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Episode details

World Service,13 Dec 2025,26 mins

The Happy Pod: The cafe where mistakes are expected

Happy News

Available for over a year

A pop-up cafe in Tokyo is giving people with dementia a place to volunteer as well as a sense of community. Its owner Toshio Morita has become something of a local celebrity. At Orange Day Café, muddled orders, long pauses and gentle confusion are not mistakes - they are the point. Also, a Northern Irish man who suffered a cardiac arrest had his life saved after his golden retriever, named Polly, alerted his wife after he stopped breathing. Polly the dog has been hailed a hero by the charity, the British Heart Foundation. A revolutionary gene therapy has successfully treated patients with aggressive and previously incurable blood cancers. In Kenya, the Rare Gem Talent School has been set up specifically to teach dyslexic children. A condition that is believed to impact around 10% of people globally. A woman in Kerala, India, has started a camp to help women who are going through a divorce. And a French man in London has become the face of a homelessness charity after his virtuoso piano playing at a train station went viral. Presenter: Joanna Kean Music: Iona Hampson (Photo: Toshio Morita. Credit: Chika Nakayama)

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