From the news to the live channel
Wishlist After Dark is made with AI tools and checked by a person. This page explains plainly what is automated, what is not, and where every fact comes from.
In short
- The products are real products sold on Amazon, picked every day for being popular, well reviewed and good gifts. Nobody pays to be on the show.
- Affiliate links: each spot links the product on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases; it never decides what is picked or how it is rated.
- The scripts are written by an AI model (Claude, by Anthropic) from the product's listing, its maker's page and what reviewers and buyers say.
- The voices are synthetic, made with ElevenLabs (Kokoro text-to-speech as the backup). No real person reads the lines.
- The hosts are original animated characters created for the show. They are not real people, they haven't held the products, and they don't work for Amazon or any brand.
- A human producer approves the daily Top 5 and its Short before they go out; the product spots publish on their own and the producer fixes or removes any that are wrong.
- Product pictures are the makers' own photos. The studio sets and posters may be AI-generated artwork.
- The listing is the source of truth: check it for today's price, size, age range and what's in the box.
How an episode is made
- Products are picked. Every day the product desk picks twelve real products from Amazon for the season (Christmas, birthdays, Mother's Day, back to school…), across toys, the home, gadgets and more, and finds the maker's own photos.
- A script is written. An AI model (Claude, by Anthropic) writes a short pitch for three hosts: what it is, who it's perfect for, the catch buyers mention, and an honest rating out of 10. It sticks to what the listing and the maker say.
- The hosts are voiced. Each host has one synthetic voice (ElevenLabs; Kokoro as the backup).
- The video is rendered. The animated studio, the hosts, the product photos, captions and the rating are put together into a finished spot.
- It goes on air. A new spot plays on the live channel at wishlist.afterdark.fm and stays in the archive with a link to the product; its rating lands in the rankings.
- The daily Top 5. A countdown of the five best in one category goes to YouTube, with a Short of the top three, after a person approves them.
Read the originals
A short spoken summary can miss nuance or get a detail wrong, even after review. Every episode page lists the articles and posts it is based on under Sources, with a link to each one, plus any pages the research used, marked Research. When something matters to you, such as the price, the size, the age range or what's included, check the product's listing before you buy.
The hosts
Marty, Penny and Sunny are original characters made for this show. They are fictional: they are not real people. Their voices are synthetic and their studio is animated.
Report a mistake
Spotted something wrong in an episode? Contact us with the episode link (it starts with https://wishlist.afterdark.fm/e/) and what needs fixing. Corrections are reviewed by the producer, and a wrong episode is fixed or taken down.
Credits
- Products: each spot links the product on Amazon and its maker's page. Product names, photos and trademarks belong to their owners.
- Scripts: Claude by Anthropic.
- Voices: ElevenLabs; Kokoro-82M text-to-speech as the backup (Apache 2.0).
- Hosts and studio: original characters and animation made for Wishlist After Dark.
- Site art: the background art and textures are original, drawn for this site.