Why 'Black' Does Not Mean 'Woke' ft. Super Bowl LIX — Daily Persuasion with Joshua Lisec Ep. 148

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ABOUT TODAY'S EPISODE:

In Daily Persuasion Ep. 148: Why 'Black' Does Not Mean 'Woke' ft. Super Bowl LIX, bestselling author and persuasion expert Joshua Lisec delivers a culturally critical breakdown of one of America’s biggest media events: Super Bowl LIX. This episode peels back the carefully orchestrated layers of messaging in the game’s programming, advertisements, and performances to answer a provocative question: When did “Black” become conflated with “woke”?

Welcome back to Daily Persuasion, where Joshua Lisec, a New York Times bestselling ghostwriter and professional hypnotist, helps you master persuasion psychology to influence the VIPs in your life and career. In this thought-provoking episode, Lisec explores the origins of woke, the rise of woke black culture, and the ideological disconnect between authentic black excellence and modern identity politics.

The central message of Episode 148 is simple, but bold: Black Americans have long demonstrated excellence in sports, culture, business, and beyond—without needing to wave a flag of superiority. But in Super Bowl LIX, audiences saw something different. From the black national anthem Super Bowl performance to multiple woke Super Bowl ads, it was clear that much of the show was stuck in a cultural time capsule—one that didn’t get the memo that the political tide has turned.

As Lisec explains, woke NFL programming persisted even though voters rejected those ideas at the ballot box. That’s because these events were planned years in advance, when the prevailing assumptions still included hyper-progressive messaging. This gives rise to what Lisec calls the “Zombified Woke Era”—messaging that lives on even after the culture that birthed it has begun to fade.

But what is “woke,” exactly? In this episode, Lisec takes the time to answer that directly. Using persuasion techniques and narrative analysis, he offers a working definition: Woke, defined, is not the presence of Black culture, but the insistence that Black is inherently better—and must be framed in opposition to whiteness, maleness, or tradition. This, he says, is not inclusion. It is black separatism and, in some cases, black supremacy.

This is where the distinction lies between celebrating achievement and pushing ideology. When a HBCU Super Bowl marching band plays at halftime, it’s a celebration of talent. When a woke Super Bowl ad shows a young Black girl tackling 1980s-styled white men in exaggerated flag football glory, it's a message: I am better than you—because I am not you. That, Lisec argues, is the real woke meaning.

By drawing from James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Lisec shows empathy for how and why these ideas took root. The book reveals the early philosophical groundwork for the origins of woke—an emotional, intellectual, and historical cry for justice. But Lisec’s mastery of persuasion psychology reminds us: to truly move forward, we must understand these frameworks without being consumed by them.

As always, Daily Persuasion is not just about commentary—it’s about teaching how to persuade someone to do something better. Through powerful persuasion examples, Lisec shows viewers how to listen to people with opposing views, pace them, and then lead them toward a more constructive reality. The approach uses both techniques of persuasion in writing and persuasive techniques drawn from advertising, culture, and personal psychology.

In a media landscape overflowing with examples of persuasion in advertising, this episode is your behind-the-scenes decoder ring. If you're seeking to understand how corporations, networks, and influencers use identity to advance agendas, you’ll find this one of the most eye-opening Daily Persuasion episodes to date.

Bottom line: Being Black is not the same as being “woke.” Excellence doesn’t need political packaging. And persuasion—not provocation—is the key to bridging the divide.

Watch Why 'Black' Does Not Mean 'Woke' ft. Super Bowl LIX now, and let Joshua Lisec give you the tools to see, and say, what others won’t.