Alle afleveringen van People Fixing The World – pagina 9 van 11

How 'Buddy Benches' are Making Playtime Less Lonely

4 december 2018 · 24 min

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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 the bench as a signal that they need someone to play with. Another child will see them, go and talk to them and include them in their games. However, a social enterprise in Ireland wants to do something more with them. Buddy Bench Ireland builds a day of workshops around the introduction of the benches, led by a team of child psychiatrists. Pupils are taught about empathy, how to look after their emotions and spot when others need support. The benches are seen as an early intervention to remove the stigma around mental health in Irish society. Lees meer

Presenter: Tom Colls
Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: Buddy Bench
Photo Credit: BBC

Smart Boats That Sail on a Bed of Bubbles

27 november 2018 · 23 min

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What’s being done to clean up the shipping industry and make it less polluting? Lees meer

Nick Holland looks at innovative ideas to make ships burn less fuel. The industry plays a critical role in the global economy. But it’s under pressure to decarbonise. Could giant rotating cylinders and millions of tiny bubbles be the answer?

Presenter: Kat Hawkins
Producer: Nick Holland

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Banks That Run on Time Instead of Money

20 november 2018 · 23 min

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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 spend time. Lees meer

Based on the idea that everyone’s time is worth the same, time bankers exchange lawn mowing for childcare, and dog walking for graphic design.

World Hacks reporter Tom Colls enters the time economy and looks at the projects trying to upgrade time banking for the digital age.

Presenter: Nick Holland
Reporter: Tom Colls

Photo Caption: Clock and piggy bank.
Photo Credit: Getty Images

How to Build a City for an Ageing Population

13 november 2018 · 24 min

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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 demographic time bomb as the cost of caring for the elderly rises. Lees meer

But can the solution to this growing problem be found in Kashiwa City near Tokyo? A project there has been looking at how to redesign towns and cities to adapt to their residents as they reach old age.

World Hacks asks whether the answers they have found could help ageing populations across the world.

Producer: Harriet Noble (for BBC World Service)

The Country That Can Jail You For Using Plastic Bags

6 november 2018 · 23 min

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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 in jail for producing, selling or using them. Lees meer

World Hacks travels to Nairobi to find out what impact the ban has had, and asks why Kenya has taken such a seemingly progressive stance on plastic. We also speak to experts in the UK to find out why many governments prefer to ‘nudge’ their citizens into cutting back on plastic bags, instead of banning them.

Presenter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Time to Update the Stranger Danger Message?

30 oktober 2018 · 24 min

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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 so, governments have created public information campaigns around the message of “Stranger Danger”. In the UK, the US, Canada and many other countries too, these videos were played in the media and in schools.
The videos portrayed in stark terms the risk of talking to adults you did not know who appeared to be friendly. But a new generation of childcare experts believe this is not the most effective message to protect children. Most abductions are by people children already know. And there is a worry that a general fear of strangers is not good for a child’s social development - or for society in general. World Hacks meets the charity Action Against Abduction as they teach a new message: Clever Never Goes. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter and Producer: Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: Stranger Danger
Photo Credit: BBC

Tech That Tricks the Brain

23 oktober 2018 · 23 min

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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 be fooled. Two start-up companies are making a business from these brain hacks, using wearable technology to trick the brain to improve people’s lives. Lees meer

The first is a wristband that uses a fake heartbeat to trick users’ brains into feeling calmer in stressful situations. The Doppel device also allows users to increase the rate of the fake heartbeat to make them feel more focused.

The second wearable device allows people to fit lasers to their shoes. They are designed to help Parkinson’s patients who suffer from freezing episodes. These episodes affect up to 70% of Parkinson’s patients and come on suddenly, halting a sufferer mid-stride as they walk. The laser shoes provide visual cues to trick the brain into moving again.

Presenter: Sofia Bettiza
Reporter: Ammar Ebrahim

Photo Credit: Getty Images

‘Rental sisters’ for Japan’s Reclusive Young Men

16 oktober 2018 · 24 min

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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 their bedrooms for years on end, refusing to work, study or interact with anyone around them. More than half a million people are thought to be hikikomori, most of them young men. Lees meer

One organisation, New Start, has come up with an unusual solution: rental sisters. The sisters-for-hire visit regularly, helping to coax the hikikomori out of their bedrooms and back into society. That could mean just talking through the door, going out for lunch or even moving into a hikikomori boarding house and starting some part time work. Reporter Amelia Martyn-Hemphill finds out about the increasingly popular rental sister phenomenon for BBC World Hacks in Tokyo.

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill

Photo Caption: A Former Hikikomori
Photo Credit: BBC

Fighting the ‘Water Mafia’ with Pipes in the Sky

9 oktober 2018 · 24 min

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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 - water is often syphoned off from the mains supply and pumped in through dirty hosepipes. Lees meer

But Kennedy Odede is trying to change that. Dubbed the ‘president of the poor’, he set up a scheme to pump water up from a borehole deep underground, and deliver it through a new network of pipes with a difference. To avoid contamination, and keep them safe from the cartels, Kennedy’s pipes are suspended 15m in the air on a series of poles that carry them around the slum.

In this episode of World Hacks we travel to Kibera to meet Kennedy, see the aerial waterways in action, and ask if his scheme can expand to help people living in slums across the globe.

Presenter: Dougal Shaw
Reporter: Sam Judah
Producer: Sam Judah for the BBC World Service

Photo Caption: Kennedy Odede
Photo Credit: BBC

Mending Our Disposable Culture

2 oktober 2018 · 31 min

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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 Repair Café in the Netherlands and links up with a team running a similar workshop in India. He asks what difference this 'make do and mend’ movement can make to our disposable culture Lees meer

Photo Caption: Repairing a radio with a soldering iron
Photo Credit: BBC

Smart Stimulation for People with Dementia

25 september 2018 · 24 min

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Anyone who cares for someone with dementia knows the struggle to keep them stimulated and engaged as the condition progresses. This week World Hacks looks at three clever ideas that attempt to help. Lees meer

First up, a designer in the Netherlands has created a device that projects simple interactive games on to any table. Using lights, colours and sounds, the Tovertafel, or ‘Magic Table’, allows users to push rustling leaves, pop bubbles and catch virtual fish. We visit a dementia club in north London where it’s the star attraction at their weekly meeting and visit the creator, Dr Hester Le Riche, at her head office in Utrecht to find out how it works.

Another game features next, a simple board game called Call To Mind, which stimulates conversation through its gameplay.

And finally we look at some brightly-coloured rehydration drops, which draw the attention of people living with dementia and so aim to keep them healthy as the condition worsens.

Presenter: Nick Holland
Reporters: Claire Bates, Susila Silva, Tom Colls

Photo Caption: The Tovertafel in action
Photo Credit: BBC

Running and Singing to Improve Maths and English

18 september 2018 · 23 min

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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 wellbeing. The Daily Mile is an idea developed in a Scottish school by an enterprising teacher, which is now being adopted worldwide. It gets pupils to run a mile at a surprise moment during the school day, to break up their learning and burn some calories. Meanwhile, in Bradford, in the north of England, a previously failing school has found salvation through music. To improve its performance in core subjects including maths and English, it promoted music in the timetable and embraced a music-teaching philosophy pioneered in communist-era Hungary. Lees meer

Presenter: Dougal Shaw
Reporters: Shabnam Grewal and Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: A pupil playing drums and singing
Photo Credit: BBC

A Green Space Revolution in Paris

11 september 2018 · 24 min

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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 clever solution – they allow anyone to apply for a permit to start a garden anywhere at all. A rich assortment of small projects has sprung up, ranging from plant pots around lamp posts, to rejuvenated church squares, to walls covered with ivy. It’s a piecemeal approach to making the city greener, but it’s one that seems to be working. Lees meer

This week on World Hacks we visit this and two other projects that are trying to improve our experience of urban public spaces. As well as Paris’ citizen gardeners, we’ll hear from joggers in India who are ridding their streets of litter and commuters in London who are making a small but crucial change to the way they get to work.

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Scanning Homeless People To Make a Donation

4 september 2018 · 23 min

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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 solution is being proposed in Oxford, England, through a scheme issuing homeless people with barcodes which can be worn around the neck or printed on a sign. Lees meer

Members of the public can scan these barcodes on their smartphones and read the homeless person’s story, before deciding whether or not to donate. Any money pledged goes into a special bank account managed by a support worker, helping the homeless person save towards long-term goals.

Some think the project solves a number of problems but others fear the act of scanning someone using a smartphone could be dehumanising.

We visit Oxford to meet homeless people using the barcodes, and speak to the people behind the big idea.

Presenter: Harriet Noble

Photo Caption: One of the homeless people helping trial the new system in Oxford
Photo Credit: BBC

Rewarding Green Travel in Bologna

28 augustus 2018 · 23 min

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In the northern Italian town of Bologna, a new public transport system is rewarding citizens for taking sustainable modes of transport. Each time locals walk or use the bus, train, car pooling or car sharing, they receive ‘mobility points’, which can be cashed in at cafes, cinemas, bars, bookshops and a number of other locations across the city. We explore the social and environmental benefits of taking Bologna’s residents out of their cars and onto the streets, moving about the city in a greener way. Lees meer

Presenter: Dougal Shaw
Reporter: Nicola Kelly

Picture caption: Bologna’s citizens are rewarded for using green transport like bikes
Picture credit: GreenMe Italy

Cool Ways of Keeping Things Cool

21 augustus 2018 · 23 min

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A vast and expensive system with the sole purpose of keeping things cool exists across the developed world. This “cold chain” includes fridges in kitchens, refrigerated lorries and cold store warehouses for supermarket produce and medicines. It costs billions to run and has a big environmental cost. But in poorer countries, this cold chain is just in its infancy. People are dying as health clinics lack the fridges to keep vaccines safe. New cold chain technology is needed and two inventors think they’ve figured it out. World Hacks looks at their innovative ways of keeping things chilled. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Tom Colls

Reviving Italy’s ‘Ghost Towns’

14 augustus 2018 · 23 min

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Across the Italian countryside, villages are becoming deserted as people migrate to towns and cities. A sustainable tourism model known as the ‘Albergo Diffuso’ is attempting to reverse this trend. Tourist services, restaurants and hotels are spread around the village to encourage visitors to eat and stay with different families, boosting the local economy. We travel to the town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio in the Abruzzo region to meet the local business owners, restaurateurs and hoteliers profiting from the steady increase in tourism that this model has brought them. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Nicola Kelly

Picture Caption: Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a hilltop village that was once abandoned, now a thriving tourist town
Picture Credit: Sextantio Albergo Diffuso

Why Millions Listen to This Girl

7 augustus 2018 · 24 min

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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 her safety message. It’s an example of nudge theory in action, the art of subtly persuading large numbers of people to change their behaviour, by adjusting their environment. People Fixing the World also visits a university campus, which is nudging its students with a subtle price change, encouraging them to use fewer disposable coffee cups. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: Nine-year-old announcer
Photo Credit: BBC

Training India’s Fake Doctors

31 juli 2018 · 24 min

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It’s thought that more than half the people claiming to be doctors in India have no medical qualifications. They are known as “quacks”, operating illegally, but often ignored by the authorities because of a shortage of qualified doctors. They regularly misdiagnose diseases and prescribe the wrong drugs, and some even perform surgeries in makeshift clinics. One prominent, qualified, doctor has started a controversial scheme, offering a quick crash course in medicine to thousands of his untrained counterparts. In return they have to stop calling themselves doctors, and rebrand themselves as “healthcare workers”. At the very least, he says, they will do less harm to their patients, and the West Bengal government has agreed, rolling the project out across the state. But many in the medical establishment are appalled by the idea, arguing that a crash course isn’t enough, and the scheme legitimises criminals who have operated illegally for years.
World Hacks visits two villages outside of Kolkata - one with a newly reformed “healthcare worker”, and another with a self-confessed fake doctor - to ask if the controversial scheme can really work. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Sam Judah

Photo Caption: Abhijit Choudhury
Photo Credit: BBC

Stopping Wildfires in Their Tracks

24 juli 2018 · 23 min

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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 more often. World Hacks looks at three projects in Spain and North America that are trying to prevent forest fire destruction, by making the landscape itself more fire-resistant. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporters: Ammar Ebrahim and Richard Kenny

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Generating Power from the Roads

17 juli 2018 · 23 min

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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 States, with the aim of making a truly sustainable highway. The Ray, an 18-mile stretch of road near the Alabama border, is a “living laboratory” where eco-friendly projects are being tested. It’s got pollination gardens, a tyre-monitoring system to help reduce fuel consumption and solar panels embedded in a section of the road. A large solar installation also generates power and revenue, helping to reduce carbon emissions and encourage investment.
We meet the team behind the project and explore whether cleaner roads can be rolled out elsewhere in the United States and further afield. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Nicola Kelly

Photo Caption: An electric vehicle’s battery gets charged at a station along The Ray
Photo Credit: The Ray C. Anderson Foundation

Recycling to Turn Trash into Cash

10 juli 2018 · 23 min

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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 miles apart, are trying to clean up the streets and make life better for rubbish collectors at the same time.
In Nigeria, a start-up called Wecyclers is helping people profit from their waste, with the help of bicycles, tricycles and an incentives system. In Brazil, a phone app called Cataki is helping connect litter pickers and people with rubbish in an attempt to professionalise these informal recyclers. Lees meer

Presenter: Tom Colls
Reporters: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill, William Kremer

Photo Caption: Wecyclers in action in Lagos
Photo Credit: BBC

The Bricks Helping to Rebuild Gaza

3 juli 2018 · 24 min

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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 rate of more than 40 percent, and problems with access not only to clean water and electricity, but also basic construction supplies. The United Nations has described the situation there as “a constant humanitarian emergency”. Despite these challenges, a young Gazan engineer has developed a new and innovative way of making bricks, which she hopes could make Gaza less dependent on outside help. She uses rubble and ash to create a cheap, light brick that can be made locally. World Hacks goes to visit the factory and to learn more about how this award-winning new brick, called ‘Green Cake’, could make a difference. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Elizabeth Davies

Photo Caption: Green Cake
Photo Credit: BBC

Learning Lessons from the Longest Living Lands

26 juni 2018 · 23 min

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Can adapting your lifestyle add 10 years to your lifespan? Dan Buettner, a journalist for National Geographic, has identified nine characteristics that he says can add more than a decade to life expectancy. His Blue Zones Project uses lessons learned from five areas of the world with the highest population over the age of 100. We visit Naples in Florida, which has been named the top state for wellbeing in the United States, to find out how altering daily habits has improved the health and happiness of its population. Lees meer

Presenter: Tom Colls
Reporter: Nicola Kelly

Nigeria's Secret STI Test Kits

19 juni 2018 · 23 min

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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 taboo subject and sexual health clinics are not popular places to be seen. Other sexually transmitted diseases, such as Hepatitis B and Syphilis, are on the rise among young people. Lees meer

But a Nigerian entrepreneur called Florida Uzoaru thinks she has a millennial-friendly solution to sexual health. Her start-up is giving people the option to anonymously test themselves at home. Secret packages, sent by courier, contain a pick ‘n' mix of self-test blood kits, contraception or the morning after pill. Customers buy everything online and receive counselling and assistance via WhatsApp. But can bypassing the healthcare system solve the problem?

Producer and Reporter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill

Photo Caption: SlideSafe founder Florida Uzoaru with her secret STI testing kits
Photo Credit: BBC

Can a $1 million Prize Help Keep Women Safe?

12 juni 2018 · 23 min

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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 figure. We visit Mumbai for the grand final of the Women's Safety XPRIZE, where five teams compete to win $1 million for designing a wearable gadget that will secretly alert others in the event of an attack. We follow the competitors through a series of challenges as they try to prove their device is the best - from buses winding their way through the heart of the city, to a grand convention centre where they have to convince members of the public that their invention can keep women and girls safe from harm. Lees meer

Presenter: Chhavi Sachdev

The Street Where Houses Come Half-Built

5 juni 2018 · 23 min

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Two thirds of the world’s population are expected to live in cities by 2050 according to the UN. But where will all these extra people actually live? Budgets to build new social housing are limited, so one architect has been working on a radical solution. To cut costs, Alejandro Aravena suggests providing people with only half a house that they complete at a later date with their own money. Several estates have already been built this way around the world. Tom Garmeson travelled to one in Chile to see how people are living in these new communities. Lees meer

Presenter: Nick Holland
Producer: Tom Garmeson

Photo Caption: Half a house
Photo Credit: BBC

Fighting Food Waste

29 mei 2018 · 24 min

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Food waste is a global problem. According to the UN, one third of the food that we produce is being thrown away. Two London-based technology start-ups aim to change that. Smartphone app Olio encourages people to share food they no longer want with their neighbours. Meanwhile, Winnow has developed a smart bin which allows chefs to record how much food they’re throwing away, so they can make their kitchens more efficient. Lees meer

Presenter: Dougal Shaw
Reporter: Ammar Ebrahim

Photo Caption: Food waste mountain
Photo Credit: BBC

Clean Clothes and Glasses for the Poorest in Society

22 mei 2018 · 23 min

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How do you improve the lives of the very poorest people? Sometimes it’s just a question of doing the simple things. Lees meer

In Greece, where an economic downturn has left thousands of people homeless on the streets, three friends have found a way to provide them with a basic need – clean clothes. They bought a van and fitted it with washing machines, so they can do the washing wherever it’s needed.

In Malawi, the problem-solvers have turned their minds to another basic need – vision. They are building a network of new opticians and wire-frame glasses-makers which aim to improve the eyesight of even the poorest in society.

Presenter: Tom Colls
Reporters: Nick Holland & Lucy Ashton

Photo Caption: The mobile laundry in Athens
Photo Credit: BBC

Turning Subsistence Farming into an Investment Opportunity

15 mei 2018 · 23 min

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How do you pull subsistence farmers in Africa out of the cycle of poverty? All you have to do is help them produce more food than they need to survive. But to do that you need money and a new company in Nigeria has designed a smart way to provide it. Farmcrowdy connects farmers with online urban micro-investors. The investors finance the production of chickens, vegetables or grain and receive a guaranteed financial return – and the farmer makes enough to start to grow their business. Lees meer

Producer: Shabnam Grewal
Presenter: Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: The Farmcrowdy app
Photo Credit: BBC

The Speed Detectors

8 mei 2018 · 23 min

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A growing movement in the UK is devolving the power of catching speeding motorists from the police to the people. Police have been working with community volunteers, letting them use speed guns in a bid to protect their communities from fast traffic. But as more of these amateurs learn to wield the speed gun, it’s a solution that’s thrown up its own problems. Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: A volunteer wields a laser speed gun
Photo Credit: BBC

The People’s Peace Talks

1 mei 2018 · 23 min

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When we think of peace talks we think of politicians from opposing camps meeting behind closed doors in wood-panelled rooms, hammering out the details of an agreement that both sides can accept. But that process hasn’t led to long term peace when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So is it a mistake to think that only governments can negotiate peace? The Minds of Peace initiative brings together ordinary Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate their own peace agreement. Lees meer

Producer & Reporter: Elizabeth Davies

Photo Credit: BBC

The Schools Trying to Build Bridges

24 april 2018 · 24 min

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Could bilingual schools help bring peace to a seemingly intractable conflict? In Israel, the school you’ll go to is largely decided before you’re even born – by whether you come from a Jewish or Arab family. Communities learn separately and live separately and that, many argue, cements the hostility and misunderstanding of generations. So is the solution to bring them side-by-side? Hand in Hand is a network of integrated schools across Israel where Jewish and Arab students are taught together in Hebrew and Arabic.
As part of the BBC’s Crossing Divides season, World Hacks visits one of the schools to see how well this model works and whether it really has a lasting impact. Lees meer

Producer: Harriet Noble

Picture Credit: BBC

Problem-Solving Prizes

17 april 2018 · 24 min

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People can’t resist a prize, especially when there’s money to go with a medal, and for hundreds of years that basic human urge has been used to push humanity forward. When you focus minds and money towards a simple target, incredible things can happen - from the clock that won the Longitude prize money in the 1700s to the spacecraft that won the XPRIZE in 2004. Are there any problems that a big enough prize cannot solve? Lees meer

Producer & Reporter: William Kremer

Photo Caption: Pilot Mike Melvill standing on Space Ship One, which went on to win the Ansari XPRIZE
Photo Credit: Getty Images
This programme uses a sound effect created by Freesound user bone666138

Correction: Since our interview with Marcus Shingles was recorded, he has stepped down as CEO of XPrize

The Town Trying to Cure Loneliness

10 april 2018 · 24 min

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Loneliness and isolation can trigger a host of other problems, particularly for our health. But a town in Somerset, in the United Kingdom, appears to have taken a big step towards alleviating the problem. A team in Frome has implemented a handful of simple ideas – getting people to talk about the problems they face and finding ways for them to re-engage with family, friends or social clubs – and they believe it is having a dramatic effect. The cost of emergency admissions in Frome has fallen steeply, while it rises across most of the UK. We visit the town to meet the ‘connectors’ driving the project, and the people they have helped. Lees meer

Presenter: Nick Holland

Photo caption: Susan Redding
Photo credit: BBC

The Babies Teaching Kindness In Class [REPEAT]

3 april 2018 · 23 min

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**This episode is a repeat from 23 January 2018** Lees meer

Naomi is not your average teacher. For one thing, she is only six months old. But in many schools across Canada babies like Naomi are a regular feature at the front of class. It is because of an education programme called Roots of Empathy, which is designed to encourage kids to be kinder. The idea is that because a baby cannot explain and externalise how it is feeling, children learn to recognise and identify the baby’s emotions, and become more emotionally astute themselves. It has been proven to reduce bullying. People Fixing the World visits a school in Toronto to see how it works.

Reporter: Harriet Noble
Presenter: Tom Colls

Photo Caption: Baby Naomi
Photo Credit: BBC

Taking Out the Space Trash

27 maart 2018 · 23 min

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Space is littered with junk – some pieces as small as a fleck of paint, and some as large as a London bus. So much of it is orbiting the Earth, in fact, that it poses a danger to future missions. But how can space be cleaned up? One way could be to catch the junk in a net, or to use a harpoon to grab it. A team in Surrey, in the UK, are launching a special spacecraft to find all of this out. Lees meer

Reporter: Nick Holland
Presenter: Dougal Shaw

Image: Stock illustration of space debris
Credit: Getty Images

How to Help Homeless People in Hospital

20 maart 2018 · 23 min

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Being homeless is extremely bad for your health. Homeless people end up in hospital far more often, and when they get there their condition is often serious. We visit a London hospital to see how one innovative healthcare charity is rethinking caring for the homeless – and how a hospital visit can be an opportunity to do far more than just patch a patient up and send them on their way. Lees meer

Presenter: Tallulah Berry
Reporter: Tom Colls
Producer: Ammar Ebrahim

Image: Gary Spall (BBC)

The Bird Rescuers

13 maart 2018 · 23 min

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One of every five bird species could be extinct within the next century. Whether it’s down to the shiny glass office blocks materialising all over cities or the trawlers sailing ever-further out to sea to feed our growing population, our birds are seriously under threat. This episode looks at two particular successes when it comes to helping the world’s feathered friends: how Toronto has become a world leader in making cities bird-friendly, and how a group of enterprising conservationists has almost eliminated the deaths of albatrosses as a result of deep-sea fishing. Lees meer

Presenter: Tom Collls
Producer: Harriet Noble

Image: Pair of albatrosses
Credit: Shutterstock

CORRECTION: In this programme we say that two buildings in Toronto where bird collisions were high lost court cases and had to be adapted. In fact they did not lose the court cases. The charges were dismissed but as a result of the trial bird-safe markers were applied to sections of the buildings.

Recycling Chewing Gum Litter to Clean Our Streets

6 maart 2018 · 24 min

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More than $20bn is spent on chewing gum around the world each year. A lot of that gum will end up stuck to the streets. That's why gum is the second most common kind of street litter after cigarette materials. In the UK councils spend around £50m each year cleaning up the mess.
But British designer Anna Bullus had an idea - what if the sticky stuff could actually be recycled and turned into useful objects? Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Photo caption: Shoe sole made of chewing gum
Photo credit: BBC

How to Talk to Potential Extremists

27 februari 2018 · 24 min

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Social media and messaging apps play a role in the extremist “radicalisation” of individuals. Tech companies have tried to get better at identifying extremist content and taking it down, but some specialists advocate an alternative approach – to use these platforms to engage with extremists one-to-one, to confront them and talk them round. Lees meer

Last year, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London organised hundreds of conversations on Facebook messenger between activists and those expressing extreme Islamist and far-right sympathies. World Hacks has been given exclusive access to their report.

This experiment raises many moral and practical questions. Do those posting extreme views online still have a right to privacy? At what point do we judge someone as suitable for this kind of intervention? And what exactly is the best way to start a conversation with an extremist?

Presenter: Elizabeth Davies
Producer: William Kremer

Photo credit: Colin Bidwell (BBC)

CORRECTION: In this programme, we say that counter-conversations were part of Facebook’s Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI). It was in fact a separate project, also funded by Facebook.

Putting Forgotten Pills Back to Work

20 februari 2018 · 23 min

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An app in Greece is helping people donate their leftover drugs to people who can't afford to buy them. So far the system has helped to recover and redistribute 13,000 boxes of medicine. Donors use the software to scan a unique code on the side of their boxes of unwanted drugs. The app automatically uploads details of the medication to a central database. They're then taken in by the country's network of social pharmacies where they're then given out to unemployed and homeless people. Lees meer

Reporter: Nick Holland
Presenter: Harriet Noble

Improvising Your Way Out of Anxiety

13 februari 2018 · 23 min

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You’re standing on a stage, blinded by a spotlight trained on your face, knees weak, hands sweaty. Someone from the audience calls out a random word and you have to immediately react and come up with an amusing sketch or skit. This is improv, the unscripted theatre form that seems like it would cause rather than cure anxiety. But across North America people with the mental health condition are signing up for special “Improv for Anxiety” courses where the techniques and practices of the stage art are used to boost confidence. Lees meer

Producer: Harriet Noble
Presenter: Tom Colls
Photo Credit: BBC

The Hydroponics Revolution

6 februari 2018 · 23 min

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Providing food for seven billion people is fraught with difficulty. Fertilising vast tracts of land and flying fresh vegetables across the globe comes at a huge environmental cost. But more and more people are turning to hydroponics - growing plants in water, without any soil. The idea itself is hundreds of years old, but new twists on the old technique are now shaping the future of food. We investigate some of the most innovative hydroponics projects, from the refugees growing barley for their goats in the Algerian desert to the underground farm built in an abandoned London bomb shelter. But how efficient can the process become? Can hydroponics begin to offer a serious alternative to conventional farming? Lees meer

Presenter: Harriet Noble
Photo credit: Shutterstock

The Currency Based on Good Deeds

30 januari 2018 · 23 min

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By its very nature, volunteering means you don’t get paid. But what if there was a way to compensate volunteers that also helped the local economy? The northern English city of Hull is trying an experiment with a new, local cryptocurrency called HullCoin - the first of its kind in the world. It’s a sort of community loyalty scheme, that can only be earned by doing ‘good deeds’ and can only be redeemed in local businesses. But can it really improve the economic resilience of struggling industrial cities? World Hacks has been to Hull to find out. Lees meer

Presenter: Dougal Shaw
Reporter: Elizabeth Davies
Photo Credit: BBC

The Babies Teaching Kindness in Class

23 januari 2018 · 23 min

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Naomi is not your average teacher. For one thing, she is only six months old. But in many schools across Canada babies like Naomi are a regular feature at the front of class. It is because of an education programme called Roots of Empathy, which is designed to encourage kids to be kinder. The idea is that because a baby cannot explain and externalise how it is feeling, children learn to recognise and identify the baby’s emotions, and become more emotionally astute themselves. It has been proven to reduce bullying. World Hacks visits a school in Toronto to see how it works. Lees meer

Reporter: Harriet Noble
Producer: Elizabeth Davies

(Photo: Naomi)

Kids versus Cars

16 januari 2018 · 23 min

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An English woman has championed a way to bring back community spirit to city streets and keep children fit. She creates pop-up playgrounds by regularly closing the roads to cars. Alice Ferguson began her project in Bristol and the idea is spreading around the UK. It is part of a much larger, global movement that thinks it can give children a better deal. Lees meer

Can We Save Coral?

9 januari 2018 · 23 min

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Up to 90% of the world’s coral could be dead by 2050, according to some estimates, unless we take radical action. Lees meer

Tackling climate change remains the central battle, but around the world scientists are working on projects that may give coral a greater chance of survival, or at least buy it some time.

The World Hacks team investigates ‘super coral’ in Hawaii, an innovative insurance policy in Cancun, Mexico and a highly controversial plan to geo-engineer clouds above the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Can any of these schemes transform the fortune of this endangered ecosystem?

Presenter: Sofia Bettiza

Checking-in With The Problem Solvers

2 januari 2018 · 26 min

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World Hacks follows up on some of our stories from last year – going back to innovators around to world to see how their projects have developed. We hear updates on the app that lets volunteers donate their vision to blind people, the man making roads out of plastic and the compost toilets in Haiti that are turning human waste into soil. Lees meer

Presenters: Harriet Noble and Dougal Shaw
Reporters: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill and Nick Holland

Image: People Fixing the World illustration / Credit: BBC

Scouts, Knives and a Community Fridge

26 december 2017 · 23 min

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This week we hear about three small solutions trying to make a dent on some big problems. We hear about an outdoor gym made from melted-down knives. We talk to the scout leaders in Madagascar trying to break taboos around periods. And in London we visit the community fridge, where locals can donate and take whatever they want. Lees meer

Reporters: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill, Clare Spencer and Harriet Noble
Presenter: Tom Colls

Image: The Steel Warrior gym / Credit: BBC