It starts with a tip-off.
It’s the late 1980s and US Special Agent Dennis Bass is warned about a shipment of suspicious chemicals headed to a secret destination. So he follows the lead – and ends up stumbling into a global plot helping fuel a war. The main suspect? The Gas Man.
In the decades since, Special Agent Bass has been locked in an international game of cat and mouse with the man who supplied a dangerous regime with the chemicals to make weapons. Every time Bass thinks he’s got his hands on him… The Gas Man somehow manages to slip the net. And he’s still on the run today.
But after more than 30 years, could his past finally be catching up with The Gas Man?
To find out more about Tortoise:
Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalists
Subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content
Become a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more
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
Reporter: Chloe Hadjimatheou
Producer: Claudia Williams
Editor: Jasper Corbett
Narrative editor: Gary Marshall
Sound design: Hannah Varrall
Original theme music: Tom Kinsella
Original artwork: Jon Hill
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dr Ruja Ignatova persuaded millions to join her financial revolution. Then she disappeared. Why? Jamie Bartlett presents a story of greed, deceit and herd madness.
Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.
The Slow Newscast from The Observer takes the news slowly. We investigate, and every week we focus on stories that really matter in the UK and around the world. From wars in Ukraine and Gaza through to true crime and injustice and real life mysteries, The Slow Newscast team is devoted to narrative investigations covering some of the biggest topics of the day.
Who are the people biohacking themselves in a quest for immortality? Or the man taking on an entire nation in the high seas to protect whales? And what happened when humanity's most distant messenger fell silent? From a newsroom with a different approach to journalism these are the stories we tell.
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
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Listen to all six episodes today.
Rob Moore had a successful career in television until one day he ran out of ideas. After a stint as a gardener, a more enticing door was opened for him. He was offered a job in the shadowy world of corporate intelligence - he became a spy.
Tasked with working undercover to extract information from an environmental campaign group, Rob Moore says he eventually became sympathetic to the campaigners’ aims. He decided to turn on his employers and support the group he was meant to be infiltrating. Only it wasn’t that straightforward. He never told the campaigners who he really was and he never told his spymasters what he was really doing. Neither side knew the whole truth.
That was until 2016, when after years of being in control of these two disparate worlds he was unexpectedly outed. Now, the campaigners see him as a traitor who betrayed their trust. He sees himself as a misunderstood whistleblower.
From the team that brought you Sweet Bobby, and over three years in the making, Into The Dirt is a story about truth, spies and the stories we tell ourselves
The six-part series launches Tuesday 27th June. To get early access to the first 3 episodes and for the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists, download the free Tortoise audio app. For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts.
If you’d like to further support slow journalism and help us build a different kind of newsroom, do consider donating to Tortoise at tortoisemedia.com/support-us. Your contributions allow us to investigate, campaign and explore, and to build a newsroom that is responsible and sustainable.
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Without us realising, an enormous DNA database has been created online. It holds the secrets of your true identity and promises to reveal untold family connections. But what happens when online ancestry tests reveal more than you had bargained for?
Across two series, Jenny Kleeman meets the men and women whose lives changed forever after they opened a box that contained a DNA test. Exposing scandals, upending identities, solving mysteries and delivering life-changing news - Jenny investigates what happens when genealogy, technology and identity collide.
In a brand new bonus episode, Searching – available on BBC Sounds from 22 February, 2025 – Jenny meets a family who are in a race against time to find the baby they believe was switched at birth.
Scams are no longer run by individuals. Instead, the bulk of scams now come from a network of high-security compounds in SE Asia, where an estimated 400,000 people live in slavery and are forced to run scams 24/7. In this multi-part video podcast, we'll dive into the terrifying world of 'scammer farms'. We'll meet people who've been trapped and escaped — and others who are desperately trying to rein in this exploding new business model.
This is a What It Was Like Special
Produced by Superreal
Hosted by Julian Morgans
Find us on TikTok, and YouTube
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A window into our world, through in-depth storytelling from the BBC. Investigating, reporting and uncovering true stories from everywhere. Award-winning journalism, unheard voices, amazing culture and global issues.
From Trump's new world order, to war in Sudan, to climate issues, The Documentary investigates major global stories.
We delve into social media, take you into the minds of the world's most creative people and explore personal approaches to spirituality. Every week, we also bring together people from around the globe to discuss how news stories are affecting their lives.
A new episode most days, all year round. From our BBC World Service teams at: Assignment, Heart and Soul, In the Studio, OS Conversations, The Fifth Floor and Trending.
The Telepathy Tapes is a podcast that explores the origins of consciousness and the unexplained abilities of ESP through science, verifiable experience, formal testing, and human story. In Season One, non-speaking individuals with autism reveal striking telepathic abilities that challenge everything we thought we knew about the mind. In Season Two, the lens widens to extraordinary experiences that invite us to rethink reality itself. From near death experiences to telepathic communication with animals, energy healing to plant intelligence, and the origins of creativity to sudden savant abilities -- each episode offers a rare glimpse into the vast terrain of consciousness beyond the brain.
Global investigations from the BBC. Uncovering stories around the world and telling them, episode by episode, with gripping storytelling. Delve into a World of Secrets.
Latest season: Death in Dubai. A woman falls from a tower block. It's caught on camera and the clip goes viral. Within hours, Mona Kizz’s name is trending worldwide. In death, the beautiful 23-year-old Ugandan is accused of being a #DubaiPortaPotty. With over 450 million views on TikTok, the hashtag leads to parodies and speculative exposés of women suspected of being paid by men to be their human toilet. But nothing is as it seems. Behind the online rumours lies an even darker reality.
Also, previously on World of Secrets: Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods. Women accuse Mohamed Al Fayed of rape.
And: The Abercrombie Guys. Investigating sexual exploitation claims against the former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch.
It’s the early 1970s, and a young British family is attempting to sail around the world when catastrophe strikes.
The Robertsons have sold everything they own to embark on this trip. But their epic odyssey soon turns into a desperate fight for their lives in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Dougal and Lyn, their teenage son Douglas, 12-year-old twins Sandy and Neil, and young hitchhiker Robin find themselves hundreds of miles from land, with few supplies, no radio contact, and surrounded by sharks.
Drifting in the vast emptiness, they must rely on their instincts and harness the elements to survive. Yet even with deadly predators circling, they discover that sometimes their worst enemy is...themselves.
Adrift is an Apple Original podcast, produced by Blanchard House. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
apple.co/Adrift
