Lives Less Ordinary Podcast
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.
Episodes to download
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I was forced to rob my own bank, part 2
Monday
How do you forgive a man who held a gun to your daughter’s head?
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I was forced to rob my own bank, part 1
Mon 25 May 2026
In 2000, armed men burst into Michelle Renee's home and held her child hostage
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Kangaroo Dundee: I gave it all up to become a ‘kangaroo mum’
Mon 18 May 2026
Chris 'Brolga' Barns fell in love with joeys and built an orphaned kangaroo sanctuary
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I'm a champion boxer, but couldn't tell my mum
Mon 11 May 2026
A gym class encounter sparked Ramla Ali's rise from bullied child to famous boxer
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Strangers to coworkers to friends to...sisters?
Mon 4 May 2026
Cassandra and Julia were uncannily alike. A chance gift revealed a past neither expected
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Taught to kill – my childhood under the Khmer Rouge
Mon 27 Apr 2026
Loung Ung was forced to be a child soldier in Cambodia under Pol Pot’s regime
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Bonus: Dear Daughter: Surviving my daughter's killing
Thu 23 Apr 2026
When 19-year-old Ann was killed, her mother chose restorative justice
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I was taken as a baby…I didn’t know who I was, part 2
Mon 20 Apr 2026
Jackie makes sporting history for Ireland and uncovers the truth about her past
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I was taken as a baby, I didn’t know who I was, part 1
Mon 13 Apr 2026
A black girl in a white town, Jackie’s made to grow up silenced and alone
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Skepta’s Mum: How I raised a rap legend
Mon 6 Apr 2026
Ify Adenuga had very strict parents. As a mum she rewrote the rulebook, nurturing a star
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Me, dad and the zombie chickens
Mon 30 Mar 2026
Lloyd and Lily-Hayes Kaufman on cult horror filmmaking and life in the Tromaverse
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Growing up black in a white family – the truth behind my birth
Mon 23 Mar 2026
Music star Andrew Lovell’s home life hid a terrible – yet beautiful – secret
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Music was my salvation: the homeless man and the piano
Mon 16 Mar 2026
Francois was homeless when he learned to play a train station piano from scratch
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Hercules: the grizzly bear who became family
Mon 9 Mar 2026
Maggie Robin raised a bear cub who grew into an extraordinary companion
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Sects, lies and videotape: a Syrian story, part 2
Mon 2 Mar 2026
Accused of spying in rebel-held Syria, Loubna Mrie faces peril and a shattering loss
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Sects, lies and videotape: a Syrian story, part 1
Mon 23 Feb 2026
Loubna Mrie secretly filmed Syria’s uprising, despite her family’s loyalty to the regime
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The couple who foiled New Zealand’s biggest drugs plot
Mon 16 Feb 2026
An ordinary couple caught up in the country's biggest meth case for doing a good deed
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I bought Macclesfield FC while drunk and it saved my life
Mon 9 Feb 2026
When Rob Smethurst was gripped by addiction, building a football club helped him get out
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Colm TóibÃn: How an Irish boy with a stammer found his voice
Mon 2 Feb 2026
He’s now a best-selling author who brought the glitz of Hollywood to his small-town home
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The gay Kenyan boyband star who refused to be defeated
Mon 26 Jan 2026
When singer Willis Chimano was outed, the exposure threatened to derail his entire life
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Laughter saved me: the comedian turning tragedy into comedy
Mon 19 Jan 2026
Krystal Evans survived a house fire at 14. To make sense of it, she turned to stand-up
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Living a lie: discovering my dad faked who he was
Mon 12 Jan 2026
Joanne Briggs thought her dad was a scientific superhero. But he was hiding a dark secret
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Fatima Whitbread: from abandoned baby to world champion
Mon 5 Jan 2026
The British athlete found both a mother and a coach in one person, and went on to win gold
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One suitcase, three kids: a broke scientist pursues a dream
Mon 29 Dec 2025
Once a homeless single mum, Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu is now a nanomedicine pioneer
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I broke the most important rule: don't get attached
Mon 22 Dec 2025
Youth worker Nicolas Lunabba let troubled teenager Elijah make a home on his sofa
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Tulisa: I wanted fame, but it almost destroyed me
Mon 15 Dec 2025
Tulisa Contostavlos survived betrayal and a tabloid sting
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The ragtag boy who was taken in by a football icon
Mon 8 Dec 2025
The incredible story of how Brian Clough’s kindness changed a young kid’s life forever
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My private trauma was leaked to the press – so I fought back
Mon 1 Dec 2025
Jenny helped expose a national scandal after her police testimony appeared in a newspaper
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How Paramore’s singer revived her grandad’s lost album
Mon 24 Nov 2025
Grandpa Rusty nurtured Hayley Williams’ musical dreams – now, she’s returning the favour
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Miriam Toews: A loud voice in a town once ruled by silence
Mon 17 Nov 2025
How the author used her strict Mennonite upbringing to tell its unspoken stories
Watch Lives Less Ordinary on YouTube
Videos from our extraordinary podcast Lives Less Ordinary.
