Stories and Strategies with Curzon Public Relations

You’re using LinkedIn wrong

Not because you’re not smart… you are. 

It’s because you’re using yesterday’s LinkedIn. 

The platform is changing fast. The feed has changed, and the rules for reach have changed with it. 

This episode shows you what’s different now, and how to adapt without turning into a “content person.”

Listen For

3:29 What happens when you hit publish on LinkedIn?
7:21 What makes a post perform well—and why does so m...

When the streets erupt, the headlines explode, and public pressure hits boiling point… can business leaders still afford to say nothing?  

In this episode tackle the growing tension between corporate responsibility and political risk. From a CEO letter in Minnesota addressing immigration-fueled violence to Keir Starmer’s high-stakes diplomacy in China, we ask: when the world demands clarity, is strategic ambiguity still a safe PR mo...

Personal branding is changing in real time. The first impression is no longer a handshake or a conversation. It is a clip you did not choose, a post someone else shared, a comment you left, or a quote that gets passed around without context.

What actually builds trust across today’s platforms? It’s the different channels and how they shape different versions of you. Consistency matters more than polish. Algorithms and AI search now ...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood up in Davos and didn’t waste words. He gave a speech that cut through the noise. 

The room stood. The world noticed. 

He said, “If you're not at the table, you're on the menu.” 

People replayed that line like it was a lifeline.

 This episode of The Week Unspun comes straight from the snowy peaks of Davos, but the questions are sharp and wide-reaching. 

Can speeches still move people to...

PR teams are being asked to win attention in a world that barely gives it. The problem is not reach. The problem is what happens after the click, after the view, after the impression. If your audience does not stay, nothing sticks. Not the message, not the trust, not the reputation you are trying to build.

In this episode, we unpack why depth beats scale and why time spent is one of the most overlooked drivers of influence. You will...

In this week’s The Week UnSpun, the panel takes on three high-stakes stories where influence, identity, and global perception collide.  

First, the team unpacks the latest flashpoint over Greenland, where the U.S. talks security, Denmark talks sovereignty, and Greenland quietly navigates the space in between. But is this really about narrative control, or something deeper, as David suggests, like the importance of alliances over aut...

It doesn’t matter whether you’re 25 or 55. 

If you speak and people listen politely but not seriously, it hurts. 

Too young to be trusted.

Too old to be creative.

The message lands the same way. 

You are not seen. You are not heard. You are not valued.

Ageism cuts in both directions and it leaves a quiet bruise that people carry long after the moment passes.

How does this happen in Public Relations, a profession built on understanding peo...

A headline-grabbing raid, a revolution-in-the-making, and a “beige” prime minister walk into the attention economy… who wins the story?  

Farzana and Doug unpack three global flashpoints through a PR and narrative-control lens: the shock capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and the split-screen battle between “law enforcement” framing versus “illegal act of war” backlash; Iran’s surging unrest as the rial collapses alongside a frac...

This is a special audio time-jump episode. It’s an immersive journey ten years into the future to explore how public relations has managed three of the biggest challenges: the rapid rise of AI, the disappearing entry-level job, and the ongoing gender gap in leadership.

Doug and Farzana volunteer for a guided “time crossing” to see how the next generation of PR leaders navigated a decade of disruption. What they find isn’t just smart...

What happens when protests shake a regime built on control, not consent? 

We look at Iran’s largest wave of unrest since 2022. Fueled by economic collapse and skyrocketing inflation, the protests are no longer just about hardship, they’ve become openly anti-government, spreading even into rural areas. We break down Iran’s unprecedented tone shift in crisis comms, explore the influential role of the Iranian diaspora, and consider how...

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...