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We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2021: For all the advances that have been made in recent decades, disabled people cannot yet participate in society ‘on an equal basis’ with others – and the pandemic has led to many protections being cruelly eroded By Jan Grue. Read by Giles Abbott. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

I was a newcomer, negotiating all of the usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack By Peter C Baker. Read by Adam Sims. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

It costs the UK economy £700m a year, and criminal gangs are operating with near impunity. Every time a lorry gets robbed, raided or hijacked, it’s Mike Dawber who investigates By Stuart McGurk. Read by Nicholas Camm. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2023: Having grown up in different cultures with different expectations, my mother and I have often clashed. But as my daughter grows older, I have come to see our relationship in a different light Written and read by Dina Nayeri. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

When Trump granted white South Africans refugee status, he was echoing a falsehood about Black people taking revenge for years of brutality. But no one flourishes in a repressive police state By Eve Fairbanks. Read by Katherine Fenton. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity By Kevin T Baker. Read by Adam Sims. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2020: The US believed the American way of life was humankind’s ultimate destiny. But unrestrained greed has led to an era of injustice and division. By Andrew Bacevich. Read by Kelly Burke. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

I suffered with my mystery illness for decades before gaining a diagnosis. Could retraining my brain be the answer? By Hermione Hoby. Read by Alby Baldwin. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

For many years the prevailing debate about the Maya centred upon why their civilisation collapsed. Now, many scholars are asking: how did the Maya survive? By Marcus Haraldsson. Read by Diana Bermudez. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2020: Frank Fisher, now 90, was a traditional high street butcher his whole working life – as were three generations of his family before him. How does a man dedicated to serving his community decide when it’s time to hang up his white coat? By Tom Lamont. Read by Jonathan Andrew Hume. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

His novel was praised for giving a voice to the victims of Algeria’s brutal civil war. But one woman has accused Kamel Daoud of having stolen her story – and the ensuing legal battle has become about much more than literary ethics By Madeleine Schwartz. Read by Kate Handford. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Steeped in gaming and rightwing culture wars, Musk and his team of teenage coders set out to defeat the enemy of the United States: its people By Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian. Read by Vincent Lai. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2022: A wave of bestselling authors claim that global affairs are still ultimately governed by the immutable facts of geography – mountains, oceans, rivers, resources. But the world has changed more than they realise By Daniel Immerwahr. Read by Christopher Ragland. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

When Nato helped overthrow Gaddafi in 2011, there were hopes of a new beginning. More than a decade later, a former CIA asset runs the country – and Libya has become yet another lesson in the unintended consequences of foreign intervention By Anas El Gomati. Read by Mo Ayoub. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

On the evening of 29 December 2011, Officer Clifton Lewis was moonlighting as a security guard at a Chicago minimart when two men walked in. They shot Lewis several times, then took off with his gun and police star. A week later, police had their suspects: four men affiliated with a gang called the Spanish Cobras. For hours, under intense police questioning, they all said they didn’t do it. But that didn’t seem to matter. This is episode one of Off Duty, an investigation by the Guardian’s Melissa Segura Listen to the full series from The Guardian Investigates podcast. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod