Cut Through!
Episodes
How to be a better gossip
16 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why did humans start to communicate?The obvious answer is: ‘to exchange information’. Yet this may not be why language was so important to our anc...
Purpose under pressure
09 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Can a Japanese secret to long life help you live past 100? Probably not. But it might help you to identify what kind of communications roles are going...
The battle for reality
02 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
“Germany calling. This is Germany calling.”Throughout the Second World War those words echoed through the static of Britain’s airwaves. The clip...
The messenger is the message
26 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
People are REALLY ANGRY because Gemma Collins appeared in a social media clip for the Department for Education. "Bizarre”, “tone-deaf”, “sicke...
How to evaluate communications
19 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re not measuring communications, you don’t know it’s working. Yet our profession has an evaluation problem: we’re counting the wrong th...
The wisdom of the long-distance train conductor
12 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why would giving a train passenger a quiz question make them more likely to accept an excess fare? And what can that teach us about how to communicate...
Leading under pressure, Part 1
05 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What can a traditional Chinese painting, an Austrian psychologist, and a Roman Emperor teach communications leaders about how to manage personal resil...
How to build a narrative
28 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Leaders generally want to communicate inside-to-out. They begin with the messages they want to tell people. Then wonder why nobody seems especially i...
Why AI isn't taking your communications job
21 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At one level it's straightforward. We recently invented a technology that creates language at almost zero cost. We employ people who write for us. The...
In defence of the spoken word
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Writing created the modern world. But today do we overestimate the importance of writing and overuse it.It's worth remembering the limits of writing a...
How to combat misinformation
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Measles is back. Not because we lack a vaccine, but because we lack immunity to misinformation.So how should we as communications leaders respond?We v...
Where do MPs get their news?
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Where do Members of Parliament get their news? Which social media, news sites, and podcasts do they consume? And which AI tools do they use? A new rep...
How to run a pre-mortem
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Most communications teams do risk management in ways that suppress candour, reward optimism and miss the things that actually bring a project down.The...
Winning Strategies, Pt 5: Harness Distrust
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Harness Distrust strategy doesn’t see a lack of trust as a problem to solve, but a fuel to burn.For insurgents and challenger brands, tapping in...
Winning Strategies, Pt 4: Demonstrate trust
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Is it the job of a communications professional to ‘persuade’ people, or is it to ‘inform’ people?In a low-trust environment, where even the ap...
Winning Strategies, Pt 3: Co-create Trust
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Co-creating trust is not about convincing people you are right, but about giving them a seat at the table.The principle is simple. People are more lik...
Winning Strategies, Pt 2: Borrow Trust
24 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Borrow Trust strategy. If you want reach and credibility, then work with those who already have it. Build partnerships with credible voices who sh...
Winning Strategies, Pt 1: Earn Trust
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this series, I’m looking at five ways organisations are responding to our changed information environment and modernising their communications op...
How to build trust
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When you aren’t trusted, even your best decisions won’t cut through.This episode looks at why trust matters, why it is eroding across government, ...
Beyond the hype: Five practical AI actions for communications leaders
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This episode looks at five practical AI actions communications leaders should focus on this year: How to understand what AI is saying about you, train...
BONUS: Why you should read Dario Amodei's article on AI alignment
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dario Amodei is the CEO and founder of the AI company Anthropic. When I was in Government Communications we chose Anthropic’s Claude large language ...
Why is communications so difficult today? Pt 4: AI Transformers, Rise of the Machines
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this, the last of my series on how our media and information environment has changed, I look at AI and what it means for the future of communicatio...
Why is communications so difficult today? Pt 3: The age of the algorithm
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The central argument of Cut Through! is that our information environment has changed more quickly than our communications practice. To catch up, we ne...
Why is communications so difficult today? Pt 2: The start of the scroll
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The central argument of Cut Through! is that our information environment has changed more quickly than our communications practice. To catch up, we ne...
Why is communications so difficult today? Pt 1: The Wizards of Menlo Park
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why does communication feel so difficult today? Our information environment has changed more quickly than our communications practice. To catch up, we...
A Christmas Carol for Communicators
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christmas isn’t Christmas until you’ve listened to at least one version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.Here is my humble contribution to th...
What should Keir Starmer learn from Trump's communication?
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In my final months leading UK Government Communications, people often asked me whether Keir Starmer’s communication should be more like Donald Trump...
Lessons from Agent Garbo: the Spanish chicken farmer who tricked the Nazis
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An important skill for any communications leader is presenting ideas with confidence. Yet most of us feel nervous when doing so. Maybe we even have a ...
Ten behavioural science principles every communicator should know ranked
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The number one rule of great communications is: know your audience. Yet most communicators still design messages for how they wish people thought, not...
Why you don't see reality (and what this means for communicators)
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We like to think of ourselves as rational beings. Being "emotional" can even be a term of abuse, but the truth is human beings do not make decisions b...
How prepared are you for a crisis?
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How prepared are you for a crisis? I have led the communications response to plane crashes, terrorist attacks, bankruptcies, riots and wars. Yet every...
Five bad communications strategies
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In today's episode I reveal five common communication strategy mistakes to avoid:1. The everything, everywhere, all at once strategy.2. The self-justi...
Seven essential skills for modern communicators
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
My new blog, Cut Through!, aims to define a new model for modern communications leadership. In other words, to identify the essential skills needed t...
Why I'm writing Cut Through!
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hello and welcome to Cut Through! How to communicate with clarity in a noisy world.I’m Simon Baugh. I used to be the Chief Executive of UK Governmen...