Propaganda Loves You

New York 21 Primary Quiz, DC’s Rising Progressive, and AI Deepfakes in Texas Politics

Host Kodie, joined by Arthur and Joe, previews midterm updates with a quiz on New York 21 candidates’ debate positions, contrasting Democratic stances on ICE and war powers with Republicans’ deference to Trump, and noting personal attacks between Republican contenders Anthony Constantino and Robert Smolin. With the NY-21 primary on Tuesday, June 23, the panel discusses the possibility of both Republican candidates staying on the November ballot via independent lines and questions prediction markets favoring Constantino. Joe highlights DC Council member Janeese Lewis George’s primary win and detailed, union-backed platform as she heads toward the mayoralty. The episode then examines AI political ads, including a Citizens for Sanity deepfake targeting Texas candidate James Talarico without an AI disclaimer, outlines uneven state deepfake laws, and critiques federal efforts to challenge state AI regulation.

00:00 Show Setup and Agenda

00:55 NY21 Candidate Quiz

03:03 Debate Moments and Takeaways

08:34 NY21 Primary Update

11:39 Voting Logistics and Sign Wars

15:14 DC Spotlight Janeese Lewis George

17:58 Website Narrative and Policy Deep Dive

23:32 Endorsements Unions and YIMBY Talk

25:12 DC Election Outlook and Socialist Mayors

26:12 Socialism in America

26:50 DSA Mayors and Cities

27:18 California Redistricting Stakes

28:16 LA Mayoral Showdown

29:29 Oregon and Governor Races

31:14 Top Two Primary Explained

34:33 Satirical Truth AI Ad

36:43 Texas AI Attack Ad

39:17 Backlash and Legal Risks

45:45 Deepfake Laws and Loopholes

46:56 Satire Versus Propaganda

50:05 Wrap Up and Next Episode

Resources for this episode -

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/53573/20260616/ny-21-democratic-candidates-debate-ahead-of-june-23-primary

https://www.wktv.com/news/republican-candidates-for-ny-21-face-off-in-debate/article_8dae01c9-267c-41b1-a3db-f67753fffbbc.html

https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/cbs6-to-host-ny-21-gop-primary-debate-constantino-agrees-to-participate-sticker-mule-smullen-stefanik-republican

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/53554/20260612/constantino-leans-into-trump-support-business-record-in-ny-21-republican-primary

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2026/06/17/4-races-to-watch-in-new-york-2026-primaries-for-congress

https://www.wamc.org/news/2026-06-10/ny-21-candidate-profile-democrat-blake-gendebien

https://www.cityandstateny.com/prediction-markets/races/ny-21-republican-nominee

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/creepy-ai-ad-texas-senate-race_n_6a287216e4b0d7105b0e33cf

https://dailycaller.com/2026/06/09/exclusive-trump-aligned-group-campaign-james-talarico-texas-senate-race-transgender/

The hosts launch season two of the Propaganda Loves You Book Club with Ari Berman’s Minority Rule, covering the prologue and chapters 1–3 (“Fear of a White Minority,” “Laboratory for Oligarchy,” “The Fear of Democracy,” and “The New Nullification”). They discuss how the book traces backlash to the civil rights era and the Voting Rights Act and argue the U.S. was never a pure democracy, citing anti-democratic structures like the Senate, Electoral College, gerrymandering, and the capped House. They connect elite fear of majority rule to founders’ class interests, quote Thurgood Marshall’s critique of constitutional mythmaking, and examine how dark money after Citizens United and state-level test cases like Wisconsin entrench minority rule. The conversation weighs cynicism against hope, emphasizing rereading, rising public consciousness, and using states to push democratic reforms, and previews covering chapters 4–6 next.

Propaganda Loves You: Who’s Running for Congress in New York’s 21st District (2026)

Hosts Kodie, Arthur, and Joe, introduce a new focus on local races through an informative and propaganda lens, starting with New York’s 21st congressional district ahead of 2026. After brief personal updates and a true/false history quiz tied to their upcoming book series on Minority Rule, they outline NY-21’s geography, rural character, R+10 Cook PVI, and history from Bill Owens’ 2009 win amid a GOP split to Elise Stefanik’s tenure and past power-holder Bertrand Snell. They review two Democratic primary candidates—Blake Gendebien farming-and-community narrative and Stuart Amaral’s more detailed issue-focused approach—and two Republicans: Assemblyman Robert Smullen, whose debate included discussion of a 2018 felony tax fraud guilty plea, and Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino, a Trump-endorsed self-funder with highly personal and pro-Trump messaging. They note upcoming debates, limited polling, and plans to follow the primaries and messaging.

00:00 Cold Open Banter

00:44 Show Intro and Catch Up

03:37 True False Icebreaker

07:06 NY 21 District Overview

08:18 Seat History and Stefanik Era

11:18 Flip Chances and Strategy Talk

16:44 Democrats Blake Profile

21:51 Democrats Stuart Profile

23:38 Republicans Smullen Profile

34:05 Republicans Constantino Profile

40:52 Polls Wrap and Outro

Resources for this episode -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XAtnqjuixI - Republican Primary Debate 2021

https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/cbs6-to-host-ny-21-gop-primary-debate-constantino-agrees-to-participate-sticker-mule-smullen-stefanik-republican

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/53490/20260528/ny-21-both-republican-and-democratic-candidates-will-debate-before-the-primary

Candidate Pages -

https://blakegendebienforcongress.com/meet-blake/

https://www.constantino.com/about/

https://www.amoriell.com/about

https://www.robertsmullenforcongress.com/about

Propaganda Loves You: Summer Book Series Preview, Biweekly Schedule, and Midterms Focus

In this special preview episode of “Propaganda Loves You,” the hosts recap last season’s books—Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny,” Ira Katznelson’s “When Affirmative Action Was White,” and “The Dawn of Everything”—and announce a summer reading series running to the midterms while continuing core episodes with a new focus. The summer books are Ari Berman’s “Minority Rule,” about anti-democratic tactics like voter suppression, gerrymandering, dark money, and court capture; Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” on mass incarceration as contemporary racial control; and bell hooks’ “All About Love,” exploring love as a definable practice and political act. They also shift to a biweekly release schedule with one core and one book episode, and plan core coverage of local House and Senate races, including New York 21.

00:00 Summer Series Preview

00:50 Last Season Recap

01:48 Listener Map Challenge

03:25 Book One Minority Rule

07:13 Book Two The New Jim Crow

10:15 Book Three All About Love

16:14 Schedule and Midterms Focus

17:15 Local Election Talk

18:26 Wrap Up and Call to Action

Propaganda Loves You: A Century of Self (Episodes 3–4), Capitalism’s Co-opting of Rebellion, and the Rise of Data-Driven Politics

The hosts of Propaganda Loves You continue their discussion of Edward Bernays and Adam Curtis’s The Century of the Self, recapping episodes 1–2 and focusing on episode 3 (“There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads and He Must Be Destroyed”) and episode 4 ("Eight people sipping wine in Kettering"). They describe a central theme: the shift from Freudian repression to promoted self-expression, and how capitalism absorbs its own critiques by selling rebellion and identity back as consumer products. They discuss figures like Wilhelm Reich and Fritz Perls, encounter the EST seminars’ link back to consumerism, and note the “inner directive” personality type that later aligned with Reagan and Thatcher. In episode 4, they examine Bill Clinton-era polling, focus groups, and niche policies that treat voters as consumers, alongside welfare reform and PR-driven politics. The conversation extends to social media, surveillance, and data exploitation, suggesting follow-ups on Cambridge Analytica and modern PR firms.

00:00 Capitalist Utopia Ending

01:36 Welcome and Recap

03:18 Episode Three Themes

03:59 Capitalism Absorbs Rebellion

06:05 Socialism Sameness Myth

08:35 William Reich Arc

10:53 Sex Revolution Reframed

12:28 Nuance and History

14:43 Therapy and Inner Parts

17:05 EST Back to Capitalism

17:32 Reagan and Politics Pivot

19:20 Inner Directive Voters

20:22 Identity as Construction

24:00 Ethical Consumption Limits

27:36 Systemic Blame Shift

29:12 Freedom for Corporations

32:34 Corporate Death Penalty

33:32 Policeman In Your Head

33:57 Collective Over Individualism

35:52 Privatized Stress Systemic

36:21 Episode Four Clinton Era

37:54 Self Liberation For Sale

39:08 Polling Voters As Consumers

41:45 Democracy Participation Limits

44:27 Authenticity And Social Media

49:10 Data Extraction And AI

51:48 Surveillance Devices Everywhere

55:34 Capitalist Realism And Rent

57:48 Beyond Business Ontology

59:55 Next Topics And Wrap Up

01:00:55 Plugs Meditation Resources

01:02:36 Final Thanks And Outro

Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/@justadamcurtis9178

Propaganda Loves You: Voting Rights Act Gutted, Trump’s PR Stunts, and Mayday Organizing

Kodie, Arthur, and Joe mark a year of the podcast with listener analytics, then play a real-or-fake headlines game that leads into discussion of recent political news. The hosts then cover the Supreme Court’s 6–3 ruling narrowing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in a Louisiana redistricting case, citing Clarence Thomas’s critique of proportional representation and warning of intensified gerrymandering. They analyze Trump’s long history of publicity stunts and the broader propaganda ecosystem around him, from Roy Cohn to modern meme operations. The episode closes with Mayday updates via Democracy Now, emphasizing labor solidarity and collective action.

00:00 Welcome Back and Agenda

01:22 One Year Listener Milestone

03:45 State Quarters Nostalgia

04:43 Real or Fake Headlines Game

07:50 Debunking and Explaining Headlines

15:42 Voting Rights Act Under Attack

25:31 Organizing and Political Hope

29:46 Sponsor Break Skit

31:27 Trump PR Stunts Origins

35:34 WWE Kayfabe and The Apprentice

39:16 Branding vs Political Propaganda

42:45 Escalator Crowd Reveal

43:43 Free Media Spectacle

44:22 Fast Food And Mugshot Branding

46:58 McDonalds Fry Photo Op

48:29 DoorDash And Butler Image

52:23 Debating Attention And Optics

57:23 Architects Behind The Brand

01:03:25 Meme White House Machine

01:09:50 Satire Ad Break

01:11:01 Mayday And Worker Solidarity

01:21:43 Howard Zinn Utopian Vision

01:31:04 Solidarity Signals And Democracy

01:37:32 Wrap Up And Next Episodes

Propaganda Loves You: Adam Curtis Deep Dive (Part 1) — Bernays, Consumerism, and Engineering Consent

The hosts begin their second deep dive of the year by reviewing the first two episodes of Adam Curtis’s four-part documentary A Century of the Self, connecting it to a prior discussion of Edward Bernays. They discuss the documentary’s unsettling aesthetic and its theme that corporate and political elites used psychoanalysis and public relations to shift America from a needs-based culture to a desires-based consumer culture, including examples like soap marketing, planned obsolescence, and postwar suburban lawns and pesticides. They contrast Freud’s therapeutic intent with Bernays’s mass manipulation, citing Bernays’s renaming of propaganda as public relations, and discuss campaigns linking democracy to privately owned business via organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers. Episode two themes include focus groups, neutrality of persuasion tools, historical PR involvement in events like Guatemala, and critiques by Arthur Miller, Vance Packard, Herbert Marcuse, and MLK’s call to be “maladjusted” to injustice. The conversation ends by linking modern disinformation, social media, and AI to propaganda’s changing effectiveness and previewing part two.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

01:02 Curtis Doc First Impressions

01:54 Consumer Desire Engineered

06:28 Needs to Wants Shift

08:01 Freud to Bernays

11:45 Psychoanalysis and Therapy

14:37 AI as New Manipulation Tech

19:24 Citizen Versus Consumer

21:55 Revolution and Propaganda Roots

26:39 Happiness Machines and Hoover

28:43 PR War on the New Deal

32:57 Distrust, Social Media, Disinfo

39:19 From Propaganda to Chaos

39:48 Youth Media Savvy

40:59 Buying the Narrative

42:43 Individualism and Belonging

44:35 Third Spaces and Money

46:52 Episode Two Takeaways

49:57 Freud Model Critique

54:13 PR Tools and Coups

57:04 Economy vs Real Life

59:54 Suffering and Consumerism

01:10:16 MLK on Maladjustment

01:15:51 Closing Thoughts

Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/@justadamcurtis9178

AI Deepfakes, Edward Bernays, and What’s Next on The Century of the Self

Host Kodie, joined by Arthur and Joe, announces upcoming episodes on Edward Bernays and Adam Curtis’s The Century of the Self, noting the recordings were spread across March and late April and outlining a schedule that includes a deep dive on parts one and two, a discussion of modern PR and the Trump PR machine, and a later episode on parts three and four. The group discusses AI propaganda using examples including a Senate Republicans in Texas deepfake of James Talarico reading real tweets, an AI-created Lego-style propaganda video from Iran, and a satirical Epstein-related clip, focusing on intent, audiences, deception, and growing difficulty distinguishing AI from real footage, as well as proposed but failed political advertising regulations. Kodie reads a 2023 EBSCO article summarizing Bernays’s background, his rebranding of propaganda as public relations, “engineering of consent,” and major campaigns and clients, with brief discussion of parallels to Mad Men, and the episode ends promoting Thursday’s documentary deep dive.

00:00 Show Cold Open

00:40 Season Preview

02:31 Quote Quiz Goebbels

04:24 AI Deepfake Examples

08:35 Ethics And Regulation

15:33 Flood The Zone

18:04 Sponsor Skit Focus Frame

19:43 Bernays Series Kickoff

21:23 Bernays Bio Primer

24:01 Mad Men Comparison

27:06 Bernays Greatest Campaigns

31:52 Sponsor Skit Waterless Bath

33:17 Wrap Up And Next Episode

Resources for Next Episode

https://www.youtube.com/@justadamcurtis9178

Cyber Operations in the 2026 Iran War and the Growing No Kings Movement

Host Kodie, joined by Arthur and Noah, discusses cyber and information operations in the 2026 Iran War and the recent No Kings protests. After a quiz on reported incidents, they review sources (Wikipedia and a Lawfare article) describing coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes beginning Feb. 28, 2026, supported by cyber and electronic warfare that disrupted Iranian communications and sensors, enabled targeting via compromised Tehran traffic cameras and mobile networks, defaced state sites, hijacked Iranian TV to air Trump and Netanyahu speeches, and contributed to an internet blackout; they also note Iran-linked hacktivist retaliation and a reported attack on Stryker devices. The group compares wartime surveillance tactics to ICE’s use of camera networks, spyware, and purchased app/location data. They then cover No Kings as the largest single-day U.S. protest (about 8–9 million across 3,000 events), right-wing narratives attacking it, the 3.5% participation threshold, and the movement’s potential via local organizing.

00:00 Cold Open and Introductions

01:49 Today’s Agenda Iran and No Kings

03:04 Cyber Ops Quiz Real or Fake

08:19 Quiz Reveal and Supply Chain Fears

11:39 Satirical Sponsor Break

12:54 Cyber War Timeline and Key Attacks

21:43 Rules of Cyberwar and Accountability

32:28 Lawfare Four Hour Cyber War

39:56 From Iran Targeting to ICE Surveillance

43:41 Iran War Hype Tactic

46:20 Draft Fears and Relief

48:45 Oil and Economic Motives

49:54 Sponsor Break Satire

51:59 No Kings Rally Scale

56:12 Right Wing Spin Playbook

01:00:41 Protest Threshold for Change

01:03:28 Sustaining Momentum Locally

01:11:36 Community Reconnection Offline

01:16:56 Local Politics and Boards

01:21:28 Plugs and Sign Off

Resources for this episode -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare_during_the_2026_Iran_war

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-four-hour-cyber-war-on-iran

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/03/hacked-traffic-cams-and-hijacked-tvs-how-cyber-operations-supported-the-war-against-iran/

https://open.substack.com/pub/kenklippenstein/p/trump-goes-commando?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Meditation Subtlety: Noting, Frames of Experience, and the Three Characteristics

This episode continues the beginner meditation series with a short guided set focused on “settling into time and space” by finding a comfortable posture and placing attention in the present using an anchor such as the breath, sensations in the hands or feet, or the space of the whole body. The instructor emphasizes using one-word noting (e.g., rising/falling; tingling/warmth; thinking/planning/worrying) to maintain a continuous chain of mindful attention, clarifying that progress is not stopping thoughts but staying observant even as attention shifts to mental events. As skill develops, viewers are guided to notice discrete “frames” of experience within each breath and investigate subtlety within each frame, traditionally described as impermanence/change, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self (not defining “me”). A closing meditation practices noting change moment by moment and recaps this progression.

00:00 Settle Into Meditation

02:12 Choose Your Anchor

04:23 Noting Practice Basics

08:31 Progress Without Stopping Thoughts

10:09 Frames of Experience

12:15 Three Characteristics

13:43 Guided Subtlety Practice

18:33 Recap and Next Steps