Popaganda can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts
Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok discuss Britney Spears, the nuances of conservatorship, mad liberation, and the liberatory possibilities of dancing on the internet with our first guest ever - mad queer mama, Zara Raven.
Zara Raven isn't just our premiere Abolitionist Britney expert they are building a world without prisons + policing, starting at home. Zara is the coordinator for Queenies Crew, an initiative that engages children in learning about building communities of care without prisons or policing, the former director of Collective Action for Safe Spaces in D.C., a grassroots, trans and queer-led organization that focuses on creating safe republic spaces, and a cocreator of 8 to Abolition. For more information about Zara, visit https://linktr.ee/bubblybutfierce.
Pop Culture Homework:
#FreeBritney: Understanding the Fan-led Britney Spears Movement
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
People + Practices We Love:
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Tim Ballard is a lying, McLiar face (allegedly) but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t had an indelible impact on how everyday Americans understand or misunderstand the sexual exploitation of children around the globe. But how did this qanon-tinged thriller become the 10th biggest domestic film of the year?
Join Shannon and Tashmica for a conversation about Operation Underground Railroad, the scam behind the‘new’ Anti-Trafficking Movement, and why the mythology created by Ballard is a threat to your reproductive rights.
We watched The Sound of Freedom so you don’t have to. Please don’t watch it. We beg you.
Pop Culture Homework:
Sound of Freedom is everything an anti-trafficking film shouldn't be
Why you should be wary of statistics on ‘modern slavery’ and ‘trafficking’ - The Washington Post
Sex Trade, and the Failure of Anti-Trafficking Policies- Emi Koyama
AP News "Sound of Freedom" Act would automatically sentence child traffickers to life in prison
People + Practices We Love:
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Tom Cruise once claimed Scientology had solved humanity’s greatest challenges. To which Shannon and Tashmica say, “What now?”
The Popaganda Podcast kicks off season 2 with a conversation about “Tom Cruise on Tom Cruise, Scientologist”. An American actor, producer, and celebrity Scientologist, Tom Cruise is the lead in major blockbuster films like Top Gun and the spy series Mission: Impossible. As latchkey kids, we will never forget him jumping on Oprah’s couch over his love for Katie Holmes. Long since divorced under questionable circumstances, Cruise has given millions to a religious organization despite repeated accusations of abuse and he’s never been canceled. How does he do it?
*insert Kate Bornstein + Leah Remini sideeye*
Tune in as we discuss how cults, communes, and even nonprofit organizations can use power and control dynamics to hurt people. Could a healthy practice of accountability change everything? Let's talk about it!
Pop Culture Homework:
Leah Remini, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology
Are our Movements Cults? Just Sex: Mapping Your Desire Podcast with Jamie Grant featuring Shannon Perez Darby
People + Practices We Love:
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Great Photo, Lovely Life
Monday April 8, 2024
Content Note: child sexual abuse.
Co-hosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok discuss the original HBO documentary, Great Photo, Lovely Life. This poignant film follows Photojournalist Amanda Mustard as she investigates her ‘touchy-feely grandpa’ and his role in decades of serial sexual abuse through archival photos, home videos, and interviews with the children he harmed and the bystanders who were tricked into believing that everything was fine.
Listen in as two lifelong survivor activists consider how turning towards the violence we experience in our families could give us our best chance at understanding, confronting, and ending child sexual abuse.
Shannon and Tashmica give this documentary the highest of trigger warnings. We encourage you to download and listen with care.
Resources:
Survivor support is available 24/7 through the National Sexual Assault Hotline. We encourage listeners to connect with confidential support services by calling 1-800-656-HOPE [4673] or by visiting rainn.org for access to their LIVE chat.
For ongoing care or referrals to healing practitioners, check out these resources:
#QOTD: “Part of what's gonna change the culture that leads to child sexual abuse is that we have to turn and face it. We have to shine the light on what's happening. And I would prefer folks [to] do that in this stumbling, imperfect way than to feel like you have to be an expert.” - Shannon Perez-Darby
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Bonus!
Pop Culture Chisme
Friday March 29, 2024
Popaganda Season 2 launches on April 22nd but Shannon and Tashmica can’t wait that long to talk pop culture chisme and transformative justice. In this bonus episode, we talk about cults, communes, and the surveillance state through the experiences of the recently released but not quite free Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, the docuseries Natalia Speaks, and HBO’s The Garden.
Download and listen to this episode to join the conversation!
Pop Culture Homework (Media Mentions):
People + Practices We Love:
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok