The Slow Newscast
Episodes
Hunt for the porn king
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As dozens of women accuse the world’s largest porn company of profiting from their abuse, listen to the full story of how we traced its secretive ow...
The neo-Nazis next door
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the German city of Chemnitz, political extremists aren’t just present – they’re organised. And they’re trying to spread their creed from ra...
The white gold rush
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The story of a dying lake, a forgotten community and the hunt for a green future. Host Basia Cummings is joined by reporters Miranda Green and Lucy Sh...
What happened to Shukri Abdi?
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When A 12-year-old Somali refugee drowned in the River Irwell in 2019, suspicion and rumour soon followed. In this episode, Basia is joined by reporte...
Pariah - episode 4
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A life like Harvey Proctor’s has lessons for the police and the media. And for all of us: what are we prepared to do to people we turn into hate fig...
Pariah - episode 3
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Harvey Proctor was caught in the middle of a deadly serious police investigation, Operation Midland. How could he fight it? Hosted on Acast. See acast...
Pariah - episode 2
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s tough to survive one huge, public scandal in your life. Two is almost unheard of. But that was about to happen to Harvey Proctor. Hosted on Aca...
Pariah - episode 1
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Harvey Proctor was a Conservative MP, notorious in the 1980s for his right-wing views. Until he was entrapped by a newspaper in a ‘gay sex scandal’...
Lost at sea
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The mysterious story of Gulf Livestock 1, a 12,000-tonne ship carrying 6,000 cows that disappeared without a trace in the Pacific Ocean. Hosted on Ac...
The battle for truth
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're launching a brand new podcast from Tortoise called ThinkIn with James Harding. In this week's Slow Newscast, a preview. Hosted on Acast. See aca...
What the RFK Jr?!
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week we introduce a new podcast, and re-up an episode from our archive on the hero lawyer turned anti-vaxxer who has spent the pandemic spreading...
Cross stitch
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An unlikely scandal... in the world of embroidery. How a highly-paid male CEO went to war with a group of embroidery-loving women, who decided to get ...
The Reasonable Case of Keir Rodney Starmer
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Who is Keir Starmer? There’s the basic answer: he’s the leader of Britain’s Labour party. But beyond that? We investigate his past. Hosted on Ac...
Disaster at Camp 3
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Reaching the summit of K2 in winter had never been done before. In January, a group of mountaineers – professionals, amateurs, social media adventur...
The Navalny Show
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As he returned to Moscow after months recovering from a nerve agent attack, Alexei Navalny released a remarkable YouTube video – and with it, sowed ...
March of the mutants
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Covid-19 may be losing the vaccine battle, but as the virus evolves fast to form new variants, the war is most definitely not over... Hosted on Acast....
A Very British Business
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is one of Britain's richest men. Since Brexit he's made a show of his patriotism. Is it for real? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...
A fairy tale on Wall St
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The myth of Gamestop was that it was a David and Goliath struggle. The truth was very different. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...
306 days
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Geoffrey Woolf spent longer in hospital after Covid-19 than almost anyone - 306 days. His son Nicky tells the story of what he went through, and how i...
Corinna & the king: The money hunt
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Power, greed, and a $65m 'gift': the story of King Juan Carlos of Spain and Corinna, his lover. They occupied a world of high-rolling hunting parties ...
Hidden Homicides - episode 4
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The final episode of our special series. How do you fix a fatal problem no one is properly measuring?To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/hiddenhomi...
Hidden Homicides - episode 3
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The astonishing case of Emily Whelan, and decisions and delays that cannot be undone. The third episode in our special series on the deaths that may b...
Hidden Homicides - episode 2
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The second part of our new series, Hidden Homicides: the story of a killer twice missed. When Susan Nicholson died suddenly, her parents were immediat...
Hidden Homicides - episode 1
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a new series by Tortoise, we tell the shocking stories of women whose possible homicides go unrecognised, and uncounted, by police. In episode 1: t...
This was a coup
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What was really going on when President Trump's supporters invaded the Capitol? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Shot in the dark
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Coronavirus vaccines are a triumph for science, and an enormous gamble for the UK. They're all we've got left: our only hope of getting out of the Cov...
Crossing the Channel
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A former army base in Folkstone, Kent, is now the controversial epicentre of the Britain's immigration debate – a debate that hasn’t gone away wit...
Did it have to be this bad?
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Britain has one of the worst records in the world at dealing with the coronavirus. The country's death toll, and the economic damage it suffers, will ...
Is Covid cover for corruption?
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The British government has spent billions tackling the coronavirus, and some of it has gone to friends and family of people in high places. Contracts ...
The rise & fall of The Wing
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Wing was part co-working space, part feminist haven - a high-concept, big-money chain of women-only spaces, the brainchild of super-smart, ultra-c...
The split
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A story centuries in the making that is building an unstoppable momentum. This week we are going north of the wall and asking: is Scotland on a march ...
Boris Johnson's horror show
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On Saturday October 31st, the British government was forced to announce a second national coronavirus lockdown. We know the announcement itself was mi...
China takes down a superstar
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jack Ma set up the Chinese online giant Alibaba. It made him hugely rich, and perhaps too powerful for comfort for China's ruling elite. Last week his...
JK Rowling and the Unfinished Business
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In June 2020, JK Rowling sent a Tweet which took her to the heart of the bitter debate about trans rights and women's rights. A few days later, with a...
The (un)Christian president
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From the first moment of his presidency, Donald Trump has courted - and largely won - the votes of white, Evangelical Christians. For a famously profa...
Recession 2021
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It's not that our economies haven't already taken a hit because of the coronavirus, it's that what's coming may be much worse. Politicians, and people...
Happy - the elephant in the courtroom: episode 3
17 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If animals share many qualities with humans - if they're self-aware, if they communicate, and grieve for their dead, as we know they do - do they dese...
Happy - the elephant in the courtroom: episode 2
16 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If animals share many qualities with humans - if they're self-aware, if they communicate, and grieve for their dead, as we know they do - do they dese...
Happy - the elephant in the courtroom: episode 1
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If animals share many qualities with humans - if they're self-aware, if they communicate, and grieve for their dead, as we know they do - do they dese...
Tested: How test and trace became a national disaster
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The serial failures of the UK's test and trace system will never be a footnote in the coronavirus crisis. In fact, they're the headline. Matthew d'Anc...
The golden egg
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The fertility industry is booming, but there is a tightrope to walk between what is possible, ethical and harmful. Reporter Claudia Williams and host ...
The endless virus
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Coronavirus can kill, or pass through a body unnoticed. Its effects in the short term are wildly unpredictable. But as we learn to live with this new ...
Florida: The punchline state
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We went to the perennial swing state where Trump won narrowly in 2016. Four years later, is Florida ready to flip again? Will it be an election about ...
Inside Evin
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Evin Prison is one of the most secretive places on earth; the heart of Iran's oppression of its own people. We've spent months getting inside its wall...
Beat police
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Drill music styles itself as a tough and uncompromising representation of life in poor communities in cities like Chicago and London. Police forces ha...
How the world filled a hole - and saved itself
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Something which is now almost unimaginable happened between 1974 and 1989. The world spotted a massive problem; the fix required action by consumers, ...
Trailblazer
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michaela Coel's TV drama I May Destroy You has just finished playing on the BBC and HBO. Based partly on her own experience it's an unsettling, someti...
The slaver who stayed put
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the toppling of Edward Colston's statue in Bristol became a prominent chapter in the global response to the murder of George Floyd and th...
What the RFK Jr?! From Camelot to conspiracies
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a member of the Kennedy political dynasty has become the most prolific super-spreader of conspiracies connecting anti-vaxxers, 5G and coronavirus ...
The hopeful Chancellor: is Rishi Sunak the right man for the job?
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is diligent and decent, but is he really the right man for the job of saving the British economy? Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...
Silenced in China: the price of protest
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As president Xi uses the pandemic to crack down again, we speak to Dr Teng Biao and Simon Cheng about their treatment in China's battle to control its...
"How are you?" Mental health in lockdown
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"How are you?" used to be a throwaway question, but the pandemic has given it new meaning. Former spin-doctor Alastair Campbell, now a prominent menta...
Death at the ministry: a very British injustice
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Late every evening in London at the Ministry of Justice, dozens of poorly-paid workers slip into the offices to begin their night-time cleaning jobs. ...
Uncommon wealth: money and the British Crown
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The royal family's finances are mysterious, and the strange formula which calculates the money they get from the taxpayer is badly understood. Tortois...
Together, with Jurgen Klopp
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Like a handful of football managers before him, Jurgen Klopp is fascinating as a leader. His ability to motivate people around him would be exceptiona...
The sick man: Boris Johnson, Britain and the virus
18 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Boris Johnson could have died from coronavirus. He recovered, but the costs to the country of his illness were huge. Government was paralysed without ...
Black Lives Matter 2020
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The protests on the streets of the United States and around the world have taken the authorities by surprise. But they haven't sprung from nowhere; th...
Inside Amazon: a superpower in a pandemic
04 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon is a true economic superpower; a company of a scale and kind we haven't seen before. It's relentless in its pursuit of efficiency on behalf of ...
What if they don't turn up?
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It's not just the hopes of young people which depend on them going to university, whole towns and cities rely on them too. The British government esti...
Cash and caring: the business of care homes
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
No part of British society has been harder hit by the coronavirus pandemic than care homes. 15,000 people have died there. Why were they uniquely vuln...
The jobs tightrope
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When coronavirus struck and the UK locked down, the government began paying the wages of furloughed workers. It's a hugely expensive policy. There are...
Undercrowded and overfunded: the Nightingale hospitals
07 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Nightingale hospitals - huge intensive care hospitals built in a matter of days to deal with the overspill if regular hospitals couldn't cope with...
Coronavirus in Africa: the final straw?
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Claude Jibidar is country director for the World Food Programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo - a huge country beset with vast problems, not jus...
No weddings and fourteen funerals
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jan Gould is the vicar for the Church in Wales in the parish of Glen Ely in Cardiff. It's a poor neighbourhood and the church is still an important pa...
Covid-19: The 5G conspiracy
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the slow news podcast, we’re looking at the messy conspiracy theory of 5G and Covid-19. What has been going on? And why are these ideas...
The zoo-keeper: surviving coronavirus
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The coronavirus lockdown is not just a difficult time for business, it's an emotional time. How to survive as a going concern? How to treat workers fa...
Coronaviolence: domestic abuse in a lockdown
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the unavoidable consequences of the coronavirus lockdown is that it traps women and children with their abusers. And for women seeking to escap...
Lives on the line: why is coronavirus killing so many health workers?
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In some countries where the coronavirus has hit hard - Italy or Spain - health workers account for up to 20% of people infected, and the death toll am...
How pandemics end
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pandemics are part of life. They've caused millions of deaths over the centuries but, in the end, the lesson of history is that, just like the Black D...
The rules: can we fix our broken politics?
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
UK politics has torn itself apart over Brexit. Parliament, the prime minister, 'the people' and the courts have been at each others' throats, and old ...
A college with secrets
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Trinity Hall is a small Cambridge college - one of the 30+ which make up the university. After an investigation over several months, Tortoise has brou...
My mother's murder - episode 4: The last domino
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the ...
My mother's murder - episode 3: Truth to power
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the ...
My mother's murder - episode 2: An assassination foretold
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the ...
My mother's murder - episode 1
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the ...
Trump in Bethlehem
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week we're in Pennsylvania, where Trump won in 2016. Can he win here again? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The world inside
01 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The new frontier of medical science is closer than you think – much closer. It lies within us, in the bacteria and viruses of the gut, and in the my...
Coronavirus: is this the one?
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One day, the next catastrophic global epidemic will strike. Scientists already know a few things about it: it will probably have crossed the species b...
Three women, homeless
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We'd like you to meet Toni, Sharon and Nicky. You may have passed them on the street - somebody who listens to this podcast almost certainly will have...
Labour's North Star
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Labour Party in the UK is choosing a new leader. Few people care - after a crushing election defeat, the party has got work to do to make itself i...
The man who counts trees
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Crowther is a young ecologist who asked a simple question: how many trees are there on planet earth? The answer has changed our understanding of t...
The new superpowers: Apple
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For months, Tortoise has been investigating big tech companies as if they were countries: holding them to the same standards that we apply to nation s...
Labour: anatomy of a catastrophe
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Since the general election was called, one of Britain's foremost political journalists has been tracking the Labour campaign for Tortoise. Here's his ...
Nameless, stateless: N3
07 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
To find out more about Tortoise go to tortoisemedia.com/friend and use the code POD50 to become a member for just £1 a week, half our normal price. H...
Murder in Malta
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia denied Malta its best hope of beating endemic corruption and bribery. Her family hav...
The PRince disaster
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy to conclude that Prince Andrew shouldn't have agreed to give an interview to the BBC, but it’s more interesting to ask why he thought it...
Techno Tories
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this election, the Conservatives are betting on youth to win the social media campaign. The kids running their digital strategy don’t know what a...
It’s Your Identity, Stupid
09 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
British politics is undergoing a fundamental shift. Traditionally, economics has been the key to who wins elections but in recent years - and turbocha...