The Audio Long Read

Starmer v Starmer: why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Many of his supporters hoped the prime minister would restore the UK’s commitment to international law. Yet Labour’s record over the past year has...

Best of 2025 … so far: The savage suburbia of Helen Garner: ‘I wanted to dong Martin Amis with a bat’

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every Wednesday and Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an introduction fro...

Best of 2025 … so far: ‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every Wednesday and Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an introduction fro...

How Pakistan fell in love with sushi

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Once upon a time, Pakistanis scorned raw fish. Now sushi is everywhere from Ramadan meals to wedding buffets – and it all started with one man and a...

Best of 2025 … so far: ‘The ghosts are everywhere’: can the British Museum survive its omni-crisis?

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every Wednesday and Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an introduction fro...

Best of 2025 … so far: the great abandonment: what happens to the natural world when people disappear?

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every Wednesday and Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an introduction fro...

The Shining: my trip to the G7 horror show with Emmanuel Macron

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Deeply unpopular in France, President Macron relishes the international stage, where he projects himself as the leader best placed to handle Trump. Se...

Are we witnessing the death of international law?

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A growing number of scholars and lawyers are losing faith in the current system. Others say the law is not to blame, but the states that are supposed ...

From the archive: Bicycle graveyards: why do so many bikes end up underwater?

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Poison in the water: the town with the world’s worst case of forever chemicals contamination

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When a small Swedish town discovered their drinking water contained extremely high levels of Pfas, they had no idea what it would mean for their healt...

‘A relentless, destructive energy’: inside the trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How did the daughter of an aristocrat end up at the Old Bailey with her partner, charged with killing their two-week-old baby? By Sophie Elmhirst. Rea...

From the archive: how two BBC journalists risked their jobs to reveal the truth about Jimmy Savile

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The curse of Toumaï: an ancient skull, a disputed femur and a bitter feud over humanity’s origins

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When fossilised remains were discovered in the Djurab desert in 2001, they were hailed as radically rewriting the history of our species. But not ever...

Horse racing and erotica: how I survived the fickle world of freelance writing

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gabrielle Drolet had always dreamed of being a writer. But when disability closed down most of her opportunities, a strange career began By Gabrielle ...

From the archive: The sludge king: how one man turned an industrial wasteland into his own El Dorado

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Sold to the Trump family: one of the last undeveloped islands in the Mediterranean

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have spent more than $1bn on an Albanian island that will be a luxury resort – once the unexploded ordnan...

How does woke start winning again?

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

British progressives have suffered major setbacks in recent years, in both public opinion and court rulings. Was a backlash inevitable, and are new ta...

From the archive: The death of the department store

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘Do you have a family?’: midlife with no kids, ageing parents – and no crisis

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In my 40s, I found myself with a life that didn’t look like it was ‘supposed’ to. What was I doing? On trips to South Korea with my mother, an a...

Why does Switzerland have more nuclear bunkers than any other country?

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Switzerland is home to more than 370,000 nuclear bunkers – enough to shelter every member of the population. But if the worst should happen, would t...

From the archive: ‘You can’t be the player’s friend’: inside the secret world of tennis umpires

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

My husband and son suffered strokes, 30 years apart. Shockingly little had changed

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I was told my husband would never talk again, while physiotherapy was dismissed entirely. My son was failed in similar ways, but for the brilliance of...

‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

He’s spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive – and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast’s videos...

From the archive: ‘A nursery of the Commons’: how the Oxford Union created today’s ruling political class

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘Outdated and unjust’: can we reform global capitalism?

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

President Trump’s tariffs have plunged the world economy into chaos. But history counsels against despair – and the left should seize on capitalis...

Extremely loud and incredibly scouse: how Jamie Carragher conquered football punditry

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Football coverage no longer stops after the final whistle. And in this new era, the former Liverpool defender reigns supreme By Kieran Morris. Read by...

From the archive: Burying Leni Riefenstahl: one woman’s lifelong crusade against Hitler’s favourite film-maker

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘You can let go now’: inside the hospital where staff treat fear of death as well as physical pain

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a Danish palliative care unit, the alternative to assisted dying is not striving to cure – offering relief and comfort to patients and their fami...

An English gentleman, a crooked lawyer: the secrets of Stephen David Jones

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With his brilliant mind and impeccable credentials, it’s little wonder that wealthy clients trusted him with their fortunes. Then they started to ge...

From the archive: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Death, divorce and the magic of kitchen objects: how to find hope in loss

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Missing in the Amazon: the disappearance – episode 1

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Three years ago British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous defender Bruno Pereira vanished while on a reporting trip near Brazil’s rem...

A deadly mission: how Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira tried to warn the world about the Amazon’s destruction

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Guardian journalist and the Brazilian Indigenous expert were killed while investigating the impact of deforestation. In this extract from the book...

From the archive: Alan Yentob: the last impresario

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘We know what is happening, we cannot walk away’: how the Guardian bore witness to horror in former Yugoslavia

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During the decade-long conflicts, the major powers dithered as Serb militias carried out their brutal campaigns of ethnic cleansing. Guardian reporter...

The ancient psychedelics myth: ‘People tell tourists the stories they think are interesting for them’

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 M...

From the archive: The lost Jews of Nigeria

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘We thought we could change the world’: how an idealistic fight against miscarriages of justice turned sour

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 syst...

‘All other avenues have been exhausted’: Is legal action the only way to save the planet?

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

From the archive: Super-prime mover: Britain’s most successful estate agent

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

A year of hate: what I learned when I went undercover with the far right

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Working for Hope Not Hate, I infiltrated an extremist organisation, befriended its members and got to work investigating their political connections W...

‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For the first time, the man the KGB codenamed ‘the Inheritor’ tells his story By Shaun Walker. Read by James Faulkner. Help support our independen...

From the archive: What lies beneath: the truth about France’s top serial killer expert

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘Why would he take such a risk?’ How a famous Chinese author befriended his censor

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The mystery of the nameless girl found dead in a Spanish border town

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 bec...

From the archive: Food fraud and counterfeit cotton: the detectives untangling the global supply chain

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

From acid house to ancient rites: Jeremy Deller’s enormous, collaborative, unsellable art

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 unleas...

What happens when the US declares war on your parents? The Black Panther Cubs know

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Black Panthers shook America awake before the party was eviscerated by the US government. Their children paid a steep price, but also emerged with...

From the archive: The last phone boxes: broken glass, cider cans and – amazingly – a dial tone

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Many life-saving drugs fail for lack of funding. But there’s a solution: desperate rich people

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Each year, hundreds of potentially world-changing treatments are discarded because scientists run out of cash. But where big pharma or altruists fear ...

In search of the South Pacific fugitive who crowned himself king

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Noah Musingku made a fortune with a Ponzi scheme and then retreated to a remote armed compound in the jungle, where he still commands the loyalty of h...

From the archive: ‘I pleaded for help. No one wrote back’: the pain of watching my country fall to the Taliban

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The real Scandi noir: how a filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark’s self-image

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Black Swan follows a repentant master criminal as she sets up corrupt clients in front of hidden cameras. But is she really reformed – and is th...

Kahane’s ghost: how a long-dead extremist rabbi continues to haunt Israel’s politics

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A violent fanatic and pioneer in bigotry, Meir Kahane died a political outcast 35 years ago. Today, his ideas influence the very highest levels of gov...

From the archive: The great betrayal: how the Hillsborough families were failed by the justice system

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

My mother, the racist

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

She spent her life in northern France doing exhausting, back-breaking work – and yet she turned her anger against people who had done no wrongs to h...

The reluctant collaborator: surviving Syria’s brutal civil war – and its aftermath

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At 18, Mustafa was told his only way out of prison was to join the regime forces. After 14 years, his past as one of Assad’s fighters could get him ...

From the archive: Votes for children! Why we should lower the voting age to six

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The Rainham volcano: a waste dump is constantly on fire in east London. Why will no one stop it?

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Under Arnolds Field, tonnes of illegally dumped waste have been burning for years, spewing pollution over the area. Locals fear for their health – a...

It came from outer space: the meteorite that landed in a Cotswolds cul-de-sac

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Meteorite falls are extremely rare and offer a glimpse of the processes that formed our world billions of years ago. When a space rock came to an Engl...

From the archive: ‘The treeline is out of control’: how the climate crisis is turning the Arctic green

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Holidays in hell: summer camp with Russia’s forgotten children

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the rural orphanage where I volunteered, the place resembled a Dickensian workhouse. The staff’s main tools were antipsychotics and violence. The...

The savage suburbia of Helen Garner: ‘I wanted to dong Martin Amis with a bat’

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over 50 years, she has become one of the most revered writers in Australia. Is she finally going to get worldwide recognition? By Sophie Elmhirst. Rea...

From the archive: Is society coming apart?

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The Coventry experiment: why were Indian women in Britain given radioactive food without their consent?

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When details about a scientific study in the 1960s became public, there was shock, outrage and anxiety. But exactly what happened? By Samira Shackle. ...

My life as a prison officer: ‘It wasn’t just the smell that hit you. It was the noise’

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I saw first hand how prisons are having to use segregation units for acutely mentally ill inmates who should not be in prison at all Written and read ...

From the archive: The revolt against liberalism: what’s driving Poland and Hungary’s nativist turn?

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘The ghosts are everywhere’: can the British Museum survive its omni-crisis?

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Beset by colonial controversy, difficult finances and the discovery of a thief on the inside, Britain’s No 1 museum is in deep trouble. Can it resto...

Turkey said it would become a ‘zero waste’ nation. Instead, it became a dumping ground for Europe’s rubbish

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When China stopped receiving the world’s waste, Turkey became Europe’s recycling hotspot. The problem is, most plastics can’t be recycled. And w...

From the archive: The end of Atlanticism: has Trump killed the ideology that won the cold war?

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Signature moves: are we losing the ability to write by hand?

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We are far more likely to use our hands to type or swipe than pick up a pen. But in the process we are in danger of losing cognitive skills, sensory e...

‘Here lives the monster’s brain’: the man who exposed Switzerland’s dirty secrets

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by Che Guevara, Jean Ziegler has spent the past 60 years exposing how Switzerland enabled global wrongdoing. His enemies accuse him of treaso...

From the archive: ‘In my 30 years as a GP, the profession has been horribly eroded’

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Massacre in the jungle: how an Indigenous man was made the public face of an atrocity

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2004, 29 people were killed by members of the Cinta Larga tribe in Brazil’s Amazon basin. The story shocked the country – but the truth of what...

Israel and the delusions of Germany’s ‘memory culture’

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Germany embraced Israel to atone for its wartime guilt. But was this in part a way to avoid truly confronting its past? By Pankaj Mishra. Read by Mikh...

From the archive: One drug dealer, two corrupt cops and a risky FBI sting

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Innit innit boys and Super Eagles: how Nigerian Londoners found their identity through football

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For the children of the Nigerian diaspora, displaced by war and split between two worlds, footballers from John Fashanu to Jay-Jay Okocha were a first...

The mysterious novelist who foresaw Putin’s Russia – and then came to symbolise its moral decay

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Victor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the ...

From the archive: Was it inevitable? A short history of Russia’s war on Ukraine

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The loudest megaphone: how Trump mastered our new attention age

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The old model of political debate is over, and spectacle beats argument every time. How did we get here? By Chris Hayes. Read by Adam Sims. Help suppo...

How a young Dutch woman’s life began when she was allowed to die

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the last minute, Zoë decided to call off her euthanasia. But how do you start over after you’ve said all of your goodbyes? By Stephanie Bakker. ...

From the archive: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘Bring me my tariffs’: how Trump’s China plan was 40 years in the making

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump’s political careers were shaped by their formative experiences in the 1980s – and, above all, their encounters wi...

Tokyo drift: what happens when a city stops being the future?

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tokyo remains, in the world’s imagination, a place of sophistication and wealth. But with economic revival forever distant, ‘tourism pollution’ ...

From the archive: The false positives scandal: how thousands of innocent Colombians were killed so soldiers could get more holiday

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The great abandonment: what happens to the natural world when people disappear?

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to Bulgaria. By Tess McClure. Read ...

Endless work, little money, occasional UFOs: my father’s five decades driving Brazil’s roads

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a sociologist, my career couldn’t be further from that of my father, who spent his life on the road as a truck driver. It’s only in recent year...

From the archive: How one man spent 34 years in prison after setting fire to a pair of curtains

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The man making a business out of China’s burnout generation

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Li Jianxiong was a highflying marketing executive in Beijing until a breakdown sent him to the west on a wellness voyage of discovery – just as his ...

Humphrey’s world: how the Samuel Smith beer baron built Britain’s strangest pub chain

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since the 1970s, Humphrey Smith has acquired scores of pubs and historic properties around the UK. But time after time, he has left the buildings empt...

From the archive: Inspired by nature: the thrilling new science that could transform medicine

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

‘Look, they’re getting skin!’: are we right to strive to save the world’s tiniest babies?

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Doctors are pushing the limits of science and human biology to save more extremely premature babies than ever before. But when so few survive, are we ...

Inside the Vatican’s secret saint-making process

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Canonisation has long been a way for the Catholic church to shape its image. The Vatican is preparing to anoint its first millennial saint, but how do...

From the archive: ‘A deranged pyroscape’: how fires across the world have grown weirder

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

The inspiring scientists who saved the world’s first seed bank

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon P...

The ‘mad egghead’ who built a mouse utopia

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Calhoun designed an apartment complex for mice to examine the effects of overcrowding. It was hailed as a groundbreaking study of social breakdow...

From the archive: Cold comfort: how cold water swimming cured my broken heart

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Teeth as time capsules: Soviet secrets and my dentist grandmother

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In postwar Warsaw, my grandmother Zosia fixed the teeth of prisoners and spies. In doing so, she came into contact with the hidden history of her time...

The brain collector: the scientist unravelling the mysteries of grey matter

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is cracking the secrets of ancient brains – even as hers betrays her. By Kermit Pattison. Help ...

From the archive: The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?

01 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...