The Popaganda Podcast is an official Cast & Crew Sponsor of the 15th Annual Capital City Film Fest.

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

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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.