Have you ever wondered if who you are determines how people influence you?
In this episode we finish Season One by time traveling to ancient Greece, the theoretical home of rhetoric and persuasion. Host Elida will lead you into what Ancient Greek rhetoricians such as Plato and Aristotle thought about not only persuasion, but how to arrive at truth and trust amongst a city-state or nation.
Elida then widens out to a larger issue that pulls rhetoric and persuasion into the modern era, the issue of identity.
Elida gathers up Ancient Greek thoughts on the role of identity in persuasion. Elida then compares Greek conceptions of identity to much more modern theories of identity found in academic scholarship today. Do you want to know how language creates an identity? Do you also want to know how language can lead you toward changing your beliefs? Check out today's episode.
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For media inquiries or other matters, contact Dr. Liberty Kohn of the Winona State English Department at lkohn@winona.edu.
Sound engineering and recording by Lucy Severson in the KQAL campus studio.
9 Dec 2025
Who's Persuadable? The Six Audiences of Climate Change
Have you ever wondered where you fall on the climate change spectrum of belief?
This week we take a continued deep dive from episode 4 into the rhetorical tactics of climate deniers and corporate rhetoric to deceive the public and discredit scientific research and information.
Host Jeni Frick introduces you to how corporations use precision campaigns to put responsibility for climate change onto consumers, not the guilty corporations.
Jeni then takes us into revealing research on how to speak to average Americans about climate change. Jeni examines research that places Americans into one of six climate audiences: the Alarmed, the Concerned, the Cautious, the Disengaged, the Doubtful, and the Dismissive. To learn what makes each audience tick, and what each audience would need to be persuaded to take action climate change, check out today's podcast.
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For media inquiries or other matters, contact Dr. Liberty Kohn of the Winona State English Department at lkohn@winona.edu.
Sound engineering and recording by Lucy Severson in the KQAL campus studio.
9 Dec 2025
The Great Doubt: How Scientific Misinformation Is Created
Ever wonder why trust in science is floundering across so many fronts in the 21st Century?
This week we take a deep dive into how Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and other corporations have for the last 75 years produced doubt about science that challenged their profit margins.
Host Ken will lead you through his research into the beginnings of how, in the 1950s, cigarette companies hired marketing firms to combat unfriendly science.
However, Ken will quickly take you into the modern-day anti-science strategies known as FLICC. Ken will explain how each letter in the acronym works, and Ken will give you common everyday examples, proving that these anti-science methods are a part of our everyday experience with modern public rhetoric, marketing, and debate. If you are curious about the war on science, don't miss this episode.
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For media inquiries or other matters, contact Dr. Liberty Kohn of the Winona State English Department at lkohn@winona.edu.
Sound engineering and recording by Lucy Severson in the KQAL campus studio.
9 Dec 2025
You Are Greenwash: Fast Fashion and Environmental Misinformation
Do you have qualms about the ethics of fashion? Have you ever considered that fast fashion may use language duplicitously?
In this episode, we investigate fast fashion as not just a change in the way we consume clothing, but as an environmental problem with unique rhetorical framing embedded in misinformation.
Fashion maven and rhetoric student Kieran Lombard will lead you through several case studies of Chinese fast fashion, where both the marketing of the clothing, as well as the claims of positive environmental and human rights for workers, are framed through greenwash.
Greenwash is an environmental tactic where environmentally toxic or dubious practices are "washed" in friendly sounding terms and frames. Despite the poor environmental conditions and human rights violations of the fast fashion industry, some in the industry use greenwash to cover up their real-world environmental and human rights' violations.
Host Kieran investigates several high-profile cases to illustrate how fast fashion is connected to environmental misinformation.
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For media inquiries or other matters, contact Dr. Liberty Kohn of the Winona State English Department at lkohn@winona.edu.
Sound engineering and recording by Lucy Severson in the KQAL campus studio.
9 Dec 2025
Whatabout Whataboutism?
Did you ever wonder how politicians, authority figures, or even your family members deflect accountability for their misdeeds and unethical actions?
This week we talk about a specific misinformation and rhetorical tactic known as Whataboutism. Whataboutism has a long, dubious history in political rhetoric as well as in everyday attempts of users to evade accountability.
Yet the tactic has increased its political currency since 2016.
Host Emma leads us through various descriptions and uses of Whataboutism over the ages, from tempestuous teens to our current world leaders who use this tactic to dodge questions and avoid accountability that would otherwise pin them down with uncomfortable answers.
Want to know how your public leaders and officials commonly evade responsibility? Let Emma teach you how in this episode.
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For media inquiries or other matters, contact Dr. Liberty Kohn of the Winona State English Department at lkohn@winona.edu.
Sound engineering and recording by Lucy Severson in the KQAL campus studio.
8 Dec 2025
That Time in 2020 When Russian Disinformation Was Broadcast Across Your American TV
How have prominent conspiracy theories spread across the U.S. at rapid rates?
This week we discuss the spread of contemporary conspiracy theories across contemporary media. Jed Nelson leads you through how conspiracy theories such as these begin, who spreads the disinformation, and why people are susceptible to conspiracy theory.
Jed focuses on two case studies: first, the homegrown Pizzagate conspiracy theory that ended in gunfire in a Washington DC restaurant. Second, the West Coast wildfires Antifa conspiracy theory, which claimed that environmentalists had started the 2020 wildfires, a debunked claim.
Host Jed, following in the footsteps of American intelligence agencies, traces the Antifa wildfire conspiracy theory to Russian disinformation networks. Jed then traces how this Russian disinformation was broadcast rapidly and widely across U.S. podcasts from small to large, eventually arriving as Russian disinformation broadcast in widely circulated media such as the Joe Rogan Experience and conservative media outlets.
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For media inquiries or other matters, contact Dr. Liberty Kohn of the Winona State English Department at lkohn@winona.edu.
Sound engineering and recording by Lucy Severson in the KQAL campus studio.
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