Channel 4 is launching two current affairs vodcasts: Untangled, from Zandland, is fronted by Stacey Dooley and Ben Zand; A News Thing is hosted by the comedians of A Comedy Thing by Channel 4. Both will offer young audiences impartial and fact-checked response to the week’s biggest news stories.
The launches follow the publication in January of Channel 4’s study, Gen Z: Trends, Truth and Trust which highlighted the scale of the challenges facing Gen Z in sourcing trusted news, including that young people have more confidence in social media posts from friends than established journalism.
The new podcasts will bring comedy and conversation to viewers, providing weekly reputable and regulated round ups of topical events on YouTube and Spotify.
A News Thing is an entertaining and enlightening weekly review of the news. Comedian Michael Odewale is joined by a selection of A Comedy Thing by Channel 4 regulars, including Finlay Christie and Dan Tiernan, along with other talent from the UK comedy circuit.
“Young audiences are drowning in an online world of disinformation, divisive and toxic views – as a result they’re hungry for informed, fact checked and reliable information to help them make sense of the world and these pods will help them do that in very different ways,” says Louisa Compton, Head of News and Current Affairs and Specialist Factual and Sport at Channel 4.
Stacey Dooley said: “There’s so much happening in the world, it can feel hard to know what really matters or who to trust. With Untangled, we’re hoping to make sense of it all – to have open, honest conversations about the stories everyone’s talking about, without it feeling overwhelming or heavy. It’s about curiosity and compassion.”
Ben Zand added: “We wanted to make something that helps people get to grips with the biggest stories without feeling overwhelmed by them. And most importantly, to really focus on the impact of the human beings at the heart of these stories. Untangled is about slowing things down and having reasonable, honest conversations in a world that feels increasingly polarised. We’re aiming for curiosity over conflict.”
With Untangled, Zandland enters the vodcast space for the first time. It is executive produced by Josh Reynolds and produced by Flossie Barratt.
Based in Liverpool and London, Zandland is a documentary studio founded by filmmaker Ben Zand. Productions include Guardians (HRH Prince William and Royal Foundation, BBC Earth), Cult of Conspiracy: QAnon (Channel 4), Kingpins (Channel 4), The Great Amazon Heist (Channel 4), and original YouTube series Human, releasing new episodes monthly.
Pippa Considine
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