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.
A brand new podcast series
Sweet Bobby
How well do you know the person you love?
The Slow Newscast
Our biggest stories, given voice
The super divorce: The Akhmedovs and a game of hide and seek
6 December 2021
44 minutes
When a High Court Judge awarded Tatiana Akhmedova a record £450m divorce payout, it was only the beginning of a case that went on to become the most expensive family feud in history…
More episodes
A place for Elliott
This is a story about Covid vaccinations and how hard it is for some people – profoundly disabled people – to get them. But it’s about much more than that. It’s a story about family, joy and resilience. And a boy called Elliott who is trapped in time
Retreat from Kabul: 11 days in August – Part 2
In Kabul, the Taliban’s takeover was assured. In London, an ignominious retreat, and the betrayal of former comrades in the Afghan army, was more than a group of ex-soldiers, now MPs, could stomach
Retreat from Kabul: 11 days in August – Part 1
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
Who is REvil?
Who are the people behind a spate of multi-million dollar ransomware attacks on financial institutions, schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure? When Nicky Woolf began to investigate the highest-profile ransomware outfit, REvil, it was almost completely hidden from view. But then the cyber-police started to uncover its secrets
You can listen to the Slow Newscast on any popular podcast platforms. Subscribe, listen, react. Be part of Tortoise
Listen now 
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
Sensemaker Daily
One story every day to make sense of the world.
Editor’s Voicemail
James Harding dials in
Higher prices, bigger questions
Inflation this decade will force us to face up to challenges we’re not used to. Comparisons with previous high-inflation periods aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on
Boris Johnson: the continental Conservative
The prime minister has surprised everyone by taking the Tories left rather than right after Brexit. His government’s big-state agenda has left Labour unmoored, Downing Street exposed, business wary and the PM himself increasingly vulnerable
The Arms Race: Many miles to go
This week, Tortoise launched its campaign to help spread vaccinations around the world. Here’s what we’re planning to do next
In other news
Tortoise was set up to tell the stories that weren’t being told anywhere else, the news that is brought to us by you – our members. In that respect, this week’s Open News meeting was one to cherish
Playmaker
Our new Sensemaker podcast that covers everything football-related. We’ll be bringing you one story every day to make sense of the world of football.
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.
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
After Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds’ wedding, there are now two powerful married couples in Number 10. Meet the other: Munira and Dougie
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.
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?
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.
