The Debrief

Episoder

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  Ricky Kidd: The man who spent 23 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit 14.08.2026 38min

  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.
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  Negotiations: What an FBI trained expert thinks of your handshake 13.08.2026 36min

  The Debrief puts Shaan in the hot seat with a live negotiation, then takes it apart - before handing it over to a real expert. Joe Navarro spent his FBI career in counterintelligence and behavioural assessment, and he reveals the tiny signals people leak long before they say a word, and the thousands of behavioural tells hiding in every interaction. He even weighs in on what makes a good handshake (hint - it’s not always strength), and what he makes of the world's most famous grips, including President Trump's.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  How to see 100 shooting stars over the UAE desert 11.08.2026 15min

  The Debrief is joined by Nirmal Rajah from Mleiha National Park to get everything you need to know before one of the year's great sky shows: the Perseids meteor shower. Nirmal explains what the Perseids actually are, and why this year's peak, overnight from August 12 into August 13, is set to be especially stunning, with up to 100 meteors an hour. He talks the team through where to watch across the UAE, from Mleiha's UNESCO-listed dark-sky desert to spots away from the city glow, the best conditions for catching those famous fireballs, and just how rare a display like this really is. No telescope required, just a clear patch of sky and a little patience!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Amanda Knox at Edinburgh Fringe: Comedy or a step too far? 11.08.2026 18min

  The Debrief digs into the storm surrounding Amanda Knox's new one-woman show, Cartwheel, at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. The team looks at why the production has drawn sharp criticism from Meredith Kercher's family, who have called the idea offensive, and how Knox has defended it, insisting the show honours Meredith's memory and confronts the violence done to both women rather than making light of the tragedy. We weigh what the family, what Knox, and what festival-goers themselves make of it. Dane and Shaan then look back to last year's Disney+ dramatisation of the case, and to Dane's own interview with Amanda herself, in which she opened up about everything she has lived through. She told Dane more about how she intends to keep telling her story, and what she makes of the criticism that still follows her, despite being acquitted of the murder twice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Brandon Maben: Inside adidas’ New UAE Pet Collection 11.08.2026 15min

  The Debrief is joined by Brandon Maben, category lead for the Adidas Originals business across the MENA region, to get to the bottom of a question dividing pet owners everywhere: should you really be dressing up your pet? With the Adidas pet collection now landing in the UAE, Brandon reveals why the reaction here has been so huge, and how it all traces back to Gen Z and the way they see their pets. He explains why the whole trend started in Asia and what was driving it there, walks the team through what's actually in the collection, from mini Cali Tees to collars and carriers, and names the standout bestseller. And the big question underneath it all: is pet fashion a passing novelty, or a category that's here to stay?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Tim Pulliam: How Strangers Steal Homes and Get Away With It 04.08.2026 23min

  The Debrief is joined by reporter Tim Pulliam, who took part in the new documentary series Squatters: Get Out of My House, to unpack why this has become one of America's most maddening and dangerous problems. Tim explains how complete strangers manage to occupy someone else's home, why they become so difficult to remove once they're in, and how the law can end up working against the very people who own the property. Along the way he shares some of the most jaw-dropping cases he reported on, including one that sent a fraudster to prison for 20 years, in a conversation that will make you look at your own front door a little differently.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Danielle & James Styron: Confessions of a Private Jet Flight Attendant 03.08.2026 22min

  The Debrief is joined by Danielle and James Styron, co-authors of The Mile High Club: Confessions of a Private Jet Flight Attendant. For most of us, flying private is a world glimpsed only in films and on social media, but behind the luxury sits a crew managing extraordinary demands, enormous egos and situations most people would struggle to believe. Danielle spent seven years in those crews, and she pulls back the curtain on the wildest requests, the most difficult moments, and the surprisingly kind clients who restored her faith. Danielle and James open up about the pressure to stay silent, to tolerate almost anything, and what all of it taught them about human nature when money strips away the usual limits and consequences.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Guido De Wilde: 3,333 Kilometres and a Fight for Life 30.07.2026 20min

  The Debrief is joined by Guido De Wilde, fresh off an extraordinary journey across Europe. Over 25 days, Guido and 14 other riders cycled 3,333 kilometres from Barcelona to Paris, climbing more than 54,000 metres along the way, all in support of the Al Jalila Foundation’s cancer research and patient care programmes. Guido takes the team inside what a day on the road really looked like, and how tough this challenge was on his body. He also goes into the deeply personal side to this challenge: a stage 4 colon cancer survivor himself, Guido reflects on what cycling gave him when so much felt out of his control.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Dr. Christine Marie: Going Undercover to Take Down a Cult Leader 28.07.2026 30min

  The Debrief is joined by Dr. Christine Marie, cult psychology expert and author, who did something almost no one would dare: she went undercover inside a dangerous cult to help bring down its leader. Christine reveals how she worked her way into the FLDS group led by Sam Bateman, winning the trust of its members under the cover of filming a documentary. She breaks down the psychological control tactics Bateman used to hold his followers in his grip, and how she quietly gathered the evidence and confessions that would eventually condemn him. It all builds to the tense, high-stakes day the FBI finally moved in, and Christine takes the team right into the heart of it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Finding The Lost Plane That Changed Aviation Forever 27.07.2026 24min

  The Debrief is joined by Russ Matthews and Idee Matthews Montijo to tell the extraordinary story of how they found the Pan Am Clipper Endeavor aircraft, 74 years after it crashed and sank off the coast of Puerto Rico. Russ and Idee trace the years of painstaking archival detective work that led them to the site, and the moment they finally found the wreck. They detail the unforgettable legacy left by this tragedy that reshaped air travel forever. The safety briefing every passenger hears before takeoff exists in part because of what happened that Friday in 1952, which means every person who has ever flown has been touched by this plane, and almost none of them know it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Edna Cowell Martin: Growing Up With Ted Bundy 23.07.2026 48min

  The Debrief is joined by Edna Cowell Martin, cousin of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, and Megan Atkinson, who helped her tell her story in print. Edna takes the team back to a childhood spent alongside a boy nobody suspected, and answers the question that has followed her for decades: were there ever glimpses of what lay beneath? She describes what it was like to remain close to him while the murders were happening, how the family absorbed the news when the truth finally broke, and what passed between them in their final exchanges before he escaped prison for the second time. Megan explains how the writing process forced Edna to revisit trauma she had buried for years, and what it revealed about the toll it had taken on her whole life. It leaves one unsettling question hanging over the whole conversation: if someone close to you was living a double life, would you really see it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Dr. Adeel Khalid: How Rescue Drones Find What Humans Can't 22.07.2026 25min

  The Debrief is joined by Professor of Aerospace Engineering Dr. Adeel Khalid, to unpack the technology that recently found two lost hikers in a matter of hours, a search that could have taken human teams days. Dr. Khalid explains exactly what he has been building, and what one of these drones is actually seeing when it sweeps over a forest below. The team uncovers the accuracy difference between these machines and old school rescue tech like helicopters or dogs. They also find out how long these machines can stay airborne, and just how much ground they can cover on a single flight. Then the conversation lifts off into the future: what these life-saving systems will look like five to ten years from now, and how many more people they might bring home.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  CeCe Moore: How Your DNA Can Catch a Killer 14.07.2026 42min

  The Debrief is joined by CeCe Moore, the pioneering genetic genealogist who helped turn a hobbyist's tool into one of the most powerful weapons in modern policing. CeCe explains what those consumer DNA tests are really telling you, how far back your family tree can genuinely be traced, and why some parts of the world are far better represented in the databases than others. The conversation digs into the hurdles of unpicking someone's ancestry, and how the same technology that reunites adoptees with birth parents is now cracking cold cases that sat untouched for decades. Then comes the harder question: where does personal privacy end and the pursuit of justice begin, when a distant cousin's spit sample can put a killer in handcuffs? CeCe also looks ahead to where AI takes this next, and reflects on how a career spent inside other people's DNA has reshaped the way she thinks about family, identity and truth itself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Dr. Steven Hassan: Inside the Mind of a Mind Control Survivor 13.07.2026 35min

  The Debrief is joined by Dr. Steven Hassan, one of the world's leading experts on cults, mind control and undue influence, and a man who knows the subject from the inside. Recruited as a young college student, Steven spent years inside a high-control group before getting out and dedicating his life to understanding how it happened. He explains exactly how skilled recruiters operate, the small steps that pull a person in long before they realise it, and why the people most vulnerable are almost never who you would expect. The conversation turns to the long road back, what it takes to rebuild a life, relationships, and learn to trust your own thoughts again. And with the internet doing the recruiting now, Steven has a warning about how much easier it has become - especially for the younger generation to disappear into one of these groups.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Alex Baber: AI Versus Two of America’s Darkest Crimes 09.07.2026 37min

  The Debrief is joined by independent cold-case investigator Alex Baber, who believes he may have unmasked the man behind two of America’s most infamous unsolved crimes: the Black Dahlia murder and the Zodiac Killer. Alex makes the extraordinary claim that both were the work of the same man, and explains how he ended up chasing two cases that have haunted investigators for decades. Using AI, historical records, handwriting analysis and a fresh crack at one of the Zodiac’s shortest and most mysterious codes, he lays out how he arrived at his suspect. Alex even reveals the chilling moment he approached the son of the man he believes did it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Paul Brodsky: The Hidden Cables That Run the World 03.07.2026 30min

  The Debrief is joined by Paul Brodsky, a senior analyst at TeleGeography, to pull back the curtain on the physical guts of the internet. Paul explains how the whole system actually works, what people really mean when they talk about “the cloud,” and what happens in those split seconds when you send a simple message. The team gets into how much of the world’s internet traffic runs through undersea cables, what those cables actually look like - especially m just how startlingly thin they are for something the entire planet depends on. Then comes the big one: what happens when it all goes down?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The Empire State Climbers and GTA 6 Breaking Every Record 03.07.2026 36min

  The Debrief is joined by Michael Pachter, one of the most respected analysts in the video games industry, as the countdown to GTA 6 hits fever pitch ahead of its November 19 launch. Michael breaks down just how enormous this release is in pure financial terms, why Rockstar has leaned so heavily into a digital-first approach, and whether fans should brace for the console shortages already being predicted. Plus, the team unpacks the stunt that stopped New York in its tracks, Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus scaling the Empire State Building!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Roman Axelrod: Inside the World’s First Smart Contact Lens 02.07.2026 30min

  The Debrief is joined by Roman Axelrod, founder of Dubai-based deep tech company XPANCEO, which is building what could be the world’s first fully integrated smart contact lens. Roman explains how the lens can merge augmented reality, health monitoring and biosensing into a single device that sits directly on your eye. The team digs into who this technology is actually for, from continuous glucose tracking for diabetics to hands-free data for surgeons and pilots, and how something so small manages to power itself. And with tech that literally touches the eye, the conversation turns to the big question hanging over it all: what does this mean for privacy, and are we ready for it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Paul Holes: Cracking the Golden State Killer Case 30.06.2026 38min

  The Debrief is joined by Paul Holes, the investigator who helped crack one of the most notorious cold cases in American history. Paul takes the team inside the world of cold case work, where an investigation actually begins, and what Hollywood consistently gets wrong about it. He explains how he became involved in the Golden State Killer case and why the killer managed to stay hidden in plain sight for so long. Then he reveals how a brand new kind of forensic science finally caught up with him, and what really happened on the day it all came crashing down.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Barbara Butcher: Inside the Life of a Death Investigator 23.06.2026 34min

  The Debrief is joined by Barbara Butcher, who spent more than two decades as a death investigator in New York City, witnessing thousands of crime scenes over her career. Barbara explains exactly what the job involves, how someone ends up in that line of work, and how she mentally prepared to walk into a crime scene. She opens up about the difficulty of delivering devastating news to strangers, and even the times she clashed with police and homicide detectives. It left Dane and Shaan asking: what does our fascination with death really say about us?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.