Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Capítulo 118: On Making 'The Sellout' with Mariah Castañeda

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Capítulo 118: On Making 'The Sellout' with Mariah Castañeda · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

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Speaker 1: Radio Radio Radio Commi's a myth and bullshit. A radiophonic
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Speaker 1: P for a discount. Love it. So we recently had
2:53
Speaker 1: an event. Yeah, we recently had. We recently had Marijuanetta
2:59
Speaker 1: of the Party. It was spooky themed. It was so cute.
3:04
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it, Mala. Yeah, so we want to
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Speaker 1: shout out Nobali Studios and the team over there for
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Speaker 1: hosting us on Union Pacific AV at their gorgeous studio space.
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Speaker 1: They set up a screen for us, they set up
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Speaker 1: a stage for us, and we had a viewing party
3:21
Speaker 1: of episode zero of Marijuanetta, a web series about weed.
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Speaker 1: Because Marijuanetta is not just a podcast for potheads, it's
3:28
Speaker 1: also a sketch comedy series. So we aired, we played,
3:32
Speaker 1: We screened sort of like an extended preview which we
3:35
Speaker 1: called episode zero, which included interviews with Edwin Bodney, Molina Bobadilla,
3:41
Speaker 1: and Leanna Ruiz a k A. Lily Skates a lot
3:44
Speaker 1: for all you roller skaters out there. It was a
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Speaker 1: good US time. We had um Boonwali thas with cakes
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Speaker 1: and desserts and like Boon Weello bar essentially, we had
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Speaker 1: a photo booth CBD products from chek Ali Products. We
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Speaker 1: had an open bar beer, wine and prosecco. It was cute.
4:04
Speaker 1: We had a sponsorship Select Better shout out Select for
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Speaker 1: making the event possible for us, and yeah, it was
4:12
Speaker 1: a good as time. We will be announcing another event
4:16
Speaker 1: in November. UM. For those of you who used to
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Speaker 1: pre pandemic, make sure you're tuning in, make sure that
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Speaker 1: you are UM subscribe to our newsletter Bessie those because
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Speaker 1: we just might be making an announcement in the coming weeks. Yes,
4:37
Speaker 1: so excited to share more UM. And also also Marijuana,
4:42
Speaker 1: a web series about weed. Episode zero was so cute,
4:46
Speaker 1: so well done. I can't wait for the full series
4:49
Speaker 1: to be released. It's going to be great. Y'all are
4:51
Speaker 1: in for a treat. It's amazing. Give Mala a show period,
4:56
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. Where we really are working on it, Um,
5:01
Speaker 1: somebody out there is going to give us a show
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Speaker 1: exciting for me as a behind the scenes person for
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Speaker 1: Marijuanida is that if you get a show, When you
5:16
Speaker 1: get a show, I will continue to be behind the scene.
5:22
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, we're taking this. We're taking the team
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Speaker 1: all the way. No, it's like perpetual employment. Thank you.
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Speaker 1: I'm very happy. Yes, I would love to be the
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Speaker 1: breadwinner and pay all the bills like put me to work,
5:37
Speaker 1: put me out to pasture like I'll do it. I
5:40
Speaker 1: will labor for you, the labor so that your hands
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Speaker 1: will always be manicured. This is partnership, partners partnership. But
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Speaker 1: that's that's not all. In the Lookout thought Out multiverse,
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Speaker 1: we also have goings on with a look as libros
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Speaker 1: if you want to state the people. Absolutely so, our
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Speaker 1: book of the month for November is Friend of the Pod,
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Speaker 1: Friend of ours. Fuiscadriguez, her recent or her debut book
6:12
Speaker 1: for Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts is
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Speaker 1: the book of the month for the month of November,
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Speaker 1: so we will be reading that. It's a little bit
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Speaker 1: different from the past selections. We've been reading all fiction,
6:23
Speaker 1: so this will be a really nice dive into nonfiction
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Speaker 1: and reading the work of a Latina that has really
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Speaker 1: episodes of Local Radio and also exclusive Marijuanata content. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I had to Patreon and check out the look at
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Speaker 1: our productions Patreon, And as we've announced in past episodes pasts,
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Speaker 1: we will be wrapping our season five of Local Radio
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Speaker 1: is a really great way to give directly, essentially in
7:43
Speaker 1: exchange for all the stuff that we've described here today. Yeah,
7:47
Speaker 1: and you know, as we're recording, it's been a really
7:50
Speaker 1: busy week for us. We have a full length interview
7:53
Speaker 1: that we are going to share with y'all right now,
7:56
Speaker 1: but before that, we wanted to share some really exciting
7:59
Speaker 1: and fun update. It's because we were presented with some
8:02
Speaker 1: really great opportunities, and the first one being an interview
8:06
Speaker 1: with Ida Rodriguez at her premiere her l a premiere
8:11
Speaker 1: of her HBO comedy special Fighting Words. It was so fun,
8:16
Speaker 1: first of all, to be part of the event, to
8:19
Speaker 1: meet Ida like in person, and to interview both Ida
8:24
Speaker 1: and Cristian Medicago, her director, on the HBO Max stage
8:29
Speaker 1: in the Congo room of all fucking places, right at home.
8:35
Speaker 1: It was cool. It was cool, and we got to
8:38
Speaker 1: screen her special in a room full of Latin x
8:42
Speaker 1: POC creatives and it was an industry event, but we
8:45
Speaker 1: were surrounded by friends, which was really exciting to see
8:49
Speaker 1: how many of our friends um and folks that we've
8:51
Speaker 1: kind of been creating sort of parallel to and alongside
8:55
Speaker 1: and collaboration with over the past few years. Just to like, oh,
8:59
Speaker 1: we're all here at this HBO event for I that
9:02
Speaker 1: stand up special, and she's the first Latina stand up
9:07
Speaker 1: to have an HBO Max our hour long special, so
9:10
Speaker 1: it was a historic sort of occasion. And we were
9:14
Speaker 1: able to sit up on stage with her and ask
9:16
Speaker 1: her about her creative process and it was really cool.
9:19
Speaker 1: So thank you HBO Max and HBO for having us.
9:23
Speaker 1: It was really fucking cool. And I've never seen the
9:27
Speaker 1: conga rooms so classy. They really classed up the joint
9:31
Speaker 1: because if you've been to the Conga room, you know
9:33
Speaker 1: the vibe um and that's classy, is not it. So
9:37
Speaker 1: that was super great. Um. I will say I have
9:41
Speaker 1: not felt nervous for an event in a really long
9:45
Speaker 1: time because there are mainly our events, right like we
9:48
Speaker 1: put on our shows, we put on our events, we
9:52
Speaker 1: do virtual things, you know. But like I was actually
9:55
Speaker 1: nervous that day of Also, ln Sanchez was there. She's
9:58
Speaker 1: so beautiful, like maybe heavy hitters in like the Latino
10:05
Speaker 1: entertainment industry or just Hollywood industry in general. So it
10:08
Speaker 1: was really cool that we got to be on stage
10:10
Speaker 1: and be a part of it. Oh yeah, we saw
10:13
Speaker 1: people we love. We saw people that we were like
10:16
Speaker 1: this person is here? Oh my god. Some of that
10:21
Speaker 1: we I like texted THESA, I'm like, so and so
10:24
Speaker 1: is here? Is like the way that I gasped literally
10:29
Speaker 1: looked at my phone and gasped. I literally went I
10:32
Speaker 1: literally would like you know, it was one of those
10:37
Speaker 1: I sounded sounded like like my mother, um, because yeah,
10:42
Speaker 1: you know, that's the thing you can have. You can
10:44
Speaker 1: be in these really fun exciting venues events, um, and
10:48
Speaker 1: then you can also be in the room with like people,
10:53
Speaker 1: you know, abusive men, and so it's one of those
10:57
Speaker 1: things where you're like, what am I supposed to do now?
11:00
Speaker 1: So we were fine. However we were fine. However it
11:05
Speaker 1: was still like, funk, how did you get invited? Right? Right? Right? That?
11:10
Speaker 1: We can say. That's all we can say. That's all
11:13
Speaker 1: we can say. But it was a good, aass time.
11:15
Speaker 1: It was a beautiful time. Um, so proud of I
11:18
Speaker 1: that and just like a really cool event. I thought
11:23
Speaker 1: the special was really well done. So check it out.
11:25
Speaker 1: Stream Fighting Words on HBO Max. You won't regret it.
11:29
Speaker 1: Stream Fighting Words. And also if you haven't tuned into
11:32
Speaker 1: the interview because it was a live interview and it
11:35
Speaker 1: is on our channel on our streaming platforms, you can
11:40
Speaker 1: go back and listen to the interview if you haven't already.
11:43
Speaker 1: And also stream Fighting Words on HBO. So Yearned for
11:49
Speaker 1: a Treat? This episode includes an interview with Mariah Castaniela,
11:55
Speaker 1: who is the journalist and host behind a new really political, salacious, scandalous, informative,
12:05
Speaker 1: community oriented podcast from l A Taco and Neon Hum
12:09
Speaker 1: It's Smoke Screen The Sellout. This podcast goes into the story,
12:14
Speaker 1: the context, the different perspectives surrounding the downfall of j
12:19
Speaker 1: We Sad. And if you are anywhere based in l A,
12:24
Speaker 1: you have heard the name we said, You've seen we
12:26
Speaker 1: Sad all over the community and streets and buildings and
12:31
Speaker 1: all kinds of things. Um very infamous city council person.
12:36
Speaker 1: And this podcast gets into like some of the drama,
12:39
Speaker 1: the wheeling and dealing, the abuse, the harassment, the scandal,
12:44
Speaker 1: and Mariah tells us some really interesting cheeseman, So you're
12:48
Speaker 1: gonna want to tune in. I feel like city council
12:50
Speaker 1: cheeseman is the best cheeseman, to be honest with you,
12:54
Speaker 1: It really is, because it's like people behaving badly that
12:57
Speaker 1: are like have the most power in your y you know,
13:02
Speaker 1: you know, arguably that's like the most powerful people um
13:05
Speaker 1: in like at the local levels. So it's always really
13:08
Speaker 1: who intense. But so not tune out, keep listening because
13:16
Speaker 1: that's up next. Absolutely alright, y'all, we'll be right back
13:20
Speaker 1: after this song break and and and and and and
13:35
Speaker 1: and and and and and and m m m m
13:57
Speaker 1: um um um of it and little ship. Okay, look
14:10
Speaker 1: at what is We are super excited to talk to
14:13
Speaker 1: the host of a new podcast called The Sellout and
14:17
Speaker 1: it is a collab between l A. Taco and Neon Hum.
14:21
Speaker 1: So today we have the absolute honor to talk to
14:24
Speaker 1: Mariah Castanea, the host of the podcast. So welcome Maria,
14:29
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you
14:31
Speaker 1: so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
14:34
Speaker 1: I'm a longtime listener, so it's my first time on
14:36
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. Yes, welcome, Welcome. We are thrilled to
14:42
Speaker 1: be talking to you as the journalists that you are,
14:46
Speaker 1: the podcast host that you are, and we always love
14:49
Speaker 1: connecting with listeners and it's cool that we have these
14:52
Speaker 1: things in common, and so it's like super exciting being
14:56
Speaker 1: that you're also based out of l A. Taco. Like
14:58
Speaker 1: the convergence is our many and I'm living for them.
15:02
Speaker 1: So I just want to say thank you um for
15:05
Speaker 1: chatting with us and our listeners today, and congratulations on
15:10
Speaker 1: the Sellout. This is a really cool podcast and it's
15:13
Speaker 1: like very scandalous. So let's just like star let's get
15:18
Speaker 1: into the Sellout. What is this podcast about? As folks
15:23
Speaker 1: based in l A, we know what it's about, but
15:26
Speaker 1: for folks listening, like, let's talk about the Sellout. And
15:30
Speaker 1: what is this story that you're telling us? Okay, So,
15:33
Speaker 1: first and foremost, it is about a sellout, like the
15:35
Speaker 1: title says, right, it is a tale of betrail. It's
15:39
Speaker 1: about a man who, allegedly, because I don't want the
15:43
Speaker 1: lawyers to come after me, allegedly uh, sold out the
15:47
Speaker 1: community that raised him, that fed him. So we're talking
15:51
Speaker 1: about and it's literally about a guy who you know,
15:56
Speaker 1: he has an immigrant backstory. So he came here as
15:59
Speaker 1: a toddler from Saca, Mexico, and he really made that
16:04
Speaker 1: like a selling point in his campaign. He was basically
16:07
Speaker 1: running around saying like I am one of you, I
16:10
Speaker 1: am you, I'm gonna lookout, I'm gonna look out for you,
16:14
Speaker 1: the whole thing, right, And he does some corny things
16:16
Speaker 1: like he would he would roll around like a jottle outfit.
16:19
Speaker 1: He'd be riding a white horse, you know, like with
16:22
Speaker 1: the hat and everything was so much. Uh. He would
16:25
Speaker 1: like go have breakfast with the brasset's, you know, really
16:28
Speaker 1: trying to sell like I am Mexican and I'm one
16:31
Speaker 1: of you. Uh. And then he was but then behind
16:35
Speaker 1: closed doors, he was making these he was allegedly making
16:37
Speaker 1: these background deals with developers and selling out his community.
16:41
Speaker 1: Like an episode three, which we just talked about, he
16:45
Speaker 1: um he was like, you know, running around and like, oh, yeah,
16:48
Speaker 1: I'm from Bull of Heights, you know, I'm one of
16:50
Speaker 1: you whatever, and we need to protect Bull Heights and
16:53
Speaker 1: he sold he allegedly sold out six thousand people to
16:56
Speaker 1: a developer and he didn't care if they got if
16:58
Speaker 1: they got evicted or not. So it's really the story
17:01
Speaker 1: about this betrayal, right, And also important to note that
17:06
Speaker 1: we saw was a city council member of c D fourteen,
17:10
Speaker 1: Council District fourteen. Yeah, he is the council DISTI he
17:13
Speaker 1: was the council district of CD fourteen. Yeah, and like
17:16
Speaker 1: a long time he's had like he's been in office
17:20
Speaker 1: or had been in office for years. And what's so
17:23
Speaker 1: wild is you know in l A you have these
17:27
Speaker 1: sort of names and figures in local politics who just
17:31
Speaker 1: their names are all over their districts. They've been in
17:34
Speaker 1: office forever and ever and ever. They're almost like these
17:38
Speaker 1: permanent fixtures in the city. And we said, I think
17:42
Speaker 1: was definitely one of those. I was telling the ASA
17:45
Speaker 1: that my my CP went to Berkeley with who sad
17:47
Speaker 1: and so I wouldn't stop talking. Oh, at Berkeley and
17:52
Speaker 1: we sat, and at Berkeley and we sat. Now it's quiet.
17:55
Speaker 1: It's all quiet on the Western front because the tide
17:59
Speaker 1: has turned. But it's also it's also like, this is
18:02
Speaker 1: a story, like you're saying of a person that a
18:06
Speaker 1: lot of people had a lot of faith in, and
18:10
Speaker 1: the narrative has flipped. So I'm really curious about what
18:14
Speaker 1: was the kind of spark the impetus for making this
18:17
Speaker 1: podcast which is a collaboration between L A Taco and
18:20
Speaker 1: Me on Hum and how did it come about? Okay,
18:24
Speaker 1: so the CEO of Me on Home went to my
18:27
Speaker 1: d M. So I worked at them on a thing,
18:29
Speaker 1: um a long time ago, back when I was a
18:30
Speaker 1: fusion on a podcast thing. He was in my d
18:33
Speaker 1: M s and he was like, Hey, we would love
18:35
Speaker 1: for l A Taco to work on this thing we
18:37
Speaker 1: want to work on. I was like, okay, cool, emailed
18:41
Speaker 1: me the details. So he emails me, and I sent
18:44
Speaker 1: all the details to L A Taco people. Uh So
18:46
Speaker 1: we all like started looking at it in the slag.
18:48
Speaker 1: We're all decided like, hmmm, he wants to take this on.
18:51
Speaker 1: Uh you know, immediately reached out to Lexus Olivier Ray
18:55
Speaker 1: and Eric Wortha um and well I also asked some
18:58
Speaker 1: other folks in the chat too. I don't remember, because
18:59
Speaker 1: I like how it happened. I think might just put
19:01
Speaker 1: a screenshot in there or something like that. And we
19:03
Speaker 1: decided we wanted to work on it. And yeah, so
19:08
Speaker 1: Eric unfortunately did not have the time, um, but Lexus
19:12
Speaker 1: did and yeah, so me and Erica Lingo who I know,
19:16
Speaker 1: you know, I think, yeah, of course. Um. So we
19:19
Speaker 1: all got in a call with them, and Eric was amazing, like, man,
19:23
Speaker 1: he acted like our agent. He was so good and like, wow,
19:27
Speaker 1: what a great person. Anyway, sorry, So we got on
19:29
Speaker 1: a call and from the moment, like day one, we
19:32
Speaker 1: decided we wanted we wanted to do it the l
19:34
Speaker 1: A Taco Away, and the l A tak Away really
19:36
Speaker 1: is centering communities, so we really pushed that. From the
19:39
Speaker 1: first call, we were like, hey, we want to make
19:41
Speaker 1: us about the people. And I was like, Okay, now
19:43
Speaker 1: I'm getting hired to like work on the show, because
19:45
Speaker 1: initially I was just hired as a reporter. Um and
19:49
Speaker 1: but we really wanted to make sure it was about
19:52
Speaker 1: the community, and I was like, I'm not really interested hoste.
19:55
Speaker 1: We sat at all like I know what he did.
19:58
Speaker 1: I know slicious details, but I don't care because I'm
20:03
Speaker 1: tired of centering these narratives around alleged abusers. So I
20:08
Speaker 1: did it so I can centered the community and work
20:11
Speaker 1: at the team that was really down to work at
20:12
Speaker 1: the Center Community Voices, and the Neon Hunt team was
20:15
Speaker 1: really down with that, and it was really cool. Um.
20:17
Speaker 1: Even the people that we hired to the music, you
20:19
Speaker 1: know or from l A so it Suardo don Us
20:21
Speaker 1: is from Bull Heights and he used to be an
20:23
Speaker 1: urban planner is from Huntington Pikes, so, like you know,
20:28
Speaker 1: there's so many little details in every aspect of us.
20:31
Speaker 1: Thank you for that UM backstory and taking us through
20:35
Speaker 1: the journey, because it's really cool to see all the
20:39
Speaker 1: different people who are involved in making a project like
20:42
Speaker 1: this come to life, especially with all the different elements
20:46
Speaker 1: of the production. I mean, the music is really cool.
20:49
Speaker 1: It's like spooky gumbias, like like corruption gumbias, and it's
20:53
Speaker 1: like really great and I love the like kind of
20:56
Speaker 1: like the soundscape, since you guys all have created like
20:59
Speaker 1: you know, you sound it really sounds like you're in
21:01
Speaker 1: boil hides somewhere. Um yeah, I mean you touched on
21:07
Speaker 1: this a little bit already. But what does it take
21:11
Speaker 1: to make a podcast like this? Obviously it's your a reporter,
21:15
Speaker 1: you're a journalist. It's very thoroughly researched, you have a team.
21:19
Speaker 1: So tell us more about the ins and outs of
21:21
Speaker 1: creating such a phenomenal story. Oh my god, thank you
21:25
Speaker 1: for calling it a phenomenal story. But yeah, I think
21:29
Speaker 1: it's like making a movie. Like man, I feel a
21:33
Speaker 1: little tired, but very happy. Um, it's like making a movie.
21:36
Speaker 1: So basically, there's the reporting stage, so that there's us
21:39
Speaker 1: three reporters. So there's me, Carla, and Alexis. We're the
21:42
Speaker 1: three reporters. We all have different silos of work. Reporting
21:46
Speaker 1: stage took some months. M basically, like I know, uh,
21:51
Speaker 1: we were looking through documents, We're looking through different court documents. Um,
21:54
Speaker 1: I know. Alexis was doing a lot of foyas and yeah,
21:58
Speaker 1: and I was doing a lot of community reporting chance
22:00
Speaker 1: of community members, as is Carla and Lexus. So really
22:03
Speaker 1: it was just months of that and then we have
22:05
Speaker 1: these weekly editorial meetings. We were deciding like, oh my god,
22:08
Speaker 1: how are we going to put everything together? Um, and
22:12
Speaker 1: how which which story goes on which episode? What reporting
22:15
Speaker 1: holes do we need, Like there's some sources that took
22:18
Speaker 1: months for us to get took months to get back
22:20
Speaker 1: to us. So literally we needed all those months too.
22:24
Speaker 1: Like it's like it's like, wow, it's done, and it's
22:27
Speaker 1: like a show now, but like in the moment, you're like, man,
22:31
Speaker 1: oh my god, it seems like a lot um. So
22:33
Speaker 1: we have editors going over our um, going over the
22:37
Speaker 1: scraps of Carla Green wrote the script and then you know,
22:39
Speaker 1: like we would go back and we write some certain
22:41
Speaker 1: parts and stuff, and then yeah, we have her amazing editor,
22:45
Speaker 1: Katherine St. Louis, and you know, she really guided us
22:47
Speaker 1: and let us get to this point. We have a
22:49
Speaker 1: consulting editor at VICRM Patel. We have all these other producers,
22:53
Speaker 1: so we have list Sanchez alongside Carla Green, who is
22:56
Speaker 1: our main producer, and we have Stephanie sur Know who
23:00
Speaker 1: is another like editor. So just literally making sure that
23:03
Speaker 1: everything is super like tight, to make sure that when
23:06
Speaker 1: you're listening to it, that my tone sounds good, that
23:09
Speaker 1: the words are good, that we're using things that sound good.
23:13
Speaker 1: Is that way hopefully listener never has a moment where like,
23:15
Speaker 1: oh that sounds weird. Um, we had all these table rates,
23:19
Speaker 1: had Team Taco come ins, goes into table reads and like, hey,
23:22
Speaker 1: criticize it, rip it appart so people don't rip it
23:24
Speaker 1: apart later. Uh yeah, man, it took a lot, a lot,
23:29
Speaker 1: a lot of work, but we were so lucky to
23:31
Speaker 1: get the resources we needed to put this all together.
23:34
Speaker 1: Congratulations because it all like really is shining through and
23:37
Speaker 1: it's a great listen and we love too. How in
23:41
Speaker 1: these first three episodes, you really are talking to actual
23:44
Speaker 1: community members, so, um, I mean you talked to Nancy
23:48
Speaker 1: uh Messa, Nancy Messa, defemboil Hides, Alvin Barra who worked
23:53
Speaker 1: in Huissa's office, and as far as the folks that
23:57
Speaker 1: you brought on to share their stories. How why was
24:01
Speaker 1: it important to really center their narratives and not just
24:05
Speaker 1: the actions of We said, yeah, so like kind of
24:08
Speaker 1: like my touched on earlier, I didn't want to be
24:11
Speaker 1: centering Well, first, all the back tack a little bit.
24:13
Speaker 1: So our team is like majority a woman team, right,
24:17
Speaker 1: And I don't know if that kind of played into it,
24:19
Speaker 1: but we really had a very specific vision for how
24:22
Speaker 1: we wanted to do things. I mean the entire team too.
24:24
Speaker 1: But I think for some of us it was like, well,
24:26
Speaker 1: let me for all of our whole team, it was
24:28
Speaker 1: kind of like, we don't want to be centering and
24:30
Speaker 1: alleged abuser, right. Um. And I think kind of like
24:34
Speaker 1: what I was saying earlier with all these like true
24:36
Speaker 1: crime narratives, I think I don't like about true crime
24:39
Speaker 1: is that we center so much on the crime and
24:42
Speaker 1: all those little salacious details, right, and the spectacle of
24:46
Speaker 1: it all like a spectacle the money, Like the suitcase
24:49
Speaker 1: is full of money, the FBI reading his home and
24:51
Speaker 1: office and that's all in there too, Like if you
24:53
Speaker 1: want Selecius details, we got that. But the community, we
24:57
Speaker 1: also want to start that people are impacted, Like that's
25:00
Speaker 1: really important, and it's not just important because we have
25:02
Speaker 1: to talk about it. It's important and they have some
25:05
Speaker 1: really interesting and insightful things to say. And there are
25:09
Speaker 1: a lot of powerful thinkers and a lot of people
25:12
Speaker 1: that are brilliant, like Nancy Messa. It felt like every
25:16
Speaker 1: time I interviewed her, I was like, Wow, I get
25:19
Speaker 1: to listen to Nancy Messa talk for free, Like I
25:23
Speaker 1: feel like the should be a lecture I'm paying for. Um,
25:27
Speaker 1: and just getting that insight right and then getting people's
25:30
Speaker 1: stories like Raquel Samota how she felt when she felt
25:33
Speaker 1: betrayed and hearing her backstory too. Um because all because
25:39
Speaker 1: corruption has a price. And maybe I'm wrong, but I
25:43
Speaker 1: feel like we don't really discuss the price of corruption enough.
25:48
Speaker 1: We're like, oh my god, look what this guy did,
25:50
Speaker 1: but we don't really talk about like wow, like the
25:53
Speaker 1: constituents are being affected, Like now there's like a gap
25:58
Speaker 1: in leadership, daring a pandemic. Like I said, we said,
26:02
Speaker 1: refused to leave his post during one of the worst
26:06
Speaker 1: times that we've had in our history, well in modern
26:10
Speaker 1: history for us, right, Like people were losing their homes,
26:13
Speaker 1: people were losing their loved ones, and this guy was
26:17
Speaker 1: just in office refusing to step down. And like there's
26:23
Speaker 1: like a vacancy in CD for its scene during the
26:25
Speaker 1: worst time possible. Um, So I think about stuff like that,
26:32
Speaker 1: like and now there's always constituents having to fill in
26:34
Speaker 1: the gaps and they're not getting paid to. Yeah. You
26:37
Speaker 1: know what I really like about this podcast, or about
26:41
Speaker 1: the way this story is told, is that it really
26:44
Speaker 1: reveals how powerful council members are. And I don't think
26:48
Speaker 1: that constituents or any like l a city resident, not
26:52
Speaker 1: all realize how powerful and how much their weight is
26:58
Speaker 1: valued behind certain top big So when you talk about
27:02
Speaker 1: the city council, like all we start had to do
27:04
Speaker 1: to stop a developer would be to like make a
27:07
Speaker 1: phone call so that a family wouldn't get evicted, you know,
27:10
Speaker 1: And it had a lot of weight. And I think
27:12
Speaker 1: that because there's lots of reasons if folks don't necessarily
27:17
Speaker 1: get involved civically. Um, it's filling in that gap for
27:20
Speaker 1: maybe people that are like, Wow, I didn't realize my
27:23
Speaker 1: city council person had that much power, like let me
27:25
Speaker 1: attend a meeting or let me email with my city
27:27
Speaker 1: council person. Who is my city council person? Right? And
27:31
Speaker 1: so I really feel like it's also serving that need
27:34
Speaker 1: for education, um, that maybe not all folks have. So
27:37
Speaker 1: I think that's really powerful. So props on that aspect
27:41
Speaker 1: of it. But you know, as a listener, I think
27:44
Speaker 1: we're constantly plagued with this question, this ongoing question of
27:47
Speaker 1: how can someone that's like me or like my family
27:51
Speaker 1: sell out my community? Right? And so I'm curious if
27:57
Speaker 1: we will see more of that or if we that
28:01
Speaker 1: that question will be uncovered or answered throughout the series.
28:05
Speaker 1: What can we expect? Well, verst of all, thank you. Yeah,
28:09
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you think that, you know, we're
28:11
Speaker 1: filling in a need. I definitely I wish we all
28:14
Speaker 1: had civic education courses and our high schools. I didn't
28:17
Speaker 1: like that they could tell you like this is like
28:19
Speaker 1: a city council member does, right, but not everyone gets that.
28:23
Speaker 1: Um Like I didn't know what my city council member
28:26
Speaker 1: did until a couple of years ago, and I'm still learning.
28:30
Speaker 1: So anyways, uh yeah, I think it's kind of difficult
28:32
Speaker 1: to know all these different positions and what they're doing.
28:36
Speaker 1: But anyways, I think to your point of like how
28:40
Speaker 1: can someone do this their own community, it's like really brazen, right,
28:44
Speaker 1: like not only like okay, yeah, like you know your
28:47
Speaker 1: Latino you're saying from the community have a similar experience.
28:51
Speaker 1: But he really repped it, like he really like went
28:55
Speaker 1: a little like he really ran with it, and it
28:59
Speaker 1: was pretty I don't I thought it was really corny
29:02
Speaker 1: looking back and going through all this stuff, but I'm
29:04
Speaker 1: sure at the time people are like, wow, representation it up.
29:10
Speaker 1: You feel like alone, you know, like there's like there's
29:13
Speaker 1: like states in Mexico where they like Rep Hard and
29:16
Speaker 1: I feel like one of them. Yeah, yeah, Ria Mariachi
29:23
Speaker 1: and you know his family, guess and he's from there too.
29:26
Speaker 1: And I was like, so, how do you feel you know,
29:29
Speaker 1: we because how do you feel about this? And he's like,
29:32
Speaker 1: I don't know. Insert Marian Carey meme. I don't know her.
29:43
Speaker 1: I don't know. But yeah, to your point about how
29:48
Speaker 1: can this happen? Uh, not necessarily how can this happen?
29:52
Speaker 1: But more so, like what can we expect from the
29:54
Speaker 1: series because we're only on episode three, like us the listener, right,
29:59
Speaker 1: we only have access to three episodes, So what can
30:02
Speaker 1: we expect to hear without giving away too many of
30:05
Speaker 1: the details and you know, so that we can anticipate
30:07
Speaker 1: what's next. But can we expect some type of understanding
30:12
Speaker 1: as to why this happened or how this could happen? Oh,
30:15
Speaker 1: you're gonna know a lot about how everything got set
30:19
Speaker 1: into motion. You're gonna find out like how he even
30:23
Speaker 1: got the power to do what he did because he
30:25
Speaker 1: wasn't just a regular city council member. He was on
30:27
Speaker 1: the plumb committee. So you're gonna find out and you're
30:29
Speaker 1: also gonna find out how he got downtown through redistricting
30:33
Speaker 1: and how that kind of you know, set him up.
30:36
Speaker 1: And then I mean trigger warning, but you're going to
30:38
Speaker 1: learn about, um, a sexual harassment case that happened that really,
30:44
Speaker 1: you know, we feel uh lad to his alleged corruption
30:51
Speaker 1: like really opened the floodgates for this all. So really
30:53
Speaker 1: learn about the mechanics of how it happened. We can
30:55
Speaker 1: get into it more if you would like to. I
30:57
Speaker 1: feel like the sexual harassment case is really important, um,
31:00
Speaker 1: But also I think we're not going to be able
31:05
Speaker 1: to get too much into like if there was like
31:08
Speaker 1: a turning point into his head, we weren't able to
31:10
Speaker 1: interview him. Also, I kind of don't care if he's
31:13
Speaker 1: if we sat like woke up one day and was like,
31:14
Speaker 1: you know what, I want to be corrupt. That's what
31:17
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do today. I'm just gonna be corrupt. I'm
31:19
Speaker 1: gonna be a cryp politician, and that's what I'm gonna do.
31:21
Speaker 1: Allegedly cryd politician. That's what I'm gonna do. Like we
31:23
Speaker 1: don't know that, And honestly, I don't care because he
31:26
Speaker 1: did what he allegedly did what he did um. But
31:29
Speaker 1: at the same time, we do see that there was
31:31
Speaker 1: a turning point where the alleged corruption started. So basically
31:38
Speaker 1: it kind of started from this sexual harassment suit. So
31:41
Speaker 1: he had the staffer. UM, I'm gonna give it away
31:45
Speaker 1: a little bit, but it's okay. I think it's important. Uh.
31:48
Speaker 1: So he had the staffer and he was harassing her.
31:50
Speaker 1: The details were incredibly disturbing, and she sued him. Um,
31:56
Speaker 1: he like he harassed her. He sickly was like calling
32:01
Speaker 1: her a bunch. She called her mom. He was like
32:03
Speaker 1: outside the door of her home at one point it
32:06
Speaker 1: basically saying that he was going to ruin her chances
32:08
Speaker 1: at being elected the community college board of trustees if
32:11
Speaker 1: she didn't sleep with him. So she sued him, and
32:14
Speaker 1: suddenly he needed like five thousand dollars really quick to
32:20
Speaker 1: settle this suit privately because he wants to go away,
32:25
Speaker 1: even tho it was already in the news. He wanted
32:26
Speaker 1: to make it disappear really quietly. And who in l
32:29
Speaker 1: A has five thousand dollars to spend? Developers, And that's
32:34
Speaker 1: kind of what we think kick started. That's kind of
32:37
Speaker 1: what we found that like seemed to kick start the
32:39
Speaker 1: alleged corruption. So anyways, holy moly, Wow, I knew about
32:48
Speaker 1: or allegation, but I did not know. I hadn't piece
32:52
Speaker 1: that together. So that's that's really interesting that the sellout
32:55
Speaker 1: is providing that that connection of all the dots, because yeah,
33:01
Speaker 1: you heard it here, and it's like, of course, of
33:03
Speaker 1: course he's being a fucking abuse and now he is
33:08
Speaker 1: going to displace thousands of people to pay for his yes, yeah,
33:13
Speaker 1: basically justifying l A because to pay for his well
33:17
Speaker 1: to allegedly and ram through new developments to allegedly pay
33:21
Speaker 1: for m to settle this out because he was he
33:24
Speaker 1: was basically up for reelection and he was like, man,
33:26
Speaker 1: I need to make this go away really quickly because
33:28
Speaker 1: he didn't want to lose his election. I think, yeah.
33:31
Speaker 1: I think I find really disturbing though, is that this
33:33
Speaker 1: wasn't the news like you knew about it. Um. I
33:36
Speaker 1: think everyone knew about it, but it disappeared quietly and
33:39
Speaker 1: he was still elected. Like you can make the suit
33:41
Speaker 1: go away with all you know, however much money, but
33:45
Speaker 1: you can't erase that from the public consciousness, and people
33:49
Speaker 1: still elected him, and people were in a lot of
33:52
Speaker 1: folks are still I think still viewing him as like
33:54
Speaker 1: a progressive kind of you know, politician, So I don't
33:58
Speaker 1: know that part is a woman for me really didn't
34:00
Speaker 1: kind of does disturb me in quite a bit. Yes,
34:02
Speaker 1: I was going to say as a latina though, that
34:04
Speaker 1: doesn't surprise me that it's like, oh, that's okay, you know,
34:08
Speaker 1: we'll still vote for him. Yeah, it's it's it's I've
34:13
Speaker 1: been watching impeachment right, um, And it's fascinating because I
34:20
Speaker 1: forgot that when all of this was going down with
34:23
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, like we were children, Like
34:26
Speaker 1: I was a child, but now as an adult, I'm like,
34:31
Speaker 1: wait a second, So you're telling me that Bill Clinton,
34:33
Speaker 1: there was like dozens of women that he was having
34:36
Speaker 1: affairs with and scandals and there were lawsuits and they
34:39
Speaker 1: were investigations before Monica like openly you know. And this
34:47
Speaker 1: is the sort of thing that it reminds me of,
34:49
Speaker 1: like there's still this disposability around women and men in power.
34:55
Speaker 1: They can do all kinds of horrible things and it's
34:58
Speaker 1: permissible and forgive a bowl even chronically if the person
35:04
Speaker 1: being harmed is like a woman, a woman on staff
35:07
Speaker 1: in particular, and it just doesn't really seem to matter.
35:11
Speaker 1: So like we hear it and we're like scandalized, and
35:14
Speaker 1: that's awful, But it's it's amazing how so many other
35:18
Speaker 1: people can hear about it and it's really not it's
35:21
Speaker 1: not raising an eyebrow. Really, yeah, I think it doesn't
35:25
Speaker 1: definitely echo that. I think it's like really disturbing, but
35:27
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily surprising. I think he kind of grew
35:29
Speaker 1: up with like a oh, you know, like boys will
35:31
Speaker 1: be boys, and I don't know, but it is really
35:35
Speaker 1: disgusting because like the fact that he was able to
35:38
Speaker 1: kind of still retain his image and the fact that
35:42
Speaker 1: he basically still right on the street is that they
35:44
Speaker 1: did have a consensual affair at one point, right, um, yeah,
35:48
Speaker 1: that's a word on the street. So he used that
35:51
Speaker 1: against her. He basically said, like, oh, I made a mistake.
35:55
Speaker 1: I need I need to ask for give us for
35:57
Speaker 1: my wife. It was a mistake, we had a consensual affair,
36:00
Speaker 1: and basically using that to discredit her. And you know,
36:04
Speaker 1: that's disgusting because like you know, even if if you're
36:07
Speaker 1: being harassed allegedly harassed by your ex, um, if you're
36:13
Speaker 1: being allegedly harassed by your ex if your ex shows
36:15
Speaker 1: up at your house when you do not want them there,
36:17
Speaker 1: if they are calling you repeatedly and they're trying to
36:19
Speaker 1: get you to have sex essentially, um, and that's not
36:23
Speaker 1: what you want. It's it's wrong. And you know, I
36:27
Speaker 1: mean consent one oh one, it's ongoing. Right. You have
36:31
Speaker 1: every right to withdraw your your yes, your consent. You
36:35
Speaker 1: know this is basic. Um. But it also Yeah, it
36:38
Speaker 1: doesn't surprise me that he would use there or anyone,
36:41
Speaker 1: any abuser would use the fact that there was a
36:44
Speaker 1: previous consensual relationship to prove to try to prove Oh no,
36:48
Speaker 1: it's not possible that I was abusing you. Yeah, um yeah.
36:53
Speaker 1: So I thought that was really I thought that was
36:55
Speaker 1: really disturbing because he was like using their like whether
36:59
Speaker 1: it's true or not, he was trying to use that
37:01
Speaker 1: against her, just credit her and kind of manipulate it like, oh,
37:03
Speaker 1: I made a mistake, instead of like I am abusing
37:07
Speaker 1: my power and I'm trying to wield my power to
37:09
Speaker 1: make you do what I want. So turning it into
37:12
Speaker 1: like this emotional thing and turning it into like this
37:15
Speaker 1: like using it to flip the narrative. And I thought
37:17
Speaker 1: that was pretty heinous and he was married the whole time. Yes,
37:20
Speaker 1: Like there's there's no positive way to slice it. For like,
37:26
Speaker 1: he was married the whole time. So while he's harassing her,
37:29
Speaker 1: while he's consensually engaging with her, still married. I mean
37:33
Speaker 1: we're seeing that now, Like I mean in the Mark
37:37
Speaker 1: really Thomas case, you know, he got in trouble recently
37:41
Speaker 1: or he was you know, it was a whole indictment
37:44
Speaker 1: um for like corruption with USC, and he was not
37:49
Speaker 1: the person that allegedly harassed somebody. It was actually his son.
37:55
Speaker 1: But he wanted to protect his son. So he was like,
37:59
Speaker 1: how am I going to protect my son and ensure
38:02
Speaker 1: that my son can keep his you know, uh, you
38:06
Speaker 1: know financially finances. Okay, So basically he set up this
38:09
Speaker 1: whole deal with USC. They were like, you know what,
38:13
Speaker 1: let's have him be a student at USC but also
38:15
Speaker 1: be faculty at USC. So there was like uh and
38:19
Speaker 1: then there was like a government uh and to tease involved,
38:24
Speaker 1: it was like two big ones that are involved. Uh.
38:27
Speaker 1: So it's, as my editor Karna say Lewis says, sexual
38:31
Speaker 1: harassment is often the smoky leads to the fire. Um.
38:35
Speaker 1: You know, we can be like, oh, my god, scandalous,
38:37
Speaker 1: but also like there are constituents that are being involved.
38:41
Speaker 1: If this guy who was actually harassing people, he's a
38:44
Speaker 1: faculty member at USC. There are a lot of young
38:45
Speaker 1: girls to go to USC. I don't want to be
38:47
Speaker 1: my teacher, professor. I had no idea there was harassment
38:52
Speaker 1: at the core of this. I thought it was just
38:54
Speaker 1: pay for play to get him jobs and positions entitled,
39:00
Speaker 1: but there is more. So yeah, Thomas, Yeah, try to
39:04
Speaker 1: set up his son, allegedly leged set up his son
39:07
Speaker 1: to have more, um, you know, just kind of secure future.
39:12
Speaker 1: I suppose I've literally been on mute the whole time
39:15
Speaker 1: because I was like screaming because I had no idea.
39:18
Speaker 1: But I think, what's so sad, you know, for such
39:20
Speaker 1: a wonderful city like l A, with like such a
39:23
Speaker 1: rich community, is that this is also not uncommon. We
39:26
Speaker 1: have we saw we have Margaret Ley Thomas, and then
39:29
Speaker 1: we also have the city of bell that had its
39:31
Speaker 1: own corruption, the Manabella School District right that had its
39:35
Speaker 1: own scandal, right and all. And it's the community that's affected. Um,
39:39
Speaker 1: it's all these different lives that it touches. And so
39:43
Speaker 1: while this is a very special story and that it's
39:46
Speaker 1: like one particular district that you are that you're you
39:49
Speaker 1: and your team are examining. It's also very much a
39:53
Speaker 1: part of like being in a big city. There's like corruption,
39:56
Speaker 1: I mean in the just government anywhere, right at every level,
40:00
Speaker 1: there's corruption. And while these fools are busy being corrupt,
40:05
Speaker 1: our streets are riddled with potholes and they owe me
40:08
Speaker 1: money for all the tires that I have literally popped.
40:11
Speaker 1: Just driving in l A is like off roading sometimes,
40:15
Speaker 1: and these fools, these fools are over here doing all
40:18
Speaker 1: their bullshit. Can we get and can we get so
40:20
Speaker 1: we get some problems? Please God? Like because I agree
40:25
Speaker 1: with that hundred percent. Oh my god. You know, it's
40:28
Speaker 1: kind of crazy, and it's really sad because now there's
40:30
Speaker 1: all this lack of leadership, always gaps in leadership, and
40:32
Speaker 1: they're getting paid all this money to like what what
40:35
Speaker 1: are they doing? Uh? And then what happens The sad
40:38
Speaker 1: part is what happens at the community members actually end
40:40
Speaker 1: up having to fill in those gaps. So the tenants
40:42
Speaker 1: unions have to go help people that are facing evictions.
40:44
Speaker 1: There are people that are you know, making food pantries
40:47
Speaker 1: and setting those up. You know, all these kinds of
40:50
Speaker 1: things different like orcs, and these people are just don't
40:52
Speaker 1: eating their time. And the problem is that we all
40:54
Speaker 1: have really high rents to pay, and we all work
40:57
Speaker 1: a lot. Well I don't like I'll work, but a
40:58
Speaker 1: lot of us work a lot. So on top of
41:01
Speaker 1: so just like all this extra stress and burden is
41:04
Speaker 1: being put on our communities when you know that time
41:09
Speaker 1: and money could be invested elsewhere. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah.
41:14
Speaker 1: I think all this to say, like it is important
41:17
Speaker 1: to like for us to remember. I think people get
41:20
Speaker 1: really attached to their city council people and there's that
41:23
Speaker 1: blind loyalty like we were talking about earlier that he
41:26
Speaker 1: still we started, still got elected even with this public
41:29
Speaker 1: harassment suit like out there, you know. And one of
41:33
Speaker 1: the reasons why folks get re elected, re elected reelected,
41:36
Speaker 1: they have the money and the resources behind them, and
41:39
Speaker 1: I think that there are folks who go out and
41:42
Speaker 1: campaign hardcore for them to like make sure that they
41:44
Speaker 1: get re elected, right, And I just think it's important
41:47
Speaker 1: for all of us to remember if your city councilperson
41:50
Speaker 1: is not delivering, and your neighborhood is not getting the
41:54
Speaker 1: resources and the attention that it needs, like, why do
41:57
Speaker 1: we have blind loyalty, you know, to it to these
42:00
Speaker 1: folks when clearly they are using the time and the
42:04
Speaker 1: money and the power for things other than improving the
42:08
Speaker 1: quality of life for constituents, which is what's supposed to
42:11
Speaker 1: be happening. Yeah, I agree, I think honestly, I feel
42:16
Speaker 1: like one of the most important people you could elect
42:17
Speaker 1: to office and one of the most influence you have,
42:20
Speaker 1: is really city council. If you don't like bottom ount.
42:24
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't say voting up people is like
42:25
Speaker 1: the is like they answer to everything. It's not. But
42:28
Speaker 1: you don't like it, you know, you can actually do
42:30
Speaker 1: something about it. If you can show up the city council.
42:33
Speaker 1: Your voice has a lot more weight in local politics,
42:36
Speaker 1: even though in l A it's still kind of difficult.
42:38
Speaker 1: You have more, much more weight in local politics than
42:40
Speaker 1: you do nationally. So if you get bumped out by
42:42
Speaker 1: national politics because it depresses me a lot, you can
42:46
Speaker 1: just focus a little bit more on, you know, city
42:48
Speaker 1: council because you have a lot more weight there and
42:51
Speaker 1: you have a lot more power there. And in a
42:52
Speaker 1: city like l A, the city council is big enough
42:55
Speaker 1: and powerful enough that like, come on, look, no further.
42:58
Speaker 1: I mean this is not like Parks and rec like
43:03
Speaker 1: these guys like, this is some real ship. So I
43:06
Speaker 1: agree completely and I think we could all stand to
43:08
Speaker 1: learn more about our city council. Yeah, it's an aud Yes,
43:12
Speaker 1: so important. So finally, just to wrap up, thank you
43:16
Speaker 1: Maria for all that you've shared with us today. On
43:18
Speaker 1: a more technical side, I'm curious as a podcaster myself, UM,
43:24
Speaker 1: tell us about finding your voice as a host. Is
43:27
Speaker 1: this your first time hosting a podcast or what's the
43:31
Speaker 1: background here? So background here is I used to to
43:34
Speaker 1: the l a Taco podcast. Um. It was like really small,
43:37
Speaker 1: you know, cute, and we didn't have the resources to
43:41
Speaker 1: keep it going, so we stopped it. Um. Unfortunately it's
43:44
Speaker 1: a little bit podcasting as an intern before, um elsewhere. Yeah,
43:49
Speaker 1: but the voice finding my voice, Yeah, my first time
43:53
Speaker 1: hosting a big thing like this, that's for sure. But
43:55
Speaker 1: you know, I've moderated panels before, you know, I like
43:58
Speaker 1: hosted things like other events. But it was really difficult,
44:04
Speaker 1: I think, you know, finding your voice because I think
44:07
Speaker 1: you know, it takes a little bit of vulnerability to
44:09
Speaker 1: be a good podcast host. You have to show who
44:11
Speaker 1: you are a little bit I think and be a
44:14
Speaker 1: little vulnerable, and I don't like doing that. I wanted
44:16
Speaker 1: to just use my reporter voice. I wanted to sound
44:18
Speaker 1: kind of a professional ish um and not professional. I
44:23
Speaker 1: just use a different voice because if people don't like
44:24
Speaker 1: that voice, at least it's not your real voice, you know.
44:27
Speaker 1: Uh uh. But then uh, I showed my I was like,
44:33
Speaker 1: you know what, I need to make sure I get
44:35
Speaker 1: some non media latinos in here and making sure that
44:38
Speaker 1: I'm not making anything wack. So I brought in my cousin.
44:42
Speaker 1: I brought in her husband, who was born and Raisin
44:44
Speaker 1: bull Heights, and I showed them in an early scratch
44:46
Speaker 1: tape and my cousin listened to it, and I was like,
44:49
Speaker 1: so what do you think? And then she was like,
44:52
Speaker 1: uh yeah, Mariah, yeah, you know, are you just trying
44:59
Speaker 1: to go for the educated, like you know, demographic like you?
45:03
Speaker 1: And I was like hey to that her. I was like,
45:09
Speaker 1: she's like an older sister to me, and like I'm
45:11
Speaker 1: wishing impressed her. So I was like out. I was
45:14
Speaker 1: a little upset, and then I was like, you know what,
45:17
Speaker 1: let me think about this. So I brought the feetback
45:20
Speaker 1: back to my team and I was like, hey, guys,
45:23
Speaker 1: my cousin says, uh, you know that it doesn't really
45:28
Speaker 1: resonate with her the way we have it, and that
45:30
Speaker 1: we should try maybe a different approach. Um, So I
45:35
Speaker 1: need to work on my tracking. I need to make
45:37
Speaker 1: it sound different. So my cousin was like, Mary, why
45:40
Speaker 1: don't you just talk the way you talk to me
45:41
Speaker 1: when we're hanging out and stuff. You don't have to
45:43
Speaker 1: go all the way, but you know, just try to
45:45
Speaker 1: sound more like sound with me when you're telling me
45:47
Speaker 1: about a political process, when you're explaining the news to me.
45:50
Speaker 1: We're at a bar and you're just like talking to me, Like,
45:52
Speaker 1: can you just do it that way? She's like, people
45:55
Speaker 1: will like it more if you do it the way
45:57
Speaker 1: who you actually are. And I like, that's really scary
46:01
Speaker 1: because I don't want to ever feel like I don't know,
46:04
Speaker 1: I don't know how you all feel, but I kind
46:06
Speaker 1: of feel like I have to be comfortable to let myself,
46:10
Speaker 1: you know, be It's hard to be yourself when you're recording,
46:13
Speaker 1: so it's hard to get comfortable. So I was like,
46:15
Speaker 1: you know what, am I just act like Vanessa is
46:18
Speaker 1: here and I'm just gonna try to do my best
46:22
Speaker 1: So I told my producer we're in we're in her
46:25
Speaker 1: shed recording together, and I was like, Carla, ah, okay,
46:30
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do is we're gonna pretend we're
46:32
Speaker 1: at a bar. Bret the Nova Kane Bar was my
46:34
Speaker 1: favorite bar. It's a Huntington Park. I love that place. Uh,
46:38
Speaker 1: and uh, we're gonna I don't drink when I check
46:42
Speaker 1: because I just want to focus. But I was like,
46:44
Speaker 1: we're gonna pretend we're having drinks and I'm just gonna
46:48
Speaker 1: be talking to you as if I'm talking to my
46:50
Speaker 1: cousin or whatever, and we're just gonna make it happen.
46:54
Speaker 1: And yeah, the first episode, I feel like it's probably
46:57
Speaker 1: like my worst tracking, even though I think it still
46:59
Speaker 1: sounds okay. But I got more comfortable with myself and
47:03
Speaker 1: I got a lot of good feedback my other team.
47:05
Speaker 1: I was working with the editors, like hey, we like
47:07
Speaker 1: your voice, Hey, we like you want to use your
47:09
Speaker 1: deeper voice. And it was the first time I felt like, oh,
47:11
Speaker 1: I can use my deeper voice, Like that's cool, and
47:15
Speaker 1: I just felt really affirming to me. So, yeah, just
47:18
Speaker 1: trying to be myself, trying to be really unapologetic about it,
47:22
Speaker 1: and you know, also just trying to bring a lot
47:25
Speaker 1: of energy, like I want to show them a cool story.
47:28
Speaker 1: I want them to feel like wow, like you're just
47:31
Speaker 1: listening and you can laugh at some parts. You can
47:35
Speaker 1: laugh at the incompetence. Oh yeah. The other thing that
47:37
Speaker 1: I thought was really important was that someone pointed out
47:40
Speaker 1: and said, like, I sound like I'm laughing a little bit,
47:44
Speaker 1: as we said, like I'm not laughing, but sounds like
47:46
Speaker 1: I'm on the verge of laughing at the incompetence. And
47:49
Speaker 1: that was actually a very uh, it was a very
47:53
Speaker 1: intentional choice because men who are allegedly abusive hate it
47:58
Speaker 1: when women laugh at them. So we're like, we're gonna
48:01
Speaker 1: get some smiles and they we're gonna make us sound
48:03
Speaker 1: like I'm about to laugh because men hate it, and
48:08
Speaker 1: well then they're alleged labies have really hate it. So
48:11
Speaker 1: I thought it could be kind of fun because I
48:13
Speaker 1: know he obsessively checks his social media. I know he
48:18
Speaker 1: obsessively checks who's talking about him, so I know he's
48:23
Speaker 1: probably already heard the show, and I know because he
48:25
Speaker 1: has a big court date coming up, he can't say anything,
48:29
Speaker 1: So okay, I didn't say that part, but I know
48:32
Speaker 1: he's probably listening to it, and I know that he
48:34
Speaker 1: has like a hearing coming up soon, so he can't
48:37
Speaker 1: really I think it would be in his best interest
48:39
Speaker 1: to not respond or say anything yet. Um So I
48:45
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, hearing this woman just kind of
48:48
Speaker 1: come out and like say, kind of like they're laughing
48:51
Speaker 1: or whatever. I don't think he's gonna like that very much,
48:53
Speaker 1: you know what. It kind of makes me a little happy.
48:57
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I of it also, Maria,
49:01
Speaker 1: because in the podcast, you have this tagline that includes
49:04
Speaker 1: this phrase path like pathological greatness, which I love because
49:10
Speaker 1: I feel like what you're describing to me here is
49:13
Speaker 1: like a very well orchestrated, well thought out like you're
49:16
Speaker 1: trolling him a little bit, and I'm like, here for it.
49:19
Speaker 1: It's hilarious. Well, it's so great to hear some you know,
49:27
Speaker 1: backstory on your particular voice as a host for this
49:32
Speaker 1: show and the intention behind it, and it definitely sounds authentic.
49:36
Speaker 1: That's definitely one of the things that I liked listen.
49:39
Speaker 1: When I was listening to it, it felt like somebody
49:41
Speaker 1: that I would talk to or someone you know what
49:43
Speaker 1: I mean. Like it didn't. It felt very relatable, So
49:47
Speaker 1: I love that. Thank you so much for coming on
49:50
Speaker 1: the show and talking about the sellout work and folks
49:53
Speaker 1: tune in. How can folks support the show? Tell us everything? Okay,
49:59
Speaker 1: I'll tell you everything. Okay, So you can go to uh,
50:03
Speaker 1: you know, Smoke's gonna sell out. You can subscribe on
50:05
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, Spotify, but really anywhere where you get your podcast,
50:09
Speaker 1: you can you can subscribe there. Uh. And if you
50:12
Speaker 1: want bonus episodes, uh, if you wanna hear more of Nancy,
50:16
Speaker 1: if you want to hear Alexis talk, you should definitely
50:18
Speaker 1: subscribe on Apple Podcast. It's gonna be a good time. Um.
50:23
Speaker 1: And if you want to follow us on social media,
50:26
Speaker 1: it's l A Taco Smoke Screen Pod And yeah, alright, Marichaspaneva,
50:31
Speaker 1: thank you for stopping by Local Dora and we'll see
50:33
Speaker 1: you around the l A pod scene. Yes, thank you
50:38
Speaker 1: for having me. It's been great. Radio radio radio Commi's
50:54
Speaker 1: a Myth and Bullshit, a radio phonic novella. Look Radio
50:59
Speaker 1: hosted by Malamonnios and Dioseff fem