Lives Less Ordinary

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.

World Service,224 episodes

Episodes

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I was forced to rob my own bank, part 2
How do you forgive a man who held a gun to your daughter’s head?
01 Jun 2026,23 mins
I was forced to rob my own bank, part 1
In 2000, armed men burst into Michelle Renee's home and held her child hostage
25 May 2026,38 mins
Kangaroo Dundee: I gave it all up to become a ‘kangaroo mum’
Chris 'Brolga' Barns fell in love with joeys and built an orphaned kangaroo sanctuary
18 May 2026,40 mins
I'm a champion boxer, but couldn't tell my mum
A gym class encounter sparked Ramla Ali's rise from bullied child to famous boxer
11 May 2026,40 mins
Strangers to coworkers to friends to...sisters?
Cassandra and Julia were uncannily alike. A chance gift revealed a past neither expected
04 May 2026,39 mins
Taught to kill – my childhood under the Khmer Rouge
Loung Ung was forced to be a child soldier in Cambodia under Pol Pot’s regime
27 Apr 2026,49 mins
Bonus: Dear Daughter: Surviving my daughter's killing
When 19-year-old Ann was killed, her mother chose restorative justice
23 Apr 2026,24 mins,
I was taken as a baby…I didn’t know who I was, part 2
Jackie makes sporting history for Ireland and uncovers the truth about her past
20 Apr 2026,39 mins
I was taken as a baby, I didn’t know who I was, part 1
A black girl in a white town, Jackie’s made to grow up silenced and alone
13 Apr 2026,39 mins
Skepta’s Mum: How I raised a rap legend
Ify Adenuga had very strict parents. As a mum she rewrote the rulebook, nurturing a star
06 Apr 2026,21 mins
Me, dad and the zombie chickens
Lloyd and Lily-Hayes Kaufman on cult horror filmmaking and life in the Tromaverse
30 Mar 2026,38 mins
Growing up black in a white family – the truth behind my birth
Music star Andrew Lovell’s home life hid a terrible – yet beautiful – secret
23 Mar 2026,38 mins
Music was my salvation: the homeless man and the piano
Francois was homeless when he learned to play a train station piano from scratch
16 Mar 2026,39 mins
Hercules: the grizzly bear who became family
Maggie Robin raised a bear cub who grew into an extraordinary companion
09 Mar 2026,40 mins
Sects, lies and videotape: a Syrian story, part 2
Accused of spying in rebel-held Syria, Loubna Mrie faces peril and a shattering loss
02 Mar 2026,42 mins
Sects, lies and videotape: a Syrian story, part 1
Loubna Mrie secretly filmed Syria’s uprising, despite her family’s loyalty to the regime
23 Feb 2026,43 mins
The couple who foiled New Zealand’s biggest drugs plot
An ordinary couple caught up in the country's biggest meth case for doing a good deed
16 Feb 2026,38 mins
I bought Macclesfield FC while drunk and it saved my life
When Rob Smethurst was gripped by addiction, building a football club helped him get out
09 Feb 2026,42 mins
Colm Tóibín: How an Irish boy with a stammer found his voice
He’s now a best-selling author who brought the glitz of Hollywood to his small-town home
02 Feb 2026,41 mins
The gay Kenyan boyband star who refused to be defeated
When singer Willis Chimano was outed, the exposure threatened to derail his entire life
26 Jan 2026,36 mins
Laughter saved me: the comedian turning tragedy into comedy
Krystal Evans survived a house fire at 14. To make sense of it, she turned to stand-up
19 Jan 2026,41 mins
Living a lie: discovering my dad faked who he was
Joanne Briggs thought her dad was a scientific superhero. But he was hiding a dark secret
12 Jan 2026,44 mins
Fatima Whitbread: from abandoned baby to world champion
The British athlete found both a mother and a coach in one person, and went on to win gold
05 Jan 2026,40 mins,
One suitcase, three kids: a broke scientist pursues a dream
Once a homeless single mum, Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu is now a nanomedicine pioneer
29 Dec 2025,40 mins
I broke the most important rule: don't get attached
Youth worker Nicolas Lunabba let troubled teenager Elijah make a home on his sofa
22 Dec 2025,41 mins
Tulisa: I wanted fame, but it almost destroyed me
Tulisa Contostavlos survived betrayal and a tabloid sting
15 Dec 2025,39 mins
The ragtag boy who was taken in by a football icon
The incredible story of how Brian Clough’s kindness changed a young kid’s life forever
08 Dec 2025,40 mins
My private trauma was leaked to the press – so I fought back
Jenny helped expose a national scandal after her police testimony appeared in a newspaper
01 Dec 2025,41 mins
How Paramore’s singer revived her grandad’s lost album
Grandpa Rusty nurtured Hayley Williams’ musical dreams – now, she’s returning the favour
24 Nov 2025,38 mins
Miriam Toews: A loud voice in a town once ruled by silence
How the author used her strict Mennonite upbringing to tell its unspoken stories
17 Nov 2025,41 mins