Mozilla’s annual Internet Health Report (IHR) has always been a critical temperature check on the state of the internet. It seeks to look beyond the machines, code, apps, and platforms to highlight the people challenging tech’s status quo. This vital work offers solutions to some of the most persistent challenges we face in today’s technological landscape: bias, a lack of transparency, and the rampant commodification of our personal data.

Every year, the people featured in the report offer reason for hope in an often bleak landscape. And who couldn’t use a little extra hope?

Being shut out from public spaces these past two years meant we had to change how we interact, and still build meaningful connections — while I love being online, sitting down with a good cup of coffee ready to read a good report as much as the next person, today that feels like its own brand of social distancing. To be honest, I miss traveling and being in rooms with brilliant folks. With you.

That’s why this year we decided to bring these folks to you in a much more intimate way: we teamed up with Mozilla’s award-winning podcast, IRL, for a special season of the Internet Health Report. Whether you are taking a walk, doing dishes, or commuting, let us journey together to different parts of the world. Hear from trailblazers changing how AI is built, used, and impacting our lives.

Listen to podcast

We decided to focus on AI this year because it is central to our relationship with the internet and with society itself. Often AI is treated as invisible and unknowable. But as the people you’ll hear from will tell you: it is neither of these things (it’s very seldom even particularly intelligent).

Each of the season’s five episodes hones in on one particular manifestation of AI. We go into the clouds to see how geospatial data documents and exacerbates social inequalities. We talk to people about ways to protect yourself when your algorithm is a boss. We explore how to safeguard democracies from algorithm-induced disinformation. And we hear from technologists wielding their influence and expertise to fight the building of killer robots.

The 2022 Internet Health Report isn’t just audio. We also bring you our annual *brilliant* *visual* collection of data mapping the highs and lows of internet health and identifying the trustworthiness of AI. And you’ll see we also dig deeper with guests from the show with a series of interviews.

Through the course of the season, you’ll hear from people who are making change, who are fighting persistent power structures, and who reject the notion that invisibility is grounds for unaccountability. If you work in tech, this is for you. If you work in policy, this is for you. And if you care about the world around you, this is for you.

Because AI is real life.