Stories and Strategies with Curzon Public Relations

Public relations shapes what people believe, how communities respond, and which ideas earn trust. It influences elections, corporate crises, government decisions, reputations, and public sentiment. 

Yet unlike medicine, law, or engineering, anyone can call themselves a PR professional. No license. No minimum standard. No consequences when things go wrong. What happens when a profession with this much power has almost no guardrails?

S...

What happens when war, resilience, and optimism collide on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean? 

In this special Boxing Day episode of The Week UnSpun, David Gallagher is off so Doug Downs and Farzana Baduel trade headlines for heart as Farzana shares her recent three-week journey through Sri Lanka, a country shaped by civil war, natural disasters, and powerful recovery. From her work with the Halo Trust, the world’s largest demining ...

This is not just one podcast.
 It’s a feed with two.

First is Stories and Strategies with Curzon Public Relations.
A weekly show hosted by Doug Downs and Farzana Baduel.
Every Tuesday, we tackle the real work of public relations.
The strategy behind the stories.
The decisions behind the headlines.
No fluff. No profiles. Just the issues shaping modern communications.

Also in this feed is The Week UnSpun.

What do you say when there’s nothing to say?

Most workplaces think they handle grief through policy, a few days of bereavement leave, a checklist, and a quiet expectation that people will return “ready” to work. But grief doesn’t follow policy. It walks back into the office with someone long before they’re prepared, reshaping their focus, their energy, their confidence and their sense of safety. 

And while HR manages the paperwork, i...

What happens when a top political strategist forgets the rules of media engagement?  

This episode of The Week UnSpun strikes a nerve for PR professionals as Doug unpacks Susie Wiles’ widely criticized Vanity Fair interviews, where a lack of structure, message control, and audience awareness turned rare access into a strategic failure. It’s a masterclass in what not to do when the stakes are sky-high.  

Then, the conversation pivots ...

Nonprofits often describe themselves with a strange sense of pride: “We’re the best kept secret.” But in an era where funding is shrinking, donor expectations are shifting, and public trust must be earned every single day, staying a secret is no longer a virtue. It’s a liability. 

So why do so many NGOs still hide behind humility, overwhelm, or the hope that their good work will somehow speak for itself?

It’s same problem everywhere....

Who’s Really Writing the Stories That Shape Our World?

This week, we dive into the high-stakes power play unfolding in Hollywood as Netflix and Paramount battle to take over Warner Bros. What looks like a blockbuster business deal is, in fact, a global struggle over who gets to shape the stories that define how we think, feel, and remember.

Farzana explores the soft power implications of the deal, asking what happens when control of ...

In every corner of the world the public mood is shifting, sometimes quietly and sometimes all at once. Climate anxiety, pandemic fears, economic pressure, geopolitical tension and a surge in concern about data security have all reshaped what people expect from companies. 

For organizations trying to build trust across borders the rules keep changing. What mattered in 2019 did not matter in 2021. What mattered last year may not matte...

Most agencies can tell you how their clients are doing but ask how they are doing and the room gets quiet. The truth is that even the best run firms skip their own checkups. Margins thin out, teams burn out, and culture drifts while the spotlight stays fixed on the next pitch. 

But what if agencies treated their operations the way a doctor treats a patient, tracking vital signs, diagnosing problems early, and prescribing real soluti...

This week, we look into the murky ethics of media leaks and their growing role in shaping political, corporate, and cultural narratives. From leaked peace plans that spark international diplomacy to budget details released minutes before parliamentary debate, we dissect whether leaks are ethical whistleblowing or manipulative PR tactics. 

Farzana argues that leaks often reveal broken internal cultures, while Doug, from a journalisti...

Trust isn’t built in boardrooms or over Zoom. It’s built in the quiet moments. A conversation that lingers, a promise kept, a drink shared between people who still believe words matter. 

In this episode, we explore how the foundations of influence have shifted from handshakes to hyperlinks, and what that means for anyone trying to shape opinion or policy in a world that’s forgotten how to connect.

You’ll hear stories from inside the ...

What happens when PR meets scandal, tech chaos, and gender bias? 

This episode of The Week UnSpun is a whirlwind of explosive headlines. The trio of David Gallagher, Doug Downs, and guest host Miranda Mitchell look into the renewed Epstein files controversy and its potential to dominate headlines well into 2025. 

They unravel Cloudflare’s swift crisis response and debate the alleged gender bias in LinkedIn’s algorithm. 

Add a healthy ...

AI can imitate your voice, your words, even your face, but it can’t steal your story. 

What happens when companies hand their storytelling to machines that don’t understand who they are? 

As businesses race to automate, they risk losing the very thing that makes them distinct: the human truth that built their brand.

Listen For

3:15 How are story, narrative, and voice different?
7:00 What is brand drift and how does AI cause it?

Is the BBC losing its grip on journalistic credibility? Or is it being pushed?  

This episode of The Week Unspun unpacks a chaotic week in media and politics with sharp insight from PR veterans Farzana Baduel, David Gallagher, Doug Downs, and special guest Adrian Monck. The BBC’s controversial editing of a Donald Trump speech for Panorama sparks a fierce debate on ethics, institutional accountability, and media governance. From inte...

In public relations, success often depends on one quiet skill: knowing how to adapt. The best communicators read the room, sense the temperature, and adjust their tone without losing their message. 

In this episode, we explore what it really means to be a PR chameleon – someone who can blend into the cultural landscape enough to connect, yet still stand out enough to be remembered. 

Jessica Hope, founder of Wimbart, has built one of ...

In this audience-driven “mailroom” episode of The Week Spun, the conversation opens with a provocative idea from the PRovoke Summit: AI is now being discussed in full-time equivalent (FTE) terms, signaling a shift in how agencies and organizations think about synthetic labor. Guest host Kim Sample, President of the PR Council, joins Doug Downs and David Gallagher to explore what this means for the future of work in PR.

From there, t...

Afraid of posting on LinkedIn? You’re not alone, and it’s not about time or talent, it’s about confidence.

In this episode we look at why communicators, especially women, struggle to show up confidently on LinkedIn. 

Fear, not time or skill, is the biggest barrier to visibility. PR professionals who are used to writing for others often stumble when the byline is their own. 

From how to post authentically without oversharing, to naviga...

What do a billionaire climate pivot, AI-fueled layoffs, and a scandalous Italian election have in common? They all got the PR treatment in this episode.  

Farzana Baduel, David Gallagher, and Doug Downs peel back the media layers behind some of the week’s most buzzworthy stories, from Bill Gates’ controversial “climate realism” memo and its impact on corporate sustainability narratives, to Amazon’s AI-framed mass layoffs and what th...

We live in a moment where artificial intelligence can write our emails, plan our meetings, even give us life advice. But here’s the problem: these systems are often too agreeable for our own good. They’re less like truth tellers and more like digital echo chambers. They nod along, validate our choices, and tell us exactly what we want to hear. 

To use an outdated term… GenAI is too often like a Yes Man.

In this episode we’re looking ...