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Tortoise Media


The Slow Newscast from Tortoise takes the news slowly. We investigate, and every week we focus on stories that really matter in the UK and around the world. From the war in Ukraine, the downfall of Boris Johnson, to true crime and injustice and real life mysteries, The Slow Newscast team is devoted to narrative investigations. From a startup newsroom with a different approach to journalism.


For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audio app.


For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts.


If you’d like to further support slow journalism and help us build a different kind of newsroom, do consider donating to Tortoise at tortoisemedia.com/support-us. Your contributions allow us to investigate, campaign and explore, and to build a newsroom that is responsible and sustainable.





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The Slow Newscast

The fall of Assad in Syria is a disaster for Iran, so much so that people are beginning to ask if this might finally be the moment when Iran’s pro-democracy movement breaks through. This is the story of one activist’s 25 year fight against the Islamic regime in Iran, a story of courage and despair.

Reporter: Ceri Thomas

Producer: Katie Gunning

Sound design: Dominic Delargy

Artwork: Jon Hill

Show's Executive Producer: Matt Russell

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Killing hope: Iran's mind wars

The tech millionaire Bryan Johnson once went viral for infusing himself with a litre of his 17-year-old son’s blood plasma. That experiment failed, but it hasn’t distracted him from his life’s mission: reversing ageing. 

Now, the self-declared professional guinea pig has travelled to a libertarian free zone on a remote Caribbean island, to receive experimental gene therapy administered by a company called Minicircle. 

In the crypto city of Próspera, Roatán, the Honduran government grants Minicircle regulatory freedom for medical experiments that are banned by the FDA in the US.

This is the story of biohacking… on steroids. What happens when you build a privately run, for-profit nation state? And what happens when that state becomes a playground for experimental medicine?

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The immortality bros: The business of living forever

David Bowie's last months were spent fulfilling one final ambition: staging a musical based around his songs. They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes. Zelda Perkins not only met hers, she produced the musical he staged in his dying days

Reporter: Zelda Perkins

Artwork: Emma O'Neil

Sound design: Dominic Delargy

Executive Producer: Matt Russell

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The final bow: David Bowie's last act

Xavier Greenwood’s childhood memories are dominated by a speech impediment and a thick accent. But was it all in his head?

Reporter: Xavier Greenwood

Sound design: Dominic Delargy

Artwork: Lola Williams

Executive Producer: Matt Russell

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Finding my voice

Jordan Peterson is a controversial figure, but he is also a man with a long-standing appeal to a particular demographic. What does his popularity tell us about a possible crisis in young men today?

Reporter: Stephen Armstrong

Producer: Matt Russell

Artwork: Lola Williams

Sound design: Hannah Varrall

Editor: Jasper Corbett

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jordan Peterson and the making of man

Last October, the head of MI5 said Russia was on a mission to cause "sustained mayhem" on European streets. It might be hard to spot at first, but it is there in plain sight. This is the unpredictable, violent world of the modern Russian intelligence services

Reporter: Alexi Mostrous

Producer: Gary Marshall

Sound design: Dominic Delargy

Artwork: Lola Williams

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Slow Newscast Executive Producer: Matt Russell

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rogue Russia: Agents of mayhem

In October 2022 the course of the Russia's war in Ukraine shifted. Intelligence from the USA and UK indicated that Russia could turn to a nuclear bomb to get on top of the war. This is the story of those six days in October, and just how close Putin really came to pressing the nuclear button.

Reporter: Giles Whittell

Producer: Ada Barume

Additional reporting: Nina Kuryata

Sound design: Dominic Delargy

Artwork: Lola Williams

Editor: Jasper Corbett

Slow Newscast Executive Producer: Matt Russell

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rogue Russia: Nuclear poker

One of the most difficult questions facing a judge in the family court is which parent should have custody of a child. To help them answer that, judges rely on independent experts to provide an impartial voice in the court. But what happens when the objectivity of those experts is questioned? This is the story of how the family courts have failed some of the children it exists to protect.

Reporters: Louise Tickle and Hannah Summers

Additional reporting: Paul Bradshaw, Serena Cesaro, William Jarrett and Tom Wall

Producer: Matt Russell

Artwork: Lola Williams

Editor: Jasper Corbett

An investigation by Tortoise in partnership with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

To find out more about Tortoise:

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Goodbye mum: the ruthless fight for child custody

British politics is undergoing a fundamental shift. Traditionally, economics has been the key to who wins elections but in recent years - and turbocharged by Brexit - identity has come to the fore. The implications are enormous. Political parties are reshaping and their economic policies are being transformed. 

Tortoise editors Basia Cummings and Ceri Thomas explore what this could mean in this election and in decades to come. 

Guests in Edition #1 are John Aitken, Glasgow youth worker, Andrew (Lord) Cooper, former Director of Strategy to David Cameron, and Tortoise editors Chris Cook and Matthew d’Ancona.

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It’s Your Identity, Stupid

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 birthday is like but they’re aggressively in charge. And, for better or worse, they’re changing the game.

Tortoise editors Basia Cummings and Ceri Thomas get inside the digital campaign with help from fellow editors Alexi Mostrous, Polly Curtis and Matt D’Ancona.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Techno Tories

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, but Crowther's work has provoked a firestorm.

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The man who counts trees

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