Hunting the Suicide Salesman

A new investigative series from CBC Podcasts and the Norwegian newspaper VG, Hunting Warhead follows an international team of police officers as they attempt to track down the people behind a massive child-abuse site on the dark web — and the morally complicated lengths authorities will go to to do so. Coming November 2019.

Einar Stangvik is a white-hat hacker — an internet security expert with an expertise in cracking the most secure and disturbing parts of the web. He discovers a troubling phenomenon online and joins forces with journalist Håkon Høydal. It leads them to Australia, to confront two men who are running the largest child abuse site on the dark net. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/hunting-warehead-transcripts-listen-1.5346693

All Gordon wants for his birthday is to travel to Washington, D.C., to visit museums and see the opera. He’s completely unaware that his companion on this trip has very different plans. His friend has an alter ego, Warhead, and it turns out police are not far behind. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/hunting-warehead-transcripts-listen-1.5346693

After the arrest of Canadian Benjamin Faulkner, Taskforce Argos has to learn how to become Warhead on Child’s Play, before its users realize that the site has been compromised. But time is running out — and very difficult moral decisions will have to be made. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/hunting-warehead-transcripts-listen-1.5346693

Jenn was home alone with her children when she received a call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They needed to talk to her as soon as possible. It was about her relative, Ben Faulkner. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/hunting-warehead-transcripts-listen-1.5346693

What led Benjamin Faulkner to become Warhead? And, more importantly, how do you prevent others like him from following the same path? For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/hunting-warehead-transcripts-listen-1.5346693

At Faulkner’s final sentencing hearing, we finally discover the true extent of his activities on the dark web. We thought we knew everything he had been up to. We were wrong. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/hunting-warehead-transcripts-listen-1.5346693

They say you should never meet your heroes. Daemon Fairless disagrees. First, he has an update on the return of Hunting Warhead. But then he takes us behind-the-scenes on another project he’s been working on as a story editor: The Outlaw Ocean.

This is a frank, illuminating discussion with Ian Urbina, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who quit his New York Times job to do some of the hardest, most difficult and often dangerous reporting in the world. He’s since become the de facto beat reporter for the world’s oceans — and his investigations reveal the shocking prevalence of forced labour, mind-boggling overfishing, and the hard truth is that it’s all connected to the cheap seafood we love.

If you have the stomach for the kind of viscerally tough reporting we do on Hunting Warhead, we know you’ll appreciate The Outlaw Ocean — another show that sheds light on the darkest corners of the world, and goes where others won’t.

Find and follow The Outlaw Ocean (S2) here: https://link.mgln.ai/oo-hw

This season, host Daemon Fairless takes you inside the business of suicide and a deadly corner of the internet: the online world helping people take their own lives.

If you are thinking about suicide or are worried about someone you know, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada or the United States for support. If your life is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. You can find additional and international resources at cbc.ca/hunting.

After a young British man ends his life with a mysterious substance, his grieving family stumbles into the online world that helped him – and countless others – die.

If you are thinking about suicide or are worried about someone you know, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada or the United States for support. If your life is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. You can find additional and international resources at cbc.ca/hunting.

A string of suicides across the globe seem to be connected to a salesman in Canada. But does he know what he’s selling is being used for? An undercover journalist uncovers a bombshell.

If you are thinking about suicide or are worried about someone you know, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada or the United States for support. If your life is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. You can find additional and international resources at cbc.ca/hunting.

After years of operating under the radar, Kenneth Law is now under police investigation. How does a once-successful businessman find himself bankrupt and in the business of suicide?

If you are thinking about suicide or are worried about someone you know, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada or the United States for support. If your life is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. You can find additional and international resources at cbc.ca/hunting.

The business of suicide is far bigger than one man. Meet the lawyers taking on the trillion-dollar company that sold far more of the substance than police allege Kenneth Law ever did.

If you are thinking about suicide or are worried about someone you know, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada or the United States for support. If your life is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. You can find additional and international resources at cbc.ca/hunting.

Putting Kenneth Law behind bars won’t do anything to stop people from wanting to die… or going online to learn how. What – if anything – will?

If you are thinking about suicide or are worried about someone you know, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada or the United States for support. If your life is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. You can find additional and international resources at cbc.ca/hunting.

Daemon and producer Ilina Ghosh sit down with Rebecca Lavoie (Crime Writers On) to talk about the making of Hunting the Suicide Salesman, and why it's important to tell stories that people might think they don't want to hear.