Episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Left The Chat: No 1. Whatsapp Mishaps | 20240403 | 20240406 (R4) | In 1998, Helen's family got their first home computer - and she logged on to chat with existing friends and strangers she met online. Since then, instant messaging has taken over our lives, with an estimated 2.7 billion users on WhatsApp alone. But what is happening in the secrecy of our direct message inboxes and neighbourhood group chats? Three stories of chaos, confusion - and comedy - highlight just how strange it can feel to make sense of the fast paced, casual world of instant messaging. Producer: Tom Pooley Assistant Producer: Orla O'Brien Sound Design: Louis Blatherwick Editor: Craig Templeton Smith Original music: Coach Conrad In 1998, Helen joined a vast social experiment - one that you are probably part of too. From WhatsApp leaks to group chat nightmares, how instant messaging changed the world. Instant messaging can lead to chaos, confusion - and comedy. Here are three stories from the frontline of the strange world inside our phones. |
| 01 | Whatsapp Mishaps | 20240403 | 20240406 (R4) | In 1998, Helen's family got their first home computer - and she logged on to chat with existing friends and strangers she met online. Since then, instant messaging has taken over our lives, with an estimated 2.7 billion users on WhatsApp alone. But what is happening in the secrecy of our direct message inboxes and neighbourhood group chats? Three stories of chaos, confusion - and comedy - highlight just how strange it can feel to make sense of the fast paced, casual world of instant messaging. Producer: Tom Pooley Assistant Producer: Orla O'Brien Sound Design: Louis Blatherwick Editor: Craig Templeton Smith Original music: Coach Conrad In 1998, Helen joined a vast social experiment - one that you are probably part of too. Instant messaging can lead to chaos, confusion - and comedy. Here are three stories from the frontline of the strange world inside our phones. |
| 02 | Fax Machines And Foxy Natashas | 20240410 | 20240413 (R4) | In 2016, amid the post-EU referendum chaos, one man had an idea. His name was Steve Baker, and he was a low-profile Tory MP. But his WhatsApp group - the home of the hard Brexiteers - soon became the most powerful force in British politics. Sam Coates of Sky News thinks that political WhatsApp groups like Baker's helped bring down three Conservative prime ministers in a row. The second of these, Boris Johnson, was a “WhatsApp addict ?, according to his former chief of staff Dominic Cummings. And so, during Covid when Number 10 was still using fax machines to get NHS data, everyone turned to instant messaging instead. Forget “sofa government ?, this was even more informal - as well as faster, more fluid and full of swearing. But, Helen Lewis asks Cummings, is this really the best way to govern a country? What about the possibility of leaks, hacks - and conveniently lost messages when an inquiry rolls around? Producer: Tom Pooley Assistant Producer: Orla O'Brien Sound Design: Louis Blatherwick Editor: Craig Templeton Smith Original music: Coach Conrad Everyone at Westminster is addicted to WhatsApp. Should we be worried? The inside story of how one messaging app helped bring down three prime ministers - and became the place where Britain was governed. |
| 02 | Left The Chat: No 2. Fax Machines And Foxy Natashas | 20240410 | 20240413 (R4) | In 2016, amid the post-EU referendum chaos, one man had an idea. His name was Steve Baker, and he was a low-profile Tory MP. But his WhatsApp group - the home of the hard Brexiteers - soon became the most powerful force in British politics. Sam Coates of Sky News thinks that political WhatsApp groups like Baker's helped bring down three Conservative prime ministers in a row. The second of these, Boris Johnson, was a “WhatsApp addict ?, according to his former chief of staff Dominic Cummings. And so, during Covid when Number 10 was still using fax machines to get NHS data, everyone turned to instant messaging instead. Forget “sofa government ?, this was even more informal - as well as faster, more fluid and full of swearing. But, Helen Lewis asks Cummings, is this really the best way to govern a country? What about the possibility of leaks, hacks - and conveniently lost messages when an inquiry rolls around? Producer: Tom Pooley Assistant Producer: Orla O'Brien Sound Design: Louis Blatherwick Editor: Craig Templeton Smith Original music: Coach Conrad Everyone at Westminster is addicted to WhatsApp. Should we be worried? From WhatsApp leaks to group chat nightmares, how instant messaging changed the world. The inside story of how one messaging app helped bring down three prime ministers - and became the place where Britain was governed. |
| 03 | Left The Chat: No 3. Several People Are Typing | 20240417 | 20240420 (R4) | During the pandemic, a combination of fears over Covid, anger over police racism and sheer cabin fever saw company Slack channels boil with discontent. One day in February 2021, Mike Pesca, a contrarian podcaster, made the mistake of getting stuck in, voicing controversial opinions to his colleagues - in between shovelling snow from his parents' driveway. And then he saw the dreaded words, 'several people are typing - '. How a video game about giants led to a wave of workplace rebellions. From WhatsApp leaks to group chat nightmares, how instant messaging changed the world. In 2020, with many workers trapped at home, they turned to one app - Slack - to make their voices heard. And then it all went a little - Lord of The Flies. |
| 03 | Several People Are Typing | 20240417 | 20240420 (R4) | During the pandemic, a combination of fears over Covid, anger over police racism and sheer cabin fever saw company Slack channels boil with discontent. One day in February 2021, Mike Pesca, a contrarian podcaster, made the mistake of getting stuck in, voicing controversial opinions to his colleagues - in between shovelling snow from his parents' driveway. And then he saw the dreaded words, 'several people are typing - '. How a video game about giants led to a wave of workplace rebellions. In 2020, with many workers trapped at home, they turned to one app - Slack - to make their voices heard. And then it all went a little - Lord of The Flies. |
| 04 | I Married A Chatbot | 20240424 | 20240427 (R4) | After years of bad dates and toxic relationships, Chris finally found love - with a chatbot called Emma. Is this the future of digital love, or is Chris caught in an illusion? In this episode focusing on how instant messages have changed our love lives, Helen also uncovers the heart warming story of the first couple to marry after reconnecting on Friends Reunited, and the strange tale of a woman who was literally ghosted. Millions of us enjoy flirting by text. But are there downsides to digital love? After years of bad dates and toxic relationships, Chris finally found love - with a chatbot called Emma. Is this the future of dating apps? |
| 04 | Left The Chat: No 4. I Married A Chatbot | 20240424 | 20240427 (R4) | After years of bad dates and toxic relationships, Chris finally found love - with a chatbot called Emma. Is this the future of digital love, or is Chris caught in an illusion? In this episode focusing on how instant messages have changed our love lives, Helen also uncovers the heart warming story of the first couple to marry after reconnecting on Friends Reunited, and the strange tale of a woman who was literally ghosted. Millions of us enjoy flirting by text. But are there downsides to digital love? From WhatsApp leaks to group chat nightmares, how instant messaging changed the world. After years of bad dates and toxic relationships, Chris finally found love - with a chatbot called Emma. Is this the future of dating apps? |
| 05 | Left The Chat: No 5. Thug Shaker Central | 20240501 | 20240504 (R4) | When investigative journalist Aric Toler saw a handful of supposedly fake classified documents online, he had a hunch - what if they were real? The only way to find out was to hunt for the original source. It was a journey that took him through the deep internet, beyond the reach of search engines. He scoured through chat forums about SpongeBob SquarePants, infiltrated servers named after edgy memes, and found a vital clue in screenshots of a video game about zombies. Eventually, Toler got his man - and his identity was not at all what you might expect. At the heart of this story is the chat service Discord - a casual, conversational space without which, Toler thinks, his unlikely leaker would never have posted classified documents online. How one journalist uncovered the most unlikely leaker of military secrets in US history. From WhatsApp leaks to group chat nightmares, how instant messaging changed the world. SpongeBob forums. Edgy memes. Video games about zombies. Helen goes down the rabbit hole to discover the source of a classified document leak. |
| 05 | Thug Shaker Central | 20240501 | 20240504 (R4) | When investigative journalist Aric Toler saw a handful of supposedly fake classified documents online, he had a hunch - what if they were real? The only way to find out was to hunt for the original source. It was a journey that took him through the deep internet, beyond the reach of search engines. He scoured through chat forums about SpongeBob SquarePants, infiltrated servers named after edgy memes, and found a vital clue in screenshots of a video game about zombies. Eventually, Toler got his man - and his identity was not at all what you might expect. At the heart of this story is the chat service Discord - a casual, conversational space without which, Toler thinks, his unlikely leaker would never have posted classified documents online. How one journalist uncovered the most unlikely leaker of military secrets in US history. SpongeBob forums. Edgy memes. Video games about zombies. Helen goes down the rabbit hole to discover the source of a classified document leak. |
| 06 | The Telegram War | 20240508 | 20240511 (R4) | The encrypted messaging app Telegram is haunted by a single question - if it really is as secure as it claims to be, why does Vladimir Putin allow it to be used in Russia? And should Russian dissidents, independent journalists and Ukrainian soldiers use this Wild West of an app, where you can find everything from porn to drugs to faked propaganda videos? Answering those questions takes Helen on a journey that begins with a young Russian entrepreneur throwing 5,000 rouble notes off a balcony, folded like paper aeroplanes, and finishes with him in exile in Dubai, rich beyond his wildest dreams. But what does Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, really believe? Producer: Tom Pooley Assistant Producer: Orla O'Brien Sound Design: Louis Blatherwick Editor: Craig Templeton Smith Original Music: Coach Conrad How one messaging app became Vladimir Putin's nemesis - and perhaps his secret weapon. The encrypted messaging app Telegram has become the front line of the propaganda war in Ukraine. But how secure is it, really? From WhatsApp leaks to group chat nightmares, how instant messaging changed the world. |