麻豆社

Mira Rai grew up in a remote mountain village in eastern Nepal. As a 14-year-old she ran away to join the Maoist rebel army and spent two years training in the bush. It was there that her extraordinary talent for running was spotted and she's now Nepal's leading female professional trail runner - a sport she didn't even know existed 18 months ago.

French Canadian Robert Lepage was a child when French-speaking separatists in his province of Quebec made a violent bid for independence in the late 1960s. Now a theatre director and performer, Robert spoke to the 麻豆社's Pooneh Ghoddoosi at the Edinburgh festival where he's performing his one-man play about growing up in that turbulent time.

Most people in Myanmar are Buddhist; many are Muslim. But there are just eight Jewish families and Sammy Samuels is their leader. The thirty four-year-old describes what it's like to lead only 20 people.

Simone Singh is an Indian television actress and Sarah Mayberry is a scriptwriter for Australia's longest-running soap opera, Neighbours. They give the 麻豆社's Gemma Cairney an insight into the serial drama industry and what it takes to keep an audience glued to their screens.

(Picture: Mira Rai. Credit: Richard Bull)