The Audio Long Read

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: Nestlé’s sleek, chic capsule system changed the way we drink coffee. But in an age when everyone’s a coffee snob and waste is wickedness, can it survive? By Ed Cumming. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

In a time of death and isolation, a new tradition was born. As the UK struggled with Covid and a renewed fight for racial justice, I turned to two wheels to get by. By Aniefiok Ekpoudom. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Alarmed by the rising tide of waste we are all creating, my family and I decided to try to make do with much less. But while individual behaviour is important, real change will require action on a far bigger scale. By Chip Colwell. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

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 2019: Demand for ‘healing’ crystals is soaring – but many are mined in deadly conditions in one of the world’s poorest countries. And there is little evidence that this billion-dollar industry is cleaning up its act. By Tess McClure. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Mary and Derek weren’t the first couple to get together at Easterlea Rest Home. But those other relationships had been more like friendships – and this was something else entirely. By Sophie Elmhirst. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we’ve chosen it. From October: A decade after Maixabel Lasa’s husband was shot by Basque separatists, she received a message from one of his killers. He wanted to meet her. By Giles Tremlett. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we’ve chosen it. From March: Gary Hunt is an enigma. He trains with the intensity of a modern athlete, but relaxes like a sportsman of a bygone era. He is fiercely competitive but unbelievably laid-back. How did he become the greatest cliff diver of all time? By Xan Rice. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we’ve chosen it. From June: For more than half a century, one organisation has been cataloguing all of life’s superlatives. But has it gone from being about the pursuit of knowledge to simply another big business? By Imogen West-Knights. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we’ve chosen it. From January: Nothing is produced at Sellafield any more. But making safe what is left behind is an almost unimaginably expensive and complex task that requires us to think not on a human timescale, but a planetary one. By Samanth Subramanian. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we’ve chosen it. From September: In search of a half-remembered passage among the French writer’s voluminous work, I turned to AI to help me find it. The results were instructive – just not about Proust. By Elif Batuman. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod