Today in Focus

By The Guardian

What's Today in Focus about?

Hosted by Anushka Asthana, Today in Focus brings you closer to Guardian journalism. Combining personal storytelling with insightful analysis, Today in Focus is The Guardian's daily podcast that takes you behind the headlines for a deeper understanding of the news, every weekday.

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Election 2019: why is Hartl...

11.15.2019

Anushka Asthana visits the historically Labour-held seat of Hartlepool in north-east England that is the Brexit party’s top target in the general election. Plus: Sonia Sodha on how flooding in the north of England has affected the campaign. Help support ...

Today in Focus episodes:

11.15.2019 Election 2019: why is Hartlepool the Brexit party's top target? Anushka Asthana visits the historically Labour-held seat of Hartlepool in north-east England that is the Brexit party’s top target in the general election. Plus: Sonia Sodha on how flooding in the north of England has affected the campaign. Help support ...
11.14.2019 Election 2019: is Scotland moving towards independence? Scotland correspondent Libby Brooks tells Rachel Humphreys how the chaos of Brexit has put independence back centre stage at this election. Plus: Sayeeda Warsi on the Conservative party’s enduring problem of Islamophobia. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
11.13.2019 Trump's impeachment hits primetime TV Julian Borger in Washington DC on how the US is preparing for wall-to-wall coverage of the impeachment of Donald Trump, which moves to public hearings today. Plus Peter Walker on Jo Swinson and the Liberal Democrats: is their campaign yet ...
11.12.2019 Election 2019: Is the NHS up for sale? The NHS is one of the major battleground issues of the general election as parties debate the future of healthcare in the UK. Sarah Boseley and Denis Campbell discuss the extent of private company involvement in the NHS. Plus: Dan ...
11.11.2019 Meeting George Soros Shaun Walker has spent years covering Russia and eastern Europe and watched how the billionaire philanthropist George Soros has become a figure of hate among populists and the far right. Plus: Lea Ypi on the millions of people who do ...
11.08.2019 A day inside the hidden world of youth courts The Guardian’s north of England team has spent a month investigating the youth justice system in England and Wales, in which children as young as 10 are put on trial. Today in Focus joined the editor Helen Pidd in a ...
11.07.2019 Election 2019: Dark arts and dirty tricks online Media editor Jim Waterson tells Anushka Asthana how political parties are pushing the limits of what is allowed in the unregulated space of social media. Plus: Sabine Rennefanz on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Help ...
11.06.2019 Mexico's war with the drug cartels Tom Phillips joins the search for some of the thousands of people who have gone missing or been murdered in the country’s bloody drug wars. Plus Luke Harding on the government’s delay in releasing a report on Russian meddling in ...
11.05.2019 How a Guardian story led to a landmark case against big tobacco In June 2018 Sarah Boseley wrote about child labour in the tobacco fields of Malawi. Human rights lawyer Martyn Day read her story and decided to sue British American Tobacco. They recently returned to Malawi to check on the progress ...
11.04.2019 David Attenborough: the making of a British icon Patrick Barkham joins Anushka Asthana to chart the rise of one of Britain’s best-loved personalities: the natural history broadcaster David Attenborough. Plus: Gaby Hinsliff on women and the myth of ‘likability’. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
11.01.2019 Cannabis farms and nail bars: the hidden world of human trafficking Last week 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated lorry trailer in Essex. Annie Kelly discusses the case of Minh, a Vietnamese teenager who was trafficked into the UK in 2013 and found himself enslaved on a cannabis farm. ...
10.31.2019 Boris Johnson's general election gamble The Guardian’s political editor, Heather Stewart, tells Anushka Asthana that the general election on 12 December will be highly unpredictable as Brexit preferences, unpopular leaders and tactical voting intersect. Plus: Guy Standing on the plunder of natural resources by private ...
10.30.2019 How the US caught up with Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi The Guardian’s Martin Chulov describes how US special forces finally tracked down Baghdadi, who was killed in a raid at the weekend. Plus: Robert Booth on the criticism of the London fire brigade’s response to the Grenfell Tower disaster. Help ...
10.29.2019 The women who broke the Harvey Weinstein story When Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began investigating Harvey Weinstein, they had no idea it would ignite a global reckoning on sexual harassment resulting in #MeToo. And: Rafael Behr on the likelihood of a winter election. Help support our independent ...
10.28.2019 How the Bristol bus boycott changed UK civil rights Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, discusses the 1963 Bristol bus boycott – a protest few may have heard of, but which proved to be a watershed moment in the civil rights movement. And: Waad al-Kateab, the director of the ...
10.25.2019 The five brothers forced apart by the war in Syria – podcast International correspondent Michael Safi tells Anushka Asthana how he tracked down five brothers separated by the war in Syria. Plus: Labour’s Lisa Nandy on why MPs should compromise on Brexit for the good of democracy. Help support our independent journalism ...
10.24.2019 Naomi Klein on how politics can solve the climate crisis Activist and author Naomi Klein tells Anushka Asthana that combating the climate crisis must be at the heart of an urgent restructuring of politics and the economy. Plus: Daniel Trilling on the shocking discovery of 39 bodies inside a lorry ...
10.23.2019 Are Fox News and Donald Trump falling out of love? – podcast Luke O’Neil on the powerful relationship between Trump and his favourite TV network. But are things starting to sour? Plus: Jonathan Franklin on the protests in Chile that have turned deadly. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
10.22.2019 Is this the end of the road for remainers? Jonathan Freedland joins Anushka Asthana to discuss how the pro-EU movement has grown in numbers and developed its own political identity based around opposing Brexit. Also today: Denise Phelan on the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland. Help support our ...
10.21.2019 How did a town in West Virginia become the opioid capital of the US? Chris McGreal reports on the web of doctors, pharmacists and drug companies that made rural Mingo county, West Virginia, the opioid capital of America. And: Emma Barnett on why we need to be better at talking about periods. Help support ...
10.18.2019 Naming and shaming the polluters Global environment editor Jonathan Watts discusses the Guardian’s investigation into the fossil fuel industry, and the structures that need to change to halt the climate emergency. And: Gary Younge on Donald Trump’s mental health. Help support our independent journalism at ...
10.17.2019 Will parliament vote for a Brexit deal? Jennifer Rankin and Polly Toynbee discuss the dilemma facing MPs as the government edges towards a Brexit deal. Plus, Cara Reedy on what it means to be a person with dwarfism. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
10.16.2019 On the frontline as US troops leave northern Syria Martin Chulov, who covers the Middle East for the Guardian, has spent the past week on the frontline of north-east Syria. He describes the fallout from Trump’s shock decision to withdraw US troops. And: Amelia Gentleman on the EU citizens ...
10.15.2019 Hong Kong: the story of one protester A Hong Kong protester describes why he has returned to the streets, week in week out, in the face of an increasingly brutal crackdown by the authorities. And: Polly Toynbee on the Queen’s speech. Help support our independent journalism at ...
10.14.2019 What is the truth about vaping? Jamie Doward and Max Sanderson join Anushka Asthana to navigate a way through the haze of the debate around vaping. Is it really safe? Plus: Frances Perraudin on the anniversary of #metoo – what has really changed after two years ...
10.11.2019 A fatal crash and the problem of diplomatic immunity Harry Dunn died in a collision in August with a car allegedly being driven by the wife of a US diplomat, who left the UK soon after under the rules of diplomatic immunity. Patrick Wintour looks at what might happen ...
10.10.2019 Brexit and the Irish border: is there a solution? Lisa O’Carroll and Rory Carroll tell Anushka Asthana that solving the Irish border problem is still key to a Brexit deal. Plus: Wendy Laura Belcher on African literature. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
10.09.2019 Shell, Nigeria and a 24-year fight for justice In 1995, the Nigerian government executed the Ogoni Nine – environmental activists who were trying to fight Shell’s exploitation of their homeland. Now, four widows are taking the oil company to court. And: Dan Sabbagh on the ramifications of Trump’s ...
10.08.2019 Thirteen children have been shot dead in St Louis, Missouri. Why? The Guardian US correspondent Amanda Holpuch discusses her recent trip to St Louis, where 13 black children have been fatally shot since April. And: Polly Toynbee attends the first day of the Extinction Rebellion protests. Help support our independent journalism ...
10.07.2019 The strange world of TikTok: viral videos and Chinese censorship UK technology editor Alex Hern joins Anushka Asthana to discuss the Chinese-owned social network that is growing its user base with shareable short videos set to catchy soundtracks. But is it also being used as a tool of Chinese foreign ...
10.04.2019 In conversation with Jia Tolentino Jia Tolentino, described as one of the world’s greatest young essayists, discusses how the age of the internet has fundamentally changed who we are. Plus: Lisa O’Carroll on the Irish border. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
10.03.2019 Boris Johnson’s Brexit speech: preparing for an election Boris Johnson used his first leader’s speech at the Conservative party conference to set up a new phase of negotiations with the EU and an election confrontation with Jeremy Corbyn. Plus: Jim Waterson on Prince Harry, privacy and the media. ...
10.02.2019 Boris Johnson and the Jennifer Arcuri allegations Boris Johnson says he behaved with ‘full propriety’ regarding his links to the US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri while he was London mayor. Matthew Weaver has been following the story for the Guardian. Plus: Wadah Khanfar remembers his friend Jamal Khashoggi ...
10.01.2019 Could this impeachment inquiry end Trump’s presidency? In a July phone call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden. An intelligence official decided to blow the whistle on the call. Lauren Gambino discusses how this has led ...
09.30.2019 Is it over for Justin Trudeau? – podcast The Canadian prime minister achieved a historic victory in 2015 but as he nears the end of his first term a series of scandals are making his political future less certain. With elections next month, journalist Leyland Cecco discusses how ...
09.27.2019 Prince Andrew's damaged reputation Last week Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts did her first television interview, and in it restated claims that she had been made to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17. ITV royal editor Chris Ship discusses the Duke ...
09.26.2019 Can Labour unite and plot a path to power? Sonia Sodha joins Anushka Asthana to discuss Labour’s options now that parliament has resumed and the party has backed Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit strategy. Also today: Tom McCarthy on the moves to impeach Donald Trump. Help support our independent journalism at ...
09.25.2019 Unlawful: the supreme court stuns Boris Johnson Philippe Sands QC on the decision by the supreme court to rule against the government on the suspension of parliament. Plus: Shoshana Zuboff on how to fight back against surveillance capitalism. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
09.24.2019 The US college admissions scandal Journalist Evgenia Peretz discusses how US college tutor Rick Singer persuaded so many parents to take part in one of the biggest university scandals the Department of Justice has ever prosecuted. And: Rob Davies on the collapse of Thomas Cook. ...
09.23.2019 The British spy who tried to stop the Iraq war In the weeks leading up to the war in Iraq, Katharine Gun exposed a US plot to spy on the UN in leaks published in the Observer. She joins former Observer journalist Martin Bright to tell their story ahead of ...
09.20.2019 Where did it all go wrong for David Cameron? As the former PM publishes his memoirs, Patrick Wintour tells Anushka Asthana that Cameron’s pursuit of austerity and decision to call an EU referendum sowed the seeds of his demise. Plus, in opinion, George Monbiot on the global climate strike. ...
09.19.2019 County lines: how drugs gangs are recruiting children Aamna Mohdin tells Rachel Humphreys how county lines gangs are stepping up their operations by using short-term holiday flats and recruiting local teens to sell drugs in small towns around Britain. Plus Owen Jones on Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘neutral’ stance on ...
09.18.2019 Revoke and remain: inside the Lib Dem party conference – podcast With a new leader in Jo Swinson and the defection of six MPs to the party, Lib Dems are hoping for a resurgence. Rachel Humphreys reports from party conference. Plus Vince Beiser on the black market in sand. Help support ...
09.17.2019 How dangerous is chlorinated chicken? Chlorine-washed chicken from the US has become a totemic issue in the post-Brexit trade deals Britain could look to secure. But is it unsafe? And what does it say about the different attitudes to food production on either side of ...
09.16.2019 Edward Snowden: life after leaking Former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden’s life was upended by his decision to expose his government’s programme of mass surveillance. Ewen MacAskill helped break the story for the Guardian back in 2013 and now visits him in his adopted home ...
09.13.2019 A 2,000km journey through the Amazon rainforest Tom Phillips describes his recent Amazon trip and examines the impact of the new era of wrecking ushered in by Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro. Also, Rhik Samadder on coping with depression when your job involves trying to amuse people. Help ...
09.12.2019 'It's all gone': how Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas Oliver Laughland tells Rachel Humphrys about the destruction he witnessed in the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. Also today: Chris Hanretty on the Scottish court’s ruling that the British government’s suspension of parliament was unlawful. Help support our ...
09.11.2019 Could Boris Johnson's explosive election strategy work? Anushka Asthana hears from the Guardian’s John Harris on how the chaos in Westminster looks to people in towns around the UK. Also today: Gaby Hinsliff on accusations of cronyism in Theresa May’s honours list Watch the latest episode of ...
09.10.2019 Siri, sex and Apple's privacy problem As Apple prepares to launch a new iPhone, Alex Hern explores the privacy scandal around its automated personal assistant, Siri. Plus, Polly Toynbee on why Jeremy Corbyn is preventing Boris Johnson from calling an election. Help support our independent journalism ...
09.09.2019 Why do Dubai's princesses keep trying to run away? Ola Salem discusses the divorce case of Princess Haya, who fled to London. Why do royal women keep trying to escape the emirate? Plus John Marsden on the growing trend of toxic parenting. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Older episodes

Today in Focus

What's Today in Focus about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Today in Focus episodes:

Election 2019: why is Hartlepool the Brexit party's top target?

Election 2019: is Scotland moving towards independence?

Trump's impeachment hits primetime TV

Election 2019: Is the NHS up for sale?

Meeting George Soros

A day inside the hidden world of youth courts

Election 2019: Dark arts and dirty tricks online

Mexico's war with the drug cartels

How a Guardian story led to a landmark case against big tobacco

David Attenborough: the making of a British icon

Cannabis farms and nail bars: the hidden world of human trafficking

Boris Johnson's general election gamble

How the US caught up with Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

The women who broke the Harvey Weinstein story

How the Bristol bus boycott changed UK civil rights

The five brothers forced apart by the war in Syria – podcast

Naomi Klein on how politics can solve the climate crisis

Are Fox News and Donald Trump falling out of love? – podcast

Is this the end of the road for remainers?

How did a town in West Virginia become the opioid capital of the US?

Naming and shaming the polluters

Will parliament vote for a Brexit deal?

On the frontline as US troops leave northern Syria

Hong Kong: the story of one protester

What is the truth about vaping?

A fatal crash and the problem of diplomatic immunity

Brexit and the Irish border: is there a solution?

Shell, Nigeria and a 24-year fight for justice

Thirteen children have been shot dead in St Louis, Missouri. Why?

The strange world of TikTok: viral videos and Chinese censorship

In conversation with Jia Tolentino

Boris Johnson’s Brexit speech: preparing for an election

Boris Johnson and the Jennifer Arcuri allegations

Could this impeachment inquiry end Trump’s presidency?

Is it over for Justin Trudeau? – podcast

Prince Andrew's damaged reputation

Can Labour unite and plot a path to power?

Unlawful: the supreme court stuns Boris Johnson

The US college admissions scandal

The British spy who tried to stop the Iraq war

Where did it all go wrong for David Cameron?

County lines: how drugs gangs are recruiting children

Revoke and remain: inside the Lib Dem party conference – podcast

How dangerous is chlorinated chicken?

Edward Snowden: life after leaking

A 2,000km journey through the Amazon rainforest

'It's all gone': how Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas

Could Boris Johnson's explosive election strategy work?

Siri, sex and Apple's privacy problem

Why do Dubai's princesses keep trying to run away?

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