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Slow news stories designed for listening
Our audio journalism invites you into our newsroom, and takes you deeper into the stories.
The Slow Newscast covers our biggest stories and investigations of the week; the Editor’s Voicemail reveals what’s on co-founder James Harding’s mind; and in Sensemaker Daily our journalists serve up one short story every day to make sense of the world.
The Slow Newscast
Our biggest stories, given voice
Hunt for the porn king: a reckoning
8 August 2022
23 minutes
Last year, as women accused Pornhub of profiting from their abuse, we tracked down its intensely secretive owner. This week, we’re looking back to find out: what happened next?
More episodes
Chained woman: China’s trade in brides
When a video of a woman chained to a wall went viral in China, it ignited a battle for the truth between the people and the state
America at the crossroads: abortion in South Bend
The fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse abortion rights is reverberating across America. Arguably nowhere more so than in South Bend, Indiana, a small city in the heart of the Midwest
Left to die: Return to the Amarula
Last summer our three-part podcast Left To Die told the harrowing story of 200 civilians trapped in a hotel in Mozambique under siege by violent extremists. This week, we’re looking back to find out: what happened next?
Londongrad: The Johnson Affair
A former KGB officer, Britain’s foreign secretary – and a potential national security breach
New podcasts for 2022
Visible Women
with Caroline Criado Perez
A 12-part series investigating how we can fix the gender data gap – and build a world that works for everyone.
Londongrad
How the Lebedevs partied their way to power
Paul Caruana Galizia’s investigation into Russian money in London.
Slow Politics
What’s driving the agenda in Westminster each week.
The Backstory
with Andrew Neil
A series of in-depth conversations with people in power and those trying to influence them, hosted by the UK’s most formidable interviewer – Andrew Neil.
Life, changing
Early childhood in the UK is radically different to how it used to be. Across three cities, we’re speaking to parents and children about their lives, worries, and dreams, and – with the help of the Nuffield Foundation – uncovering the hidden stories behind these seismic changes.
Inside the energy transition
Is a fair transition to 100 per cent clean energy the stuff of dreams, or a genuine possibility?
Listen to the final episode now.
Editor’s Voicemail
James Harding dials in
The prime minister and the press
The relationship between the British government and the media during Boris Johnson’s time in Number 10 has left both institutions damaged. His exit is an opportunity to re-establish boundaries
The joke’s over
Boris Johnson has, one way or another, dominated British politics since 2016. Despite his destructive legacy, the end of his premiership brings with it reasons to be optimistic
Truth as an emergency service
Helpdesk Media, an information service set up by a team of Russians and Ukrainians, is a lifeline for those threatened by Putin’s regime. It also has some crucial lessons for journalists in the West
The Johnsonomics muddle
Incoherent economic leadership is causing not just confusion, but institutional damage.
Sensemaker Daily
One story every day to make sense of the world.
tHINKIN WITH JAMES HARDING
The China Problem
“What we’re going to do in this series of podcasts is take a big idea and look for the moments that shine a light on it.”
TikTok: The China Problem
Taiwan: The China Problem
Wuhan: The China problem
Hong Kong: The China problem
A multi-part podcast series
Sweet Bobby
How well do you know the person you love?
Listen to our six-part investigation into one of the world’s most sophisticated catfishers.
Audio essays
Matthew d’Ancona investigates
Over the last two years, Tortoise editor Matthew d’Ancona has been investigating the UK government and, among other things, its management – and mismanagement – of the pandemic.
Downfall: twenty days that did for Rishi Sunak
How did Rishi Sunak go from one of the most popular members of the government to one of the least in a matter of days? Matthew d’Ancona pieces together what happened
Retreat from Kabul: 11 days in August – Part I
As the Taliban closed in on Kabul, and Western troops and desperate Afghans scrambled to leave, Britain found itself frozen out of decision making and incapable of influencing events. It was a stark illustration of the UK’s status, made worse by catastrophic misjudgements at the top of government
The second couple
After Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds’ wedding, there are now two powerful married couples in Number 10. Meet the other: Munira and Dougie
March of the Mutants
Covid may be losing the vaccine battle. But, as the virus evolves fast to form new variants, the war is most definitely not over
voicemails from ukraine
Invaded
A collection of daily messages from inside Ukraine as the Russian invasion unfolds.
The people vs Harvey Proctor
Pariah
What lessons does the story of Harvey Proctor – the twice-disgraced former Conservative MP with extreme anti-immigration views – hold about the way society deems it acceptable to treat those who we cast as hate figures?
Intolerance
Harvey Proctor’s political star burned brightly in the 1980s. He was the anti-immigrant heir-apparent to Enoch Powell, until a tabloid sting exposed him as a gay man who paid for sex
Incredible
To suffer one shattering public scandal in a lifetime is hard enough. Harvey Proctor has endured two. In the second episode of Pariah, one of the highest profile police investigations of the past decade – Operation Midland – comes knocking on his door
The high wire
For the second time in his life, Harvey Proctor was being battered by a storm of dreadful allegations. His lawyers advised a safety-first approach. He had other ideas
Mixing and merging
It seems important for all of us to understand the meaning of what’s happened to Harvey Proctor. What was it which liberated the media and the police to behave as they did; to create or fuel the two scandals which wrecked his life?
a four-part podcast series
Hidden homicides
How many women are killed – but not counted?
Left to die
When Islamist insurgents attacked a town in Mozambique in March, civilians and foreign contractors raced to a local hotel for safety. Over three agonising days, they waited for a rescue. But no one came.
My Mother’s murder
An investigation by Paul Caruana Galizia into the life and killing of his mother, the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
