Three years ago travel writer Lydia Gard discovered freediving almost by accident. It’s an extreme and beautiful sport defined by one simple objective: to dive as deep as you can on one single breath. Record holders are now routinely diving to more than 120 metres, pushing the sport and their bodies to find out what’s humanly possible.

Through her coach, Lydia was drawn into a small but fanatical community of competition athletes all united in their drive for depth, and that’s where she stumbled on a darker side of the sport. Rumours swirled that a group of top divers were doping to get deeper, faster. 

As the community began to turn on each other over the allegations, one prominent diver decided to take the law into his own hands. A secret sting operation was meant to put an end to the problem by bringing the alleged dopers out of the dark, and into the light. But the issue hasn't gone away. And now, a lot of people who’ve been too scared to speak up, are ready to talk. 

Episode 1 will be available to listen on Tuesday 18th November.

Subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to binge listen to the entire series on Tuesday 18th November.

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Global investigations from the BBC. Uncovering stories around the world and telling them, episode by episode, with gripping storytelling. Delve into a World of Secrets.

Latest season: Death in Dubai. A woman falls from a tower block. It's caught on camera and the clip goes viral. Within hours, Mona Kizz’s name is trending worldwide. In death, the beautiful 23-year-old Ugandan is accused of being a #DubaiPortaPotty. With over 450 million views on TikTok, the hashtag leads to parodies and speculative exposés of women suspected of being paid by men to be their human toilet. But nothing is as it seems. Behind the online rumours lies an even darker reality.

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The Telepathy Tapes is a podcast that explores the origins of consciousness and the unexplained abilities of ESP through science, verifiable experience, formal testing, and human story. In Season One, non-speaking individuals with autism reveal striking telepathic abilities that challenge everything we thought we knew about the mind. In Season Two, the lens widens to extraordinary experiences that invite us to rethink reality itself. From near death experiences to telepathic communication with animals, energy healing to plant intelligence, and the origins of creativity to sudden savant abilities -- each episode offers a rare glimpse into the vast terrain of consciousness beyond the brain.

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بودكاست قصصي، نوثّق فيه قصصنا العربيّة. في هذا الموسم، نبحث لغز اغتيال العالِمة السعودية «سامية ميمني» في أمريكا، ونكشف الغموض الذي يحيط بالقضية وتفاصيل تُعرض لأول مرة.

بودكاست «مد وجزر» يتناول البيئة وتقاطع أزماتها مع حياتنا اليوميّة، خاصّة في منطقتنا العربيّة.

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