Not All Propaganda Is Art

About Not All Propaganda Is Art

“Not All Propaganda is Art” unravels the gripping tale of three iconic writers—Richard Wright, Dwight Macdonald, and Kenneth Tynan—who became entangled in the covert battles of the Cultural Cold War in the late 1950s. As the boundaries between art and influence blurred, these pivotal figures served as both collaborators and targets of American, British, and French security agencies, ensnared in a high-stakes propaganda war over fiercely contested ideas such as the critique of mass culture and the power of politically engaged art—debates that still resonate.

Publisher

Benjamen Walker & Radiotopia

Category

history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Jan 2024

Latest episode

16 Apr 2024

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Apr 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 9: Freedom or Death

   ToE's Cultural Cold War miniseries concludes with three stories about containment and death. Richard Wright delivers his final lecture on Black Spies in Paris, Dwight Macdonald’s Mass Cult & Mid Cult finally debuts & flops, and Kenneth Tynan discovers the limits of social and cultural protest. Show notes: Matthew Tynan reads Kenneth Tynan’s 1960 speech (https://harpers.org/archive/1961/01/mr-tynan-replies/), Michael Billington wrote a 1960 Parody (https://theoryofeverythingpodcast.com/2024/02/napia3/) of Kenneth Tynan, Jefferson Pooley recaps Personal Influence (https://theoryofeverythingpodcast.com/2024/03/napia6/) and Daphne Park (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mi6-patrice-lumumba-assassination-daphne-park_n_2998226) explains how she got Lumumba killed. Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

2. 

   2 Apr 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 8: Signature Acoustique

   ]Richard Wright died from a mysterious illness on November 28th, 1960. Or was he murdered? Tune in for a new listen to the final chapter of Richard Wright’s life: forged letters, fake terrorist groups, fraudulent doctors and French Radio. Shownotes: Françoise Vergès writes about decolonialism (https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745345673/a-feminist-theory-of-violence/), and French history and thought, Kathleen Gyssels is writing about the Moulin d’Andé (https://journals.openedition.org/etudescaribeennes/28568). Thomas Riegler writes about the Red Hand (https://www.jstor.org/stable/26296892), Madeleine S’s father was assassinated by the Red Hand (https://thomas-riegler.net/2022/09/17/der-terror-der-roten-hand/), Lauren du Graf wrote about Richard Wright and Jean Paul Sartre (https://www.jstor.org/stable/45284680), Richard Wright’s  daughter Julia Wright published The Man who Lived Underground (https://www.loa.org/books/652-the-man-who-lived-underground/) in 2021.  Richard Gibson is a BIG (https://www.newsweek.com/richard-gibson-cia-spies-james-baldwin-amiri-baraka-richard-wright-cuba-926428) BIG (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/191665/summary) LIAR (https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10217-10225.pdf). Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

3. 

   19 Mar 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 7: Manufacturing Dissent

   In 1959, Anti-Americanism surged in the UK. England seethed over America’s treatment of its Prime Minister who was smacked down for daring to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over divided Germany.  In 1959 England also fretted over a new American export: the Beatnik. The British foreign office forcefully responded with a report advocating for “ an increased effort in the field of press, radio and television in the U.K. to say the right kind of things about the Americans.” This is the very moment Kenneth Tynan was commissioned to make a documentary for British Television about American Non-conformism and Dissent. We take a close look at one of the Cold War's most bizarre and inspired artifacts of Anti Anti-American propaganda. Shownotes: Laura Bradley writes on Brecht (https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/watching-spectatorship-and-judgment-trial-scenes-in-brechts-epic-) and German theater. Kenneth Tynan’s documentary aired on January 27th, 1960 and then was supposedly erased (it wasn’t). Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

4. 

   5 Mar 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 6: The Kitsch Debate

   In the summer of 1959, Nixon and Khrushchev argued over a washing machine in a backstage kitchen in Moscow, while American Cold War intellectuals gathered in the Poconos to defend Kitsch. Dwight Macdonald, whose theory of mass culture translated too easily into Anti-Americanism, was barred from participating because this was no ordinary mass culture conference; it was an Anti Anti-Americanism operation. Meanwhile, in London, Dwight Macdonald delivered a mass culture lecture of his own called "America, America,” based on the most famous article Encounter magazine never published. Shownotes: Jefferson Pooley (https://www.jeffpooley.com/) wrote about Edward Shils (https://www.jeffpooley.com/pubs/AnnalsPooley2006.pdf) and The Remobilization of the Propaganda and Morale Network (https://www.jeffpooley.com/pubs/pooley-remobilization-draft-2018.pdf). Sophie Scott-Brown (https://www.intellectualhistory.net/leading-intellectual-historians/sophie-scott-brown) wrote about Raphael Samuel (https://www.amazon.com/Histories-Raphael-Samuel-historian-Biography/dp/1760460362) and the New Left. Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page. Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing athttps://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

5. 

   20 Feb 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 5: The Play's the Thing

   In the fall of 1958, Kenneth Tynan moved from London to New York and upon arrival, clashed with Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn over socially engaged art and the politics of apolitical culture on live TV. At the same moment New Yorker writer Dwight Macdonald went West to report on “New” Hollywood's ambitions to create commercially and artistically successful films. We also meet two of Professor Macdonald’s former students from a Mass Culture course he taught at Bard College in 1958. Meanwhile in France, Richard Wright suffers a number of disturbing attacks, prompting him to channel his frustrations into a revealing radio play. Shownotes: Tamara Walker (https://africana.barnard.edu/profiles/tamara-j-walker) is the author of Beyond the Shores (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635185/beyond-the-shores-by-tamara-j-walker/), Hugh Wilford wrote The Mighty Wurlitzer (https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Wurlitzer-How-Played-America/dp/067403256X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1I2VLW1PUPMNG&keywords=hugh+wilford&qid=1705522117&s=digital-text&sprefix=hugh+wilford%2Cdigital-text%2C77&sr=1-2-catcorr), Tom Benjamin (https://www.macdowell.org/artists/tom-benjamin) and Frances Hodes (https://www.franhodes.com/index.html) were both students of Dwight Macdonald at Bard College in 1958 and Dan Sinclair (https://www.dansinclair.org/) is the author of  Courteous Enemy (https://www.comedy.co.uk/fringe/2023/courteous-enemy/). Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

6. 

   13 Feb 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 4: Propagande Noire

   In 1956, Richard Wright spoke of islands of free men at the first Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris. James Baldwin critiqued the event for Encounter, the CIA’s propaganda magazine. We take a close listen to the original recordings. Shownotes: Merve Fejzula (https://academic.oup.com/histres/article/95/269/423/6603610) and Cedric Tolliver (https://press.umich.edu/Books/O/Of-Vagabonds-and-Fellow-Travelers2) both wrote about the 1956 Congrès des écrivains et artistes noirs. Darryl Pinckney (http://www.darrylpinckney.com/) wrote on Norman Mailer (https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/norman-mailer-white-negro/) and Denis Leroux (https://guerrealautre.hypotheses.org/category/document) wrote on Antoine Bonnemaison (https://francearchives.gouv.fr/findingaid/c8b15ce965c3ed4a97486f5735fe9bbd67ddb85f). Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

7. 

   6 Feb 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 3: The Man Who Was Thursday's Children

   In 1956 London Theater critic Kenneth Tynan helped launch a youth movement committed to exposing social and political issues on stage, on screen and in literature. We take a close look at the operators and opportunists behind England’s Angry Young Men. Shownotes: Michael Billington wrote for the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/profile/michaelbillington), Celia Brayfield wrote Rebel Writers (https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/rebel-writers-the-accidental-feminists-9781448217502/), Clare Bucknell wrote The Treasuries (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/treasuries-9781800241459/) Laura Bradley writes on Brecht (https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/watching-spectatorship-and-judgment-trial-scenes-in-brechts-epic-). Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

8. 

   30 Jan 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 2: Outsider Influence

   In 1956, New Yorker writer Dwight Macdonald joined Encounter, a magazine secretly backed by American and British security agencies. He arrived in London just as British Influencers turned a young Existentialist named Colin Wilson into England's answer to Jean-Paul Sartre. Meanwhile, the CIA incited a youth rebellion in communist Hungary. We investigate the covert propaganda behind Operation Free Youth Action and Operation Anti-Sartre and the Outsider’s influence on Macdonald’s famous critique of Mass and Middlebrow Culture. Shownotes: Carole Ann Gill  is the author of Carole Ann (https://www.amazon.com/Carole-Ann-Gill-ebook/dp/B0BZTNP1DV/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1689526944&sr=1-2), Sarah Roth wrote on Operation Focus (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682745.2022.2124972), Hugh Wilford is the author of The Mighty Wurlitzer (https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Wurlitzer-How-Played-America/dp/067403256X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1I2VLW1PUPMNG&keywords=hugh+wilford&qid=1705522117&s=digital-text&sprefix=hugh+wilford%2Cdigital-text%2C77&sr=1-2-catcorr), Jelena Ćulibrk writes on IRD and Newsreels (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01439685.2021.1936978), Gary Lachman is the author of Beyond the Robot (https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Robot-Life-Colin-Wilson/dp/0399173080), Alfred Betschart writes on Sartre (https://www.jstor.org/stable/48562912), Stefan Collini is the author of Absent Minds (https://www.amazon.com/Absent-Minds-Intellectuals-Stefan-Collini/dp/0199216657), Geoffrey Wheatcroft is the author of Absent Friends (https://www.amazon.com/Absent-Minds-Intellectuals-Stefan-Collini/dp/0199216657). Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

9. 

   23 Jan 2024

   Not All Propaganda is Art 1: Operation Younger Brother

   In the 1950s the CIA weaponized culture to capture hearts and minds in Europe and Africa. We meet three writers (Richard Wright, Kenneth Tynan, and Dwight Macdonald) who got caught up in this battle both as collaborators and targets between the years of 1956 - 1960. We also meet a propagandist responsible for the CIA’s cinematic version of 1984 (Operation Big Brother) and “books that don’t smack of propaganda” aimed at European Intellectuals - including James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son. Shownotes: Françoise Vergès is the author of A decolonial Feminis (https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341125/a-decolonial-feminism/)m, James Campbell is the author of Paris Interzone (https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Interzone-James-Campbell/dp/0099425122) and Talking at the Gates (https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Gates-Life-James-Baldwin/dp/0520381688/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=0hK4G&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=146-4905125-9064660&pd_rd_wg=vPSpk&pd_rd_r=a3c4f95e-1169-41e0-9ffc-5e26a85ca00f&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk), Jelena Ćulibrk writes on IRD and Newsreels (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01439685.2021.1936978), Tony Shaw writes on British Cinema and the Cold War (https://www.amazon.com/British-Cinema-Cold-War-Propaganda/dp/186064371X), Support ToE and get access to the incredible exclusive bonus companion series to Not All Propaganda is Art by subscribing at https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/ (https://theoryofeverything.supercast.com/), or subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts by hitting “Subscribe” right on the show page.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.6 / 5

5 ratings