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The Debrief is joined by shipwreck survivor Matt Lewis, author of Last Man Off, to relive one of the most harrowing survival stories imaginable. In June 1998, Matt was a 23-year-old marine biologist on his first assignment, aboard the fishing trawler Sudur Havid in the brutal waters off Antarctica, when a winter storm overwhelmed the boat and the pumps failed. He told us how the officers on board froze into inaction, and how he jumped into action to coordinate the evacuation and get the crew into the life rafts. Matt describes the nightmare that followed, adrift in a raft flooded with sub-zero seawater, and how 17 of the 38 crew did not make it home. It is a gripping, sobering account of disaster, leadership and sheer will to live, from the man who was, quite literally, the last man off. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Debrief is joined by David Abel, director of the documentary In The Whale, to tell one of the most extraordinary survival stories you will ever hear. In June 2021, Cape Cod lobster diver Michael Packard plunged into the waters off Provincetown on a routine dive, only to be caught inside the mouth of a humpback whale, trapped in total darkness for around 30 seconds, certain he was about to die, before the whale surfaced and spat him back out. David takes the team inside how it happened, how Packard survived, and why he questioned the story himself before every detail checked out. He also reveals the part most people never hear: what the sudden, dizzying wave of global fame did to a fiercely private man who just wanted to keep diving. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Driverless cars are already operating on Dubai’s roads, but are they ready for the city’s unpredictable traffic, and are passengers ready to trust them? Hassan Khairat and Antonio Semeraro, Principals at Arthur D. Little Middle East, join The Debrief to discuss where the UAE stands in the global autonomous vehicle race, why companies including Pony.ai, Baidu Apollo Go and WeRide are testing their technology here, and whether Dubai can achieve its ambitious target of making 25% of all trips autonomous by 2030. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI is moving too fast. That’s the warning from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who recently called for the industry to slow down. And he isn’t alone. Some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence are raising concerns about the speed of development and the potential damage rogue AI systems could cause. But how realistic is the threat, and what could it mean for ordinary people? Maher Yamout, Lead Security Researcher at Kaspersky, joins us to explain what is really happening, whether fears of an AI takeover are justified and how we can protect ourselves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Debrief crosses live to Apple expert and content creator Jermaine D'Vauz to break down everything from Apple's big launch. Fresh off the September keynote, Jermaine talks the team through the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, and the headline moment nobody could stop talking about: Apple's first-ever foldable iPhone, its biggest change in form factor since the iPhone X. He gets into the upgraded cameras, what the foldable is expected to cost, and whether it lives up to years of hype. And there's a change at the very top too, as this marked the first launch led by Apple's new CEO John Ternus, stepping into the role after Tim Cook. Jermaine gives his verdict on what it all means for anyone thinking about their next upgrade. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year, somewhere between two and five trillion dollars in dirty money is washed through the global financial system. The Debrief is joined by Robert Nordlander, who spent 20 years as a Special Agent with IRS Criminal Investigation, one of the world's most elite financial crime units. Robert explains what the unit actually does, and walks the team through what it takes to track dirty money through somewhere like Zhao Wei's Golden Triangle zone in Laos, a 39 square mile enclave one man effectively runs as his own country. He also gets into whether crypto has made hiding money easier or harder, how both criminals and investigators are now racing to out-use each other with AI, and what strings to pull at to track dirty money. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Debrief sits down with 26-year-old Loic De Marie, who has been diagnosed as a psychopath, for a rare and unsettling look inside how he actually experiences the world. Loic takes the team back to his youth, the moment he first understood he was different, and the incidents that made his family realise something more serious was going on. He speaks with striking bluntness about relationships and whether he can genuinely love, how he makes sense of grief and heartbreak, and where, if anywhere, he finds joy. He describes how he used to manipulate people (especially women) and just how conscious he was of doing it, and what it's like to feel no fear. Dane and Shaan were left terrified and fascinated in equal measure… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was murdered, a jury has finally found someone guilty. Journalist Cathy Scott, who covered the case from the night Tupac was shot, explains who Keffe D is, how his own words helped convict him, and why justice took so long. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Debrief is joined by true-crime filmmaker Joe Berlinger, the man behind Netflix’s The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare. In November 2022, four university students were found murdered inside an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho. Joe takes us inside the investigation, the evidence and the extraordinary scrutiny surrounding the case. He explains how social media transformed the story, why misinformation spread so rapidly, and what happens when millions of online spectators begin treating a real murder investigation like a mystery they can solve. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you could create an app simply by describing what you wanted? Vibe coding is the use of conversational AI to build apps, websites, and software. The Debrief is joined by cybersecurity expert Tanya Janca, better known as SheHacksPurple, to explain what vibe coding actually is, and what can go wrong when non-technical creators launch products with vulnerabilities they do not know exist. She reveals what a software “crash” can look like, whether AI will fix the security problems it is helping create, and whether governments can realistically keep pace. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In November 2012, two fishermen set off from the coast of Mexico. Only one came back, 438 days later, having drifted almost 7,000 miles across the Pacific, the longest open-ocean survival in recorded history. The Debrief is joined by journalist Jonathan Franklin, who tracked down survivor Salvador Alvarenga and wrote the book documenting the whole ordeal. Jonathan takes the team through how it began, a routine trip that a storm turned into a nightmare, and what happened to Alvarenga’s young, barely-experienced crewmate out on the water. He explains how he fact-checked a story almost too extraordinary to believe, what kept Alvarenga alive through months of total isolation, and the strange mental tricks that stopped him losing his mind. Then the moment everything changed: after 438 days, land. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you wear clothes made out of human hair? Turns out that idea is a lot closer than you might think. The Debrief is joined by Zsofia Kollar, founder of Human Material Loop, who is turning the hair swept off salon floors into actual, wearable fabric. Zsofia walks the team through exactly how it works, from strand to sweater, whether the end result would actually be comfortable against your skin, and how far away we really are from this landing on shelves for millions of people. Dane and Shaan, meanwhile, remain firmly split, somewhere between genuinely disgusted and quietly wondering... hmm, maybe? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know those boxes. Around 500 dirhams, and suddenly you have every movie, every sport channel, streaming platform, all of it “for free”. But a new report has the FBI tracking down the people who own these boxes, and it is not about the free movies. The Debrief is joined by Ahmed Khanji, CEO of GridWare and one of the cybersecurity’s leading voices, to explain what you are really plugging into your home. He breaks down how a cheap box can quietly turn your internet connection into a proxy for cyberattacks happening on the other side of the world, whether you should actually be worried if you own one, and how far law enforcement will really go to get them off the street. If you have got one of these sitting under your TV right now, this is the one you need to hear. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Barack Obama's speaking tour puts premium meet-and-greet access on sale, The Debrief digs into what that eye-watering price tag of AED 20,000 per ticket actually buys, and why every ticket comes subject to a background check. Joining the team is Jason Russell, a former US Secret Service Special Agent of eight years. He explains just how big a headache an event like this is when the public is given close access to a former president, what kind of personal history gets someone flagged, and what most people misunderstand about presidential security in general. And the question everyone secretly wants answered: how close are the presidents and their agents really? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Debrief hears the extraordinary story of Ricky Kidd, sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without parole for two murders he did not commit. Ricky walks the team through it all, from the fateful day police first made contact to the moment the gavel came down in the courtroom and his life changed forever. He describes what it was like to walk into a maximum security prison for a crime he had no part in, and how, behind three layers of barbed wire, he somehow found his purpose again. It builds to the moment that had all of us in tears on air: being told, at last, that he was free to go. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.