they would just love it. And then they would make another one and another and just get better and better and better.