The i Podcast

As Britain hangs up the bunting for King Charles’s coronation, over 4,000 miles away in the Commonwealth realm of Grenada, arrangements look a little different.

Magistrate Arley Gill describes how locals have little to no interest in celebrating “the business of the British”.

Gill and his community are not alone. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a new era is being ushered in, and with it, restlessness is growing in the former British colonies yet to become republics.

In this week’s episode of The i Podcast we look at whether King Charles III could be the last monarch of the Commonwealth realm.

The realm was born from the British Empire and funded by the proceeds of slavery, making the relationship with modern Britain deeply complicated.

This week, host Molly Blackall is joined by Alannah Francis and Serina Sandhu to explore how more Caribbean islands may soon ditch their colonial past and get rid of the British monarch. 

Read Alannah's big read here: https://inews.co.uk/news/commonwealth-what-happen-king-charles-shrink-caribbean-monarchy-2298477

Produced by Phoebe Fleming & Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay.

Check out their music here:

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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For over a year, Labour has been riding high in the polls. Keir Starmer’s ruthless crushing of internal dissent, tighter message disciple and a Government in disarray had the party sustaining a more than 20-point lead against the Conservatives.

But recently, that lead has begun to tail off, and with it, the dreams of the party winning a huge majority in the next general election. The party’s lead has dropped to around 14 per cent – with some pollsters predicting a hung parliament if an election was held now.

In this week’s episode of The i Podcast we are taking a look at why that is – and how Labour is coming out swinging in response. Host Molly Blackall is joined by i chief political commentator, Paul Waugh, to give us the inside story of the Opposition’s strategy.

Read Paul's commentary and analysis here: https://inews.co.uk/author/paul-waugh

We are also talking to pollsters about what voters are telling them and why the shifting political map of Britain has major implications for Westminster.

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay.

Check out their music here:

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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Andrew Tate‘s hyper-macho brand of 21st century chauvinism has gained him legions of fans and put him firmly in the spotlight.

This fanbase has backed him throughout his legal issues and is mainly young men, frustrated by the status quo and viewing him as role model. But it’s not just men. In this week’s episode of The i Podcast we meet the women who are also falling under his spell.

i‘s chief features writer, Kasia Delgado, has been tracking the rise of Tate as concerns grew among parents and teachers about his influence on young men.

But for 25-year-old Julia Zwegat, a registered nurse working in Germany, Tate’s ultra-masculine persona and his doctrine of hard work, determination and “no excuses” is just as compelling. We spoke to her to find out why. 

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Contains audio from The Pregame Podcast and Reuters.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin - licensed via Pixabay. Additional music licenced via Epidemic Sounds.

Check out their music here:

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

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Mother-of-one Soraya Wooller spends her weekends in places most people wouldn’t want to venture.

A volunteer for local group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, Soraya tests treated wastewater being discharged back into her local river

from a nearby sewage treatment plant.

In the past ten years Soraya and her community have seen the river deteriorate. The water has turned opaque, coated with algae, its fish populations quietly diminishing.  

So why has the health of Britain’s rivers been allowed to decline so dramatically in the past decade? In this week’s episode of The i Podcast we travel back to the late 80s and the privatisation of this critical industry.

Host Molly Blackall is joined by i's Environment Correspondent Daniel Capurro and Senior Reporter Ben Gartside who have been following the money to find out why community groups such as Soraya’s are now finding their local rivers in such a perilous position.

Find out more about i's campaign to Save Britain's Rivers

Produced by Julia Webster and Phoebe Fleming. The executive producer is Albert Evans.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay.

A Thames Water spokesperson said:

"Our turnaround plan stretches over eight years and will fix the basics, raise the bar and shape the future. It has already seen a number of improvements including improving trends in water quality, complaints management and supply interruptions performance. It will take time and we know there is a lot of work we need to do but we’re making progress."   

"We’ve committed £1.6 billion of investment in our sewage treatment works and sewers over the next two years. This will help us to deliver our commitment to a 50% reduction in the total annual duration of discharges across London and the Thames Valley by 2030, and within that an 80% reduction in sensitive catchments.   

"We’re currently increasing sewage treatment capacity at a number of our sewage works across the Thames Valley, including Witney, Chesham, Church Hanborough, Bampton and Fairford to be completed by 2025.  

"We’re also the first company to provide live alerts for all untreated discharges throughout our region and this ‘near real-time’ data is available to customers as a map on our website and is also available through an open data platform for third parties, such as swimming and environmental groups, to use. 

"We are taking these steps to rebuild our business in order to deliver on our turnaround plan.This will take time and significant investment, but we are committed to achieving this plan and ensuring our customers see and feel the progress we are making." 

Regarding the testing at Standlake they said: "We adhere to the site permit issued by the EA and achieve higher standards when possible."

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:

"We are holding the water industry to account on a scale never seen before – securing record fines against water companies and driving up monitoring and transparency to ensure the public can see what is going on."

"Locally, we have secured penalties of almost £33m from Thames Water since 2017 and the number of sewage spills from Thames Water overflows was down 50% in 2022 on the year before – and we will continue to ensure polluters are held to account."

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For many, spying conjures images of anoraked men, secret meetings and briefcases furtively exchanged on park benches. But how does the reality in 21st century Britain compare?

In this week's episode of The i Podcast, host Molly Blackall is joined by senior reporter Richard Holmes to take a look at the threats the UK's faces from hostile intelligence services - and why one looms large in the mind of many senior spooks. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has seen it cast of out the structures of global co-operation. It's now depending ever more on intelligence to get what it wants.

To help us uncover how this takes place, we are joined by Christopher Steele, former MI6 officer, who authored the controversial Steele Dossier about Donald Trump's alleged links to the Russian state. He helps us uncover what actions Russia is undertaking and why - and how the Chinese threat stacks up.

Read more i reporting on the new frontier of spying here: https://inews.co.uk/topic/spying

If you'd like to read more of Richard's reporting you can find that here: https://inews.co.uk/author/richard-holmes

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay.

Check out their music here:

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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More than a million women in the UK are thought to be suffering from an illness that is leaving some of them bedbound, unable to work and battling with the mental strain of a debilitating condition. But you probably won’t have heard of it.

Chronic urinary tract infections can be terrible for sufferers, but experts warn that the awareness, testing and treatment for them is simply not good enough. In this week’s episode of The i Podcast we are taking a look at why this is – and what can be done about it.

i reporter Connie Dimsdale joins host Molly Blackall to discuss her reporting on the hidden women’s health crisis sweeping the UK.

Read i reporting on Chronic UTIs here: https://inews.co.uk/topic/chronic-uti

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay.

Check out their music here:

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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Many people with autism find navigating a world not designed for them a difficult task. They are forced to spend much of their lives trying to fit in – but what if it is the “neurotypical” majority who should adapt?

In this week’s episode of The i Podcast we are joined by iMoney and Business Editor Jessie Hewitson to talk about the way her view of the condition has changed dramatically in the years since her son’s diagnosis.

In the 90s, advocates for a better understanding of autism attempted to reverse the conversation around it, coining the phrase “neurotypical syndrome” – describing “sufferers” as following “impossible social rituals”, finding it “difficult to communicate directly” and lying far more often than autistic people. It’s an idea that Jessie has warmed to.

Through the process of writing her book Autism: How to raise a happily autistic child she came to appreciate the need to reframe neurodivergence – and look beyond the contradictions of the non-autistic world.

One of the people who transformed her view was Laura James – an author and journalist whose autism was only diagnosed in her forties. She joins us to give a unique insight into why neurotypical people should try and “be more autistic”.

Read Jessie's writing here: https://inews.co.uk/author/jessie-hewitson

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay. 

Check out their music here.

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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

Since Covid-19 emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan three eventful years ago there have been two leading hypotheses on the virus’s origin.

The predominant theory suggests Covid-19 emerged through close contact between humans and animals in Wuhan’s wet market. The second suggests it was the result of an accidental leak from a lab in the city of nine million people.

Quickly dismissed by some as conspiracy theory fodder, the lab leak hypothesis took a back seat - attractive only to some curious scientists, or those with perhaps a heightened interest in science fiction or a disposition to believing in secret plots and cover-ups.  

Then in late February the US Department of Energy stated that its current belief was that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, was most likely leaked from a lab in China, followed by a public statement of support for this theory from the FBI.

Neither agency provided fresh evidence to support their shift in opinion. Many scientists point out there is no evidence that Covid leaked from a lab, and other US government agencies have said they believe a natural jump from animal to human is the more likely explanation.

This week host Molly Blackall and Science Writer Stuart Ritchie delve into what the current science tells us about where Covid might actually have come from, with the help of guests Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist, and Jinghan Zeng, an expert on China and international relations.

Could it be possible that the lab leak theory was too quickly dismissed in favour of the prevailing animal market consensus? And if so, what does it tell us about how we study viruses in labs?

Read inews science expert Stuart Ritchie's article weighing up the arguments here: https://inews.co.uk/news/covid-lab-leak-theory-blindly-believing-dismissing-focus-evidence-2181006

Professor Michael Worobey's research about the zoonotic theory is here:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm4454

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay. 

Check out their music here:

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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

From front man of The Undertones to a vocal environmental campaigner, Feargal Sharkey is on a mission to clean up Britain’s rivers and to force water companies, regulators, and ministers to do their bit.

Social media posts of sewage discharging into our rivers and seas may have caught your attention recently, and the situation on a national scale is similarly gloomy.

Only 14 percent of England’s rivers are in good ecological condition and the latest government projections indicate that unless there is a serious intervention, that number will have dropped to 6 percent by 2027.

Speaking at the Amwell Magna Fishery, where Sharkey is chair of the oldest angling club in England, he explains to Cahal Milmo why the plight of Britain’s rivers caught his attention and what he plans to do about it.

Does Sharkey think there will be a day when the water companies and regulators have done enough to no longer be the target of his ire? He’s really looking forward to the day, he says, that he can go back to talking about music.

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay. 

Check out their music here

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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

Sex and drugs going hand in hand is nothing new. But when things are taken to extreme lengths – such as in the world of chemsex – the door is opened to criminality on a vast scale.

Patrick Strudwick’s reporting has drawn attention to the individuals and criminal gangs involved in exploiting the murky world of chemsex parties for their own gain, and he joins us in this week’s episode of The i Podcast.

It’s a world in which men meet each other for sex under the influence of drugs like meth and GHB and is mostly consensual – but not always, and the numbers speak for themselves.

In the largest-ever survey of men involved in the chemsex scene found that more than a quarter have been sexually assaulted while on GHB, nearly half had been given drugs without their knowledge and one in five had been deliberately overdosed.

But the criminality extends beyond the actions of individuals as criminal gangs are now piling in to exploit the lucrative opportunities presented by this world. Patrick gives his insights after years reporting on the subject and tells us what needs to change to stop people being harmed.

If you have been affected by the issues in this episode contact these charities for support:

https://galop.org.uk/chemsex/

https://londonfriend.org.uk/sex-and-chemsex/

Produced by Julia Webster. The executive producer is Albert Evans and the assistant producer is Phoebe Fleming.

Music featured is by Michael Kobrin and Lexin Music - licensed via Pixabay. 

Check out their music here.

https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-the-introvert-michael-kobrin-10959/

https://pixabay.com/users/lexin_music-28841948/

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