This Is Propaganda

Episodios

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  S2E3: Betty Crocker the Psy-Op, Rosie the Riveter, and the Feminist Revolution 03.04.2026 25m

  From flappers to factory workers, and suffrajitsu to cold war kitchens, we track how the 20th century woman was imagined time and again to meet the needs of a nation.
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  S2E2: Hollywood Declares War: From WWII Pinup Girls to Playmates in Vietnam 02.01.2026 26m

  How propagandists getting into bed with Hollywood caused the military to lose control of what women mean to their warriors.
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  S2E1: Horny for War: The History of How Sex Became A Weapon 31.10.2025 23m

  White feathers, red light districts, and the rise of the military edging complex. How governments weaponized horniness to win WWI, and began to reimagine what women represent to a nation at war.
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  This Is Propaganda Season 2 07.10.2025 1m

  This Is Propaganda is back, and more patriotic than ever. From WWI posters to TikTok E-Girls, strap in for an immersive narrative investigation into how the military uses sex to define the image of the soldier, and the weird and unexpected ways it has changed our culture. New episode drops October 2025.
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  Bot Armies, Dead Internet, and Misinformation Farms with Amil Khan 30.05.2025 39m

  With endless bot armies infiltrating social media feeds and harnessing the algorithm to control narratives and public opinion, our media system is becoming increasingly polluted.How long will it be before the internet is officially “dead,” where more comments and views are bots than human? Our conversation this week is with Amil Khan, a former Reuters foreign correspondent and BBC investigative journalist with over two decades of experience in media and communications. Amil is now the CEO of Valent, a firm specializing in countermeasures for organizations under threat from bot networks and disinformation campaigns. Welcome to DoubleThink, conversations inspired by This Is Propaganda. If you haven’t yet, check out the Webby Award–winning first season. — BRINK media group is re-imagining how brands, causes and artists compete in the oversaturated attention marketplace through original productions and branded entertainment. Website: thisispropaganda.show Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow Email: propaganda@brink.com
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  Media Literacy with Renee Hobbs 12.05.2025 32m

  The average American’s worldview is under constant assault from propaganda. Between the 5,000 advertisements we see daily, for profit journalism, and virtually every post on social media, the gulf between reality and the myths we are surrounded by has never been wider. And with the widespread adoption of algorithms guiding this entire process, we are in desperate need of a new set of skills to navigate the landscape. This set of skills is widely referred to as media literacy—a concept that extends literacy beyond the ability to read and write, into the ability to understand how and why messages work across different forms of media. Joining us is special guest Renee Hobbs, media literacy scholar, educator, and founder of the Media Education Lab.
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  Hollywood and The Pentagon with Tom Secker 16.04.2025 33m

  It probably won’t come as much of a surprise that the Pentagon was involved in the making of Top Gun. What may be more surprising is the sheer scope of film and television projects the Pentagon has had a hand in—and just how deeply involved it is in the production process. From Pitch Perfect 3 to the reality show Wife Swap, today we’ll explore how the Pentagon became one of the most powerful forces behind Hollywood storytelling—and the long-term impact this influence has had on audiences both in America and around the world.
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  The Death of a Millennial Brand with Eugene Healey 18.03.2025 30m

  What aesthetics and ideas defined the branded propaganda targeting millennials in the 2010s, and why do they increasingly fail to resonate with Gen Z audiences?
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  Howard Gossage: 20th Century Master of Propaganda with Justin Oberman 19.02.2025 27m

  San Francisco ad man Howard Gossage (1917–1969) is a bit more under the radar than his Madison Avenue contemporaries, but his work in both consumer marketing and advocacy messaging was brilliant. His unconventional and interactive approaches to advertising felt like a harbinger of what was to come a half-century later with the advent of social media. We discuss his work and what it can teach us about propaganda.
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  Abortion Messaging in Post-Dobbs America with Amelia Bonow 20.01.2025 23m

  Liberal “pro choice” messaging has historically conceded the moral high ground (“safe, legal and rare”). Amelia Bonow helped change that as the leader of the Shout Your Abortion movement. In this episode, she shares her journey and discusses why the persuasion war is far less important than educating people on the options they still and will always have, regardless of legality.
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  Luigi Mangione, Trump and the Art of Cultural Disruption with David Shields 20.12.2024 33m

  David Shields (best-selling author / filmmaker) joins us to dissect the brutal reality of politics as performance. We dive into Trump’s media mastery, Luigi Mangione’s provocative symbolism, and why the Democrats are stuck playing an obsolete game.
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  Nuance has a PR Problem 20.11.2024 25m

  Unpacking how the Culture War feeds on emotional shortcuts, why complexity and nuance is so hard to embrace, and what it means to navigate a society driven by flattened ideas and radicalized identities. This is DoubleThink, conversations inspired by the themes of This Is Propaganda. If you haven’t yet, please listen to the Webby Award season one of the pod. — BRINK media group is re-imagining how brands, causes and artists compete in the oversaturated attention marketplace through original productions and branded entertainment. Website: thisispropaganda.show Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow Email: propaganda@brink.com — Cohosts: Josh Belhumeur and Malcolm Critcher
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  The Art / Propaganda Spectrum 05.11.2024 22m

  Is art propaganda? Is propaganda art? A free flowing conversation about a spectrum that exists between the two and how modern consumer propaganda might benefit from leaning heavier into art.
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  Narratives of the US Election 19.10.2024 32m

  In this first episode of DoubleThink — conversations inspired by the themes of This Is Propaganda — Malcolm and Josh revisit the “vibe shift” of the US election when President Biden dropped and the world got coconut-pilled by Kamala Harris, along with predictions of what comes next.
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  S1E5: Everything Is Propaganda, Even You 03.01.2024 19m

  Social media creates an environment where propaganda becomes our default mode of expression because everyone is a brand. BRINK is a creative agency dedicated to reshaping the advertising industry through expanding awareness of our impact on the collective conscience and adopting a more humanist approach. Learn more about our work at brink.com Website: thisispropaganda.show Email: propaganda@brink.com Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thisispropagandashow Slack: bit.ly/propaganda-slack Reddit: reddit.com/r/thisispropaganda Cohosts: Josh Belhumeur and Malcolm Critcher Producers: Jaclyn Hubersberger and Reed Chandler Story Editor: Matt Decker Additional Audio Engineering: Paul Injeti Original music: Josh Belhumeur
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  S1E4: You Have My Permission to Believe What I Say 18.12.2023 20m

  Our discomfort with propaganda puts us on a quest for authenticity, but do we even know what that means anymore? Wanna be a guest on our podcast? Hit up Josh and Malcolm at propaganda@brink.com Website: thisispropaganda.show Email: propaganda@brink.com Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow YouTube: youtube.com/@thisispropagandashow Slack: bit.ly/propaganda-slack Reddit: reddit.com/r/thisispropaganda Cohosts: Josh Belhumeur and Malcolm Critcher Producers: Jaclyn Hubersberger and Reed Chandler Story Editor: Matt Decker Additional Audio Engineering: Paul Injeti Original music: Josh Belhumeur
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  S1E3: The Sound of One Hand Clapping 08.11.2023 22m

  Propaganda helps usher in a new form of tribalism and the modern culture war. Connect, get merch, and go deeper down the rabbit hole at thisispropaganda.show. Website: thisispropaganda.show Email: propaganda@brink.com Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow YouTube: youtube.com/@thisispropagandashow Slack: bit.ly/propaganda-slack Reddit: reddit.com/r/thisispropaganda Cohosts: Josh Belhumeur and Malcolm Critcher Producers: Jaclyn Hubersberger and Reed Chandler Story Editor: Matt Decker Additional Audio Engineering: Paul Injeti Original music: Josh Belhumeur
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  S1E2: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, It Will Be Sold 23.10.2023 15m

  Previous propaganda techniques struggled to work with the boomer generation in a period of social unrest – until Madison Avenue had a breakthrough. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast so far, be sure to leave us a review. If you hated it, share it with your enemies, they sound like smart people. Website: thisispropaganda.show Email: propaganda@brink.com Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow YouTube: youtube.com/@thisispropagandashow Slack: bit.ly/propaganda-slack Reddit: reddit.com/r/thisispropaganda Cohosts: Josh Belhumeur and Malcolm Critcher Producers: Jaclyn Hubersberger and Reed Chandler Story Editor: Matt Decker Additional Audio Engineering: Paul Injeti Original music: Josh Belhumeur
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  S1E1: After the War, I Could Really Use a Cigarette 23.10.2023 25m

  Following the Great War, Edward Bernays and his contemporaries used the power of propaganda to forever change marketing, and all of Western culture. BRINK is a creative collective dedicated to helping activist brands change minds. Learn more about Josh, Malcolm, and the podcast at thisispropaganda.show. Website: thisispropaganda.show Email: propaganda@brink.com Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow YouTube: youtube.com/@thisispropagandashow Slack: bit.ly/propaganda-slack Reddit: reddit.com/r/thisispropaganda Cohosts: Josh Belhumeur and Malcolm Critcher Producers: Jaclyn Hubersberger and Reed Chandler Story Editor: Matt Decker Additional Audio Engineering: Paul Injeti Original music: Josh Belhumeur
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  Season 1 Trailer 18.10.2023 1m

  In Season 1 of This Is Propaganda, co-hosts Josh & Malcolm from the creative agency BRINK will deconstruct the collective delusion about what we do as marketers so that we, as an industry, can be more thoughtful about how we do it. We’ll explore propaganda’s historical significance, omnipresence across generations of media, and profound influence on our culture. Learn more at everythingispropaganda.com