Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchA cool flame: how Gaia theory was born out of a secret love affair
Scientist James Lovelock gave humanity new ways to think about our home planet – but some of his biggest ideas were the fruit of a passionate collabo…
1 year, 3 months ago
‘You tried to tell yourself I wasn’t real’: what happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads?
In avatar therapy, a clinician gives voice to their patients’ inner demons. For some of the participants in a new trial, the results have been astoun…
1 year, 3 months ago
10 years of the long read: The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship (2021)
As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the autho…
1 year, 3 months ago
The cement company that paid millions to Isis: was Lafarge complicit in crimes against humanity?
The French cement giant started operating in Syria just before the civil war erupted. When Islamic State took over the region, Lafarge paid them prot…
1 year, 3 months ago
Journalist or Russian spy? The strange case of Pablo González
As a Spanish reporter, Pablo González charmed his way into Russian opposition circles and covered Putin’s wars. Then, in 2022, he was arrested on sus…
1 year, 3 months ago
10 years of the long read: The invisible city: how a homeless man built a life underground (2020)
As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the autho…
1 year, 3 months ago
Has poppymania gone too far?
Over the past 20 years, the symbol of remembrance for the war dead has become increasingly ubiquitous – and a culture of poppy policing has grown wit…
1 year, 3 months ago
Slash and burn: is private equity out of control?
From football clubs to water companies, music catalogues to care homes, private equity has infiltrated almost every facet of modern life in its endle…
1 year, 4 months ago
10 years of the long read: Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands (2019)
As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the autho…
1 year, 4 months ago
Hidden traces of humanity: what AI images reveal about our world
As generative AI advances, it is easy to see it as yet another area where machines are taking over – but humans remain at the centre of AI art, just …
1 year, 4 months ago