Shows / The Slow Newscast
The Slow Newscast
The Slow Newscast from The Observer takes the news slowly. We investigate, and every week we focus on stories that really matter in the UK and around the world. From wars in Ukraine and Gaza through to true crime and injustice and real life mysteries, The Slow Newscast team is devoted to narrative investigations covering some of the biggest topics of the day.
Who are the people biohacking themselves in a quest for immortality? Or the man taking on an entire nation in the high seas to protect…
Episodes
The Slow NewscastBlack Lives Matter 2020
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; they've…
The Slow NewscastInside Amazon: a superpower in a pandemic
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 its…
The Slow NewscastWhat if they don't turn up?
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 estimated…
The Slow NewscastCash and caring: the business of care homes
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 vulnerable?…
The Slow NewscastThe jobs tightrope
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 risks in…
The Slow NewscastUndercrowded and overfunded: the Nightingale hospitals
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 the…
The Slow NewscastCoronavirus in Africa: the final straw?
Claude Jibidar is country director for the World Food Programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo - a huge country beset with vast problems, not just food…
The Slow NewscastNo weddings and fourteen funerals
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 part of the…
The Slow NewscastCovid-19: The 5G conspiracy
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 spreading?…
The Slow NewscastThe zoo-keeper: surviving coronavirus
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 fairly?…
The Slow NewscastCoronaviolence: domestic abuse in a lockdown
One of the unavoidable consequences of the coronavirus lockdown is that it traps women and children with their abusers. And for women seeking to escape, the…
The Slow NewscastLives on the line: why is coronavirus killing so many health workers?
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 among them…
The Slow NewscastHow pandemics end
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 Death…
The Slow NewscastThe rules: can we fix our broken politics?
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…
The Slow NewscastA college with secrets
Trinity Hall is a small Cambridge college - one of the 30+ which make up the university. After an investigation over several months, Tortoise has brought to…
The Slow NewscastMy mother's murder - episode 4: The last domino
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country…
The Slow NewscastMy mother's murder - episode 3: Truth to power
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country…
The Slow NewscastMy mother's murder - episode 2: An assassination foretold
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country…
The Slow NewscastMy mother's murder - episode 1
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country…
The Slow NewscastTrump in Bethlehem
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 Slow NewscastThe world inside
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 mysterious…
The Slow NewscastCoronavirus: is this the one?
One day, the next catastrophic global epidemic will strike. Scientists already know a few things about it: it will probably have crossed the species barrier…
The Slow NewscastThree women, homeless
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 done…
The Slow NewscastLabour's North Star
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…
The Slow NewscastThe man who counts trees
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 the world…
The Slow NewscastThe new superpowers: Apple
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 states…
The Slow NewscastLabour: anatomy of a catastrophe
Since the general election was called, one of Britain's foremost political journalists has been tracking the Labour campaign for Tortoise. Here's his story of…
The Slow NewscastNameless, stateless: N3
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. Hosted on…
The Slow NewscastMurder in Malta
The murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia denied Malta its best hope of beating endemic corruption and bribery. Her family have fought…
The Slow NewscastThe PRince disaster
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 was a good…
The Slow NewscastTechno Tories
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 30th…
The Slow NewscastIt’s Your Identity, Stupid
British politics is undergoing a fundamental shift. Traditionally, economics has been the key to who wins elections but in recent years - and turbocharged by…