War, pandemics, politics, soap, cigarettes – it’s all propaganda. Whether it’s coming from the left or the right, your party or the opposition, coke or pepsi, propaganda rules our lives.

The father of public relations, Edward Bernays, tells us as early as 1928 that we are governed and molded, our tastes formed, by nameless people. He also tells us that we need a greater power, whether a government or business, to tell us how to live our lives. And he should know as he created the infamous “Torches of Freedom” cigarette ad aimed at convincing women to take up smoking as a feminist act of defiance at a time when smoking, for women, was improper. And the feminists ate it up. Why my sisters!

Propaganda, from Themistocles in 480BCE to pamphlet bombs, we have farmers and Catholic Cardenals to thank for the world’s origins, but Edward Bernays, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump for what it means today.

Plus Creative Cursing from Around The World takes us to South Africa.

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Produced by Jo Vraca. You can find my books on Amazon
Sound engineering and original music by Jeff Willis. You can find his tunes on Spotify and iTunes
Additional music thanks to https://uppbeat.io