The Happy Pod: Hope for people with Huntington's disease
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the first time ever, a successful treatment has been found for the devastating brain disease, Huntington's. The inherited condition, which resembles a combination of dementia, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, affects hundreds of thousands of people in the US and Europe. The scientists who developed the new gene therapy, and people who have the disease, say its a huge breakthrough that could give people a better quality of life for decades.
Also: we meet the teacher who's launched a Happiness Project to help her pupils learn about what really matters, and is encouraging others to do the same. We find out about the small actions that have transformed how people feel about a living in a huge public housing complex in Mumbai, bringing a true sense of community. It's Fat Bear Week in Alaska - a time to celebrate weight gain as the beautiful inhabitants of Katmai National Park prepare to hibernate. Plus a new way to bring more poetry into your life; the dogs getting to swim in German public pools; and the man cycling hundreds of miles dressed as a paramedic gorilla. Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.
Presenter: Oliver Conway. Music composed by Iona Hampson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.5 | We definitely do not have quiet days anymore in American politics. |
| 0:12.5 | Our podcast will help you cut through all the noise. |
| 0:15.9 | Make sense of what's happening in the US, with new podcast episodes arriving throughout the week. |
| 0:20.8 | America's, listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:24.2 | This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:31.4 | Hello, I'm Oliver Conway, and in this edition... |
| 0:34.7 | I actually feel quite emotional because people with Huntington's disease are desperate |
| 0:40.9 | for some kind of treatment that works. |
| 0:45.9 | Scientists and patients talk of their joy |
| 0:48.4 | at the discovery of the first ever treatment |
| 0:50.6 | for the devastating inherited disease Huntington's. |
| 0:54.1 | Also, we speak to a teacher trying to change her pupil's lives with a happiness project. |
| 0:59.9 | Math is very important. Writing and reading is very important, but what I want for my students |
| 1:05.4 | when they grow up is I want them to be happy. The simple steps bringing a sense of community |
| 1:11.1 | to a vast housing complex in Mumbai. |
| 1:15.5 | All my life, I never had friends. |
| 1:17.8 | But talking to these women, it's broadened my perspective |
| 1:20.7 | and really made a huge change in how I look at my life. |
| 1:24.4 | And... |
| 1:34.8 | Dial a poem. A new way to add poetry to your life. |
| 1:45.9 | We start with a medical breakthrough, the first successful treatment for the devastating brain condition Huntingdon's. This is an inherited disease caused by an altered gene being passed |
... |
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