Popaganda can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts
It Ends With Us
Shannon and Tashmica discuss It Ends With Us, a TikTok famous, bestselling romance novel written by Colleen Hoover now adapted into the recently released blockbuster drama.
Based on the relationship between the author's mother and father, It Ends With Us follows the life and love of the fictional character Lily Bloom starting with her childhood experiences of domestic violence. Calling it "the hardest book I've ever written, Hoover delivers a harrowing and heartbreaking story about a future where the violence doesn't end but is carried forward into Lily's adult romantic relationship with the handsome and rich neurologist, Ryle Kincaid.
The novel has sold over one million copies worldwide, has been translated into over twenty languages, and now the film is a box-office success grossing $350 million. It also made us both cry (big surprise). This kind of attention could give book lovers and film buffs alike clues about what community-based responses could be used to intervene on and end intimate partner violence for themselves and maybe even our loved ones.
It ends with us? We sure hope so.
Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
I believe you, Big Bird.
On the sweetest episode of The Popaganda Podcast, Tashmica tells Shannon a heartwarming story about Big Bird, Snuffleupagus, and the political aspirations of America's longest-running children's TV show, Sesame Street.
Big Bird loves his best friend, Aloysius Snuffleupagus and all he wants to do is introduce him to his grownup friends on Sesame Street. There's only one problem. No one believes him. This story is about what happens when adults don't trust children and how they can practice accountability and repair to create healthier, safe(r) relationships in the future.
Listen in as we learn more about how and why the show's creative team taught adults to say, "I believe you, Big Bird."
Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
The Walking Dead with Guest Mia Mingus
On this episode of The Popaganda Podcast, Tashmica and Shannon talk with guest Mia Mingus about the post-apocalyptic TV series, The Walking Dead.
Viewers watched in horror as Negan brutally murdered Glen in front of his wife Maggie. None of us knew that we'd be on a Transformative Justice journey with two of the show's most compelling characters up until the final seasons. We watched the drama as characters tried to secure community safety by first recreating policing, jails, and prisons, and then turning towards reformation, and a complex process of accountability and repair.
Tune in now for a conversation about how some fictional apocalypse tales can inspire us to treat everyone - even villains - more humanely.
Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Get Raptured, Bitch!
On this episode of The Popaganda Podcast, Tashmica guides Shannon through the American religious thriller film series, Left Behind. In what feels like an accelerated Vacation Bible School experience, they discuss how and why traditional Evangelical Christian teachings have been used to implement harmful legislation, institutional policies, and social practices that dishonor our relationship with ourselves, our children, and our loved ones.
Tune in for a conversation about the rapture, bad theology, and what it means when Tashmica tells someone to "Get raptured, bitch!"
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Mathilda Zeller:
Never Whistle at Night
On this episode of The Popaganda Podcast, Shannon and Tashmica talk with Mathilda Zeller, author of "Kushtuka”, one of the 29 spine-tingling horror stories included in Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology. She also got in trouble with Tashmica at a tamalada for talking about transformative justice when they were supposed to be making tamales. Happens to the best of us!
Mathilda shares why she chooses to write horror and spills the tea on white women authors acting badly on the internet. Tune in for a conversation about how the monsters under our beds exist in more than just our spooky stories and how we can get brave enough to face them.
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
How we Failed Amber Heard
On this episode of The Popaganda Podcast Shannon and Tashmica discuss how we failed Amber Heard. Despite decades of work to disrupt the stigma and myths surrounding domestic violence, the Depp v. Heard trial gave us all a look at how the court of public opinion continues to demonize survivors seeking justice.
Tune in for a conversation about what went wrong and what you need to know to support loved ones experiencing violence within their most intimate relationships.
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Grey’s Anatomy
Shannon and Tashmica are joined by special guest, Hoai An Pham, an abolitionist organizer, graphic designer, animator, public health student, and avid lover of Grey's Anatomy. Together they discuss the radical storytelling that pops up in the halls and on-call rooms of Seattle's Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital and @Grey's Abolition, a new Instagram account that continually reminds us to pick abolition, choose abolition, and love abolition.
Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.
Credits:
Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok
Baby Reindeer
Join Tashmica and Shannon as we discuss the Netflix drama Baby Reindeer. Listen in as we explore the complexities of surviving domestic and sexual violence, the nuanced portrayals of male survivors and our deep love of the character Teri played by the fabulous and brilliant Nava Mau.
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
True Detective Night Country
True Detective Night Country was a massive success with not-so-great reviews. Led by Kali Reis, the first Indigenous lead of an HBO series, Hollywood legend Jodie Foster, and Issa Lopez, the Mexican Filmmaker who created, wrote, and directed this powerful supernatural thriller; this season finale had us - and a record-breaking 3.2 million viewers - on the edge of our seats.
So then why are people being such haters?
Join Shannon and Tashmica as they discuss how American viewers didn't get the answers they wanted from HBO Max's True Detective Night Country, but they definitely got the answers they deserved.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
Satan Wants You
Tashmica introduces Shannon to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s through the award-winning documentary, Satan Wants You.
To scare people back into a Sunday pew, the Catholic Church funded the publication of a book based on the account of a woman who claimed to have survived satanic ritualistic child abuse. Michelle Remembers was a bestseller and the survivor Michelle Smith and Dr. Larry Pazder, her therapist, coauthor, and eventually her husband, spent their time promoting the book on talk shows or training law enforcement to spot this new crime spree targeting children across the country. Cops started training therapists and suddenly, more than 200 people across the country had been criminalized without a single shred of evidence.
It was all based on a convenient lie. Does any of this sound familiar? Pun intended. This is a Tim Ballard and the Sound of Freedom origin story. Check out our Sound of Freedom episode for context.
Join Tashmica and Shannon as they fall down a rabbit hole where they discover that when it comes to resistance, bodily autonomy, and knowing who the real enemies of children are, the Church of Satan may be the church for a time such as this.
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
Britney spears with Guest Zara Raven
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
Sound of Freedom
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 and Scientology
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
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
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