People Fixing the World

A Sporting Chance

05 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We all know that sport is great for our health - and if you’re talented it can bring you great riches. But this week we look at how sport is changin...

The great spreadsheet in the sky

28 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a technology on the block which has the power to change all kinds of things for the better. If that power is harnessed, it has the potential...

The farmers moving their fields indoors

21 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We visit farmers growing lettuce, herbs and strawberries indoors in the middle of cities. The plants are stacked up on shelves in vertical farms that ...

Making the world a quieter place

14 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

People around the world are coming up with ways to make the world a quieter place, from portable sound barriers to schemes to stop people honking thei...

The big transport swap

07 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Robot shuttles and buses on demand are being tested to persuade more people to use public transport. Tallinn in Estonia and Luxembourg have even made ...

Regrowing the rainforest

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It has taken him 40 years, but Omar Tello has turned a patch of exhausted farmland in Ecuador back into rainforest. One of his biggest challenges was ...

The treasure in our toilets

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Human sewage contains lots of valuable nutrients, so should we be recycling it? One of these nutrients is phosphorus, a key ingredient in fertiliser...

How to be a better dad

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week we’re in Rwanda, where some men are getting lessons teaching them how to look after their babies. As well as promoting gender equality it'...

How they’re saving the kakapo

10 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a flightless bird on the edge of extinction, but a team in New Zealand is trying to stop it from going the way of the dodo. The kakapo is a lar...

Audience takeover: Your feedback

03 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“Fabulous idea” or “waste of money”? Clever observations from our audience about solutions we’ve covered on People Fixing the World. Many ...

A safe place to be gay

25 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An idea used in video games is helping LGBTQ people in the Middle East talk safely online. Coming out can be particularly hard, especially if there ar...

Meet the neighbours

18 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

People living in this block of flats sign a contract to socialise together for at least two hours a week. The new housing experiment in Sweden is aime...

The good lads

11 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Men and boys are being taught how to tackle some of the uncomfortable truths about everyday sexism. Many don’t realise the extent of the problem - c...

The miracle cure: Exercise

04 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If exercise were a drug, almost every single person on Earth would be prescribed it in the later years of their lives. The health benefits for older p...

Fighting depression together

28 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Women in Uganda are learning how to treat their neighbours for depression. That’s because there aren’t enough resources for professional care, esp...

Running to do good

21 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What if all the energy used at the gym was directed towards helping others, rather than lifting useless weights and running nowhere on a treadmill? Th...

Forecasting volcanoes

14 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As thousands of people are moved in the evacuation of the area around the Taal volcano in the Philippines, Ecuador - which has more than 20 active vol...

The pharmacists fighting high drug prices

07 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If you had a rare disease and the only drug that could help you suddenly shot up in price how would you feel? What if your health service or insurer d...

How to move the Earth

31 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Using lasers or asteroids to move our planet away from the sun may sound extreme, but a few scientists have come up with plans to do just that. The su...

Checking in with the problem solvers

24 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Catch up with the goats fighting forest fires in Spain and discover where else in the world they’re being used. This programme looks at what happene...

Making your deliveries greener

17 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We look at four clever ways to reduce carbon emissions from deliveries. Shops, offices, restaurants and homes all get lots of them every day, and this...

Convicting more rapists

10 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Rapists often avoid conviction and people they’ve attacked can face a traumatic journey through the legal system. But special reporting centres and ...

Turning kids into entrepreneurs

03 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Uganda has a very young population – the median age is 16 and young people find it hard to get a job. So now children are being taught how to run th...

Saving the World’s Ice

26 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Global warming is melting the world's glaciers and sea ice. In Iceland the effects can already be seen - people there recently held a funeral to mark ...

Stopping abuse with protection dogs

19 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Almost 30% of women experience violence from a partner at some point in their lives. If they manage to escape the immediate crisis, it can be hard to ...

How to stop fires destroying whole neighbourhoods

12 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fires are common in South Africa’s informal settlements - it’s estimated that there are about 5,000 every year. They’re often caused by faulty w...

How to save the banana

05 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Bananas are one of the most popular fruits on the planet - more than 100 million tonnes of them are eaten every year. But on banana plantations on fou...

The future of freight

29 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Billions of tonnes of goods are moved by lorry every year – everything from food and clothes to building materials, electronic gadgets and toys. ...

Gaming for good

22 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Video games are often blamed for time-wasting and violence, but there’s a group of people proving this stereotype wrong.We meet the scientists behin...

The town rethinking the future of energy

15 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The city of Vaasa in western Finland has built a reputation as a centre of innovation, where energy companies are working together to try to find solu...

Shopping for a better life

08 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine a grocery shop selling all your basic goods at a discounted price… and if you buy enough you also get free health insurance. It might seem t...

Turning waste into energy

01 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Where there are humans, there’s waste. About two billion tonnes of garbage was produced in 2016, and the amount we generate is increasing. A lot of ...

Spotting the sound of a cardiac arrest

24 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you have a cardiac arrest you need help immediately to have any chance of surviving. That’s why emergency call operators ask questions specific...

The snakebite squad

17 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's estimated that a person dies from a snakebite every five minutes. Many more people face life-changing injuries, losing limbs and consequently the...

Meeting Colombia’s ‘Violentologist’

10 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For the past 20 years, police chiefs and policy makers around the world have been fascinated by an idea: that violence spreads through cities like a d...

A new way to detect an invisible poison in water

03 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970s hundreds of thousands of wells were dug across Bangladesh to give people access to cholera-free water. But this led to what the World Hea...

Oysters to the rescue

27 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Pollution, overfishing and oxygen depletion are damaging coastal waters across the world. Often fish and other marine life are the victims, but scient...

The concrete cleaners

20 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Concrete is the most used man-made product in the world but it comes with a heavy environmental price. Between 5% and 7% of the world's annual carbon...

Bangladesh’s biker girls

13 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For the growing number of working women in Dhaka, commuting to work can be a challenge. The traffic is terrible and cars and taxis are expensive. P...

Putting a price on carbon

06 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For most of human history, pumping carbon dioxide into the air has come free of charge. Burning fossil fuels powered the industrial revolution and pow...

A simple way to help a relative if they’re arrested

30 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the US most people who are charged with a crime can’t afford expensive lawyers and investigators to prepare their case. The public defenders who ...

Stopping child marriage with solar lanterns

23 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s estimated that more than 100 million girls under the age of 18 will be married in the next decade. One country that’s trying to end the ...

Trieste’s mental health ‘revolution’

16 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Each year, mental health practitioners from around the world visit Trieste in Italy to see what they can learn from the city’s approach to mental il...

The school that puts wellbeing first

09 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On average, one in eight children in the UK has a mental health disorder – that’s about three children in every classroom. Yet there are just 4.5 ...

Residents turn detective to fight crime

02 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Neighbours in the US are using cameras that read car number plates to record vehicles driving down their streets. When there’s a crime they check t...

Life-saving surgery, but not by a doctor

25 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

More than five billion people around the world don’t have access to safe, affordable surgical care. It has been a big problem in Ethiopia where most...

Portugal, drugs and decriminalisation

18 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1990s Portugal had a major heroin problem, and when it came to people injecting drugs it had one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the E...

Can capturing carbon buy us time to tackle climate change?

11 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

To prevent the worst effects of climate change, we need to massively cut how much carbon we pump into the atmosphere. But those carbon cuts might not ...

Can sleep deprivation help treat bipolar disorder?

04 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

People diagnosed with bipolar disorder are commonly treated with a variety of drugs. They aren’t always effective and can come with a range of side ...

Audience takeover: Your plastic solutions

28 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We hear what you, our listeners, are doing to tackle the problem of plastic waste. The idea came about when you started getting in touch after a previ...

Reinventing the ranch

21 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s not a good time to be a meat eater. Pressure is growing to tackle climate change – and the livestock sector produces 15% of global greenhous...

Working Less For The Same Pay

14 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Matsuri Takahashi was 24 when she died. She took her own life after doing more than 100 hours overtime a month at a large advertising company in Japan...

Could a device invented in the 1930s help end period poverty?

07 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Period poverty affects girls and women across the world who can’t afford to buy sanitary pads or tampons each month. So what are the alternatives? W...

The tree detectives tackling illegal logging

30 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you examine the atoms in a piece of wood, you can tell to the nearest 10km where it has come from. Environmental factors, such as the climate, affe...

The reuse and refill revolution

23 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Should we reuse and refill plastic packaging to limit the amount being thrown away? Nick Holland looks at different ways people are trying to make th...

DNA tests for dogs to tackle problem poo

16 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The average dog produces about 124kg of poo every year, but not all of that gets picked up and disposed of properly. So people living in many resident...

The great mosquito swap

09 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, it’s estimated that nearly 400 million people around the world are infected with dengue fever, a potentially fatal illness that’s pass...

The mums saving each other from a taboo condition

02 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

"Get rid of the girl who smells" - this is the reaction thousands of traumatised new mothers face every year. A prolonged or obstructed childbirth can...

Can phages save us as antibiotics stop working?

26 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of thousands of people die every year because bacterial infections are becoming resistant to antibiotics. That number is expected to explode, as ...

The digital detectives tackling child sexual abuse

19 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, is taking an innovative approach to solving disturbing crimes.It holds more than 40 million images of child ...

Crossing divides in Cyprus

12 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, but a community centre is bringing Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots together in the buffer zone between the two...

Last video messages to help children grieve

05 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Children who lose a parent may struggle to come to terms with this for the rest of their lives. In the UK about one in 20 children will lose a parent ...

Turning old clothes into new ones

26 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s estimated that 400 billion square metres of fabric are made every year – enough to cover Germany – for the fashion industry. The sector pro...

Predicting suicide

19 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

About 800,000 people take their own lives every year, that’s one person every 40 seconds, according to the World Health Organization.For decades, do...

‘No Men Allowed’ – The Gym Getting Women Fit and into Work

12 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 2006, Turkish entrepreneur Bedriye Hülya set up her first women-only gym, b-fit. It’s cheap to join and is now a successful chain. Many women in...

How Nepal Doubled its Tiger Population

05 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past 10 years, Nepal has almost doubled its population of Bengal tigers – it’s estimated the country now has 235 of the magnificent beast...

The shopping mall where everything is recycled

29 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are 14 specialist shops at the Retuna shopping mall in Eskilstuna, Sweden, but they all have one thing in common. Every item for sale in the sho...

The Turkish App to Help Autistic Children Learn

22 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are an estimated 350,000 autistic children in Turkey, but only 20,000 to 30,000 of those children are thought to be in education. And because of...

The Talent Show for Honest People

15 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this talent show, it doesn’t matter if you can sing or dance, the winner just has to be honest and good at their job. It’s called Integrity Ido...

Does the world need more babies?

08 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

People in many parts of the world are having fewer babies than they were 60 years ago, and that’s worrying some countries. So in order to maintain t...

Checking in with the Problem Solvers

01 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Do you ever wonder what happens to the people and projects we feature? This week we revisit innovators around the world to see how their schemes have ...

The Little Libraries Bringing Books into People’s Homes

25 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 2009, Todd Bol built a small box in the shape of a school, filled it with books and placed it on his front lawn in Wisconsin, in the US. The book ...

Can US Entrepreneurs Help Fix Education in Africa?

18 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Many African countries face huge challenges in education. Millions of children completing primary school still struggle to read and teachers that shou...

Can This Smart Street Stop Drinkers Getting Violent?

11 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

World Hacks visits a long, narrow street in the heart of the Dutch city of Eindhoven. A quarter of a mile long and lined with pubs and bars, Stratumse...

How 'Buddy Benches' are Making Playtime Less Lonely

04 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The idea behind “Buddy Benches”, also known as “friendship benches”, is simple. If a child feels lonely at playtime at school, they can go to ...

Smart Boats That Sail on a Bed of Bubbles

27 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What’s being done to clean up the shipping industry and make it less polluting? Nick Holland looks at innovative ideas to make ships burn less fuel....

The Banks That Run on Time Instead of Money

20 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Around the world, thousands of people are using a special kind of bank. Instead of using it to save and spend money, they’re using it to save and sp...

How to Build a City for an Ageing Population

13 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More than a quarter of Japan’s population is over 65 and the country has the highest rate of centenarians in the world. It’s a ticking demographi...

The Country That Can Jail You For Using Plastic Bags

06 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Just over a year ago, Kenya introduced the world’s most draconian rules on single-use plastic bags. People can be fined up to $40,000 or even thrown...

Time to Update the Stranger Danger Message?

30 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Child abduction by strangers is extremely rare, but the danger looms large in the minds of many parents. One reason is that for the past 50 years or s...

Tech That Tricks the Brain

23 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Our brains are the control centre of the human body. They allow us to think, to learn and to dream - but if you know how the brain works, it can also ...

‘Rental sisters’ for Japan’s Reclusive Young Men

16 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In Japan, to become a 'hikikomori' means to withdraw from the world and social life. Many of those who suffer from the condition shut themselves in th...

Fighting the ‘Water Mafia’ with Pipes in the Sky

09 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, access to water is a minefield. The marketplace is dominated by water cartels, or mafias - w...

Mending Our Disposable Culture

02 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Volunteers around the world regularly get together to fix other people’s broken stuff free of charge. Reporter Nick Holland visits an event called a...

Smart Stimulation for People with Dementia

25 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Anyone who cares for someone with dementia knows the struggle to keep them stimulated and engaged as the condition progresses. This week World Hacks l...

Running and Singing to Improve Maths and English

18 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week we go back to school, with two simple ideas that involve changing the day-to-day lives of pupils to improve their physical and mental wellbe...

A Green Space Revolution in Paris

11 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How do you create green spaces in the middle of a city, where there’s no space to create large-scale parks or gardens? Paris has come up with a clev...

Scanning Homeless People To Make a Donation

04 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wanted to donate to a homeless person, but found yourself without any cash, or concerned about how they may spend the money? A potential...

Rewarding Green Travel in Bologna

28 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the northern Italian town of Bologna, a new public transport system is rewarding citizens for taking sustainable modes of transport. Each time loca...

Cool Ways of Keeping Things Cool

21 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A vast and expensive system with the sole purpose of keeping things cool exists across the developed world. This “cold chain” includes fridges in ...

Reviving Italy’s ‘Ghost Towns’

14 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Across the Italian countryside, villages are becoming deserted as people migrate to towns and cities. A sustainable tourism model known as the ‘Albe...

Why Millions Listen to This Girl

07 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A nine-year-old child announcer has been recruited on the London Underground. The idea is that her voice will surprise passengers, so they listen to h...

Training India’s Fake Doctors

31 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It’s thought that more than half the people claiming to be doctors in India have no medical qualifications. They are known as “quacks”, operatin...

Stopping Wildfires in Their Tracks

24 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Wildfires can have a devastating impact, destroying land, homes and lives. Scientists say that as the planet gets warmer, they are only going to start...

Generating Power from the Roads

17 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As scientists and companies work on cleaning up cars, there’s also a team developing new technology along a road in rural Georgia in the United Stat...

Recycling to Turn Trash into Cash

10 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Rubbish littering the streets is a problem all around the world but collecting it can also be a vital source of income. Two projects, thousands of mil...

The Bricks Helping to Rebuild Gaza

03 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely-populated tracts of land in the world. In addition to the ongoing violence there, it has an unemployment rat...

Learning Lessons from the Longest Living Lands

26 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Can adapting your lifestyle add 10 years to your lifespan? Dan Buettner, a journalist for National Geographic, has identified nine characteristics tha...

Nigeria's Secret STI Test Kits

19 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

More than three million people in Nigeria are living with HIV, but only about 10% of the population has ever taken an HIV test. Talking about sex is a...

Can a $1 million Prize Help Keep Women Safe?

12 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In India, an estimated 79% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public, but it’s hoped that a $1 million competition will reduce that figu...