Outlook Mixtape: Star Trek, ocean giants and racy underwear

This week the mixtape brings you stories of people living between worlds both real and imagined.

When British-Iranian engineer and Star Trek superfan Anoosheh Ashoori was bundled into a car in Tehran and arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage, he faced a decade behind bars, far away from his family. But in the harshest of circumstances, the enterprising Anoosheh told Outlook’s Mobeen Azhar how he carved out a creative space in the prison and his mind to be free.

Julia Haart lived in a strict ultra-Orthodox Jewish community for decades, before some defiant words from her youngest daughter flicked a switch in her. It was the start of years of living a double life as Julia went from being unable to show her elbows, to breakthrough lingerie designer and reality TV star.

Jung Chang lived through some of the defining moments in modern China's history - from the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution. Her parents were respected members of the Communist Party, before they were later denounced for speaking out against Mao Zedong's policies. Jung eventually moved to the UK where she wrote the international bestseller, Wild Swans, and has watched from afar as the country of her birth opened up to the West, only to withdraw again. She spoke to the BBC's Micky Bristow.

And after a bad break-up, British climate journalist Doreen Cunningham was left on her own with no money, no home and a newborn to care for. Her future looked uncertain, but it was the pull of the ocean and an urge to follow the migrating routes of grey whale mothers and calves that would help her find her footing.

Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Edgar Maddicott

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(Photo: Cassette tape. Credit: Getty Images)