#218 The History of Cigarettes w/ Louis Kyriakoudes
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2022
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1998, as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, the biggest US tobacco companies agreed to open their archives to the public. Inside company documents was a story of tobacco executives who understood that cigarettes killed smokers yet expended vast amounts of time and money to keep that information from the public. In this episode, Ben speaks with Louis Kyriakoudes, an expert who has applied his academic research on the history of cigarettes as an expert witness in tobacco cases and as a speaker to medical groups seeking to better understand the history of the industry.
Dr. Louis Kyriakoudes is Professor of History and Director of the Albert Gore Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University. He has served as expert witness in tobacco litigation in multiple state and federal courts and served as an international consultant on the topic.
For a list of sources, visit our episode page at RTNpod.me/218.
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. |
| 0:08.0 | Today's episode is on the history of the cigarette industry. |
| 0:14.0 | Cigarettes, how do they become so popular? |
| 0:16.0 | It's an amazing story. |
| 0:18.0 | And here to tell that story is Louis Curucutus. Lewis's research looks at the |
| 0:22.7 | history of the tobacco industry and the history of cigarettes. And what's fascinating to me is he's |
| 0:27.7 | a historian who's also served as a witness testifying in these cases. So his research that he's |
| 0:34.4 | done inside the academy has had a real impact on the world around us. |
| 0:39.1 | And in fact, Lewis's work looks at kind of the narrative and the ways that tobacco companies |
| 0:43.7 | convince people to smoke. And there's so much in this episode that I wanted to talk about, |
| 0:48.9 | so much that we didn't get to. But before we get into it, I just wanted to encourage you guys, |
| 0:53.9 | after you listen to this, if you enjoy it and find it as fascinating as I did, I'm gonna put some links to some of Lewis's other work, not just the ones we reference in here, but a couple of other ones that look at the way that expert witnesses on the other side for the tobacco defense have spun history to their advantage. So I hope you guys enjoy that. I should also add that |
| 1:11.8 | aside from being an expert on the tobacco industry, Lewis is the director of the Albert Gore |
| 1:17.5 | Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University. This amazing resource we have there, and there's so |
| 1:24.3 | many great people working there. Just shout out to Donna Baker, to Sarah |
| 1:28.1 | Calise and the people that do such incredible work over there with Lewis, who are also my |
| 1:31.8 | colleagues. It's a world-class research institute. And they do so many great things for the, |
| 1:36.8 | for the country, for the state, for the local community. So if you haven't checked out the |
| 1:40.8 | Gore Center at MTSU, please do. That is a, it is a mighty, |
| 1:45.9 | mighty center full with smart people and great resources. So I hope you guys enjoy this conversation |
| 1:51.1 | with my colleague, Louis Kierikudus. Take care. Without further ado, let's get to our man, |
| 1:59.2 | Louis Kierkutis. Lewis, how are you doing today? |
... |
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