The Slow Newscast

Children locked away: Britain's modern bedlam

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A new Tortoise investigation into how the country’s most distressed and vulnerable children are being abandoned by the state.Tortoise is a newsroom ...

Blackout: Coal, corruption and cyanide

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

South Africa was once a symbol of hope. Now the country experiences regular blackouts. This is the story of how the lights went out in Mandela’s cou...

Londongrad: Iran’s Hit Squads

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Towards the end of last year the Director General of MI5, Ken McCallum, warned that the security services knew of at least ten attempts to kidnap or k...

Rogue Lawyer: Power, money and a scandal at a London law firm

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, a Jordanian man was imprisoned in a prison in Ras Al Khaimah, the northernmost Emirate in the UAE. He alleges he has been illegally detained ...

Yesterday's Men: The Brexit hardliners' last stand

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The European Research Group was once the most consequential faction in the Conservative party, playing a central role in bringing down former prime mi...

Ignition: The quest for nuclear fusion

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early hours of the morning of the 5 December 2022, a shot – a pulse – was fired that could save the world. It was a shot that achieved what...

Safe country: A death, and a deal, in Rwanda

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Williams Ntwali, one of the last critical journalists in Rwanda, died in suspicious circumstances just before Suella Braverman, the British home ...

Boris Johnson: The six million pound man episode 4

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Boris Johnson seems incapable of living within his means – but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. So just who i...

Boris Johnson: The six million pound man episode 3

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Boris Johnson seems incapable of living within his means – but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. So just who i...

Boris Johnson: The six million pound man episode 2

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of a politician incapable of living within his means but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. It’...

Boris Johnson: The six million pound man episode 1

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of a politician incapable of living within his means but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. It’...

Peltz-Beckham: A super-wedding gone wrong

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Eight months after his daughter’s wedding to Brooklyn Beckham, billionaire Nelson Peltz filed a lawsuit against two wedding planners demanding a ref...

Detained in Modi’s India: A British citizen’s story

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For five years a British citizen has been locked up in an Indian prison, and the British state hasn’t been willing – or not strong enough – to s...

Rupert Murdoch: News vs the truth

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happened inside Fox News in those critical weeks following Donald Trump’s election defeat in 2020?Tortoise is a news start-up devoted to slow j...

After the Fall – A death on the Lansdowne Estate

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Warning: This episode describes domestic abuse and a death by falling.When a woman falls out of a window, on an estate that’s been abandoned by the ...

Wagner’s war: A year in Ukraine and beyond

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

First they were known as the “little green men”, an anonymous private Russian force appearing first in Crimea, then Syria, then in central Africa....

The prince against the press

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Harry show – the bestselling memoir, the Netflix documentary, the rounds of television interviews – isn’t over. In fact, it’s only just be...

Wronged: a murder and a miscarriage of justice

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Following a brutal killing in north London in 2016, two innocent men, Patryk and Grzegorz, who had just arrived from Poland, were handed a life senten...

Snatched: A mother's quest to find her children

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What do you do when your children are taken away by your ex-partner? Who do you call for help? And how do you get them back?Tortoise is a news start-u...

God on your side: Christians, courts and culture wars

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Christian Legal Centre is behind some of the most tragic cases in the British courts helping parents fight against hospitals in life support cases...

Real Money - episode 1 of our new investigative series

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Introducing: 'Real Money: The hunt for Tether's billions'. To listen to episode two of the series, click this link.The dream of cryptocurrencies is in...

Introducing: The News Meeting

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Introducing...The News Meeting from Podimo and Tortoise. In every newsroom around the world there’s a daily meeting to decide what leads the news, w...

The Westminster Accounts

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over £183 million of outside funds has flowed into this parliament alone, with no way of fully understanding who’s getting what, from whom, and why...

Damn and blast off: how not to go back to the moon

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nasa wants to put people back on the moon, half a century after Apollo 11. Its Artemis moon mission is over-budget, overhyped and underpowered –&nbs...

2022 picks - The Darwin job: the mystery of the vanishing notebooks

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One sleuth, two notebooks – and a 20-year puzzle Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022 picks - Lebedev: Lord of Siberia

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Door after door in Britain has been opened for Evgeny Lebedev, all the way to the House of Lords. Who has opened them, and why?To listen to the 'Londo...

Musking it: Inside Elon’s Twitter takeover

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The inside story of a troubled company that was bought by the world’s richest man. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Octopus: the allegations against Crispin Odey

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of Britain’s richest and most powerful men was cleared of sexual assault last year. Four more women have now come forward with similar allegatio...

The Tavistock: inside the gender clinic

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Introducing – The Tavistock: inside the gender clinic. In a few months, the Tavistock – the only NHS clinic in England and Wales which treats chil...

Inside Unite

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of Britain’s biggest trade unions has built a hotel in Birmingham at vast cost. Following the threads which explain why it became so wildly expe...

The Alzheimer's casino

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Big money and bad science: what happens when science and medical research meet Wall Street? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

Egypt's bad cop

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The story of one man, fighting to his last breath, to reveal the darkness that lies behind this year’s UN Climate Change Conference. Hosted on Acast...

Mutiny: The undoing of Liz Truss

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The inside story of how the shortest premiership in British history came to an end Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The missing male pill

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

More than 60 years after the development of the contraceptive pill for women, we still don’t have an equivalent for men. Why? Hosted on Acast. See a...

Pig Iron

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Introducing Pig Iron: five years after his death on a distant frontline in South Sudan, the truth about what happened to Christopher Allen is still a ...

Britannia unhinged

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happened in the 17 days between Kwasi Kwarteng becoming chancellor, sacking the Treasury’s top civil servant, and his fiscal event which crashe...

Toxic: The making of Andrew Tate

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happened when social media platforms banned Andrew Tate, whose misogyny netted him a fortune and millions of online followers? Hosted on Acast. S...

Paradise Bust: Scandal in the British Virgin Islands

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When the premier of the British Virgin Islands was arrested in a drugs sting in Miami, what did British government officials know about the operation?...

A crime in the making

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

No war crime is ever inevitable, but it’s possible to make one likely. Russia did exactly that before 53 prisoners of war burned to death at Olenivk...

The Second Elizabethan Age: the constitution

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Lambert talks to one of the UK’s foremost constitutional experts about the state of the monarchy.If you'd like to read and listen to more of...

The Second Elizabethan Age: rule Britannia

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Lambert examines how the Queen navigated the world of international politics as head of state and head of the Commonwealth.If you'd like to re...

The Second Elizabethan Age: head of state

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Lambert charts the evolving relationship between the Queen, politicians and her Prime Ministers during her reign. Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...

The Second Elizabethan Age: speak to us ma'am

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When the Queen came to the throne the media was deferential to the 27-year-old monarch and her family. But in the 1960s that began to change. Richard ...

The Second Elizabethan Age: strong as a yak

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Lambert assesses the Queen's strengths and weaknesses as a monarch. If you'd like to read and listen to more of Tortoise's reporting on t...

The Second Elizabethan Age: the coronation

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Lambert recalls the excitement at the start of the second Elizabethan age. In 1953 Britain was a deferential society and adulation of the Quee...

The Fix

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Desiree Fixler was a high-flyer in the world of finance until she raised questions about whether sustainable investing is living up to its promise. He...

Thank the Lord

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Cruddas is a self-made billionaire, a Conservative party donor and now, a Lord. His rise reveals a lot about Boris Johnson’s battle with parli...

Myanmar: the forgotten coup

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

More than a year after Myanmar fell to a military coup, Ali Fowle investigates the growing resistance movement. Is there hope of a different future? H...

Hostile environment

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The making of the modern Home Office Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hunt for the porn king: a reckoning

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, as women accused Pornhub of profiting from their abuse, we tracked down its intensely secretive owner. This week, we’re looking back to f...

Chained woman

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When a video of a woman chained to a wall went viral in China, it ignited a battle for the truth between the people and the state. Hosted on Acast. Se...

America at the crossroads: abortion in South Bend

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse abortion rights is reverberating across America. Arguably nowhere more so than in South Ben...

Left to die: Return to the Amarula

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last summer our three-part podcast Left To Die told the harrowing story of 200 civilians trapped in a hotel in Mozambique under siege by violent extre...

Londongrad: The Johnson Affair

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A former KGB officer, Britain’s foreign secretary – and a potential national security breach. Listen to Londongrad, Paul Caruana Galizia's 6-part ...

The Darwin job: the vanishing, reappearing notebooks

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One sleuth, two notebooks – and a 20-year mystery.Listen to Life, Changing, a new series from Tortoise and the Nuffield Foundation: https://pod...

A coup at Claridge’s: Qatar’s quiet move on London

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A tiny Gulf state has bought up some of Britain’s prized assets. But at what cost? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hollywood’s cultural revolution

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When China opened up to the West, Hollywood saw a massive opportunity. But China had its own dreams. Now the movie studios are beginning to realise wh...

Visit Rwanda: Britain’s harsh welcome for refugees

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Britain’s harsh welcome for refugees – and what happened when the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was tried before Hosted on Acast. See acas...

The Rules: democracy in Britain

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every day more cracks emerge in the political system that guarantees the freedoms Britons hold dear. How do we stop it shattering? Hosted on Acast. Se...

Introducing: Londongrad

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How the Lebedevs partied their way to power is a 6 part series investigating two men - who are at the heart of the story of Britain opening its doors ...

Stripped. Searched. Traumatised. Children and the police

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How many more Child Qs are there? How many children are strip-searched by the police and who are they? Patricia Clarke and Claudia Williams investigat...

Odesa

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Ukrainian port normally feeds the world, but the Russian invasion means nothing is getting out. Can we reopen the port – or will millions starve...

Revealed: Stormy Daniels and her battle for truth

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Who is the real Stormy Daniels? Hattie Garlick meets arguably one of America’s most misunderstood and misrepresented women Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Downfall: twenty days that did for Rishi Sunak

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How did Rishi Sunak go from one of the most popular members of the government to one of the least in a matter of days? Matthew d’Ancona pieces toget...

The Backstory

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are sharing an episode of Tortoise's new podcast series: The Backstory with Andrew Neil. This week Andrew talks to Fiona Hill, former directo...

Mariupol

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Two atrocities in the port city of Mariupol epitomise Russia’s violence in Ukraine. This is the story of those atrocities and of Mariupol’s truthW...

The Lost Ark

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when a museum possesses a group of objects so sacred that they can never be seen in public or studied in private – and the original own...

Greg Barker: the lord's work

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The days of the Russian oligarch in London are numbered. What fate awaits the enablers – those well-connected people who worked for and provided ser...

Fallen women

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty-seven women fell in suspicious circumstances. Seventeen died. Often, in the shadow of their fall, was a man. What if they didn’t fall. What i...

The trials of Alexei Navalny

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What does the story of Alexei Navalny and wife Yulia Navalnaya tell us about Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the state of opposition?Tortoise is a news ...

Into the dark: The broken promise of a bionic eye

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine being blind but thanks to the wonders of technology being able to see again. How would you then feel if that sight was taken away?Tortoise is ...

Shadow whipping: The men who saved Boris

17 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Political wisdom says the Russian invasion of Ukraine saved Boris Johnson’s skin. But the really successful operation to rescue the prime minister s...

Russian warship, go f**k yourself

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We thought the Russians were masters of the information war; that they’d sweep Ukraine aside. It's not turning out that way. Hosted on Acast. See ac...

Lebedev: Lord of Siberia

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Door after door in Britain has been opened for Evgeny Lebedev, all the way to a seat in the House of Lords. Who has opened the doors, and why? Hosted ...

An injection of fear

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The ‘epidemic’ of spiking with needles in clubs and at parties in autumn 2021 revealed something important about women’s lives in Britain. But i...

Modi's warrior pose

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The brilliance of populist politicians often lies in creating subtle dividing lines on apparently innocuous issues. What could be more innocuous than ...

Inside Branch 251

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a courtroom in west Germany, a man called Anwar Raslan stands accused of torturing Syrian civilians. He faces life in prison. But why does Germany ...

The Ministry of Untruths

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2020 the prime minister told the country to stay at home. He then did the opposite and travelled to Chequers. This the story of one crucial f...

China’s missing tennis player

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In November, athlete Peng Shuai accused a senior Chinese politician of sexual assault. Then, she vanished. In this episode, we investigate her disappe...

Virginia

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Who is Virginia Roberts Giuffre? She was only 17 years old when she appeared in a now-famous photo, taken in Ghislaine Maxwell’s London mews house. ...

A finding of rape

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How a former government minister used the secrecy of the family courts in an attempt to hide the truth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...

The promise of CoolSculpting

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Evangelista’s beauty made her a super-brand in the 1990s. But then, she disappeared. Until September 2021, when she revealed on Instagram deta...

A year in stories

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For our final episode of the year, we look back on our best stories of 2021. Basia is joined by Tortoise editor-in-chief James Harding, and colleague ...

School 49

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

China’s transformation into an economic powerhouse has come at a cost to its children, under enormous pressure to succeed. Now the country is wonder...

The super divorce

09 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

London's courts play host to some of the world's most high-profile divorces. In the sorry case of Akhmedov vs Akhmedova, a family feud turned into a c...

A place for Elliott

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is a story about a boy called Elliott – trapped in time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Retreat from Kabul – Part 2

25 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Kabul, the Taliban’s takeover was assured. In London, an ignominious retreat, and the betrayal of former comrades in the Afghan army, was more th...

Retreat from Kabul – Part 1

25 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over a handful of chaotic days this summer, Western forces withdrew from Afghanistan. The legacy of the decision to leave after 20 years has been wret...

Who is REvil?

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Who are the people behind a spate of multi-million dollar ransomware attacks on financial institutions, schools and hospitals? When Nicky Woolf began ...

Nazanin: trapped in Whitehall

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Since 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held hostage in Iran. Ceri Thomas investigates how a long-forgotten debt could be the real reason behin...

Shamsa, the forgotten princess

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The reputation of Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai has been tarnished beyond repair by the way he treated his wife Haya and daughter Latifa. At least we know ...

Introducing: Sweet Bobby

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sweet Bobby is a new series by Tortoise. Kirat is a successful local radio presenter. Online she’s contacted by a man she vaguely knows called Bobby...

True crime: the tragedy of Gabby Petito

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When a young woman travelling across the US disappeared, an army of digital detectives and citizen journalists jumped on the case. When she was found ...

Havana Syndrome: the mystery illness spreading through America's embassies

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It started with a high-pitched noise. Then, American diplomats started getting sick. Nausea, dizziness, confusion. Across the world, this strange synd...

From Russia with diamonds: part 2

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More than 20 years after emptying the Russian state treasure of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds and gold, Andrei Kozlenok breaks ...

From Russia with diamonds: part 1

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Communism collapsed, a young man was tasked with selling Russia’s diamonds to the highest bidder. Then, he went on the run with $600m. He was m...

Pfizer's war

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been said often enough: the pandemic has been like a war. Economically, on civil liberties and the deaths it has caused, it’s hard to find a ...

Wrong turn: murder and miscarriage of justice

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Plenty of people take wrong turns in their lives. But so too can justice systems. John Crilly and hundreds more have been the victims of the legal doc...

Beau and Biden: Constant companions

16 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Joe Biden’s life has been marked by grief, most recently at the death of his beloved son, Beau. And Beau Biden’s legacy isn’t only personal, it’...

Orphaned by America

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Donald Trump's America, thousands of children who crossed the border from Mexico were separated from their parents. It's now clear that some of tho...