10 Speaks launches The Conspiracy Virus special podcast

Network 10’s audio operation, 10 Speaks, will launch a two-part investigative podcast, The Conspiracy Virus, as part of its 10 News Fist Person offering.

It will be hosted by national affairs editor, Hugh Riminton, and produced by journalists Antony Loewenstein and Olivia Rosenman.

The network said the podcast will investigate the explosion of misinformation in the 21st Century, and focus on two “highly talked about and contentious topics”: the COVID-19 vaccine and climate change.

Riminton said: “More than ever we need to examine the forces that make conspiracy theories so easy to launch and so hard to refute. Quite clearly, there are lives at stake. As we have seen recently in the US, there are entire systems of government potentially at stake.

“I have known and admired Olivia Rosenman’s work since my CNN days more than a decade ago, and Antony Lowenstein has amassed a huge body of work questioning conventional wisdom on a host of issues. They are the perfect people to drill more deeply into conspiracy theories and the damage they do.”

The Conspiracy Virus podcast series was produced in partnership with 10 News First Person and the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

The Conspiracy Virus Part 1: Covid and Vaccines and The Conspiracy Virus Part 2: Climate Change are available now on the 10 News First Person podcast on Acast, Apple, Spotify and other podcast apps.