Unmissible stories from around the globe from the BBC World Service.

My happy place, this is who I am.

Search for the documentary, Lives Less Ordinary,

and amazing sports stories, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Hi I'm Melanie I'm in Sweden and you're listening to BBC's Happy Pod. She's right this is the

happy pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and in this edition uploaded on Saturday the 23rd of December

soup and a cross-generational solution to loneliness. I didn't have my best day today but now I'm here and my

whole mood is switched so that's also really nice. How a university degree is

offering prison inmates a fresh start on their release.

The learning experience, the personal instruction,

it's like nothing else.

Also, the response was amazing.

I want to say across all platforms tens of millions of views, and so many people being like, I've been scammed like that. This happened to me.

The online scam victim turned scam buster. Also in this podcast how Polar Bear Poor Prince can

provide DNA clues to aid conservation.

It is a bit of a Eureka moment. For us I think the next step is to make sure that that Eureka moment gets used by others.

And a very special Christmas tree ornament.

ornam.

Food brings people together. And in the Netherlands where they take tackling loneliness seriously, the food stuff doing a lot of the bringing together is soup.

On the soup is just one part of the National Initiative, In Tegen-Inza-omite, or one against loneliness. It brings together older and younger people to

socialise, to cook and to eat. Claire Bates went along.

I met the community centre in Amsterdam and the front of me there is a big long table with lots of people sitting around it, older and young people together. They've got chopping boards put in front of them and some big silver bowls and

...