Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changing world. Today, Alan hears stories from people who’ve transformed their lives and are helping others to do the same against the backdrop of the pandemic. He speaks to Alhaji in Sierra Leone who’s building a house for his parents from the money he’s earned working in the United States. He hears from Tiffany in India who helps visually impaired people become more independent, after her own challenging childhood. Alan also connects with...
Dec 29, 2020•27 min
Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changed world. Inspiring and moving stories of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent. Today, airline pilot Peter in Australia talks about deciding to become a bus driver after the pandemic forced him to stop flying. And wedding planner Vithika in India discusses the dramatic impact of the pandemic on her industry. Plus, Chun Wing, a ballet dancer at the Paris Opera shares the frustrations of not being able to perfor...
Dec 22, 2020•28 min
Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changed world. Inspiring and moving accounts of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent. Today, Liana in Armenia celebrates her 30th birthday as her country finds itself at war with Azerbaijan - as well as covid-19. We also catch up with 25 year old entrepreneur Fahad in Bangladesh, who Alan first spoke to in March when it looked like he might lose his hard-earned fortune. Plus, Ugandan midwife Marion faces the toughe...
Dec 15, 2020•27 min
Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changed world. Inspiring and moving accounts of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent. New series. Today, Alan connects with Sakie in Myanmar, who tells of a heroic 24 hour journey from his remote village in order to save his mother’s life. He also catches up with Maria Ester in Ecuador, who Alan first spoke to six months ago when it looked as if her family business was on the verge of collapse. Alan also connects w...
Dec 14, 2020•27 min
Alan Dein talks to people around the world about the challenges of family life in lockdown. He connects with Margaret in Uganda who has adopted many children orphaned by HIV. And he reaches out to Alezz in Peru, a trans non-binary person who is confined to their bedroom as their parents struggle to accept them. He also speaks to Pawel who got trapped in Poland at the start of January and doesn't know when he'll be able to return home to his wife in China. Producers: Georgia Catt, Laurence Grisse...
May 11, 2020•27 min
Across every continent, lives have been put on hold, and people are looking to the day when they can pick up and restart after lockdown. Alan Dein connects to people looking forward to continuing those things most important to them. In Mexico, Lucia has spent the past seven years searching for her kidnapped son – one of thousands of disappeared children in the country. For the first time, she has been forced to put that on hold. Captain Jens aboard a vast container ship has not been on land for ...
Apr 17, 2020•26 min
Alan Dein connects with people around the world trying to find moments of calm during the coronavirus pandemic. He speaks to Jens, the captain of a container ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean who is unsure when he may be able to get his crew back home, and Sujatha, an 85 year old in India who is philosophical about being confined to her home in Delhi. 1000 miles south of Delhi, Alan reaches out to Chinu who is feeding Mumbai's urban poor as the Indian government imposes a lockdown. And he s...
Apr 15, 2020•28 min
Across every continent, people are trying to make sense of a new world – one that happens mostly behind closed doors and often alone. Alan Dein connects with seven individuals whose lives have shifted under the coronavirus pandemic as they nervously anticipate what will come next in an uncertain future. In Tehran, Golnar, an Iranian who describes herself as ‘global traveller’ is inside her apartment – all future trips postponed. Across the town is the hostel she set up with a friend. Forced to c...
Apr 01, 2020•28 min
Marco loves Beijing - and being Chinese born he should feel at home. But instead he always feels a bit different from those around him, because he was brought up in Australia. His wanderlust is never ceasing, flying across the world is his way of finding contentment, bringing new perspectives back to China with him. But will he ever feel settled? Nosaiba is from Sudan, but for three years she has been living with her parents in Saudi Arabia. Life for women has become a little less restrictive. S...
Sep 13, 2019•28 min
Alan Dein talks to people around the world to find out how they recover when facing difficulty. Helena is a young woman in Venezuela, living alone with her daughter. Caught in the middle of a national crisis, crime and electrical blackouts, she leaves an audio diary for Alan documenting the week leading up to her daughter's 9th birthday. He also speaks to a personal trainer in Sri Lanka whose business is much more than exercise and an Argentinian man who finds hope in personal tragedy. Producer:...
Sep 06, 2019•28 min
Alan Dein connects with people around the world united by their desire to find fulfilment. Alan speaks to a young gay man in China troubled by homophobia and an Egyptian woman determined to resist the religious extremism she witnesses in her small city. He also reaches out to an Iranian man struggling to pursue his passion for foreign languages against the odds and a jobless Nigerian distressed by his inability to provide for his family. Producer: Laurence Grissell
Sep 04, 2019•28 min
Some locations - the beaches of California, the South American rain-forest, the majestic scenery and slow pace of Christchurch, New Zealand - may seem like Paradise - but reality, in the form of nature, climate change, industrialisation, or terrorism, can often creep in, even in these beautiful places. What about if you live there? Alan Dein talks to three strangers from across the globe, finding out the threats to Paradise, and how those who have chosen to make their lives there cope. Jefferson...
Mar 26, 2019•28 min
Alan Dein hears compelling personal stories from people around the globe about the things which unite them. In Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the North of England and beyond, Alan connects with people online who are on the move, exploring what ‘motion’ means to different people through individual and collective experiences. This includes a unique insight into marriage behind the wheel from a husband and wife trucking duo as they travel across Europe and reflections from a Saudi woman about how her life h...
Mar 19, 2019•27 min
In this week's episode, Alan connects with people in Sweden, Brazil, Australia, Poland, and beyond. Conversations include a trans man in the military getting ready for fatherhood, a burlesque performer building queer community in Brazil, and a woman who wonders how different her life might have been if she never found roller derby. Producer: Arlie Adlington
Mar 12, 2019•27 min
Alan Dein connects with strangers across the world, exploring the things that unite people across cultures and borders. Today, Alan reaches out to people in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Sierra Leone and beyond - exploring what it means to belong. He hears people yearning for a better life elsewhere - and those determined to make a go of it where they are. Producer: Laurence Grissell
Mar 05, 2019•28 min
Alan Dein connects with random strangers around the world and calls them. Each has a personal, intimate story of how art has enriched their lives or provided solace in difficult times. Producer: Georgia Catt.
Dec 16, 2017•27 min
Alan Dein connects with random strangers around the world and calls them. Alan Dein connects with random strangers around the world and calls them. Each has a story of exile - whether through escape, economic necessity or adventure. Producer: Georgia Catt.
Dec 09, 2017•28 min
Alan Dein continues his virtual global journey, calling random people he stumbles across on line. Through extraordinary stories of tolerance, Alan hears what people endure in their political, religious and love lives. Bob, a Lebanese computer intern, tells of his struggles as a fervent Islamist, Samira a Brazilian teacher confesses to infidelity and Tariro shares her joy as the tanks roll into Harare. Producer: Sarah Bowen.
Dec 02, 2017•28 min
Alan Dein connects with random strangers around the world and calls them. This week, his guests are in far flung places and bustling cities but each, in their own way, isolated. He finds Clare, an ex-Mounted Police Officer in the High Arctic, Dino, a security guard, locking up after a long nightshift in Skopje and in Northern China, 19-year-old Ben, whose ears are still ringing from his first night ever in a nightclub. Producer: Sarah Bowen.
Nov 27, 2017•28 min
Alan Dein travels the world via the internet talking to parents and children about navigating the tricky expectations they have of each other. Among those Alan strikes up conversation with today: a Filipino mother estranged from her gay son, a Ugandan woman whose education was cut short and a young Korean man hiding his tattoos from his parents. Producer: Laurence Grissell.
Nov 18, 2017•27 min
Alan Dein travels the world via the internet, talking to people trying to survive against the odds. Locking himself away in a studio in Broadcasting House, Alan crosses time zones and continents speaking to random strangers using Facebook, Skype and WhatsApp. Among those Alan gets chatting to today is BJ who spends half his life working on the confines of an oil rig in the East Timor Sea so that he can spend the rest of his time throwing himself off high rise buildings as he pursues his super da...
Nov 11, 2017•27 min
Alan Dein talks to his Facebook friends across America about the election of Donald Trump. Just hours after the result, Trump and Clinton supporters alike talk passionately about why they voted the way they did - and share their hopes and fears about the future of the United States. Working through the night, Alan tries to understand what the election has revealed about modern America - from California to Tennessee. Producer: Laurence Grissell.
Nov 13, 2016•27 min
Alan Dein continues his nocturnal excursions via Facebook and Skype, hearing the real life dramas of random strangers. Tonight he connects with a civil engineering student from Kathmandu two years on from the earthquake that devastated parts of Nepal, a Jamaican living in Panama City who is waiting to fulfil his childhood dream of joining the US army and a man in Tanzania, expecting the birth of his first child. Producer: Clare Walker.
Jul 19, 2016•28 min
Alan Dein presents the moving story of three years in the life of Hank & Norma, a couple in their 60s from Arkansas, USA - told entirely by the messages left by Hank for Alan on Skype. Alan first spoke to harp-playing Hank three years ago for Don't Log Off. Shortly afterwards, Hank started to leave Alan occasional messages and audio recordings. As the months went by, the recordings became more intimate and revealing, charting Hank's major heart surgery and Norma's experiences with cancer. En...
Jul 11, 2016•27 min
Alan Dein continues his series of nocturnal conversations with random strangers. Settling down for the night, he locks the studio door and opens the microphone to people he encounters online. As he crisscrosses the world, he hears from a Kenyan pilot who lives her childhood dream of flying helicopters over hammerhead sharks in Key West, a Parisian designer stopped in his tracks by meningitis and a man in Pennsylvania accused of bewitching his wife. Producer: Sarah Bowen.
Jul 06, 2016•28 min
Alan Dein embarks on a new series of nocturnal excursions via Facebook and Skype, hearing the real life dramas of random strangers. Alan holes himself up in a studio through the night and invites the online world to talk to him. Knowing nothing about the people he is about to talk to, he settles down for an evening of intriguing encounters. Tonight he connects with a Nigerian trapped in Abu Dhabi, a Hungarian woman who found salvation in the birth of her son, a Dutch man who believes he's a rein...
Jun 27, 2016•28 min
Alan Dein crosses the world via Facebook and Skype, hearing the real life dramas of strangers he randomly encounters. In this episode he explores dependency, hearing from a young German woman who fell into a coma while in Ireland, and a workaholic in Singapore punishing his body with drink. Producer Emma Betteridge.
Mar 13, 2015•28 min
Alan Dein connects with the world online, linking up with people across the globe to discover dramas of personal identity, including an American whose roots might be more tangled than he first thought, thanks to the Cold War. Producer Mark Burman.
Mar 06, 2015•28 min
Alan Dein crosses the world via Facebook and Skype, hearing the real life dramas of strangers he randomly encounters. In the first programme in this new series, Alan hears stories from people who have had to find the strength to deal with difficult situations and make tough choices. Speaking out for the first time, a girl in trouble with her education tells Alan how her sponsor offered her a repulsive choice. A New York lawyer fights to get back to work after a horrific attack and a Syrian stude...
Feb 27, 2015•28 min
Alan Dein crosses the world via Facebook and Skype, hearing the real life dramas of random strangers. This week he speaks to people who, through choice or circumstance, are going it alone. He hears from a Chinese student, now living in Los Angeles, who is coping with living alone in a foreign country and has come to terms with his stutter without the help of a speech therapist. A woman from Australia explains how she is overcoming the disappointment of being jilted by her Vietnamese fiancé while...
Oct 01, 2014•28 min
