EPISODE · Oct 31, 2025 · 49 MIN
The unusual suspects
from Not by the Playbook · host BBC World Service
You ever get that feeling things aren't quite what they seem to be? That feeling when something looks, smells and sounds as you'd expect, but there's something just a little bit different, and you can't quite put your finger on why. Like baseball, but with an unusual accent. Or the Olympic champion that uses a kite, but out in the ocean!We're on our bikes with the oldest woman to win an Olympic cycling medal in the team pursuit discipline. Dotise Bauch was nearly forty when she won silver as part of the US team at London 2012. A remarkable achievement, made all the more remarkable by her late arrival into the sport, she was advised by a therapist to take up cycling to improve her mental health, but also because she placed on the podium on a plant powered diet.It looks simple enough, but there are fewer more technically demanding sports than Kitesurfing. You ride a board under you, with a massive kite above you and your job is to navigate a course out on water faster than anyone else, propelled by the wind and your ability to stay on the board! And if you still aren't sure exactly what the sport involves worry not because Olympic champion Ellie Aldridge, who won gold in women's kite foiling in Paris in 2024, will explain allAs Baseball's World Series Champions are crowned you might be forgiven for thinking that your options for enjoying a game is limited... but what if i told you there was in fact a small but thriving passion for the game in a place you might not expect! And whilst we know that baseball isn’t just an American sport and it’s hugely popular in East Asia, the Caribbean, and in South and Central America as well. But Europe? Well perhaps that’s more of a surprise to fans whose commitment is to the Blue Jays, the Dodgers or the Yankee's. We are in search of baseball fanatics on the other side of the Atlantic.Photo: Dotsie Bausch of the USA rides at the front in the Women's Team Pursuit (CREDIT: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
What this episode covers
You ever get that feeling things aren't quite what they seem to be? That feeling when something looks, smells and sounds as you'd expect, but there's something just a little bit different, and you can't quite put your finger on why. Like baseball, but with an unusual accent. Or the Olympic champion that uses a kite, but out in the ocean!We're on our bikes with the oldest woman to win an Olympic cycling medal in the team pursuit discipline. Dotise Bauch was nearly forty when she won silver as part of the US team at London 2012. A remarkable achievement, made all the more remarkable by her late arrival into the sport, she was advised by a therapist to take up cycling to improve her mental health, but also because she placed on the podium on a plant powered diet.It looks simple enough, but there are fewer more technically demanding sports than Kitesurfing. You ride a board under you, with a massive kite above you and your job is to navigate a course out on water faster than anyone else, propelled by the wind and your ability to stay on the board! And if you still aren't sure exactly what the sport involves worry not because Olympic champion Ellie Aldridge, who won gold in women's kite foiling in Paris in 2024, will explain allAs Baseball's World Series Champions are crowned you might be forgiven for thinking that your options for enjoying a game is limited... but what if i told you there was in fact a small but thriving passion for the game in a place you might not expect! And whilst we know that baseball isn’t just an American sport and it’s hugely popular in East Asia, the Caribbean, and in South and Central America as well. But Europe? Well perhaps that’s more of a surprise to fans whose commitment is to the Blue Jays, the Dodgers or the Yankee's. We are in search of baseball fanatics on the other side of the Atlantic.Photo: Dotsie Bausch of the USA rides at the front in the Women's Team Pursuit (CREDIT: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
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The unusual suspects
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