This fall marks 10 years since we launched the Guardian Long Read. Looking back now, it’s hard to remember how counterintuitive this idea was at the time. At the time, readers were still increasingly willing to read things longer than a few hundred words, or even 140 characters. Creating a space in the Guardian dedicated to publishing multiple 5,000 (or more) words a week, many of which take months or even years to produce, is a strange project. It seemed like. Thankfully, our readers aren’t, and we’ve learned a lot about everything from the “brutal, paranoid and failed” Home Office and the fight against Islamic State to the strange world of competitive farming and the rise of hygge. They embraced our deeply researched stories.

Just a few months after launching The Long Read, our audio team had the bright idea to start the Audio Long Read Podcast. The idea was simple: get a good voice actor to read the article. That was it. We found that our listeners loved it. (A few years ago, I met Ed Miliband briefly and he said he likes to listen to podcasts when he swims in the pool.)

Since then, we’ve created well over 1,000 audio long reads. If you spend 12 hours a day doing nothing, it would take you about two months to listen to everything. While we wholeheartedly support this way of spending your time, we’ve selected just five of our favorites below.

We also have a range of 10th-anniversary content available in our audio long-form feed, and earlier this week, we began a roundtable discussion between editors about the section’s past, present, and future. And over the next 10 weeks, the podcast will be highlighting some of our favorite audio long reads from each year, along with new introductions from authors.

david wolf
The Guardian Editor-in-Chief’s Long Read

This week’s picks

Margate murder case
Audible, all episodes now available
Sheridan Smith and Joanne Froggatt lead the cast in this dangerously gluttonous untrue crime drama. A serial murder case occurs once every 10 years, and as a forensic psychologist, detective, and local newspaper reporter discuss the case, it becomes clear that not everyone’s testimony is reliable. Although the story is scripted, it sounds like a convincing true crime story, thanks to the actors’ deft direction and a refreshingly understated realism. Hannah Verdier

Single women in your area
Wide range of weekly episodes available
Prepare for contagious hysteria. In this raucous giggle-fest, hear comedians Harriet Kemsley and Amy Gledhill grapple with being single in your 30s. Is true love lurking on rodeo night? How can I find a partner who will please my picky 2-year-old daughter? Is true love washing someone’s skid-marked pants? All will be revealed. Alexi Duggins

The Secret World: Alphayed, Harrods Predator
BBC Sounds, all episodes now available
This Mohamed Al-Fayed expose series may be a little stilted in narration, but the victims’ astonishing testimonies are truly heart-wrenching. Hearing the stories of staff who have had their crotches grabbed, been raped, or had their ovaries checked by an in-house doctor is horrifying and a testament to the courage of those who speak out. advertisement

from now on
Wide range of weekly episodes available
Presenter Lisa Phillips is a former model who was abused on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island when she was 21 years old. Here she shares her story and uses it to help other abuse survivors. Part confessional, part interviews with guests, including former cult members, it transforms from the confessional of a brave soul into a deeply insightful psychological help book. advertisement

correct delicious pub quiz
Wide range of weekly episodes available
Every week, award-winning chef Tom Kerridge and broadcaster friend Chris Stark invite you to take part in a pub quiz at Kerridge’s gourmet bar, The Butcher’s Tap and Grill in Chelsea. Celebrity guests will be answering questions and giving food talks, with the first few episodes starting with Jamie Redknapp and Pixie Lott. Holly Richardson

There’s a podcast for that

this week, charlie lindler choose the best five Guardian audio long text readingfrom Archie Brand’s essay on the rise and fall of ‘jokes’ to Michael Aylwin’s shocking account of his wife’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

era of jokes
Archie Bland’s 2017 read takes us back to the heyday of LadBible and Dapper Laughs. So we examine the era of brash and gory comedy and ask what it was all about. Archie meets a group of “party pilgrims” who take a night boat from Ayia Napa to Syria, tracing the history of youth magazines and interrogating the pinnacle of this strange culture. Richard Keys and Andy Gray are questioned over their departure from Sky over sexism. A comment that, in the immortal words of “Kesey,” was “just a joke.” “Is it time to get off the banter bus?” the piece asks. Yes, of course, but this great piece is worth riding one last time.

For more from Archie, sign up for our inaugural newsletter here

How a dazzling creative wife in her 40s recovered from Alzheimer’s disease
In August this year, Guardian journalist Michael Aylwin wrote a remarkable article about his wife Vanessa and her battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Aylwin considers Vanessa’s early signs of dementia, her strength as the disease ate away at her, and recalls how their relationship changed as it took hold. This is a tough, must-read book that reveals the truth about the disease, the strain it places on marriages, and the damage that can be done by not speaking up about its effects. Michael’s description of his “dazzling and creative” wife and her “cruel and unanswerable” degradation is even more moving when heard in his own words.

My 4 miscarriages: Why is pregnancy loss so mysterious?
This 2020 full-length book explores perhaps the most personal burden of all: fertility. After experiencing four consecutive miscarriages, journalist Jenny Agg explores the words we use to describe losing a pregnancy, the circumstances of miscarriage care, and what she could do to change what happened to her. I decided to investigate whether there was anything I could do. Agg gracefully writes, “To become pregnant again after a previous miscarriage is to live at the crossroads of two lives,” and Emma Powell matches her in a gripping reading of her profound words. . Additionally, Agg delves deeper into the urgent need for better miscarriage treatment on this 2021 episode of Today in Focus.

How sandwiches consumed Britain
Believe it or not, there was a time before Pret a Manger, Greggs and Tesco meal deals. Lunch used to be something completely different. So how did we arrive at the sandwich monoculture? Author Sam Knight traces the packaged sandwich back to its roots in the 1980s, and how Marks & Spencer’s Egg and Cress Triangle came to be in the 80s. We look at how it has grown into a £billion industry, where ‘sandwich people’ have come to pre-empt and often dictate what people eat for lunch. Knight reads this episode’s story with the same sense of wonder and whimsy with which he wrote the original.

Cotton Capital: Repulsion – How slavery research came under criticism
As part of The Guardian’s 2023 series examining the paper’s founder and its historical links to slavery, Samira Shackle will be reviewing a series of articles taking place at universities and other public institutions. We delved into similar studies and the harsh backlash that accompanied them. Shackle meets intrepid historian Nicholas Bel Romero and accompanies him on his quest to understand Cambridge’s troubled past. It’s not just about how scholarship drew from slavery, but, in Shackle’s words, “how that scholarship may have reinforced, validated, or challenged race-based thinking.” . Important parts of your report will be more convincing in audio format. To learn more about the Cotton Capital project, visit the project homepage or sign up for our 15-week newsletter series.

Why not try it…

• Dig deeper into unusual hobbies, from Warhammer to wild turkey conservation. Niche that meets you.

• Learn how a 5-year-old Cuban boy sparked a “mini-Cold War.” Chess Pieces: The Story of Elian González.

• deserterThe New York Times’ new “audio feature” features Sarah A. Topol’s epic report on a fugitive Russian military officer, narrated by Liev Schreiber.