The Happy Pod: Sharing stories, one phone call at a time
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What innovative concept does Joe Bloom introduce with 'A View From A Bridge'?
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This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and in this edition, how the placement of an old school phone in an unusual locations led to hundreds of people telling their stories and millions of views. There's so much shared experience and there's so much reassurance to be had from the shared human experience. Just knowing about that kind of reminds us of who we are. Also, a lot of things went through my mind. Happy thoughts.
I think that kept me going. Yeah, so much going through my mind. I was really scared.
The teenager who swam for hours to get help after his family were swept out to sea. Why one man has devoted his life to preserving rare varieties of rice. The city trying to become the best place to raise a child.
This programme is a source of immense joy for our community.
Our neighbourhoods don't have enough space for the children. It brings me so much joy just to spend this time together. And the 82-year-old goalkeeper still showing younger players how it's done.
I think I'm worth my place in the team and I'm still making saves. When I get to the stage where I think I'm letting the side down, I will retire.
First, let's start with a social media account that's using a relatively simple concept to attract millions of views online.
If you had told me back when I was a kid that I'm going to study to become a kindergarten teacher, everyone would have laughed in your face.
We realized at the end of the class that we already met. I remember his energy. And so I decided to ask him, do you want to drink a beer with me?
I was full of guilt because I saw that everything was going to change.
If I would have organized my party, my parents wouldn't have gone.
I feel like I've got to know so many people that I probably would not have ever met or gotten the time to know had I not have looked this way.
Yeah, sometimes everything we have is everything we need.
Those are clips from an account called A View from a Bridge. The idea is pretty straightforward. An old school phone is placed on a bridge and strangers are invited to pick it up and share their stories. Its creator, Joe Bloom, started the project in London two years ago. Now he travels to bridges all over the world to speak to people. Some famous faces have joined him along the way, including the composer Max Richter, actor and singer Cynthia Erivo, and designer Paul Smith. The Happy Pod's Tamsin Selby has been speaking to Joe. She started by asking him how the conversations happen. I'm actually at the other end of the phone. So it's a working phone. We have real conversations on it. And often the phone calls go up to half an hour, 45 minutes.
And obviously from that, we then make our edit. I was trying to figure out how do we tell stories on social media, but cut the noise, you know, really just make it about the storyteller, make it about the person sharing the story.
I'm a palliative and end-of-life care nurse. It's really a great privilege and an honour to be with people as they're dying and after they've died with the families.
Don't ever cry in front of people. Don't ever tell people about how you're feeling. I grew up with men that were really like that, like from back in the day, that were like, you know, hard as nails seemingly on the outside.
Through many trial and error, I sort of had this idea of stripping it back and, you know, bridges aren't destinations, are they? They're sort of these places in between where no one really goes just to go there. That opens up the mind to quite a beautiful place. For many years I tried to learn to articulate myself without crying, but now as an adult I could cry and articulate myself at the same time.
This is going to be a really hard question. Talk to me about some of your favourite videos that you've done, either through street casting or through more famous faces.
I think all my favourite ones have been the street cast ones, to be honest. You know, it's that unexpectedness and it's just constantly proving myself wrong about how poorly I judge people or the world around me.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What innovative concept does Joe Bloom introduce with 'A View From A Bridge'?
0:00–8:24
2
How did a 13-year-old boy save his family from drowning?
8:24–15:55
3
What inspiring story does Leo Gottesman share about football at 82?
15:55–24:45
4
What are the mayor's plans to improve life for mothers in Addis Ababa?
24:45–30:23