Left To Their Own Devices is a 10-part investigative podcast that explores the profound impact of world-changing technologies on Gen Z. Host Ava Smithing, who lost years of her life to an eating disorder catalyzed by social media, blends harrowing personal narrative with deep investigative reporting. We are proud to share that the series was a Peabody Award Nominee and was featured in Apple Podcasts’ Best of 2025.
Unlike the traditional public discourse around technology — often fueled by the anxieties of adults — this limited series is led and driven by young people. It moves beyond the “youth mental health crisis” headline to deliver a meticulously produced exposé on how deliberate design choices by the world’s most profitable companies have generated a public health catastrophe.
The series achieves a unique “digital-first” intimacy. By centering Smithing’s lived experience, the journalism avoids a clinical tone, instead offering an authentic, peer-to-peer investigation. The reporting uncovers the explosion of financial sextortion — leading to at least 52 teen suicides since 2021 — and features New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, whose team demonstrated how Meta platforms became “breeding grounds” for predators.
The production quality and sound design are engineered for a mobile-first audience, utilizing immersive audio to mirror the digital environments it critiques. The series effectively:
Blends expert testimony from neuroscientists and lawyers with the raw, unfiltered voices of marginalized youth and grieving parents.
Visualizes evocative audio descriptions of “rabbit holes,” showing how algorithms push users toward a progressively harmful content.
Transitions from a podcast that shows how we got here, to the harms it is causing, to the beginnings of a community-led movement, highlighting digital-native solutions like the #NoSo (no social) detox.
Left To Their Own Devices meets the ONA’s highest standards for digital storytelling by addressing a systemic failure within the very platforms where its audience lives. It highlights the essential conflict of the digital age: platforms optimized for engagement over safety. As the series documents, when a company acknowledges harmful overuse yet fails to intervene, “that’s exploitation.”
By synthesizing deep investigation with a profound call for corporate and legislative accountability, Left To Their Own Devices represents the pinnacle of audio digital storytelling, giving a voice to the generation most affected by the digital frontier.
