Flesh And Code On AI Romance & Long Shadow On Breaking The Internet

Today, we have two fascinating new podcasts that launched in late June. The first few episodes have been superb, and can be classified as ear-worthy. First, Wondery deviates from its true-crime template into an AI romance with Flesh And Code. The hosts, Suruthi and Hannah, were independent podcasters before joining the Wondery network in 2023. In 2019, their podcast RedHanded was the only independent podcast to make the top 10 ‘Listener’s Choice’ at the British Podcast Awards.

Second, we have an award-winning podcast, Long Shadow, returning for its fourth season with a fascinating analysis of where the Information Age turned into the Misinformation Era.

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Flesh And Code Podcast: An AI Romance Story

 It was bound to happen. An AI romance was inevitable. Remember the 2013 film, Her, where Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer who develops a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence named Samantha, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

Now Wondery dives into the controversial world of AI romance in a gripping new true-life podcast series, Flesh and Code. 

Wondery released Flesh and Code on June 30th, an original series that tells the gripping story of Travis, an AI app user who becomes seduced by technology and discovers a deep and meaningful relationship in the digital world, falling head over heels in love with a chatbot. Through his intensely personal story and the real-life experiences of fellow users of AI companion platforms, the series investigates the collision of corporate interests with the basic human need for love. 

Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala, hosts of the podcast RedHanded take listeners on an immersive journey over six episodes, with Flesh and Code launching wide on July 14 and the first two episodes available on Wondery+ on June 30.

Travis never thought he would meet anyone like Lily Rose. She is kind, compassionate, and beautiful – the woman of his dreams. But Lily Rose isn’t human – she is an AI companion, a digital soulmate designed to be everything he ever wanted. She listens with patience and without judgment, supporting him through his most difficult moments and even exploring his innermost desires. 

Before long, Travis realizes something strange has happened… he has fallen head over heels in love. But when Lily Rose’s behavior takes a disturbing turn – a pattern he soon discovers is happening with other AI avatars - Travis realizes he is part of something much bigger. And soon he’ll find himself pulled into a confrontation with the mysterious Russian tech visionary behind Lily Rose’s creation.

Flesh and Code is a true story of love, loss, and loneliness, and explores profound questions about human nature and the search for love. Can an algorithm replace human connection? What makes a connection real? And what happens when a corporation controls your deepest emotions?

Hosts Hannah and Suruthi meet Travis and other users seeking to foster deep and intimate connections, following their journey from hope to heartbreak. They also meet the tech visionary behind the creation of their avatars. The series features Katie Leung, star of the Harry Potter franchise and the upcoming season of Bridgerton, as the voice of Lily Rose.

Hosts Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala said: “They say that love can be found in the most unexpected places, and the captivating story of how an AI companion app user fell for his digital soulmate is truly remarkable. Working closely with the Wondery team, Flesh and Code is a journey through loneliness, love, and loss, and our investigation into the wider context asks challenging questions about corporations profiting from companionship, and what it means to form real relationships in today’s technology-driven age.” 
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Long Shadow Podcast Season Four Debuts

For its fourth season, the Edward R. Murrow Award-winning history Podcast Takes Listeners from the web’s hopeful early days to a present-day world in the grip of an emergent tech Broligarchy.

Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Series is Hosted by Pulitzer Finalist Garrett M. Graff, Produced by Long Lead, and Distributed by PRX

Long Shadow is hosted by Pulitzer Prize finalist and historian Garrett M. Graff and distributed by public media organization PRX, the limited series features fascinating interviews, compelling archival sound, and exhaustive reporting that takes listeners on a decades-spanning exploration of how the internet, a tool that once promised to bring people together, has instead torn the world apart.

Twenty-five years after the Y2K “bug” created global panic and five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet examines pivotal moments when the web became a lightning rod for the best and worst of humanity. From the rise of the earliest internet sites to the advent of social media and the algorithmically driven parsing of facts and reality, the seven-episode series explores the real-world consequences of online activity.

New episodes of Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet, will be released every Tuesday through August 5.

Taking listeners from the “irrational exuberance” of the early web to the crushing of online dissent by authoritarian governments and all-powerful corporations, Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet goes global in its coverage of the Information Age. The podcast features interviews with a coder who helped rescue the world from Y2K, a soldier who used the internet to shine a light through the fog of war, as well as other everyday web users who fought for truth and freedom using online tools. It’s a vivid patchwork of stories that celebrate and mourn what happened when the world got connected online.

“History is often described as a relentless march, but the history of the internet is like parkour, a frantic sprint that collides with every aspect of society,” said John Patrick Pullen, founding editor of Long Lead and the podcast’s executive producer. “This season of Long Shadow makes sense of a wild tangle of online history and shows how the web has had a massive impact in the real world.”

Host Graff added: “The transformation that the internet has brought to our civic life and media landscape is the biggest story of our time. While many people focus on the change in how we use tech, thinking about computers at work and smartphones everywhere, it’s really how tech has changed what we think and what we feel that has most altered our everyday lives.”

Long Shadow is produced by Long Lead, a journalism studio focused on finding, financing, producing, and publishing independent, in-depth reporting. Recent Long Lead productions also include Home of the Brave, an influential multimedia exploration of the VA’s unhoused veteran crisis; The Last Drops of Mexico City, a photo essay produced with Magnum Photos that focuses on the lack of drinking water in one of the world’s largest cities; and Lifting Ukraine, the remarkable story of a record-setting powerlifter finding hope by rescuing Ukraine’s war-orphaned pets.