The Audio Long Read

The Audio Long Read

Three times a week, The Audio Long Read podcast brings you the Guardian’s exceptional longform journalism in audio form. Covering topics from politics and culture to philosophy and sport, as well as investigations and current affairs.

Episodes

May 8, 2026 31 mins
Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt By Samira Shackle. Read by Dinita Gohil. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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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, from 2021: China’s video game market is the world’s biggest. International developers want in on it – but its rules on what is acceptable are growing increasingly harsh. Is it worth the compromise? By Oliver Holmes. Read by Jordan Erica Webber. Help support our independent journalism a...
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Once violently defended from extinction, Welsh is still a part of daily life. By learning my family’s language, I hoped to join their conversation By Dan Fox. Read by Matt Addis. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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After a nine-year-old girl was kidnapped and taken from Spain to Bolivia, authorities feared the worst. They found her in the rainforest nine months later – but that wasn’t the end of her ordeal By Giles Tremlett. Read by Norah Lopez Holden. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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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, from 2023: players, pundits and fans complain bitterly that referees are getting worse each season – but is that fair? By William Ralston. Read by Simon Darwen. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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April 27, 2026 43 mins
How close are we to the sci-fi vision of autonomous humanoid robots? I visited 11 companies in five Chinese cities to find out By Chang Che. Read by Vincent Lai. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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Endo Kazutoshi spent decades climbing to the top of the culinary world, only for a devastating fire to threaten it all. I joined him in the aftermath as he travelled around his homeland, visiting the people that helped make him Written and read by Kieran Morris. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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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, from 2021: For all the advances that have been made in recent decades, disabled people cannot yet participate in society ‘on an equal basis’ with others – and the pandemic has led to many protections being cruelly eroded By Jan Grue. Read by Giles Abbott. Help support our independent j...
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I was a newcomer, negotiating all of the usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack By Peter C Baker. Read by Adam Sims. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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It costs the UK economy £700m a year, and criminal gangs are operating with near impunity. Every time a lorry gets robbed, raided or hijacked, it’s Mike Dawber who investigates By Stuart McGurk. Read by Nicholas Camm. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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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, from 2023: Having grown up in different cultures with different expectations, my mother and I have often clashed. But as my daughter grows older, I have come to see our relationship in a different light Written and read by Dina Nayeri. Help support our independent journalism at theguar...
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When Trump granted white South Africans refugee status, he was echoing a falsehood about Black people taking revenge for years of brutality. But no one flourishes in a repressive police state By Eve Fairbanks. Read by Katherine Fenton. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity By Kevin T Baker. Read by Adam Sims. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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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, from 2020: The US believed the American way of life was humankind’s ultimate destiny. But unrestrained greed has led to an era of injustice and division. By Andrew Bacevich. Read by Kelly Burke. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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I suffered with my mystery illness for decades before gaining a diagnosis. Could retraining my brain be the answer? By Hermione Hoby. Read by Alby Baldwin. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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For many years the prevailing debate about the Maya centred upon why their civilisation collapsed. Now, many scholars are asking: how did the Maya survive? By Marcus Haraldsson. Read by Diana Bermudez. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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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, from 2020: Frank Fisher, now 90, was a traditional high street butcher his whole working life – as were three generations of his family before him. How does a man dedicated to serving his community decide when it’s time to hang up his white coat? By Tom Lamont. Read by Jonathan Andrew ...
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His novel was praised for giving a voice to the victims of Algeria’s brutal civil war. But one woman has accused Kamel Daoud of having stolen her story – and the ensuing legal battle has become about much more than literary ethics By Madeleine Schwartz. Read by Kate Handford. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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Steeped in gaming and rightwing culture wars, Musk and his team of teenage coders set out to defeat the enemy of the United States: its people By Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian. Read by Vincent Lai. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod
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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, from 2022: A wave of bestselling authors claim that global affairs are still ultimately governed by the immutable facts of geography – mountains, oceans, rivers, resources. But the world has changed more than they realise By Daniel Immerwahr. Read by Christopher Ragland. Help support o...
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