Lives Less Ordinary Podcast
Have you ever locked eyes with a stranger and wondered, "What’s their story?" Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Extraordinary stories from around the world.
Episodes to download
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The sports scandal scoop that almost destroyed me
Monday
In 1998 Finnish journalist Johanna Aatsalo published a story that made her a hate figure
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Saved by goats after my fall from the sacred mountain
Mon 11 Nov 2024
When he slid off a 40-metre cliff in the jungle, Morgan Segui thought he was sure to die
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Looking for my son for 58 years, part 2
Mon 4 Nov 2024
Bestselling writer Lesley Pearse never stopped looking for her son
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Looking for my son for 58 years, part 1
Mon 28 Oct 2024
Bestselling writer Lesley Pearse's own story is wilder than any romance
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The Wicker Man: Learning to love the film that broke us
Sun 20 Oct 2024
The director's obsessive quest to make this iconic horror film would devastate his family
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Trailer: World of Secrets: Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods
Thu 17 Oct 2024
Women accuse Mohamed Al Fayed of rape. For the full series, search for World of Secrets
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"He counted 3, 2, 1 – then stabbed me in the heart"
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Kieran Quinlan was on his way to a party when a man with a knife attacked him
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The US’s first black astronaut trainee reaches space at 90
Sun 6 Oct 2024
In May 2024 Ed Dwight became the oldest person to travel to the edge of space
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Love, grief, and an AI chatbot
Sun 29 Sep 2024
Joshua created an AI simulation of his deceased fiancée to help him deal with his loss
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A love story and a battle cry in the Ecuadorian rainforest
Sun 22 Sep 2024
Nemonte Nenquimo is an indigenous leader who fought back against the oil giants
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The boy who hid from Nazis in the woods, part 2
Sun 15 Sep 2024
Maxwell Smart survived the Holocaust by living in a makeshift bunker on the forest floor
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The boy who hid from Nazis in the woods, part 1
Sun 8 Sep 2024
Maxwell Smart survived the Holocaust by living in a makeshift bunker on the forest floor
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Never ever give up: how Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Florida
Sun 1 Sep 2024
American endurance swimmer Diana Nyad's thirty-year dream to swim from Cuba to Florida
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The hungry boy who devoted his life to muscle
Sun 25 Aug 2024
Gilbert Alaskadi was sick of being bullied; he wanted to be invincible.
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Buddhist chants and Ibiza trance: A Spanish boy’s odyssey
Sun 18 Aug 2024
Osel Hita Torres was a baby when he was recognised as a reincarnated spiritual leader
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The Lost Boy: A never-ending journey, part 2
Sat 10 Aug 2024
Salva Dut returns to Sudan to find his dad and decides to get clean water to his village
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The Lost Boy: A never-ending journey, part 1
Sun 4 Aug 2024
As a survivor of Sudan's civil war, Salva Dut's will to keep going has taken him far
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Britain’s infected blood scandal, my quest for the truth
Sun 28 Jul 2024
When he was four, Jason Evans’ dad died after contracting HIV from contaminated blood
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The family hiding in the bush after leaking Russian secrets
Sun 21 Jul 2024
Nick Stride said too much about his former boss, one of Putin’s closest allies
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'It's much easier for them to create a spy than catch a spy'
Sun 14 Jul 2024
Anoosheh Ashoori was imprisoned in Iran, having been falsely accused of espionage
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Dead Man Walking: The US nun who took on the death penalty
Sun 7 Jul 2024
When Helen Prejean wrote to a death row inmate, she had no idea what was coming
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My father Faiz: Pakistan’s revolutionary poet, part 2
Sun 30 Jun 2024
How Salima Hashmi and Faiz defied a dictatorship through satire and poetry
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My father Faiz: Pakistan’s revolutionary poet, part 1
Sun 23 Jun 2024
Salima Hashmi grew up with puppets and poetry, inspiring her own career in performance
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The man who finds water in the desert
Sun 16 Jun 2024
Why Alain Gachet quit a lucrative career in oil to search for water underground
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Kill or be killed: a climber’s dilemma, part 2
Sun 9 Jun 2024
Beth Rodden escaped her kidnappers, but the moment would haunt her in the years to follow
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Kill or be killed: A climber’s dilemma, part 1
Sun 2 Jun 2024
Beth Rodden was on the expedition of her dreams in Kyrgyzstan when she was kidnapped
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The Hiroshima survivor who's still shouting for peace
Sun 26 May 2024
Setsuko Thurlow knows what nuclear war looks like
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Lost in lion country and saved by Spam
Mon 20 May 2024
Two friends stranded in the desert, only a discarded tin held the key to their escape
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Painting, prison and two decades in Guantanamo
Sun 12 May 2024
Mistaken for a terrorist, Ahmed Rabbani was detained without trial. Art became his refuge
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How I convinced police my dad was a murderer
Sun 28 Apr 2024
On the day his mother disappeared, 11-year-old Collier started looking for evidence