Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Capítulo 128: Francisco Aviles Pino is Making Journalism Sexy

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Capítulo 128: Francisco Aviles Pino is Making Journalism Sexy · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Amazing news. It's here, It's time. It's the Muddy One
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  Speaker 1: for this episode The Muddy One at a Summer Sash
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  Speaker 1: P for a percentage off Look a Morrees Today on
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the podcast, we have the immense honor and pleasure of
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: introducing Francisco abuls Pino to you, to all of our
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: listeners at home. Frankie is an incredible journalist, a fabulous friend,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: and a really inspiring storyteller. Francisco abuls Pino is on
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: a mission to make investigative journalism and documentary sexy. We
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: got the chance to talk to Francisco all about that mission,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the importance of authenticity, and a brand new investigative podcast
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: by Elias Studios coming out. Frankie actually co produced this
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: brand new Elias podcast, so we're gonna talk more about that.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Born in Akabo, Guerrero, Mexico and raised in Los Angeles
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and Anaheim, California, Francisco is currently reporting and producing three
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: podcasts for Southern California Public Radio's Elist Studios. In between reporting, researching,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and developing important stories for our region, Francisco is also
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: a surfer and its passionate about getting more kids from
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the hood in the water. Together with photographer Brittany Bravo,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Francisco and Brittany both set out to document a surf
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: session that we are also really happy to share as
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: part of our interview with Frankie. Here on look at
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: our radio, head to our instagram at look at Underscore
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Radio to check out beautiful photography from Brittany Bravo and
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Francisco involving surfing in Southern California, and make sure that
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: you hit up Frankie's Instagram and website. Francisco Share is
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: all that information in this interview. Enjoy and thank you
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: for tuning in or Casterra Belly Rosa and and and
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: friends and and and and send and and and and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: friends and and and and and and and friends Rang
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and and send Rang and and sends rang and and
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and and um um from from um um from from
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: um um from from of it and little ship M.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Francisco ab Lespino. Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you for stopping by Look Radio and sharing your
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: story and your work with our listeners. Can you say
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: hi to all of our locomotives tuning in from home.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, thank you for having me. I am.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I feel incredibly, incredibly honored to be at a space,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: in a space that like I've seen in my purview
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: right over the years. And I don't know who I've
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: told you both this, but I had an ex in
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: college who was like a big local ahead and I
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: was just like, who are these girls? I get it,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: you know, they're cute and they're charming, and then like
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: you guys, I can't escape you guys. You know, like
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you guys have always been around, and so begrudgingly, I'm like,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: all right, fine, if they want to be my friend,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I'll be their friends. I hope all our exes feel
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that way. There's a lot of ex is out there
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: who are like those damn Look thoughts. Oh my god,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the propaganda. So we we caught one here in studio.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you for stopping by. I want to ask you
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: about so many things. You're a poet, you're a journalist,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you are a storyteller, you're an activist, you have lived many,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: many lives. I first met you on Twitter. I feel
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like our Twitter souls like gravitated towards each other, like
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: our tweet vibrations just like brought us together and we
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: ended up meeting in person. I think for the first
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: time at Lassita with Molina. That was our first hang
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: out and we've been buddies since. UM have gotten to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: know more about you as as an individual, but also
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: more about your story and your work and your place
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: here in l A media. So we just want to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: jump in and like tell us about you as a storyteller. Yeah,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: thank you. I think, like I said, I've seen you
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: both as like a beacon of you know, of not
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: a the hope. And I hate to say it in
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: that's such an Obama like linguistics, you know, but it's
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: like you both have sustained its like conversation around like
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: both empowerment and identity but also like the importance of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I think there's like an ancestral way that Cheeseman is important,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: and an ancestral way that fems talking about what's important
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: to them and centering rage, centering pleasure, centering joy that UM,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: you've heard as many times right, And I've read all
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: your profiles where like you were, you all gave light
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: and a sound to something that was missing, you know.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: And whenever I think of l a podcasting, I think
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of like look at the radio. So I'm excited to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: be here, you know, and arguably I think like it
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: was just it was meant to be. I like how
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you talked about the Twitter energy. But but yeah, I'm
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: not sure if I understand your question. You want to
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: talk about also like my storytelling journey and like why
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I'm here? Yeah, I mean, maybe I can read a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: poem that kind of talks about it. Is that cool?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Let's do it? We love reading. So this poem is
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: going to be in a collection, and I think it
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: talks a little bit about like why I do what
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I do? Okay, um, okay, let's do it and owe
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to journalists. After Sophia el Hilo, it is four am
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: on Monday morning and a cap Gero, Mexico, and before
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: he has my grandpa Salio is packing newspapers on the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: back of his truck. With the help of his daughter Paloma,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: they drive down the colonial at five thirty am sharp
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and before she has my mother Boma, the oldest debate,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: yells into the mega phone the news of the day
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and say, let those a country that is no one's,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: a country called Mexico was no longer safe. So Palama
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: ran away from one crumbling house to the other, but
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: needing to send her two kids first. And I was
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: lucky to not find a camera trying to photograph me
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: in the hotel, dirty and alone with my sister. Before journalism,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I knew that I remember the smells, that this oh sorry,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: remember the smells, that this story and that this story
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: would always matter. And I believe this to be the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: reason why my mother never says going to buy in
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a phone call, and how after one called during the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: trip north, we had to pay to talk to her.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: After that, over ten years later, after the migrations, in
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: between the separation and assimilation and all that ship, my
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: mother asks me to charge change the channel when the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: news comes on. After after I told my grandpa I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: want to be a journalist, he was silent for almost
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: two minutes and finally said, then, what took with that? Um?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So I wrote that poem, I think as a way
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to bring together why I pursued journalism in America right
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: as an immigrant I sort of have like a reverse
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Hossan Tonio Vargas story, where like I'm coming out first
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: as an immigrant and and pursuing journalism rather than like
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: winning a Pulitzer and then coming out. And so I
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: feel like people like him and Mariana Hossa, another Latino
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: journalists like Adult Focus Lopez UM, I think set the
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: tone for what journalism is. And when I was in college,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I was sort of I came to the reality that
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I was an immigrant, and I realized that there were
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: outlets like Democracy Now the Intercept, and they were investigative
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: journalists at Rolling Stone at the time, to who like
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I deeply admired and who were pursuing adversarial journalism as
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a way to keep the powerful accountable UM. And I
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: then got to see journalists of color who we're really
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: trying to not only flect the communities they were from,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: but who are also doing stories about other communities, but
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: by maintaining dignity and prioritizing dignity UM. And so growing up,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I always knew that my grandpa was a journalist in Mexico,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that he was persecuted UM, and that my mom would
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: like transcribe stories for him and so I always had
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: like this little I guess rock in my shoe around
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: like if the arts don't work or this doesn't work, Um,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I know that, like it's in my blood to pursue
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: journalism kind of thing. Um. And so over the years,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: you know, I've been freelancing, doing beats here and there,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: doing editorial contracts, um. And I think I'm finally at
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the precipice to just be like a little louder about
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: like I'm an investigative journalist. I do serious work, but
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I do serious work that is arguably sexy, you know,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: like I want to also like entertain and give people
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: context and sort of um, offer important actual information to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: our communities and adjacent communities. So my long winded answer
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: is the poem ancestry, all that ship, all that important ship.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I hear you, I hear you. Um yeah, I mean
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: you have some incredible work with the likes of Vogue,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: The Intercept, LAist and KPCCC and many others. But those
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: are just to name a few. And so you kind
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of alluded to this already. But what keeps you going, Francisco?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Like the work that you do is hard, but what
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: keeps you going? What is your why mm hmm. I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: think I find myself realizing that my tolk it and
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: by talk it, I mean like what I lean on
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: when things get hard kind of changes a little bit,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: but what stays the same as definitely family, you know. UM.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I think I'm very grounded by the fact that, like
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: my grandpa believed in the power of journalism to document injustices.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: And then my mother, you know, she wanted to be
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: an artist growing up, and so I was raised on
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: like community theater, and I was raised on movement music
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and I did mariachi at a really young age, and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: so she also exposed me to the beauty of what
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the truth is. UM. And there's a really important quote,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: UM that I've been gravitating to UM and it's in
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: an interview that Tony Morrison did, I think in the
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: eighties or nineties where she said, like, quote, it's not
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: possible to constantly hold on to crisis. You have to love,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: you have to have the magic, you have to have
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: love that it's also life end quote. And I think
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: that keeps me going is the fact that, like, yes,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of hard ship to report on and
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: sometimes like I've been very transparent in my senior producers.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: I'll leave an interview and then I'm like, I'll kind
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of cry in my car, and then I'll like turn
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: on like Tupac or something, and I'll get like very
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: spiritual about it, and I'm just like, this is my
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: purpose what I'm doing. But it comes down to that
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: quote I just read is like in the work I do,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I know there's beauty and I'm trying to find it
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: um Fatima, Asgar said in an interview on this podcast
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: from the Poetry Foundation, where she said that like, yes,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: you can write about the injustices, but are you doing
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it in order to enter entertain? Are you doing it
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: to report? And So I think as a journalist and
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: as a writer, I'm always finding that fine line. But
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I'm also trying to um prioritize a form of dignity
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: um and and and a form of you know, and
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I'm learning through through it as I go as well.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: So I think it's partially family, partially history um and
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: then like beauty UM. I think they're so much beauty
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: and the truth. And I think as a journalist, I'm
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: simultaneously negotiating those two as I go. You wrote this
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: one article that I love so much for l A
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Taco that I think is a perfect example of all
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: those things you just described for Ella's Latin X punks,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: rude boys and metal heads, washing, a ceremony and a
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: form of healing. And I love this article so much
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: because it's so l A, so specific, it's so like
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: l A Latino. But there's also these iconic like women
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: featured in this article. Like the first photo you see
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: is Stephanie Mendez, who is an incredible journalist. She actually
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: wrote our l A Times feature um and she's right
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: here washing, you know, like the first image you see
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: in your your your article. And then you also have
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: this super super l A deep cut in your interview
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: that you included with Mandy Torres also known as Dandy Mandy,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: who if you've been in l A for the past
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: ten years and you've been on the internet at any
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: point and you're cool at all and have any sense
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: of culture or like what's going on, you followed Dandy Mandy.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: You know who Dandy Mandy is, and she has not
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: been public for a very long time for many years now,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and here she is in this article that you wrote.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: So I felt like this piece was a really great
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: example of like the honesty of like our cultural scenes
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: here in l A of like these beautiful women who
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: are like such central parts of it, you know, and
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: then also like making it sexy, like like this is
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: cool journalism that I think is awesome, that it's the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: type of stuff that pops into your head that you
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: want to write about. So, I don't know, can you
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: tell us more about that article and how it came
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to you that you wanted to write it, and how
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you put it together. Thank you for pointing the article out,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: because it's like it was definitely one of my favorite
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: pieces to write, and I'm definitely on the opposite side
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: of the spectrum where like I know writers who hate
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the process of writing. And I think for me, it
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: was one of those articles that was swimming inside of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: me for years, you know, And it was something that
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I overheard from friends and colleagues dating back to college,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: dating back to like high school days when I would
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: ditch and get in a car with friends to like
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: track our way to Compton or to South Central for
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: a show. You know. Um, it was there was this
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: feeling that like this needs to be documented in a
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: certain way, and I hope that us talking about it
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: today maybe inspires other people to continue to do projects
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: about that, because it's an ongoing conversation that a lot
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: of punks and like people that have grown up going
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to shows feel. It's like there's a sense of healing
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: in these spaces. And what's funny is that I I
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: pitched that article around everywhere last year and like, I'm
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: grateful for places like l A. Tucko and specifically have
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: you had cabral who who took a chance on it
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: and who was just you know what, this is the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: right place to do it, Let's do it, you know,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and um. I wanted it to be a kaleidoscope of voices, um,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: where I could have taken like a very honey for
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Durac keep approach and been very memoir or reflective. But
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: I also wanted to center like fem voices, um who
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: who sort of talk about you know, these like ska
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: and punk shows as like places of safety and security
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: where like you can consent to a form of I
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: guess pain, you know. Um. And so it was it
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: was fun to both talk to scholars and talk about
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: like there's people and ethno musicologists that have written about that,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and I've written about the various ways washing is ancestral,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and there's like research that has shown that for action,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: for that, for not for actual that for like native
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: tribes across America. Like it's also another form of like healing,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: um and expressing rage. Um. I'm gonna there's there's a
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: glory and a quote out there about like fem rage
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and about like how voicing that is a form of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of healing and a form of you know, placemaking. Um. Um.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I know you know, I think you know this scholar
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: gaytres and Johnson like wrote about like spatial entitlement and
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: what music you know, Yes, that definitely check out that
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: book about spatial entitlement and um the Sonic Imaginary also
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: so Gatrisa. Johnson an amazing scholar. Um. But also you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Audrey Lord wrote a lot about the use of anger
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: and um you know that justified rage. Um. So I
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: love that you're you highlighted that in the particular article
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: and also about consenting to some type of pain. Mm hmm.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I mean we we love it. We love it as Latinos,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: we love our crooners. Shout out to Doris and Nae
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: who's like out here putting out music for us to
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: cry to, you know, like we love people that allow
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: us to feel and like cry and yell and scream.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And I think as somebody grew up with so much
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: like trauma, you know, for me, I'm gonna be unapologetic
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: about it, like being an immigrant and being a queer
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: immigrant came with a couple of bruises and so to
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: be able to consent to them growing up and find
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: sanctuary and these shows has been really cool. So thank
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: you for for bringing out the article. Is thing you're
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: dear to me? Yeah, I want to ask you about
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: another article in particular, which is also why one of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the reasons that we wanted to interview you today because
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: you did a you interview to mayoral candidates candidates. Let
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: me go back. You interviewed to mayoral candidates Kevin the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Leone and Karen Bass, who are arguably depending when you
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: asked the two front runners for the l A mayor race.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And I noticed, because I noticed lots of things that
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: happened on social media. Um, I noticed that when you
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: published the articles there was some pushback as if an
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: interview is equates in an an endorsement. And I know
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: we've sometimes sometimes have been on the receiving end of it.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to ask you specifically about journalistic integrity
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and why it's important to interview people that are in
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: big positions of power that affect the lives of millions
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: of people, and even if we don't agree with them,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: even if we don't agree with their track record, like
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: why is it important to interview them specifically? For you know,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: a mayor race, the biggest race in l A arguably, right,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: So the primaries in June, right, so a few folks
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: have already been getting their information in the mail, um,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and if you haven't, make sure you check that out
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: right away. And so that when Javier and I were
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: sort of plotting this, we knew we wanted to talk
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to the front runners, and we knew that we wanted
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: to really offer them a profile of like a one
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: oh one on who is this person outside of just
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: their policy priorities, and like what do they represent? How
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: authentic are they to Los Angeles? Was kind of a
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: big question, um, But I think I would argue as
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: a journalist, I'm happy that there was sort of a
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: conversation because I want the journalism I do in the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: work I do to start conversation and to continue conversations
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: because there are other people, you know, like Austin Cross
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: and a lot of folks like um a Leen are
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: lean at the l a time. So we're starting conversations
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: around the La County Sheriff. There are people you know
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: whose day job it is to like report on stuff
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and for it to live in the world. You know,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I would hate for something I do to just exist
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: within like only a small group of people or you know.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And um, and so I'm one. I'm happy that there
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: was both conversation and there was even pushedback, um, because
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I know that like what I'm doing is is at
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: least hitting a heartbeat. And I think, Um, I'm glad.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that I know
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: that you all sort of relate to is like it's
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: not like your platforming people, right, there's like a big
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: difference and saying like, oh my god, I love you,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: You're the best person out there. Let me send you out.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And I think if you read the articles that I wrote,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you know there there's there's similar language in both articles
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: where I was trying to really bring context to what
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the Democratic Party means in Los Angeles and how people
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: genuinely feel about it. And then I offered space for
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the candidates to talk about their legacy and who they are,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and so it was more of like both candidates had
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the same template, and I offered contexts around the articles. Um.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: But I'm also the big believer in like I did
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the work. I sent it out, yeah check out well,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you know, like this was something I did before I
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: started at KPCC and elist, and we sent it out
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: there for it to live and breathe. But at that point,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: like it's my byline, but the conversation has started, and
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: if anything, like, I hope people read through the article
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: and they also read through the comments and we're like okay, like,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and I hope that other journalists and other folks who
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: are covering the race see like, okay, we should talk
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: about these things, you know, um, And I hope it
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: continues a conversation about these candidates. Yeah, thank you for
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: your work in that in that regard, because I think
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: we forget sometimes that just because and the royal we right,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: uh it just because I know a ton about a
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: candidate and I've made up my mind and I understand
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: why I'm not voting for this person. Does not mean
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I can withhold that information from other is because there
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: are a lot of people who don't know that stuff yet.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: You know, we have to give our audiences an opportunity
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: to learn why a candidate is problematic for themselves. It's
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the best way that I learned things is learning for myself,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: reading it myself, hearing it myself, you know. And so
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the work that you do as a journalist
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: in giving that information to the public and allowing people
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to become more informed decision makers. And You're right, an
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: interview and platforming are two very different things. Platforming is
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: like someone giving you tons of money and setting you
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: up on a press tour and giving you book deals
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and movie that's platforming, you know. But giving an audience
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to learn more I is just that it's reporting.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: And I'm really curious about how you um approach like
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: your interviews with like Karen Bass and things in the future,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: especially as we get down to some major elections that
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: might like really contentious and like huge here in the city. Yeah,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of folks that both at Eliast and
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: the l A Times whose like day job is to
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: follow every single beat, every single endorsement when it comes
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: to these races. So I would definitely like look to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: them and see them as like genuine resources where they
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: have fact checkers on there and then they're doing the work.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I'm no longer on the mayoral beat, you know, I'm
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: working on a few shows right now for KPCC and ELIAST.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: But I think what what I can say is that,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: like as I said earlier, it's it's genuinely the start
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of a conversation around it. And if anything, I'm inspired that, like,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: we're at a different place than we were five ten
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: years ago when we think about local elections. You know,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I think one of the reasons why we may have
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: had sort of candidates and elected officials pretty much gasslide
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: us is we didn't have this very public forum. We
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: we had these resources, right, but we're at a different
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: place where like we have the language do the writers,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: artists and journalists and movements, um. Everybody is in this
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: pot together like trying to give each other language UM,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: and trying to make the access to that information a
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: little easier than it was before. UM. And so there's
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a lot there's there's both folks. UM. I'll sort of
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: keep shouting out Austin Cross at LAist because he's having
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: in depth conversations with the candidates UM every evening, and
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: those are resources that are free for folks to use
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: and look at and learn about. Because he's also asking
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the candidates, which is different from my reporting, the direct
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: questions around what their recent policies have done. For example,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: I know that folks were upset that UM there wasn't
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: a dedicated space in the Kevin Dyle on a profile
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: to talk about the sweep Sea had done UM and
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't an editorial choice to withdraw that. It
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: was definitely needing to balance Karen Bass's coverage UM. And
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the point of both profiles, like I mentioned, was to
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: introduce the people on who they were and their sort
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: of authenticity to Los Angeles UM and I wanted people
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: to read both articles and get a sense that I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't endorsing either of them and that they could sort
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of figure out who they liked best. UM. And that's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a conversation that Brittany Bravo and I had when we
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: were on the ground with them, was like, we're gonna
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: come in not having an idea, you know, and we're
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: gonna come in really wanting to know who these people
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: are and start a conversation and that's it. Thank you.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about what you're working
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: on now. You have a new role at Elias Studios,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: So tell us about where you're Investigative journalism has taken
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: you since. Yeah, So last summer UM I had pitched
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Antonia said he will a show. You know, I was
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: freelancing at the time and UM as an independent journalist,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and I like was sort of I had already known
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: about her work and the work that she was beginning
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: to do at ELIST and I pictured her a show
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and very gracefully said to know, but she said no,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: But I think, UM, you know, sort of let me
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: know about the recruitment and the work that was gonna
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: come at last UM and I started then in December,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: And when I started, I started already on this show
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: that was in production at the time, hosted by a
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Locusman Lopez, where he's looking at a um a cultural
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: icon and DJ and journalists at the time in the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: nineties named Oscar Gomez who passed away suddenly at instant
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: at you see Santa Barbara actually UM and who's who
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Departments that that pretty much
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the case was unsolved, and so what other ful and
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: as as a team have been doing over the last
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: few months, have been investigating like what happened to Oscar?
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: What was Oscar's Oscar's impact, And so it's an investigative
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: sort of noir show about the Chicano nineties, you know,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: and the legacy that that brings. But it's also a
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: hybrid memoir show about other focus on Lopez, which is
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: one of the first Latino public radio journalists of our time.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: So I'm really excited for it because we're launching at
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the end of May and we're going to have a
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: few activations for it in June. But it's it's really
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: a beautiful show that that talks about the importance of
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Latino journalism, the impact Oscar could have had in our community,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: but also around the legacy of the Chicano movement and
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: how it's maybe alive or dead now. Um. And then
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I'm working on two other shows, um, but I can't
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: talk a lot about But what I can say is
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: that one of them is about a controversial figure in
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the yoga wellness community and conspiracy theories and the other
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: one is around the l A County Sheriff's Department. And
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: so that's all I can say about the two other shows,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: but they're slated for the summer in the fall. Hi, okay, wow,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: we will be tuning in. We'll be tuning in for
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: sure and see Scott. Thank you. Oh go ahead, go ahead, no, no, yeah,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to seeing. How what do you guys think?
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we will be tuning in. Um, if you
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: would like to collaborate on a launch party, let us
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: know you know we love a podcast party. UM, but
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: we're thrilled for you. Were so excited for you. These
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: shows sound incredible. I need to know who these people are. UM,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: when can we expect to like maybe see like a
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: trailer or a release date? So first o G show
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: this month the month of May. UM, and I will
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: definitely bring you more details on the trailer. I'm not
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: sure exactly what they yet, but there's definitely gonna be
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: some in person activations for it in June, so look
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: forward to that exciting stuff. Francisco, thank you for stopping by.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Look at our radio. Where can folks follow you? Read
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: your work? Support? You give us all the plugs. Yeah,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: please go ahead and follow me on on Instagrams, I'm
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: a at got frand I think that's why I post
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: most of my like photo video updates about the work
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I'm doing. Um. And then on Twitter, I'm mostly just
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: talking about journalism, the news, um slight commentary, and then
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: sharing all the malad jokes, all the diosa information as well.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: So at Fence sorry, at Francisco Underscore eight you know
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: that's on Twitter. Um. Yeah, and then my website has
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: all of my work, which is just my name dot com. Amazing.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: with us today to share a little bit about your
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: story and the work that you're doing. We can't wait
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: to see all the shows and all the amazing work
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: you have in store for the rest of the year.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you both. It was really an honor to be
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: here with you all. Francisco