Rivals Wagatha Christie for its lowbrow twists: FT’s Hot Money – Who Rules Porn? reviewed

It was recently reported that almost 8 per cent of global internet traffic is to pornographic websites. The rise of working from home may make this statistic less startling than it might have been three years ago, but still, that’s an awful lot of procrastination and, well, not much WFH.

Given the dominance of the porn industry, it’s a wonder there hasn’t been an exposé of the kind produced by the Financial Times before now. The newspaper’s investigation into who lurks behind the webcams and controls this business took more than six months to complete and has now been turned into a riveting eight-part podcast series. Hot Money: Who Rules Porn? rivals Wagatha Christie for lowbrow twists.

The investigation was led by reporter Patricia Nilsson, who narrates each episode like a diary. Every now and then, her editor, Alex Barker, comes in with his own reflections and editorial steers. We swing back and forth between the here and now and the investigation in progress via extracts from interview tapes and casual voice-notes recorded on location everywhere from Cologne to LA.