The Observer.

Hello, I'm Alexi and you're listening to the Slow Newscast from The Observer.

This week is very special because we're starting a new six-part series called Foundling.

You can hear the first episode here and you can access the whole series

by searching for Foundling on the Tortoise Investigates feed on Spotify or wherever you get

your podcasts. Origin stories have always been important. You can't understand why Achilles died

without knowing that his mother held him by the heel when she dipped him in the river sticks.

And you can't understand why Bruce Wayne became Batman without knowing that his parents were murdered.

But you don't have to be a superhero to know how important it is to understand your past.

We don't know what happens in our earliest years. We can't remember it. We have to be told it by our parents or grandparents,

where we come from, who we are. This second-hand information, this collective memory, helps piece

together the jigsaw puzzle of our own character.

But what happens if we have no origin story, if we grow up with a blank slate? It's something

most of us struggle to think about. Even adopted children can usually request access to their

birth records.

But what about a newborn baby found in a country lane in Suffolk,

six pounds and three ounces, wrapped in a plastic bag?

A foundling, even the word seems Dickensian,

a relic of a time when children were thought of very differently.

What kind of journey does such a person have to go on to discover her past?

This is the question posed by Foundling, our new series by Lucy Greenwell and Katie Gunning.

Here's episode one. I hope you enjoy the show.

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