Oil Slick, Part 2: False Equivalence and Free Speech
In part two of our episode on former Mobil VP Herb Schmertz, we dig into how Schmertz's approach bred false equivalence, and why he pushed so hard for the extension of First Amendment rights to corpor...
11 Feb 202015min
Oil Slick, Part 1: Mobil's PR Mastermind and the Rise of the Corporate Persona
Mobil Oil's Herb Schmertz humanized the oil company, creating the "corporate persona," fighting for First Amendment rights to extend to corporations, and laying the groundwork for decades of aggressiv...
4 Feb 202019min
Psychological Warfare and Big Oil
Daniel Edelman learned the tools of his trade combating Nazi propaganda in WWII, then came home and put his psychological warfare training to work for American industry, including tobacco and Big Oil....
28 Jan 202020min
The Oil-Nazi-Propaganda Triangle
Ivy Lee worked with Standard Oil and the Rockefellers to establish the American Petroleum Institute in 1919, as well as a petrochemicals partnership with German chemical giant IG Farben. That job took...
21 Jan 202021min
The Father of Public Relations
In order to understand Big Oil's propaganda machine, and why it's been so effective, we have to go back more than 100 years to Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller and his son, a bloody miners' strike, a...
21 Jan 202014min
Coming Soon: The Mad Men of Climate Denial
Big Oil gave Hitler propaganda tips decades ago and their PR machine has only grown from there. Explore the history of fossil fuel propaganda and the "Mad Men of climate denial" PR strategists that sh...
5 Dec 20193min
Youth Climate Suits and Inter-generational Injustice
Young people around the world are taking governments to court over climate change—and winning global attention in the process. We breakdown the Juliana vs. United States case, where a group of young p...
28 Nov 201926min
ExxonMobil NY Fraud Trial Recap: What the Verdict Means for Big Oil
New York's fraud trial against ExxonMobil closed November 7th. Reporter Emily Gertz and Union of Concerned Scientist's Kathy Mulvey bring us their takes on this and Exxon's next fraud trial. Support u...
8 Nov 201920min
