100. Dr Hassan Shehata; World-Leading Miscarriage Expert on Torture in a Sudanese Prison, Bob Marley in Jamaica and Donald Trump on Medication
Release Date: 07/15/2020
125. Christmas Special 2021; Sathnam Sanghera, Lisa Jewell, Matt Forde, Anne Sebba, Olly Mann, Greenham Common and more
The Big Travel Podcast
Authors Anne Sebba on the Royal abdication, Sathnam Sanghera's dismal Christmas restaurant, Lisa Jewell's Boney M in Barbados, adventurer Jamie Douglas-Hamilton rowing to the Antarctic, satirist Matt Forde in an NYC Irish bar, podcaster Olly Mann’s disappointing LA Santa, artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian Muslim Catholic Christmas in Marrakesh, adventurer Sam McManus's ancient Spanish fiesta, Festival promoter Huw Win's Thai rainforest & Nobel Peace Prize winner Rebecca Johnson's Christmas at Greenham Common.
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124. Firouz FarmanFarmaian; Escaping Tehran, Kashmiri Houseboats, Trekking Kyrgyzstan, Rock Bands and Contemporary Art
The Big Travel Podcast
Born in Tehran, the descendent of a nomadic tribe, Contemporary Artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian's family scattered after the Islamic Revolution. He grew up trekking mountains and deserts, touring with his Indie rock band and now with his internationally acclaimed art. With a gallery in Tarifa, Spain, and a new base in Athens, he travels the globe sourcing ideas and materials with craftswomen in remote regions and will be representing Kyrgyzstan at the Venice Biennale with the exhibition Gates of Turan.
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123. On Location in Marbella Old Town with Tour Guide Javier Gonzalez
The Big Travel Podcast
A journey through the maze of Marbella's 16th Century cobbled lanes surrounding the old 'Orange Square', encountering flamenco singers and opera stars and sampling some of the coast's most wonderful tapas. With tour guide Javier Gonzalez and staying at the stunning Anantara Villa Padierna Palace, with its classical Italian design and sophisticated yet arty vibe.
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122. Matt Forde; Billy Connolly in New York, Liam Gallagher in Berlin and Nick Leeson's Worldwide 'British Scandal' Jaunt
The Big Travel Podcast
Comedian, political satirist and Spitting Image star Matt Forde talks accosting Billy Connolly in New York, 'dying' on stage in Luxemborg, pints of Carling in ex-pat clubs in Bahrain, Nick Leeson's luxury hotel dash around the world, spending 3 months locked in a first floor flat, an emotional pilgrimage to the Ghostbusters fire station, being the voice of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump (yes he does give us some excellent impressions) and posh people behaving badly on the podcast British Scandal.
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121. Sam McManus; Adventure Travel When the World Closes, Costa Rica, Green Northern Spain and the Unexpected Pull of Home
The Big Travel Podcast
Just as the world was closing Sam McManus from YellowWood Adventures took a daunting gamble and hopped on a plane to Costa Rica. We talk about how the pandemic can change travel (even for the better), tourism being potentially a means for good, eco-tourism and re-forestation, surfing, small pueblos in the green hills of Northern Spain, his wonderful travelogue about his explorations - Wax and Gold Journeys in Ethiopia & Other Roads Less Travelled - and feeling the pull of friends, family and home.
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120. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; Travel Opens Up, Vaccines, Quarantine and a Call to Action to The Government
The Big Travel Podcast
Good news at least for those people who have had two UK administered vaccines. From 19th July we can now go to amber list countries without quarantining on return. BUT at the moment this is just for UK administered vaccines meaning the country is not yet open to inbound tourism. Travel needs to be two-way! We need people in the UK to support our business too. Whilst we are aware it needs to be done safely we also need to get aviation and travel moving even further.
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119. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; New Rules, Traffic Lights, Vaccinations
The Big Travel Podcast
A Big Travel Podcast special on the latest UK Travel Update; the new rules, the changes in the traffic light ratings, vaccinations soon to be taken into account and much more. A ten minute episode of essential listening.
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118. Olly Mann; Guns On Trucks in Malawi, Swim-Up Bar Piña Coladas, Greyhounds and The American Dream
The Big Travel Podcast
Olly Mann, from Answer Me This podcast fame, his new The Retrospectors and much more, loves nothing more than researching trivia especially with travel. We talk Wrigley’s chewing gum and decapitation, leaving your baby outside a pub, people who get erections on public transport, a love for Luton Airport, the misleading American Dream, cocktails worth shortening your life for, having a bottom accident on an African roadside (yes this episode does feature the S word) and much more.
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117. Huw Wyn; Arabian Nights in Cairo, Hitching Through Nepal, Tibetan Medicine in Scotland and Tom Hardy Dropping into his Festival
The Big Travel Podcast
Into The Wild Festival promoter Huw Wyn grew up in his mother’s hotel in Wales then moved to Spain. We talk growing up feral in Andalucia, hitchhiking across Europe, fish-packing in the Netherlands, Glastonbury, Arabian Nights in Cairo, the poetic side of being a London bin man, orphanages in India, Mother Theresa in Calcutta, meeting the Dalai Lama, studying Tibetan medicine in Scotland, the remote Buddhist kingdom in Ladakh, hitching 2000 miles through Nepal, Tom Hardy at his festival and much
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116. Anne Sebba; Parisian Women and Nazis, Film Stars in Rome, ‘Communists’ in Sing Sing Prison
The Big Travel Podcast
The author of one of Lisa’s favourite books, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s, Anne Sebba explores the lives of women ‘writers and fighters’. As a journalist and author she's worked in film-star-filled 70s Rome, moved to New York with a baby, camped in the Mexico desert with Wallis Simpson’s free-diving step-son, had her camera film thrown into the Ganges while tracing Mother Theresa and, for her most recent book on Ethel Rosenburg, to Belarus and Sing Sing
info_outlinePioneering obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Hassan Shehata grew up in Khartoum in Sudan. As a junior doctor he was thrown headlong into revolution, military Islamic extremism, beatings and torture. We talk about his horrific time in ‘ghost house’ prisons, life in Sudan and Egypt, sitting on Bob Marley’s bed in Jamaica, Donald Trump and Hydroxychloroquine, following Liverpool FC around the world and his extraordinary work in helping people become parents. Dr Hassan Shehata, our 100th episode, is also the man who helped Lisa and David have children after 5 miscarriages. One day in the clinic she was astounded when he told her his extraordinary story.
On this episode we cover:
Dr Shehata’s difficult recovery from Covid 19
The real deal behind Hydroxychloroquine and Donald Trump
India soldiers, Malaria and gin and tonic
How the NHS and private sector manage the emotional side of illness
The conference in Italy that sparked his interest in miscarriage immune treatment
Growing up in a medical family in Sudan
The Italian Convent school he attended in Sudan
Being educated by Catholic Nuns and Priests in Khartoum in ‘the Eton of Sudan’
The old-school colonial university of Khartoum
The 1985 Sudanese revolution being an amazing time to be a student
Doctors being at the frontline for democracy
The June 1989 military coup by military officer Omar al-Bashir (who would go on to rule the country until he was overthrown in 2019!)
Seeing all his colleagues taken to prison
Standing on a soap box
Being arrested for the first time and put into a ‘ghost house’
Initially being very well treated
Going into hiding until they took his grandfather instead
Beatings and torture
His colleagues being killed by baseball bats
The danger of being incarcerated by very young men
The day they told him was going to be executed
Being driven blindfolded through the desert
The shocking place he was thrown out the car
Escaping to Egypt without a passport
His policeman uncle in Cairo
The physical beatings he had
Being spat at being the most degrading
But the worse torture being sleep deprivation
Witnessing colleagues having their nails pulled out
His friend being beaten to death with a baseball bat
Fellow doctors physical checking them to see if they could take more torture
That government lasting 30 whole years
Islamic fanatics military government killing millions
How it felt to be dragged to the car supposedly to be executed
Being thrown barefoot, shaking and confused into the street
Feeling very low when by Egypt
His pilot uncle being shot down in Palestine and missing presumed dead
Travelling through Egypt as a child in Cairo
His grandfather representing him at his own wedding!
His wife Selma having photos in her dress with the family
Travelling to Saudi Arabia during the World Cup 1990
Travelling from Rhiad through incredible desert (to watch England v Cameroon)
Regular holidays in London as a child to stay in Marble Arch
Still being surprised and delighted by London
Being an avid Liverpool supporter
His first son being an Essex boy
Working in different UK hospitals as a junior doctor
Looking back on his time in prison
Life in the UK rewarding him for his hard work
Selling cornflakes shop to shop to raise money to travel
Four naïve boys from Khartoum crossing Europe as a student; Athens to Brindisi, Bologna, Milano, Venice, Genoa, Cannes, Marseilles, Nice, Barcelona and Madrid
Discovering years later they were eating pork
Getting conned during Ramadan in a dodgy nightclub
Sudanese passports being refused by Yugoslavia
Winston Churchill and Marilyn Monroe at the Jamaica Inn
Visiting Bob Marley’s house
Picture perfect Thailand at the Four Seasons
Going to Rio for the World Cup
Waking up to an ITV crew outside their window
Having breakfast with Ian Wright in Brazil
Heartbroken in Kiev when Liverpool lost
But celebrating watching Liverpool win in Madrid
Spine-tingling moments hearing You’ll Never Walk Alone for the first time in a stadium in Khartoum in 1982
Lisa’s Liverpool connections mean that song makes her cry too
The overwhelming feelings when one of his patients become parents