Topic: Tobacco

The current legal scrutiny of social media companies is compared to the 1994 Congressional hearings where tobacco executives testified that nicotine was not addictive. That era resulted in the Master Settlement Agreement and mandatory warning labels. The hosts suggest that just as tobacco settlements did not stop smoking, social media regulations may not solve the underlying issue of addiction.

Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, revolutionized marketing by using psychoanalysis to manipulate public behavior. In 1929, he staged the "Torches of Freedom" event at the New York Easter Day parade, hiring debutantes to smoke in public to frame cigarettes as symbols of women's liberation. This campaign successfully broke the social taboo against women smoking and remains a foundational example of modern propaganda.