Attack Ads! The Podcast

Attack Ads! questions the dominance of media supported mainly by the corrupting influence of commercial advertising sponsorship, and aims to raise both awareness and outrage at the limitations such a system produces.

Senator John Sherman's Address to The Senate 09/01/2025

Senator John Sherman's Address to The Senate While most of us have heard of the Sherman Act, few have savored Senator John Sherman's speech to the Senate in defense of that act. Today, I present to you my reading of an edited version of that speech, in this Bonus Episode: Senator John Sherman's Address to The Senate. /episode/index/show/attackads/id/38050175

Rich Uncle Money-Bork, Welfare Queen 08/11/2025

Rich Uncle Money-Bork, Welfare Queen Monopolies are nothing new. Government allowing companies to merge and acquire and metastasize into monopolies, though, that is relatively new. The ideas that support monopolies come from a handful of jerks supported by other jerks, who provide trucks full of money. I focus my hairy eyeball of criticism today on one such full truck funded fuck in this Episode 268: Rich Uncle Money-Bork, Welfare Queen. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/08/episode-268-rich-uncle-money-bork.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/37753130

Breathing Together, Choking Apart 07/27/2025

Breathing Together, Choking Apart Propaganda is not just a thing that happens in the here and now. Dig well enough, and you might find old institutional knowledge that started originally as a conspiratorial plot designed to sway society. Make such propaganda profitable enough, and we find ourselves in a world described by the title to Episode 267: Breathing Together, Choking Apart. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/07/episode-267-breathing-together-choking.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/37567920

Garbage Fires and Angry Weasels 07/08/2025

Garbage Fires and Angry Weasels When propaganda falls, it can lead to social impacts more powerful than kinetic weapons. The troubles come when the propagandists conceal their manipulation of society with misdirecting propaganda that we have trouble detecting, let alone responding to effectively. Which brings us to today's Episode 266: Garbage Fires and Angry Weasels. Find the Show Notes at: /episode/index/show/attackads/id/37330170

A Stringent, Crystalline Vision 06/24/2025

A Stringent, Crystalline Vision As I've quoted before, "ideas need patrons." I'll dive into economic ideas bought by the wealthy and spread by those Chicago school economists in this Episode 265: A Stringent, Crystalline Vision. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/06/episode-265-stringent-crystalline-vision.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/37136510

Archeologists of a Bygone Age 05/30/2025

Archeologists of a Bygone Age Perhaps for the first time in human history, we people can now buy things more easily than we can fix them. Repair shops have become a thing only on television, even though so much of value could be repaired. I spend most of this Episode 264: Archeologists of a Bygone Age, planning my next big repair. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/05/episode-264-archeologists-of-bygone-age.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/36796390

The Hits To Our Privates Just Keep Coming! 05/09/2025

The Hits To Our Privates Just Keep Coming! Ethics often interfere with profits. When more profits are “required,” companies often face a hard choice…or an easy one. Results vary. I look into two compromises/profitable opportunities in this Episode 263: The Hits To Our Privates Just Keep Coming! Find the Show Notes at: http://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/05/episode-263-hits-to-our-privates-just.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/36502635

The Shitcaca Sküll 04/16/2025

The Shitcaca Sküll I’m reminded almost daily about how the current elevation of private enterprise has made our lives crap. It's helpful to remember that this industrial fetish had an origin, and can be reversed, as I discuss in this Episode 262: The Shitcaca Sküll. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/04/episode-262-shitcaca-skull.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/36183510

Ways We Are All Getting Torq'd 04/02/2025

Ways We Are All Getting Torq'd I didn’t really know how much advertisers surveil us. I started to look into it. Then I stopped looking: how much we have all lost our privacy was just too scary. I look back on 10 years of reading in this Episode 261: Ways We Are All Getting Torq'd. Find the Show Notes page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/04/episode-261-ways-we-are-all-getting.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/35970920

Two Scientists 03/18/2025

Two Scientists Episode 260: Two Scientists. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/03/episode-260-two-scientists.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/35767020

The Butchers of Certainty 02/26/2025

The Butchers of Certainty Not only does a constant onslaught of information drown us, we must sift out not just business propaganda, but ideological propaganda as well. The effort leaves us cynical. We should blame those in the title of Episode 259: The Butchers of Certainty. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/02/episode-259-butchers-of-certainty.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/35432200

Ticky Tacky Talkin' 02/12/2025

Ticky Tacky Talkin' Putting the descriptor "foreign" on any term often gives it more gravitas, perhaps more of a threat, than simply uttering the term alone. I consider adversaries foreign and domestic in this Episode 258: Ticky Tacky Talkin'. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/02/episode-258-ticky-tacky-talkin.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/35249230

Here Today… 01/25/2025

Here Today… When we chronicle the efforts businesses have made to influence how the public feels about the government, into Propaganda’s Hall of Fame must go the National Association of Manufacturers. I'll share some of their efforts in this Episode 257: Here Today… Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/01/episode-257-here-today.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/35006435

It's In The Cards 12/25/2024

It's In The Cards When one ponders stuff, it's best if one knows the actual facts of whatever it is one ponders, as opposed to made-up crap stuffed into one's head by others. Otherwise you might as well use a tarot deck and see the title of Episode 256: It's In The Cards. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/12/episode-256-its-in-cards.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/34614855

Reasoning & Irrationality 12/11/2024

Reasoning & Irrationality We humans are funny critters, with loves and hatreds and outright loathings that too often bear no real resemblance to any cogent rationality. Yet it's all we've got. I explore this in Episode 255: Reasoning & Irrationality. Find the Show Notes at: http://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/12/episode-255-reasoning-irrationality.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/34388575

It Can't Happen Here 11/24/2024

It Can't Happen Here Not since the late 1800s has America elected a president twice out of order. Should we worry? Or should we worry about the moneyed forces behind our former president? I explore context everyone should know in this Episode 254: It Can't Happen Here. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/11/episode-254-it-cant-happen-here.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/34126206

SaaSsy Pirates Say ARR 10/31/2024

SaaSsy Pirates Say ARR While lots of opinion page ink has been spilled over ASOLs making our lives unpredictable, no one, it seems, has taken the time to think of a good reason why. I explore one both possible and likely reason in this Episode 253: SaaSsy Pirates Say ARR. Find the Show Notes page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-253-saassy-pirates-say-arr.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/33698267

Stupid ASOLs 10/16/2024

Stupid ASOLs When something is new, its very introduction can cause friction, even havoc. People always wonder how good or bad things could get. In this Episode 252, I offer a bit disjointed ranting on the business end of Large Language Models, or Stupid ASOLs. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-252-stupid-asols.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/33477532

Let There Be Some Light 10/02/2024

Let There Be Some Light In looking into sources of private propaganda, I am constantly struck on how far back it goes. Today I go back a hundred years to a time when the private electrical power industry was insisting on the title to this Episode 251: Let There Be Some Light. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-251-let-there-be-some-light.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/33293457

TANA Addiction Through Engagement 09/18/2024

TANA Addiction Through Engagement In business, simply maintaining the same level of profitability every year is regarded as failing; one must grow to thrive. But what if the product design is clearly dangerous to use? I explore this reality in Episode 250: Addiction Through Engagement. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/09/episode-250-addiction-through-engagement.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/33102127

Advertising Makes You Fat 09/03/2024

Advertising Makes You Fat We see slim and slender people all the time, every day… even when none walk among us. This screws with our brains in ways most of us never consider for a second. The bottom line for this phenomenon is the title of Episode 249: Advertising Makes You Fat. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/09/episode-249-advertising-makes-you-fat.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/32887497

More Reasons For Real Worry 08/21/2024

More Reasons For Real Worry All too often today the forces driving the changes that increase suffering are hidden, unavailable for us to adequately understand, let alone change. Matt Stoller delivers yet another industry machination in this Episode 248: More Reasons For Real Worry. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/08/episode-248-more-reasons-for-real-worry.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/32667027

Swinging the Hammer of Demonetization 07/24/2024

Swinging the Hammer of Demonetization How communities deal with bad behavior should be an ongoing debate. Private companies, though, today use “community standards” to steal both platforms and the cash they deliver. Hence, Episode 247: Swinging the Hammer of Demonetization. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/07/episode-247-swinging-hammer-of.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/32278437

Why The Rent Is Too Damned High 07/09/2024

Why The Rent Is Too Damned High Most people today feel they have can choose from whichever experts best confirm their own deeply-seated beliefs. Sadly, this is wrong, and to understand how wrong, I try to answer the question of Episode 246: Why The Rent Is Too Damned High. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/07/episode-246-why-rent-is-too-damned-high.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/32066747

Don't Trust Mainstream Media. 06/25/2024

Don't Trust Mainstream Media. Too many grapple today with common but un- or poorly-defined terms, especially "mainstream." What is mainstream? When it comes to mainstream news, I've got a simple suggestion, which I give you in this Episode 245: Don't Trust Mainstream Media. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/06/episode-245-dont-trust-mainstream-media.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/31886972

Adam Smith's Invisible Handjob 06/08/2024

Adam Smith's Invisible Handjob All political philosophy is propaganda, an attempt to describe both the way things are and proscribe the way things should be. Let me give you an example written over a quarter of a millennia ago in this Episode 244: Adam Smith's Invisible Handjob. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/06/pisode-244-adam-smiths-invisible-handjob.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/31658512

Dear George 05/08/2024

Dear George It's inevitable. One day, you’ll find a writer who doesn't agree with a topic you wholeheartedly embrace enough to snidely attack it and distort the facts. There goes your remaining trust. I cover this in an open letter called Episode 243: Dear George. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/05/episode-243-dear-george.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/31189267

WAM The Art and Craft of Resublimation. 04/23/2024

WAM The Art and Craft of Resublimation. Advertisers have been stealing good ideas for years and using them to crassly push their products. It's only fair, then, that we mock those ads, perhaps enough to destroy their sales effectiveness. Hence, Episode 242: The Art and Craft of Resublimation. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/04/episode-242-art-and-craft-of.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/30958143

TANA, ATU Edition 04/11/2024

TANA, ATU Edition In my last episode, I questioned use of the word "accidents," which take focus away from the hazards that cause them. Why? Because hazards can be fixed. I'll give you some real-world examples of good places to start in this Episode 241: TANA, ATU Edition. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/04/episode-241-tana-atu-edition.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/30773848

Ten Freakin' Years! 04/01/2024

Ten Freakin' Years! This is merely a brief calendrical announcement and celebration. Enjoy. Find the Show Notes (for what they're worth) at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/03/ten-freakin-years.html /episode/index/show/attackads/id/30619178

Attack Ads! The Podcast

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