‘The forest had gone’: the storm that moved a mountain

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On a small ledge in the Swiss mountains, 200 people were enjoying a summer football tournament. As night fell, they had no idea what was coming By Jonah Goodman. Read by Evelyn Miller. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:09.0	Sophie Tom and the kids are standing by the luggage carousel waiting for Sophie's bag.
0:13.1	Looks like she's going to be wearing Tom's clothes for a week, but she's not worried.
0:16.7	Their HSBC Premier bank account has comprehensive worldwide travel insurance that covers them, the kids and grandkids, if they had them.
0:23.9	Everything's Premier when your bank account is.
0:26.1	Search HSBC Premier.
0:27.9	HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity.
0:31.2	Apply with £100,000 annual income or £100,000 savings or investments with HSBC UK
0:35.1	or Premier Status Broad, covered by Aviva Insurance Limited.
0:37.9	Age restrictions and limitations apply.
0:43.6	Welcome to The Guardian Long Read,
0:45.7	showcasing the best long-form journalism
0:47.7	covering culture, politics and new thinking.
0:50.4	For the text version of this and all-hour long-reads,
0:52.8	go to the Guardian.com forward slash long read.
0:59.2	The forest had gone.
1:02.1	The storm that moved a mountain by Jonah Goodman.
1:05.8	Read by Evelyn Miller.
1:17.6	In the wake of a natural disaster, certain metrics are used to categorise the event. The buildings destroyed, the cost of repair to the nearest million, a single number for the loss of human life.
1:26.6	Yet these figures obscure the loss of human life.
1:27.8	Yet these figures obscure the truth of such events.
1:32.1	They make the outcome seem fixed, somehow proportionate.
	...

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