The Epstein Files, AI journalism and the future of truth - The Sunday Story
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As AI seeps into every corner of art, film and social media, up next, it's podcasts. An AI-generated show called The Epstein Files topped the Apple series charts last week, bringing you the very latest on the colossal 3.5 million documents, in a time frame that most journalists could only dream of. Even the hosts are AI. But does it work? And what does AI-led journalism mean for the future of investigations and the search for truth? We tracked down its creator.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory
Host: Manveen Rana
Producer: Robert Wallace
We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com
Photo: Getty Images.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story on Sunday. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm Manvien Rana. |
| 0:07.0 | Thousands of documents from two criminal investigations into the late sex offender |
| 0:17.0 | have been released in the US, which offers a glimpse into the sheer number of |
| 0:22.4 | his wealthy and powerful associates. The Epstein files have unleashed one of the biggest |
| 0:29.5 | and most complex investigations of modern times. They dropped a colossal 3.5 million documents, ranging from emails, flight logs, witness testimony and court transcripts. |
| 0:48.3 | It's predicted to take several years of full-time uninterrupted reading for journalists to go through them all, |
| 0:57.0 | and even longer to conduct thorough investigations and fact-checking to work out what they really mean. |
| 1:03.7 | It's a frustratingly long and intensive process. |
| 1:11.3 | But in that problem, one man saw an opportunity. |
| 1:16.6 | Here at the story, we like to keep an eye on the podcast charts, |
| 1:20.1 | and we found one new entry particularly intriguing. |
| 1:24.3 | A new series called The Epstein Files hit the top of the Apple charts, and while at first it might look like any other podcast, when we clicked clay, it was definitely different. |
| 1:36.4 | You were listening to The Epstein Files, the world's first AI-native investigation into the case that traditional journalism simply could not handle. |
| 1:53.0 | A podcast with no reporters, no producers, in fact no humans attached at all, using AI to bring you the very latest in a time frame |
| 2:03.9 | that most journalists could only dream of. |
| 2:08.0 | But does it work? |
| 2:09.8 | How does it sound? |
| 2:10.8 | And what does AI-led journalism mean for the future of investigations and the search for truth. |
| 2:18.8 | We managed to track down its creator in America for a chat. |
| 2:34.1 | The story today, AI journalism and the creator of the Epstein Files podcast, as well as more recently War Desk. |
| 3:02.1 | And I love the idea of treating media as building product. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.