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Welcome to the Tortoise Investigates feed. It’s the home for the best of our podcast series, where you can find all our chart-topping, award-winning stories in one place. We’ve covered everything from extraordinary tales of deception to suspicious deaths to one mother’s decades-long fight against the police. Our journalists cover a wide range of stories but there is a thread that ties them all together – in every series, you’ll hear us going deep on a story, taking our time to investigate, guided by the public interest and the truths that, as journalists, we think need to be ...

Neil Gaiman is one of the world’s most successful authors. And one of the most loved. His works have been adapted for film, TV and the stage.Now two women, a former nanny and a fan, allege he sexually assaulted and abused them while they were in consensual relationships with him. He strenuously denies all the allegations.Tortoise is an investigative audio newsroom. This story has taken months of work and investigation.To find out more about Tortoise:Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalistsSubscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ...

Introducing... Hoaxed, the new series from Alexi Mostrous and Tortoise, who brought you Sweet Bobby.In 2014, two children told police a shocking story: that they were being abused by a Satanic cult; a cult headed by their father and by parents and teachers at their school in the wealthy London suburb of Hampstead. The story was a lie. But on the internet, that didn't matter. Hoaxed is an investigation into one of Britain's most serious-ever conspiracy theories. A story about a modern-day Satanic panic; about the victims whose lives were destroyed and about the conspiracists who spread the ...

Introducing… Who Trolled Amber?What comes to mind when you think of Amber Heard? Liar? Survivor? Narcissist? Millions of us watched the celebrity trial of the century, Depp v Heard, in 2022. Amber Heard lost and Johnny Depp was vindicated. But what if Amber was actually the victim of an organised trolling campaign? What if the online hate against her was manufactured?Alexi Mostrous, the reporter who brought you Sweet Bobby and Hoaxed, investigates what happened to Amber and who might have been responsible. It’s a story about how our own thoughts and opinions can be moulded without us even ...

How much do you know about the person you love? Sweet Bobby is the #1 chart-topping, award-winning investigative series in search of the world's most sophisticated catfisher. Listen to the full six-part series, and bonus episodes today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists, download the free Tortoise audio app. For early and ad-free access to all our investigative series and daily and weekly shows, 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 ...

Season 2 of Londongrad: Iran's Hit Squads.Award-winning investigative reporter Paul Caruana Galizia returns to report the story of the foiled assassination attempts on British soil of Iranian nationals. Since January 2022, there has been an attempted assassination or kidnap at least once a month – all ordered by the Iranian government. In this four-part series, Paul will delve into how these attempts unfolded, why they have become so prevalent and who is behind them. It's a story about Iran, about freedom of the press, but most of all, it’s about Britain – who the country chooses to ...

Christopher Allen was trying to make it as a war reporter when, aged just 26, he was shot and killed on the frontline in South Sudan. But as news of his death began to spread, suspicion grew. Some claimed he was really there as a mercenary, a fighter. Others said he was a reckless freelancer, in over his head. And there was another question: was he killed on purpose, or was this another accident of war? From Tortoise and the team behind Sweet Bobby, Pig Iron is a dark adventure in war and journalism – and into what really happened to Christopher Allen. Listen to the full series today. For ...

Caroline Criado Perez has spent years investigating the gender data gap – and how women are simply forgotten in a world designed for men. Her best-selling book, Invisible Women, was published to critical acclaim, and Caroline was inundated with readers sharing their own stories of the “default male”.In her new podcast Caroline investigates what happens next: how can we close the gender data gap and design a world that works for everyone? Caroline will hunt for missing data, get in fights with manufacturing companies, and find the people who are working to close the gender data gap. ...

Daphne Caruana Galizia spent her career uncovering corruption at the highest levels of politics on the Mediterranean island of Malta. As an investigative journalist in this tiny, tightly-knit country her surname became redundant – she was known simply as Daphne. She stood out as a lone voice in an increasingly hostile environment. She endured arson attacks and arrests, until October 2017, when she was murdered in a car bomb attack. In this series, her son Paul Caruana Galizia, returns home to make sense of what led to his mother’s murder. But within a day of returning, events take an ...

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 ...

By the end of this year, countries making up half the world’s population will have held elections. But not all of them will have been free and fair. In ‘What’s Wrong with Democracy?’ Professor Ben Ansell of Oxford University will, with the help of academics, journalists, activists and writers, figure out whether democracy is working and how best to preserve democratic freedoms, equality and rights. What’s Wrong with Democracy? is produced by Tortoise Media and supported by The Open Society Foundations. To find out more about Tortoise:Download the Tortoise app - for a listening ...

In this series we tell the shocking stories of women whose possible homicides go unrecognised, and uncounted, by police. In the UK, we’re told that two women a week are killed by a current or former partner – but these are just the killings we know about. The true toll could be much, much higher. In Hidden Homicides, investigative reporter Louise Tickle uncovers harrowing cases of killers missed, of grieving families ignored by police, of a body left to decay in a hospital morgue, and of systemic police failings. It is produced by Tortoise Studios. To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/...

It starts with a tip-off. It’s the late 1980s and US Special Agent Dennis Bass is warned about a shipment of suspicious chemicals headed to a secret destination. So he follows the lead – and ends up stumbling into a global plot helping fuel a war. The main suspect? The Gas Man. In the decades since, Special Agent Bass has been locked in an international game of cat and mouse with the man who supplied a dangerous regime with the chemicals to make weapons. Every time Bass thinks he’s got his hands on him… The Gas Man somehow manages to slip the net. And he’s still on the run ...

A new three-part series exploring the challenges facing Britain’s food and farming industry.How can we ensure we have enough food to eat, without it costing the earth - and that farmers earn a decent living?Tortoise editor Jeevan Vasager meets farmers up and down the country to learn about the problems they are facing, and the possible solutions. Making sense of sustainable farming is hosted by Tortoise editor Jeevan Vasager and produced by Eleanor Biggs. The executive producer is Jasper Corbett. Making sense of sustainable farming is produced by Tortoise Media together with Lloyds Banking...

All six episodes of Real Money are available now to listen for free.The world of cryptocurrencies is shaking. It might be just one domino-fall away from a complete crash, and that domino has a name. It’s called Tether. Tether is a crypto coin that holds up the entire cryptocurrency industry. There are over 70 billion Tethers in circulation and for every Tether that exists, a dollar should sit in a bank somewhere. But no one has seen the money it claims to have in the bank and now little-known company that specialises in financial detective work has offered a million dollar bounty to anyone ...

From Tortoise, journalist Polly Curtis tells the story of the Gender Identity Development Service for children and young people at the Tavistock. The Tavi, as it’s known, is the only NHS clinic in England and Wales which treats children suffering from gender dysphoria. Its critics have accused it of fast-tracking young people into changing gender. Its supporters argue it has provided help and support, even a lifeline for some. In a few months time the clinic will close. This is the story of what happened.You can listen to the full series ad-free and get access to exclusive bonus content ...

When Islamist insurgents attacked a town in Mozambique in March, civilians and foreign contractors raced to a local hotel for safety. Over three agonising days, they waited for a rescue. But no one came. In this extraordinary story of extremism, corruption and bravery, journalist Basia Cummings investigates what happened at the Amarula Hotel, and speaks to the people who were trapped inside – and made it out alive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to all six episodes today. Rob Moore had a successful career in television until one day he ran out of ideas. After a stint as a gardener, a more enticing door was opened for him. He was offered a job in the shadowy world of corporate intelligence - he became a spy.Tasked with working undercover to extract information from an environmental campaign group, Rob Moore says he eventually became sympathetic to the campaigners’ aims. He decided to turn on his employers and support the group he was meant to be infiltrating. Only it wasn’t that straightforward. He never told the campaigners...

Full series out now Three doors down: a murder, a mother and a thirty year investigationIn May 2023 David Boyd was found guilty of the brutal murder in 1992 of seven year-old Nikki Allan. Sharon Henderson, Nikki’s mother, called for a public inquiry into why it had taken the police so long to find and convict her daughter’s murderer. When Nikki was murdered, Sharon was a single mother of four living in Wear Garth, a rundown housing estate in Sunderland. David Boyd lived a few floors above Sharon in the same block. He was known to the police. He was the kind of offender who should have ...

Harvey Proctor was a dark political star who burned brightly in the 1980s, until a tabloid sting brought him down. 25 years later he found himself facing another vicious scandal. What had he done - and what had we done - to bring him to that moment? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.