From award-winning returning hit series The Coming Storm and The Missing Cryptoqueen, to brand new titles including Disaster Trolls, Dead Competitive and Burn Wild, listeners can get to the truth about some of the most important stories of our time through fascinating investigative audio on BBC Sounds.

Gabriel Gatehouse returns with Radio 4’s The Coming Storm and three new episodes set against the backdrop of the US Mid Terms, as America goes out to vote for the first time since the tumultuous aftermath of the 2020 election. In the third new episode, Louis Theroux interviews Gabriel about the aftermath of the 2021 Capitol riots, QAnon, and the latest twists in the plot to break reality.

Gabriel Gatehouse, journalist and presenter, says: “The Coming Storm really was a monster of a story. It felt at times like we were grappling with this giant octopus; an epic tale of slippery half-truths and tentacles of outrageous lies that were wrapping themselves around our brains, trying to squash it.

"It’s really only the multi-part podcast series that allows journalists to tell a story like this properly. Pulling patiently at the various threads of the story until eventually some kind of true picture emerges. And the most exciting thing about it is, because we’re doing the journalism as we go along, even we don’t know how the story is going to end, until we get there.”

The BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent, and new host of Americast, Marianna Spring, investigates how survivors of UK terror attacks and tragedies are targeted with horrific conspiracy theories in Radio 4’s Disaster Trolls, available as a box set on BBC Sounds now following last night’s BBC Panorama. It is a phenomenon more typically associated with America, particularly in the case of Alex Jones who was recently ordered to pay damages for claiming the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. But this is something that has reached British shores, and Marianna meets the people in the UK who share lies about survivors.

Marianna Spring, Journalist and presenter, Disaster Trolls, says: “For those who’ve lived through some of the worst and most high-profile terror attacks imaginable, there’s something that now follows on the heels of the traumatic event itself. These are the disaster trolls that find survivors to tell them they’re lying about the attacks that they’ve lived through.

"In my search to discover more I’ve gone around the UK and the stranger corners of the internet to find out who promotes these theories. I’ve also spoken to the survivors who’ve been severely impacted by these lies. We’re grateful to the survivors for entrusting us to present their stories in this in-depth ten-part podcast series and BBC Panorama film.”

In Dead Competitive, comedian, actor and animal lover Kerry Godliman examines the puzzling circumstances surrounding the death of Jagger the show dog, directly after appearing at Crufts, unearthing other secrets and stories about the industry’s unexpectedly dark and mysterious underbelly.

Kerry Godliman, comedian and presenter, Dead Competitive, says: “It feels really important to be able to tell Jagger’s tragic tale and I’m sure the listeners will be equally surprised and shocked by some of the other stories we uncovered in the series. I couldn’t believe what some of these poor animals go through all in the name of competition and I can’t wait to hear what the listeners think!”

Podcasting has opened up new approaches to in-depth storytelling, bringing the BBC’s unparalleled investigations and journalism to a wider audience. There are over 50 true crime or investigative podcasts available on BBC Sounds, made easy for people to find on the podcast page with categories including True Crime and Most Wanted Podcasts.

Georgia Catt, journalist and producer, Burn Wild, says: “When we start an investigation, we often don’t know where the story is going and where it’s going to take us. So when there’s a new lead or new discovery, or a new twist in the case, we are there in that moment and we want to take the audience with us.”

More information on the wide range of true crime and investigative podcasts available on BBC Sounds:

The Coming Storm

The Coming Storm, the hugely popular Radio 4 podcast that uncovered the origins of QAnon and its journey from conspiracy theory to influence on the US political mainstream, returns for three new episodes to coincide with the US mid-term elections.

As America votes for the first time since the tumultuous 2020 election, in the first of the new episodes, journalist Gabriel Gatehouse returns to the US political scene to understand where the dark energy underpinning the January 6 assault on the Capitol is going now. He discovers that one thing the QAnon conspiracy theory is morphing into is a grassroots political movement against alleged ‘groomers’ - the idea that LGBTQI+ sex educators and trans healthcare advocates are indoctrinating young people into a sexualised culture.

The second new episode returns to something Gabriel came across in the aftermath of the presidential election in 2020, when - trying to understand the motivations behind QAnon - he came across people who believe another conspiracy theory.

It’s about a laptop which Hunter Biden, the son of the then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, had supposedly left in a computer repair shop in Delaware. The laptop allegedly contains damning information about the Biden family. Gabriel thinks it’s fake news and ignores it at the time. But that turns out to be a mistake. The laptop is real, even if some of the claims about its contents are not. For some, it is now powerful evidence that the Biden administration, and the entire establishment, is a regime that must be toppled.

The final episode features a very special interview with presenter Gabriel Gatehouse by Louis Theroux, about the latest twists in the plot to break reality.

New episodes of The Coming Storm are available weekly on BBC Sounds and broadcast on Radio 4 from 7 November

Disaster Trolls

In this BBC Radio 4 podcast series, the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring investigates how survivors of UK terror attacks and tragedies are targeted with horrific conspiracy theories, online abuse and threats, and even tracked offline too.

Survivors have been accused of being “crisis actors” whose life-changing injuries are fake, while bereaved families have been subjected to claims that their murdered loved ones are still alive. It’s a phenomenon that has come to public attention through the ongoing US court battles to hold Infowars host Alex Jones to account for promoting conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school shootings. But Spring exposes shocking evidence that disaster trolling is blighting the lives of people of numerous tragedies right here in the UK too.

• Disaster Trolls is available as a box set on BBC Sounds and broadcast on Radio 4 from Monday 31 October. Panorama - Disaster Deniers: Hunting The Trolls is available on BBC iPlayer from 31 October.

Dead Competitive

Are dog shows just glitter, gilets and dog dancing? Comedian Kerry Godliman dons her detective hat, and dives deep into the intriguing world of international dog shows, by retracing the mysterious death of an Irish Setter back in 2015.

Kerry investigates a parallel and sometimes sinister universe. She also talks about her own complicated love for her dog, and the bond between owners and their pets. Dead Competitive is full of twists and turns, so listen out for raptor poisoning, dog snipers, million-dollar racing pigeons as well as a lot of sequins.

• Radio 4’s Dead Competitive is available weekly from 9 November on BBC Sounds

Please Protect Abraham

At just 14 years old Abraham Badru instinctively responded to a cry for help without any thought to his own safety. He ended up saving a teenage girl who was being raped. He was labelled a hero for his actions.

After receiving death threats, his mother refused to let Abraham give evidence in court. However, Abraham and his family started being pressured to change their minds.

The decision to give evidence in court was a life-changing decision for Abraham that set off a series of events where he was fearful of every movement and choice he made from that moment on.

• Please Protect Abraham will be available on BBC Sounds and broadcast on Radio 4 in December.

Burn Wild

For over a decade the mugshots of Joseph Mahmoud Dibee and Josephine Sunshine Overaker sat side by side on the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists. Those pictures and the FBI’s descriptions have been about all that was known of two environmental fugitives. But now, after more than a decade on the run, one of them has been caught.

For the past two years journalist Leah Sottile, writer for the Washington Post and New York Times, and producer Georgia Catt, from award-winning podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen, have been granted unprecedented access, recording with Joseph Mahmoud Dibee - arrested in Cuba in 2018 after 12 years on the run - as his case goes through the courts in America and as he faces charges that could mean a sentence of more than 30 years in prison, ahead of his sentencing on 28 September.

• Burn Wild is available now as a box set on BBC Sounds.

The Missing Cryptoqueen

Host, writer and journalist Jamie Bartlett and producer Georgia Catt alongside new team member Rob Byrne, return with new episodes of the hit podcast searching for the missing crypto scammer, Dr Ruja Ignatova.

The investigation enters a new phase, the FBI have added Ruja to their list of the ten most wanted fugitives and using expertise from across the BBC, the team discovers a mansion in Dubai that could have been a property that Dr Ruja was hiding out at.

The Missing Cryptoqueen episodes 10 and 11 are available now on BBC Sounds.
Hit series returning in 2023 include the multi award-winning podcast I’m Not A Monster, with a 10-part series investigating the divisive story of Shamima Begum, and The Lazarus Heist which tells the true story of an attempted $1 billion hack on the digital vaults of Bangladesh Bank.

Other titles currently available include The Boy In The Woods with journalist Winifred Robinson has been following the case of six-year-old Rikki Neave - who had been strangled and left naked - for more than 20 years; Obscene: The Dublin Scandal, a seven-part series narrated by Adrian Dunbar that tells the story of notorious murderer Malcolm MacArthur, charting a bizarre and shocking moment in Irish History; Mattan: Injustice Of A Hanged Man documenting the 46-year fight for justice 70 years after Mattan was wrongfully executed for the murder of Cardiff shopkeeper Lily Volpert; and The Cruelty which tells the story of a body of a boy found in 1971, and, despite a nationwide appeal, the boy was never identified.

Lost At Sea is an immersive journey into the disappearance of Keith Davis, a fisheries observer who went missing 500 miles off the coast of Peru, presented by New Yorker journalist Rachel Monroe; Audrey Gillan digs into the story of the Bible John murders in Bible John: The Creation Of A Serial Killer, exploring the lives of the three victims, and the popular Assume Nothing... series which returns next month with an investigation into Logan Wellbeing explores into the psyche of the woman behind it, Ruth Ellen Logan, who is still trading.

Find our most wanted podcasts on BBC Sounds now.