Holly Gibbs
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
How one simple appeal on social media helped hundreds of lonely people.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
What's it like to take on one of basketball's biggest stars at chess? And we hear from the man who's just completed an incredible seven-year expedition through 17 countries.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
A man from Belgium has just completed an amazing seven-year expedition from northern Canada to the southern tip of Argentina. Arnaud Maldag travelled 35,000 kilometres through 17 countries by skiing, cycling, horse riding, hiking, kayaking... sailing and, of course, walking.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Arnaud, who's now 35 years old, spent two years training before starting his seven-year trek in the northern Canadian province of Nunavut back in January 2018. The Happy Pod's Harry Bly spoke to him and started by asking him why he'd wanted to do this.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Arno Moldag talking about his epic expedition. Now, if you've ever felt lonely or wished you had more people to meet up with, how about just asking strangers to be your friend? Laura Cooper posted on social media about wanting to start a friendship group after being ill and feeling lonely. And within the hour, she was inundated with messages.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Within a month, Laura, a 42-year-old care worker from Scunthorpe in England, had formed a group with more than 300 other members aged from 16 to 75. Simon Spark went along to one of their parties.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Welcome. We start with a mother who's helped thousands of premature babies by donating her excess breast milk over the past decade and a half. Elise Ogletree, who's 36 and from Texas in the United States, set a new Guinness World Record by giving more than 2,000 litres to what are known as milk banks, charities which provide breast milk for babies whose mothers can't produce enough themselves.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
And that report was by Simon Spark. Now, let's end this podcast in Malaysia, where efforts are being made to breathe new life into indigenous musical instruments. One of them is a sundetang, a wooden stringed instrument with a long neck. It looks a bit like a guitar, but it only has two strings, traditionally made out of tree fibre, and the neck only has six frets or metal strips.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Thune Sundertang, a six-piece band named after the instrument, are on a mission to revive their cultural heritage from the verge of extinction, fusing traditional music with contemporary rock to attract a younger generation. Nikki Beatty spoke to lead singer Dabra Sia and founder Gindung McFreddy-Symond.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
The milk is frozen and pasteurised, and much of it goes to sick or premature babies in neonatal intensive care units, or NICUs, who badly need the protections from infection and disease that only come from human breast milk. Alice is a mother of three who's also been a surrogate.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
To a new Sundertang, performing their single Tangon on the Arts Hour. You can catch the whole programme wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. If you'd like to share a story that's made you happy, the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Adrian Bargova. The producers were Holly Gibbs and Harry Bly. The editor is Karen Martin.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
I'm Janette Jalil. Until next time, goodbye.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
The Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs spoke to Alice and Amy Trotter from the charity Texas Milk Bank, which received some of the breast milk. And she started by asking Alice why she decided to donate in this unusual way.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
To produce that much milk, it must have been incredibly hard for you and your body and incredibly tiring. How did you help yourself through that?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
As you say, you have helped hundreds of thousands of premature babies. How does that feel?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
And Amy, I wonder if I could bring you in here. How much of an impact has Elise's donation had?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Have either of you heard any feedback from any families that have received donated breast milk and how it's helped their family?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Elise, for all the people listening who might find themselves in a similar situation to you that they are overproducing, how did you donate breast milk?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Is that something that you would encourage other people to do?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Amy, how grateful are you for mothers like Elise who can donate breast milk?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Amy Trotter and Elise Ogletree speaking to Holly Gibbs. To Australia now, where a man who'd been missing for almost two weeks in the country's snowy mountains has been found alive. Hadi Nazari was hiking with friends in the remote Kosioskob National Park when he peeled off from the group to take some photographs, but then failed to return to a meeting point. Celia Hatton reports.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Celia Hatton reporting. Now, if you're a basketball fan, you probably know the name Victor Wembanyama. The French athlete is an NBA star for the San Antonio Spurs. But he also plays another game, chess. And he's such a big fan of the board game that he recently challenged fans on social media to turn up to a park in New York to take him on. Not at basketball, but at chess.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Dylan Rittman, who works for a chess website, was one of the lucky ones that got to do just that. He spoke to my colleague Katie Smith.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
Dylan Rittman there talking about the universal appeal of chess. And you can listen to more stories like this on Sports Hour, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. We've all been on holidays where things might not have gone exactly as planned. Well, two Australians who'd visited the UK dreaming of a white Christmas ended up getting a little bit more than they'd been hoping for.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
They were trapped in a pub for four days because of heavy snow. Paul and Naomi Wright were among a group of nearly 30 people forced to spend New Year at Britain's highest pub, the Tan Hill, which is around 528 metres above sea level. They were eventually rescued by local farmers with snowploughs. Chantal Hartle reports.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The woman helping thousands of premature babies
The woman who's helped thousands of premature babies by donating her breast milk. The hiker who survived two weeks alone in Australia's snowy mountains.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From security guard to sculptor at the Met Museum
How does that feel now that you have your own sculpture on display there? That must be really surreal.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From security guard to sculptor at the Met Museum
And you worked there as a security guard surrounded by the art that you loved and the art that you knew you could make. How was that? Was that frustrating?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From security guard to sculptor at the Met Museum
And it was a chance encounter that led to you having your artwork on display in the Met. Talk us through that. How did that happen?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From security guard to sculptor at the Met Museum
And tell us about your sculpture that's now on display there.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: From security guard to sculptor at the Met Museum
I wonder if you could cast your mind back to the day that you were walking around the Met as one of the first places that you visited after you'd moved. What would you tell yourself now if you could go back and tell yourself that your art would be on display?