Robert Downey Jr. says he refuses to have an AI digital replica replace him in any project, whether he’s alive or dead. “I intend to sue all future executives just on spec. [When I’m dead] my law firm will still be very active.”

The Sunshine Place, the ratings-topping and award-winning documentary podcast that counts Robert Downey Jr. as one of its executive producers, will devote its second season to a topic with which the Oscar-winning actor feels a personal connection: a controversial ‘tough-love’ teen rehab program.

The podcast’s first season, which focused on the early behavior-modification rehab Synanon, hit No. 1 on the Apple Podcasts chart and won the 2023 Deadline Club Award for audio investigative reporting. Its second season will examine Straight Inc., which emerged in the 1980s, was endorsed by First Lady Nancy Reagan and swept the nation — but also, according to survivors who speak to The Sunshine Place, employed abuse, torture and brainwashing.