The Audio Long Read

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...

The rollercoaster king: the man behind the UK’s fastest thrill-ride

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

John Burton was just 27 when he was put in charge of creating Thorpe Park’s biggest-ever project. Once too scared to go on rides himself, how did he...

Best of 2024: ‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’: how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an intr...

Best of 2024: As a teenager, John was jailed for assaulting someone and stealing their bike. That was 17 years ago – will he ever be released?

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an intr...

Best of 2024: ‘It comes for your very soul’: how Alzheimer’s undid my dazzling, creative wife in her 40s

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an intr...

Best of 2024: Nairobi to New York and back: the loneliness of the internationally educated elite

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an intr...

Revisited: Two poems, four years in detention: the Chinese dissident who smuggled his writing out of prison

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

My poems were written in anger after Tiananmen Square. But what motivates most prison writing is a fear of forgetting. Today I am free, but the regime...

10 years of the long read: Ukraine’s death-defying art rescuers (2024)

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

10 years of the long read: ‘All that we had is gone’: my lament for war-torn Khartoum (2023)

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

A new nuclear arms race is beginning. It will be far more dangerous than the last one

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With Putin’s threats in Ukraine, China’s accelerated weapons programme and the US’s desire for superiority, what will it take for leaders to ste...

Revisited: Too much stuff: can we solve our addiction to consumerism?

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alarmed by the rising tide of waste we are all creating, my family and I decided to try to make do with much less. But while individual behaviour is i...

The scandal of food waste – and how we can stop it

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every informed observer agrees that food waste and loss must be reduced if we are to feed all humans. What’s stopping us? By Julian Baggini. Help su...

‘I couldn’t cry over my children like everyone else’: the tragedy of Palestinian journalist Wael al-Dahdouh

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After his wife and two of his children were killed in Gaza, Al Jazeera journalist Wael al-Dahdouh became famous around the world for his decision to k...

10 years of the long read: Seven stowaways and a hijacked oil tanker: the strange case of the Nave Andromeda (2022)

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

A cool flame: how Gaia theory was born out of a secret love affair

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Scientist James Lovelock gave humanity new ways to think about our home planet – but some of his biggest ideas were the fruit of a passionate collab...

‘You tried to tell yourself I wasn’t real’: what happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads?

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In avatar therapy, a clinician gives voice to their patients’ inner demons. For some of the participants in a new trial, the results have been astou...

10 years of the long read: The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship (2021)

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

The cement company that paid millions to Isis: was Lafarge complicit in crimes against humanity?

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The French cement giant started operating in Syria just before the civil war erupted. When Islamic State took over the region, Lafarge paid them prote...

Journalist or Russian spy? The strange case of Pablo González

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a Spanish reporter, Pablo González charmed his way into Russian opposition circles and covered Putin’s wars. Then, in 2022, he was arrested on s...

10 years of the long read: The invisible city: how a homeless man built a life underground (2020)

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

Has poppymania gone too far?

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past 20 years, the symbol of remembrance for the war dead has become increasingly ubiquitous – and a culture of poppy policing has grown wi...

Slash and burn: is private equity out of control?

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From football clubs to water companies, music catalogues to care homes, private equity has infiltrated almost every facet of modern life in its endles...

10 years of the long read: Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands (2019)

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

Hidden traces of humanity: what AI images reveal about our world

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As generative AI advances, it is easy to see it as yet another area where machines are taking over – but humans remain at the centre of AI art, just...

The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It used to be that Britons would complain about Americanisms diluting the English language. But in fact it’s a two-way street. By Ben Yagoda. Help s...

10 years of the long read: Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Zealand (2018)

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

‘Places to heal, not to harm’: why brutal prison design kills off hope

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From razor-wire fences and crumbling cells to no windows and overcrowding, conditions in most jails mean rehabilitation is a nonstarter. Here’s how ...

The trial of Björn Höcke, the ‘real boss’ of Germany’s far right

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As leader of the AfD’s most radical faction, he is infamous in Germany and his critics have long accused him of using language that echoes the Nazis...

10 years of the long read: How the sandwich consumed Britain (2017)

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

‘For me, there was no other choice’: inside the global illegal organ trade

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I spoke to dozens of people – from ‘donors’ to brokers – to find out how this exploitative trade thrives on chaos and desperation. By Seán Co...

How oligarchs took on the UK fraud squad – and won

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It began as a routine investigation into a multinational called ENRC. It became a decade-long saga that has rocked the UK’s financial crime agency. ...

10 years of the long read: Man v rat: could the long war soon be over? (2016)

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

Morality and rules, and how to avoid drowning: what my daughters learned at school in China

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our twins spent two years at primary school in Chengdu. Their lessons featured alarming cautionary tales and stories of Chinese superiority, but there...

The shapeshifter: who is the real Giorgia Meloni?

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

She’s been called a neo-fascist and a danger to Italy. But she has won over many heads of Europe, including the UK prime minister. Should we be worr...

10 years of the long read: Farewell to America (2015)

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

The cocaine kingpin’s wildest legacy: what can be done with Pablo Escobar’s marauding hippos?

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Colombian drug lord’s exotic menagerie fell apart after his death, and now wild hippos are breeding out of control. By Joshua Hammer. Help suppo...

‘Like a cheese grater raking across my nipple’: why I kept trying to breastfeed for so long

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

My commitment to breastfeeding exclusively was related to shame. If I couldn’t do it, I felt I would be letting the baby down. By Niamh Campbell. He...

10 years of the long read: Is this the end of Britishness? (2014)

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the author...

Special Edition: 10 years of the Guardian Long Read

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

To celebrate 10 years of The Long Read we gathered together the team who launched it to take you behind the scenes. Helen Pidd is joined by editor Dav...

Strange and wondrous creatures: plankton and the origins of life on Earth

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Without plankton, the modern ocean ecosystem – the very idea of the ocean as we understand it – would collapse. Earth would have no complex life o...

No god in the machine: the pitfalls of AI worship

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The rise of artificial intelligence has sparked a panic about computers gaining power over humankind. But the real threat comes from falling for the h...

From the archive: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed?

25 Sep 2024

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...

On board the Creed cruise: the unfathomable return of the ‘worst band of the 90s’

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I took a cruise with thousands of fellow lunatics to find out how this much-mocked rock band became so beloved. By Luke Winkie. Help support our indep...

A Chinese-born writer’s quest to understand the Vikings, Normans and life on the English coast

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps a foreigner knows more about their adopted land than the locals, because a foreigner feels more acutely the particularities of a new environme...

From the archive: The invention of whiteness: the long history of a dangerous idea

18 Sep 2024

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...

Ukraine’s death-defying art rescuers

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Putin invaded, a historian in Kyiv saw that Ukraine’s cultural heritage was in danger. So he set out to save as much of it as he could. By Char...

As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This summer, one of my lectures was protested by far-right students. Their rhetoric brought to mind some of the darkest moments of 20th-century histor...

From the archive: Death on demand: has euthanasia gone too far?

11 Sep 2024

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 diagnosis can sweep away guilt’: the delicate art of treating ADHD

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For children with ADHD, getting the help they need depends on being correctly diagnosed. As a doctor, I have seen how tricky and frustrating a process...

From the archive – ‘A merry-go-round of buck-passing’: inside the four-year Grenfell inquiry

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some notable pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...

From the KKK to the state house: how neo-Nazi David Duke won office

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970s, David Duke was grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. In the 80s, he was elected to Louisiana’s house of representatives – and the kinds ...

‘Nobody knows what I know’: how a loyal RSS member abandoned Hindu nationalism

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a young man, Partha Banerjee was on course to become a senior member of the RSS, the organisation that has pushed Indian politics towards extreme r...

Best of 2024 … so far: Solar storms, ice cores and nuns’ teeth: the new science of history

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editoria...

‘It comes for your very soul’: how Alzheimer’s undid my dazzling, creative wife in her 40s

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

By the time my wife got a diagnosis, her long and harrowing deterioration had already begun. By the end, I was in awe of her. By Michael Aylwin. Help ...

Best of 2024 … so far: ‘Scars on every street’: the refugee camp where generations of Palestinians have lost their futures

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editoria...

Food, water, wifi: is this the future of humanitarian aid?

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Working in food aid delivery, I have seen the benefits of embracing new technologies. But some problems need to be solved between humans. By Jean-Mart...

Best of 2024…so far: ‘They were dying, and they’d not had their money’: Britain’s multibillion-pound equal pay scandal

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editoria...

My family and other Nazis

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

My father did terrible things during the second world war, and my other relatives were equally unrepentant. But it wasn’t until I was in my late 50s...

Best of 2024 … so far: Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editoria...

Revolution in the air: how laughing gas changed the world

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since its discovery in the 18th century, nitrous oxide has gone from vaudeville gimmick to pioneering anaesthetic to modern party drug. By Mark Miodow...

From Nobel peace prize to civil war: how Ethiopia’s leader beguiled the world

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Abiy Ahmed took power in Ethiopia, he was feted at home and abroad as a great unifier and reformer. Two years later, terrible violence was raging...

From the archive: From Game of Thrones to The Crown: the woman who turns actors into stars

31 Jul 2024

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...

Chortle chortle, scribble scribble: inside the Old Bailey with Britain’s last court reporters

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The cases heard at the Old Bailey offer a vivid, often grim portrait of England and Wales today. What happens when there is no one left to tell these ...

‘I’m good, I promise’: the loneliness of the low-ranking tennis player

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I was once Ireland’s No 1 player, and tried for years to climb the global ranks. But life at the bottom of the top can be brutal. By Conor Niland. H...

From the archive: ‘As borders closed, I became trapped in my Americanness’: China, the US and me

24 Jul 2024

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...

‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’: how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2024, libraries are unofficial creches, homeless shelters, language schools and asylum support providers – filling the gaps left by a state that ...

‘How do I heal?’: the long wait for justice after a black man dies in police custody

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The true number of black people who have died after contact with the police has been hidden, while their families are faced with delays and denials. B...

From the archive: The elephant vanishes: how a circus family went on the run

17 Jul 2024

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...

Dirty waters: how the Environment Agency lost its way

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Having created a watchdog for the environment, the government took its teeth out and muzzled it. Can public outrage rouse the Environment Agency to ac...

Inside Mexico’s anti-avocado militias

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The spread of the avocado is a story of greed, ambition, corruption, water shortages, cartel battles and, in a number of towns and villages, a fierce ...

From the archive: ‘Colonialism had never really ended’: my life in the shadow of Cecil Rhodes

10 Jul 2024

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...

Where the wild things are: the untapped potential of our gardens, parks and balconies

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gardens could be part of the solution to the climate and biodiversity crisis. But what are we doing? Disappearing them beneath plastic and paving. By ...

How the Tories pushed universities to the brink of disaster

04 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past 14 years, the Conservative dream of a free market in higher education has collided with the harsh reality of austerity and the cultural ...

From the archive: Ten ways to confront the climate crisis without losing hope

03 Jul 2024

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...

‘Natty or not?’: how steroids got big

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Once upon a time, it was only hardcore bodybuilders who pumped themselves up with testosterone. Today it is no longer niche. But how dangerous is it? ...

Nairobi to New York and back: the loneliness of the internationally educated elite

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, hundreds of Kenyans head off to study at elite universities in the US and UK. On graduating, many find themselves in a strange position: u...

From the archive: Brazilian butt lift: behind the world’s most dangerous cosmetic surgery

26 Jun 2024

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...

Two poems, four years in detention: the Chinese dissident who smuggled his writing out of prison

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

My poems were written in anger after Tiananmen Square. But what motivates most prison writing is a fear of forgetting. Today I am free, but the regime...

As a teenager, John was jailed for assaulting someone and stealing their bike. That was 17 years ago – will he ever be released?

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Indeterminate sentences are devastating to mental health, but prisoners with mental illness are less likely to be released. The result is a vicious cy...