The Happy Pod: The model redefining beauty norms
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We meet a Ghanaian woman who is challenging stereotypes of beauty and disability by modelling with her prosthetic leg wrapped in colourful kente fabric. Abena Christine Jon'el had her leg amputated when she was just two years old because of an aggressive form of cancer. She says she's fought through so much to survive that she's determined to fight for anyone who's ever felt defeated by life.
Also: A mobile gaming app that's helping teenagers in Brazil learn how to support their friends with mental health issues.
A scheme teaching gardening skills to prisoners in the UK to help cut the numbers who reoffend after their release.
The Washington museum curator who's adopted Gen Z slang to get younger people interested in its works of art. Alison Luchs has attracted over nine million views with two social media posts, and is challenging others to submit similar videos about other exhibits.
Plus big baby elephant news, some unusual guard animals, and how one new family helped bring an entire community together, just by showing they cared.
Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.
(Photo: Abena Christine Jon'el on the catwalk in Ghana. Credit: Vino Studio / Nineteen57 Events)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the happy pod from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:13.0 | Hello, I'm on criticise and in this edition. |
| 0:15.8 | This is for those kids, anybody who has just ever felt like, I just want to quit. |
| 0:20.4 | Like, this is for the people who feel like that, |
| 0:22.6 | who feel like they have no choice but to just lay down and let life beat you |
| 0:27.9 | because I get it. |
| 0:29.2 | I decided no. |
| 0:31.3 | But Garnetian model on a mission to change perceptions of disability and beauty |
| 0:35.4 | by proudly showing off her prosthetic leg. Also, could |
| 0:39.1 | gardening help reduce the number of prisoners who commit further crimes? The gaming app teaching |
| 0:44.3 | young people how to support others with mental health issues and why a museum curator has gone viral. |
| 0:51.1 | Chat, peep this bus and clay dish from the 16th century. Look how broke laced it. He went |
| 0:57.8 | goblin mode with all these colors. And we can't make a difference on a global scale, but we can |
| 1:04.2 | definitely, and we are making a difference here, which is what counts. Be positive. Be helpful. Be |
| 1:10.7 | kind. |
| 1:11.5 | It doesn't cost you anything. |
| 1:12.9 | The family who took over a village post office and used it to bring the whole community together to help each other. |
| 1:24.3 | We start in Ghana where one woman is on a mission to redefine how the country views people with disability. |
| 1:30.0 | Abina-Christine Janelle was just two years old when she developed a rare aggressive cancer called Rabdo-Maiosakuma in one leg. |
| 1:38.4 | Her mum was faced with a difficult decision, radiation therapy, which could have left her needing to use a wheelchair or amputation. |
| 1:45.6 | She chose the latter. |
| 1:47.1 | Now age 33, Abner is a writer and model walking runways, proudly displaying her prosthetic |
... |
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