Listen Now

Amjed Tantesh is determined to teach kids in Gaza to swim no matter how many pools he has to build. Finding freedom in the water as a child, Amjed wanted to train the next generation of Gazans for Olympic swimming glory – not easy when he had to keep abandoning his pools. Yet through relentlessly rebuilding and restarting, over decades of war, Amjed’s swimming initiative found its true purpose. This episode contains upsetting moments involving children. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Louise Morris Interpreter: Youssef Taha

Sergiy Ivanchuk dreamed of stardom, before he was shot in the chest by Russian soldiers. He was a volunteer helping refugees escape Eastern Ukraine during the early days of the 2022 invasion, when his car was attacked. He was hit in the legs, hand and back, and he was lucky to survive a punctured lung. When Sergiy woke up in hospital, he could barely talk, let alone sing, but he refused to give up his ambitions of being a world famous baritone. Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Harry Graham Editor: Andrea Kennedy Sound design: Joel Cox

When Greenlander Helene Thiesen was just seven, two Danish men came to take her away. In 1951, Greenland native Helene Thiesen was just seven years old when two Danish men knocked at the family home. That moment would shape the rest of her life. These men, acting at the invitation of the Danish colonial government were rounding up the brightest Inuit children and sending them to live in Denmark to be re-educated as model Danish citizens or ‘little Danes’. Helene suffered terribly from being separated from her mother and siblings and it would take her many decades to discover the horrible truth behind it all: she was part of an experiment. Of the 22 children that were taken, Helene is now one of the few survivors. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Edgar Maddicott Translator: Alette Rye Scales Voice: Julia Holden

Rejected by family and society, trans actor Alina Khan was forced to spend time on the streets of her native Lahore as a child. Through dance, she found an escape and a living, but also encountered prejudice. Facing down loneliness, poverty and danger, she carved her own principled path to big screen fame. Now she’s won praise for her performance as Biba, a fiery and ambitious trans woman, in international award-winning new film Joyland. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Laura Thomas

In the ring, Blair finds calm amidst the chaos of his life. Back in the US Blair Cobbs falls again on hard times; homeless in Philadelphia his boxing dream seems out of reach. But a string of lucky breaks may just tip the balance. Blair’s brazen alter-ego who’s kept him alive thus far now has a name – Blair ‘the Flair’ – and some recognition in the ring. But could ‘the Flair’ take him all the way to the top of the boxing world? Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Louise Morris

From Beverly Hills to hiding from the law with his dad, Blair’s seen it all. To help him get through the tough times – and there’d be quite a few of those – Blair created a separate persona. This was the fearless alter ego he could rely on to swoop in and save the day. The Peter Pan to his Lost Boy. And Blair was certainly lost now - would he make it back out of Mexico alive? Clips: Clueless/ Amy Heckerling/ Paramount Pictures Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Louise Morris

A baby left in a car, another in a telephone box. It would take decades to find out why. When he was just a baby, David McBride made headline news in Northern Ireland. He had been discovered in the front seat of a stranger’s car, with no trace of who had left him there or why. David was a foundling, and as he grew up he started to want answers. Then, a chance encounter led him to Helen Ward. She was also a foundling, and she was on a very similar mission. Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Maryam Maruf Editor: Munazza Khan

Fergal Keane's work as a war correspondent was destroying him, but he couldn't stop. It was his job as a BBC journalist to help the audience make sense of the madness of war, but he knew there was another more troubling reason he was drawn to these violent situations. They gave him something he couldn't get anywhere else in the same way. A massive rush of adrenaline and a huge dose of validation. Fergal knew this compulsive tendency wasn't healthy, but he couldn't stay away from the frontlines. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: May Cameron and Harry Graham Sound Design: Joel Cox Editor: Munazza Khan

From convent to marriage to factory floor, Thivya Rakini will stand up for herself, and you. From an early age she's fought for what's right. As a child living in Tamil Nadu, she stopped eating so her parents would send her to the school of her choice. She left behind life in a convent, then a marriage, and went on to defy expectations as a working single mother. She’s now the leader of a union advocating for seamstresses making fast fashion for international chain stores and has negotiated an historic deal. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: June Christie

Debra Lampshire started hearing voices aged five. Comforting at first, they soon took control.The voices became so visceral and intense that Debra had to spend 18 years in a psychiatric hospital. Then, a chance friendship with a car mechanic gave her the tools to restore her life, but she’d have to learn to coexist with the voices that once tormented her. If you need support relating to any of the issues we've covered in this interview, you can find more information on the BBC Action line website or at Befrienders.org Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Louise Morris

Pilot Firoz Khimji witnessed his country's wars from above. Then conflict came for him. For most of his life, Uganda had been unstable, but he'd been able to train as a commercial pilot despite the violence. When qualified, Firoz took a job with Ugandan Airlines. This was the 1980s, and he had to routinely fly between territories controlled by different armed groups. War was ever-present, but Firoz would always emerge unscathed, until a routine flight went badly wrong. Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Eric Mugaju and Harry Graham Editor: Munazza Khan

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil risked everything when he faced his parents and society He was next in line to a centuries-old royal dynasty in the Indian state of Gujarat - and grew up in the 1970s in a gilded cage. His family's desire to keep his blue blood away from what they called ‘commoners’ meant that, growing up, he missed out on formative experiences like making friends. After a failed marriage to a princess, Manvendra finally shed his royal cocoon and was determined to break out and explore the world, and his sexuality. With the help of his new friend Ashok, a gay rights activist, the prince began a process of self-acceptance that would be put to the ultimate test. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Edgar Maddicott Editor: Munazza Khan

Journalist Ben Raines went in search of a sunken ship with a dark history. A phone call out of the blue had set him on his hunt for the Clotilda, an American vessel that had illegally transported enslaved West African people to the US. On arrival it had been burnt, and hidden deep in the Alabama swamp. The story of the ship and its passengers had been kept alive by generations of people descended from those who had been enslaved. But these inherited histories were shrouded in secrecy, fear, and silence - seldom spoken of outside that community. So, when Ben dived into the swamp to find the Clotilda, it was more than a shipwreck that bubbled to the surface. Emily Webb speaks to Ben Raines and descendant Garry Lumbers about their intertwining stories. Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Emily Webb and Olivia Lynch-Kelly Editor: Munazza Khan

Nakuset blocked out painful memories of being removed from her indigenous Canadian family Nakuset only goes by one name and it means "The Sun" in her indigenous Canadian culture. Born into an abusive household, her early days were difficult and it wasn't long before she and her sister Sonya were taken into care by social services. This was the 1970s, and there was a widespread policy of taking indigenous children and putting them up for adoption with white families, removing them from their culture in the process. Nakuset was adopted, her sister wasn't. It was a painful process for Nakuset, but her eventual reunion with Sonya as an adult helped her get in touch with her heritage. The two sisters became close, but sadly their respective childhood experiences had left them scarred, and the reunion didn't have a fairy-tale ending. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Harry Graham Editor Munazza Khan If you've been affected by any of the issues relating to mental health in this programme, help is available at Befrienders.org or at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Javier Zamora travelled alone from El Salvador to the US when he was just nine years old. He had been living with relatives after his parents migrated to the US, but longed to be in his mother’s arms. His parents hired a ‘coyote’, or people smuggler, to bring him across the borders, but the trip went wrong. Javier was abandoned by the coyote, and found himself reliant on strangers for survival as he journeyed for two months by bus, boat, and on foot, nearly dying in the Sonoran Desert. Javier is now a poet in the US, whose work explores the trauma of that experience, and what it means to be an undocumented migrant. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Rebecca Vincent

In 2020, Mo’min Swaitat unearthed a treasure trove of lost Palestinian music in an abandoned building. Out of thousands of dusty cassettes there was one that caught his eye: a bright yellow tape, completely unmarked except for a handwritten label that said ‘Intifada.’ Mo’min loved the music and a series of clues led him to Hanan Awwad, an elderly Palestinian woman living in occupied East Jerusalem. In this episode, Hanan tells the story of how her brother Riad made the Intifada tape. There was disco, protest and poetry, but the consequences would be dangerous. Through an underground network of music lovers, Riad’s songs would survive and eventually end up with Mo’min. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Maryam Maruf Editor: Munazza Khan Sound design: Joel Cox Mix: Giles Aspen With thanks to Diana Alghoul for translation support

Mo’min Swaitat unearthed a vast trove of forgotten Palestinian music. Not only did it hold long-lost recordings of his own Bedouin family, but also a mysterious yellow cassette of protest songs set to an electro-disco beat. Mo’min became captivated by the yellow tape. It would open up a world of underground music from one of the most turbulent times in Palestinian history, the first Intifada. But could he track down who’d made it? Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Maryam Maruf Editor: Munazza Khan Sound design: Joel Cox Mix: Giles Aspen With thanks to Diana Alghoul for translation support

At 18 Nikki Owen set fire to the family home – and she didn’t know why. Nikki awaited trial in solitary confinement, but her father searched for answers in medical science, and started working on a ground-breaking legal defence to get her out. If you've been affected by any of subjects in this programme you can find support and additional information below: BBC Action Line: https://www.bbc.co.uk/actionline/ Befrienders Worldwide: https://www.befrienders.org/ The International Association for Premenstrual Disorders: https://iapmd.org/ National Association for Premenstrual Syndromes https://www.pms.org.uk Presenter: Emily Webb Producer:  Tom Harding Assinder

How the friendship of a stranger helped Betsy Sailor when she needed it most. Betsy was living alone at university in the late 1970s when a man broke into her apartment and raped her at knifepoint. He was later caught, and it turned out he was a student, and a player on the successful Penn State football team. Taking him to court was a daunting task but then a fellow football player, Irv Pankey, stepped up and told Betsy he was on her side and would look after her. Their remarkable friendship changed the course of Betsy’s life. Film clip: Betsy and Irv/ Nicole Noren/ ESPN Films Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Rebecca Vincent

Analía’s father was accused of being a government torturer — he said it was a lie. A phone call turned Analía Kalinec’s comfortable life upside down. Her father was accused of crimes committed during the Argentine dictatorship twenty years previously, when around 30,000 people were disappeared by security forces. He denied it, but Analía decided to investigate. Her findings would change her view of the father she had loved. Analía has written a book called Llevaré su Nombre (I Carry Your Name). Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Louise Morris Interpreter: Salomé Paulo