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Saving the songs of the Sahara

The defiant life of desert music pioneer Fadimata Walet Oumar

• 29 mins

The doctor treating children 8000 miles away

Afghan refugee Meena Said is saving the lives of children in her homeland

• 30 mins

‘Aids Angel’ – I gave love in a time of prejudice and fear

Ruth Coker Burks cared for hundreds of HIV+ gay men abandoned by their families

• 40 mins

The spies in my house

Confronting the Stasi agent who watched me for fifteen years

• 26 mins

Andy Cole: Goals, glory and the battle for his life

Manchester United star Andy Cole went from top scorer to transplant survivor

• 31 mins

The quiet Louisiana grandma who became an environmental warrior

Sharon Lavigne campaigned to stop a plastics factory being built in her riverside parish

• 22 mins

Living without time: The cave experiment we didn't want to end

Fifteen people lived in darkness to see what it did to their perception of time

• 12 mins

A top Iranian chess umpire and her impossible decision

Shohreh Bayat was one of Asia’s top chess umpires until she was faced with an ultimatum

• 24 mins

Frank Sinatra's Australian showdown

When Ol’ Blue Eyes made Australia see red

• 26 mins

Hunting 'The Serpent': the diplomat turned detective

An unlikely investigator on the trail of serial killer Charles Sobhraj

• 38 mins

My mother, India’s forgotten disco diva

Rupa Biswas Sen’s long-lost Indian disco record became an underground hit after 30 years

• 26 mins

I survived Chechnya's 'gay purge'

Amin Dzhabrailov escaped his homeland after being kidnapped and tortured

• 31 mins

My life collecting the folk songs of Iraq

How vocalist Sa'di al-Hadithi is preserving Iraqi folk music for posterity

• 22 mins

Fire, ice and thunder: A chase on the high seas

Taking down the Thunder, the world's most notorious poaching ship

• 37 mins

Discovering my sister's inner world

A story of sisterly love, migration and art

• 37 mins

Life as the UK's first black TV reporter

Broadcasting legend Sir Trevor McDonald looks back on his life and career

• 39 mins

Making friends with the man who stole my paintings

Artist Barbora Kysilkova formed an unlikely friendship after the theft of her paintings

• 35 mins

The siege and the cat that saved my life

Amra Sabic El-Rayess turned 16 as Bosnia Herzegovnia plunged into civil war

• 23 mins

I ran with the men, and changed history

Kathrine Switzer was attacked for running in the men-only 1967 Boston Marathon

• 26 mins

My unknown song became a political anthem in Hong Kong

A phone alert revealed Matthew Keegan had become an overnight pop star 5,000 miles away

• 34 mins

Rugby star Gareth Thomas: Strong, vulnerable and HIV positive

Rugby legend Gareth Thomas was blackmailed and lived in fear before revealing he was HIV+

• 39 mins

Stories from Syria's secret library

Under siege: how a group of friends risked everything to create a literary sanctuary

• 40 mins

A plane crash left me lost in the Amazon

Brazilian pilot Antônio Sena survived 36 days alone after crashing into dense rainforest

• 40 mins

Banned from voting for my wife, so we changed the law

Desmond and Sheena Meade’s historic battle to give ex-felons the right to vote in Florida

• 40 mins

Birdwatching with the men who kidnapped me

Diego Calderón was taken hostage in Colombia on a biology field trip

• 23 mins

From intensive care to the Olympic podium

How fencer Keeth Smart won an Olympic medal months after being diagnosed with leukaemia

• 38 mins

A decade without Dan: The search for my brother gave me purpose

The loss of Loren O’ Keeffe’s brother led her to help families with missing loved ones

• 39 mins

Trapped in a "metal coffin" on the ocean floor

42 metres down on the seabed with 22 sailors inside: the story of the submarine Pacocha

• 46 mins

From songbird to birdsong expert

Former opera singer Gisela Kaplan on how she became an expert in bird communication

• 33 mins

Seven months trapped in an airport

Hassan Al Kontar had to live at Kuala Lumpur airport after he got stuck in a legal limbo

• 38 mins