In this episode of The Popaganda Podcast, survivor activists Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok discuss HBO's Emmy-winning medical drama, The Pitt —a series hailed by medical professionals as the most accurate representation of healthcare workers and the challenges they face in a post-pandemic America.

So, if you're coming to The Pitt for some Grey's Anatomy level shenanigans, then as Dana says, "You better give your head a fucking shake."

Each episode of the series follows Emergency Department staff at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center through a single action packed 12-hour shift. Each character navigates job stressors, personal crises, and ever-changing conditions while trying to provide efficient, budget-constrained, but still somehow life-saving care.

Together, Shannon and Tashmica talk about watching our favorite character, Nurse Dana, deliver the most acceptable SANE examination ever performed on TV and how, just like in real life, cops neglect the carefully collected evidence. The show brings new awareness to the growing violence experienced by nurses and other medical professionals while providing care to the public, and the impacts of ICE raids on community members seeking care.

Your pop culture homework:

• The Pitt
• Still Forgiven: New cases of doctors accused of sex abuse, kept license
• ICE presence rising at Michigan health care facilities, rights groups say

Content note: suicidality, medical trauma, and violence.

Hosts: Tashmica Torok & Shannon Perez-Darby

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

Transcript available on Apple Podcasts

In this episode, Erin Miles Cloud joins pop culture besties Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok for a breakdown of the Law & Order: SVU episode Hubris. Erin is the co-founder of Movement for Family Power and co-editor of How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action alongside Shannon, Erica Miners, and Charity Hope Tolliver.

Erin is a civil rights attorney and a former family defense public defender in the Bronx. She has spent her career fighting to end family policing and building toward a world where communities — not the state — care for children. It is with that depth of experience that Erin joins the conversation, guiding us through the ways the Family Policing System fails us all.

But that's not where we end. This conversation ends with a vision for what the future could look like if we truly cared for children the way we say we do.

Pop Culture Homework:

How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action, co-edited by Shannon Perez-Darby, Erin Miles Cloud, Erica Miners, and Charity Hope Tolliver

Read: Chapter 12: What About Child Sexual Abuse" by C. Hope Tolliver

A Child Bumps Her Head. What Happens Next Depends on Race. by Jessica Horan-Block

Operation Stop CPS and #JusticeforKamari

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy and the Detroit Rape Kit Project

Hosts: Tashmica Torok & Shannon Perez-Darby

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www.popagandapod.com | Merch: https://shopaganda.sellfy.store/

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

Transcript available on Apple Podcasts

This special episode was made in partnership with the Capital City Film Fest, where Tashmica moderated a live panel with filmmaker Courtney Montour and skater Hawaiian Blaze following a screening of Rising Through the Fray. Courtney then joined Tashmica and Shannon to go even deeper.

Rising Through the Fray follows Indigenous Rising — the first team in roller derby history to compete at the World Cup, representing not one country but over 30 Indigenous Nations. Courtney Montour (Kanien'kehá:ka, Kahnawake) spent years building trust with the team before cameras rolled, and it shows: this is an intimate film about the disconnection caused by colonization, homecoming, and what it means to find your people on wheels.

Listen in to hear more about Sour Cherry's journey through injury and how her identity as a skater (or maybe coach) is being shaped and reshaped by time. We discuss Hawaiian Blaze's art and how it helps make the thousands of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) more visible. We follow Krispy's story of discovery as she explores and connects with her nation through the team and her wider community.

Join us as we celebrate the Borderless team movement that Indigenous Rising sparked — and discuss the challenges ahead as the team continues to rise.

Pop Culture Homework

Rising Through the Fray is screening at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) — director Courtney Montour will be in attendance at both screenings.

Saturday, May 16 · 8:00 PM — SIFF Cinema Uptown

Sunday, May 17 · 1:30 PM — PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center

Tickets: siff.net/festival/rising-through-the-fray

About Our Guest

Courtney Montour is a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) documentary filmmaker from Kahnawake, Quebec, with 18 years in the field. Her work centers women's stories, Two-Spirit stories, and the long fractures of colonial disconnection. Rising Through the Fray is her debut feature, produced with Nish Media (an Indigenous production company), and won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at image+nation Film Festival 2025.

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