Osmo Tapio Everton Räihälä is a Finnish composer who is crazy about Everton football club. Growing up almost two thousand miles away wouldn’t stop him from living and breathing everything Everton, so much so that as a young composer he took drastic measures to keep his fledgling music career on track. One such inspiration came in the towering figure of the club’s Scottish centre forward, Duncan Ferguson who, though blessed with talent, was often in trouble both on and off the pitch. Their...

Nigerian Ruona Meyer was inspired by her famous journalist father - Godwin Agbroko - to become an investigative reporter like him. When he was killed, her grieving brother became addicted to codeine cough syrup. Ruona - clad in bullet proof vest and blue lipstick - risked her life to uncover the black market trade in the medicine that’s become a street drug. Her documentary Sweet, Sweet Codeine has been nominated for an Emmy. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Constanza Hola Image: Ruona...

American sprinter Wyomia Tyus grew up on a dairy farm in Georgia, in the racially segregated South. When she was 14, tragedy struck her family - their house burned to the ground, and her father died shortly after. Bereft, Wyomia started running to get over her grief. She was soon spotted by the coach of the first - and only - college athletics training programme for black women in the US, and became the first person to win back to back gold medals in the 100m sprint in two consecutive Olympic...

Donna Palomba's life changed in September 1993, when she was sexually assaulted in her family home in Connecticut. A month after the attack, Donna was called to the local police station and accused of making the assault up by the officer in charge of her case. It was a devastating blow but Donna was determined to clear her name and get justice. It would take years and several court cases before her attacker was arrested and his identity sent shockwaves through Donna’s family and community. As...

The comedy film classic Cool Runnings, about a Jamaican bobsleigh team's surprising efforts to get to the Winter Olympics, was inspired by a real story. Dudley Stokes was an officer in the Jamaican army and hadn't really heard of the sport until his superiors gave a presentation to try and recruit volunteers to take part in the country's first Olympic bobsleigh team. Some of his colleagues were put off by the danger involved as they watched a film of a bobsleigh hurtling down an icy track,...

A few years ago, Freddy McConnell decided to have a baby. A decision that is a big deal for most, but that is even more complicated for Freddy, because he is trans. Freddy started his transition in 2012. Back then having a baby wasn’t on his mind. But after realising that – biologically – it was still a possibility, Freddy decided to get pregnant. Emily Webb first spoke to Freddy in 2019, and since then he has had a second child. Get in touch: [email protected] Presenter: Emily...

Petrit Halilaj was born in Kosovo in 1986 and grew up in the small town of Runik. He always loved drawing and had a rare talent for it. When war broke out in Kosovo and Serbian troops moved into their hometown, Petrit and his family had to flee, eventually finding sanctuary in a refugee camp in Albania. It was there, in 1999, that Petrit met the Italian psychologist Giacomo 'Angelo' Poli who encouraged the children to communicate the traumas they had experienced, through drawing. Using only...

This programme contains offensive language. Sweet Anita has Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological condition which causes her to make involuntary sounds and movements. Her specific type of Tourette’s is called coprolalia, which means she sometimes says offensive or inappropriate things. Before her diagnosis, she didn't know why she was different to everyone else. She was bullied at school and making friends was difficult. Lonely and confused, she was told by a doctor her tics were ‘attention...

Afghan-American pilot Zak Khogyani was just nine years old when he fled his home in Afghanistan. Being forced to leave his family and belongings behind was not easy, but he eventually managed to settle in the United States, which he now considers home. So last year, when Zak heard about Afghans fleeing the Taliban's takeover, he knew better than most the hardships they were facing. He felt compelled to lend a helping hand, and over three evacuation flights, Zak chaperoned 1,002 people hoping...

As a 16-year-old boy in Togo, Tété-Michel Kpomassie knew he had to escape. It was the late 1950s, and his father had ordered him to train as a priest in a snake cult. But Tété-Michel was terrified of snakes after a close encounter up a coconut tree that had nearly cost him his life. One day, he came across a book about Greenland. He read that there were no reptiles, only ice, and he was intrigued by the Inuit people. So he set out on an odyssey to reach this mysterious country, full of images...

Many African American cemeteries in the US have fallen into disrepair over the years - one of them is Geer cemetery in the city of Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in the 19th century when racial segregation laws meant that Black people had to be buried separately from white people and over 1,500 people are believed to be buried at Geer. Of that number, only around 200 headstones remain and the stories of those interred were at risk of being lost forever. That was until a group of...

Growing up in rural Colombia, Professor María Antonia Garcés was obsessed by books and reading, and later on this passion would help her get through a really difficult chapter. In 1982 María Antonia was taken hostage by leftist guerrillas, who were looking for a ransom from her wealthy family. She was put in a tiny cell somewhere in the city of Cali for seven months, and needed a way to keep her sanity. María Antonia fell back on her love of reading, and soon books would become more than just...

Perween Rahman’s assassination in 2013 was one of the most high profile target killings in Pakistan that year. She ran an influential NGO, the Orangi Pilot Project, and had exposed how the mafia were stealing Karachi’s water supply. She also stood up to local land grabbers. So who was behind her murder? Faced with a botched police investigation, Perween’s sister Aquila began a seemingly impossible campaign for justice. Aquila and Perween’s story is portrayed in the film Into Dust. More...

In 2006 Thomas Schultz and his business partner Lawrence Joseph made a business plan. They were looking for a property to buy, do up and sell. Thomas had his eye on a little cottage near his home in Bellport, a small coastal village to the east of New York City. It was old, dilapidated and needed a lot of attention. But when he crawled through the broken garage door he found something entirely unexpected - 7,000 pieces of art, stacked in piles, rolled up canvasses and strewn across the floor....

Syrian musician Maya Youssef is in love with her qanun, a traditional Middle Eastern stringed instrument. Like a family member, it’s got her through some difficult times and it consoled Maya as she watched from afar as her homeland was ripped apart by war. Maya's talent at playing the qanun gave her the opportunity to live in the UK and she has taken it on tour playing in refugee centres for new arrivals and at the Royal Albert Hall. Maya tells Mobeen Azhar about her journey with the qanun....

Eva Schloss and Anne Frank had been childhood friends and neighbours in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Both their families had a horrific experience at Auschwitz and after the war, Eva became Anne’s posthumous stepsister when her mother married Otto Frank, Anne’s father. When Otto first discovered Anne’s now world-famous diary, he showed it to Eva. It was an emotional experience and it reminded Eva of her last conversation with her beloved brother Heinz. He was a gifted artist and he had revealed...

Eva Schloss and Anne Frank had been childhood friends and neighbours in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Eva remembers Anne’s nickname was ‘Miss Quack Quack’ because she always loved talking. Then, like the Franks, Eva’s Jewish family was forced into hiding. Both families were ultimately betrayed and sent to Auschwitz, the most notorious of the Nazi death camps. After the war, Eva became Anne’s posthumous stepsister when her mother married Otto Frank, Anne’s father. Together they worked tirelessly to...

Anna Shechtman began writing crossword puzzles as a teenager - but developed an eating disorder around the same time. She became one of the youngest crossword creators to publish a puzzle in the New York Times newspaper and now writes crosswords for the New Yorker magazine, but during her recovery she sometimes feared that her illness and her love of creating crosswords were inextricably linked. She tells Emily Webb about the art of cruciverbalism, 'crossworld', and why the creation of...

Alenka Artnik grew up in Slovenia in a loving but complicated family. Her father was an alcoholic, and her brother was addicted to drugs. Years of pain and grief meant that Alenka found herself feeling lost and alone. But then, just when she most needed it, when she'd thought about taking her own life – she found freediving and sanctuary in an underwater world. Drawing on her own personal, physical and mental strength, she is now a world champion freediver. Last year she broke world records...

After a lifetime of caring for her sick mother, Helen Naylor began to suspect that her mum had a very rare condition called Munchausen's Syndrome, a psychological disorder where according to the NHS, "someone pretends to be ill or deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themselves. Their main intention is to assume the "sick role" so that people care for them and they are the centre of attention." All through Helen's childhood her mother, Elinor, would stay in bed most of the time while...

Marie Harrower’s mother taught her not to let her blindness hold her back. This helped Marie become a physiotherapist and win a place at the 1976 Paralympics. She tells Outlook's Antonia Quirke her story. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Deiniol Buxton Get in touch: [email protected] (Photo: Marie Harrower. Credit: Paul Fegan)

We are celebrating the life of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who spoke to Outlook in 2014 with his daughter, Mpho Tutu van Furth, about family and forgiveness. They had written a book together called The Book of Forgiving. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Deiniol Buxton Get in touch: [email protected] (Photo: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter the Reverend Mpho Tutu van Furth. Credit: Oryx Media 2013)

In 1968 Neil Sarfati was 23 and feeling "lost", when a conversation with a neighbour introduced him to Scientology. What began as self-help movement born out of the teachings of the founder, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, had become an organisation with a large and devoted following. Fearing the world would be destroyed unless the teachings of Scientology took hold, Neil left his job and wife and made his way to Los Angeles to sign up to the Sea Org, an elite group of its most...

Helene Cooper grew up in Liberia, fled during a bloody military coup and arrived in the US as a child refugee. Her background inspired her to become a journalist but there was one question that still needed to be answered: what had happened to the adopted sister she’d left behind? This interview was first broadcast in May 2019. Get in touch: [email protected] Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Alice Gioia (Photo: Eunice (in striped dress) and Helene Cooper (with sunglasses). Credit: Helene Cooper)

In 2019, Fabiola Campillai was working in a factory where her husband Marco worked as a lorry driver. They were leading a quiet life in Santiago raising their children when a tear gas cannister changed the course of Fabiola’s life. The cannister, fired by a police officer, left her permanently blinded with multiple life-changing injuries. After spending months in hospital, Fabiola came out fighting. She had no political background, but helped by Marco, she decided to stand for election as a...