The Audio Long Read
338 episodes — Page 1 of 7
‘They take you out of life, out of time’: a journey into Spain’s astonishing cave paintings
Ping-pong sponges, ‘black smokers’ and floating somethings: the secrets of the deep sea
From the archive: No coach, no agent, no ego: the incredible story of the ‘Lionel Messi of cliff diving’
‘Seriously the best boss ever’: inside the world of Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant
‘The devil’s child’: the rise and fall of the only female yakuza
From the archive: Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK
As a Ukrainian journalist, I’ve covered the US for 20 years. I find it increasingly shocking
‘Should we leave them to die?’ The battle over how to save orangutans from the curse of palm oil
From the archive: Sold to the Trump family: one of the last undeveloped islands in the Mediterranean
Prisoner number 804: the plot to erase Imran Khan
‘I couldn’t breathe’: the sinister spread of France’s killer seaweed
Three abandoned children, two missing parents and a 40-year mystery
After a hard-fought victory to legalise medical cannabis in the UK, why is it still so hard to access?
Asian mothers, bad feelings: notes on an all-conquering stereotype
From the archive:‘I feel like I’m selling my soul’: inside the crisis at Juventus
‘I had poked the bear right in the eye’: my fight to renounce my Russian citizenship
On the trail with the hunters who believe shooting big game can save Africa’s wildlife
From the archive: Putin, Trump, Ukraine: how Timothy Snyder became the leading interpreter of our dark times
How to survive the information crisis: ‘We once talked about fake news – now reality itself feels fake’
Stateside with Kai and Carter: Stacey Abrams on why gutting of the US Voting Rights Act is ‘evil’
‘Lawrence is karma’: the gangster who became an icon of Modi’s India
From the archive: How western travel influencers got tangled up in Pakistan’s politics
The impossible promise: are we witnessing the return of fascism?
‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK
No cults, no politics, no ghouls: how China censors the video game world
Where Duolingo falls down: how I learned to speak Welsh with my mother
‘Any other child would have died’: the miraculous survival of Nada Itrab
From the archive: the impossible job: inside the world of Premier League referees
Inside China’s robotics revolution
Endo dreams of sushi: a trip around Japan with one of the world’s greatest chefs
From the archive: The high cost of living in a disabling world
Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI
35,000 pints of stolen Guinness, 950 wheels of pilfered cheese: can the UK’s cargo theft crisis be stopped?
From the archive: Foreign mothers, foreign tongues: ‘In another universe, she could have been my friend’
How the US far right bought into the myth of white South Africa’s persecution
AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying
From the archive: Freedom without constraints: how the US squandered its cold war victory
My maddening battle with chronic fatigue syndrome: ‘On my worst days, it feels almost demonic’
Apocalypse no: how almost everything we thought we knew about the Maya is wrong
For many years the prevailing debate about the Maya centred upon why their civilisation collapsed. Now, many scholars are asking: how did the Maya survive? By Marcus Haraldsson. Read by Diana Bermudez. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
From the archive: the butcher’s shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)
EWe are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2020: Frank Fisher, now 90, was a traditional high street butcher his whole working life – as were three generations of his family before him. How does a man dedicated to serving his community decide when it’s time to hang up his white coat? By Tom Lamont. Read by Jonathan Andrew Hume. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
‘I felt betrayed, naked’: did a prize-winning novelist steal a woman’s life story?
EHis novel was praised for giving a voice to the victims of Algeria’s brutal civil war. But one woman has accused Kamel Daoud of having stolen her story – and the ensuing legal battle has become about much more than literary ethics By Madeleine Schwartz. Read by Kate Handford. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
What was Doge? How Elon Musk tried to gamify government
ESteeped in gaming and rightwing culture wars, Musk and his team of teenage coders set out to defeat the enemy of the United States: its people By Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian. Read by Vincent Lai. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
From the archive: Are we really prisoners of geography?
EWe are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2022: A wave of bestselling authors claim that global affairs are still ultimately governed by the immutable facts of geography – mountains, oceans, rivers, resources. But the world has changed more than they realise By Daniel Immerwahr. Read by Christopher Ragland. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
Power without a throne: how Khalifa Haftar controls Libya
EWhen Nato helped overthrow Gaddafi in 2011, there were hopes of a new beginning. More than a decade later, a former CIA asset runs the country – and Libya has become yet another lesson in the unintended consequences of foreign intervention By Anas El Gomati. Read by Mo Ayoub. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
Off Duty: The Crime
bonusEOn the evening of 29 December 2011, Officer Clifton Lewis was moonlighting as a security guard at a Chicago minimart when two men walked in. They shot Lewis several times, then took off with his gun and police star. A week later, police had their suspects: four men affiliated with a gang called the Spanish Cobras. For hours, under intense police questioning, they all said they didn’t do it. But that didn’t seem to matter. This is episode one of Off Duty, an investigation by the Guardian’s Melissa Segura Listen to the full series from The Guardian Investigates podcast. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
‘The children are not safe here’: the Nigerian couple fighting infanticide
In a few isolated communities in central Nigeria, some babies are believed to be bad omens. Olusola and Chinwe Stevens run a thriving home for babies at risk. But what happens when the families want them back? By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. Read by Nneka Okoye. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
From the archive: ‘Parents are frightened for themselves and for their children’: an inspirational school in impossible times
EWe are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2022: Austerity, the pandemic and now the cost of living crisis have left many schools in a parlous state. How hard do staff have to work to give kids the chances they deserve? By Aida Edemariam. Read by Lucy Scott. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
Access denied: why Muslims worldwide are being ‘debanked’
EInnocent people are being frozen out of basic banking services – and it all traces back to reforms rushed through after 9/11 By Oliver Bullough. Read by Elis James. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
Shock, awe, death, joy and looting: how the Guardian covered the outbreak of the Iraq war
EIn spring 2003, exuberance at the fall of Saddam was swiftly followed by a descent into deadly chaos. Whether moving independently or embedded with troops, Guardian reporters witnessed the violence on the ground By Ian Mayes. Read by Karl Queensborough. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
From the archive: ‘Iran was our Hogwarts’: my childhood between Tehran and Essex
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2021: Growing up in Essex, my summers in Iran felt like magical interludes from reality – but it was a spell that always had to be broken By Arianne Shahvisi. Read by Serena Manteghi. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>