# Filmmaker Petra Costa - Democracy on a Knife-edge

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-to-academy-podcast-460186/filmmaker-petra-costa-democracy-on-a-knife-edge
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-to-academy-podcast-460186/filmmaker-petra-costa-democracy-on-a-knife-edge.md
Podcast: [How To Academy Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-to-academy-podcast-460186)
Published: 2026-02-17T13:49:00+00:00
Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4998703277.mp3?updated=1771336513
Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4998703277.mp3?updated=1771336513
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/how-to-academy-podcast-460186/episodes/filmmaker-petra-costa-democracy-on-a-knife-edge
Duration seconds: 2230

## Resource

When we spoke to Petra Costa last, her film Apocalypse in The Tropics had just been released on Netflix. The film, which leaves us in the aftermath of January 8th 2023 and the storming of the Brazilian Congress by hundreds of protestors demonstrating against the re-election of Lula De Silva and defeat of Jair Bolsanaro, explores the relationship between evangelical Christianity and the Far Right. Much has happened in the intervening months. Bolsonaro is now behind bars; convicted for inciting the attempted coup, and the film's protagonist, televangelist Pastor Silas Malafaia has also been implicated, cited in a Federal report investigating the events. The film itself played a direct role in the legal proceedings leading to Bolsonaro's arrest. Now, Petra joins us again, in conversation with Hannah MacInnes, to reflect on these events, on the current state of Brazilian Democracy, and on the unique power of film to change the conversation and move the dial where politics often fails. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/how-to-academy-podcast-460186/episodes/filmmaker-petra-costa-democracy-on-a-knife-edge/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-to-academy-podcast-460186/filmmaker-petra-costa-democracy-on-a-knife-edge.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.