Do corporations lie to avoid being held liable for harms their products or practices cause?  Of course they do.

Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Barbara Freese, an author and an attorney, to talk about corporate denial and to discuss her new book, Industrial-Strength Denial: Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible, from the Slave Trade to Climate Change.

Faced with claims that they are hurting people or the planet, corporations have a long history of denying evidence, blaming victims, complaining of witch hunts, attacking their critics’ motives, and otherwise rationalizing their harmful activities. In today’s conversation, Aaron and Barbara tackle corporate denial, exploring the reasons why and how this can happen, as it has throughout our history.  Exploring eight case studies, from the British slave trade in the late 1700s through the climate change debate raging now, Barbara looks for reasons why corporations deny, deceive and, at times, outright lie.  Factors include tribalism, human nature, morality and social responsibility, power, economic inequality, social media, and more. Barbara argues that corporate denial campaigns have led to dangerous practices that cause widespread suffering, death, and environmental destruction.

What can be done to combat corporate denial?

Barbara and Aaron explore the social responsibility of corporations, examining the impact of our fractured media society, corporate and market cultures, curated confusion and manufactured doubt, as well as corporations and democracy. With a new generation of young activists rising up to protest companies involved in causing climate change and structural causes of racial and wealth inequality, there is hope for pressing for political and legal changes that will reduce the power and influence of corporations that engage in deceit and denial.

Barbara Freese is an environmental attorney, an energy policy analyst, and a former Minnesota assistant attorney general. She is also the author of Coal: A Human History, a New York Times Notable Book. Barbara’s interest in corporate denial was sparked by cross-examining coal industry witnesses disputing the science of climate change. Listen now to find out more!

To learn more about Barbara, please visit her website here.

To learn more about Barbara’s latest book, Industrial-Strength Denial: Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible, from the Slave Trade to Climate Change, please click here.

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guest: Barbara Freese

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