The Happy Pod: the volunteer vet travelling the world

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. Hello, this is Cliff Redford. I'm a veterinarian who travels around the world to help people and animals in need.

0:47And you're listening to The Happy Pod on the BBC World Service.

0:56I'm Alex Redson. and in this edition, the vet who's found fulfilment offering his life-saving skills for free around the world. These trips make me a better person, they make me a better father. It just teaches me to love life and to love people from different walks of life. Why a man in his 80s has opened his home to vulnerable children through foster care. It's partly selfish. It keeps me, you know, I lost my wife about five or six years ago and can be pretty lonely once you're on your own. and I wanted to do something other than just sit and watch television. Also, a chance to own a piece of comedy history and...

1:35It was over 300 pints, we think, at the end, but well worth it. The pub landlady whose footballing free drinks offer turned into a bit of an own goal.

1:50We start with the story of a Canadian vet who's been giving his time to pet owners around the world, treating animals in Jamaica, Greece and twice he's been in Ukraine since the war with Russia started. Cliff Redford from Markham in Ontario has run his own clinic for 25 years, but he likes to spend time away volunteering and giving his skills in places where there is a shortage of vets. His most recent expedition, the town of Ica-Lewit in the most northerly Canadian territory of Nunavut. He spoke to Harry Bly about his adventures, starting with Ika Lewitt. I've been a veterinarian since 1998, so a little bit over half my life.

2:31I love it. It is the greatest profession. And I love traveling and I love volunteering and learning new stuff. It is, of course, very cold. And when we go in January, it's very dark. There's only sunlight for about four hours a day. but it is the most beautiful part of the country at that time of the year that I've ever experienced. It was like stepping onto another planet. The ice and the snow and the Arctic Ocean, not only frozen over, but frozen over with these giant car-sized chunks of ice. And then, you know, when we got there, the work was extreme. It was, we were very, very busy. So, Iqaluit and the entire or territory of Nunavut has had no veterinarian there for four years.

3:18And there's 7 ,000 people in the main community in Iqaluit, and most of them have pets. They flocked to the animal hospital when they heard a veterinarian was going to be there. And Cliff, you've been abroad as well. You've been to Jamaica, you've been to Greece, you've also been to Ukraine. What are your strongest memories from those trips? Yeah, Ukraine, we went twice, or I went twice, and my daughter accompanied me the first time. The very first time, it was only three or four weeks into the war. We basically helped people who were bringing their pets across the border who were escaping the war.

3:54I made the decision to go back on my own. And I went back on my own because it was too dangerous to take my daughter. I was heading into Kharkiv. So, you know, just maybe 50 kilometers away from the fighting. The main thing that sticks with me is the people, how brave they are and how stubborn in a good way. Like they were so committed to the animals. And it just inspires me to keep doing what I'm doing. And those people are amazing heroes. I felt really blessed to be able to spend time with them. Animal Rescue Harkeve, ARK, is the team I worked with. They were working with a military group that basically, as the military group would search abandoned buildings or buildings that had been bombed and destroyed or areas that had been attacked, they would find animals that had been injured.

4:51And then we would go and pick the animals up or we would sometimes trick them into coming and dropping the animal off at our hospital, knowing that by the time the soldier brought the little cat or the little dog to our hospital, they had already fallen in love with it. So they had agreed to adopt them. You know, I tear up as I am right now talking about it. One of the things I'm most proud of. And, yeah, I just hope it ends. I hope the war ends. And I hope, obviously, the people and then the animals they care for are safe. What is it about giving your time that makes you and your family happy?

5:29The reality is the first trip to Jamaica, although it was a three-week volunteer trip, there were some other motives. I was going to film my adventures to actually pitch a docuseries idea. Very, very quickly, my interest for filming and for this telling of these stories took a backstep to the volunteer work because I realized how fulfilling it was for me. I realized, although I was going into Jamaica as this North American, highly trained veterinarian, highly experienced, I learned so much from the people there. So I started volunteering. And while I not only volunteer locally once a week, right now every Thursday with a wildlife place, traveling, we purposely pick places that we've never been to and places that are very different from Toronto or very different from your regular tourist place.

6:29it opens our eyes. I feel that these trips not only make me a better veterinarian, as I've said, I learned so much, but they make me a better person. They make me a better father. It just teaches me to love life and to love people from different walks of life and how similar we all are. I mean, that's the honest truth. And it's just a great, humbling, heartwarming experience every single time. Veterinarian Cliff Redford. Now to a man who's taken the rather unusual step of becoming a foster parent in his 80s. Nigel, who's now 88, is a former fighter pilot with Britain's Royal Air Force. He believes he's one of the oldest single foster carers in the UK and it says it keeps him young.

7:19In England, foster carers usually need to be aged 21 or over and have a spare room in their home. But there is no upper age limit. Nigel told the BBC's Simon Parkin why he decided to volunteer. It's partly selfish. It keeps me young. I lost my wife about five or six years ago, and we'd been married for 50 years, and it can be pretty lonely once you're on your own. And I wanted to do something other than just sit and watch television all the time. And it suddenly came to me that that was perhaps the thing to do, or anything I could try to do. It helps to keep me young. It gives me an interest. and it's really you know when I took my latest foster child I mean we were virtually on a sort of probationary period with each other for three months I mean I want to make sure I click with him but similarly there are not many teenagers who want to live with an 88 year old so what a lovely way though of exploring the sort of the age generations and you know certainly as a grandparent of a of a small child the relationship that you have with that child is very different to the relationship that you have with your own children, and you know this too.

8:22So, you know, age sort of has no boundary in a funny sort of way. No, it doesn't. Mind you, having gone through foster training, I'm surprised I was ever allowed to have my own children, you know. We're obviously totally unqualified. Well, and they don't come with instructions, so we're lucky we got to where we did with them. You've proved many times, I guess, that you're absolutely the perfect person to do this because you've got time on your hands and clearly a bit of an adventurous spirit. I mean, the places that you've been to with your foster children are quite amazing. That's right. You have got time in your hand.

8:51This is one of the big advantages. I may be old, but being retired, you have got 24 hours a day which you can devote to it. Whereas people going to a younger family, they may have their own children. They certainly haven't got as much time to devote to one single foster child. However, it's a mixed blessing. And it's a lot of work if you do get on your own because you've got all the housekeeping, the cooking, the shopping, the clothes buying, everything, and dealing with the schools and their interests and their sports and being an all-time taxi driver. So you don't have a hell of a lot of free time.

9:22But at the same time, it can be very rewarding if you both hit it off. And I think we have. So it's good. It works. And nobody should put it off by the feeling that they're too old for it anyway. And I mean, let's talk about that. You said that you don't have a lot of free time to go and do the fun stuff, but you've used your free time very wisely. You've been go-karting and even Glastonbury? Oh, yes, Glastonbury. Well, I haven't missed a festival for 35 years. He had a great time out. You know, we ended up in the third row in front of Coldplay, which was fantastic, and he certainly enjoyed it.

9:54The chat that we're just having now, I could talk to you for hours, and I'm sure you've got some amazing stories. Are you sharing those with your foster child? And what is their reaction to this? Because, you know, this open book of a different world almost, isn't it? Well, that's right, and it is, yeah. Yeah, and I have got thousands of stories from all sorts of different things. I've had a very interesting life, only a fraction of which I've never talked about. I've done all sorts of other things. I had a month in India as a schoolboy, as a guest of the Indian government. I had American relations.

10:23I ended up visiting them in America. Dinner with the Windsors in Palm Beach and things like that. Oh, amazing things I've done in life. But there we are. My wife and I, we were married for 50 years, and we lived in New York and Paris and Brussels. and yeah, we got around and it was very interesting. You are here, Nigel, to talk about fostering and like you say, it has given you a lot and it's given you a kind of a new lease of life at this point. What would you say to anyone who's listening to this who was maybe like you, got a bit of time and got a bit of space? Give it serious thought and go for it and don't be put off.

10:59In the long run, it's very rewarding and you'll never regret having done it, I can assure you, if they decide to opt for it. Since you came into contact with the person that you're spending your Foster time with, what's been the loveliest moment so far? The most rewarding moment was when he recently got his exam results and came out with six very good GCSEs and turned around and said, it's entirely thanks to you. And that was a very, well, tear-jerking moment, really. 80, 80-year-old Foster Dad Nigel speaking to Simon Parkin. Indian fans of some of the world's biggest music stars are looking forward to a record-breaking year of live shows.

11:41Ed Sheeran, whose rare Bhutan concert we heard about in the last episode, is due to play his biggest ever series of shows in India later this year. Last month, Coldplay kicked off their world tour in Mumbai, and more big names are to come. Over the last few decades, international artists have often skipped the country during their tours. So what do these headline visits mean for Indian fans and musicians? Manish Pandey has been finding out. To have that experience in our own country is, I don't think, something that we had. So it's been really cool to see that it's happening more and more.

12:21Hello, I am Anushka Maske. I've been making music since 2020. Anushka feels big artists coming to India provides a chance for independent ones like her. I myself had the opportunity to open for Ben Howard.

12:40It was never about the quality. It was only about discovery. It was only about visibility. According to a ticketing platform Book My Show, there was an 18 % rise in people going to live shows in India in 2024. and it's not only Coldplay. We've already had that viral Dua Lipa performance in Mumbai and the next few months we'll see Ed Sheeran playing his biggest ever tour of the country with Lollapalooza Festival in March featuring the likes of Shawn Mendes and Louis Tomlinson. Hi, I'm Frizzal D'Souza. I'm a singer.

13:21I've been following Ed Sheeran for the longest time because he's one of my earliest songwriter heroes He did start off like a lot of us who are starting out in India who are playing small pubs, who are doing a lot of solo gigs and I very much relate to that and to know that the artist's life is something that's a slow burn something that's a long haul it's very reassuring to know that if someone like him can actually do it, even though he's such a big superstar right now, he did start kind of at the same place that I did. So what's the attraction to India now? We are a country with more than 1.5 billion people, so there's definitely people who are longing to hear these artists.

14:05Peony is a music journalist and thinks artists see an opportunity to grow their own brand through India's large population. I am the Shreed of Punjabi art! And that Indian singer Diljeet Dosanj's collaborations have helped too. Diljeet Dosanj, for example, has been doing a world tour and he's been selling out shows around the world. And all of this gives us so much recognition. I think we did not have the correct infrastructure in the past, but now we are in a position where we can host all of these big events. And she thinks it'll help Indian artists, not just in India, but based all around the world.

14:42Despite the progress, there have been complaints by fans over prices and the quality and availability of venues. So what we need are more venues, more bigger venues, better systems in place for music festivals. Anything is possible in this country. Journalist Peony Hawani ending that report from Manish Pandey. Here's another quick story we wanted to share from India, from the central Madhya Pradesh region. Villagers were shocked to find a tiger from a nearby reserve stuck in a deep well with a boar for company. It's thought the young tigress was chasing her prey when they both fell into the hole.

15:20The big cat initially tried to continue its hunt, batting at the boar in the water before clinging onto a metal hoop on the side with both her paws.

15:34A team of around 60 rescuers lowered a raft for the tiger, who then allowed the boar to climb on too. The big cat, who couldn't be tranquilised in case she drowned, was then coaxed slowly into a large wooden crate to the delight of dozens of onlookers.

15:57The boar was also rescued and both were released back into the nature reserve separately.

16:09Coming up in this podcast, We meet a man helping protect endangered frogs. I feel really proud that at London Zoo I'm able to champion the underdogs, the amphibians and the reptiles and so on.

16:31If 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.

17:09When he died two years ago, the Australian satirist and comedian Barry Humphreys was described as one of the greatest raconteurs of his age. His most famous creation was the character Dame Edna Everidge, whose shrill tones, lilac-rinsed hair and outlandish spectacles charmed audiences worldwide. The suburban housewife was flamboyant, politically incorrect and extremely funny. Dame Edna became an international star in the 1980s. Her boisterous greeting, Hello Possums, was instantly recognisable. Now some of Barry Humphrey's personal items, including Dame Edna props, are going up for auction. Vincent Dowd has been to see what's on offer.

17:57The auction in London is of art and books assembled over decades by Barry Humphrey's, one of the two figures who loom over the pre-sale exhibition is not a surprise. And now, ladies and gentlemen, a Barry Humphreys conglomerate proudly presents the First Lady of World Theatre, Melbourne housewife, mother and megastar, Dame Edna Everidge.

18:21A room at Christie's is devoted to Edna's exotic fashion sense, curator Benedict Winter. You couldn't really have a Barry Humphreys auction without some Dame Edna. And of course you can't really have Dame Edna without some glasses or face furniture, whether it's something like the possum glasses with the little diamante eyes or a classic Dame Edna pair just flared, encrusted with rhinestones. What's the estimate on those? The estimate is£1 ,000 to£1 ,500. One notable dress boasts an iconic image from 1890s Scandinavian art. This is Edvard Munch's Scream, which Dame Edna wore on a Scandinavian tour.

18:59But then on the reverse of the dress is Dame Edna, herself screaming with the Sydney Opera House behind. Dame Edna said that the scream was a representation of a woman who'd realised she'd lost her earrings. But Mark Wiltshire, books expert at the auction house, says with Humphreys, another figure is always there in the background. The nexus of this entire collection is Oscar Wilde, and the connections that come from that are extraordinary. You know, the importance to Barry Humphreys of Oscar Wilde really can't be overstated. Barry in his own life championed so many of the things that were important to Oscar, you know, beauty, wit, theatre, literature.

19:35Here we have probably the most famous work of the 1890s, The Importance of Being Earnest, and this is inscribed by Oscar Wilde to his publisher. So this is almost the most desirable copy you could possibly purchase. I would go one step further and remove your almost to say that it is the most desirable copy. This is number one of 12 of the deluxe issue that were printed. Am I allowed to ask you what the estimate is? The estimate is£100 ,000 to£150 ,000. The realised price, who knows? It's clear Barry Humphreys relished the quiet subversion of 1890s England by Wilde and others. But Benedict Winter thinks the comedian also showed deep human understanding.

20:19But I think Barry was endlessly curious and he understood the human character. And, you know, you see that in Dame Edna, that is an expression of a human character. And I think in his art collecting, he was fascinated by character, by what it means to find interest in literature. And it's a collection built with great curiosity. Benedict Winter ending that report by Vincent Dowd. You might have heard the very good news this week about some teeny tiny creatures on the verge of extinction. This is the call of Darwin's frogs native to Chile, which are endangered because of a deadly fungus. But now, thanks to an extraordinary rescue mission, more than 30 froglets have been born at London Zoo to male parents, with the help of Ben Tapley, who's the curator of amphibians and reptiles.

21:11We wanted to find out more about the man who's dedicated his life to saving creatures that some may find it hard to love. The Happy Pod's Vanessa Heaney spoke to Ben, starting with this week's amazing arrivals. It was one of the best feelings ever. It was one of my career highlights. I mean, we knew the males were pregnant, but actually seeing these tiny, tiny little frogs hopping around was just so heartwarming. And are you surprised at the amount of interest that there's been about these frogs and international interest as well? Yeah, well, I have to say I'm slightly biased being a frog lover.

21:48I mean, Darwin's frogs are iconic and because they breed in this way, I expected it to attract a little bit of attention. But no near as much attention as we've got, which is lovely for the frogs and for the project. The problem was that this was an urgent rescue because a disease called amphibian chytrid had arrived in their stronghold and there wasn't capacity or facilities that could be kind of readied in time in Chile. And that's why we stepped in as a partner on the project and have taken the frogs into our care. But ideally, in the long term, the Darwin frog populations will be established in Chile.

22:28I'm really curious, Ben, how did you get into frogs? Were you quite little? I was tiny when I first got into frogs and salamanders. I think it was just looking in a pond and I saw all those amazing tadpoles and frogs and it just totally captivated me from that point onwards. And since then, I've done everything I can to try and better understand them, study them and now conserve them. I could go on for hours on this. So I guess the thing that people don't realise about amphibians is just how many there are. So there are roughly 9 ,000 different species. And I'm in my early 40s. And over half of the amphibian species that we currently know of have been described in my lifetime.

23:16And so I think it's just how much we don't know about frogs and that they do some really cool things, like the Darwin's frogs, how they breed and give birth. But it's also how threatened they are. So of those roughly 9 ,000 species, more than 40 % of them are threatened with extinction. So they're more threatened than any other group of animals that we know about. And I guess as a trained conservation biologist, I felt that it's the most impactful thing I can do is to focus on amphibians. I guess the other thing is, you know, everyone knows about tigers are threatened, pandas are threatened, And they get a lot of the limelight and a lot of the funding for conservation.

23:56And I feel really proud that at London Zoo, I'm able to champion the underdogs, the amphibians and the reptiles and so on. So there are lots of benefits to having amphibians in the environment. They feed on pests. So, for example, in India, there was large scale harvesting of frogs from rice paddies for the meat trade. and when those frogs disappeared there was a massive proliferation of rice pests so insects and things like that they're also really important prey animals for other species but also i guess in in many different cultures around the world amphibians have been important their signs of fertility and abundance and new life and i guess in modern days we we've got some really beneficial human medicines have been kind of derived from amphibian skin secretions.