The Slow Newscast

For generations they trusted their royal landlords, but now frightened farmers and locals in Devon feel betrayed by the ‘urban’ Prince of Wales. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Asha visited her new therapist during covid, little did she realise she was placing her faith in the wrong individual. Her story reveals the perils of an unregulated industry, where people can use and abuse the unique privileges that come with the label of 'therapist'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chancellor has delivered the first budget of Andy Burnham's premiership. But what does it reveal about their vision for the UK? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When The Observer’s Technology Editor, Patricia Clarke began investigating a new phenomenon initially dubbed ‘AI psychosis’, she found lives upended by long, intimate conversations with chatbots. But as she followed the evidence from a psychiatric ward in Bristol to the safety teams in Silicon Valley, a far darker story emerged. Guided by AI industry whistleblowers, grieving families and hundreds of pages of chatbot transcripts, Spiral exposes how big tech is running an unprecedented experiment on the human mind.

This is episode one of Spiral, a six-part series from Tortoise Investigates and The Observer, produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network.

Reported by Patricia Clarke
Produced by Katie Gunning
Sound design by Hannah Varrall
Development production by Jess Swinburne and Owen Thomas
Artwork by Jon Hill and Michelle Thompson
Narrative editor is Gary Marshall
Executive producers are Jasper Corbett and Basia Cummings

Spiral is a 4 part original series from Tortoise Investigates and The Observer.
To binge listen to all episodes today, ad-free, subscribe to The Observer.
Or subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to listen to all our podcasts, including this one, without any ads.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, a group of West Bank settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and veteran Washington Post photographer, Heidi Levine, who was there to cover the annual olive harvest. The assault left Levine in hospital with broken bones, but she is not the first foreigner to be caught in the middle of increasingly violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Basia Cummings speaks to the Observer's Ruth Michaelson who is in Tel Aviv covering the upcoming elections, about what happened and whether it'll impact the outcome of the vote.

Producer: Ada Barume
Exec: Matt Russell
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.