It’s been eight years since Pokémon Go took the world by storm. But was the global phenomenon just a big data mining scam?

By the end of its launch year in 2016, over 200 million people had downloaded the game and today 90 million users are still trying to catch em’ all. But it's come to light that the game’s developers, Niantic, have been using its player’s data to train “the next frontier of AI”.

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou chats with freelance games journalist Harry Kalogirou to find out how this happened, whether users are justified in feeling scammed and what this means for the future of AI.

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Headlines: What’s going on Syria right now, Trump threatens 100% tariffs on China and Russia, house prices in Sydney and Melbourne tumble and a Melbourne woman has had a deadly tiger snake slither up her leg while driving.

Deep dive: Young Australians pay more tax than older Australians on the same income.

On this episode of The Briefing, we explain how the tax burden came to fall so heavily on younger people and why, for the first time, we might be in a position to do something about it.

Bension Siebert speaks to Independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender who has spent more than a year creating a green paper, working with experts, business groups, academics, and trade unions to explain the problem and what we could do to solve it.

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Georgia Grace AKA Gspot knows a lot about sex.

She’s a pleasure activist, the co-founder of sexual wellness company Normal and an expert in somatic sexology, embodied counselling and trauma informed approaches.

The Modern Guide to Sex is Georgia’s latest book where she breaks down taboos, myths and the sexual shame society holds.

In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Georgia explains the importance of pleasure and gives her take on Bonnie Blue.

Weekend List

• TO EAT: Avo on toast roast with labneh and za'atar
• TO READ: I Am Pilgrim by former journalist and screenwriter Terry Hayes
• TO TRY: We listen and we don't judge trend on TikTok
• TO WATCH: Fisk season 3 on ABC iView

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Whether you’re a fan or not, you can’t deny the absolute juggernaut that has been the Wicked movie press tour.

After kicking off in Australia earlier this month, the cast of the Broadway adaptation have been going viral while chatting with the media and public about the film.

Headlined by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the press tour has copped some flak for being cringey and over the top, amid viral videos of reporters crying in interviews to ridiculous platitudes about “holding space” for the lyrics of the movie’s title track Defying Gravity.

On today’s episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt is joined by Justin Hill, host of LiSTNR’s The Streaming Service, to break down the insanity of the Wicked press tour and explain why it’s got people so riled up.

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Alicia Schiller is a convicted murderer – and the Victorian Government has given her permission to start IVF treatment during her sentence.

She stabbed her roommate to death in 2014 and she’s currently serving a 16-year-sentence in a maximum-security prison in Victoria. The decision has provoked outrage from the family of her victim, from politicians and members of the public.

If she gets pregnant, it’s being reported that she plans to raise the child with her in prison for the first five years, then hand the child over to her parents while she serves what's left of her sentence.

In part two of this special two-part episode of The Briefing, Victorian Liberal MP Brad Battin argues the Victorian Government should stop Schiller having a child.

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Headlines: Australia approves world first social media ban for kids, Israel fires on southern Lebanon after ceasefire deal, top trends for 2025 revealed.

Deep Dive: Alicia Schiller is a convicted murderer – and the Victorian Government has given her permission to start IVF treatment during her sentence.

She stabbed her roommate to death in 2014 and she’s currently serving a 16-year sentence in a maximum-security prison in Victoria. The decision has provoked outrage from the family of her victim, from politicians and members of the public.

If she gets pregnant, it’s being reported that she plans to raise the child with her in prison for the first five years, then hand the child over to her parents while she serves what's left of her sentence.

In part one of this special two-part episode of The Briefing, Australian barrister and criminal justice spokesman with the Australian Lawyers Alliance Greg Barnes joins Bension Siebert to argue why Schiller has every right to access IVF.

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In Australia, community water fluoridation programs have been underway since the 1950s. It’s a practice endorsed by the World Health Organisation as an effective and safe way of reducing tooth decay.

But earlier this year Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., promised remove fluoride from water supplies, a move that Trump has endorsed.

RFK Jr, often labeled a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, claims fluoride is linked to conditions like arthritis, cancer, and lowered IQ. It’s a case his supporters say is strengthened by a recent US-government report which found a tentative link between high fluoride levels and reduced neurodevelopment in children.

So, is it really safe and is it time we give it a rethink?

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by Dr Brad McKay, GP and author of ‘Fake Medicine: Exposing the wellness crazes, cons and quacks costing us our health’ to unpack it all.

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Headlines: 37 bills listed as “priority” on final scheduled sitting day, Lidia Thorpe suspended from the Senate, US to start work immediately on new Gaza ceasefire proposal and the TikTok Awards 2024 were held in Sydney overnight.

Deep Dive: Next year’s election will be the first in Australia’s history where there’ll be more Millennials and Gen Z than boomers at the ballot box. Who will be influencing their vote?

Celebrity endorsements seem to be losing their potency – despite support from Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, presidential hopeful Kamala Harris could not find the votes to give her the top job in the recent US election. Does that reflect a gap in the election market about to be filled by social media and influencers? And is that a good or bad thing?

Konrad Benjamin doesn't love the term influencer – but he’s the host and creator behind Punters Politics, a YouTube channel that aims to help “navigate the divisive world of Australian politics on a quest to make it simple for the every day punter”. In this episode of The Briefing, he joins Bension Siebert to unpack the power of the influencer, and how much of a say he thinks they will have on the 2025 vote here in Aus. 

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There’s been a major development this week for the appeal hopes of one of the country’s most notorious criminals.

Tony Mokbel, who became a household name during Melbourne’s gangland wars in the early noughties, could soon walk free, after a judge ruled his lawyer had perverted the course of justice by feeding information to the police in the lead up to his arrest.

So how likely is it that his case, and a number of others, will be overturned?

Veteran crime journalist Adam Shand joins Sacha Barbour Gatt on this episode of The Briefing to explain.

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Headlines: Eight Laos hostel staff detained over suspected methanol deaths, Benjamin Netanyahu urges Israeli ministers to approve Hezbollah ceasefire deal, an update on the bills Labor is trying to pass this week and Drake takes feud with Kendrick Lamar to court.

Deep Dive: Are you gearing up to spend your hard-earned dollars this Black Friday?

It's nearly impossible to miss the flood of aggressive marketing from retailers ahead of the Black Friday sales this week. But is it the sale of the year – or just the best marketing ploy ever?

On this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert unpacks why this longstanding American shopping event has become so big in Australia, and how you can you avoid getting sucked in by marketing and snatch a genuine bargain.

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