The Tobacco Master Settlement: That Time We Got Em

In the 1990s, after a century of covering up the deadly and addictive nature of cigarettes, the major tobacco companies faced a unified legal challenge from all 50 state Attorneys General. The episode traces the industry’s long history of hooking customers and concealing health risks, the pivotal moment in 1994 when they still denied addiction, and the unprecedented coordinated lawsuit that produced a landmark settlement. The result reshaped tobacco marketing and public health policy in the United States.