The fashion industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the world consuming huge amounts of the world’s resources and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. But some innovators are trying to make the industry more sustainable. We discover how old fire hoses in the UK have been diverted from landfill and turned into fashionable bags and accessories. Plus we visit Mongolia to find out about a new luxury material made from yak hair. It's an eco-friendly replacement for cashmere...

Learning to read empowers people, reduces poverty and increases their job chances. Yet more than 700 miliion adults are illiterate, the majority of them women. We look at innovations to help adults learn how to read from flatpack classrooms in flood-prone regions of Bangladesh, to an app teaching tens of thousands in Somaliland. Plus how adults in the UK are improving their reading skills thanks to an army of volunteer teachers using a method developed in prison. Presenter: Myra...

We all know about the power of music to change our mood or to make us move. But an increasing body of evidence is showing that music has an amazing ability to help us heal. In this programme we are going to meet people working at the cutting edge of music therapy. We find out about the innovative system that uses music to help people with dementia live at home for longer. We will see how using songs and rhythms is helping people with Parkinson’s move more freely. And in a refugee camp in...

Transforming the global food system is vital in the fight against climate change. Currently, food production accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the food system also fails to properly nourish billions of people worldwide. In this edition of People Fixing The World we’re looking at high and low tech solutions to transform the ways we produce and consume food to make it greener and more equitable. In London, we visit a startup company making cheese from...

Could psychedelic drugs help in the treatment of mental health conditions? We look at pioneering research into psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms. We visit a clinic in Oregon, the only state in America where the use of psilocybin in therapeutic sessions is legal and hear from one patient who says it's the only treatment she's ever had that makes a difference to her depression. And we hear about some of the widespread concerns that widening access to such drugs...

Whistleblowers - they're the good guys right? The ones who speak truth to power and have films made about the heroic stands they took? Sometimes. Often the people who speak up in the workplace are ignored or shut down. Worse still they're often bullied or harassed or end up losing their jobs. They're the ones you never hear about. This week we hear about two projects that are encouraging people to speak up about wrongdoing at work and how they're improving people’s work environment, saving...

Schools across Senegal have discovered a clever way for children to surf the web even when there isn't any signal. They're using a special WIFI hotspot which works without an actual internet connection, so students and teachers can access all the relevant bits of the web, offline. Around the world, innovators are coming up with solutions like this - all designed to get children learning. We also hear from an entrepreneur revolutionising how science is taught in Ghana and a night school in...

Australia used to be one of the most linguistically diverse places, with over 200 languages. Today, many of Australia’s indigenous languages are considered “highly endangered”. Inspired by his native language, Hebrew, Ghil’ad Zuckermann is a linguistics professor who is on a mission to revive Australia’s dead and endangered languages, painstakingly piecing them back together from historical documents. We speak to Ghil’ad and Shania Richards from the Barngarla community, whose language is...

Barcelona in Spain is famous for its beautiful streets, lined with tall apartment buildings. But the architecture is a problem for many people who have lived for years in upstairs apartments but who now find the stairs unmanageable. In 2008, a survey found that in one district there were 300 people who could not leave their homes alone. A group of volunteers decided to do something about this and got hold of a special wheelchair with caterpillar tracks, so it can be used to take people up and...

On this edition of People Fixing The World we meet people who’ve helped overcome long-standing cultural biases to create better outcomes for everyone. In India we hear about the social media campaigns which have helped city dwellers in Bengaluru see those who pick waste from rubbish dumps not as dangerous and dirty but as invaluable recyclers. In Nigeria we meet a traditional healer and a health worker who are collaborating to help improve the treatment of psychosis and break down some of the...

From beavers in the UK to bison in Romania and jaguars in Argentina, ecologists around the world are reintroducing animals that once flourished in particular areas. The theory is, if done correctly, they can boost biodiversity and restore ecosystems with benefits ranging from reducing forest fires to tackling invasive species. But the strategy is controversial. Opponents say some species are no longer suited to certain areas and cause conflict with farmers, adding there is little evidence it...

The Amazon is the largest forest in the world, spread across nine countries in South America and home to 47 million people. It’s crucial for the planet’s biodiversity and in the fight against climate change. But vast numbers of trees have been cut down for logging, construction, mining and farming. On this edition of People Fixing The World we meet those who are making a living from the Amazon while keeping the trees standing - through rubber tapping and fruit picking - as well as big...

This week we have a host of great ideas inspired by solutions we've told you about in 2023. We find out how scientists are using fake birds to help populations of seabirds to recover. By putting out model birds in restored habitats they trick the real ones into nesting there. Then we have the heartwarming tale of Theo – a man in his seventies - and Bickel the dog. We look at how dog sharing can deal with loneliness and bring improved health and happiness. And we uncover an innovative way of...

Landfill sites are an icon of our wasteful society and the harm we cause to Planet Earth. But around the world, people are trying to make these filthy places a little bit better. We visit the human-built island in Singapore made of burned waste that has become a thriving ecosystem. And in France, we hear how gas leaking from landfill sites is being collected as a source of energy. Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Claire Bowes Singapore reporter:Tessa Wong Series Producer: Jon...

Loneliness affects millions of people around the world and can have a significant impact on our mental and physical health. In the Netherlands, they are taking the problem seriously, with a national coalition of organisations all trying to bring people together and build connections. We visit a youth club teaching teenagers how to overcome shyness and social anxiety. Plus, we drop in on a soup-making session that's bringing the generations together, and breaking down stereotypes. Presenter:...

How do you stop people chopping down precious rainforest? In the Indonesian part of Borneo, researchers for a conservation charity discovered that local people were chopping down the rainforest around them for an incredibly understandable reason – they needed to pay for medical treatment for themselves and their children. So they started a project that would hopefully protect the forest and help the local communities at the same time. They built a health centre and gave people a big discount...

Every year the world produces 400 million tonnes of plastic – the same weight as all the humans on earth. Only a small proportion of this is recycled, and this isn’t proper recycling but “downcycling” – the new plastic is of a lower quality, meaning that almost all plastic eventually goes to waste. But now French company Carbios is using enzymes to break plastic down into its chemical building blocks – which can then be used to make high quality plastic again. So is plastic on the brink of...

Millions of women around the world lack access to safe and hygienic menstrual products. But there are people trying to change that. We meet the British student who learned to sew in lockdown and started making reusable sanitary pads for refugees. She’s helped distribute tens of thousands of pads and is now training refugee women in Lebanon how to make money by sewing the pads themselves. We hear about a design project inspired by tea cups which has created an efficient way of washing reusable...

In the farming community of Los Negros in rural Bolivia, the river is their life and livelihood. So when that river started to dry up, it made life very hard. They blamed the villages upstream for not looking after their precious water. This conflict could have turned ugly. But with the support of a local charity, what came out of it instead was a ground-breaking agreement. After years of negotiations, the town at the bottom of the river agreed to support the communities upstream to protect...

Heroin users in Scotland are being trained to spot when someone is about to overdose and to step in and help. The training – which includes lessons on how to use the antidote naloxone - is often led by people who have themselves been addicts. Taxi drivers and police officers are also being trained, and naloxone being widely distributed, as part of a push to save as many lives as possible. Reporter Craig Langran investigates whether the approach is working. Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer:...

In the midst of a crisis, sometimes the solution you need isn’t obvious. Today we meet the inventors who found fascinating fixes amid the chaos and destruction of disasters. We visit the hospital that was painstakingly constructed inside a train, to treat Ukrainian civilians in a war zone. We follow a team in Fiji who have created a mobile workshop, designed to travel to remote villages after natural disasters and repair and make items on the spot. Finally we look at a medical robot that...

Meet the oceans’ unsung hero - the humble sea cucumber. An animal in the same family as starfish that looks like a lumpy sausage and lives on the ocean floor could help with some of the impact of global warming, pollution from fish farms and damage from the fishing industry that are threatening some of the oceans most important ecosystems. We meet the Australian researchers using drones to count the cucumbers to understand how their poo is helping coral reefs. And in Madagascar, we speak to...

More than 400 people in Ireland took their own lives in 2022. In Limerick, helicopters are often heard flying above the city in search of missing people in the River Shannon. But in response to this tragic situation, a group has sprung up to patrol the Shannon in the evenings to speak with people who are feeling desperate. Katie Flannery joins them on a Saturday night to see how they work and to hear their stories. We also hear about a law that is under consideration in several US states,...

Artificial intelligence can sometimes provoke fear and anxiety. Will it take away our jobs? Will it take over the world? So it’s important to recognise some of the good things AI is being used for. We look at how AI chatbots are helping people tackle anxiety, how AI is being used in Africa to lower infant mortality and even speak to the team using AI to try and communicate with bats. Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer: Lizzy McNeill Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Hal Haines Editor:...