Cost of living: An Indian waste-picking ...

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. 

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. 

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

The past few years gave way to a boom in the number of people joining direct selling schemes in India who were lured in by the false promise of riches. These tactics – imported from the West – have been quietly growing without much scrutiny. Ria – not her real name – fell prey to ... Show More

The biggest political story of the year - David Cameron's involvement with the failed financial company Greensill - began as a scoop in The Financial Times. The newspaper has gained a reputation lately for its long-form investigations into poverty, deprivation and capitalist exce ... Show More

Before she was killed by a Russian missile strike, the acclaimed novelist and war crimes researcher wrote about growing up in Moscow’s shadow, and how she came to understand what being Ukrainian really meant. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod 

India has the second largest population of any country in the world -- yet it has only 50 decent bookshops, says publisher Chiki Sarkar. So she asked herself: How do we get more people reading books? Find out how Sarkar is tapping into India's smartphone revolution to create a ne ... Show More

In the first of a three-part series, Gideon talks to Ukraine MP Lesia Vasylenko about what it was like to wake up in a country at war, how Ukrainians surprised the world with their fightback, and the need for reparations and justice for the victims of Russia’s war crimes. More on ... Show More

Syrian born reporter Lina Sinjab presents a special series from Assignment’s award winning archive on the 10 years of civil war in her country.This week an extraordinary story from 2016, reported by Mike Thomson, about a secret library stored in the basement of a crumbling house ... Show More

Record numbers are fleeing the island in the wake of a brutal economic crisis – perhaps one in twenty five Sri Lankans left last year alone. Some 300,000 went for contracted positions, mostly in the Gulf. But hundreds of thousands of others took less official routes. Many of them ... Show More

Amongst the millions of documents released in the ‘Pandora Papers’ leak of offshore financial information are a number of documents that one British Iranian family business would rather have remained hidden. In this investigation Assignment follows the trail of millions of dollar ... Show More

Waste, trash, garbage – whatever you call it, unwanted materials have become a major presence in many of our lives and our environment. Every year it is estimated that humans around the world produce 2 billion metric tonnes of waste. Listener Clare from Devon in the UK wants to s ... Show More