meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Story

The Suez Canal: What happened when a ship got stuck?

The Story

The Times

Investigative Reporting, Daily News, Current Affairs, Uk News, News, Politics, Global News, News Analysis, In-depth Journalism, Long-form Audio, Audio Storytelling, Exclusive Interviews, Daily News Podcast

3.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After the Ever Given vessel was freed earlier this week, the world breathed a huge sigh of relief. But what does this incident tell us about international trade and globalisation?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Guests:

Louise Callaghan, Middle East correspondent at the Sunday Times.

Jill Treanor, City editor at the Sunday Times.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Additional reporting by Ben Spencer, the Science editor at the Sunday Times.

Clips used: BBC, Anas Alhajji Twitter and the Telegraph.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you're enjoying this podcast, then you might want to know that if you're a time subscriber,

0:08.0

you can now access bonus episodes of Stories of Our Times every week via Apple Podcasts.

0:14.9

If you have an iPhone, head to apple.co forward slash Stories of Our Times to connect your

0:20.5

time subscription, and I'll see you on Saturday for an extra behind-the-scenes chat.

0:30.0

They're chanting, Mashu is number one, an ecstatic Egyptian crew on a tugboat named

0:46.6

Mashu, are filming themselves as they leap for joy. They've just managed to help free

0:57.0

the most famous cargo ship in the world, the Evergiven, which was stuck in the Suez Canal

1:03.5

for almost a week. With the world watching, it's a triumph for them accompanied by a global

1:11.6

sigh of relief. But how did one boat bring international trade to a temporary standstill?

1:26.1

300 ships at one point, which is waiting to try and cross through the canal.

1:30.8

And what does this episode tell us about globalization?

1:34.5

Costs about ten billion dollars a day in trade. You're listening to Stories of Our Times

1:40.2

from the Times and the Sunday Times. I'm Manvin Ralu.

1:46.0

Today, the Suez Canal, what happened when a ship got stuck?

1:58.0

So my name is Louise Callahan, and I'm the Middle East Correspondent for the Sunday Times.

2:02.8

Last Tuesday, Louise, who lives in Turkey, was researching a story when something caught

2:08.5

her eye.

2:12.3

So I was at home in Istanbul, and I was working on a completely different story about the

2:16.7

Iranian government restricting access to the internet. So I was really in that headspace,

2:21.3

I was really into it. And then I saw it on Twitter, it flashed up, this boat got stuck

2:24.9

in the Suez Canal. And I just thought that there was no way that it was going to last

2:28.8

more than a few hours. So I kind of kept going with my other story. And then by the end

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.