Why did Bradley Wiggins seek advice from disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong to help him recover from cocaine addiction? What does the indictment of a US judge tell us about President Trump’s plans to take on the judiciary? How is a law from the 1800s being used to criminalise women who have abortions in 2025?

Jess Winch is joined by Marie Le Conte, Rowan Moore and Andrew Butler, as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the News Meeting Live:

• LIVE from Hay Festival on Thursday 29th May - with Chloe Dalton
• LIVE at SXSW on Wednesday 4th June - with Mona Chalabi
• LIVE from the Observer Newsroom on Tuesday 17 June - with Zing Tsjeng and NPR’s Lauren Frayer
• LIVE from the Observer Newsroom on Tuesday 29th July - with Charlene White and Kehinde Andrews

Read The Observer’s exclusive - Bradley Wiggins: ‘I was a functioning cocaine addict’ HERE

Read Marie’s column on cricket: ‘It’s like a summer fling, but I’m not sure cricket is for me’ HERE

Read more about the team’s guilty pleasure news stories here:

• Gunnersbury women’s cricket club celebrate hitting historic century
• The Cybertruck was supposed to be apocalypse-proof. Can it even survive a trip to the grocery store?
• How Video Game Sex Scenes Are Made

Follow us on Social Media:

• @ObserverUK on X
• @theobserveruk on Instagram and TikTok
• @theobserveruk.bsky.social‬ on bluesky

Host: Jess Winch, managing editor at The Observer

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producers: Jasper Corbett

To find out more about The Observer:

Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Head to our website observer.co.uk

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

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

Is youth mobility on the cards for Labour’s post-Brexit plan with Europe? Why is it so hard to record incidents of spiking? How will Labour’s immigration plan affect international students and higher education?

Giles Whittell is joined by Rebecca Myers, Katie Riley and Cat Neilan, as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the News Meeting Live

• LIVE from Hay Festival on Thursday 29th May - with Chloe Dalton
• LIVE at SXSW on Wednesday 4th June - with Mona Chalabi
• LIVE from the Observer Newsroom on Tuesday 17 June - with Zing Tsjeng and NPR’s Lauren Frayer
• LIVE from the Observer Newsroom on Tuesday 29th July - with Charlene White and Kehinde Andrews

Follow us on Social Media:

• @ObserverUK on X
• @theobserveruk on Instagram and TikTok
• @theobserveruk.bsky.social‬ on bluesky

Host: Giles Whittell, deputy editor-in-chief at The Observer

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producers: Rebecca Moore

To find out more about The Observer:

Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Head to our website observer.co.uk

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

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

How will Labour’s immigration legislation affect the UK’s care sector? What are the potential conflicts of interests if Trump accepts a jet from Qatar? The Indian Premier League is set to return after the competition was suspended amid rising tension in Kashmir, but what does this tell us about India's power in international cricket?

Rebecca Moore is joined by Orwell Prize winning Pete Apps, alongside The Observer’s Patricia Clarke and Jessy Parker Humphreys, as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the next edition of the News Meeting Live on Tuesday 13th May HERE

Read Patricia Clarke’s article in full: ‘How the US president and his clan ushered in a new golden age of corruption’

Follow us on Social Media:

• @ObserverUK on X
• @theobserveruk on Instagram and TikTok
• @theobserveruk.bsky.social‬ on bluesky

Host: Rebecca Moore, executive producer at Tortoise

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producers: Rebecca Moore and Matt Russell

To find out more about The Observer:

Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Head to our website observer.co.uk

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

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

As tensions rise between the two nuclear powers and US remains noticeably missing from the world stage, who will be the guarantor of peace between India and Pakistan? What does the new US-UK trade deal tell us about the new world order? Elon Musk is stepping away from Doge, was his time in government a success or costly failure?

Jess Winch is joined by author Quinn Slobodian and The Observer’s Rebecca Moore and Jasper Corbett, as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the next edition of the News Meeting Live on Tuesday 13th May HERE

Purchase Quinn’s book ‘Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right’ HERE

Read more about the team’s guilty pleasure news stories HERE

• He injected himself with snake venom hundreds of times. His blood could ‘revolutionize’ snakebite treatment

Follow us on Social Media:

• @ObserverUK on X
• @theobserveruk on Instagram and TikTok
• @theobserveruk.bsky.social‬ on bluesky

Host: Rebecca Moore, executive producer at Tortoise

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producers: Rebecca Moore and Matt Russell

To find out more about The Observer:

Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Head to our website observer.co.uk

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

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

Why are there calls to return British art like the original Winnie-the-Pooh doll from America to the UK? Trump and Zelensky have finally signed the US-Ukraine mineral deal, but who is the real winner? With wedding season approaching, what lengths are people willing to take to look slimmer on the big day?

Rebecca Moore is joined by Jeevan Vasagar, James Tapper and Vanessa Thorpe, as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the next edition of the News Meeting Live on Tuesday 29th April HERE

Listen to James Tapper’s Sensemaker episode, 'The Down sides of weightloss drugs’ HERE

Read more about the team’s guilty pleasure news stories here:

• Number of children playing recorder halves in a decade
• Paul Mescal headlines National Theatre’s bold new season as Stormzy debuts for ground-breaking collaboration
• Slow news: Cumbria tortoise found a mile from home nine months after going missing

Follow us on Social Media:

• @ObserverUK on X,
• @theObserveruk on Instagram and TikTok
• @theobserveruk.bsky.social‬ on bluesky

Host: Rebecca Moore, executive producer at Tortoise

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producers: Rebecca Moore and Jasper Corbett

To find out more about The Observer:

Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Head to our website observer.co.uk

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

If you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact hello@tortoisemedia.com

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

What do councils do with the money they get from renting public spaces out for festivals? How will the Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of a woman impact our day-to-day lives? And North Korea has confirmed it sent troops to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine.

Giles Whittell is joined by Rebecca Moore, Chloe Hadjimatheou and Miranda Sawyer as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the next edition of the News Meeting Live on Tuesday 29th April here: https://observer.co.uk/our-events/the-news-meeting-live

Get in touch and let us know what you think should lead the news. Send a voice note to newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.com

Follow us on Social Media:

• @tortoise on IG and X,
• @tortoisemedia on tiktok
• @tortoisemedia.bsky.social on bluesky

Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content

Head to our website observer.co.uk

Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

Host: Giles Whittell

Email: newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.com

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producer: Matt Russell

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

Donald Trump has failed to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, how frustrated is he with Russia’s latest round of attacks on Kyiv? Ofcom published its news set of rules tech firms must comply with - or else. And how have the devastating attacks in Kashmir reignited tensions between India and Pakistan?

Giles Whittell is joined by Rebecca Moore, Stephen Armstrong and Cat Neilan, as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the next edition of the News Meeting Live on Tuesday 29th April here: https://www.tortoisemedia.com/our-events/the-news-meeting-live-2

Get in touch and let us know what you think should lead the news. Send a voice note to newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.com

Read more about the team’s guilty pleasure news stories here:

• The ‘Profound’ Experience of Seeing a New Color
• A Roman Gladiator and a Lion Met in Combat. Only One Walked Away

Follow us on Social Media:

• @tortoise on IG and X,
• @tortoisemedia on tiktok
• @tortoisemedia.bsky.social on bluesky

Host: Giles Whittell

Email: newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.com

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producer: Jasper Corbett

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

What does the government’s takeover of the Scunthorpe steelworks mean for the future of UK industry? Why is a bin strike in Birmingham exposing deep cracks in Britain’s social fabric? And who’s paying the price for Trump’s cuts to US foreign aid?

Rebecca Moore is joined by Katie Gunning, Stephen Armstrong and NPR’s Lauren Frayer as they battle to pitch the top story of the day.

**Join us at the next edition of the News Meeting Live on Tuesday 29th April here: https://www.tortoisemedia.com/our-events/the-news-meeting-live-2

Get in touch and let us know what you think should lead the news. Send a voice note to newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.com

Read more about the team’s guilty pleasure news stories here:

• US blocks Canadian access to cross-border library
• Batman and Robin costumed police make arrests
• Katy Perry kisses the ground as she leaves capsule

Listen to Stephen’s Slow Newscast episode, 'DIE, DIE, DEI’ here: lnk.to/8NMCoV

Listen to Lauren’s report on the impact of US aid cuts in Syria here: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/14/nx-s1-5342255/how-trumps-cuts-to-u-s-foreign-aid-have-hobbled-syrias-war-crimes-investigations

Follow us on Social Media:

• @tortoise on IG and X,
• @tortoisemedia on tiktok
• @tortoisemedia.bsky.social on bluesky

Host: Rebecca Moore, executive producer at Tortoise

Email: newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.com

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive Producer: Rebecca Moore and Jasper Corbett

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