Claim OwnershipThe Audio Long Read
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The Audio Long Read podcast is a selection of the Guardian’s long reads, giving you the opportunity to get on with your day while listening to some of the finest longform journalism the Guardian has to offer, including in-depth writing from around the world on current affairs, climate change, global warming, immigration, crime, business, the arts and much more. The podcast explores a range of subjects and news across business, global politics (including Trump, Israel, Palestine and Gaza), money, philosophy, science, internet culture, modern life, war, climate change, current affairs, music and trends, and seeks to answer key questions around them through in depth interviews explainers, and analysis with quality Guardian reporting. Through first person accounts, narrative audio storytelling and investigative reporting, the Audio Long Read seeks to dive deep, debunk myths and uncover hidden histories. In previous episodes we have asked questions like: do we need a new theory of evolution? Whether Trump can win the US presidency or not? Why can't we stop quantifying our lives? Why have our nuclear fears faded? Why do so many bikes end up underwater? How did Germany get hooked on Russian energy? Are we all prisoners of geography? How was London's Olympic legacy sold out? Who owns Einstein? Is free will an illusion? What lies beghind the Arctic's Indigenous suicide crisis? What is the mystery of India's deadly exam scam? Who is the man who built his own cathedral? And, how did the world get hooked on palm oil? Other topics range from: history including empire to politics, conflict, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza, philosophy, science, psychology, health and finance. Audio Long Read journalists include Samira Shackle, Tom Lamont, Sophie Elmhirst, Samanth Subramanian, Imogen West-Knights, Sirin Kale, Daniel Trilling and Giles Tremlett.
1237 Episodes
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In a Danish palliative care unit, the alternative to assisted dying is not striving to cure – offering relief and comfort to patients and their families By Line Vaaben. Read by Freya Miller. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
With his brilliant mind and impeccable credentials, it’s little wonder that wealthy clients trusted him with their fortunes. Then they started to get suspicious By Hettie O’Brien. Read by Simon Vance. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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 2023: The Kenyan novelist’s life and work has intersected with many of the biggest events of the past century. At 85, he reflects on his long, uncompromising life in writing Written and read by Carey Baraka. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
As they pass through different hands, cooking utensils can magically connect us to loved ones who are no longer with us By Bee Wilson. Read by Colleen Prendergast. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
2Three years ago British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous defender Bruno Pereira vanished while on a reporting trip near Brazil’s remote Javari valley. The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips investigates what happened in the first episode of a new six-part investigative podcast series. Find episode 2 – and all future episodes – by searching for “Missing in the Amazon”. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
The Guardian journalist and the Brazilian Indigenous expert were killed while investigating the impact of deforestation. In this extract from the book Phillips was writing at the time of his death, he reflects on his encounters with the rainforest and its people – and why it is so vital to save this precious place By Dom Phillips. Read by Felipe Pacheco. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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 2016: For decades, Alan Yentob was the dominant creative force at the BBC – behind everything from Adam Curtis to Strictly Come Dancing. He was a towering figure in British culture – so why did many applaud his very public slide from power? Written and read by Sam Knight. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
During the decade-long conflicts, the major powers dithered as Serb militias carried out their brutal campaigns of ethnic cleansing. Guardian reporters became more passionate and more outspoken in their condemnation, attracting praise and criticism By Ian Mayes. Read by Owen McDonnell. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
The narrative of ancient tribes around the world regularly using ayahuasca and magic mushrooms in healing practices is a popular one. Is it true? By Manvir Singh. Read by Sebastián Capitán Viveros. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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 2022: Until the 1990s, there were almost no Jews in Nigeria. Now thousands have enthusiastically taken up the faith. Why? By Samanth Subramanian. Read by Raj Ghatak. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
When a no-nonsense lecturer set up a radical solution to help free the wrongfully convicted in the UK, he was hopeful he could change the justice system. But what started as a revolution ended in acrimony By Francisco Garcia. Read by Nicholas Camm. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
Monica Feria-Tinta is one of a growing number of lawyers using the courts to make governments around the world take action By Samira Shackle. Read by Díana Bermudez. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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 2022: Gary Hersham has been selling houses to the very rich for decades. At first, £1m was a big deal. Now he sells for £50m, £100m, even £200m. What does it take to stay on top in this cut-throat business? By Sophie Elmhirst. Read by Andrew McGregor. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
Working for Hope Not Hate, I infiltrated an extremist organisation, befriended its members and got to work investigating their political connections Written and read by Harry Shukman. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
For the first time, the man the KGB codenamed ‘the Inheritor’ tells his story By Shaun Walker. Read by James Faulkner. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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: An intrepid expert with dozens of books to his name, Stéphane Bourgoin was a bestselling author, famous in France for having interviewed more than 70 notorious murderers. Then an anonymous collective began to investigate his past By Scott Sayare. Read by Simon Vance. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
Online dissent is a serious crime in China. So why did a Weibo censor help me publish posts critical of the Communist party? By Murong Xuecun. Read by Zhang Wang Li. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
On a summer morning in 1990, the body of a young woman appeared in a small town close to the frontier. For those who saw her, finding her identity became an obsession that would last 30 years By Giles Tremlett. Read by Luis Soto. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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: Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level By Samanth Subramanian. Read by Raj Ghatak. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
The artist Jeremy Deller can’t really draw or paint. Instead of making things, he makes things happen. And later this year, he is planning to unleash a bacchanalian festival that will be his most daring public artwork yet By Charlotte Higgins. Read by Richard Coyle. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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Why the accent???
mostly talks about his father's cancer. not an easy listen
listening in 2024 ... wrenched my heart to hear all the optimistic predictions that Iran never even came close to.
If this guy thinks there are no nazis in Ukraine he has rocks in his head
is this an AI generated narrator?
Galapagos is a province of Ecuador. Stating that something was found between the former and the latter is equivalent to misguiding listeners by citing the Midlands and England as two separate entities.
I really loved this episode, which pays tribute to Nichola Saunders - a largely forgotten figure who gave the UK so much. But I found it incredibly distracting to hear reasonably well known words mispronounced: cherubim, artisanal, homogeneous (it has 5 syllables not 4) or US pronunciations of words (cedre) by an obviously British reader why don't the editors correct these mispronunciations, as they would misspellings in a written article?
One of the weakest GLRs I've heard. Irritating and uninsightful.
One of my favourite podcasts recently. Great journalism, fascinating diverse stories and excellent production. Well done, The Guardian.
Very half-baked theories based on no facts, can't believe this got printed!
One of the sadest episodes I've ever heard. The whole thing is a piece of spoken word poetry, from the reading to the writing, it's beautiful and gut wrenching.
While JK is very difficult to eradicate, we have had great success in controling it's spread and massively reducing its prevalence in our part of East Ayrshire along the River Annick. Work done more than ten years ago within the Ayrshire Rivers Trust, the body tasked with control of the big 3 in non native invasive plant species, (JK, GH and HB) showed that spraying once with glyphosate (Roundup) in the approximately six week period between the appearance of the flowers and the first hard frost gave a very high (95% plus) reduction in the reappearance of JK stems the following spring. The ART funded SEPA accredited spraying training for volunteer groups to enable safe spraying operations along sensitive watercourses, and provided equipment, herbicide and appropriate PPE. They got much more bang for their buck this way than by using commercial spraying firms, but it is dependent on a volunteer labour force willing to undertake training and supply their labour in this most effective six
an idea: https://www.wildwalks-southwest.co.uk/eating-japanese-knotweed/
the #LieDetector & how we are led to believe that it's accurate but I'm not surprised.
Well, that was a level of ignorance, distortion, and low-end propaganda that I didn't expect from the Guardian.
#whyweluvcommunism by the Guardian
One of the worst GLRs I've heard.
what a gobshite
thank u! this is the funniest thing i've read since the war begun!
thank you so much 🥰