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 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
White gold rush
10 May 2021
43 minutes
California’s largest lake was a giant mistake created by an accidental flood more than a century ago. Today, the Salton Sea is an environmental disaster. But could the communities around the shore of the dying lake be saved by the quest for green energy and the hunt for one of the most sought-after elements on earth?
More episodes
The cause: what happened to Shukri Abdi?
The death of Shukri Abdi in 2019 has become a cause for campaigners who believe that something unlawful happened. But is that the truth?
Lost at sea
The mystery of Gulf Livestock 1, a 12,000-tonne ship that disappeared without a trace.
Cross stitch
How an embroidery charity – beloved by its members – tore itself apart at the seams
The reasonable case of Keir Rodney Starmer
Who is Keir Starmer? There’s the basic answer: he’s the leader of Britain’s Labour party. But beyond that? Gaby Hinsliff delved into his past to find out more.
You can listen to the Slow Newscast on any popular podcast platforms. Subscribe, listen, react. Be part of Tortoise
Listen now 
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?
tHINKIN WITH JAMES HARDING
The Battle for Truth
“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.”
Rhodes Must Fall and the battle for truth
Cancel culture and the battle for truth
Grenfell Tower and the battle for truth
Dominic Cummings, Barnard Castle and the battle for truth
Sensemaker Daily
One story every day to make sense of the world
Audio essays
Matthew d’Ancona investigates
Over the last year, Tortoise editor Matthew d’Ancona has been investigating the UK government’s management – and mismanagement – of the pandemic, reporting what he’s learned in a series of audio essays.
Covid may be losing the vaccine battle. But, as the virus evolves fast to form new variants, the war is most definitely not over
The vaccine is an incredible scientific achievement. But some of the political decision-making behind its rollout is rather less impressive.
Fear, delays, mistakes and recrimination. On 31 October, we looked to Boris Johnson’s government for certainty – they served up a nightmare
How test, track and trace became a national disaster
a four-part podcast series
Hidden homicides
How many women are killed – but not counted?
Editor’s Voicemail
James Harding dials in
Positive energy
When it comes to the future, journalists tend to ignore the scope for exponential change. But in one area that’s set to define the 21st Century – climate science – that change may well happen
Truth, justice, and the tension between them
Harvey Proctor, Grenfell Tower, Shukri Abdi. Over this week and next, Tortoise is covering stories that suggest new challenges for 21st-century newsrooms
Whatever it tax
Swiftly following the Greensill scandal, the texts between James Dyson and Boris Johnson have raised further questions about judgement, accountability and transparency in Downing Street, prompting accusations of “sleaze”. But they also shed light on the billionaire engineer’s priorities in the midst of a national crisis
Buckle up! The role of seatbelts in the Battle for Truth
As it was with cars in the mid-20th Century, so it is with the internet now. These technologies are wonderful advancements for humanity, but they also need to be prevented from causing harm
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.
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.
