This Is Propaganda

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. — A production of BRINK, original productions and branded entertainment Website: thisispropaganda.show Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow Email: propaganda@brink.com — CREDITS  Written, Produced, and Hosted by Malcolm Crit...

How propagandists getting into bed with Hollywood caused the military to lose control of what women mean to their warriors. Or: How I learned to stop worrying, and love the military entertainment complex.  — A production of BRINK, original productions and branded entertainment .   Website: thisispropaganda.show Instagram: instagram.com/thisispropagandashow Email: propaganda@brink.com — CREDITS  Wr...

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.  — A production of BRINK, original media and branded entertainment   Website: thisispropaganda.show Instagram: @thisispropagandashow Email: propaganda@brink.com — CREDITS Written, Produced, and Hosted by M...

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 episodes through Fall of 2025.

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 j...

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 nav...

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 force...

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? Joining us is special guest Eugene Healey, brand strategy consultant and educator. Follow Eugene at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elkhealey This is DoubleThink, conversations inspired by the themes of This Is Propaganda. If you haven’t yet,...

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 ab...

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. Find safe abortions...

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. Be sure to check out David’s latest work, How We Got Here , a film and book companion. This is DoubleThink, conversations inspired by the themes of Thi...

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...

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. 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, caus...

In this first episode of DoubleThink, 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. DoubleThink is 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-i...

Social media creates an environment where propaganda becomes our default mode of expression. Because everyone is a brand. — 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...

Our discomfort with propaganda puts us on a quest for authenticity, but do we even know what that means anymore? — 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 — Co...

Propaganda helps usher in a new form of tribalism and the modern culture war. — 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 C...

Previous propaganda techniques struggled to work with the boomer generation in a period of social unrest – until Madison Avenue had a breakthrough. — 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/thisispropagandasho...

Following the Great War, Edward Bernays and his contemporaries used the power of propaganda to forever change marketing, and all of Western culture. — 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/thisispropagandash...

Creative Directors and cultural theorists Josh & Malcolm uncover the marketing profession’s delusions about the origins, techniques and cultural impact of the work they do. Follow them through an immersive narrative investigating how propaganda became the foundation of all consumer marketing, its omnipresence and evolution across generations of media, and the consequences we are facing today....