Popaganda can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts

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:

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:

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:

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