About our audio
Slow news stories designed for listening
Tortoise’s podcasts are focused on untold stories. In the face of information overload, incremental news-gathering and perishable scoops, we take time to investigate human stories that we think offer a deeper, longer-lasting understanding of what’s happening in the world.
The Slow Newscast
Our biggest stories, given voice
Detained in Modi’s India: A British citizen’s story
20 March 2023
32 minutes
For five years a British citizen has been locked up in an Indian prison, and the British state hasn’t been willing – or not strong enough – to stand up for him.
More episodes
Murdoch: news vs the truth
What happened inside Fox News in those critical weeks following Donald Trump’s election defeat in 2020?
Family money
This is the story of a politician incapable of living within his means but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. It’s the story of how that dependence on others sullied him and them. All of which leads to one simple question: just who is funding Boris Johnson?
After the fall: A death on the Lansdowne Estate
When a vulnerable woman falls from a tower block, how do you find out what really happened?
Wagner’s war: A year in Ukraine and beyond
First they were known as the “little green men”, an anonymous private Russian force appearing first in Crimea, then Syria, then in central Africa. Now, they are on the frontline of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Just how powerful is the Wagner Group and their increasingly vocal founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin?
new series
Real Money
The hunt for Tether’s billions
For a year, Tortoise has been investigating Tether, a cryptocurrency which underpins the entire crypto market. It’s raised suspicions about its trustworthiness by refusing ever to be audited or publish accounts. How could a company managing more than $70 billion get away with that?
Multi-part series
Pitch us a story
If you have an idea for a podcast, we’d love to hear from you.
More series
The News Meeting
Each week, three Tortoise journalists pitch the story they think should lead the news.
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.
Visible Women
with Caroline Criado Perez
How can we fix the gender data gap – and build a world that works for everyone?
The Second Elizabethan Age
with Richard Lambert
A reflection on the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II and how society changed under her rule.
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?
Editor’s Voicemail
What’s on Tortoise editor James Harding’s mind.
Culturemakers
This Saturday we launch the Weekend Sensemaker – a newsletter to make sense of who and what is shaping culture now
The politics of the AI age
The Blair-Hague report has plenty of technical recommendations; where will it leave democracy?
Liz Truss’s “mandate” is a joke
The former PM’s assessment of what went wrong with her premiership demonstrates how undemocratic the Conservative party’s system for choosing a leader is
Britain is Bregretful
A new poll shows that voters regret leaving the EU. But despite Westminster’s silence on the idea of reversing it, there could still be opportunities for a closer relationship between Britain and Brussels
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
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
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.
