The Outlook Podcast Archive

Natalie Cumming's violin helped her family survive starvation, persecution, and torture. It accompanied them in their year long trek across Russia as they sought refuge from the Bolsheviks. Her grandfather would play in payment for food and shelter. The violin then followed Natalie's young Aunt Rosa to Germany, where it would help her survive the Nazi concentration camps and allow her to tell her story of what happened there.Even though its history is marked by many horrors, the violin has now been given a new life, giving a voice to bright young musicians inspired by its story. Natalie has written a book about her family and the violin called: The Fiddle. A warning that there are shocking and distressing descriptions in this programme.Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Gaia Caramazza and Andrea Kennedy(Photo: Natalie Cumming with her family's violin. Credit: Barnet Council)

Randy Bachman is behind some of the biggest rock hits of the 60s and 70s. He was lead guitarist for The Guess Who, frontman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and, all the while had his beloved Gretsch guitar beside him. He first laid eyes on the guitar as a teenager and after years mowing lawns and washing cars he saved enough money to buy it. But in 1976, Randy's guitar was stolen and disappeared without a trace. He spent years desperately trying to track it down. Almost half a century later, an amateur sleuth - bored during the coronavirus lockdown - decided to take on the hunt and crack the mystery.Randy's next show will be streamed online via Moment House on March 13th.Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Maryam Maruf Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com (Photo: Randy Bachman with his son Tal and his Gretsch guitar in 1971. Credit: Courtesy of Randy Bachman)

In 1976, the Johannesburg township of Soweto erupted into protest. Students were furious with the government decision to make Afrikaans a language of instruction in South African schools. Afrikaans was associated with apartheid and white rule by many black South Africans, and not everyone could speak it. The protests were met with brutal force by the police, and hundreds of students died in the ensuing gunfire. In the midst of the chaos was Dr Edelstein, a white man involved in various humanitarian causes in the township. Students who had fled the gunfire suddenly turned their anger on him, and he was killed in the street. His daughter Janet was just 12 at the time, and she's spent many years trying to find answers about what happened that day. After the end of apartheid she spoke at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, telling her father’s story and giving an emotional plea for more information. Now she’s followed in her father's footsteps, and is working to help young people in Soweto. First broadcast 2019.Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter: Mpho Lakaje Producer: Harry Graham(Photo: The Edelstein family. Credit: The Edelstein family)

When Justin Bishop was eight years old, he was diagnosed with a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, and was told that one day he would go blind. Two years later he fell in love with skateboarding, and from then on he and his board were inseparable. As his sight began to deteriorate in his late teens, Justin felt he was in a race against time to fit in as much skating as possible, and when he lost his sight at the age of 25 he feared he would never step on a board again. But thanks to the encouragement of his friend, and a cane with a ball on the end of it, Justin is not only winning medals but campaigning for adaptive skateboarding to be included in the Paralympics. A documentary has been made about his story called One Day You'll Go Blind. This interview includes Justin's own recordings of him skateboarding. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: June Christie(Photo: Justin Bishop skateboarding. Credit: Ryne Belanger, TNG Agency)

Osmo Tapio Everton Räihälä is a Finnish composer who is crazy about Everton football club. Growing up almost two thousand miles away wouldn’t stop him from living and breathing everything Everton, so much so that as a young composer he took drastic measures to keep his fledgling music career on track. One such inspiration came in the towering figure of the club’s Scottish centre forward, Duncan Ferguson who, though blessed with talent, was often in trouble both on and off the pitch. Their lives and fortunes would be end up being entwined but on the night Osmo was debuting his most famous work about Ferguson, the football gods weren’t following the score.Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Edgar Maddicott Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com(Photo: Duncan Ferguson celebrates after he scored his first goal for Everton in the Merseyside derby. Credit: Albert Cooper/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

Nigerian Ruona Meyer was inspired by her famous journalist father - Godwin Agbroko - to become an investigative reporter like him. When he was killed, her grieving brother became addicted to codeine cough syrup. Ruona - clad in bullet proof vest and blue lipstick - risked her life to uncover the black market trade in the medicine that’s become a street drug. Her documentary Sweet, Sweet Codeine has been nominated for an Emmy. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Constanza HolaImage: Ruona Meyer Credit: BBCGet in touch: outlook@bbc.com

American sprinter Wyomia Tyus grew up on a dairy farm in Georgia, in the racially segregated South. When she was 14, tragedy struck her family - their house burned to the ground, and her father died shortly after. Bereft, Wyomia started running to get over her grief. She was soon spotted by the coach of the first - and only - college athletics training programme for black women in the US, and became the first person to win back to back gold medals in the 100m sprint in two consecutive Olympic Games in 1964 and 1968. Yet despite these historic achievements it is only now that she is getting recognition. She tells Anu Anand how it feels to finally get her moment in the spotlight. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter: Anu Anand Producer: Zoe Gelber(Photo: Medal winners of the women's 100 metres in the 1964 Olympic Games, with Wyomia Tyus in first place. Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images)

Donna Palomba's life changed in September 1993, when she was sexually assaulted in her family home in Connecticut. A month after the attack, Donna was called to the local police station and accused of making the assault up by the officer in charge of her case. It was a devastating blow but Donna was determined to clear her name and get justice. It would take years and several court cases before her attacker was arrested and his identity sent shockwaves through Donna’s family and community. As a result of her experience Donna founded Jane Doe No More, a non-profit organisation called Jane Doe No More which empowers survivors of sexual crimes to find their voice, advance their healing and educate others.A warning that what Donna describes is shocking and at times distressing.Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter: Anu Anand Producer: Tom Harding Assinder(Photo: Donna Palomba. Credit: Christine Petit)

The comedy film classic Cool Runnings, about a Jamaican bobsleigh team's surprising efforts to get to the Winter Olympics, was inspired by a real story.Dudley Stokes was an officer in the Jamaican army and hadn't really heard of the sport until his superiors gave a presentation to try and recruit volunteers to take part in the country's first Olympic bobsleigh team. Some of his colleagues were put off by the danger involved as they watched a film of a bobsleigh hurtling down an icy track, but Dudley wasn't. He got on to the team as a driver and became the captain. Dudley tells Anu Anand about the difficult journey to the 1988 Winter Olympics, with only a few months training, and how he coped with a dramatic crash at the Games as the world watched. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter: Anu Anand Producer: Deiniol BuxtonPhoto: The Jamaican four man bobsleigh team in action at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games. Credit: David Yarrow/Getty Images

A few years ago, Freddy McConnell decided to have a baby. A decision that is a big deal for most, but that is even more complicated for Freddy, because he is trans. Freddy started his transition in 2012. Back then having a baby wasn’t on his mind. But after realising that – biologically – it was still a possibility, Freddy decided to get pregnant. Emily Webb first spoke to Freddy in 2019, and since then he has had a second child. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.comPresenter: Emily Webb Producer: Saskia Edwards(Photo: Freddy McConnell standing on a beach. He is pregnant. Credit: Mark Bushnell)