March 16, 2026
SHARE
CANADALAND
#1330 My Chatbot Encouraged my Psychosis
" In my psychosis all my memories were distorted. So I was like, oh my gosh, I went to the White House when I was little. Obviously I was trafficked there for abuse to world elites." -Anthony Cesar Douglas
Julian Abraham
Reporter
Bruce Thorson
Senior Producer
Tristan Capacchione
Audio Editor & Technical Producer
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
max collins
Director of Audio

Anthony Duncan turned his chatbot into his therapist. That was the start of a journey that ended in the psych ward. How did Anthony’s bot go from helping him write emails to egging on the wildest, and darkest, of his delusions?

 

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Julian Abraham (Reporter), Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

 

Fact checking by Caleb Thompson

Additional music by Audio Network, Julian Abraham, and Anthony Cesar Duncan

Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Cesar Duncan

 

More information:

 

Sponsors: 

Squarespace: Check out https://squarespace.com/canadaland for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use code canadaland to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Article: Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit https://article.com/canadaland and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

BetterHelp:  Visit https://BetterHelp.com/canadaland today to get 10% off your first month.

 

Can’t get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

More from this series
“ People told me, why are you touching this subject? It's a career ender.” - Ric Bienstock
April 20, 2026
“Our Reddit fucking sucks.” -Jesse Brown
April 13, 2026
The history of Canada’s weirdest and most prolific interviewer.
April 6, 2026
Look, we’ve all fallen for it at some point, right?
April 2, 2026
“The long-term vision is to financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion.” - Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of Kalshi.
March 30, 2026
“People who made very serious allegations were not even talked to by the RCMP, and for some reason the tribunal says, that's not discriminatory.” -Journalist, Laura Robinson
March 23, 2026
" In my psychosis all my memories were distorted. So I was like, oh my gosh, I went to the White House when I was little. Obviously I was trafficked there for abuse to world elites." -Anthony Cesar Douglas
March 16, 2026
“There are many agents from the regime within Toronto and other cities documenting our faces and our presence.” -Bahar Almasi
March 9, 2026
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND