Stories and Strategies with Curzon Public Relations
Welcome to Stories and Strategies, the world’s most listened to Public Relations podcast according to Podchaser, Goodpods, and data from Rephonic.
Hosted by award-winning PR professionals Doug Downs in Canada and Farzana Baduel in the UK, this weekly podcast offers you bold ideas, sharp insights, and honest conversations about the future of public relations, strategic communications, and marketing.
Every Tuesday, we release a new 20-minute episode packed with practical takeaways for PR professionals, communication strategists, and marketing leaders around the world. Whether it’s earned media, brand storytelling, digital communications, or navigating AI and behavioral science, we go beyond the surface and ask the questions that matter.
Stories and Strategies doesn’t do puff pieces or profiles, we dive into the real issues facing the global PR, marketing and comms industry with guests who are actively shaping it. Our episodes are trusted by listeners in over 100 countries.
Follow now and join a worldwide community of public relations, marketing, and communications professionals driving the industry forward — one story at a time, every Tuesday.
Episodes
211 episodes
The Mamdani Effect: Can TikTok Win a Mayoral Race?
Can a cyclist-turned (accused) communist New York mayoral candidate teach the PR world a thing or two about emotional storytelling? This week we unpack the “Mamdani effect” how Zohran Mamdani is rewriting the rules of political com...
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22:48
Is Attention the New Currency in Public Relations?
Is attention the new currency? Politicians, brands, influencers, even your neighbor’s viral TikTok are all competing for the same scarce resource: your focus. But attention is slippery. It can make you a household name overnight and...
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Season 4
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Episode 200
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24:46
What’s the Point of Public Relations if You Can’t Prove it Worked?
The call for better measurement in public relations is not new. For decades, leaders in the field have warned that counting impressions, likes, and advertising value equivalents is not enough. Yet here we are, still leaning on the same empty nu...
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Season 4
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Episode 199
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22:44
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is here… is Public Relations Ready?
Search is changing faster than most PR professionals realize. For years, SEO was about keywords and backlinks. Now, with AI-driven tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity shaping how people find information, the game is shifting to AEO (Answ...
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Season 4
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Episode 198
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24:40
Public Relations for Hispanic Audiences
Getting Hispanic communications wrong is not just a slip. It can cost brands credibility, trust, and millions in wasted campaigns. Too often, companies think a simple translation is enough, only to find their carefully crafted message falls fla...
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Season 4
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Episode 197
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24:19
The Dangerous Echo of Polarized Voices
What happens when your newsfeed becomes a battlefield?In the US and UK, political leaders trade accusations, social media thrives on outrage, and communities are left simmering in distrust. What used to be disagreements over policy now l...
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Season 4
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Episode 196
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23:47
Beyond SEO: Understanding Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Google Search still holds about 90% of global search volume as of mid‑2025, but change is underway as more users begin turning to AI. AI search is rewriting the rules of discovery, and PR needs to adapt. With ChatGPT, Gemini, and Pe...
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Season 3
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Episode 195
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23:44
The Hidden Reason Women are Leaving Public Relations
More women are now leaving the PR industry because of perimenopause and menopause than because of childbirth. That’s a staggering, often invisible, that’s shift happening right at the top. It’s not burnout or work-life balance pushi...
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Season 4
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Episode 194
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25:04
What Kind of Public Relations Industry Will Gen Z Inherit?
PR really is at a crossroads… we’ve got old playbooks and new players coming in who want to change the rules. In its report Mind the Gap, USC’s Center for Public Relations reveals sharp divides between Gen Z and older profe...
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Season 4
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Episode 193
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24:57
Africa’s Missing Seat at the Global Public Relations Table
Ayeni Adekunle Samuel argues that Africa is often misunderstood or reduced to oversimplified stereotypes by global brands, agencies, and even tech platforms. Despite Africa’s complexity, diversity, and economic importance, key deci...
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Season 4
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Episode 192
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24:09
It’s Groundhog Day in the Public Relations Industry
Why is the PR industry still having the same tired conversation? Year after year, event after event… while the world moves on without us? We talk about getting a seat at the table, then sit quietly when we do. We debate ...
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Season 4
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Episode 191
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29:52
Rebranding a Country
What does it take to rebrand an entire nation? Not just a logo or slogan—but the name itself. Gökhan Yücel helped lead the campaign to officially shift the international name from Turkey to Türkiye. It’s a move th...
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Season 4
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Episode 190
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24:43
AI that Maps the Mind
What if the most powerful tool in public relations isn’t a pitch deck or media list, but your own story? In this episode, we’re joined by technologist-turned-storytelling-evangelist William Welser IV, founder of Lotic, a platform that ...
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Season 4
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Episode 189
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28:59
When the Media Quote isn’t Human: Fake Quotes – Real Damage
What if the expert quote you just read in a news article wasn’t written by a human — but by AI? That’s already happening. A PR tool called Synapse is selling agencies the ability to fire off automated expert pitches to ...
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Season 4
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Episode 188
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25:15
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HARO Reloaded: How to Pitch Like It’s 2025
In today’s media landscape, journalists are drowning in pitches while PR professionals scramble for attention—often missing the mark entirely. But what if the problem isn’t the story, but the way it’s being told—and the tools we’re using to tel...
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Season 4
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Episode 187
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26:15
Selling our Value – Not our Time
What if everything you’ve been taught about pricing your work—tracking time, logging hours, justifying effort—was wrong? What if the real value of what you do isn't how long it takes, but what impact it has? In a w...
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Season 4
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Episode 186
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24:31
Authenticity Isn’t a Buzzword, It’s a Business Model
What if the smartest pitch you ever sent didn’t sound smart at all—but sounded real? In a world where inboxes are flooded with AI-polished messages, Lauren Passell makes a strong case for going the other way: writing like a...
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Season 4
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Episode 185
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29:38
Name, Blame, and Damage Control
Your reputation is your most valuable asset — but also the most fragile. In today’s world, a single tweet, leaked email, or bad headline can trigger a crisis faster than you can hit "refresh." But reputation isn’t just about avoidin...
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Season 4
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Episode 184
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27:40
Media Literacy in the Age of Misinformation
Is your media diet making you smarter? Or just more stubborn? In this episode, we sit down with senior communicator and former journalist Mark Burey to explore how the collapse of shared truth is reshaping public relations. From the...
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Season 4
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Episode 183
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27:58
Public Relations: Independent Function or Marketing Tool?
Are public relations and marketing two distinct disciplines—or is PR simply one piece of the broader marketing puzzle? It’s a question that stirs up strong opinions in boardrooms, agencies, and comms teams alike. Some argue PR is st...
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Season 4
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Episode 182
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28:42
The Missing Channel in Your PR Strategy
Most PR strategies still focus on the big three: social, legacy media, and search. But while everyone’s watching the headlines, the real conversations—the ones shaping trust, behavior, and brand reputation—are happening in people’s ears. Podcas...
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Season 4
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Episode 181
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29:28
Zambia’s Public Relations Revolution
What does public relations look like in a country where radio is still growing, social media still exploding, and communication reaches from rural villages to global platforms? In this episode, we take a closer look at Zambia — a n...
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Season 4
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Episode 180
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23:46
Employee Engagement Inside PR: What the Research Reveals
Employee engagement is evolving — and the old assumptions no longer hold. Today, workers want more than a paycheck. They want growth, flexibility, and to feel like their voices matter. In this episode, we unpack surprising new research on what ...
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Season 4
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Episode 179
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26:28
British Voices, American Ears: A Shift in News Consumption
More Americans are turning down the volume on domestic news — and turning up British voices instead. From BBC to The Guardian, outlets across the Atlantic are reshaping how U.S. audiences see their own country. Why is this happening...
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Season 4
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Episode 178
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26:00
GROW Your Way Out of PR Workplace Stress
Feeling stuck or stressed at work? You might just need to GROW your way out. Executive coach Sarah Waddington shares the power and practicality of the GROW model — Goal, Reality, Options, Way forward — in transforming workplace per...
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Season 4
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Episode 177
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24:52
