The Slow Newscast
Episodes
Foundling | Tortoise Investigates
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Foundling is a six-part original series from Tortoise Investigates and The Observer. This is episode 1 - On the vergeJournalist Lucy Greenwell goes in...
Can AI write good literature?
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, the New York Times ran an experiment that has far-reaching implications, especially for book lovers. It asked readers to compare five pairs...
Kill talk: Pete Hegseth and the language of war
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
America's war against Iran has revealed plenty of gunslinging, provocative rhetoric from the US defence secretary Pete Hegseth. But is there much to l...
Your best baby
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Genetic testing start ups are a booming industry in America. Behind the headlines of 'designer babies' are companies tapping into disputed science, fa...
Rogue Brits: The Orthobros
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Alexi sits down with the reporter of this week’s Slow Newscast, Francisco Garcia, to talk about one stop in particular on the road to Putin’s fron...
Rogue Brits: Fighting for Putin
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jay Fraser was born and raised in Dunblane. Then, after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he signed up to fight...for Russia, not Ukraine. Now he and o...
Stephen Miller’s America
24 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Miller is the United States Homeland Security Advisor. But the vague sounding title belies his immense influence with Donald Trump behind the ...
“My best pal”: Mandelson and Epstein
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Epstein Files are wreaking havoc across British institutions; first the Royal family and now, the government. Peter Mandelson was sacked as US Amb...
Mismatch: Bumble vs the men’s rights activists
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The dating app Bumble built its identity on a promise: women make the first move. In this episode, The Observer uncovers a legal campaign by men’s r...
Russia's shadow war at sea
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There are over a thousand oil tankers at sea that are helping finance Russia's war in Ukraine in plain sight. And they're not just trading in sanction...
The God complex: Part 2
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel hears the shocking story of “Patient A”, who explains that patients are at risk too. Her testimony raises more questions about the way sexu...
Archive: Peltz-Beckham: A super-wedding gone wrong
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week Brooklyn Beckham publicly cut ties with his parents David and Victoria Beckham. Its exposed a rift in the family that seemingly dates back a...
The God complex: Part 1
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When an esteemed transplant surgeon is found to have sexually harassed a number of his female colleagues — sometimes in the middle of operations —...
Introducing the new host of the Slow Newscast
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
From next week, our Investigations Editor Alexi Mostrous – the man behind Sweet Bobby, Who Trolled Amber and Elon’s Spies – will take over as th...
The Walkers: The real Salt Path
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In a small town in north Wales, an alleged theft at a local estate agents plants the seeds for a global blockbuster. To listen to episode two, just se...
Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene: The MAGA divorce
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump is facing an unexpected fallout as one of his most loyal supporters has resigned from Congress and turned against him. With divisions wid...
Sycamore Gap: felling of a tree
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the stories in 2025 that seemed to capture the British public's attention was the trial for the men accused of cutting down the iconic Sycamore...
A reckoning at the Guildhall School of Music
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Like many public institutions across the UK, the Guildhall school of music has had to reckon with a past where abuse by staff was either ignored or di...
Archive: Beastly: The stories of David Walliams
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher over alleged ‘inappropriate’ behaviour.A spokesperson for Walliams said that the author had never...
Killing time: Part 2
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In October reporter Hilary Andersson was selected to witness an execution by lethal injection in Oklahoma. Her assignment led her to the case of Trema...
Killing time: Part 1
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In October reporter Hilary Andersson was selected to witness an execution by lethal injection in Oklahoma. Her assignment led her to the case of Trema...
My boy Gianni: Infantino and Trump
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gianni Infantino is the most powerful man in world football but in the run up to the 2026 men's World Cup, his relationship with US president Donald T...
Inside the Treasury
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The chancellor’s statement was supposed to be a gamechanger, but turned out to be an exercise in political survival.Reporter: Rachel SylvesterProduc...
What's Left?
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana announced a new political party this summer, it had all the ingredients to be a big success. But a summer of...
Deep Water
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Three years ago, travel writer Lydia Gard discovered freediving. An extreme and beautiful sport defined by one objective: to dive as deep as you can o...
William: The reluctant prince
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With Prince Harry in effective exile and Andrew disgraced, the Royal family is smaller than ever before and at a potential crisis point. Prince Willia...
Epping: A very English uprising
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the summer, Epping, a small town on the outskirts of London became the scene of mass protests. featuring hundreds of people. Noisy and occas...
Among the settlers on Gaza's border
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Just outside Gaza is a small settlement of Israelis hoping to enter and settle inside Gaza. They may be a fringe movement, but their voice holds a pow...
Trolled: Brigitte Macron
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The French President and the First Lady of France are taking American right wing commentator Candace Owens to court in Delaware over bizarre claims th...
The shakedown: Donald Trump vs the media
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump has launched four lawsuits against major media organisations for up to $15 billion over the past year. This is the story of Trump's war o...
Gaza's Deadly Aid
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since May, almost 900 Palestinians are reported to have been killed in the vicinity of aid checkpoints. So what exactly has happened at these aid site...
An uncivil war inside Unite
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Unite was once the biggest trade union in Britain, and the largest funder of the Labour Party. In the past its reputation has come under scrutiny. Fou...
Introducing ... We Have Notes
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The week in culture, annotated. Writer and journalist Liv Little and Observer critic Miranda Sawyer get notes from editors all the time - now it’s t...
Contagion: RFK Jr’s war on public health
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Insiders tell the story of how the US Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has hollowed out the Center for Disease Control putting the whole world a...
The match: My sister and her new DNA
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you get new blood and new DNA from a complete stranger? This is the story of a woman whose own features began to change following a ...
The immortality bros: the new frontiers of health
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A city in Honduras is home to a start-up selling experimental gene therapies for $25,000 a dose. Now, those radical ideas are reaching the United...
The diva and the dictator: opera at war
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Anna Netrebko was the biggest opera star in a generation. Since the war, due to past support for Vladimir P...
The great British honey scandal
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For nearly a decade beekeepers around the world have been saying that there’s something very wrong with the honey industry. Prices are down, and so ...
The mother and the gangs
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The number of teenage boys killed on our streets has more than doubled in a decade. This is the story of a mother trying to stop it, while dealing wit...
Signal failure: Who killed HS2?
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
HS2 should have been a symbol of engineering excellence. Instead half of it has been scrapped and it's still running £50 billion over budget. This is...
A lonely death on Jersey
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a tax haven Jersey has a reputation for welcoming the wealthy with open arms, but how does it treat other kinds of immigrants? Jane Kiiti came from...
The real Salt Path
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. But the truth behind the hit memoir is ve...
The Lab Detective
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kathleen Folbigg was known as ‘Australia's worst female serial killer’ - she’d lost all four of her infant children and was convicted for k...
Illiberal land: Hungary’s empire of ideas
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is the story of how and why a small Central European country became the epicenter of global conservatism. It’s the tale of two men…and what h...
The mystery of Francis Bacon's minder
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is the story of how a boxing match helped solve a 50-year art world mystery. And how, when a man named Ted wades in to stop a mugging in Soho, it...
Introducing...Drilled
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are partnering with the podcast Drilled, to share something extra with you this week so that we can continue to bring our listeners brilliant inves...
Liz UnTrussed
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Liz Truss was the UK’s shortest serving prime minister, but since leaving office she’s continued to buck the trend. Post premiership, she’s...
How to disappear
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the UK, a person is reported missing every 90 seconds. But how in a society of internet, phones and social media is it so easy to go missing? This ...
Brute force: domestic abuse in the ranks
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The police have an increasingly bad reputation when it comes to dealing with violence against women and girls. Forces in England and Wales say th...
The Wargame
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A bunker. A scenario. A group of former senior ministers, military chiefs and other experts. Russia knows our weaknesses – but do you?Sky News' secu...
Jeff and Donald
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when the business interests and private passions of one of the world’s richest men collide with the world’s most powerful man? This i...
Jamie Vardy: The last underdog
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After thirteen years, Jamie Vardy is leaving Leicester City. His time at the club is an example of not one, but two underdogs succeeding against the o...
Car crash: Musk and Tesla
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla saw their stock price soar with President Trump's election. But since January, it has come plummeting back down. Has Musk crashed Tesla?Reporter...
Just Stop TurmOil
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The radical climate protest group Just Stop Oil delighted supporters and infuriated opponents in equal measure. But then the government began to crack...
Sara Sharif: one judge, three court cases and a murder
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The brutal circumstances of Sara Sharif’s death were described by the judge that sent her killers to prison as torture. But when it emerged that the...
Broken ranks: civil war in the police fed
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Police officers aren’t allowed to strike or join a trade union. They rely instead on an organisation called the Police Federation to represent their...
North Korea's war in Europe
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
North Korean troops are in combat, likely for the first time since the Korean war in the 1950s. Not in Korea, but in Europe. Because last summer Ukrai...
How to ruin a football club
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Manchester United is a club used to success. But it is languishing in the league and saddled with debt. This is the story of how one of the world's mo...
Nimby Nation
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, wrote about a group of people he called zealots. And he identified one man in particular who the P...
Die, die, DEI
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump has ordered the federal government to scrap its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and corporate America has supposedly followed s...
The $Trumpcon
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Memecoins started as a fad. A niche but fun way to bet on the longevity of internet trends. But then, days before his second inauguration, Donald Trum...
The hunt for the 100ft wave
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Surfing’s ultimate barrier is the 100 foot wave. In Dec 23-year-old Alo Slebir is rumoured to have surfed a 108 foot wave. The problem is no one can...
Are we alone?
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump promised to release classified files about extraterrestrials. But even if they disappoint the millions of people hoping to find proof of ...
Trump's Dealmaker: Steve Witkoff and Gaza
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A week before Donald Trump's inauguration, a real estate mogul flew to Jerusalem to meet Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Within days, a ce...
Lucky Boy
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gareth spent years believing he was a lucky boy. He was the 14-year-old who got the attention of the attractive young science teacher. Now, decades la...
Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman | The lawsuit
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last year we published a podcast series called Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman. Five women accused the best-selling fantasy author N...
The Rwanda plan: How to waste £700m
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The flagship policy for several Prime Ministers became the Rwanda plan. But three years, four Prime Ministers and £715 million later, the policy is d...
F**k it, release ‘em all: Trump and the Jan 6ers
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For more than two years, Special Counsel Jack Smith investigated allegations of President Trump’s election fraud. His investigation ended last month...
Goodbye mum: the ruthless fight for child custody
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most difficult questions facing a judge in the family court is which parent should have custody of a child. To help them answer that, judge...
Rogue Russia: Nuclear poker
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2022 the course of the Russia's war in Ukraine shifted. Intelligence from the USA and UK indicated that Russia could turn to a nuclear bomb...
Rogue Russia: Agents of mayhem
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last October, the head of MI5 said Russia was on a mission to cause "sustained mayhem" on European streets. It might be hard to spot at first, but it ...
Jordan Peterson and the making of man
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jordan Peterson is a controversial figure, but he is also a man with a long-standing appeal to a particular demographic. What does his popularity tell...
Finding my voice
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Xavier Greenwood’s childhood memories are dominated by a speech impediment and a thick accent. But was it all in his head?Reporter: Xavier Greenwood...
The final bow: David Bowie's last act
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Bowie's last months were spent fulfilling one final ambition: staging a musical based around his songs. They say you shouldn’t meet your heroe...
The immortality bros: The business of living forever
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The tech millionaire Bryan Johnson once went viral for infusing himself with a litre of his 17-year-old son’s blood plasma. That experiment failed, ...
Killing hope: Iran's mind wars
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The fall of Assad in Syria is a disaster for Iran, so much so that people are beginning to ask if this might finally be the moment when Iran’s pro-d...
Stuck in space
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In June 2024, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore went into space. It was expected to last just over a week. Instead, by the time they'll return, it'll ...
My AI girlfriend: a cure for loneliness
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Eugenia Kuyda thinks she can solve an “epidemic” of loneliness. Her app, Replika, is “the AI companion who cares”, a chatbot that can text you...
Operation Asshole: Paul Watson's whale war
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Out on the high seas, Paul Watson became a hero and pariah of the environmental movement. Now he sits in a remote prison. How should we treat the radi...
Elon: A star is born
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Donald Trump declared victory in the US presidential election, he told an adoring crowd that "a star is born". He was referring to Elon Musk.Afte...
Sick parade: A crisis at Catterick Garrison
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a story of stigma, uncomfortable truths and allegations of an attempted cover up at Britain's biggest army base.As the UK army rapidly moderni...
The Furys: An empire of fists
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Fury family bridge the gladiatorial old world of boxing and the very new world of influencer culture. This is the story of how one family built a ...
The cases against Sean Combs
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For thirty years, Sean "Diddy" Combs was hailed as the kingmaker of hip-hop. But now he's in jail, facing three federal charges of racketeering conspi...
Beyond Trump: JD Vance and the New Right
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whether Trump wins or loses the US election, he has a political heir: his 40-year-old running mate JD Vance. Beyond the made-up stories about Haitian ...
Elon's Spies
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode one of three. You can binge the entire series today by subscribing to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or by downloading the Tor...
The hunt for Iran's next Supreme Leader
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Iran is at an inflection point both on the international stage and at home. Uncertainty, unrest and war have shaken it, and there are questions over h...
One light day: Voyager's long farewell
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Voyager space probe is sailing through space, far beyond earth's solar system. It is humanity's most distant messenger. And then last year it fell...
The Festival Fossil Fuels Fiasco
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How one of Britain’s most successful book festivals came unstuck over its sponsorship deal. Editor's note: Jaguar Land Rover has asked us...
Lucy Letby: the Expert Witness
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The story of Lucy Letby’s trial is, in part, the story of how important expert witnesses have become critical in criminal cases where hard evidence ...
Leaked: who profits from celebrity nudes?
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, nude images of dozens of A-list celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst were leaked online following an iCloud hack.&...
Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman - episode 6
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A fifth woman has come forward with allegations against the author Neil Gaiman. To find out more about Tortoise:Download the Tortoise app - for a list...
The Clooney intervention
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Following a disastrous live debate against Donald Trump, the Democrats were at panic stations. It looked like Joe Biden was going to lose the election...
Taylor Swift's London
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Swift is performing more concerts in London than anywhere else in the world. The city’s had a tangible impact on her music, her career and he...
Palestine's forgotten leader
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Marwan Barghouti has long been touted as the next leader for Palestinians. The only problem is he's locked away in an Israeli jail for the rest of his...
Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman - episode 5
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Almost a month since the investigation where two women came forward with allegations that the author Neil Gaiman sexually assaulted them - allegations...
Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman - episode 4
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode four: The fan The second woman to allege Neil Gaiman sexually assaulted her first met him as an 18-year-old fan. They began a consensual sexua...
Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman - episode 3
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode three: The pond New Zealand police tell the former nanny there isn’t enough evidence to actively pursue her sexual assault complaint against...
Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman - episode 2
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode two: The Whatsapps The former nanny who alleges Neil Gaiman sexually assaulted her shares her WhatsApp messages with him. The messages appear ...
Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman - episode 1
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode one: The bath Neil Gaiman is one of the world’s most successful authors. And one of the most loved. His works have been adapted for film, TV...
Lost glacier: the climate pioneers
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Switzerland, a group of unlikely climate pioneers came together and took their government to Europe's highest human rights court, and won. But the ...