The Slow Newscast
The Observer
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 whales? And what happened when humanity's most distant messenger fell silent? From a newsroom with a different approach to journalism these are the stories we tell.Subscribe to The Observer and use the code AUDIO50 to get 50% off your annual subscription: Early access, bonus content and ad-free listening to our podcastsA daily edition, curated by our editors 7 days a weekPuzzles from the inventors of the cryptic crosswordRecipes for every occasionFree tickets to join Observer events in our newsroom or online Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 28, 2021 • 44min
Hidden Homicides - episode 2
The second part of our new series, Hidden Homicides: the story of a killer twice missed. When Susan Nicholson died suddenly, her parents were immediately suspicious. Her partner was known to police to be a serious domestic abuser, but still they refused to investigate. It took six years before a proper investigation was launched. Why?To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/hiddenhomicides Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 28, 2021 • 45min
Hidden Homicides - episode 1
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: the life and death of 21-year-old Katie Wilding, and her mother’s remarkable fight for justice.To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/hiddenhomicides. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 21, 2021 • 49min
This was a coup
What was really going on when President Trump's supporters invaded the Capitol? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 14, 2021 • 39min
Shot in the dark
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 Covid crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 7, 2021 • 48min
Crossing the Channel
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 with Brexit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 17, 2020 • 58min
Did it have to be this bad?
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 be worse than most of its competitors; possibly worse than any of them. Over three days in November, Tortoise held an inquiry into why things have gone so wrong. Basia Cummings reports back on its findings - and on her own year coping, as we all have, with an unprecedented crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 10, 2020 • 29min
Is Covid cover for corruption?
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 for safety equipment or for testing for Covid have been handed out without the usual safeguards on public spending, and accusations of corruption and cronyism have flown around. Is that what's happening, or is the explanation more mundane? Would the government's actions be better seen as normal in the wildly abnormal situation of a pandemic? And have they perhaps been aided and abetted by garden variety incompetence? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 3, 2020 • 41min
The rise & fall of The Wing
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-connected New Yorker, Audrey Gelman. It was a child of Instagram which soon started to encounter severe difficulties in the real world. Did the way it treated its members, and particularly its employees, live up to its high ideals? Those problems knocked The Wing and the pandemic finished it off. How did a feminist vision become a corporate nightmare? Basia Cummings is your host, with in-depth reporting from Sophie Elmhirst. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 26, 2020 • 38min
The split
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 to independence? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 19, 2020 • 42min
Boris Johnson's horror show
On Saturday October 31st, the British government was forced to announce a second national coronavirus lockdown. We know the announcement itself was mishandled; the reasons why are fascinating. In this special episode of the Slow Newscast Matt D'Ancona goes deep into a day of political drama and intrigue in Downing St which helps explain so much about where this government is going wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
