From the archive: Where oil rigs go to die – podcast

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authorsThis week, from 2017: When a drilling platform is scheduled for destruction, it must go on a thousand-mile final journey to the breaker’s yard. As one rig proved when it crashed on to the rocks of a remote Scottish island,...

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Can a mass shooter demand a good death? The strange case that tested the limits of justice

In 2021, a security guard in Spain stormed into his workplace and shot four people. He was caught, badly injured, and a trial was set – but his victims would never get to see him punishedAt 11.09am on 14 December 2021, a man wearing a black baseball cap and a long auburn wig rang the bell at the Securitas offices in the Spanish city of Tarragona. It...

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Schedule Changes to the Audio Long Read

For the month of February, we’ll be making a slight change to our production schedule. For the next few weeks, we will be publishing two episodes a week. On Mondays you’ll hear brand new long reads, and on Fridays we’ll raid the Audio Long Read archive to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. In March...

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‘If you win the popular imagination, you change the game’: why we need new stories on climate – podcast

So much is happening, both wonderful and terrible – and it matters how we tell it. We can’t erase the bad news, but to ignore the good is the route to indifference or despair Continue reading...

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‘We can’t even get basic care done’: what it’s like doing 12-hour shifts on an understaffed NHS ward – podcast

The NHS saved my life once, and inspired me to change career. But when I started as a healthcare assistant on a hospital ward for older patients, it was clear how bad things had got. This is the story of a typical shift Continue reading...

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Battle of the botanic garden: the horticulture war roiling the Isle of Wight

When a US businessman took over a beloved garden a decade ago, he decided on a radical new approach, all in the name of sustainability. But angry critics claim it’s just plain neglectJohn Curtis’s enemies – and for a man who runs a mid-sized botanical garden on the Isle of Wight, he has surprisingly many – have a tendency to refer to him as “the American...

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From the archive – The selling of the Krays: how two mediocre criminals created their own legend – podcast

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authorsThis week, from 2015: The Kray twins wanted everyone to know who they were – and indeed they were always better at fame than crime Continue reading...

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‘It was a set-up, we were fooled’: the coalmine that ate an Indian village – podcast

In a pristine forest in central India, the multibillion-dollar mining giant Adani has razed trees – and homes – to dig more coal. How does this kind of destruction get the go-ahead?Archive: NDTV; Heritage Times Continue reading...

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The price of ‘sugar free’: are sweeteners as harmless as we thought? – podcast

We know we need to cut down on sugar. But replacing it with artificial compounds isn’t necessarily the answer Continue reading...

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A tragedy pushed to the shadows: the truth about China’s Cultural Revolution

It is impossible to understand China without understanding this decade of horror, and the ways in which it scarred the entire nation. So why do some of that era’s children still look back on it with fondness?From a distance, you might have mistaken them for teenagers, though they were in late middle age. It wasn’t just the miniskirts and heels on their...

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