The Happy Pod: Six months on, revisiting the baby born under the rubble

00:00: Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis

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00:27: On the podium, listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

00:33: Hey y'all, I'm Kentucky Gallyu.

00:35: I'm in San Diego, California, and me and my dog Derby are happy to be on the HappyPod.

00:40: Hello, I'm Rose.

00:41: I'm in South Africa, and this is the HappyPod.

00:45: Hello, my name is Barry Boy, and I am on a recycling mission.

00:50: You are listening to BBC's HappyPod.

00:53: Ready? Let's get on then, this is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service.

01:03: I'm Jackie Lennard and in this edition uploaded on Saturday the 12th of August from Syria.

01:15: Six months on, we catch up with the baby born beneath the rubble of a devastating earthquake.

01:21: The teenager who has made it his mission to get people to recycle their batteries

01:25: also the discovery that rats like and laugh as much as the next person.

01:29: The rats need to get to know the experimenter

01:31: and then you can tickle them and they will meet these giggler sounds.

01:35: A new world record for a martial artist in India

01:38: and the mum and daughter from Antigua who won a trip to space.

01:42: He felt like a part of the team, a part of the chef,

01:45: at the part of the universe that was incredible.

01:55: Now to check back in on a little moment of hope

01:58: that emerged from the rubble of a disaster,

02:01: the earthquake that devastated so much of Turkey and Syria in February.

02:05: You might remember it.

02:06: This was from a report at the time by Lees DuSet, our chief international correspondent.

02:12: And then this moment, a newborn baby pulled from the ruins.

02:17: Even more, her umbilical cord had to be cut from her mother.

02:22: That little girl was initially called

02:24: IA by medical staff, meaning miracle,

02:27: but her surviving family now call her Afra after her mother.

02:31: She's now six months old, and Halan Rasek,

02:33: a BBC Arabic, told us about her, starting with her dramatic rescue.

02:38: Her family was at home when the earthquake hit,

02:41: but Afra was born under the rubble of her family home.

02:45: All her family was killed, but when people were running around,

02:49: her uncle, her crying of a baby, and he started looking,

02:53: then he found Afra with her umbilical cord still attached to her mother's body, so he rescued her.

03:01: And after she was found amid all this destruction,

03:06: people really latched on to this tiny point of joy.

03:12: Tell us a bit more about the response to her rescue.

03:15: I was there in Turkey back then and the damage was something that I'd never seen before in

03:21: other earthquakes or even war zones. So it was absolutely astonishing when the video of the

03:28: rescue of baby Alfred started to circulate, it managed to captivate the whole world of this

03:35: very happy joyful story. People called it a miracle, was a moment of hope amid a devastating moment

03:42: for two nations. And then the proposals to adopt her started to flood in from all over the world.

03:50: And then the uncle also told us that they were offered to go and live abroad, but they decided

03:55: to stay in Syria. And why did they decide that? Because it must have been pretty tempting to leave

04:00: at that point. They told us they think it's better to stay there even though that they lost many of

04:06: their family members but they are still attached to this part of Syria. It's their home and they

04:12: don't want to leave it. So now little Afra is six months old and she lives with her aunt, her uncle,

04:19: and seven cousins. How is she doing? She seems very happy. Her pictures, her videos are amazing.

04:26: she seems absolutely fine. Her uncle actually told us that in the beginning, her body was

04:31: understandably full of bruises everywhere. She had a chest infection because of the

04:36: rubble and all the dust she inhaled as soon as she was born. But he said six months on

04:42: her health state is 100%. You can see her pictures, the smiling and she seems like a perfectly

04:49: healthy, happy baby. The uncle told us that he kept some pictures of her family to show her

04:55: when she's older and he said for him she is one of his children.

04:59: The pictures really are lovely. She has an incredibly sweet little smile.

05:04: Obviously her arrival in the world coincided with destruction and loss and trauma,

05:10: but people do feel hope because of her. So what is the future hold for?

05:15: At the moment the road ahead seems to be difficult because the family lived in a camp tent for

05:22: a couple of months now they are renting a house, but because of economic situation, they

05:26: find it more and more expensive, but they are actually, and these are the words, they

05:31: are grateful for the chance they have, and they think Afra maybe brought them a new perspective

05:38: to life, a new start to life, and they are just waiting to see what's going to happen.

05:43: But the uncle said he hopes that there is some light on the Syrians people, especially

05:49: those living in the northwestern part of the country.

05:53: And just finally Hannah, we mentioned the seven cousins,

05:55: one of whom is actually the same age as Afra.

05:58: So what do all the cousins say about her?

06:01: For them, she's a sister.

06:03: She is named after her mother.

06:05: They say she reminds them a lot of her mother and father.

06:09: The other baby, the other cousin was born three days after Afra,

06:13: was also named after another aunt who died in the earthquake.

06:17: And I think for the family, those two babies, they bring a lot of hope.

06:21: And when you look at their pictures, they seem to be quite happy.

06:25: Happy kids.

06:26: Hannah and Ruddock, or BBC Arabic.

06:28: Now, it's something that only a very few people have experienced.

06:32: Floating in zero gravity and gazing out of a spaceship window

06:38: to wonder at views of the earth and the black of space.

06:42: And now, a mother and daughter from Antigua, who won their tickets in a lottery

06:46: and an 80-year-old British man with Parkinson's disease have joined that select group.

06:51: They were the first members of the public

06:53: to go into space on a Virgin Galactic flight.

06:56: The flight lasted just over an hour before returning safely to Earth.

06:59: Sophie Long was watching from the spaceport in New Mexico.

07:03: Thank you.

07:04: Feeling great.

07:06: John Goodwin and mother and daughter duo Keisha Shahaf

07:09: and Anamiya's make their way to the spaceship unity.

07:13: Then at 8.30 local time, liftoff, on schedule and in perfect conditions.

07:19: This is the moment John Goodwin has been waiting for a quarter of his life.

07:24: He is now on his way to space on Virgin Galactic's first private passenger flight.

07:29: Three, two, one, release, release, release.

07:32: And this is what it's all about.

07:34: As the spaceship unity hit Apigee, more than 50 miles above the Earth's surface.

07:39: Congratulations to John, to Keisha, to Anna.

07:42: becoming astronauts today and a special congratulations to our unity pilot Kelly for her first space play.

07:48: Three minutes of weightlessness and views of our planet that only astronauts have ever experienced.

07:55: You are so much more connected to everything than you would expect to be.

08:00: Like you felt like a part of the team, a part of the ship, a part of the universe, a part of Earth.

08:07: It was incredible.

08:09: safely back on Earth, John told me his experience was better than he ever imagined it would be.

08:15: Looking at Earth from space, the curvature of the Earth, the brightness of space, the pure clarity was amazing.

08:30: In 2014 you got diagnosed with Parkinson's.

08:33: Three years ago you went up Kilimanjaro.

08:37: Today you went to space.

08:40: How are you going to top this?

08:41: What's next for John Goodwin?

08:43: The great thing of waiting 18 years was it wasn't a problem.

08:48: I got something to look forward to, which was very few other people that had done.

08:54: And that has now happened.

08:56: I suppose I've got to go to the moon.

09:00: Astronaut John Goodwin ending that report by Sophie Long in New Mexico.

09:04: Michael Breckler's a neuroscientist at Humboldt University in Berlin

09:08: doesn't think we know enough about fun, play,

09:12: and the parts of the brain responsible for laughter.

09:15: So he has made it his work to find out more.

09:18: And that involves tickling rats.

09:20: We understood for a while already that ticklishness and playfulness belong very much together in rats, so we used this connection tool

09:29: which was looked for a centre for playfulness in the rat brain.

09:32: And did you find it?

09:34: Yes, we looked at a mid-brain structure, PhD, and this is a place where we indeed found

09:40: indications of playfulness. We then, while playing and tickling the rats, we measure

09:45: the activity of single neurons, but the rats need to get to know the experimenter,

09:49: and then you can tickle them and they will meet these giggle sounds, these ultrasonic

09:54: avocalizations when you are touched them. Laughter isn't necessarily indicative of what we

10:00: we think of as a sense of humor, of finding things funny.

10:03: How can you tell?

10:04: In humans, I think it's debated if ticklishness

10:08: and humor is laughter are one of the same thing.

10:10: In the reds, I would say it's 100% the same thing.

10:13: And amazingly enough, they are also quite nonticklish reds.

10:17: You work with them for a while.

10:19: They just don't enjoy it all that much.

10:20: And you bet they will not play with you.

10:23: So where does your research go next?

10:25: There's many things that we do not understand.

10:27: For example, the young red pups we work with, they play night and day and you can see the mother red.

10:33: She's unable to sleep because the young pups are so playful.

10:36: And as they go to the older, they lose most of their playfulness.

10:40: And we obviously think it ought to be changes in the brain, but we don't know what it is.

10:45: Another thing that we would like to know, or they're clear to us,

10:48: some animals are very playful, others not like monkeys, incredibly playful.

10:53: My very non-blayful animal.

10:55: We would want to know, does it relate to differences in this structure?

10:59: Do you enjoy your work, Michael?

11:01: Absolutely. I think this is a fun thing to study and it's fast and eating babies.

11:05: Like we had this paradigm where we play hide and seek with rats.

11:09: They are very strategic, very impressive hide and seek players.

11:12: I've never seen that do anything quite as complex as these hide and seek games that we did to them.

11:18: Neuroscientist Michael Brettoners in Berlin.

11:21: Now we do love a world record in the Happy News team and 27-year-old martial artist

11:26: Navin Kumar has just reclaimed one for cracking the most walnuts in one minute, with his head.

11:33: His total 273, that's over 4.5 nuts per second.

11:38: By doing so, he broke the previous record of 254, taking the title from serial record breaker, Muhammad Rashid.

11:47: Lippaker Palem takes up the story.

11:49: Indians have a deep enthusiasm for record setting, which in recent years has developed into something of an obsession.

11:57: Hence, the long-standing rivalry between Navin Kumar and Mohamed Rashid.

12:03: Mohamed first broke the record in 2014 with a total of 150 Walnuts cracked before shattering

12:11: his own record again in 2016 with 181.

12:16: a year later, in order to determine who was truly the world's best nutcracker, Navin,

12:22: who was 22 at the time, and Muhammad, who was 36, were brought together, head to head, so to speak.

12:28: On the set of the Italian TV program, La Notte, they record the night of records.

12:39: Both contestants broke the standing record, with Muhammad emerging victorious, cracking 254 walnuts compared to Navin's 239.

12:50: Now, five years later, Navin's revenge has made headlines in Indian newspapers, prompting

12:56: commentaries such as, Navin has put blood, sweat and tears into reasserting himself as the world's foremost walnut cracker.

13:06: Guinness World Records shared a video of the feat on Twitter, showing Navin smashing walnuts

13:11: on a table one by one with his forehead. Each had to crack into at least two halves, and

13:18: he got only one attempt per nut. The video was posted only a few days ago, and has already

13:23: been viewed nearly 100,000 times with hundreds more likes and retweets. The comments included

13:31: lines like show me his forehead. There was one which probably best summed it all up.

13:36: This is nuts.

13:38: That was Lippaker Pellum. Please don't try that at home.

13:45: Still to come.

13:46: I just put him out there on the water and he just kind of just loved it. He followed me in the water when I was trying to learn to surf myself.

13:52: I just put him on a board and pushed him and he rode it all the way to the beach.

13:55: A man, a dog and a surfboard.

14:04: It's a pretty good bet that you have at least one lithium ion battery somewhere near you right now.

14:10: They turn up all over the place in cell phones, tablets, laptops, scooters, e-bikes,

14:15: toothbrushes, hearing aids, watches and for solar power backup storage you get the picture.

14:20: But it's estimated that only about 5% of lithium ion batteries get recycled

14:25: and 14-year-old Srinahal Tamana wants to fix that.

14:29: And a few years ago, I used to just love to play with drones like eight year old me.

14:34: Every day I used to go out with my friends playing with drones.

14:37: But then after I learned about how much of an impact they're causing on the environment,

14:41: that is when I got immediately connected.

14:43: I realized that how could my cool little toy be like connected to this big environment problem?

14:50: Just explain to us what the actual issue is.

14:53: The issue is not that many people know about the importance of recycling use batteries.

14:58: Did there is no over 15 billion batteries are thrown away each year worldwide?

15:04: So after learning more about this, I realized that since not that many people know about this

15:09: I can start my organization

15:10: Recycle my battery to help support battery recycling and teach the people so that they can get the opportunity

15:17: To recycle their used batteries for a better tomorrow. So your organization is recycled my battery

15:22: But what do you actually do?

15:24: So we basically go to stores, public events and door to door,

15:28: talking to people on the importance of resettling news batteries.

15:31: What do you guys do with the news batteries?

15:33: So once the battery dies, what do you guys do with it?

15:37: Normally it's in the garbage.

15:38: Yeah, we're throwing in garbage right now.

15:40: I thought we put in the recycle, they take care of it.

15:43: Are they going to reuse to create a new battery?

15:47: Yeah, they basically take the batteries into a sorting facility.

15:50: in the chemicals that are extracted and those can be reused in new batteries or let me use

15:55: in other items. So for example, outland batteries like a manganese and zinc can be used to make

16:00: powerful fertilizer to grow and energize corn growth. Me and my team members replace

16:06: variables in stores, libraries, offices, etc. And what sort of response do you get when you go out

16:12: and you talk to adults? Throughout these years I have noticed one thing. When an adult talks

16:18: on a door it doesn't have necessarily such a big impact so usually they're very

16:22: supportive and shocked whenever I talk to them because they don't expect a young kid

16:27: like me to run a nonprofit like this. And literally you mentioned your team

16:32: let's hear from a couple of them. Hi I'm Nitya Tamana and I'm the founder

16:38: Nehal sister. I'm eight years old. So I'm an executive board member when a

16:44: a battery bin is full, they give it to us and you investigate if the batteries are good or bad.

16:51: My name is Dev Sharia Dosa Patti. I'm 13. When I was like in elementary school I heard about

16:58: all these like wildfires that were going on and I did a little bit more research on like what

17:03: the causes were. I knew that I had to do something. Now you're 14. So where do you see your future

17:12: I hope that in the future I would be able to recycle the 15 billion batteries being thrown away each year worldwide to zero.

17:20: So that way everybody knows about the importance of recycling batteries.

17:25: So that is my ultimate goal.

17:27: And you can hear more from Nehal in the documentary podcast of billion batteries look out for it

17:32: on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

17:35: Now, some of the other things that have caught our attention.

17:38: The US has approved the first pill to treat postpartum or postnatal depression, a serious

17:43: and potentially life-threatening condition that affects an estimated one in seven mothers in the US.

17:49: It will be sold under the name Zazouve and is a once daily pill taken for two weeks.

17:55: somewhat surprisingly, until now treatment for the condition was available only as an intravenous injection.

18:00: You might have noticed how obsessed we are with sleep.

18:02: A travel company in Belgium is offering a special deal for couples if one of them snores.

18:08: Under the De Blau Vogel offer, you'll get two hotel rooms instead of one, so you can

18:12: both sleep in peace with a discount on the second room and a connecting door.

18:17: Events have been taking place to celebrate 50 years since the birth of hip hop.

18:21: It all began when brother and sister Cindy and Clive Campbell put on a back-to-school party

18:27: in their parents' apartment in the Bronx using two turntables and a microphone.

18:32: on when you are listening, run DMC, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube will be, are or have been,

18:38: performing at New York City's Yankee Stadium. Now, I'm not sure if this counts as good news

18:43: as such, but it's certainly an achievement. Congratulations, Kimberly Winter from the US,

18:48: who now holds the Guinness World Record for the loudest ever burp by a woman.

18:53: At 107.3 decibels. And no, we're not playing it. Now, Nicole from South Africa, said as this.

19:05: And when we called Nicole, she suggested we talk to her mum, Ros.

19:10: That was bacon and egg frying for the breakfast that we have on the weekend when it's a special day.

19:17: It's something that in past years, when I was on a farm, the whole family had every morning for breakfast.

19:24: I think bacon and egg is the one thing you can eat every day and never get tired of.

19:28: It's delicious, but what makes it special now is that these days, because it's fatty,

19:35: it's wicked as well, which makes it even nicer.

19:38: I cannot argue with any of that.

19:40: Now Nicole sent us this sound as the sound that brings her joy and she said that you took

19:47: her in and fed her up when she was really quite poorly. Tell us about that.

19:54: She got very sick and she did what you do, you come home to mother and yes, I've

19:59: fattened her up nicely and feeding her bacon and egg for breakfast is one of the

20:03: things that helps. The food you had as a child, all the smell of food that you've

20:08: had before in love, it brings back good feelings and good food makes you happy.

20:13: food is the one way you can show love and show caring and your I live on my own

20:19: then cooking is not very exciting when it's just for you it's much more fun to

20:23: cook for somebody else as well. Ross in South Africa. Six years ago former

20:29: paratrooper Christian Lewis set out for a long walk he had ten pounds in his

20:34: pocket a dilapidated tent and a plan to walk the coastline of the UK now that

20:41: 14,000 km journey is done and along the way Chris found some company. His fiance Kate,

20:46: their baby son Magnus and I know you all want this detail, a dog called Jet. And he

20:53: says the journey restored his faith in humanity.

20:56: After leaving the forces, I became a single parent and somewhere along the line after 10

21:01: years I had lost my way a bit and no matter what I did, nothing seemed to change. I've

21:06: I always described it as being sort of boxed and you just can't seem to fight your way out of it.

21:10: I knew that I needed to do something drastic and I knew that this was my chance to change

21:14: some things so I just had this epithemy one day, a voice in my head just said just go

21:17: and walk the UK coastline and literally a few days later I was gone and it was yet a life-changing decision, I must say.

21:23: You know, I made a promise to myself the first day that I started this walk that I just

21:27: wanted to return back to Swansea, you know, a happy man and I think the great thing about

21:31: adventure and you know, something so unplanned as well is you just don't know what's around

21:35: the next corner and I returned Swansea more than a happy man.

21:38: And how did you pick up a partner along the way?

21:40: Listen, I asked myself that question every single day.

21:44: I think if you're doing something that you love doing,

21:46: if you're doing a lot of it, then I think it's only natural that you're going to meet

21:49: somebody who loves doing the same thing.

21:51: And Kate and I, when we very first met, we just really hit it off.

21:55: We played talks about things we wanted to do in the future and I couldn't believe I was listening

21:59: to somebody say stuff that was so similar to what I wanted to do.

22:02: So I think it was never supported Kate and I were going to get together.

22:05: What do you do now though?

22:06: So you've walked around the UK coastline for six years.

22:09: You've done, it's raised a phenomenal amount for charity.

22:11: Like now, how, what do you do on a Sunday?

22:14: I can't imagine you're the kind of guy who just sits down and watches the tele.

22:17: It's okay.

22:18: And I've decided that we're going to head back up north.

22:20: I think somewhere in Scotland where we can just have a time to ourselves and just plan our next adventure.

22:24: I know for a fact that Kate and I are sort of people that just love to be on the move

22:28: all the time, seeing different places, seeing different cultures.

22:31: So we're just going to go straight on to another adventure.

22:33: We don't know exactly what it is, but I'm pretty sure it'll be something we take to us.

22:37: And it takes some time.

22:38: Our little boy Magnus, he is just thriving in the outside life.

22:41: And we're just confident that I think anything that we think of, we're just going to go out there and smash it.

22:46: Christian Lewis was talking to Helen Skeleton.

22:49: Now last week, we talked about the joy of watching live sport and to illustrate the point.

22:54: Thousands have just attended a big sporting event on the Californian coast.

22:58: The annual world dog surfing championships have been taking place with different categories

23:03: and disciplines for the competitors who are clad in colourful life-fests and cool sunglasses

23:08: or goggles and appear to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

23:11: The extra large dog category was won by Derby.

23:15: Derby and his human friend Kentucky Galle Hu also came second in the human dog tandem category.

23:23: And Kentucky told us about the sport.

23:25: The competitions are awesome.

23:27: There's three categories for these competitions. There's the solo division where the dog is by

23:31: itself on the board and owner pushes them into the wave and they ride the wave as long as they can

23:37: and with style and is what is judged on. The second part of the competition is tandem dog dog where

23:43: there's two or more dogs on a board that get pushed into a wave and is definitely a sight to see

23:48: with all these different sized dogs on one board and then there's tandem dog human where the both

23:53: with the owner and the dog are riding the waves together,

23:57: trying to make it all way to the beat.

23:58: So the dogs usually as a solo when they're getting

24:01: pushed in the wave, they're actually just riding the board.

24:04: There are some dogs that I have seen that have actually shifted their weight

24:08: that make the board do a little dance or even keep the nose up.

24:12: And it's kind of cool to see that they kind of understand it

24:14: like, hey, if I move back a little bit,

24:16: this nose comes up and we go further.

24:18: Now of course, this is a podcast

24:20: And therefore people cannot see quite how magnificent Derby looks, describe him for us.

24:27: Derby is an 11 year old golden doodle.

24:30: He's kind of a beige color, but he has a mohawk that goes all the way from his head down his back to his tail.

24:38: Also the mohawk part on his head is dyed blue.

24:41: And he wears sunglasses.

24:43: And I actually also have a blue mohawk.

24:46: And we always wear the same matching sunglasses.

24:49: He's 11 now.

24:51: How long has he been surfing?

24:52: Has he been surfing since he was a pop?

24:55: No.

24:55: So I got Derby while I was living in Atlanta, Georgia at the time.

24:59: We moved to San Diego seven years ago.

25:01: He had never even stepped foot on a beach.

25:04: Put him out there on the water, and he just kind of just loved it.

25:06: He jumped into water immediately, hanging out,

25:09: and followed me in the water when I was trying to learn to surf myself.

25:12: And I just put him on a board, pushed him, and he

25:14: wrote it all the way to the beach.

25:15: I was kind of mad and happy at the same time

25:17: when I first saw him do it because I was like, man, that's pretty cool.

25:20: You're surfing.

25:21: Then I was like, Oh, man, you just learned how to surf before I did.

25:26: And you say that he loved it, but hand on heart.

25:30: Do you think he really loves it?

25:31: Or he's just humoring you?

25:33: Derby, when he hits the beach and I'm still out in the water after pushing him,

25:37: he actually turns back around, runs back out to me and wants to do it again.

25:43: And it's such a sight to see because like some dogs are kind of like hitting the beach

25:46: know, kind of like, well, I don't know if I want to go back out there or the owner has to get

25:49: up and put them on the board. He gets on the board when I pull it up. There's times when I want to

25:54: go surfing by myself and I'll leave the house with my board and he kind of gives me that look like,

25:58: hey man, I come with you. So I have to get our tandem board out and he jumps in the truck and ready

26:03: to go. He wants to do anything I want to do. We actually have a motorcycle sidecar that we ride

26:08: around in. We have a bicycle sidecar. It's all such crazy stuff.

26:12: Kentucky Galle Hu, friend of Derby. And yes, I will be sharing his picture on social media, of course

26:18: I will, with the hashtag the HappyPod. And that's it from us for now. Remember, if you would like to

26:27: be part of the HappyPod, you can email us the sound that brings you joy. We would also love to

26:31: hear if you have any stories to share that will make us all smile as ever the address global podcast

26:37: at BBC.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Emma Crow, the producer was Anna Murphy.

26:43: This is what editor Karen Martin's listening to right now.

26:49: Which means that this week's editor was Paul Day. I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye.

27:03: Do you ever feel a bit overwhelmed when you check the news on your phone first thing in the morning?

27:08: I'm Hannah, I'm the presenter of a new podcast called What in the World from the BBC World

27:18: Service.

27:19: We're going to be here trying to help you make sense of the world around you so you can

27:23: feel a little bit better about what's happening in the world.

27:27: You can find what in the world wherever you get your BBC podcasts.