Tortoise Investigates

By Tortoise Media

Society & Culture

What's Tortoise Investigates about?

The Tortoise Investigates feed is the home of the best of our investigative podcast series, where you can find all our chart-topping, award-winning stories in one place.
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 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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LAST EPISODE

The Tavistock - Episode 7: ...

09.18.2023

Polly Curtis returns to investigate the world of private trans healthcare, and speaks to Gender GP and its founder Helen Webberley, labelled by one newspaper as one of Britain’s most controversial doctors. Listen to the full series today. For the ...

Tortoise Investigates episodes:

09.18.2023 The Tavistock - Episode 7: Gender GP Polly Curtis returns to investigate the world of private trans healthcare, and speaks to Gender GP and its founder Helen Webberley, labelled by one newspaper as one of Britain’s most controversial doctors. Listen to the full series today. For the ...
09.18.2023 The Tavistock - Episode 6: The real scandal Polly Curtis investigates why NHS England accelerated the closure of GIDS and what the future of the service could look like for children and young people. Listen to the full series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by ...
09.18.2023 The Tavistock - Episode 5: The noise The public debate around the work of the Tavistock is getting louder. Kiera Bell wins a landmark ruling at the High Court which halts all new referrals for puberty blockers for under 18s on the NHS in England and Wales. ...
09.18.2023 The Tavistock - Episode 4: The enemy within The internal divisions at GIDS and the wider Tavistock centre spill out into the open. Whistleblowers are publicly critical of GIDS. One accuses the service of fast tracking young people onto puberty blockers after just one meeting with clinicians. The ...
09.18.2023 The Tavistock - Episode 3: Thin ice As the increase in referrals to the Gender Identity Development Service increases, the profile of the young people seeking treatment changes too. There are now two natal girls for every natal boy, a complete reversal of what it had been ...
09.18.2023 The Tavistock - Episode 2: The broom cupboard Polly Carmichael became the director of the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock in 2009. “I remember our office was literally a room that had probably been a broom cupboard at one stage”, she recalls. But the decision in ...
09.18.2023 The Tavistock - Episode 1: A verdict In the summer of 2022 the NHS announced it was winding up the Gender Identity Development Service for children and young people at the Tavistock. Critics of the service celebrated, its supporters were left in despair. Journalist Polly Curtis has ...
09.18.2023 Introducing: The Tavistock This is 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 clinic in England and Wales which has treated children suffering from body dysphoria. Its ...
09.11.2023 Pig Iron - Episode 7: Out there In the last episode of the series, the team finally hears from a man they’ve been chasing for months. And they return to Maine, to tell Christopher’s parents what they have discovered about their son's life and death. Listen to ...
09.11.2023 Pig Iron - Episode 6: The rope The team tries to understand the connection between Chris's trip to South Sudan, and one taken by a group of American fighters just weeks before. Could this explain why Chris was called a white rebel? And after months investigating, Basia ...
09.11.2023 Pig Iron - Episode 5: Kaya Months after Jeremy first approached Basia, the team fly to Nairobi to sit down with the mysterious essay writer. And it turns out that he is not the only person ready to share what he knows about who killed Christopher ...
09.11.2023 Pig Iron - Episode 4: The kaleidoscope There is a new layer of horror to Chris's story – and in trying to understand it, Basia investigates the evidence that Chris was killed on purpose. The team figures out how to get to South Sudan – and how ...
09.11.2023 Pig Iron - Episode 3: The lonely impulse Basia traces Chris's career as a young freelancer. By now, it's clear his death is tied to his life as a reporter. But who was he trying to be? Just how close was he to a group of fighters? And ...
09.11.2023 Pig Iron - Episode 2: Spring break At just 22 years old, Chris travels to Ukraine for his spring break, keen to see war up close. For the first time, he experiences the thrill and horror of the frontline. He's hooked. Five years later, Basia, along with ...
09.11.2023 Pig Iron - Episode 1: White rebel Five years after his death on a distant frontline in South Sudan, the truth about what happened to Christopher Allen is still a mystery. Was he a reckless freelancer? A mercenary? Or a young and ambitious reporter, caught in the ...
09.11.2023 Introducing: Pig Iron 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 ...
09.04.2023 Hoaxed - Episode 6: Bonnie and Clyde In the final episode of Hoaxed, Alexi confronts Abraham and Ella. about what they. did in Hampstead - and why. And the police give Alexi some surprising news. Listen to the full series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, ...
09.04.2023 Hoaxed - Episode 5: The Healer Alexi and his producer fly to Morocco to confront Abraham Christie - and learn dark secrets about his past. Listen to the full series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists, download the free Tortoise audio ...
09.04.2023 Hoaxed - Episode 4: Infiltration For a conspiracy to spread, important people need to be listening. Alexi discovers that the perpetrators of the Hampstead hoax have friends in high places, while he and the team close in on Abraham's location. Listen to the full series ...
09.04.2023 Hoaxed - Episode 3: The Avengers The perpetrators of the Hampstead hoax meet their match in an unassuming mystery novelist, who is determined to expose their lies and bring them to justice. Listen to the full series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by ...
09.04.2023 Hoaxed - Episode 2: Ella's list Seized upon by conspiracy theorists, Ella’s list of alleged cult members spreads like wildfire across the Internet. Hampstead parents start receiving death threats and lives are torn apart. Listen to the full series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, ...
09.04.2023 Hoaxed - Episode 1: Secrets and lies Two young children make horrific allegations in a London police station, lighting the fuse on the most serious British conspiracy theories in decades. Listen to the full series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists, download ...
09.04.2023 Introducing: Hoaxed 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 ...
09.04.2023 Introducing ... Tortoise Investigates Welcome to Tortoise Investigates, where we curate the best of our chart-topping investigative series in one place. Over the last three years we’ve covered everything from extraordinary tales of deception to suspicious deaths to one mother’s decades-long fight against the ...
07.20.2023 Introducing... Three Doors Down Nikki Allan was 7 years old when she was brutally murdered. Her mother never gave up the hunt to find her killer. David Boyd was a convicted child sex offender who lived three doors down from where Nikki first went ...
12.02.2021 Sweet Bobby - Episode 6: Motive In the final episode of Sweet Bobby, Kirat’s case against the catfisher takes an unexpected turn. As Alexi is putting the finishing touches to the series, he gets a phone call that changes everything. Listen to the full series today. ...
11.25.2021 Sweet Bobby - Episode 5: (In)justice After the confession, Kirat goes to the police. But their reaction to her case isn’t what she’s expecting. Plus: Alexi tries a new approach with the catfisher... Listen to the full six-part series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, ...
11.18.2021 Sweet Bobby - Episode 4: Dark triads Kirat deals with the fallout from the confession. Alexi’s investigation reveals the startling true beginnings of the scam, as he tries to unravel the catfisher's motivation. Listen to the full six-part series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated ...
11.11.2021 Sweet Bobby - Episode 3: Confession Bobby is now closer than ever – and yet he keeps slipping through Kirat's grasp. After being pushed to breaking point, she makes the life changing decision to confront him – and discovers the truth... Listen to the full six-part ...
11.04.2021 Sweet Bobby - Episode 2: Witness protection Bobby finds his way back into Kirat's life, and their relationship grows closer – with devastating consequences. Meanwhile, Alexi investigates the sophistication of the catfishing scam. Listen to the full six-part series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated ...
10.27.2021 Sweet Bobby - Episode 1: Sliding doors Kirat is a successful marketer and radio presenter. Online, she’s contacted by a man she vaguely knows called Bobby, and they start chatting. Slowly, they become close… and she’s reeled in to a scam of epic proportions. Listen to the ...
10.18.2021 Introducing: Sweet Bobby How much do you know about the person you love? Sweet Bobby is the #1 award-winning investigative series in search of the world's most sophisticated catfishers. Listen to the full six-part series today. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated ...