The Story

In the week between Christmas and New Year, we’re listening back to some of our favourite episodes of 2023.

The UK is now Europe’s biggest consumer of cocaine. The drug has been linked to a surge in domestic violence and middle-class users are being warned it’s not a victimless crime. How is so much cocaine getting into the country? And what can the authorities do about it?

You can read Dipesh's article (and see an image of charcoal soaked in cocaine) here.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. 

Guest: Dipesh Gadher, Home Affairs Correspondent, The Sunday Times.

Host: Luke Jones.

Clips: France 24, Al Jazeera, Euronews, BBC News, Sky News.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

In the week between Christmas and New Year, we’re listening back to some of our favourite episodes of 2023.

A Times journalist went undercover to show that British Gas obtained court warrants to break into customers’ homes to force fit prepayment meters. The investigation led to immediate responses from the company, the regulator and from government. So how did the investigation unfold?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Guest: Paul Morgan-Bentley, Head of Investigations, The Times.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Clips: Times Radio, Sky News, BBC, Parliament.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

Christmas is a time to pause and reflect. So today we take the opportunity to speak with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, about his own memories of financial struggle, the cost of living crisis, and his role as president of the charity Feeding Britain. 

Donate to The Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal:

Visit thetimes.co.uk/christmasappeal or call 0151 284 2336.

Guests:

- Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.

- Poppy Koronka, news reporter, The Times.

Host: Kaya Burgess.

Clips: Sky News.

Email us: [email protected]

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

Not all wheelchairs are created equal… whether it’s colour, size, weight or power, wheelchairs can be built to fit the user’s needs. Which is where Whizz Kidz, one of this year’s Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal charities, comes in. On today’s episode - we meet two children who’ve been provided with wheelchairs by the charity to hear about the change it’s made to their lives.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. 

Host: Luke Jones.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Find out more about our Apple bonus series: 'Inside the Newsroom'

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

Gen Z voters are ramping up the pressure on President Biden to tone down his support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas. According to a recent New York Times poll, their support for the Palestinians far exceeds that of any other age cohort. 

So what sits behind this generational pivot, which is playing out not only in the US, but across the West more widely? The Sunday Times's Katie Tarrant, herself a Gen Zer, talks TikTok and campus antisemitism with Luke. 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. 

Guest: Katie Tarrant, news reporter, The Sunday Times.

Host: Luke Jones.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

Our literary editors give us the lowdown on what they’ve been reading this last year - from steamy sex to the end of the world - and what should be on your Christmas gift list.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Guests:

• Robbie Millen, Literary Editor, The Times and The Sunday Times.
• Johanna Thomas-Corr, Chief Literary Critic, The Times and The Sunday Times.

Host: Luke Jones

For the full list of Times & Sunday Times best books of the year, read more: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/best-books-2023-gmbb8spb3 

You can buy every book on the list at timesbookshop.co.uk

Prophet Song - Paul Lynch

The Wren, The Wren - Anne Enright

Ordinary Human Failings - Megan Nolan

The Bee Sting - Paul Murray

Old God’s Time - Sebastian Barry

Soldier Sailor - Claire Kilroy

The Future - Naomi Alderman

Birnam Wood - Eleanor Catton

Fire Weather - John Vaillant

Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart

But What Can I Do? - Alastair Campbell

How Westminster Works… And Why It Doesn’t - Ian Dunt

Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver

The New Life - Tom Crewe

Spare - Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

The Woman In Me - Britney Spears

My Name Is Barbra - Barbra Streisand

Paris: The Memoir - Paris Hilton

Erotic Vagrancy - Roger Lewis

The Earth Transformed - Peter Frankopan

Pathogenesis - Jonathan Kennedy

Eve - Cat Bohannon

The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst

Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

Long Island - Colm Tóibín

Knife - Salman Rushdie

Find out more about our Apple bonus series: 'Inside the Newsroom'

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

Two weeks after yet another attempted coup, veteran Times war correspondent Anthony Loyd returns to Sierra Leone, the West African country he first visited 26 years ago amid civil war. 

There he encounters a young woman from the streets, who would have long been dead by now, were it not for her survival skills and the conversation she shared with the occupants of a car one night 15 years ago.

Guest: Anthony Loyd, special correspondent, The Times.

Host: Luke Jones.

Donate to The Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal:

Visit thetimes.co.uk/christmasappeal or call 0151 284 2336.

Every pound donated to Street Child by readers of The Times and The Sunday Times will be doubled up to £225,000. Of this matched funding, £150,000 will be provided by From Babies with Love, the gift brand that donates 100 per cent profit to vulnerable children, and generous donations from Boodles, a luxury and fine diamond retailer, and an anonymous donor.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

This weekend, Rishi Sunak was in Rome meeting Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni. As well as being a fan of the British PM, she's also a devotee of one of the UK's most famous writers - author of The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien. An exhibition on his life and work has opened in the city, so how did he become a cultural icon for the for Italy’s hard-right?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. 

Guest: Tom Kington, Italy Correspondent, The Times. 

Host: Luke Jones

Read more: 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eye-of-meloni-turns-on-jrr-tolkien-exhibition-7xjcf08pq 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/meloni-attends-tolkien-show-kkhj0dwl2 

Clips: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/New Line Cinema, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/CBS, MiC Italia, Vista Agenzia Televisiva Nazionale, France 24, Facebook/Giorgia Meloni, Reuters, CGTN, Fanpage.it, DW News, Barbarossa/Martinelli Film Company International/Rai Fiction.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Find out more about our Apple bonus series: 'Inside the Newsroom'

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

A Times investigation has found that tobacco companies have been engaged in a secret lobbying campaign to try and boost their e cigarette sales. They've bankrolled scientific papers playing down the risks of youth vaping and funded so-called independent foundations, which then try and lobby the government. How has this gone unchecked?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. 

Guest: Billy Kenber, Senior Investigations Reporter, The Times.

Host: Luke Jones.

Clips: TikTok/studentbeams, TikTok/hellocallum, BBC News, C-SPAN.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Find out more about our Apple bonus series: 'Inside the Newsroom'

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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

Jon Venables was ten years old when he and another boy tortured and killed two year old James Bulger. He’s now been refused parole on his imprisonment for a separate charge. So how did he end up here? Did he get a fair trial in the first place? And are we getting it right when it comes to our treatment of children who kill?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes. 

Guest: David James Smith, Sunday Times contributor and author of The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case.

Host: Luke Jones.

Producer: Olivia Case.

Clips: ITN / Getty, Channel 4, BBC, Merseyside Police, Eyes of the Detective / Teresa Hunt / BBC, TalkTV, Liverpool Lullaby / Martin Wallace / Channel 4, CBS.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Find out more about our Apple bonus series: 'Inside the Newsroom'

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.

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