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507 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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The Ring That Could Help Save Women’s Lives
19 december 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringIn Southern Africa, over seven thousand women are infected with HIV each week. Many can't persuade their partners to wear a condom, so a new form of protection being tested in Malawi could be a real game-changer. Lees meer
It's a small silicon ring which encircles the cervix and releases antiretroviral drugs, lowering the women’s risk of contracting HIV. Their partners can’t feel it, and don’t even need to know it’s there.
World Hacks meets the women pioneering this approach and taking control of their own protection.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Reporter: Ruth EvansImage: A community health nurse in Malawi holds up the dapivirine ring / Credit: BBC
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How to Get Wheelchairs on Planes
12 december 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringIf you are a wheelchair user, travelling by aeroplane can be very difficult. Buses, trains and some cars are designed for people to roll into without getting out of their chair, but planes are not, which means an often painful process of moving between the chair and the airline seat – if this is even possible. This can potentially lead to injuries and can stop disabled people travelling by air. Lees meer
Now, a small group of amateur campaigners is trying to change this – designing and testing their own systems that would let their loved-ones travel the world in safety and comfort.
Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: William KremerImage: Wheelchair crash testing / Credit: Michele Erwin
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Drone Delivery: Medicines By Air
5 december 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringMost Malawians live in rural areas and if they get sick, it can be incredibly difficult to get testing kits or medicines in time. Malawi's government has now opened up part of its sky to companies and charities who want to use drones to solve this problem, creating what’s being called the world’s first humanitarian drone testing corridor. World Hacks travels to rural Malawi to assess the opportunities and dangers from this new technology, and to see how much Malawians could benefit. Lees meer
Image: Villagers in rural Malawi look on as a drone carrying medical supplies is unloaded / Credit: BBC
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Smartphone-Activated First Aiders
28 november 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringYour chances of surviving a cardiac arrest while out on the high street are slim. It's estimated survival rates decrease by ten percent for every minute you don't get medical help. The nearest ambulance may be on its way but could take several minutes to arrive. But what if an off-duty paramedic was just around the corner and could help out? BBC World Hacks looks at a new alert system that informs people with first aid training when they're in the vicinity of a medical emergency. Nick Holland investigates whether it works work and what difference it could make to survival rates? Lees meer
Image: The app that shows people with first aid training the location of a cardiac arrest / Credit: BBC
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The Former Neo-Nazi Helping Others To Quit
21 november 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringA retired police detective and a former neo-Nazi leader may seem like an unlikely partnership. But Dr Bernd Wagner and Ingo Hasselbach have taken their past differences and used them as the basis for making a real change. When Hasselbach quit neo-Nazism over two decades ago he and Wagner, who had once arrested him, realised they had a shared dream: to help far right extremists change their ways. Lees meer
Presenter: Tallulah Berry
Reporter: Harriet NobleImage: Ingo Hasselbach / Credit: BBC
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How Iceland Saved Its Teenagers
14 november 2017 · 24 min
Beluister deze afleveringIn 1998, 42% of Iceland’s 15 and 16 year-olds reported that they had got drunk in the past 30 days. By 2016, though, this figure had fallen to just 5% and drug use and smoking had also sharply declined. The action plan that led to this dramatic success is sometimes called “the Icelandic Model” – and strikingly, it does not focus on tighter policing or awareness campaigns to warn children off bad habits. Instead, top researchers collaborate closely with communities on initiatives like parental pledges and night-time patrols after dark, while the government invests in recreational facilities. But is being a teenager in Iceland still fun? Lees meer
Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: William KremerImage: Icelandic teenagers / Credit: BBC
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The Missing Maps
7 november 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringThousands of places in the world don't officially exist on a map. If you're not on a map, it can have implications for how people find you - in times of disaster for example. But a project called Missing Maps is solving that, by using the power of volunteers to make 'invisible people, visible'. At a mapathon in London, volunteers are sitting around their laptops plotting the world. And then in Malawi, mapping experts are putting in essential details to the map. World Hacks travels there to see the finished maps and what impact they could have on communities living there. Lees meer
Reporter: Charlotte Pritchard
Presenter: Dougal Shaw
Producer: Nick HollandImage: People looking at a map / Credit: BBC
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The Town Where Public Toilets Are Everywhere
31 oktober 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringto stop people getting caught short.
What do you do if you're out and about and can't find a public toilet? Do you sneak into a cafe and hope no one notices, buy something you don't want just for the privilege of using the facilities, or hold it in until you can get home? The number of public toilets around the world is decreasing, making this an increasingly common dilemma. But not in many parts of Germany thanks to a scheme called "Die Nette Toilette", or the nice toilet. Local authorities pay businesses a monthly fee to let anyone wonder in and go to the loo for free. Not only does this dramatically increase the number of available toilets, it leads to big savings for the public purse. Lees meerWritten and produced by Harriet Noble
Presented by Dougal ShawImage: Interior of a German public toilet / Credit: BBC
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Addressing the World in Three Words
24 oktober 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringAround 75% of the world's population, approximately 4 billion people, don't have an address. Take a country like Mongolia, with a largely nomadic population, where street names and postcodes can be few and far between. But that could all be changing thanks to just three words. Mongolia's Postal Service was the first in the world to sign up to What3Words, an idea from a British former music executive fed up of bands and equipment constantly getting lost. He's divided the entire world into 3m squares and given each one a different three word phrase, and it could mean that everyone in the world will soon have an address. Lees meer
Presenter: Tom Colls
Reporter / Producer: Harriet NobleImage: How What Three Words divides up the world / Credit: Google Maps
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How Iceland is Fighting the Gender Pay Gap
17 oktober 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringAlthough Iceland is thought to be the best country in the world for gender equality, it lags behind in one metric: the gender pay gap. So a decade ago the country's unions and business community came together to try something new. They devised a management standard to help organisations implement equal pay. Now the government has gone a step further and introduced a law that from January will force companies to adopt the standard or face fines. So is this small island nation set to be the first in the world to equalise pay? Lees meer
Presenter: India Rakusen
Reporter: William KremerImage: Illustration of two Icelandic people / Credit: BBC
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Viking Therapy?
10 oktober 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringIt looks like the set of Game of Thrones. Once a year Wolin in Poland hosts a huge Viking festival - with a twist. Enthusiasts come from around the world not just to re-enact battles, but to win them, fighting competitively. One organiser of these battles has found that this Viking scene can offer positive benefits to men who have been defined by violence in their past, and are now looking for a way to escape. Lees meer
Presenter: Sofia Bettiza
Reporter: Dougal ShawImage: A modern Viking gets ready for a battle / Credit: BBC
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How Cervical ‘Selfies’ are Fighting Cancer in The Gambia
3 oktober 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringIt’s not usually a good idea to take selfies of your private parts, but what if those photos could save your life? A new, tiny medical device is being used across Africa to detect cervical cancer from a mobile phone photograph. In Gambia, doctors are often in short supply, but nurses, midwives and smartphones are widely available, allowing patients to be diagnosed and treated remotely. In sub Saharan Africa, cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in women, but it takes years to develop and can be treated for under $30 if caught early. Can cervical selfies get women talking about a silent, unseen killer? Lees meer
Presenter: India Rakusen
Reporter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill.Image: Nurse using the EVA system in Gambia / Credit: BBC
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How To Make Sushi From Methane Gas
26 september 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringHumanity’s hunger for meat is not good for the planet. Every cow, pig and fish that farmers rear has an environmental cost – particularly in the land and water resources it takes to grow the food the animals eat. But one entrepreneur is developing a solution – create animal feed from methane gas. Using methane-eating bacteria, they have developed animal feed that uses a fraction of the land and water of plant-based animal feed. Lees meer
Reporter: Charlotte Pritchard
Presenter: Sahar Zand
Series Producer: Tom CollsImage: Sushi being picked up with chopsticks / Credit: 4kodiak / Getty Images
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When Local Currencies Go Digital
19 september 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringLocal currencies – money you can only spend at small local businesses – aim to keep money in their neighbourhood and out of the hands of big corporations and their shareholders. Now they are going digital, with local currencies that live only on smartphone money apps. Could it make them a financial force to be reckoned with? Lees meer
Presenter: India Rakusen
Reporter: Dougal ShawImage: A local digital currency working on a smartphone / Credit: BBC
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Condom Lifesavers and Voices for the Voiceless
12 september 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringEach year around 100,000 women die due to heavy bleeding after giving birth. But help is at hand from an unexpected source: condoms. World Hacks goes to a maternity hospital in Kenya to speak to the medical staff using this super-cheap kit that is saving lives. Lees meer
Also on the programme, the US start-up that is asking volunteers to donate their voices, then transforming them into personalised, digital voices for people with degenerative diseases.
Reporters: Harriet Noble and Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
Presenter: India RakusenImage: Midwife Anne Mulinge / Credit: BBC
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The Dutch Antibiotic Revolution
5 september 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringAntibiotic resistant superbugs are a huge problem both in humans and in animals. Many animals reared for food are routinely fed antibiotics to prevent infections. Farmers across the world do it to protect their livestock and to safeguard their incomes. But some bugs are becoming resistant to these drugs because of their overuse – fuelling the rise of animal “superbugs” like MRSA that could potentially spread to humans. This means that animals and people can die from common infections because the antibiotics no longer work. In the Netherlands, the story of one sick little girl caused pig farmers to wake up to a huge pig MRSA infection that was spreading to humans. Recognising the problem, a couple of pig farmers started a movement that has resulted in the country cutting their antibiotics use in animals by 65% - and, crucially, without affecting their profits. World Hacks investigates how a group of pig farmers solved a massive problem in The Netherlands and whether other countries should urgently follow suit. Lees meer
Presenter: Tallulah Berry
Reporter/ Producer: Shoku AmiraniImage: Pig on a farm in The Netherlands / Credit: BBC
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How to Get Blood Where it is Needed
29 augustus 2017 · 24 min
Beluister deze afleveringThe availability of blood for transfusions saves lives after difficult births and operations. But in much of the developing world, hospitals have a blood shortage. One entrepreneur in Nigeria is working on a solution. She has developed an app that connects blood banks to hospitals, and has built a network of moped drivers to ferry blood around Lagos, the largest city in the country. World Hacks investigates whether her solution can save lives. Lees meer
Also on the programme, the designers of a new “city tree” – large structures filled with moss that attempt to absorb pollution from the air.
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Reporters: Stephanie Hegarty and Dougal ShawImage: Moped driver in Lagos / Credit: BBC
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Pakistan’s Laptop Female Doctors
22 augustus 2017 · 24 min
Beluister deze afleveringHow do you help female doctors get back to work when they've given up medicine to look after their families? It's a particular problem in Pakistan where the majority of medical graduates are women who stop working after they get married. Now a scheme has been set up employing them to hold video clinics with patients over the internet, enabling them to work flexibly from home. What's more they're aiming to improve access to health care in Pakistan by targeting their 'computer screen clinics' at people living in deprived parts of the country, where the shortage of female doctors is most acute. Lees meer
Produced by Nick Holland
Presented by Tallulah BerryImage credit: BBC
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Urban Cable Cars
15 augustus 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringIs a new urban cable car in Mexico more than just a means of public transport? As well as ferrying thousands of people a day, it's been strategically located to link up the poorest neighbourhoods to more affluent parts of the city. It's hoped it will bring growth to a forgotten district, reduce crime and become a means of bridging the social divide. World Hacks travels to Mexico City to see if it can achieve those goals and understand why cities are opting for this usual form of transport. Lees meer
Presenter: Sahar Zand
Producers: Elizabeth Cassin and Nick HollandImage: Cable cars above Mexico City / Credit: BBC
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Does Universal Basic Income Work?
8 augustus 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringAround the world, governments and researchers are experimenting with the introduction of universal basic income. From Finland and Spain to India, the idea of giving every citizen – whether working or not – a set amount of money per month is gaining momentum. It’s claimed to be a fairer and more efficient way of running a welfare system, but we’re only just starting to understand what actually happens when you introduce a basic income for everyone. We look at the evidence and try to establish whether it is an idea whose time has come. Lees meer
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Producer: Jo MathysImage: An Indian man counts currency / Credit: Sajjad Hussain / AFP / Getty Images
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The Teachable Moment
1 augustus 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringDarius has been shot three separate occasions, but the third time was the last. He was met at his bedside by a stranger, who changed his life forever. Lees meer
Victims of violence are, far more likely to be shot, stabbed or violently assaulted a second or third time - as the perpetrators of violence try to silence the victim.
In San Francisco, where Darius lived, specially trained case managers visit victims of violence at their bedsides in hospital and work with them to break that cycle of violence, offering practical advice and specialist services to the patients.
They claim that speaking with victims of violence immediately after an attack, when they are experiencing a 'teachable moment' they have a far greater chance of changing the patient's life forever.
Reporter Sam Judah meets Darius at the site of his third and final shooting, tracing his journey to the hospital, and his meeting with the youth worker who helped him turn his life around.
Image: Darius / Credit: BBC
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Mexico's Cartoon Therapists
25 juli 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringHow do you get children who're victims of emotional abuse or physical harm to open up about what's happened to them? In Mexico a psychologist, Julia Borbolla, encourages them to have a one-to-one chat with a cartoon alien that appears on a video screen in a room near her office. What the children don't realise is Julia hears every word of their conversation with the animated creature because she's secretly controlling it from the room next door. Lees meer
She says children are more likely to reveal sensitive information to the cartoon alien than if they were face-to-face with a real person. World Hacks travels to Mexico City to assess whether the tool works and to meet people who're now operating it in public hospitals, women's shelters and within the country's judicial system.
(Photo: Psychologist Julia Borbolla Credit: BBC)
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Cutting Cow Farts to Combat Climate Change
18 juli 2017 · 19 min
Beluister deze afleveringMethane emissions from the burps and farts of livestock accounts for around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But the trick to reducing this could lie with some of Kenya’s smallholder farmers. By using very simple techniques to transform the way they manage their soil and animals, dairy farmers are helping their cows emit less methane per litre of milk they produce. And it’s all being paid for by big polluters, in what could become a major form of carbon offsetting. Is this a new frontier in the fight against climate change? World Hacks has been to rural Kenya to find out. Lees meer
Presenter: Vincent Ni
Reporter: Harriet Noble -
Thailand’s Disease Detectives
11 juli 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringWorld Hacks goes to Thailand to meet an army of volunteers on the front line in the fight against dangerous diseases, like Ebola and bird flu. Lees meer
Nearly 100 years ago Spanish Flu infected a third of the world’s population and killed about 50 million people. With increased international travel, growing populations and environmental damage, experts warn that viruses now have the potential to spread faster, and we could be on course for another pandemic, with devastating consequences.
Pandemics often originate in places where animals and people live in close contact, making it easy for animal diseases to spill over into humans, and where health systems may not be able to pick up on threats and respond quickly. In rural Thailand, 75% of people keep animals in their back gardens, making it hard to keep track of new outbreaks. In 2004, a strain of bird flu swept through the country, as well as Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, infecting more than 125 people and killing about half of them.
Vets at Chiang Mai University have started a project called PODD – the full name in Thai means “Look closely and you will see”. They’ve trained up 3,000 volunteers to take photos of dead animals and report any signs of sickness in their communities, helping spot dangerous outbreaks and contain them before they spread.Presenter : Vincent Ni
Reporter: Ruth Evans
Producer: Charlotte PritchardImage: Vets from the PODD team test chickens during a suspected outbreak / Credit: BBC
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Can We Supercharge School?
4 juli 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringA new school in San Francisco thinks it can massively accelerate the speed at which children can learn, using clever technology and smart algorithms to offer each child a bespoke education. Lees meer
AltSchool believes it can achieve results that were only previously possible by giving individual children their own personal tutor.
The firm currently runs eight small ‘lab schools’ dotted around the country, all run from their California headquarters. But they have huge plans for expansion, and hope to sell their software to every school in the country.
Sam Judah meets the pupils at one of the schools, and the CEO at AltSchool’s nerve centre, to find out what’s behind the company’s big idea.
Presenter: Mai Noman
Producer: Sam JudahImage: A pupil at AltSchool / Credit: BBC
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Turning Fatbergs into Fuel
27 juni 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringLurking in the sewers beneath the streets there are giant blobs of congealed cooking fat known as “fatbergs”. Now one company has come up with a clever way of making money out of them. Their efforts may one day change perceptions of fatbergs – turning the lumps of putrid waste into a valuable commodity. Lees meer
Presenter: Tom Colls
Reporter: Nick Holland(Image: A fatberg, Credit: Thames Water)
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Thailand’s Condom King
20 juni 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringThailand in the 1960s was on the verge of a population disaster. Thai women were having seven children on average, and the government was struggling to raise living conditions. Mechai Viravaidya, a young economist who moonlighted as a soap actor, newspaper columnist and teacher, made it his mission to get family planning into every village in Thailand - he wanted to make condoms as easily accessible as vegetables. Lees meer
Mechai realised he could use humour to break down Thai reservations about contraception, launching condom blowing competitions and condom beauty pageants. His efforts were so successful, condoms became known as “Mechais” in Thai, and he was nicknamed “The Condom King” or “Mr Condom”. When the HIV/Aids crisis threatened to engulf Thailand in early 1990s, Mechai, now a government minister, launched a mass media campaign promoting condom use and made condoms available everywhere, from massage parlours to bus stops. It is estimated these preventative measures saved 7.7 million lives. We find out what lessons we can learn from his 45 years of campaigning. Presented by Mai Noman.
Presenter: Mai Noman
Reporter: Ruth Evans
Producer: Charlotte Pritchard -
How To Be A Better Mum In Jail
13 juni 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringThere are more than 200,000 women in US prisons and jails and it is estimated that 6% to 10% are pregnant. One project in Minnesota is trying to use these pregnancies to change the lives of the women, and their children, for the better. We go to jail with the Minnesota Prison Doula Project to see how it works. Lees meer
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Reporter: Sahar Zand
Producer: William Kremer -
Would You Rent Your Clothes?
6 juni 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringGlobally, only around 20% of clothes are re-used or recycled. The majority go to landfill or are incinerated. In the USA alone, the amount of clothes being thrown away has doubled in the last two decades. In World Hacks this week we meet the Scandinavian entrepreneurs trying to change this. Could a solution to this waste be to give people the option of renting clothes, so they don’t hoard things they rarely wear? Or how about clothes you can throw away guilt free, because they are fully compostable? Lees meer
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Reporter: Dougal ShawImage: Man wearing boxer shorts / Credit: Houdini
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The Stickers that Save Lives
30 mei 2017 · 26 min
Beluister deze afleveringRoad accidents are the single largest cause of death amongst young people around the world. But a project in Kenya is making impressive progress in tackling the issue. It has deployed a small and very simple weapon, which has been proven to cut bus accidents by at least a quarter – a sticker. Lees meer
Also on the programme, how they’re making recreation space in Chile, but without knocking down any buildings.
Presenter: Tom Colls
Producer: Harriet Noble[Image: Mutatu buses in Kenya. Copyright: Getty Images]
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Turning Plastic Trash into Cash
23 mei 2017 · 24 min
Beluister deze afleveringPicking up money - that’s what Haitian’s nicknamed a movement seeking to solve Haiti’s plastic waste problem and reduce poverty at the same time. It was started by a man who saw a glimmer of hope in the devastation wrought by the 2010 earthquake: plastic bottles were clogging the beaches and filling the oceans with rubbish. But what if you could clear up the trash, give Haitians employment, and reduce the reliance on “virgin” plastic, all at the same time? It’s a bold idea that aims to solve two of the World’s big problems – poverty and plastic in the ocean. And it all hinges on attaching social value to recycled plastic. So why aren’t more companies doing it? Lees meer
Presenter: Sahar Zand
Reporter: Gemma Newby(Image: Plastic rubbish on beach in Haiti, Credit: BBC)
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Turning Goats into Water
16 mei 2017 · 24 min
Beluister deze afleveringFariel Salahuddin is not the type of person you’d expect to see wandering around rural Pakistan, especially with a herd of goats. She’s a successful energy consultant who has worked around the world. But when she returned to where she grew up, Pakistan, Fariel decided she wanted to work on smaller projects to try to make an immediate impact and provide solar energy to poor, rural communities. This was all very well, until she realised these places didn’t have water, let alone power. What they did have was goats. Fariel developed an innovative scheme to trade what the villagers have in plentiful supply for something they desperately needed: goats for water. But what was Fariel going to do with all her newly acquired goats? Lees meer
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Reporters: Secunder Kermani and Dougal Shaw
Producer: Charlotte PritchardImage: Goats in rural Pakistan / Credit: BBC
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Saving Lives with Text Messages
9 mei 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringWhat do you do in a medical emergency when the equivalent of 999 or 911 simply doesn’t exist? After spending time in countries that lack public ambulance services, US paramedic Jason Friesen realised the problem wasn’t a lack of sophisticated ambulances, or the hi-tech medical equipment inside them, but the communication system necessary to get an injured person from A to B in time to save their life. Lees meer
In the Dominican Republic there are no public ambulances but now, in two rural areas, first responders respond to a medical emergency as fast as any ambulance service in the developed world. And all it takes is one smartphone, a handful of willing volunteers, and an Uber-like text system that crowdsources help when disaster strikes.
And Dougal Shaw meets the man who is pioneering a way to use recycled plastic to make stronger, longer lasting roads.
Presenter: Sahar Zand
Reporters: Gemma Newby, Dougal Shaw.Image: First responders in the back of an ambulance / Credit: BBC
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Greener In Death
2 mei 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringThis is a story about what happens to your body after you die. In many countries, the current options are burial and cremation, but, both methods come with significant environmental impacts. We’re running out of space for burial in many places, and cremation carries the risk of toxins and greenhouse gases being released. For World Hacks, Sahar Zand travels to the US, where they’re using a new process to deal with the dead. It’s been called “green cremation,” “water cremation” or “resomation” and uses alkaline hydrolysis to mimic and accelerate the breakdown of tissue that would occur in burial. Those who invented the process say it’s an environmentally friendly way to address this fundamental moment in the human life-cycle, but does the evidence stack up? Lees meer
Reporter: Sahar Zand
Presenter Mukul DevichandImage: A resomation machine / Caption: BBC
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Helping Disabled People With Sex
28 april 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringHow do you fulfil your sexual needs if you have a disability? How do you masturbate if you have limited use of your hands? These are problems that most able-bodied people have probably never considered. But if you’re in this position it’s something you probably think about a lot. And it’s a problem which Vincent, the founder of a small NGO called Hand Angels, is trying to help with. His group matches volunteers with disabled people to provide a sexual service. Mukul Devichand and Alvaro Alvarez go to Taiwan to hear the remarkably frank stories of the volunteers and the receivers at the service. They open up a world of deep disappointment of those people who haven’t experienced sex or intimacy and an organisation that thinks it has the solution. But can any service ever fill this gap or is it just a shallow fix. Lees meer
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Image: Vincent – the founder of ‘Hand Angels’ / Credit: BBC
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The Data Donators
18 april 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringThe Data Donators Lees meer
Meet Becky. She suffers from arthritis and is in constant pain. Like lots of people – patients and doctors alike – she has a hunch that bad weather could be exacerbating the problem.
It’s a question that has been asked for at least 2000 years, but we have never had the tools or resources to answer it. That is, perhaps, until now. Dr Will Dixon has set up a mass participation study that takes advantage of smartphone technology. More than 13,000 people have downloaded an app that has provided his team with a massive set of data, and by combing through it he hopes to answer the question once and for all. It’s not the only project of its kind, either. Around the world more and more people are launching similar projects – asking thousands of volunteers to donate their data for the greater good.
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Reporter: Nick HollandImage: Overlay of highlighted bones of woman at physiotherapist / Credit: Shutterstock
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Postmen Delivering Kindness to the Elderly
11 april 2017 · 19 min
Beluister deze afleveringOn the island of Jersey, postal workers don’t just deliver the mail. They also check up on elderly people during their routes. In a five minute chat, they check they’ve taken their medication and if there’s anything else they need. It’s popular with older people and their relatives, and the project has caught the attention of post offices - and health professionals - around the world. Could a chat on the doorstep help solve the social care crisis? We travel to Jersey to meet the man behind the idea, and join a postman on his round. Lees meer
Presenter: Tom Colls
Producer: Elizabeth CassinImage: Jersey postman Ricky Le Quesne / Credit: BBC
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The Parent Hack For Cheaper Childcare
4 april 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringParents struggling with childcare costs in London are banding together to care for each other’s kids. They run a super-cheap nursery where mums and dads take on half of the childcare. It’s a throwback to the childcare movement of the 1970s but can it work in the modern age? Lees meer
Presented by Sahar Zand. Produced by William Kremer.
Image: Drawing of a family / Credit: BBC
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Toilets in Haiti and Circular Runways
25 maart 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringThere are no sewers in Haiti. 26% of Haitians have access to a toilet, so a lot of the sewage ends up in the water supply. Currently, Haiti is battling the biggest cholera epidemic in recent history and thousands are dying. We travel there to meet a team of women who are trying to solve this massive problem.
They have set up an NGO called Soil which delivers dry, compost toilets to peoples’ homes. Alternatives to water guzzling flushing toilets - which need infrastructure such as sewers - are drastically needed in many parts of the world. And there’s a bonus to this scheme too. Lees meerAlso on the programme, a radical suggestion for airports: build circular runways. Are the current straight ones really the best way to take off and land?
Presenter: Sahar Zand
Reporters: Gemma Newby & Dougal Shaw
Producer: Charlotte PritchardImage: The women of Haiti who work for the NGO Soil / Credit: BBC
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Checking out the solar hotel
18 maart 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringCould we build cities using solar panels instead of walls? That’s the dream that Huang Ming, a wealthy entrepreneur in China’s Shandong province, has had since the 1980s. He’s become known as the ‘Sun King’ after building a vast solar park, including a showcase hotel, to prove a new kind of solar architecture is possible. So why hasn’t it caught on? We check into a room in the solar hotel and examine the vision and sometimes unfulfilled dreams of solar architecture in China.
Plus, why do bins in Copenhagen have shelves built into them? Clue: it helps the city’s poorest people. Lees meerPresenter: Mukul Devichand
Reporters: Emma Wilson and Harriet Noble(Image: Huang Ming and his solar hotel, Credit: BBC)
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Moving In With Refugees
11 maart 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringAn innovative housing project in Amsterdam is attempting a new way of integrating refugees into the local population. In prefab flats, refugees from the Syrian war live next door to young people in need of cheap rent. They eat together, learn language together, and develop the networks that researchers say are critical to successful integration. Lees meer
Presenter: Charlotte Pritchard
Reporter: Jo MathysImage: Young people living in the Startblok / Credit: BBC
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How China is Cleaning its Air
4 maart 2017 · 48 min
Beluister deze afleveringAir pollution is a huge problem for China, but did you know it’s actually getting better? The Air Quality Index in several cities is improving, because of a variety of experimental projects that are being rolled out.
In this special edition of World Hacks as part of the #SoICanBreathe season, we are in Beijing to gather together some of the thinkers and entrepreneurs leading China’s efforts to clean its air. We work through their ideas with an audience of students and entrepreneurs, as well as hearing reports about clever pollution solutions from around the country. Lees meerPresented by Mukul Devichand and Vincent Ni.
Additional reporting by Emma Wilson and Ruhua Xianyu.Image: A woman wearing a face mask in central Beijing / Image credit: BBC
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The Voter Lottery
25 februari 2017 · 19 min
Beluister deze afleveringVoter turnout is a problem around the world, particularly in local elections. But a small group of academics and activists in the US are experimenting with a new way of getting people to turn up and put their cross in a box – a lottery. Every voter is entered and one lucky winner gets a big cash prize. World Hacks investigates whether it works. Lees meer
Presenter: Kathleen Hawkins
Reporter: Gemma Newby
Producer: Tom CollsImage caption: Lottery balls about to be drawn, Image credit: Thomas Samson / Stringer / Getty Images
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Denmark’s Food Waste Vigilante
18 februari 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringFood waste is a massive global problem: the EU alone throws away 88 million tonnes a year. Much of this ends up in landfill and produces dangerous greenhouse gasses which contribute to climate change. In Europe 53% of food waste comes from households, and one woman has made it her mission to stop Danes throwing away food. We travel to Copenhagen to meet Selina Juul, a key part of Denmark’s food waste revolution. Lees meer
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Denmark’s Food Waste Vigilante
18 februari 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringFood waste is a massive global problem: the EU alone throws away 88 million tonnes a year. Much of this ends up in landfill and produces dangerous greenhouse gasses which contribute to climate change. In Europe 53% of food waste comes from households, and one woman has made it her mission to stop Danes throwing away food. We travel to Copenhagen to meet Selina Juul, a key part of Denmark’s food waste revolution. Lees meer
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The Sun Water Solution
11 februari 2017 · 25 min
Beluister deze afleveringThis is a story about how the most amazing ideas do not always work how you would like in practise. In theory it is so simple. You put disease-ridden water into a two litre plastic bottle, screw on the lid and leave it in the sun. After six hours on a cloudless day, almost all the bacteria and bugs that cause diseases like cholera and diarrhoea are killed or inactivated by the UV light and gentle warming. Professor Kevin McGuigan has proven this in the lab, but for the last 20 years he has been trying to get it working in rural African communities. It has not been anywhere near as easy as you might think. Lees meer
(Photo: Godfrey putting his water bottle out to disinfect in the sunshine)
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Lend Me Your Eyes
4 februari 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringA new app is helping blind people solve everyday problems by combining smartphones video technology and an army of armchair volunteers. Lees meer
World Hacks investigates how it works and explores whether micro-volunteering projects like this have the potential to solve all kinds of problems in the future.
Presented by Mukul Devichand.
Image caption: Vicky, who is blind, using an app to help her sew / Image credit: BBC
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The War On Fake News
28 januari 2017 · 23 min
Beluister deze afleveringThe internet is awash with made-up news stories. It’s not a new problem, but the highly charged US election campaign forced people to pay attention. This week on World Hacks we’re speaking to some of those fighting back against what they see as a threat to democracy: the fake news epidemic. We hear from guests including Le Monde’s Samuel Laurent, Democratic State Senator Bill Dodd of California, and Claire Wardle from journalism non-profit First Draft. Lees meer
Presented by Sahar Zand.
Produced by Harriet Noble.
Image caption: Close up of a computer screen showing a web address, Image credit: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images
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Superblocks To The Rescue?
21 januari 2017 · 18 min
Beluister deze afleveringIn Barcelona, they’re experimenting with a new way of designing the city. Superblocks are vast low-traffic zones, but they’re also deeply controversial. The aim is cut pollution and reclaim public space from the car, but does it work? World Hacks investigates. Lees meer
Presented by Sahar Zand.
Image: A superblock from above / Image credit: Google Maps
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An Unlikely House Share
14 januari 2017 · 19 min
Beluister deze afleveringIn one of the most expensive cities in the world, students are moving in with older people who have spare rooms as part of a “homeshare” scheme. Lees meer
The young people in Paris get cheap accommodation and the older people get companionship and support in return.
World Hacks reports on the generation-spanning friendships that are blossoming as a result.
Presented by Sahar Zand.
Photo: Monique and Mikyoung, who are part of the homeshare scheme / Credit: BBC