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Episode details

World Service,09 Feb 2020,49 mins

Life on the line

The Documentary

Available for over a year

Billions of people across the world live in an area that runs along a fault line, where everyday life is balanced with a constant risk of an earthquake rocking their community. Journalist Tabinda Kokab knows how this feels after the devastating 2005 Kashmir earthquake killed more than 70,000 people, including her brother. In this documentary she explores the emotional and psychological impact of living life on the line, discovering the risks and rewards for people who go about their daily lives with a quake in the back of their minds. First, she flies to Istanbul in Turkey. A city that experts warn is at major risk of a devastating quake that could kill nearly 30,000 people and leave 2.6 million people homeless. Tabinda also travels 6,842 miles to the city of Los Angeles, USA - a place she believes will be incredibly prepared for any future seismic activity. But is that actually the case? Tabinda will also share her incredibly moving story about the earthquake she survived and how it changed her, and her family’s life, forever. (Photo: Tabinda Kokab stands in the middle of the San Andreas fault line, Los Angeles)

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