This week, Priyanka sits down with Sean Morrisson to discuss an Avon and Somerset police report leaked to the Cable. The report demonstrates that the police messaging around the impact of stop and search powers is misaligned with the public messaging around this. Topics include discussions around strip searching which could be distressing. Bristol …

Has the council stuck to a commitment it made in 2019 to work more ethically with people who owe it money? What can we expect on this issue from the new Green Party led administration? And why is it so important to stick with stories like this over the long term? Head to www.thebristolcable.org/join to become a member, and subscribe to The Bristol …

Cable reporter Sean Morrison takes us inside our new campaign to say no to section 60 - special powers being used to to crack down on knife crime that are disproportionately targeting people of colour and leaving them traumatised. Head to www.thebristolcable.org/join to become a member, and subscribe to The Bristol Cable wherever you get your podca…

The Cable’s Priyanka Raval interviews freelance reporter Adam Quarshie about trade unions’ response to recent far-right unrest in Bristol, how they can do more for migrant workers, and whether their past relationship with racism needs to be reckoned with. Head to www.thebristolcable.org/join to become a member, and subscribe to People Just Do Somet…

Fans of Bundyville should check out this new podcast from host Leah Sottile and producer Ryan Haas. In the first season, we look at the case of Jesse Lee Johnson, a Black man who lived for 17 years on Oregon’s death row for a crime he says he didn’t commit, and we try to understand why the state tried for so long to kill him.…

Join Cable journalists Priyanka and Sean as they reflect on what’s driving the far right violence across the country, and Bristol's incredible show of solidarity as thousands took to the streets to say no to hatred. Head to www.thebristolcable.org/join to become a member, and subscribe to The Bristol Cable wherever you get your podcasts.…

Climate activist and author Mikaela Loach spoke at a packed out Cable Live event in June about how she processed her climate guilt, the impact of the climate crisis that is already happening and how we can fight for a more just future. Head to www.thebristolcable.org/join to become a member, and subscribe to The Bristol Cable wherever you get your …

What happens when a notoriously hard to prove crime, meets a failing criminal justice system and a society still mired in misogyny? This Cable investigation, originally published in August 2023, led us down a road exploring this exact question, revealing the full, complex story of how the Bristol police force deals with sexual violence. Hosted on A…

This is the third in a series of talks recorded at the Bristol Transformed 2024, a grassroots festival of radical politics, arts and culture for which The Bristol Cable was a media partner. Throughout this series, you’ll hear from a range of voices, including Cable journalists, talking on topics with a focus on political organising. In this event, …

Join Matty Edwards and Priyanka Raval for a special, slightly delirious general election results debrief; A total Tory wipeout, a Labour landslide and a groundbreaking gain for the Green party, our journalists have been up all night at counts across the city, getting up close and personal with the winners, losers and inbetweeners of the general ele…

This is a live recording of the housing general election hustings hosted by Shelter at the Malcolm X Centre in St Paul’s in Bristol on Wednesday 26 June 2024. In this event organised by housing charity Shelter, Conservative, Green and Lib Dem general election candidates for the Bristol Central seat – plus a Labour councillor, standing in for their …

The general election is almost upon us – and across the Bristol area people are deciding how they will cast their votes on 4 July. Many will be doing so in newly mapped constituencies, which have been affected by boundary changes. These changes could have a real impact on the elections’ outcome. Today our Area in Focus is North East Somerset and Ha…

This is the second of a short series of talks recorded at the Bristol Transformed festival 2024, a grassroots and volunteer led festival of radical politics, arts and culture for which The Bristol Cable was a media partner. Throughout this series, you’ll hear from a range of voices, including Cable journalists, talking on topics with a focus on pol…

This is the first of a short series of talks recorded at the Bristol Transformed festival 2024; a grassroots and volunteer led festival of radical politics, arts and culture for which The Bristol Cable was a media partner. Throughout this series, you’ll hear from a range of voices, including Cable journalists, talking on topics with a focus on poli…

This is a live recording of An evening with Owen Jones, recorded at Strange Brew on May 28th. In this event, cable journalist Priyanka Raval sat down with Owen Jones to discuss the general election, why he quit the Labour party, Carol Vorderman, the crisis in Palestine and what he thinks makes Bristol so unique. Subscribe to The Bristol Cable on Sp…

Priyanka and Matty sit down to preview what the general election is going to look like in and around Bristol. Could Bristol produce the Green’s second ever MP? And do Labour really have a chance of winning seats of the Tories on Bristol’s outskirts? Subscribe to The Bristol Cable on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted …

Drug policy in the UK causes more harm than good, and it has to change. But how do we push for change, and what are the most significant issues we need to address? Join drug researcher, neuropharmacologist, and chairman of Drug Science David Nutt in discussing what a new approach to drugs could mean for our city, families, and community. David Nutt…

This time in 2023, if you passed through St Paul’s on a Thursday afternoon you’d find a group of people – from primary kids to pensioners – gathered on Ashley Road to protest the closure of the local dentist. It was part of a wave of planned cuts by private health giant BUPA, affecting 85 practices. The dental practice closure made local headlines.…

Last week the Green Party seized a historic victory at Bristol's local elections, gaining 10 seats but falling just short of the 36 needed for an overall majority in the council chamber. The Greens had been expected to come out as the largest party, as eight years of Labour rule under mayor Marvin Rees came to an end – and with it the city's mayora…

Emma Edwards is the leader of Bristol Green Party who could well be in charge of the council for the first time after May's local elections. She chats to Neil about the Green's vision for doing politics in a more transparent and collaborative way, how they'd sort out our public transport, and whether they're ready to make the tricky transition from…

Neil Maggs sits down with Mark Weston, who was first elected as a councillor nearly 20 years ago, and has led the local Tory party for a decade. On the eve of the local elections, they discuss the Tories miserable national polling, the so-called 'war on motorists' being waged by Bristol City Council, and the cultural divides between Bristol's inner…

Jos Clark is an experienced local councillor now leading the Lib Dems into Bristol's local elections. A party that used to have strong support in the city has seen its seats dwindle over the last decade. The critic of Marvin Rees and the mayoral system, who helped manoeuvre the referendum on introducing the new committee system, talks to Neil Maggs…

Just three years after being first elected as a councillor, Labour's Tom Renhard is now leading the party into May's local elections. Neil Maggs asks him about his record as the city's housing chief, why he thinks the Greens aren't up to the task of being in power and Labour's plans for building new homes, campaigning for rent controls and bringing…

It’s almost six months since the Cable asked why Bristol’s performance on FOI requests was so poor. As the city’s political system prepares to change, Alex Turner talks to Priyanka Raval about why this is important, and whether we can look forward to more open local government. Back in autumn 2023, Bristol City Council was being scrutinised over it…

On 2 May 2024, Bristol will wave goodbye to its mayor and return to a committee system. Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins chats with Priyanka Raval about what we can learn from Sheffield's experience of local government reform. In just a few weeks, Bristol will wave goodbye to its mayor Marvin Rees – and to the system of governance that he has represented.Ins…

This Cable longread – on co-design, a participatory approach to designing solutions – was first published in October 2022, and followed up on proposals that Bristol City Council had been considering around demolishing and rebuilding some of its estates. The council has so far not pursued these plans. But in light of the Barton House tower block eva…

Listen: The Debrief, digging deeper into revelations of institutional racism at a local NHS trust Priyanka Raval discusses the inside story of her recent investigation into racism in health services, and what it says about the state of the NHS, with Cable colleague Matty Edwards It was 23 June 2023 when the Cable journalist Priyanka Raval received …

Over just 18 days at the end of January and the start of February, three Bristol teenagers lost their lives. Knife crime is a national issue that’s as complex as it is devastating, and it doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s set in a wider social context where housing, school exclusion, unemployment, mental health, and government cuts can be issues at …

This investigation, months in the making, reveals racism in Bristol hospitals.Our journalist Priyanka Raval was contacted by whistleblowers from local NHS trust University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW), many of whom have been recruited by the NHS from overseas to deal with the UK's chronic staffing shortages. The Cable has been investigating …

On 15 May 2022, a group of Palestine Action protesters, two of them dissident Israeli citizens, smashed their way into the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of Israel’s largest arms manufacturer. The date of the action is significant – it marked the anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for ‘catastrophe’, when the mass displacement …

Kingswood is about to undergo radical makeover, at least politically. The Bristol-South Gloucestershire border town’s voters will at this year’s general election find themselves going to the polls in one of four new constituencies – with their current one set to disappear altogether under boundary changes being made to the political map of the UK. …

Salma, a lawyer who spent her childhood in Gaza, shares the 'dystopian' experience of life under occupation and knowing your family are in a war zone, as well as discussing happier memories and pro-Palestinian activism in the UK. Content warning: contains graphic descriptions of war and violence Salma Hajjar is a young trainee solicitor who spent h…

Join the renowned writer, broadcaster and academic for a powerful talk exploring his childhood and journalism career, and how his experiences have shaped his work. Gary Younge is a renowned, award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster, and now a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. In the latest episode of our new Cable Live…

Inside Bristol’s ‘murder factory’ arms facility, with the activists on trial for occupying it Stavit Sinai opens her phone to find she’s been added to a group on encrypted messaging app Signal. The 38-year-old, a philosophy teacher at a community college in Berlin, has been asked to take part in a direct-action protest at the Bristol headquarters o…

Neil chats to Ruth, a daughter of the Windrush generation, on her decades of work with Bristol's voluntary and community groups, how that's changed as public services have been cut – and whether she feels conflicted about receiving an honour associated with empire Ruth Pitter has been a stalwart of Bristol’s voluntary sector for decades – and in Ja…

Shon Faye is a writer and presenter, and the author of the award-winning Sunday Times bestseller The Transgender Issue, which was first published in 2021 and has since been republished in multiple languages. She also hosted the critically acclaimed LGBTQ+ history podcast, Call Me Mother. Shon is currently working on her second book, has been a co-p…

Bristol Unpacked with BBC journalist Lucy Proctor on mad cows, Covid and conspiracy theories Thirty years ago, BSE was spreading across the UK while the government insisted beef was safe. Neil asks Lucy, producer of The Cows are Mad podcast, about the scandal – and how conspiracy theories have thrived as trust in the establishment has nosedived. Ov…

When a millionaire, yacht-owning rogue landlord evicted the owners of a well-loved St Pauls cafe, it sparked protests. And now, two years on, a clearer picture of the messy situation has emerged… Hidden Corner was a popular cafe and bookshop in Portland Square, St Pauls. So when its owners were turfed out, its doors bolted shut with heavy chains by…

Listen: Bristol Unpacked with Watershed CEO Clare Reddington on cinema, class and council cuts As Bristol City Council slashes spending on venues including arthouse cinema Watershed, Neil asks its boss Clare why funding the arts matters, and whether the sector's reputation as catering mainly to the well-heeled is justified. Over the past year Clare…

In the last few months, Wesley Bear has been at the forefront of actions by ACORN. That's the community union known nationally for taking direct action to stand up for tenants' rights, which originated in Bristol almost a decade ago. On 17 November Wesley, ACORN's communications officer, was involved in an altercation with security guards at the Ho…

Moya Lothian-Maclean is a contributing editor at Novara Media and presenter of the Human Resources podcast, which explores British involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and how it touches every part of the nation. She’s a regular on TV and radio, and writes about society, politics and culture for publications including gal-dem, the New York …

Peter Apps is a journalist at the specialist magazine Inside Housing, and author of the Orwell Prize-winning book, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen. In the first episode of our new Cable Live podcast strand – where we sit down with writers, academics and activists from across the UK, putting the Cable’s work in the national conversati…

Content warning: audio contains graphic discussions of violence Eight years ago, filmmaker Aodh Breathnach was stabbed multiple times during a night out on Stokes Croft, and rushed in a taxi to the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Aodh was lucky. He recovered from injuries to his head and body within a few weeks and tried to put the attack out of his mind,…

The Cable has been speaking to residents of east Bristol on the eve of the city's first so-called 'liveable neighbourhood' coming into effect. The trial scheme will stop cars driving through the area along certain roads in an attempt to reduce air pollution, and make the area of narrow residential streets safer for walking and cycling. Similar sche…

Pakistan's Christians have long been marginalised and pushed into sewer cleaning work. Now, some are fighting back. Written by Saad Zuberi. Read by Laura Lockwood.By Al Jazeera

In Berlin, comedians from Ukraine and Russia share the same stage as an outlet for their grief and anger about the war. Written by Verena Hoelzl. Read by Richard Martin.By Al Jazeera

How a flourishing underground subculture is providing a welcome escape from the realities of war. Written by Nils Adler. Read by Xzavian Wrushen.By Al Jazeera

Partners caught on different sides of the yearlong conflict reflect on how it has affected their relationships. Written by Pearly Jacob. Read by Emma Jones.By Al Jazeera

Despite the dangers of war, many winemakers have continued to operate, buoyed by growing demand for local wines. Written by Nils Adler. Read by Pete Ferrand.By Al Jazeera