The Audio Long Read
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The Audio Long Read
The Audio Long Read podcast is a selection of the Guardian’s long reads, giving you the opportunity to get on with your day while listening to some of the finest longform journalism the Guardian has to offer, including in-depth writing from around the world on current affairs, climate change, global...
Recent Episodes
391 episodes
Shock, awe, death, joy and looting: how the Guardian covered the outbreak of the Iraq war
In spring 2003, exuberance at the fall of Saddam was swiftly followed by a descent into deadly chaos. Whether moving independently or embedded with tr...
From the archive: ‘Iran was our Hogwarts’: my childhood between Tehran and Essex
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
‘Pretty birds and silly moos’: the women behind the Sex Discrimination Act
In the 50 years since equal rights for women were enshrined in UK law, the campaigners have been reduced to caricatures, or forgotten. But their strug...
‘What I see in clinic is never a set of labels’: are we in danger of overdiagnosing mental illness? -podcast
Our current approach to mental health labelling and diagnosis has brought benefits. But as a practising doctor, I am concerned that it may be doing mo...
From the archive: China’s troll king: how a tabloid editor became the voice of Chinese nationalism
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
I used to report from the West Bank. Twenty years after my last visit, I was shocked by how much worse it is today
Among the many people I met, there was a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and a sense that resistance is slowly becoming a memory By Ewen MacAskill....
Out of the ruins: will Aleppo ever be rebuilt?
Years of civil war have turned whole areas of the city into rows of empty husks. But after the fall of Assad, Syrians have returned to their old homes...
From the archive: Why can’t we agree on what’s true any more?
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
A century in the Siberian wilderness: the Old Believers who time forgot
In 1978, Soviet scientists stumbled upon a family living in a remote part of Russia. They hadn’t interacted with outsiders for decades. Almost half a...
Inside voice: what can our thoughts reveal about the nature of consciousness?
Scientists and philosophers studying the mind have discovered how little we know about our inner experiences Written and read by Michael Pollan. Help...
From the archive: ‘Who remembers proper binmen?’ The nostalgia memes that help explain Britain today
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back
Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is a way out...
The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age
Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide t...
From the archive: Do we need a new theory of evolution?
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
Walking into disaster: the narcotrafficking scandal that blew up the BVI
When the new premier of the British Virgin Islands said he needed an armed security detail, his chief of police knew trouble was on its way By Edward...
Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’
The president has vowed to kill off ‘woke’ in his second term in office, and the venerable cultural institution a few blocks from the White House is i...
From the archive: the free speech panic: how the right concocted a crisis
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
‘We hate it. It’s desecration’: the real cost of HS2
Ten years after I first followed the proposed route, I retraced my steps to see what life was like along the world’s most expensive, heavily delayed r...
Death on the inside: as a prison officer, I saw how the system perpetuates violence
A rise of murders is traumatising inmates and staff, and making life harder for staff. But even in prison, violence isn’t inevitable Written and read...
From the archive: The King of Kowloon: my search for the cult graffiti prophet of Hong Kong
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
We published explosive stories about the president of El Salvador. Now we can’t go home
Days before we ran interviews with gang leaders describing their alleged ties to Nayib Bukele’s government, we left the country to avoid arrest. We fe...
‘We were forced to burn bodies’: will survivors of the Tadamon massacres see justice?
During the conflict, the Damascus suburb became a killing field. But some of Assad’s henchmen are still around – and even working with the new governm...
From the archive: The last humanist: how Paul Gilroy became the most vital guide to our age of crisis
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
‘The English person with a Chinese stomach’: how Fuchsia Dunlop became a Sichuan food hero
The author has been explaining Sichuan cuisine to westerners for decades. But ‘Fu Xia’, as she’s known, has had a profound effect on food lovers in Ch...
The dangerous rise of Buddhist extremism: ‘Attaining nirvana can wait’
Still largely viewed as a peaceful philosophy, across much of south-east Asia, the religion has been weaponised to serve nationalist goals By Sonia Fa...
From the archive: Kudos, leaderboards, QOMs: how fitness app Strava became a religion
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
Hard to digest: we still live in Fast Food Nation
Twenty-five years after I revealed the practices of the industrial food giants, the profits – and dangers – of mass producing meat and milk have only...
‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service
After I was paralysed in a climbing accident, I discovered how inconsiderate, illogical and incompetent many wheelchair providers can be By Paul Sagar...
From the archive: The cartel, the journalist and the gangland killings that rocked the Netherlands
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...
Inside the rise and fall of Podemos: ‘We believed we had a stake in the future’
The leftist party exploded out of Spain’s anti-austerity protests in 2011 and upended Spain’s entrenched two-party system. I was instantly captivated...
Best of 2025: ‘A relentless, destructive energy’: inside the trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an intr...
Best of 2025: ‘What reconciliation? What forgiveness?’: Syria’s deadly reckoning
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an intr...
Best of 2025: The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an intr...
Best of 2025: Life in a ‘sinking nation’: Tuvalu’s dreams of dry land
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an intr...
Best of 2025: The real Scandi noir: how a filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark’s self-image
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an intr...
Best of 2025: Don’t call it morning sickness: ‘At times in my pregnancy I wondered if this was death coming for me’
Each week for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an introduction from...
The snail farm don: is this the most brazen tax avoidance scheme of all time?
Terry Ball – renowned shoe salesman, friend to former mafiosi – has vowed to spend his remaining years finding ways to cheat authorities he feels have...
The Birth Keepers: I choose this – episode one
The Free Birth Society was selling pregnant women a simple message. They could exit the medical system and take back their power. By free birthing. Bu...
‘DeepSeek is humane. Doctors are more like machines’: my mother’s worrying reliance on AI for health advice
Tired of a two-day commute to see her overworked doctor, my mother turned to tech for help with her kidney disease. She bonded with the bot so much I...
From the archive: Is the IMF fit for purpose?
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, f...