This docuseries revisits the 2003–2018 run of America's Next Top Model through interviews with Tyra Banks, co-hosts Miss J, J. Manuel, and Nigel Barker, and several former contestants candidly telling their stories.

Tyra's current legacy project is hot ice cream. Which is, technically, incomplete ice cream. Tashmica has notes.

Shandy is a cycle two contestant whose sexual assault—filmed by the crew while she was too intoxicated to consent—was edited and broadcast as a cheating scandal.

Tyra Banks is the creator, executive producer, and subject of this documentary—a woman whose access to power has not translated into accountability, solidarity with Black women, or care for the people she claims to have uplifted.

And the industry is doing what it always does: making the person who was harmed responsible for the story.

What we keep coming back to:

• Shandy's story is an example of how the production team transformed an assault into a scandal—in real time, before she even understood what had happened to her
• The "diversity" Tyra built was a pinprick, not a door—and the show's own alumni confirm their careers were hurt, not helped, by being on it
• What Bachelor in Paradise did differently in 2017 shows exactly what it looks like to prioritize people over timelines—and how rare that actually is

Leaving us with: when someone uses their power to control who else gets in—and whose stories get told—are they opening the door, or are they the lock?

Content note: Sexual violence, anti-Black racism and colorism, disordered eating, dental coercion, stroke and disability discussed.

Pop Culture Homework

Watch: Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model (Netflix) 

Hosts: Tashmica Torok & Shannon Perez-Darby

 Subscribe and leave a 5-star review — it really helps others find the show. www.popagandapod.com | Merch: https://shopaganda.sellfy.store/ 

Sponsored by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and Aletheia Coaching & Consulting 

Transcript available on Apple Podcasts

Listen in as we talk about why the first take isn’t always the best take, how anti-Blackness and ableism shaped the public reaction, and why the real power here sits with BAFTA/BBC production choices—including what was reportedly edited out, and what was left in.

We refuse to let this moment eclipse the art: “Sinners” deserves celebration. It’s not just an award-winning film. It is an iconic culturally rich film that puts Black talent, historical experience, storytelling, and imagination 

Pop Culture Homework

• Watch Sinners, featuring Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo with Black American Sign Language (BASL) Performer Nakia Smith
• Watch I Swear, based on the true life story of John Davidson
• Follow @killk1yoshi on Instagram for more awareness content

Come for the Pop Culture. Stay for the Abolition.

Hosts: Tashmica Torok & Shannon Perez-Darby.

🎧 Stream now, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review—it really helps others find the show.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com 

Help keep Popaganda independent—shop our merch! → https://shopaganda.sellfy.store/

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and Aletheia Coaching & Consulting

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast

In this episode of The Popaganda Podcast, survivor activists Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok bring pop culture obsession and Transformative Justice-flavored analysis to Pluribus (Apple TV+), Vince Gilligan’s sleek, unsettling sci-fi series starring Rhea Seehorn as novelist Carol Sterka—a woman who becomes the world’s least willing VIP.

The premise: an alien virus transforms most of humanity into a calm, coordinated hive mind with one main hobby—politely assimilating everyone. Carol is one of 13 immune people, which means she gets to process catastrophic loss while an entire city of synced-up humans keeps saying her name like an HR training video: “Hi, Carol.”

(Respectfully: no.)

Carol survives the mass “switch up” that turns most of humanity into a calm, coordinated hive mind—while her personal world collapses, leaving her cycling through a full range of complex human emotions. Somehow, the internet’s hot take is: she’s too mad.

We dig into the show’s central seduction—and its menace: the hive mind is efficient and nonviolent, restoring order so smoothly it’s almost soothing—until you notice what it can cost in privacy, culture, and self-determination. But to Carol’s shock, not everyone experiences “collective” as the ultimate threat.

Then the season drops its most abolition-adjacent, TJ beat: after harm happens, the hive doesn’t retaliate. It doesn’t cage. It doesn’t escalate. The virus sets a boundary that reaches for safety and healing rather than punishment.

Leaving us with an important question: what could our world look like if we built responses to harm that keep people alive and cared for—while actively limiting the conditions that allow more violence to happen?

Pop Culture Homework

• Watch: Pluribus (Apple TV+), Season 1
• Pay attention to: the moments when “care” feels soothing… and when it starts to feel like control
• Report back: Are you Team Carol (absolutely not) or Team “okay but the infrastructure is kind of impressive”?

Hosts: Tashmica Torok & Shannon Perez-Darby.

🎧 Stream now, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review—it really helps others find the show.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com 

Help keep Popaganda independent—shop our merch! → https://shopaganda.sellfy.store/

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and Aletheia Coaching & Consulting

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast

Before “release the Epstein files” became the public’s favorite internet punchline, Giuffre was a teenager trying to escape her father’s sexual and physical abuse by running away—only to find herself working for Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. She became one of the most prominent survivors to share detailed accounts of how Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein targeted, groomed, and sexually abused children—then trafficked them through Epstein’s network of rich, powerful global leaders and celebrities, including Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Tashmica and Shannon wade through the public’s performative shock and unproductive political theater to center one simple, devastating question: Why did we ignore the truth that survivors have been telling us for years?

As more unredacted files are released to the public, the justice promised by the criminal legal system only gets more elusive. The details are horrific, triggering, and retraumatizing for survivors of sexual violence—but don’t worry: this is not your typical true crime wrap-up.

Listen in as two pop culture besties who also happen to be survivors share survivor-to-survivor care and truth-telling, connecting Nobody’s Girl to the systems that enable harm, use children as political leverage, and prop up a criminal legal system that can’t—and won’t—ever live up to the hype.

Pop Culture Homework

Read (or listen): Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice

Read: “Sex Trafficking Prosecutions Won’t Stop the Next Epstein. Here’s What Will.” (Truthout)

Revisit: our episode on Sound of Freedom + how Christian nationalist anti-trafficking narratives shape public “common sense”

Revisit: our Wayward conversation + the troubled teen industry connections that show up here

Reflect: what would it mean to treat child safety like an emergency at scale—not a scandal, not a spectacle, not a campaign prop?

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

Content Note

This episode discusses themes of domestic violence, sexual violence, child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and suicide. We focus on themes and systems, not graphic details.

Support Popaganda

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and leave a five-star review—it really does help people find the show. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition. 

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

In this episode, Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok talk about how living under fascism is reshaping our relationship to pop culture, streaming, and the platforms we’ve treated like default companions. From canceling Hulu/Disney after the Jimmy Kimmel controversy (and the bigger question of what a boycott is actually asking for), to rethinking Spotify amid reports of ICE recruitment ads, we share what we’re wrestling with: values vs. convenience, visibility vs. safety, and how to stop “overstaying” in unhealthy relationships.

We also get real about grief (yes, even for a 20-year relationship with Grey’s Anatomy), the algorithmic slide into right-wing propaganda and diet-culture-as-evangelism, and why our nervous systems are demanding different kinds of stories right now—like audiobooks, games, and community-centered ways of staying connected that don’t depend on billionaire-owned platforms.

Are you in your breakup era, too? Then put on your softest sweatpants, order some takeout, and come on over for a lonely hearts club episode of The Popaganda Podcast. 

Pop Culture Homework

Listen: Dungeon Crawler Carl (audiobook)

Watch: No Other Land and support Masafer Yatta.

Reflect: What platform or subscription are you “overstaying” with—and what would a clean, loving exit look like?

Support Popaganda

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and leave a five-star review—it really does help people find the show. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

In this special holiday episode, Shannon and Tashmica rewatch Die Hard the way Tashmica’s family does every year: loud, talk-back style, like a Christmas Rocky Horror—except the call-and-response is all about how the “good cop” story gets built.

We break down how the film makes John McLane (Bruce Willis) irresistible—young, tender, “just a guy trying to get his family back”—while quietly selling us a whole worldview: cops can bend rules, instincts count as evidence, police violence is redemption, and everyone else (dispatch, LAPD, FBI, the “system”) is incompetent until the right cop takes charge.

Along the way, we unpack: why the “terrorists” being white matters, how the Black characters are positioned (from “Black nerd” to “cop who needs his gun back”), why the ham-radio emergency line moment is peak “rules don’t apply to cops,” and how even the Christmas sparkle (hello, “Ho Ho Ho, now I have a machine gun too”) is part of the package.

Welcome to the holiday copaganda workshop you didn’t ask for—but probably need. Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!

Pop Culture Homework:

• Watch: Die Hard (1988)
• Read: The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide – the book Tashmica mentions on police culture + the “blue wall” logic*
• Reflect/Discuss: What’s the ‘cop intuition’ moment in your favorite cop show/movie—and what does it train us to excuse?

*Correction corner: Michael Cox, the focus of the book The Fence, was brutally beaten, but he survived the attack and the cover-up that followed.

Hosts: Tashmica Torok & Shannon Perez-Darby

🎧 Stream now, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review—it really helps others find the show. To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

Help keep Popaganda independent—shop our merch! → https://shopaganda.sellfy.store/

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and Aletheia Coaching & Consulting

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast

In this episode, Shannon and Tashmica rave about the talented nonbinary artist Mae Martin (they/them), and Wayward, the limited series they created for Netflix. Set in 2003, the story follows Leila and Abby, teenage best friends and a local police officer, Alex, as they uncover dark secrets surrounding the town and their strange relationship with a local academy for troubled teens.

Martin’s portrayal of Alex (he/him), a trans man, and his relationship with his pregnant wife Lauren, delivered a captivating story that normalized the existence of trans people and queer family dynamics while also giving us one of the hottest queer sex scenes we’ve ever seen on a mainstream platform.

Listen in as we talk cultish spiritual vibes, that time Republicans crashed Grindr, and the all too real impact of the for-profit, unregulated Troubled Teen Industry (TTI).

Welcome to Tall Pines. We think you’ll like it here. 

Pop Culture Homework:

• Watch: Wayward
• Read: Officials calling for state investigations over use of force in East Lansing, Michigan 
• Listen: The Autobiography of Assata Shakur, Pen and Paper: Library of A Pan African Communist | Podcast on Spotify 

Hosts: Tashmica Torok & Shannon Perez-Darby.

🎧 Stream now, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review—it really helps others find the show.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com 

Help keep Popaganda independent—shop our merch! → https://shopaganda.sellfy.store/

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and Aletheia Coaching & Consulting

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast

In this episode, hosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok discuss the pressure to get small under rising Fascism—and how Paul Reubens, through Pee-wee Herman, modeled color, camp, and audacity anyway. From 70s/80s performance-art roots to TV fame, we trace what it means when a persona eclipses a person, how moral panic + policing criminalize marginalized people, and why maximalist self-expression is not a luxury but a practice of selfhood as resistance.

Pop Culture Homework:

• Watch: Pee-wee as Himself (HBO), dir. Matt Wolf.

🎧 Stream now, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review—it really helps others find the show.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com 

Help keep Popaganda independent—shop our merch! → https://shopaganda.sellfy.store/

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and Aletheia Coaching & Consulting

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast

As this episode comes out, it marks the year anniversary of the passing of Shannon’s dear friend and beloved community member Alix 'Ponyboy' Kolar. Ponyboy was a deep lover of pop culture, so many of Shannon’s fondest memories are sitting on the couch watching TV with Alix. Ponyboy loved We Are Lady Parts, so in his loving memory, with all the laughter and joy, we dedicate this episode to you, Alix 'Ponyboy' Kolar.

Make sure you stay until the end of the episode for a sweet dedication to the one and only Ponyboy. Thank you to Lisa Nims for letting us share your beautiful words. There was no one quite like you Ponyboy, we miss you. We love you.

🎧 Stream now, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review—it really helps others find the show.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com 

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and Aletheia Coaching & Consulting

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast

This time, we edit nothing—no cuts, lots of “ums,” and even more chisme. You’ll feel like you’re sitting in on a late-night text chain, jumping from how Love Island USA disaster crash-outs say more about race and gender than romance to the tragedy of diluted queer representation in And Just Like That. We get nostalgic over ER via The Pit, and add Alex Cooper’s Call Her Alex documentary to each other’s pop culture homework.

No one gets our complex relationship with Couples Therapy and our favorite TV therapist, Orna Guralnik more than Marina & Micah from Couplet Comedy.

Join us as we celebrate 5,000 downloads! What started as a fun experiment for two pop culture besties has become the space we dreamed of—where TV, movies, and headlines open the door to deeper conversations about Transformative Justice, abolition, care, and the world we’re building together.

This Week’s Pop Culture Homework 

How to End Family Policing, coauthored by our own, Shannon Perez-Darby, and Erin Miles Cloud, Erica R. Meiners and Charity Tolliver!

Grounded in the work of over 20 contributors, How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action lays out a vision for alternatives to family policing. From leading abolitionist organizers, this book is a much-needed intervention arguing that the systems that purport to protect children make them-and our communities-less safe.

Offered by Haymarket Books. Pre-Order now! http:bit.ly/endfamilypolicing

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com 

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! 

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcast

In this episode, co-hosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok sink their teeth into the historical brilliance, Black cultural references, and intergenerational reckoning that make Sinners a film for the ages. From Michael B. Jordan’s dual-role performance to Wunmi Mosaku’s heartbreakingly embodied magic, we explore themes of vampire lore as white supremacy, biracial identity, cultural reclamation, ancestor hunger, and radical resistance—plus some very hot sex scenes.

Whether it’s Grace's Molotov rage, Mary’s weak link behavior, or a juke joint dance sequence that turns into a spiritual time-travel portal—this film is layered, lush, and full of rabbit holes that will have us jumping for a long time into the future.

This Week’s Pop Culture Homework

• Watch Sinners! Now streaming on Max.
• The 'Sinners' Movie Syllabus by Jemar Tisby & Keisha N. Blain
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Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode!

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning:

The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. In this episode, we discuss themes of trauma exploitation, survivorship, and systemic harm, including references to sexual violence and political violence. While we do not delve into graphic details, we invite you to make choices about what feels right for you.

Shot entirely in one continuous take, each episode of this four-part series follows 13-year-old Jamie, a boy accused of murdering a classmate. But Jamie isn’t just a perpetrator. He’s also a child—shaped by patriarchy, misogyny, and unexamined rage. 

In this episode, hosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok examine the layered dynamics of Jamie’s story—from his family and peers to the criminal legal system and the court-appointed therapist tasked with assessing him. Together, they explore violence, gender, punishment, and how a child becomes capable of such devastating harm.

From incel culture and manosphere influence to the realities of digital parenting, we ask: If children can be radicalized into hate, can they also be guided back into healing? What does accountability look like when the person who caused harm is still developing? And who do we become when we let the carceral system answer those questions for us?

"There's a wonderful saying, which is, it takes a village to raise a child. And within that kind of complexity ... it's kind of like, maybe we're all accountable.”

– Stephen Graham, Adolescence Creator & Writer

This Week’s Pop Culture Homework

• Watch Adolescence on Netflix
• Read Black Pill by Elle Reeve

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode!

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning:

The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. In this episode, we discuss themes of trauma exploitation, survivorship, and systemic harm, including references to sexual violence and political violence. While we do not delve into graphic details, we invite you to make choices about what feels right for you.

Join cohosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok in an episode spotlighting the Midwest premiere and Closing Night Feature Firebreak, a deeply moving documentary screening.

Firebreak follows Brandon and Royal, two formerly incarcerated firefighters who turned exploitation into transformation—and built a nonprofit, the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, to help others like them access careers in wildland firefighting. 

💥 What We Talk About in This Episode:

• Prison labor, fire camps, and the myth of redemptive suffering
• Reentry, shame, and the trap of gratitude narratives
• Ancestral land connection and environmental justice
• Daredevil, fiddle-faddle, and why background checks aren’t liberation
• That gorgeous mural scene (bring tissues)
• Nonprofit hustle, funder fatigue, and the fight for sustainability
• Jacket envy. Obviously.

This Week’s Pop Culture Homework

• Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program
• 13th by Ava DuVernay
• Former Lansing Firefighter wins discrimination suit against city
• Daredevil: Born Again (Netflix)
• Book of Mormon (the musical, not the cult - yet)

🎬 Attend the Midwest Firebreak screening + panel moderated by Tashmnica at CCFF 2025:

🗓 April 12 | 7:30 PM

📍 Central United Methodist Church, Lansing, MI

🎟 capitalcityfilmfest.com

Other Fest Highlights:

 Symphonic Cinema → more info

 Distant Planet Project → more info

 Arab Narratives Project → link coming soon!

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode!

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning:

The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. In this episode, we discuss themes of trauma exploitation, survivorship, and systemic harm, including references to sexual violence and political violence. While we do not delve into graphic details, we invite you to make choices about what feels right for you.

This episode unpacks King of the Apocalypse, a new documentary exposing Stuart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers and key figure in the January 6th insurrection. But this isn’t his story—it’s about the people who survived him.

Through the eyes of Dakota Adams, we explore how radicalization and abuse shaped the family Rhodes tormented, the years of planning that went into their escape, and the systemic failures that left them unprotected.

Now, Stuart Rhodes is free. Pardoned. No parole. No restrictions. Back in public life, standing behind Trump at rallies. What does this mean for his family? For the rest of us?

Join hosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok as they examine the intersections of white supremacy, domestic violence, and rising authoritarianism. Listen in as they break down why militia movements thrive in unchecked power, what Dakota’s escape reveals about survivor resilience, and why we must take the growing far-right threat seriously.

This Week’s Pop Culture Homework

Watch King of the Apocalypse

Support Dakota Adam's campaign

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode!

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning:

The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. In this episode, we discuss themes of trauma exploitation, survivorship, and systemic harm, including references to sexual violence and political violence. While we do not delve into graphic details, we invite you to make choices about what feels right for you.

Join hosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok as they break down the accounts of harm, the power imbalances, and the larger cultural problem with how we talk (or don’t talk) about consent. Listen in as they unpack why we need better ways to talk about sexual violence—because the binary of "totally consensual" or "definitely rape" just doesn’t cut it.

They also get into:

• Why we struggle to ask for what we want in relationships.
• The difference between "sexy hitting" and just... hitting.
• Consent practices we can learn from BDSM.
• Neil Gaiman’s deep ties to Scientology (because of course).
• The weirdness of trying to buy your way out of accountability.

If you've ever side-eyed a dude who says he's a feminist but also just happens to have a long history of dating barely legal women, or if you've ever wondered what happens when you mix cult-like obedience structures with unchecked power... well, this one's for you.

This Week’s Pop Culture Homework

This episode of The Popaganda Podcast is inspired by the podcast Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman. 

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode!

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

But the conversation doesn’t stop there. Using Finch’s story as a starting point, we tackle a deeper, systemic issue: the persistent devaluation of survivor stories in our society. Survivors are the architects of the movements that fight sexual and domestic violence, yet their courage, labor, and wisdom are too often dismissed—whether in the workplace, the media, or at the ballot box. We confront the grief of watching a nation re-elect a known perpetrator of harm and discuss the hard truths about what that says about our collective values.

Listen in as we uncover:

• The harm caused when stories like Finch’s co-opt the experiences of survivors.
• Why survivor stories are foundational to the movement against violence—and why they deserve our respect.
• How society’s dismissal of survivor voices contributes to larger systems of harm, including our political landscape.
• What it means to face hard truths, hold grief, and still fight for a better future.

This episode is a heartfelt call to action: to honor survivors, to trust their stories, and to build a culture that values truth and justice over harm and exploitation.

This Week’s Pop Culture Homework

Watch Anatomy of Lies and reflect on its implications for how survivor stories are treated in media, workplaces, and our larger culture.

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

To learn more, visit: www.popagandapod.com

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode!

You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at: popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning:

The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. In this episode, we discuss themes of trauma exploitation, survivorship, and systemic harm, including references to sexual violence and political violence. While we do not delve into graphic details, we invite you to make choices about what feels right for you.

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.

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

This week's Pop Culture Homework is It Ends With Us and BEAM's Healing and Accountability Wheel.

To learn more visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

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."

Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

This week's Pop Culture Homework is the documentary Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street.

To learn more visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

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.

To learn more visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Episodes drop monthly. Listen everywhere you get your podcasts. Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

You can learn more by visiting www.popagandapod.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Tune in for a conversation about the rapture, bad theology, and what it means when Tashmica tells someone to "Get raptured, bitch!"

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

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.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

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.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Find the full show notes and links at www.popagandapod.com

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com.

Sponsored in part by: The Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

So then why are people being such haters?

Kali ‘Meuquinonoag’ Reis is an Afro-Indigenous storyteller that is raising the visibility of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) through her portrayal of Alaskan Native trooper Evangeline Navarro and her own intersectional visibility and activism. She also happens to be the first Indigenous Boxing World Champion. Weaving a story that explores conversations with ancestors beyond the veil, environmental justice, and what Liz Danvers represents to us, this show gave us a lot to talk about.

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.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework, visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 

Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

• Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
• Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
• Show Notes + Art: Tashmica Torok

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 last 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. 

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework, visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 

Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

• Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
• Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
• Show Notes + Art: Tashmica Torok

Zara Raven isn't just our premiere Abolitionist Britney building a world without prisons + policing, starting at home. They are 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.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For this week’s pop culture homework, visit www.popagandapod.com.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 

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 + Art: Tashmica Torok

Read the full article at https://accountablecommunities.com/writing

Find the full show notes and links at www.popagandapod.com

We watched The Sound of Freedom so you don’t have to. Please don’t watch it. We beg you.

Listen + subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts. For more information, visit www.popagandapod.com.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition. 

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 
• Tim Ballard, Inspiration Behind 'Sound of Freedom,' Quietly Leaves Anti-Trafficking Group 
• State Violence, Sex Trade, and the Failure of Anti-Trafficking Policies
• Idaho governor signs 'abortion trafficking' bill into law | AP News 
• "Sound of Freedom" Act would automatically sentence child traffickers to life in prison 
• Abortion Trafficking is the New Satanic Panic

People + Practices We Love:

• You’re Wrong About: Human Trafficking 

You can join our Pop Culture Besties! Instagram Broadcast Channel for a behind-the-scenes look at what we’re watching, our pop culture emergencies (that are never real emergencies), and special announcements. If you love the project, your engagement will help it grow so thank you in advance for supporting this one-of-a-kind show.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 

Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

• Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
• Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
• Show Notes + Art: Tashmica Torok

Functions of Criminal Justice

Why we say "criminal legal system," Not "criminal justice system"

Season 2 of The Popaganda Podcast launched on Monday, April 22nd. Did you know that a 9-minute video called “Tom Cruise on Tom Cruise, Scientologist” was leaked to the media in 2008? In a bizarrely intense interview, Cruise claimed that Scientologists are the only people on the planet equipped to handle addictions, car accidents, and natural disasters.

If this made you stop and say, “What now?” You might be one of our pop culture besties.

Click here to listen + subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts. You can also join our Pop Culture Besties! Instagram Broadcast Channel for a behind-the-scenes look at what we’re watching, our pop culture emergencies (that are never real emergencies), and special announcements. If you love the project, your engagement will help it grow so thank you in advance for supporting this one-of-a-kind show.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition. 

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod

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 cohosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok 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!

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

For more information, visit www.popagandapod.com.

Pop Culture Homework:

• Tom Cruise on Tom Cruise, Scientologist
• Mission: Impossible
• Kate Bornstein
• My Scientology Movie
• Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief
• 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:

• BEAM: Healing and Accountability Wheel
• Power and Control Wheel

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 

Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

• Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
• Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
• Show Notes + Art: Tashmica Torok

Season 2 launches on April 22, 2024. Listen everywhere you get your podcasts.

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 



Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

• Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
• Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
• Show Notes + Art: Tashmica Torok

For more information, visit www.popagandapod.com.

Click here to for the Box Breathing playlist on our YouTube channel. 

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 

Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

• Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
• Audio Production: Tashmica Torok
• Show Notes + Art: Tashmica Torok

In anticipation of the Popaganda season 2 launch on April 22nd, cohosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok reconnect to 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.

Whether you’re new to Popaganda or a loyal listener since the very beginning, we thank you for sticking with us. As podcasting newbies, we are always improving our skills. That’s why we are so excited to be one of 16 epic podcasts to be included in the Association of Independents in Radio's (AIR) newest program, New Voices AMPLIFY. We also just got to celebrate 1,000 downloads. None of this would be possible without your support!

AIR New Voices Amplify Spotify Playlist featuring a ‘Best of’ collection from the 16 podcast fellows.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

• TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 
• YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast
• Instagram - @popagandapod 

People + Practices We Love:

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:

• Therapy for Black Girls
• The Queer Trans Therapists of Color Network
• Bad Bitches Have Bad Days Too

#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!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

• Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok
• Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby
• Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok

Download and listen to this episode to join the conversation!

This might also be a good time to revisit the Copaganda episode from Season 1. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss upcoming announcements and the Lingo Plinko! Minisodes. 

Come for the pop culture. Stay for the abolition.

Whether you’re new to Popaganda or a loyal listener since the very beginning, we thank you for sticking with us. As podcasting newbies, we are always improving our skills. That’s why we are so excited to be one of 16 epic podcasts to be included in the Association of Independents in Radio's (AIR) newest program, New Voices AMPLIFY. We also just got to celebrate 1,000 downloads. None of this would be possible without your support!

AIR New Voices Amplify Spotify Playlist featuring a ‘Best of’ collection from the 16 podcast fellows.

Leave a 5-star review for The Popaganda Podcast and we might feature it in an upcoming episode! You can also send us love or suggest show topics by emailing us at popagandapod@gmail.com. 

Follow us on Social media!

TikTok - @Popaganda_Pod 

YouTube - The Popaganda Podcast

Instagram - @popagandapod 

Pop Culture Homework (Media Mentions):

• Gypsy Rose (TikTok)
• The Act (TV series)
• The View’s Joy Behar Forgets Gypsy Rose Was Involved in Mom's Murder Mid-Interview  
• Nick Viall and The Viall Files

People + Practices We Love:

• Circle Forward + The Consent Principle
• Cultish by Amanda Montell

Episode Inspired TJ Quote: “We will never dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools.” - Audre Lorde

Sponsored in part by: Accountable Communities Consortium and The Firecracker Foundation.

Access: Transcript now available on Apple Podcasts!

Content Warning: The Popaganda Podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice, prison abolition, and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season. In this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.

Credits:

Executive Producers: Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok

Audio Production: Shannon Perez-Darby

Show Notes + Graphic Design: Tashmica Torok

In the season finale of The Popaganda Podcast, you are invited to jump into a time machine and look into their radical visions for a future where transformative justice practices and abolition frameworks are realized. Listen in as they reflect on how their lived experiences in childhood and within their family systems have helped them see the sci-fi possibilities that have helped sustain their hopefulness in a future that they will likely never see.

What can we build if we feel connected to and are willing to sacrifice for that bolder, more just future?

Pop Culture Homework

• Parable of the Sower, Fledgling, and Kindred by Octavia Butler
• Raising Free People by Akilah S. Richards
• Foundation

Sponsored by:

• The Firecracker Foundation
• Accountable Communities

Subscribe, Like, and Follow!

TikTok: @Popaganda_Pod

Instagram: @popagandapod

Content Warning: This podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic sexual and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season, and in this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you. 

Listen in as we explore what may be our unhealthiest relationship with Copaganda or a tool to help our loved ones see the criminal legal system for what it truly is.

PS - if you need a primer on Copaganda, go back and give episode 2 a listen.

Pop Culture Homework

• In the Heat of the Night
• Sweet Valley High Super Thriller Series
• Mind Over Murder
• This Is Why You Can't Turn Away From True Crime
• Why do we love true crime — and is it healthy for us? 
• Why do women love true crime? I have a theory.
• Four Propositions on True Crime and Abolition
• ForEveryone Collective: Abolitionist Documentaries

Sponsored by:

• The Firecracker Foundation
• Accountable Communities

Subscribe, Like, and Follow!

TikTok: @Popaganda_Pod

Instagram: @popagandapod

Content Warning: This podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic sexual and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season, and in this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you. 

So far, you’ve heard us drop the acronym TERF at least twice. But do you know what a TERF is or what Shannon means by “TERF-y” talking points?

Listen in as Tashmica talks about Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) so that you can spot and disrupt TERF-y talking points and learn how to be a better ally to trans people. Check out the links below for more!

You May Have Heard About TERFS

Happy Pride! Don't Be A TERF

Dax Shepard’s Latest Podcast Controversy With Jonathan Van Ness, Explained

How to Spot TERF Ideology

Why Sex isn't Binary - The Scientista Foundation

Defend Trans Youth – The Firecracker Foundation

To be in touch with Shannon or Tashmica, you can send an email to popagandapod@gmail.com.

Whether we're creating parasocial or for real social relationships online, we are creating patterns that we can all learn from.

Pop Culture Homework

• Justice Producer's Collaborative
• Unlocking Us with Brene Brown
• @mikaylanogueira
• @witchytwitchytv
• @mercurystardust

Sponsored by:

• The Firecracker Foundation
• Accountable Communities

Subscribe, Like, and Follow!

TikTok: @Popaganda_Pod

Instagram: @popagandapod

Content Warning: This podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic sexual and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season, and in this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you. 

Listen in as Tashmica talks about what we mean by the word 'Abolition' and offers real world examples of abolitionist practices.

For more information about the movement to Stop Cop City, visit stopcop.city. If you want to dive deeper on abolition 101, check out Transform Harm or Critical Resistance.

To be in touch with Shannon or Tashmica, you can send an email tp popagandapod@gmail.com.

Listen in as we reflect on examples of harm, accountability, and repair lived out by the Bachelor Nation contestants. And because we have a few extra roses to hand out, we'll throw in a conversation about a couple of our favorite podcast hosts - Dax Shephard and Jonathon Van Ness.

This may be the most dramatic episode of the Popaganda Podcast yet!

Pop Culture Homework

• Bachelor Nation
• Game of Roses
• Arm Chair Expert
• Getting Curious
• Smartless
• Uncoupling: 5 Steps to Living Happily Even After

Sponsored by:

• The Firecracker Foundation
• Accountable Communities

Subscribe, Like, and Follow!

TikTok: @Popaganda_Pod

Instagram: @popagandapod

Content Warning: This podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic sexual and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season, and in this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you. 

As children, McGruff taught us to take a bite out of crime but something must’ve gone wrong because he’s not taking our calls.

#QOTD

"Law enforcement is the same institution that will tell us that they need millions and millions of dollars so that they can get rapists and murderers off the street. But somehow during this time when we're trying to restrict funding to them, they also have time to support the food bank and stand outside the grocery store in my neighborhood that is primarily black and present themselves as a solution to other problems when they can't even respond to mental health crisis without murdering people. That is how I think about copaganda in real time." -- Tashmica Torok, Popaganda Podcast

Pop Culture Homework

• McGruff the Crime Dog
• Reno 911
• Brooklyn 99
• ACAB TikTok
• Law & Order SVU
• C.O.P.S

Sponsored by:

• The Firecracker Foundation
• Accountable Communities

Subscribe, Like, and Follow!

TikTok: @Popaganda_Pod

Instagram: @popagandapod

Content Warning: This podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic sexual and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season, and in this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you. 

Listen in as they talk about how they discovered Transformative Justice (TJ) and where they see connections between the pop culture they love and the prison abolition work we all need to accomplish in order to remake the world into a more just place.

#QOTD

“I had a situation where I did something that hurt my partner deeply. In the course of repairing that, and of course, of attending that together, I also had this experience where I got to feel a true depth, really feel what it was to also be unconditionally loved to have this feeling of, oh, this person loves me. And there's actually nothing I could do that would make this person not care for me. And I can actually feel that through the course of having made a mistake, having done something that was hurtful to him, and having repaired it. From that repair, was also deep connection. Both were true. It was painfully miserable to harm him and it was also deeply connective to repair and then feel what it was to be in connection still after having done something that was harmful to him.”

- Shannon Perez-Darby

Pop Culture Homework

• Indiana Jones
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Lifetime TV
• The Color Purple
• The Women of Brewster Place
• Billie Holiday; Lady Sings the Blues
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• The Price Is Right
• Bill Cosby; The Cosby Show
• Chuck Norris; Walker Texas Ranger
• Full Metal Jacket
• Platoon
• The Basement
• The Walking Dead
• Kirk Cameron and Nicolas Cage; Left Behind Movies
• Jada Pinkett Smith and Jordyn Sparks; Red Table Talk
• Kim, Kylie, and Chloe Kardashian; The Kardashians

Sponsored by:

• The Firecracker Foundation
• Accountable Communities

Subscribe, Like, and Follow!

TikTok: @Popaganda_Pod

Instagram: @popagandapod

Content Warning: This podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic sexual and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season, and in this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you. 

Do you love reality television, true crime, memes, TikTok, and all other forms of pop culture? Are you also interested in communal care outside of harmful state systems? Do you struggle to reconcile the two? Join Tashmica Torok and Shannon Perez-Darby on Popaganda, as we dive deep into our love of transformative justice, pop culture, and where the two meet. 

Listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Sponsored by:

• The Firecracker Foundation
• Accountable Communities

Subscribe, Like, and Follow!

TikTok: @Popaganda_Pod

Instagram: @popagandapod

Content Warning: This podcast explores the intersections of transformative justice and pop culture. We will be talking in general about the existence of domestic sexual and state violence and our experiences with these forms of violence throughout the season, and in this episode in particular, we will be talking about these themes and our own survivorship. We will not be talking in high levels of detail about specific experiences of violence. We invite everyone to use this information to make choices about what is right for you.