Home / How The Harold works
Under the hood
How The Harold works
Every night, while you sleep, The Harold reads the news so you don't have to. Here's the whole process — from hundreds of sources to the five-minute audio briefing waiting for you in the morning.
The short version: Harold reads 400+ sources overnight, verifies the facts, strips the spin, writes a briefing around the topics you chose, turns it into audio, and delivers the link by email — or text, on Premium — before you wake up.
The five steps
Harold reads everything
Through the night, Harold works across 400+ sources from every corner of the spectrum — wire services like AP and Reuters, national and local papers, international outlets, tech and business press, and niche newsletters. Left, right, global, hyper-local. The goal at this stage is simple: see the whole picture, not one slice of it.
It cross-checks the facts
A single outlet can get something wrong, or frame it hard. So Harold cross-references each story against multiple independent sources and keeps only what holds up — the verifiable record: what happened, who said it, what's confirmed. No invented stories, no hallucinated quotes. Where credible sources genuinely disagree, both positions are kept.
It removes the framing
This is the part that makes Harold different. The loaded adjectives, the outrage-shaped headlines, the editorial verdicts layered on top — all of it comes off. What's left is plain, neutral language: just what happened, with nothing steering how you should feel about it.
It writes your briefing — and reads it aloud
Harold writes a tight script around the segments you chose — U.S. and world news, plus any extended topics, and on Premium your city's headlines, weather, and events. An editorial pass checks the whole briefing for balance before a word of audio is made. Then it's turned into a clear, narrated audio episode, roughly five minutes long.
It lands before you wake up
By morning, your briefing is ready. Basic subscribers get an email; Premium gets a text and an email. One tap opens that day's episode — press play and listen while you get ready. Default delivery is 7:30 AM in your time zone, and Premium can pick any morning slot. No app, no login, no feed.
A few things Harold won't do
- No ads. No sponsors. Ever. Your subscription is the only thing funding Harold, so nothing is pulling the briefing in any direction.
- No tracking. Your contact details are used to deliver your briefing — that's it. Nothing is sold.
- No opinions. Harold reports what happened and trusts you to decide what you think about it.
- No pretending to be perfect. Briefings are labeled as AI-generated. If something's wrong, it's corrected in the next day's briefing — and you're told.
Wake up to it tomorrow
Seven days free. Cancel anytime. Your first briefing arrives tomorrow morning.
Start your free trial