A bold new podcast is turning to the screen for a deeper understanding of one of the most dangerous ideologies of the modern era. Fascism on Film, hosted by Teal Minton and James Kent, examines how cinema has represented, reinforced, and resisted fascist thought from the early 20th century to the present day.
Each week, the hosts explore classic and contemporary films—from The Mortal Storm (1940) and Triumph of the Will (1935) to The Conformist (1970) and Inglourious Basterds (2009)—to investigate the stories, images, and emotional cues that define our cinematic and cultural understanding of authoritarianism.

The project is grounded in a deceptively simple question: What does fascism look and feel like? As Minton explains, “These films help us understand fascism not just as a political system, but as a set of feelings, a narrative structure, an emotional appeal. That’s what makes it powerful—and dangerous.”

Minton, a fiction writer and Creative Writing professor, brings a deep awareness of narrative theory to the show, while Kent, a film critic and journalist, provides key historical insights and cultural analysis. “When you read about fascism, there’s a lot of abstraction and theory,” Kent says. “But it’s very different to watch a film and feel somebody’s pain in one of these kinds of situations.”

The show’s tone is smart, unpretentious, and often surprisingly personal. In discussing The Mortal Storm, Minton reflects on how the film dramatizes fascism’s toll not through ideology, but through intimate loss: “It isn’t just a political abstraction. It’s actually these people’s lives being destroyed.”

Episodes examine the emotional aesthetics of fascism, the role of propaganda, and the ways film can either resist or replicate authoritarian logic. In Black Legion (1937), for example, a working-class American man falls into a homegrown hate group. “It doesn’t mention Nazis at all,” Kent notes, “but it’s absolutely about that fertile ground for fascism. It shows how quickly a man with white grievance and economic anxiety can be pulled into violence.”

The show also takes on cinematic sacred cows. In a blistering discussion of The Birth of a Nation (1915), Kent calls it “a blueprint” for modern white supremacy. “Anything I’d heard about this movie didn’t prepare me for how egregious and disgusting it really is,” he says.

While the films differ in tone, period, and style, the podcast makes a clear case: fascism is not just history—it’s a recurring performance. And cinema, with its ability to manipulate emotion, heroism, and belonging, has always been part of that conversation.

Episodes include:
Historical context of featured films and filmmakers
Thematic analysis of obedience, spectacle, nationalism, and memory
Discussion of visual language—how lighting, editing, and blocking convey power
Contemporary parallels to political movements and media
Further reading and viewing suggestions

New episodes drop weekly and are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, and all major platforms. Additional materials—transcripts, recommended films, and curated reading lists—are available at fascismonfilm.com

About the Hosts

Teal Minton is a fiction writer, screenwriting professor, and narrative theorist. He teaches in the MFA program at Lindenwood University and brings a storyteller’s perspective to the dramatization of fascist ideologies in film.

James Kent is a journalist, film critic, and arts editor for The Mountain Times in Vermont. His work focuses on cinema, history, and the politics of cultural memory.