Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The 88-year-old veteran given nearly $2m by strangers
10 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: How did an 88-year-old veteran receive nearly $2 million from strangers?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Aloita aktiivinen arki nyt. Kaiken treenivaatteista terveellisiin välipaloihin saat Prismasta ja prisma.fi-verkkokaupasta. Terveystalon tapaturmapäivystyksessä saat hyvää hoitoa. Aina haavoista leikkaushoitoa vaativiin murtumiin. Tapaturmapäivystys palvelee joka päivä aamusta iltaan. Terveystalosairaala. Tärkein ensin.
I'm Alex Ritson, and in this edition... I'm 88. And still working? Yes, I have to. Why do you have to keep working? Retired from General Motors in 99. 2012 I went bankrupt and they took my pension away from me. The 88-year-old shop worker given nearly $2 million by strangers around the world. One of the few people ever to walk around the world says he was inspired by his rescue dog. Also...
Olen todella yllättynyt kertomaan ihmisille, mitä he voivat tehdä ja mitä heidän pitäisi tehdä, eikä heidän pitäisi jätetä heitä tekemään mitään.
The young woman determined to remove the stigma surrounding a medical device. How a metal detectorist in the UK reunited a family in the US with an important part of its history. Plus some big baby news. She's our youngest member of the herd. She's a first time mom. Her due date is at about 659 days. Final preparations for the long awaited birth of an endangered elephant.
We start with a man after our own hearts, the Australian kindness influencer Samuel Weidenhofer. He's built up a following of more than 10 million people on social media, sharing positive stories and posting videos of himself giving surprises, gifts and money to strangers. His latest act has been celebrated all around the world after he travelled from Australia to the United States to try to find someone he'd been told needed help. Stephanie Prentiss takes up the story.
Olemme saaneet sinulle 1,77 miljoonaa.
Two men hugging each other in Michigan, US. One has just handed the other a check that's made him a millionaire. Until a few weeks ago they'd never met. But both of their lives changed when influencer Sam Widenhofer spotted a comment on one of his videos where someone mentioned seeing an older man still working in a US superstore chain and said they were worried about him.
Tämä ihminen oli Ed Bambus, joka työskenteli täydellä aikavälillä 80-luvulla, koska hän ei voinut vahvistaa. Sam jäi veteen ja meni tutkimaan hänet. Hän sanoi, että kun hän näki tyypillisen vanhan ihminen käynnissä, hän tietää, että se oli hän. Ja edelleen työskennellä? Kyllä, minun täytyy. Miksi sinun täytyy jatkaa työskennellä? Minä vahvistin General Motorsin 99-luvulla.
Vuonna 2012 he menivät lopuksi ja he saivat minun pensioon. Onko sinulla iso? Hän lähti 7 vuotta sitten. 7 vuotta sitten? Hän oli syönyt, kun olin loppunut pensioon. Olin armeijassa, olin lopussa 1966. Joten olet myös veteraani? Kyllä. Yksi asia, joka piti minua suurin piirtein, oli, että isäni oli todella syönyt. Kun he saivat pensioon, he saivat myös terveydenhuoltoa.
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Chapter 2: What inspired a man to walk around the world with his rescue dog?
I think I can be at peace anywhere within myself. Home is very much this thing that I have developed. And also now home in my stage of life, I'm older now, is like a choice. It's who are you spending your time with? Who are you building your life with? That person is Bonnie. I met Bonnie...
on the last leg of the journey in washington state and we met and just kind of hit it off and then she sort of followed me around it's strange because savannah was you know everything to me and i would have given up anything for savannah bonnie included at the time we had been through something that you just cannot ever replicate it gave me the most meaningful relationship i might ever have which is with savannah and
I'm incredibly grateful for all that. Your fiancé is not going to mind your saying that Savannah was probably the most meaningful relationship of your life, is she? Maybe. I don't know. I think she knows that already, though. And you can hear more of Tom and Savannah's story on Outlook, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Now to a woman on a mission to break the stigma surrounding the medical device known as a stoma bag. Lucy Smith Butler developed painful ulcers in her bowels
As a teenager and aged just 19, decided to have a colostomy, where part of the intestine is connected to an opening in the abdomen, and a pouch is connected to this hole to collect the waste. Now aged 27, Lucy, from Manchester in northwest England, has put on a fashion show, where all the models had stoma bags with stylish covers. She's been speaking to the BBC's Asma Yunus.
Olin tekemässä listaa pros ja consaista, elämää yhdessä ja elämää ilman elämästä. Kun näin, että kaikki, mitä se antaa minulle, on kirjoitettu kirjassa, minulla tuli mukaan ajatuksena, että tämä antaa minulle elämäni takaisin. Olin onnistunut tuntelemaan, että nana on elämässä, joten olin nähnyt, että hän on elämässä elämässä elämässä ja tiedän,
She's done exactly what she wanted for the last 50 years. So it seemed less scary to me because I kind of had someone to relate to. That's such a wonderful mindset to just start off with, you know, as you're going into the surgery and then to kind of carry on. Was it... Siinä vaiheessa, kun päätit, että voit ymmärtää kaksi elämääsi elämässäsi, koska olet hyvin suomalainen, eikö?
What am I going to wear? Is that going to affect my style? And I think in a weird way, I always say it gave me a boost of confidence to just wear what I wanted. I remember buying a bag cover as soon as I left hospital, because you can get off eBay, there's a few people that make quite basic ones. I remember buying a leopard print one, and I was like, oh, this is so cute. And then I guess the years have gone on, and then I've been like, oh,
Maybe I can make my own. You know, your enthusiasm is so infectious with this. It's obviously taking other people by storm as well, because you recently organized a charity catwalk for people with stoma bags. But how was it for you to see models proudly display their stoma bags, to have so much buzz around it as well?
It was honestly like, I feel like if I could bottle up that day and that feeling and just being around those people and just save it for a day if you're not feeling great, I would 100% do that because it was honestly amazing. I didn't think that many people would want to get involved and it was just so nice to hear like,
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Chapter 3: How is a young woman breaking the stigma of stoma bags through fashion?
Around the world, the fashion industry faces a huge challenge to reduce its impact on the planet, from its huge carbon footprint and vast water usage to filling up of landfills with clothes that have had little or even no use. But in some areas, new technology is being used to improve sustainability. And on cotton farms across India, AI tools are helping to reduce water and pesticide use. Brooke Roberts' Islam has been finding out more.
Olemme työskentelemässä Suomessa enemmän kuin 4500 maata. Olemme työskentelemässä parantamista maata ja ympäristöä.
It's a clear, calm November afternoon in Maharashtra state in western India. Kuldeep Khatri is visiting a farm on behalf of Matera. A company has rolled out the AI-powered co-farm app to cotton farmers across three states in India. The purpose of the app is to help farmers to practice regenerative cotton farming. We exist because we wanted to focus on two big environmental impact industries, which is fashion and farming.
As the company's director of nature, it's Kuldeep's job to understand the impact that its technology is having on the ground. Today he is visiting Rajabal, who grows cotton on six acres of his land and has been using the Kofarm app for the last five months. Kuldeep translates. Just last month the app sent out a push notification alert warning farmers of significant rainfall.
Ja se auttaa maanjohtajia vahvistamaan, että maanjohtajat voivat vahvistaa maanjohtajia. Kun maalaiset myyvät maalaisen tuotantoon, tuotantot eivät aina anna luonnollista vastausta. Nyt he voivat nähdä maalaisen tuotantoon ja päättää, onko maalaiset tuotantoon tuotannossa tai ei.
The company is paid by brands to source cotton and passes on an incentive for farmers to use regenerative practices. For Rajabao, this has meant benefits for his livelihood as well as the environment. Kiitos, että olitte täällä. Kiitos, että olitte täällä.
Matera haluaa kehittää yli miljoonaa vuotta indian maata viime vuosina. Lisäksi he rakentavat harjoitukset ja vaikutukset jokaisella paikallaan. He kertovat tämän tietoja fashinoiden markkinoille, jotta he auttavat tunnistamaan suurimpia mahdollisuuksia saavuttamaan kotona.
You can hear more about the positive and negative impacts of AI on the fashion industry in People Fixing the World, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Time to turn our attention to the biggest baby news in the United States. A pregnant, endangered Asian elephant is nearing her due date, and the Happy Pod's Riley Farrell has been to meet her.
Olen täällä Smithsoniaan kansainvälisessä kulttuurissa eläinten esityksessä. Aamu kuulostaa heikosta, ja voit kuunnella suurta rumpua isoja kohtia. Jossain rannalla, jossa on kerätty eläinten äiti, kuulostaa. Siinä on kuusi eläinten, joita olet johtanut. Suurin piirtein seitsemän. Suurin piirtein seitsemän.
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Chapter 4: What remarkable story involves reuniting a family with a lost dog tag?
Niillä on vuosia ja vuosia suunnittelua ja valmistelua, ja kymmeniä, jos ei kymmeniä ihmisiä ja tutkijoita, ei vain täällä metsässä, vaan ympäri maailmaa, jotka auttavat meidät valmistumaan tälle. Robby näytti minulle pöydänpöydän, jossa Neelan on tervetullut hänen pöydään ja jossa ryhmä on rehoitunut monta kuukautta. Tämä on meidän mamman pöydän. Oh my goodness.
Tämä on paikallinen paikka, jossa hänet voidaan harjoittaa. Me harjoittelemme täällä kaikkia kertaa päivää, joten hän on niin valmis kuin mahdollista.
We've been training Niilin to allow us to go in with her. The vet team wanted us to be prepared that if the calf doesn't nurse, can we express milk from Niilin? So we're actually sensitizing her to a breast pump. Like things that you would never think about for an elephant. We're doing with her. I mean, I have several follow-ups, but I think the one that's sticking out is how big is a...
As we moved deeper into the building, half a dozen elephants moseed around, including the soon-to-be father, Spike.
Spike is cool, calm and collected. Some zoos have successfully seen males have a fatherly role with calves, with play and coordination and maybe even some discipline. There's other zoos that have seen the opposite, where there's not a lot of interest. But it'll be quite exciting to see how Spike reacts, because he's never been around a baby. But being over 13,000 pounds, hopefully to see him interact with a 300-400 pound baby will be positive for everyone.
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Chapter 5: How is AI helping to make cotton farming in India more sustainable?
Baby fever seems to be hitting the zoo's visitors too. I've never seen an elephant before like this so close, so this is surreal as well. Have you ever seen a pregnant elephant before? No. I mean, it's just amazing. I can't believe it. It's awesome. Oh, they'll never forget that. Robbie Clark ending that report from Riley Farrell.
And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. If you have a story to share or would like to comment on anything in this episode, we'd love to hear from you. As ever, the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. And you can now watch some of our interviews on YouTube. Just search for the Happy Pod.
This edition was mixed by Lewis Griffin and the producers were Holly Gibbs, Harry Bly and Rachel Balkley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye. Laskettelimme hiihtolomien hintoja. Ostan nyt talven tarjoushintaiset junaliput. Esimerkiksi Helsinki-Tampere alkaen 4.90 ja Oulu-Helsinki alkaen 14.90. Kampanja voimassa 18. tammikuuta asti. VR. Yhteisellä matkalla.