FT reporters trace how people fall in love with, grieve, and depend on their chatbots.
FT Tech Tonic uses reported human stories to examine what new technologies do once they enter private life. Recent episodes follow AI companions, chatbot therapy, loneliness programs and the fragile line between comfort and harm.
PRESS PLAY
FT Tech Tonic is a narrative documentary series produced by the Financial Times, not a conversational interview show. Most episodes follow a single person's story — a domestic abuse survivor who used ChatGPT for support, a man who considers a chatbot his life partner, a widow keeping a deceased husband's AI replica, an 86-year-old using a robot companion — and use that story to open into a broader reported theme. A recurring 2026 arc, 'Artificial Intimacy,' is hosted and reported by FT AI correspondent Christina Criddle and examines chatbot sycophancy, AI-driven emotional attachment, and the ethics of companies building and then withdrawing emotional AI products. Other episodes, co-hosted by FT science editor Michael Peel and global pharma editor Hannah Kuchler, apply the same documentary approach to longevity science and the U.S.-China-private-sector Mars race. Guests are typically researchers (MIT, UCL, University of Washington, Oxford), AI ethicists at labs like Mistral, clinicians, and Wellcome Trust-funded scientists, alongside the ordinary people whose experiences anchor each episode. The show draws on published research, government data (e.g., Medicare loneliness costs), and named organizations like OpenAI, GlaxoSmithKline, and NASA to ground personal stories in policy and industry context. Episodes run roughly 30-36 minutes and are scripted and produced rather than loosely recorded conversation. Listeners interested in tech ethics, AI's psychological effects, science policy, or FT-style long-form journalism are the core audience. The production credits a dedicated team, including named producers and an executive producer, consistent with a scripted-documentary workflow rather than a single host's podcast.
Made for: Listeners interested in AI ethics, tech policy, and science journalism who want reported, narrative documentary rather than interview-format tech chat.
What sets it apart: Uses scripted narrative documentary built around individual human subjects, rather than expert interviews or news-roundup formats common in AI/tech podcasts.
We are in the midst of a digital revolution, where the line between our physical world and cyberspace is blurring. Tech Tonic is the show that investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Reported scenes and personal testimony reveal how technology's design choices alter relationships, care, ambition, and control.
FT Tech Tonic builds its technology reporting around people living with the consequences. Christina Criddle's Artificial Intimacy episodes follow relationships with chatbots, AI-assisted therapy, companion robots for older adults, and the distress caused when a favored model…
A wellness drip leads to immortality math, and suddenly your ordinary lifespan feels under-researched.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful look at AI intimacy when platform changes turn private attachment into a product problem.
FT Tech Tonic handles the human cost of AI companionship with rare steadiness. It begins in Annette Bommer's home and then opens out to the broader question of what happens when a chatbot relationship is changed by the company behind it.
A plainspoken look at loneliness, companionship, and the uneasy promise of machine care.
This episode stays close to Tony, his blue bungalow outside New York City, and the small domestic details that make the story feel lived in. It works best when it lingers on the kitchen, the dog, and the AI companion that is supposed to notice him and start a conversation.
ChatGPT becomes part of her daily life as she starts drawing firmer boundaries with her husband.
In summer 2025, Kirstie, a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom who was unemployed, isolated, and unable to afford therapy, turned to ChatGPT as a last-ditch attempt to feel better.
A calm, slightly uneasy look at how a chatbot can start to feel like company.
Christina Criddle treats a small domestic snag as the start of something stranger. Calder Quinn begins with a broken fridge and a casual first use of ChatGPT, then the conversation slowly takes on a private, oddly intimate shape.
A sober origin story for longevity hype, from clinic drip to techno-utopian promise.
FT Tech Tonic looks at ageing less as a puzzle than as a business, starting in a London clinic where a wellness IV drip is sold as a path to healthier, maybe longer, life.
Mars is framed as a policy fight, not a sci-fi promise.
Mission to Mars treats Mars less as a distant dream than as a political tool, opening with Trump's second inaugural address and the way it brings SpaceX and Elon Musk into the same frame.
Daily TED and TEDx talks hosted by Elise Hu, spanning science, psychology, and creativity.
Cristina Quinn profiles indie developers, Microsoft researchers, and designers building the next decade of tech.
A wound-down internet-culture show now feeding listeners into Alex Goldman's and Emmanuel Dzotsi's new podcasts.
Patient interviews from the ZK research edge.
This episode investigates how Opus Dei, a controversial Catholic group, has become central to the American conservative movement, exploring its influence from small towns to Washington's corridors of power.
Annette keeps the photos on her wall: Aruba, tanned glow, her and Michael newly in love.
Tony's kitchen is already full of sound.
In the summer of 2025, Kirstie needed help.
This episode explores the tragic story of a teenager named Sewell and his family's experience with AI chatbots, highlighting the potential dangers when such technology is used by young people.
This episode explores the story of Mickey Small, who develops an intimate relationship with an AI-generated persona named Avon before a planned blind date, examining the illusions and emotional complexities of artificial intimacy.
A broken fridge starts it.
This podcast season explores how people are forming emotional connections with AI chatbots for friendship, therapy, and love, examining both positive experiences and potential harms.
This episode discusses Elon Musk's XAI company and its controversial AI character Annie, a flirtatious holographic bot, exploring its implications for AI development and Musk's competitive position in the tech industry.
This episode explores the potential AI bubble in 2026, examining investor enthusiasm and funding practices through examples like Miramarati's secretive startup.
This episode introduces an investigative narrative series uncovering a lead poisoning epidemic in the UK, exploring its environmental and health impacts through victim stories and government failures.
A visit to a longevity clinic that uses advanced diagnostics and treatments to detect and reverse age-related diseases.
A journalist tests an experimental neuromodulation eye mask designed to improve sleep and longevity through light and sound waves.
First, the needle.
Investigates whether technology can help humans live longer and stop aging, featuring interviews with experts and tech entrepreneurs.
An investigation into the hidden dangers of lead poisoning in the UK, revealing how toxic lead accumulates in the body and the lack of testing for children.
This episode explores the human fascination with Mars, blending science fiction and real-world space exploration ambitions.
Mars turns into policy.
This episode covers the dramatic launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest ever built, from the company's Texas facility.
This episode investigates the feasibility and value of sending humans to Mars, featuring interviews with space industry experts.
The producer announces a Signal Award nomination and asks listeners to vote for the show.
The episode investigates how an AI-generated band called Velvet Sundown gained millions of streams on Spotify, raising questions about authenticity in the age of generative AI.
An interview with a former Meta lobbyist turned MEP about the EU's approach to regulating big tech.
A new Taiwanese TV series imagines a Chinese invasion, sparking discussion on the real geopolitical tensions and Taiwan's semiconductor leverage.
A tour of ASML's advanced EUV lithography machine, the 'beast', which creates microscopic transistors for chips.
A real estate agent shows houses near a new TSMC factory in Arizona, highlighting the influx of Taiwanese workers and the stakes for US chip manufacturing.
Investigates the balance between privacy and security after Telegram's CEO was arrested for failing to cooperate with authorities on criminal investigations.
The episode investigates the arrest of Telegram's founder Pavel Durov and what it means for free speech and social media regulation.
This episode explores early examples of political photo manipulation, focusing on a 2004 fake image of John Kerry and Jane Fonda that spread virally on social media.
This episode discusses a real-life case where a deepfake audio recording falsely portrayed a high school principal making racist remarks, leading to his suspension and threats, before the arrest of the athletics director revealed it as fabricated.
This episode explores China's advancements in space technology, including lunar missions, satellite constellations, and the search for extraterrestrial life.
This episode explores China's AI chatbot Ernie, its capabilities, and its censorship of political topics.
A tour of a Chinese robotics startup that is replacing human workers with robots in semiconductor manufacturing.
Investigates China's growing technological influence in Africa, from smartphones to banking apps.
The episode uses the historical story of Admiral Zheng He's treasure fleet to introduce a discussion about technology and China's influence.