Into The Dirt

From the team that brought you Sweet Bobby, and over three years in the making, Tortoise introduces Into The Dirt – a story about truth, spies and the stories we tell ourselves.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. Was Rob a misunderstood whistleblower or a traitor to a cause? Our latest six-part podcast series explores the extraordinary story of private spy, Rob Moore.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.

Three years ago a former private spy came to our newsroom at Tortoise. He told an incredible story about infiltrating a campaign group, deceiving people for years but all the while being a 'double agent', before his world fell apart. And it all played out in the opaque world of corporate intelligence. Since then, journalist Ceri Thomas has been asking who Rob Moore really is and what his motivations were. This is a six-part series from Tortoise with new episodes being released every Tuesday and Thursday. To get early access to the first 5 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.

It’s 2012 and Rob Moore goes 'into the dirt', undercover, to infiltrate a group of campaigners fighting for a ban on deadly asbestos. None of them knew they had a private spy in the camp. But it's hard to stay hidden forever.This is a six-part series from Tortoise with new episodes being released every Tuesday and Thursday. To get early access to the first 5 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.

Rob Moore says he can justify going undercover among anti-asbestos campaigners because he was following a Buddhist principle, turning poison into medicine. To this day he believes that if the people he infiltrated would really listen to his story they'd understand him differently. But does his story really stand up to scrutiny?This is a six-part series from Tortoise with new episodes being released every Tuesday and Thursday. To get early access to the first 5 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.

Rob is adamant that in all the years he was undercover, he never sent information back to his spymasters that harmed the campaigners. But when you're the only one in control of the decisions, can you always get it right? This is a six-part series from Tortoise with new episodes being released every Tuesday and Thursday. To listen to all episodes today, 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.

When Global Witness out Rob in 2015, things quickly fall apart. He loses everything that matters to him but to this day he believes that if his voice had been heard, it would have all worked out differently. This is a six-part series from Tortoise with new episodes being released every Tuesday and Thursday. 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.

In the final episode, Ceri travels to meet Rob in a peaceful garden in rural Wiltshire. What unfolds is a heated exchange about what Rob's story really is and what adds up to the whole truth.Our next investigation: Three doors down launches on Tuesday 18th July. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists, download the free Tortoise audio app. For early and ad-free access to Three doors down and our other investigative series, 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.

Nikki Allan was 7 years old when she was brutally murdered. Her mother never gave up the hunt to find her killer. David Boyd was a convicted child sex offender who lived three doors down from where Nikki first went missing. So how did it take the police thirty years to find him? This is a story of class prejudice, police corruption and a shocking miscarriage of justice.

Introducing...Dangerous MemoriesWhen Sarah watched her 23 year old daughter cycle away from her in Chelsea - a well-off corner of London - she had no idea it would be the last time they’d see each other for 6 years. What would make a loving child from a life of privilege sever ties with friends and family, and disappear? It turns out, Sarah wasn’t alone in losing a daughter. Something strange was happening to other young women, too.And they all had one thing in common: a kind of therapist figure - a woman they were all seeing and sharing their problems, their secrets, their fears with. But it took years for the truth of what was happening behind closed doors to emerge, and the extraordinary things this woman led them to believe.Dangerous Memories is the story of young women who wanted to be healed that became, for us, a story about the healer, and what we risk when we let someone else into our mind, and our memory. The first 2 episodes are out now and released weekly. To binge-listen to all 6 episodes ad-free from today, subscribe to Tortoise+ or download the Tortoise appTo find out more about Tortoise:Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalistsSubscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free contentBecome a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and moreIf 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.comReporter: Grace Hughes-HallettProducer: Gary MarshallAdditional reporting and production: Imogen HarperSound design and original composition: Tom KinsellaTheme music: Far Gone (Don’t Leave) by Pictish TrailPodcast artwork: Lola WilliamsCommissioning editor: Basia CummingsExecutive producer: Ceri Thomas