About our audio
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 Behind the News is a window into what’s going on in the Tortoise newsroom, exclusively for members.
The Slow Newscast
Our biggest stories, given voice
March of the Mutants
1 March 2021
47 minutes
Covid may be losing the vaccine battle. But, as the virus evolves fast to form new variants, the war is most definitely not over
More episodes
A very British business
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is one of Britain’s richest men. His decision to move to Monaco after receiving a knighthood has angered those who recommended him and raises questions about how this country’s honours system works
Fairy tale finance
A myth has been made: a tale of wolves on Wall St; a pack of principled amateurs biting the legs of greedy financial giants and bringing them down. But almost everything you think you know about wallstreetbets, GameStop and Robin Hood is wrong.
Changed: My dad and the virus
Last March, Geoff Woolf went into hospital. He returned home 306 days later
The money hunt
They occupied a world of high-rolling hunting parties and complicated gifts – until it went seriously wrong.
You can listen to the Slow Newscast on any popular podcast platforms. Subscribe, listen, react. Be part of Tortoise
Listen now 
a four-part podcast series
Hidden homicides
How many women are killed – but not counted?
Sensemaker Daily
One story every day to make sense of the world
Behind the News
What we’re working on
Episode 11: Covidcasting
19 December 2020
32 minutes
It’s the last episode of Behind the News for 2020, the podcast that takes you inside our newsroom – although, this week, we’re actually taking you inside another newsroom. TWiV (This Week in Virology) is a podcast that launched in 2008 but found a really large audience this year, due to the pandemic.
What have its creators learnt about the coronavirus during 2020? And what knowledge can they pass on to us?
More episodes
Episode 10: Cultural influence
Is the government filling the UK’s cultural institutions with people it believes will do its bidding? And, even if it is, is this anything new?
Episode 9: Clause Corbyn
Labour has once again descended into civil war. What does the decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn say about the direction of the party and its leader, Keir Starmer?
Episode 8: What’s the deal?
Securing a trade agreement with the EU has proved harder than initially suggested. Is politics in its current form equipped to deal with the complex reality of globalisation?
Episode 7: Our Covid Inquiry
There are urgent questions to ask – of the government and the public sector. But also of ourselves – the media.
Editor’s Voicemail
James Harding dials in
The ties that bind
It’s no secret that Joe Biden’s White House has little time for Boris Johnson. But while the prime minister’s cosy relationship with Donald Trump and his Brexit-style nationalism have hardly endeared him to the new president, it’s not totally implausible that the two leaders could forge a good working relationship, over one issue in particular
Source of trouble
The use of anonymous sources in the reporting around Harry and Meghan’s departure raises troubling questions about the royal family – and the press
What we’re for
Walking the tightrope between conviction and ambivalence is part and parcel of being a slow and open newsroom. It is not always easy
Giving it more than 100 per cent
Rishi Sunak doesn’t really want Britain’s national debt to exceed the size of its economy. But what if he changed that?
My mother’s murder
My Mother’s Murder is an investigation by Paul Caruana Galizia into the life and killing of his mother, the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Voices of Evin
Listen to those who’ve experienced the prison first hand
Former inmates of Iran’s notorious Evin prison tell their stories.
This report contains descriptions of torture, rape and execution.
