Stage Talks with Bellingcat

This week, we explored how our work is funded - what keeps our open-source collective's lights on? Bellingcat's Sarah Bishop Woods and Mareike Vitt, both members of our Development Team, joined us to explain our new funding structure: a Bellingcat membership model. We discussed what a membership model is, why Bellingcat has adopted it, and the benefits and risks associated with this type of funding. Mareike also stressed that relying on a single source of funding is not enough to sustain an organisation in the current economic climate.
The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on July 3oth 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.
Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat
Links:

Become a Bellingcat member: https://www.bellingcat.com/donate/
Mareike's previous talk is here on wider funding models: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/1897808/
Bellingcat Toolkit: https://bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit
Listed member benefits: https://www.bellingcat.com/bellingcat-member-benefits/

Some guidance on how to support Bellingcat from Mareike, we're grateful for all of them:
Amplify. Share our program, newsletters or posts within your networks.
Take initiative. You can create your own campaign for Bellingcat and start raising funds within your peers by e.g. for your birthday, run a half-marathon, live-stream your gaming activity
Fundraiser for Bellingcat NL (tax-deductible in NL)For raising funds that are tax deductible in NL: https://www.bellingcat.com/bellingcat-member-benefits/
Fundraiser for Bellingcat US (tax-deductible in the US) For raising tax deductible donations in the US: https://donorbox.org/peer-to-peer-fundraising-for-bellingcat
Targeted support. You can support specific causes at Bellingcat now. We’ve created a dedicated fund to support the Bellingcat Toolkit. Let us know what else you’d like to support. Donations to support the Bellingcat Toolkit specifically: https://www.bellingcat.com/donate-bellingcat-toolkit/
Advise. Your insight is important to us, and we will listen carefully.
Connect. If someone from your network belongs in the conversation, we would be grateful for the introduction.
Any ideas, questions or initiatives, we're here for you: donations@bellingcat.com

This week, we spoke to SourceMaterial's Costanza Gambarini, fresh off her win at the Press Awards for Environmental Journalist of the Year. We spoke about what makes a good environmental journalist and the practices she follows in her newsroom. The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on July 16th 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.
Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat
Links:
Seeds of doubt: https://www.politico.eu/article/seeds-of-doubt-the-dark-side-of-enis-green-jet-fuel-promise/
Indonesian exports: https://www.source-material.org/indonesian-exporters-palm-oil-pome-fraud-supplied-european-fuel-companies/
Dark Water: https://www.source-material.org/putin-shadow-fleet-illegal-dumping-oil-sea/
Data Centres: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/09/big-tech-datacentres-water
Other investigations mentioned:
https://www.source-material.org/shadow-fleet-security-guard-captains-russia-oil/
https://www.source-material.org/totalenergies-workers-linked-sexual-exploitation-mozambique/
https://www.source-material.org/mozambique-total-lng-military-human-rights/
Contact SourceMaterial: https://www.source-material.org/contact/
Bellingcat Toolkit: https://bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit
Discord spaces:
#environment-wildlife: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/807311724893175878
#Tools-sites: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/709755421836967978
#maritime: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/920298016123023400
Previous talks mentioned:
Protecting the people in your research: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/2041897/
Tracking Suspicious Ships: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/2235217/

This week, we're exploring technology designed to respond to online harms.
We spoke with Madelaine Thomas, founder of Image Angel, about forensic watermarking, how the technology works, and the challenges of building tools to respond to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
We also discuss the opportunities, limitations, and alternative approaches to tackling this issue.
The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on July 2nd 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.
Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat
TW: Discussion of sexual exploitation and image abuse
Links:
The company website: https://www.imageangel.co.uk/
And Image Angel's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imageangel_/
If you're interested in this talk you might find our previous talk with CNN interesting: (HUGE TW for sexual abuse) https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/2909687/
Revenge Porn Helpline: https://stopncii.org/
Bellingcat Open Source Toolkit: https://bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit
Tool Development space in our Discord Server: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/1485701772625314013
#NotYourPorn: https://notyourporn.com/

This week we spoke to the CNN team behind the investigation into the porn site Motherless. Anonymous accounts. Private chat groups. Hidden online communities. We unpacked how reporters gained access to these spaces, spoke with users sharing intimate imagery of people they knew, and navigated the challenges of reporting in communities designed to stay hidden. It's a conversation about newsroom resources, risk assessment, digital safety, and the realities of reporting where others aren't looking.
The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on June 11th 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist. Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat
TW: Discussion of sexual assault and abuse
Links:
CNN's Motherless Investigation: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2026/03/world/expose-rape-assault-online-vis-intl/index.html and As Equals series: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/asequals/
NDR covered this network in 2024, their unit STRG_F's documentary: youtube.com/watch?si=uoUyWe9dQAteJWJA&v=GLrzyOLJUtk&feature=youtu.be - Their research triggered an international law enforcement operation: https://www.ndr.de/der_ndr/presse/mitteilungen/ndr-recherche-loest-internationale-ermittlungsoperation-medusa-aus,pressemeldungndr-638.html
Pelicot investigation: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2024/12/europe/gisele-pelicot-france-case-messages/
NY Times article hiding CSAM: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/09/us/internet-child-sex-abuse.html
Berkeley Protocol https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/OHCHR_BerkeleyProtocol.pdf
Alexa Koenig talk https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/1908244/
Discord discussion space - Gender Based Violence And Misogyny: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/1118448280435687506
Maintain mental hygiene as a researcher: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2022/11/23/how-to-maintain-mental-hygiene-as-an-open-source-researcher/
Reporting on gender based violence: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2023/03/03/sexual-and-gender-based-violence-open-source-researche-osint-digital/

This week we spoke to Bellingcat's Pooja Chaudhuri about the ongoing violence in Myanmar. After tracking developments in Rakhine State for three years, Pooja has recently published a longitudinal data analysis of what has happened to the villages and townships disappearing off government maps.
Within the talk, she guides us through this work and the obstacles faced in order to monitor this difficult to access region.
The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on May 28th 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.
Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat
Links:
Her 2026 report: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/05/27/the-lost-villages-of-myanmars-rakhine/?utm_source=rss
Her previous reporting:
2024: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/06/05/myanmar-military-territorial-losses-war-conflict-human-rights-burma/
2025: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/04/29/open-sources-show-myanmar-junta-airstrike-damages-despite-post-earthquake-ceasefire/
Human Rights Watch report: https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/05/18/myanmar-no-redress-for-rohingya-muslims-in-arakan-army-massacre
Resources mentioned:
https://acleddata.com/
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/
https://themimu.info/
https://www.info-res.org/myanmar-witness/
Stage Talk on munitions identification: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/2625938/
Discord spaces:
Myanmar: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/1087357245400035350
Bombs, Arms, Drones, Other Killing Machines: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/709771086228619337
Asia: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/709783693857783929
Contact Pooja on pooja@bellingcat.com