This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time.
Advertising is everywhere. By some estimates, the average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements each day. Whether we realize it or not, "adcreep"―modern marketing's march to create a world where advertising can be expected anywhe ... Show More
Today
John Wills, "Doom Town, USA: The Nevada Test Site As Ground Zero of 1950s American Culture" (UP of Kansas, 2026)
In March 1953 and May 1955, government officials—including the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA), the US Department of Defense, and the Atomic Energy Commission—released nuclear bombs on two model towns at Nevada Test Site, the continental nuclear test facility during t ... Show More
43m 54s
Yesterday
Shawn William Miller, "Dream Road to Pan America: A Century in Pursuit of the World's Longest Highway" (U California Press, 2026)
A century after the Pan-American Highway was first conceived, its story remains largely unknown—even to the hundreds of motorists who annually attempt the 30,000-kilometer drive from far northern Alaska to the tip of Tierra del Fuego. There is more to the highway, however, than t ... Show More
40m 24s
Yesterday
Dallas Liddle, "News Machines: The Systems of Daily Journalism in Britain, 1785–1885" (Oxford UP, 2026)
British daily newspapers transformed rapidly at the turn of the nineteenth century, ballooning in size and radically reorganizing staffing and production decade by decade. By mid-century, newspapers had grown from the folded single sheets of the previous century to large multi-pa ... Show More
52m 42s
Apr 2022
Tim Hwang, "Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet" (FSG Originals, 2020)
In Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet (FSG Originals, 2020), Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising--the beating heart of the internet--is at risk of c ... Show More
47m 39s
Aug 2023
Olga Fedorenko, "Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)
An ethnography of advertising in postmillennial South Korea, Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads (U Hawaii Press, 2022) details contests over advertising freedoms and obligations among divergent vested interests while positing far-reaching questions abo ... Show More
1h 18m
Aug 2023
Olga Fedorenko, "Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)
An ethnography of advertising in postmillennial South Korea, Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads (U Hawaii Press, 2022) details contests over advertising freedoms and obligations among divergent vested interests while positing far-reaching questions abo ... Show More
1h 18m
Feb 2022
A World Optimized by “Wants” Not “Likes” with Nathan Phillips, Co-founder and Director of Concept Design at Technology, Humans and Taste
<p>One of the biggest buzz words today is web 3.0. How is this interaction with consumers anywhere and everywhere going to change the way we do things? Every marketer is wondering where it’s going, and today I’ve found someone who is on the forefront of these marketing campaigns ... Show More
48m 57s
<p></p><p><strong>I've just launched a </strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdNXaHHVnVntg5gpveB-5_Q"><strong>new YouTube channel</strong></a><strong>!! The concept? </strong>I take real businesses struggling to stand the f*ck out, provide my positioning/branding/lea ... Show More