Shaping Opinion

Amy Herman joins Tim to talk about a one-of-a-kind career she made for herself, all centered on using art to help people see the world differently and better in order to do their jobs better.  Amy is the author of the books, “Visual Intelligence” and “Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving.” In short, Amy helps people find information and solutions that are hiding in plain sight. This episode originally was released February 7, 2022.

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Amy Herman teaches visual intelligence. She gives lectures, she gives TED talks, she gives tours of art museums, she participates in podcasts like this one. And the common theme is that she helps others see things they may be missing. She helps them develop a skillset or an ability to see details or context that’s right in front of them, but in the normal course of affairs, they just may not see.

Some of her students are police detectives, federal agents, doctors, and many others.

Amy works to help them improve their visual intelligence.

Imagine what it would be like to be given a short period of time to investigate a crime scene – a murder scene. It’s your job to look for patterns, to look for exceptions, to look for details and clues that might tell you when this was done, what the motive might have been, and perhaps who may have done it.

How can you step back and look at the scene with a fresh eye. An unbiased eye. One that picks up things you might not have noticed before?

That’s one of the first questions we asked Amy.
Links

The Art of Perception (website)
Visual Intelligence, by Amy Herman (Amazon)
Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving, by Amy Herman (Amazon)
To Master the Art of Solving Crimes, Cops Study Vermeer, Wall Street Journal

About this Episode’s Guest Amy Herman



Amy Herman


Amy Herman is a lawyer and art historian who uses works of art to sharpen observation, analysis, and communication skills. By showing people how to look closely at painting, sculpture, and photography, she helps them hone their visual intelligence to recognize the most pertinent and useful information as well as recognize biases that impede decision making. She developed her Art of Perception seminar in 2000 to improve medical students’ observation and communication skills with their patients when she was the Head of Education at The Frick Collection in New York City. She subsequently adapted the program for a wide range of professionals and leads sessions internationally for the New York City Police Department, the FBI, the French National Police, the Department of Defense, Interpol, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, first responders, the military, and the intelligence community.

In her highly participatory presentation, she demonstrates the relevance of visual literacy across the professional spectrum and how the analysis of works of art affords participants in her program an innovative way to refresh their sense of critical inquiry and reconsider the skills necessary for improved performance and effective leadership. The program has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The CBS Evening News, and Smithsonian Magazine, among others. Her TED talk, A Lesson in Looking, went live in December 2018. Ms. Herman holds an A.B., a J.D., and an M.A. in art history. Her book, Visual Intelligence, was published in May 2016 and was on both the New York Times and Washington Post best sellers’ lists.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Alexis McCrossen, a professor at SMU and an expert on how cultures have marked time in history, Joins Tim to talk about our New Year’s Eve traditions with a special focus on the story behind that Times Square Ball Drop. This episode was first released on December 24, 2018.

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If you plan to watch the Times Square ball-drop at Midnight on New Year’s Eve, you’re not alone.  New York City expects to play host to over 2 million people for the festivities.

Over 175 million across the United States will watch the ball drop on TV.
And around the world, over 1 billion people will watch.
103 million said they will travel 30 miles or more to celebrate
93.6 million will drive

When we think of New Year’s Eve, we often think of Times Square and parties at organized events, bars and restaurants, but I have some interesting statistics, thanks to WalletHub from last year:

49% celebrate the holiday at home
9% at a bar, restaurant, or organized event
23% don’t celebrate New Year’s Eve
30% said they fall asleep before Midnight
61% said they say a prayer on New Year’s Eve.

Rankings

Christmas 78%
Thanksgiving 74%
Independence Day 47%
New Year’s Eve 41%

Most Popular New Year’s Eve Destinations

Las Vegas
Orlando
New York City

More Times Square Stats

7,000 police officers in Times Square
1.5 tons of confetti dropped
280 sanitation workers will clean up 40-50 tons of trash.
The ball itself – Waterford Crystal Triangles – 11,875 pounds

That’s today. Let’s talk about the history:

For 4,000 years people have marked a New Year
Public bells would herald the New Year since the Middle Ages
Theaters, taverns and other places would be very busy on the night
Rituals meant to augur good fortune.
1900 or so, the moment of Midnight became the focus because cities were illuminated with gas and electric lights. (Times Square)
Installation of public clocks and bells

The Countdown

1907/08 was the first year to drop an illuminated time ball at the moment of the New Year’s arrival.
Uses a flag pole atop One Times Square.
First one was made of iron and wood and had 25-watt light bulbs. 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds.
When radio and television media emerged, New Year’s Eve was a made for broadcast media event. Live coverage.

Links

Counting Down to a New Year: The History of Our Joyful Celebration, We’re History
For Better or Worse, The New Year is Time’s Touchstone, Dallas Morning News
A Ball of a Time: A History of the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop, The New Yorker
How Times Square Became the Home of New Year’s Eve, History.com

About this Episode’s Guest Alexis McCrossen
Alexis McCrossen is a professor of history at Southern Methodist University and has devoted her career as a cultural historian to studying how Americans observe the passage of time. She is the author of Holy Day, Holiday: The American Sunday; and Marking Modern Times: Clocks, Watches and Other Timekeepers in American Life.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Today is Christmas. We’re in the peak of the American holiday season, which started at Thanksgiving. So, it is with this in mind that I thought I’d take to the streets of Pittsburgh once again and talk to people about their holiday memories. That’s what this special holiday edition of the Shaping Opinion podcast is about. This episode was originally released on December 19, 2022.

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In this episode, we talk about some favorite holiday memories. You’ll hear from seven different people, each with their own holiday memories, and there’s one thing I can tell you, not one of them will talk about a toy they found under that Christmas tree.

Each person has his or her unique and special holiday memories. But as we’ve found in previous episodes like this, you may hear something of your own holidays in the stories our guests tell. In the end, there is a common thread across every story we hear.

To prepare for this episode, I spent the afternoon before Thanksgiving on a bench in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. It was a nice November day in the city. Warm and sunny. People were in a good mood, getting ready for the holiday season once again.

The voices you hear are of Elijah, Sara, Katie, Jeremy, Deborah, Gina, and Heather.
Links

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas: The Story and Trivia Behind the Beloved Classic Holiday Tale, Parade
How 25 Christmas Traditions Got Their Start, History.com
10 Must-see Attractions During the Holidays in Pittsburgh, DiscoverTheBurgh.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Plan on watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation this holiday season? Listen to the film’s director Jeremiah Chechik talk about the impact that movie has had on him and on our holiday entertainment traditions. He’ll talk about the making of the film and why the Griswold Family have become a staple in holiday viewing. This episode was originally released on December 2, 2019.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/shapingopinion/323_-_Encore_-_Christmas_Vacation_Movie.mp3





Are there any movies you just have to watch every year during the holiday season? Maybe you like to watch Frank Capra’s classic called It’s a Wonderful Life that featured Jimmy Stewart. Or, perhaps your favorite move is one of the Home Alone films, written of course by John Hughes.

Or, just maybe your holiday season wouldn’t be complete without inviting Clark Griswold and family into your home.

It’s been 30 years since John Hughes wrote the script for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which itself was the third sequel in a series of National Lampoon Vacation films, starring Chevy Chase.

The film was based on a short story that John Hughes wrote for National Lampoon in December 1980. That story was called, “Christmas ’59.”

The movie was no small budget affair. And it featured an ensemble cast of already established actors, and a few who would become A-list Hollywood stars.

In addition to Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo played Clark’s wife Ellen. Juliette Lewis played their sarcastic teenage daughter. Johnny Galecki played their son, Russ. Randy Quaid delivered an unforgettable performance as Cousin Eddie, and he was joined by an all-star ensemble cast that included Miriam Flynn, who played his wife, and John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, who played the parents of Clark and Ellen. Other notable actors who made their mark on the film were William Hickey, Mae Questel, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brian Doyle-Murray.

Christmas Vacation debuted at number-2 at the box office, grossing nearly $12 million that opening weekend. It would top the box office charts three weeks later, eventually grossing over $71 million in the United States. And that was before it hit the home video market and landed its place on our list of holiday season traditions.

For Jeremiah Chechik, it was his first chance to direct a full-length feature film, and a comedy.
Links

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, IMDB
Jeremiah Chechik
An Oral History of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Rolling Stone
Christmas Vacation Movie Facts, Good Housekeeping


About this Episode’s Guest Jeremiah Chechik
Jeremiah Chechik was born in Montreal, Canada in the fifties and grew up surrounded by books, home made radios and every issue of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. He got himself a scholarship to McGill University in physics but at the last moment shifted his major to the arts. He was active in the anti-war movement and filmed documentaries on the Black Panthers. He directed plays, studied with John Grierson, the father of the documentary film and later became his assistant. After graduating, he moved to Toronto, worked as a master printmaker for the rare books library at University of Toronto, experimented with coupling the photographic processes to stone lithography and helped start a gallery (A-Space). He received Canada Council Grants, had many solo shows and became one of the first artists to work in laser holography.

His success as a fine artist brought him to the attention of advertising agencies and fashion magazines and before long he moved to Milan and began a career as a fashion photographer for Italian Vogue. Jeremiah photographed editorial for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar as well as fashion and beauty campaigns worldwide eventually bringing him back to Canada to begin his evolution into film as he continued to work in photography but without exhibiting.

Soon he moved to New York and began a meteoric ris...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Author Gerry Bowler joins Tim to discuss the story of Santa Claus. Gerry is the author of the book entitled, “Santa Claus: A Biography.” He talks about everything from Santa Claus’s birth and evolution over the centuries, to his role in modern day culture. Santa Claus the philanthropist, Santa Claus the gift giver, and Santa Claus the ad man. This episode was originally released on December 17, 2018. Parental warning: If your child believes in Santa Claus, you may not want him or her to listen.

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In his book Gerry details the birth of Santa Claus and his” character development.” Santa is described him as an advocate, an adman, a warrior, and of course his role in entertainment, from movies, television shows and in music, books and literature.

St. Nicholas died in December 343 AD. By 1100, he was the most powerful saint on the Catholic Church’s calendar.

The St. Nicholas legend: One father who was down and out couldn’t provide for his three daughters, so he decides to sell them into slavery. So, Nicholas would sneak bags of gold through the father’s window, saving the girls from a live of oppression.

By the Middle Ages, with gift-giving a part of the Christmas season, different customs emerged. One that grew in popularity was the legend of St. Nicholas coming through a window or down a chimney to leave gifts in stockings and shoes by the fire, by a window or by a bed.

By the 16th century, protestant reformers depicted medieval cult of saints. They did not readily embrace St. Nicholas.

There was tension between the Protestant and Catholic sects and St. Nicholas was at the center of it. The controversies usually centered over how the communities marked Christmas.

St. Nicholas was venerated throughout Europe but debate on whether he ever made it across the Atlantic to North America with gusto.

The Feast of St. Nicholas is December 6, most notably marked by the Dutch, which paves the way for the modern celebration of Christmas.

The earliest mention of Santa Claus was 1773 in Rivington’s Gazetteer, a New York Newspaper.

On December 15, 1810, the New York Spectator published a poem about Sancte Claus – a good holy man who brings gifts to good children.
The first picture of Santa Claus was published in 1821 when William Gilley of New York published a book of lithographed images with one of Santa Claus. “The Children’s Friend: a New Year’s Present, to Little Ones from Five to Twelve.”
In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore was credited for authoring the classic poem, “The Night Before Christmas.”

Other topics we discuss:

Santa Claus in Books and Literature
Santa Claus in Music
Santa Claus in Advertising (We address the Coca-Cola Santa myth)
Santa Claus in Motion Pictures and Television

Links

Santa Claus: A Biography, by Gerry Bowler (Amazon)
A Visit from Saint Nicholas (Night Before Christmas), Clement Clarke Moore
Saint Nicholas, Biography.com
Coca-Cola and Santa Claus, Coca-Cola Company
Saturday Evening Post and Santa Claus, Saturday Evening Post
Miracle on 34th Street Motion Picture, IMDb
St. Nicholas to Santa: The Surprising Origins of Mr. Claus, National Geographic

About this Episode’s Guest Gerry Bowler
Gerry Bowler is a Canadian historian, specializing in the intersection of religion and popular culture. He is the author of The World Encyclopedia of Christmas, Santa Claus: A Biography and Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Historian and author Terri Crocker joins Tim to talk about the still remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914 at the outset of the First World War. Terri wrote the book, “The Christmas Truce: Myth, memory and the First World War.” In this episode, we look at the Western Front where against all odds and their commanding officers, German and British troops, and others stepped out into no man’s land on Christmas Day for a day of peace. This episode was originally released on December 23, 2019.

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It was the first Christmas since the start of the First World War in 1914. The bloodshed had already been enormous.

The front lines of the war along the Western Front were close enough to hear what was happening in the trenches on the other side. In between was known as no man’s land, where nothing could survive the steady sniping and bombardment between the armies.

The trenches were cold, muddy and wet, and sometimes, cold, frozen and wet. The troops on both sides thought the war would be over by Christmas, and here it was Christmas Eve.

Silence, and then as Terri Crocker tells it, the sound of music would break the silence.

A young farmer’s son in the Queen’s Westminster regiment by the name of Edgar Aplin starts to sing. He’s apparently a good tenor, and he sings the song Tommy Lad.

After a few verses, he hears a voice from the German trenches shout, “Sing it again Englander. Sing Tommy Lad again.”

So, Edgar sings the song again, and then events started to unfold.  Private Aplin would send letters to his relatives and there is documentary evidence of this.

“We had been out of the trenches for four days’ rest, and returned on the 23rd of December, to relieve some regular troops. On Christmas Eve, the usual war methods went on all day, sniping, etc., until evening, when we started a few carols and the old home songs.”

Immediately, our pals over the way began to cheer, and eventually we got shouting across to the Germans. Those opposite our front can mostly speak English.

“Soon after dark, we suggested that if they would send one man halfway between the trenches (300 yards), we would do the same, and both agreed not to fire.

“So, advancing towards each other, each carrying a torch, when they met, they exchanged cigarettes and lit up. Cheering on both sides was tremendous, and I shall never forget it. After a little while, several others went out, and a pal of mine met an officer who said that if we did not shoot for 48 hours, they wouldn’t. And they were good as their word, too. On Christmas Day, we were nearly all out of the trenches. It was almost impossible to describe the day as it appeared to us here and I can tell you, we all enjoyed the peaceful time.”

The family had said that Private Aplin would survive the war. He was sounded in the legs in March 1915 and went back to Britain where he recovered and would train new officers.

After the war, he was a “milk man” and owned some “tea rooms.”
The Cause of War
World War I began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and lasted until 1918.

During the war, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) faced off against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers).

Because of new military technologies and trench warfare, the First World War killed more than 16 million people.
Before the Truce
The sides had negotiated cease fires for body retrieval for burial. But during the day, soldiers were ordered “over the top” for charges. Their bodies were left stranded in “no-man’s land.”

In the dark, both sides would send other soldiers out to retrieve the fallen. Sometimes, soldiers would intentionally hold fire.

After dark, food would be delivered to the troops on both sides and they would actually cease fire during meal times.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

This is our special Children’s Episode. It was written and produced for young listeners and was inspired by a movie that Tim recently saw. It is not designed to entertain, though it may. It is not designed to educate, though it will. It is designed to make the listener think, to question and to want to know more. As you listen, please know I can’t know what you like or don’t like, or more importantly, what your kids like or don’t like, unless you tell me. Please use the contact form on this site. That will help me plan future episodes.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/shapingopinion/Childrens_Episode_Pilot_auphonic.mp3





We’re doing something different today. Really different. So different that from what I can tell, there aren’t any other podcasts out there doing this at all.

So, let’s call this an experiment, and I really need you to do a couple of things to see if this something worth doing again…or not.

First, a little background. Not too long ago, I watched a movie called, “All the Light We Cannot See.” It’s a movie based on a fictional novel of the same name. It’s set in occupied France during World War II, but the story itself centers on human connections. A blind girl, a German boy, a French resistance fighter, and this voice over the radio the kids only know as, “The Professor.”

When I watched the movie, I was captivated by the simplicity and the power of those connections. And it was all because of stories and information read over the radio to listeners that the reader could not see or even know were listening.

The professor in the movie was actor Hugh Laurie. His Shakespearian delivery would put me to shame, so trust me, I’m not trying anything close to that here.

But still, I thought it worth a shot to come up with my own variation of this, inspired by that story. So, I created this episode for your kids, or someone’s child you may know. All I ask is that you listen first, and if you like what you hear, share it with a child. And then let me know how it went. I mean that.

If it is indeed something kids may like, I won’t know unless you tell me. Just log onto the contact form at ShapingOpinion.com to let me know.

Or, send an email to [email protected].

Thank you for listening to the Shaping Opinion Podcast.  You’re our podcast family and the reason we do this.
Links

All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr (Amazon)
All the Light We Cannot See (Movie), (Netflix)
Aristotle (History Channel)
Geography – The North Pole (National Geographic)
Art – Norman Rockwell's "Freedom from Want" (Norman Rockwell Museum)
Story – The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams Bianco (UPenn Digital Library)
Science – Why does a ball bounce? (Highlights for Kids)

Our Poem
"Thinking"
By Walter D. Wintle
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win but you think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself,
before you can ever win a prize.

Life’s battle don’t always go to the stronger or faster man.
But soon or late, the man who wins is the one who thinks he can.
Irish Blessing
May love and laughter light your days,
And warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
Wherever you may roam.

May peace and plenty bless your world
With joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons,
Bring the best to you and yours!
Listener Note
I need for feedback on this. Please get in touch with me. I need to know if you liked this or if you didn’t. I’d like to know what you liked and what you did not like. That will help me plan future episodes for you if you want. All they have to do is contact me on our website, called,

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

New York Times best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick joins Tim to talk about the story behind those pilgrims and the Mayflower in a way that covers much more than that first Thanksgiving. Nathaniel has authored many best sellers, but the one we’ll focus on in this episode is must-reading for anyone who wants to get the full story of Thanksgiving’s origins in America. The book is called simply, “Mayflower.” This episode marks the 400th anniversary of that world-changing voyage. This episode was originally released on November 23, 2020.

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It’s been 400 years since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in the New World. The world was a much different place then than as it is now, in many ways, but for the sake of this episode the place to start is the practice of religion. Keep in mind, this is long before 1776 and the Declaration of Independence.

The Pilgrims lived under a king. King James, to be precise. And that king did not allow for freedom of religion. The Church was the state. The state was the Church. It was the Church of England. And for all intents and purposes, the king was god on earth.

If you did not recognize his church’s absolute authority over your life, you were persecuted, perhaps imprisoned and sometimes even executed, all because you did not believe in that church’s doctrines and teachings.

There were two groups who opposed this. The Puritans wanted to create change from within. And the separatists wanted to flee. They just wanted to leave England for a better place, where they could practice their religion according to their own conscience.

So, they did. In 1608, 12 years before the Mayflower, a group of separatists sailed from England to a town in Holland called Leiden.  They went to Holland to worship their God the way they wanted.

And while they did experience religious freedom in Holland, they also found the rules had changed from what they were used to. The Dutch craft guilds did not accept them because they were migrants.  They found themselves on the lowest rungs of the caste system. They worked the lowest jobs for the lowest pay.

The separatists also felt that the secular culture of Holland provided too much temptation for their children and worried it would lure them away from their faith.

That’s when the separatists decided to uproot and sail to the New World, where they could live and practice their faith on their own terms.

They returned to London to organize and get funding from a successful merchant.

The separatists then hired a merchant ship called the Mayflower and 40 separatists boarded it in September 1620.  The 40 separatists were joined by others. A total of 102 passengers sailed on the Mayflower for the rugged shores of that New World.

In November of that year, they arrived at a place where a huge rock dominated the shore line. A rock they would dub Plymouth Rock, and that is where life in the New World – for them – began.

Nathaniel Philbrick’s book about the Mayflower is about more than one voyage and eventually the Thanksgiving story, though that is our focus today. He followed the separatists – the Pilgrims – through a 50-plus year history in the New World.
Links

Nathaniel Philbrick, author page
Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War, by Nathaniel Philbrick, Amazon
The Mayflower, History.com
The Mayflower Compact, Yale.edu
Pilgrim Hall Museum
See Plymouth (tourism), Plymouth, Massachusetts

About this Episode’s Guest Nathaniel Philbrick
Nathaniel Philbrick was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended Linden Elementary School and Taylor Allderdice High School.  He earned a BA in English from Brown University and an MA in America Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke Fellow. He was Brown University’s first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978,

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Robert Page, a professor in the Departments of Clinical Pharmacy and Physical Medicine at the University of Colorado, joins Tim to talk about some new developments in determining significant cardiovascular risks associated with marijuana use, regardless of the reason. He’s the lead author on a new paper from the American Heart Association that exposes major risks. We talk about his paper, some of the myths surrounding medical marijuana usage, and what it all means.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/shapingopinion/Robert_Page_-_Weed_and_Heart_Health_auphonic.mp3





If I were to use a term with you, a propaganda term, do you think you’d fall for it?  Let’s give it a shot. So, here’s the term. What do you think of when I say, “medical marijuana?”

Now, before we go any further, I need to give you a quick history lesson on the field where I work. I work in public relations. The founding fathers of this field actually called it the practice of propaganda back in those early days. And they weren’t wrong. Some 100 years ago, propagandists sold everything from war bonds to cigarettes, from oil and gasoline to railroad travel. And when something went wrong, they became spin doctors. They played with the truth, and it wasn’t always ethical.

Since then, the field has done much to improve its own image by establishing ethical standards, but this doesn’t mean that “spin” has just faded away. The battle over the truth is never-ending.

If you can believe this, back in the 1930s and 40s, the advertising and public relations fields convinced Americans that smoking cigarettes was actually good for their health.

At that time, the medical community had not yet discovered the link between smoking and lung cancer or lung disease. In fact, most doctors smoked cigarettes.

Of course, there was evidence all around them that lung cancer was on the rise, but no one blamed cigarettes at first.

Some tobacco companies even used doctors in their ads. American Tobacco was the maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes. In 1930, the company created an ad that said, “20,679 Physicians say ‘LUCKIES are less irritating’” to the throat of a smoker.

To arrive at this conclusion, American Tobacco’s advertising agency sent cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes to doctors along with a letter. That letter asked those doctors whether they believed Lucky Strike cigarettes were “less irritating to sensitive and tender throats than other cigarettes.” To make sure they got the results they wanted, the letter that “a good many people” had already said Lucky Strikes were less irritating.

In the end, millions of Americans came to believe that cigarettes have a medicinal effect.

By 1937, the Philip Morris weighed in with an ad in the Saturday Evening Post. Keep in mind, that magazine was extremely dominant and powerful in influencing public opinion throughout the United States at the time.

The Philip Morris ad said the company did a study that showed “when smokers changed to Philip Morris, every case of irritation cleared completely and definitely improved.”  The ad never mentioned the business relationship the company had with those doctors.

For years, tobacco companies made claims in their advertising and marketing that smoking cigarettes are healthy, and if not good for you, the ads certainly never hinted that cigarettes could be bad for you.

The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company even created a Medical Relations Division and promoted it through medical journals. That company paid for its own research to demonstrate the medicinal benefits of cigarette smoking.

In 1946, R.J. Reynolds created a new ad campaign under the slogan, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”

We talk to someone who knows a lot more than I do on this. Robert Page is the lead author on a new scientific paper called: “Medical Marijuana, Recreational Cannabis, and Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association.”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

New York Times reporter and author Kashmir Hill joins Tim to talk about her new book called, “Your Face Belongs to Us: A secretive startups quest to end privacy as we know it.”  It’s about facial recognition tech, how prevalent it already is, and how we are leaving the age where privacy could be expected. In 2019, Kashmir wrote a story that exposed a future where anyone who shows their face in public will lose all privacy.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/shapingopinion/Kashmir_Hill_-_Facial_Recognition_auphonic.mp3





Kashmir Hill is a tech reporter at the New York Times. She writes about such things as privacy and how technology us creeping into new frontiers in our lives, oftentimes invading out privacy.

But that’s just a start. What happens when you lose your privacy? What happens when government, police agencies, private citizens snoop…and they somehow find your face in connection with something they’re investigating?

What if they connect you to something bad, and the technology made a mistake?

These questions aren’t academic. There are a number of companies already in the business of scraping the internet for photos of you and millions of others. They can piece it all together in seconds to determine much more about you than you realize.

But there is one company that caught the attention of our guest, Kashmir. A very secretive company that appeared to be more powerful and capable than all of the other companies out there.

So, my first question was for Kashmir was, how did you find out about this company called Clearview AI?
Links

Your Face Belongs to Us: A secretive startups quest to end privacy as we know it, by Kashmir Hill (Amazon)
Kashmir Hill Author Page, Penguin Random House
Your Face Belongs to Us (Review), The Guardian
The Secretive Company that May End Privacy as We Know It, New York Times
Your Face is Not Your Own, New York Times Magazine

About this Episode’s Guest Kashmir Hill
Kashmir Hill is a tech reporter at The New York Times, where her writing about the intersection of privacy and technology pioneered the genre. Hill has worked and written for a number of publications, including The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Gizmodo, Popular Science, Forbes, and many others.

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