Rhetorical Monsters [in progress]

With Ryan Skinnell, Thomas Moriarty, & Mark A. Thompson

Rhetorical Monsters is a podcast series that discusses people in history who have used good rhetoric to terrible, damaging, sometimes deadly ends.

Rhetorical Monsters came about because the three of us are fascinated by dark versions of great rhetoric. Yes, we want to know about Fannie Lou Hamer, Abraham Lincoln, and Dolores Huerta using rhetoric to fight for justice and civil rights. But we also want to know why kind, thoughtful, caring people threw in their lots with Adolf Hitler or Charles Manson.

How did Charles Ponzi convince his marks to keep giving him money? How did Sun Myung Moon recruit millions of Moonies into his personality cult? How did Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher convince Brits to take free milk away from school children? We want to know how these and other highly influential people persuaded their way into power and brought millions of people along on the path to monstrous consequences. Rhetorical Monsters is the result.

Planned episodes include Adolf Hitler; patron saint of yellow journalism, William Randolph Hearst; arms-dealer, “The Angel of Death,” Basil Zaharoff; and propaganda virtuoso Edward Bernays.

For more information, visit https://rhetoricalmonsters.wordpress.com/