The Shadow Contract is an investigative podcast about power, technology and the future of the NHS.

When the UK government awarded a £330m contract to the controversial data company Palantir to build the NHS’s new Federated Data Platform, ministers promised a revolution in efficiency and patient care. But behind the headlines lies a far more complex story.

Hosted by Eliza Pitkin of Good Law Project, The Shadow Contract investigates how a surveillance technology firm with deep roots in military intelligence, immigration enforcement and policing came to sit at the heart of Britain’s public health infrastructure.

Across four episodes we reveal covert influence campaigns, emergency pandemic deals that quietly grew into massive public contracts and the global track record of the company now handling vast amounts of sensitive health data.

Along the way we speak to doctors, analysts, campaigners and experts asking urgent questions about transparency, trust and the growing power of private tech companies inside public services.

Because the NHS holds one of the most valuable health datasets in the world.

And the decisions being made now could shape how that data is used - and who controls it - for decades to come.

From the fault lines of Israel and Gaza to Mandelson and the corridors of Westminster power and the elite networks exposed in the wake of Epstein, The Shadow Contract reveals how the company handling our health data sits at the centre of it all.