The Audio Long Read podcast is a selection of the Guardian’s long reads, giving you the opportunity to get on with your day while listening to some of the finest journalism the Guardian has to offer, including in-depth writing from around the world on immigration, crime, business, the arts and much more
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The Guardian Long Read - audio versions of our regular long reads published online and in the newspaper Monday through Friday. The long reads are long form articles on a wide variety of topics from global politics to the big cultural debates of our time. For the print version go to - http://www.theguardian.com/news/series/the-long-read
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From the archive: The evolution of Steve Albini: ‘If the dumbest person is on your side, you’re on the wrong side’
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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 2023: Steve Albini was long synonymous with the indie underground, playing in revered bands and recording albums by the Pixies, PJ Harvey and Nirvana. He also often seemed determined to offend as …
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‘A new abyss’: Gaza and the hundred years’ war on Palestine
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While much has changed since 7 October, the horrific events of the past six months are not unique, and do not stand outside history. By Rashid Khalidi. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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The true cost of El Salvador’s new gold rush
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Seven years ago, El Salvador banned all mining for metals to protect its water supply. But now the government seems to be making moves to reverse the ban – and environmental activists are in the firing line. By Danielle Mackey. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: The age of perpetual crisis – how the 2010s disrupted everything but resolved nothing
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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: In an era of bewildering upheaval, how will the past decade be remembered? By Andy Beckett. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod…
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How child labour in India makes the paving stones beneath our feet
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Despite promises of reform, exploitation remains endemic in India’s sandstone industry, with children doing dangerous work for low pay – often to decorate driveways and gardens thousands of miles away. By Romita Saluja. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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Solar storms, ice cores and nuns’ teeth: the new science of history
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Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world – and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask. By Jacob Mikanowski. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: The battle over dyslexia
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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: It was once a widely accepted way of explaining why some children struggled to read and write. But in recent years, some experts have begun to question the existence of dyslexia itself. By S…
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The new science of death: ‘There’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense’
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New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought. By Alex Blasdel. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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Solidarity and strategy: the forgotten lessons of truly effective protest
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Organising is a kind of alchemy: it turns alienation into connection, despair into dedication, and oppression into strength. By Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: How Hindu supremacists are tearing India apart
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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: For seven decades, India has been held together by its constitution, which promises equality to all. But Narendra Modi’s BJP is remaking the nation into one where some people count as more I…
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How Israeli, Palestinian and US political actors understand Hamas is not merely a theoretical question – it will determine what kind of agreement can be reached to end the current war, and what the future of Gaza will look like. By Joshua Leifer. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod…
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A historic revolt, a forgotten hero, an empty plinth: is there a right way to remember slavery?
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As the author of a book about a pivotal uprising in 18th-century Jamaica, Vincent Brown was enlisted in a campaign to make its leader a national hero. But when he arrived in Jamaica, he started to wonder what he had got himself into. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod…
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From the archive: Did Brazil’s evangelical superstar have her husband killed?
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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 2021: Flordelis grew up in a Rio favela, but rose to fame after adopting more than 50 children, becoming a hugely successful gospel singer and winning a seat in congress. And now she is on trial f…
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Rage, waste and corruption: how Covid changed politics
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Four years on from the start of the pandemic, the drama may have subsided but the lingering effects go on. Are we suffering from political long Covid? By David Runciman. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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Disappearing tongues: the endangered language crisis
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Linguistic diversity on Earth is far more profound and fundamental than previously imagined. But it’s also crumbling fast. By Ross Perlin. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: The mystery of the Gatwick drone
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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: A drone sighting caused the airport to close for two days in 2018, but despite a lengthy police investigation, no culprit was ever found. So what exactly did people see in the Sussex sky? By…
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‘What’s the worst that could happen?’: Love in the sickle cell capital of the world
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The prevalence of sickle cell disease is changing how Nigerians date, marry and plan their lives. And as genetic testing becomes more common, prospective parents across the world will face similar questions. By Krithika Varagur. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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Radioactive waste, baby bottles and Spam: the deep ocean has become a dumping ground
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The ocean’s depths are not some remote alien realm, but are in fact intimately entangled with every other part of the planet. We should treat them that way. By James Bradley. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive – Out of thin air: the mystery of the man who fell from the sky
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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 2021: In 2019, the body of a man fell from a passenger plane into a garden in south London. Who was he? by Sirin Kale. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod…
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200 cats, 200 dogs, one lab: the secrets of the pet food industry
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Pet food is a £120bn industry, with vast resources spent on working out how best to nourish and delight our beloved charges. But how do we know if we’re getting it right? By Vivian Ho. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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Power grab: the hidden costs of Ireland’s datacentre boom
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Datacentres are part of Ireland’s vision of itself as a tech hub. There are now more than 80, using vast amounts of electricity. Have we entrusted our memories to a system that might destroy them? By Jessica Traynor. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: ‘Is anybody in there?’ Life on the inside as a locked-in patient
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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: Jake Haendel spent months trapped in his body, silent and unmoving but fully conscious. Most people never emerge from ‘locked-in syndrome’, but as a doctor told him, everything about his cas…
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‘It was so wrong’: why were so many people imprisoned over one protest in Bristol?
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More people have been imprisoned for rioting during a single day in Bristol in 2021 than in any other protest-related disorder since at least the 1980s. What was behind this push to prosecute so harshly? By Tom Wall. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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What we talk about when we talk about giving up
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We give things up when we believe we can change; we give up when we believe we can’t. By Adam Phillips. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive – Operation Condor: the cold war conspiracy that terrorised South America
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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: During the 1970s and 80s, eight US-backed military dictatorships jointly plotted the cross-border kidnap, torture, rape and murder of hundreds of their political opponents. Now some of the p…
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The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same
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From the generic hipster cafe to the ‘Instagram wall’, the internet has pushed us towards a kind of global ubiquity – and this phenomenon is only going to intensify. By Kyle Chayka. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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Electric mountain: the power station that shows the beauty of infrastructure
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Utilitarian as they may be, some civic projects are so monumental they approach the sublime. And one of the most elegant is hidden inside a mountain in Wales. By Deb Chachra. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: How western travel influencers got tangled up in Pakistan’s politics
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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: Travel bloggers have flocked to Pakistan in recent years – but have some of them become too close to the authorities? By Samira Shackle. Help support our independent journalism at theguardia…
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‘Can I now send the funds?’: secrets of the Conservative money machine
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To see how easy it is for the wealthy to buy political access and influence, consider the story of the Tory donor Mohamed Amersi. By Tom Burgis. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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‘Good times and dances might last for ever’: the sound of London’s Black gay scene
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For many Black gay men in 1980s and 90s Britain, nightlife was community, family and lifeline – but its history is in danger of disappearing. By Jason Okundaye. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: ‘A chain of stupidity’: the Skripal case and the decline of Russia’s spy agencies
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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: The unmasking of the Salisbury poisoning suspects by a new digital journalism outfit was an embarrassment for Putin – and evidence that Russian spies are not what they once were. By Luke Har…
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What the unrest in Leicester revealed about Britain – and Modi’s India
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A year and a half ago, Hindus and Muslims clashed in the streets of one of Britain’s most diverse cities. What lay behind the violence? By Yohann Koshy. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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The Guardian’s new podcast series about AI: Black Box – prologue
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We wanted to bring you this episode from our new series, Black Box. In it, Michael Safi explores seven stories and the thread that ties them together: artificial intelligence. In this prologue, Hannah (not her real name) has met Noah and he has changed her life for the better. So why does she have concerns about him? If you like what you hear, make…
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Precipice of fear: the freerider who took skiing to its limits
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Jérémie Heitz has pushed freeriding to breathtaking, beautiful new extremes. But as the risks get bigger, the questions do, too. By Simon Akam. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: How maverick rewilders are trying to turn back the tide of extinction
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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: A handful of radical nature lovers are secretly breeding endangered species and releasing them into the wild. Many are prepared to break the law and risk the fury of the scientific establish…
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‘Farming is a dirty word now’: the woman helping farmers navigate a grim, uncertain future
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In a moment of crisis for the industry, Heather Wildman tours the country helping farmers face up to the toughest of questions – not just about the future of their business, but about their family, their identity and even their mortality. By Bella Bathurst. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod…
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‘Ukraine fatigue’: why I’m fighting to stop the world forgetting us
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Everyone likes to support an underdog, especially if it’s winning. But it’s one thing to win a battle, it’s quite another to win the war. And Ukraine cannot win without international support. By Olesya Khromeychuk. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: Penthouses and poor doors: how Europe’s ‘biggest regeneration project’ fell flat
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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 2021: Few places have seen such turbocharged luxury development as Nine Elms in London. So why are prices tumbling, investors melting away and promises turning to dust? By Oliver Wainwright. Help …
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‘Scars on every street’: the refugee camp where generations of Palestinians have lost their futures
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Ever since the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948, many have been living in dejection and squalor in camps like Shatila in Beirut. Is this the grim future the people of Gaza could now be facing? By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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‘They were dying, and they’d not had their money’: Britain’s multibillion-pound equal pay scandal
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In 2005, Glasgow council offered to compensate women for historic pay inequality. But it sold them short again – and soon workers all over the UK started fighting for what they were owed. By Samira Shackle. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: The air conditioning trap: how cold air is heating the world
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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: The warmer it gets, the more we use air conditioning. The more we use air conditioning, the warmer it gets. Is there any way out of this trap? By Stephen Buranyi. Help support our independen…
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Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food
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Nicholas Saunders was a counterculture pioneer with an endless stream of quixotic schemes and a yearning to spread knowledge – but his true legacy is a total remaking of the way Britain eats. By Jonathan Nunn. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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‘I repeatedly failed to win any awards’: my doomed career as a North Korean novelist
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Before I fled south, I spent years as an aspiring fiction writer in the hermit kingdom. I worked hard – but literary glory kept eluding me. By Kim Ju-sŏng. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: From Lagos to Winchester – how a divisive Nigerian pastor built a global following
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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 2021: I first encountered TB Joshua as a teenager, when his preaching captivated my evangelical Christian community in Hampshire. Many of my friends became his ardent disciples and followed him to…
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‘Weapons of mass migration’: how states exploit the failure of migration policies
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Just like the war on drugs and the war on terror, efforts at stopping population movement by force often just fuel the problem. But for many claiming to confront the perceived threat, that suits all too well. By Ruben Andersson and David Keen. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod…
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Sanctuary: I grew up during The Troubles and have been seeking a place of peace ever since
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The cost of growing up in a low-level police state. By Darran Anderson. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: The bells v the boutique hotel: the battle to save Britain’s oldest factory
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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 2021: Whitechapel Bell Foundry dates back to 1570, and was the factory in which Big Ben and the Liberty Bell were made. But it shut in 2017, and a fight for its future has been raging ever since. …
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One Swedish zoo, seven escaped chimpanzees
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When the great apes at Furuvik Zoo broke free from their enclosure last winter, the keepers faced a terrible choice. This is the story of the most dramatic 72 hours of their lives. By Imogen West-Knights. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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Days of the Jackal: how Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big business
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Andrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era – but is his reign now coming to an end? By Alex Blasdel. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpodBy The Guardian
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From the archive: ‘I just needed to find my family’: the scandal of Chile’s stolen children – podcast
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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 2021: At two months old, Maria Diemar was flown to Sweden to be adopted. Years later, she tracked down her birth mother, who said her baby had been taken against her will. Now investigations are s…
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