TORONTO — CBC announced Tuesday the worldwide release of the new Hunting Warhead true crime podcast series, an international co-production between CBC Podcasts and Norway’s Verdens Gang (VG) newspaper.
Consisting of six 45-minute episodes, the series amplifies outstanding original journalism by VG, layered with rich audio storytelling and in-depth interviews from CBC Podcasts, plus archival interviews and input from Australia’s ABC Audio Studios, CBC said in a news release.
Hunting Warhead follows the determined journalists, white-hat hackers and police on a mission across borders to uncover the man behind username Warhead who ran Child’s Play, a site on the dark web with more than a million users trafficking child abuse material.
Hosted and co-produced by Daemon Fairless, Hunting Warhead closely follows the chase as it unfolds, and the human beings affected. The series includes direct conversations with close friends and relatives who are searching for understanding and to prevent the next Warhead from emerging. Listeners will also hear from the investigators and criminals themselves.
“Hunting Warhead is a perfect example of collaborating with international partners to enrich our original storytelling, and amplify Canadian stories around the globe,” said Leslie Merklinger, senior director of audio innovation at CBC, in the news release.
When VG first broke the story in Norway, cracking open a massive international investigation, the newspaper knew it was a story with far-reaching impact and it approached Norway’s public broadcaster, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), for its input.
“I’m a complete radio-and-podcast nerd, and a big fan of many of CBC’s podcasts,” said Nina Martin, journalist, TV, radio and podcast host at NRK, in the news release. “SKS [Someone Knows Something], Finding Cleo and other CBC podcasts are well received in Norway due to their effective yet honest storytelling, I think. At the same time, it needs to be entertaining, exciting, moving, and CBC knows how to do that. So, it seemed to me it would be a perfect match: One of Norway’s best journalists working with highly professional storytellers at CBC, on an amazing story with both Norwegian and Canadian ties. It was a no brainer.”
At the helm of the Hunting Warhead series is the team behind internationally renowned CBC podcast series such as Someone Knows Something and Uncover, including executive producer Arif Noorani and series co-producer Chris Oke.
“Faulkner [Warhead] is Canadian, so it was only natural to find a Canadian partner when we wanted to tell the full story about how he came to be Warhead,” said Håkon Fostervold Høydal, the journalist who broke the story for VG and co-producer of the podcast. “But we needed a partner with the potential to make the podcast go international. CBC has proven that they can do this, with Chris Oke [SKS] as the producer. I am impressed at how quickly Arif, Chris and the rest of the team at CBC saw that Hunting Warhead could be a major podcast series — it took them one day to decide!”
Andrew Davies, digital and engagement editor with ABC Audio Studios, added: “The ABC Audio Studios team values the connection we have with CBC Podcasts. Over the last two years we have established a very close working relationship and will continue to build on that as part of the broader MOU between our two organizations. We were delighted to give feedback on some of the Hunting Warhead episodes. That the CBC team were able to draw on some of the ABC’s reporting to help make this excellent series further strengthens this relationship.”
The first two Hunting Warhead episodes are now available to download on the new CBC Listen app and all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, with two new episodes to be released weekly, CBC said.
