March 28, 2024 • 64 mins
Dramos is joined by host of the O Que La podcast, Nicole Vega, to discuss a new social media ban for teens, Trump's latest merch, Latin American Music Awards 2024, the internets hate for J Lo and more!
https://wearemitu.com/wearemitu/news/florida-signs-social-media-ban/
https://www.today.com/popculture/awards/2024-latin-american-music-awards-rcna143992
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi, let me talk about Tom. Here we go, he
said he live in life pasic ringle.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wait, you question when you feel in Every time you mingle,
they say, you do this with not fingo. Yes, Hello,
and welcome to another episode of Life as a Gringo.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I am dramos. Of course it is Thursday, so that
means it's time for our Thursday Trends episode and joining
me on the show today. A friend of the show
basically from day one. She is the host of the
New Okay podcast. She's an og member of the Just
Be Social Club. Nico Vega, how you feeling?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Hi, Hi, I'm doing good. I'm glad to be here, Excited, nervous,
all the things.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, I mean all the things. But this is amazing
full circle moment because if I'm not mistaken, I believe
you were a listener of the podcast right prior to
you and I knowing each other, and then for the
Just Be Social Club, we've gotten to know each other
and you now are a podcast to yourself. So man,
here we are.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Yeah. Yeah, definitely full circle. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It feels like a little surreal being here because I mean,
I know you've been like three years in but it
feels like just yesterday, I just started listening.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So yeah, it's amazing how fast it all goes by.
But you've been one of the active listeners. You might
know her. I think it's as at nik Alosa underscore
Vega if I'm not mistaken. So I feel like you've
been on the show before. But I think it's cool
to see you doing your thing. And we'll get into
the new podcast that you've just launched you been working on.
(01:44):
But of course we got to get to these stories
this week, so we're gonna talk about social media and
this new band that is happening in Florida for teenagers.
I want to get your take on that. Donald Trump
is back to his creative fundraising, if you want to
call it that, So we'll touch on that. I also,
(02:04):
I'm throwing this to you last minute, but we added
Latin American Music Awards twenty twenty four. The nominees haven't announced.
I'm gonna get your take on some music as well.
And then of course we will talk about your podcast.
But before we get into all the warm and fuzzy stuff,
let's just dive into the nonsense the bs. In a
segment we call for the people in the back say,
(02:29):
a lot of.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
The people in the back say A lot of the
people in the say a lot of the people in
the back.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
All right, So let's first and foremost start here with
this social media band in Florida, right, And I definitely
want to get your take on this, but I have
to say, for me, I'm just gonna preface it by
saying this might be one of the few times I
agree with Florida Governor Ron Desantas on something, as he
signed a bill on Monday to ban social media for
(03:08):
children under the age of fourteen. Now. The legislation is
titled HB three. It also requires parental consent for children
aged fourteen and fifteen to create social media accounts. It
will not take effect until January first of twenty twenty five. Again,
this is in Florida, and they're saying that this marks
one of the most restrictive social media bands for miners
(03:28):
in the United States. Republican speaker Paul Renner, who championed
the bill, said he expects social media platforms to quote sue,
but quote unquote he plans to beat them. He also
stated that the platforms addictive technologies could harm children's developing brain,
so I've already kind of said my piece a little
bit here. I want to get your take. I know
you are both a teacher and a parent, if I'm
(03:51):
not mistaken, right, So you have a great, I think
perspective to give on this. What is your thoughts when
you see this happening?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
At first, I'm not surprised it's in Florida, right, Like,
I'm not second, I kind of call bullshit. I feel like, I, oh, yeah,
so I'm surprised that you are in agreement. I do understand,
like it is addictive and it's not good for children,
but I think, I mean, we need to stop trying
to legislate parenting really, and I yeah, I just don't
(04:23):
feel like I know he's saying that it's like for
mental kids well being, but I just don't. I don't
find that to be true. Like, if you're worried about
kids mental health, yeah, how about you make free mental
health care for for all youth or you know?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Right?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Yeah, I just like, yeah, I call bullshit.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I mean I have to agree in that capacity.
A I think there's probably other bigger fishes to fry,
if you will, if we truly are caring about other people, right,
I think there are children going hungry all over the
country and school programs being defunded all over the country
that could use far more funding to actually take care
of those children. But I think, you know, bullshit aside,
(05:08):
and obviously all of this stuff is very much its
performance are at the end of the day, modern politics
is performative. I think I think I agree solely just
because I'm so scared of social media and I see
what it does to adults, and I think it's it's
it's fun. Like I was on social media probably around
(05:31):
this age, like early stages of it. Maybe MySpace was
around during that time. I think there were a couple
other ones that were more like less social media, but
maybe I don't know. I remember there's a couple, like
a couple of old school ones I can't remember the
name off the top of my head that were like
the pre you know, kind of the predecessors to the
modern social media era, right, And the thing is there
(05:53):
was a barrier to access because it wasn't like you
you had it on your phone where you can look
at it all day. The entire school was on. All
your friends weren't necessarily on it, like I was one
of the rare people who knew about it from like
an older cousin or something like that. Right, So if
I did something on there, it wasn't like I had
to go face the entire school the next day, or
that I could be bullied or something like that. Now,
(06:14):
I think you bring up a great point about parenting, right,
and where this then crosses the line into somebody telling
you how to raise your kids. And that's something I
obviously am ignorant to not having children, but I do
find it sort of fascinating that there is sort of
that line. I'd love for you to kind of dive
(06:35):
into that bit deeper kind of what your stance is
a bit on that.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I mean, yeah, I agree with the sentiment like kids
should be monitored on social media. My kids are super young,
they're six and seven, so I'm not quite there yet,
thank god. But I do work in a high school setting,
and so I see the impact of social media, and
a lot of it is negative, and just as a woman,
like the pressure as a grown woman, so I can't
(07:01):
imagine for a child. Again, I just don't think we
need to waste time and effort and tax dollars to parent.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I yeah, I mean it wouldn't make a difference to
me because my kids aren't going to have social media
until I deem them responsible enough to have social media,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's a I mean, yeah, it's it's it's
tough because it's like, you know, you you want to
leave it up to the parents, which I get that sentiment, like,
you know, let the parents parent their kids as they
as they see fit. And I think there is this
gray area of of like how much is too much
power to give to the government at the end of
the day, right where you're really relinquishing a lot of
(07:42):
control into the hands of these people who again are
performing more than anything else. And to your point, when
they're inviting lawsuits, the people paying for the lawsuits are
going to be the taxpayers of Florida at the end
of the day having to fund the attorney fees. When
you know, Instagram and or TikTok and all them decide
to file these lawsuits if they do come into play,
(08:05):
it's it's it's tough. Honestly, I don't like, I don't
have the right answer at the end of the day.
I wish I wish I really had a more concise thing.
I think. Again, obviously there are are worst things happening
for kids, but I think social media is just fucking
scary even as an adult. You know it is. And
I feel like I harp on this a lot, but
I feel like people are glossing over just how much
(08:27):
of an impact it has had on just like everyday
culture as a human being and the way that we
all operate and sort of what we've normalized as a
result of just having something like social media that really
preys upon all of our insecurities, you know, in the
deepest way, and also is purposely designed to be incredibly addictive.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, that part, I guess I don't really even realize
how addictive it is. I mean for myself, like again,
a grown a grown ass woman. So I guess, yeah,
I get what you're saying, and I get I guess
what the Stantia's a saying, but.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Right, but.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It is a slippery slope. Yeah, I don't have the
right answer.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I think that what they fucked up on initially
is like, unfortunately, because of the age demographic of those
in power, they sort of slept on social media and
allowed these companies to become incredibly powerful with zero regulation, right,
and now it's become this everyday part of our life,
(09:41):
and we're trying, they're trying to play catch up, but
it's like it's got it's gone too fucking far at
this point. What it's legitimately controlling everything, every aspect that
controls the way political campaigns are run. It is the
new television, it's the new media. Everybody you know, is
every industry is figuring out out how to do the
social media thing. Right, They are all bending to that.
(10:03):
So it really has a stranglehold on every aspect of
someone's life, you know. And and that's sort of where
they fucked up at the end of it. They really
allowed this to get far bigger than and more powerful
than it probably should have been. And also, I mean,
I don't I don't know how to fuck you regulate
this really. I mean, you know, there's gonna be workarounds
(10:26):
for it and things like that. I really don't even
know how this in a practical sense would even work.
But I guess to kind of surmise all that we're
talking about, for you, you feel like things like this
fall more in line with what the parents' responsibility is
as opposed to anything else I do.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And I just like want to reiterate, like what is
the I guess what is the point of this ban?
You know, like if you're saying that it's mental health
worrying about kids' mental health, then let's address mental health.
There's way better ways to address mental health. Is it safety,
Let's address safety. It's just I feel like, look over
here kind of moment, and yes, yeah so, and yeah,
(11:05):
you're counters that, right. We don't have the resources or
the capacity even to address how big of an issue
of social media is. So we're just like scratching at whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah. I mean, but this is typical, like you know,
political gamesmanship where they're like, you're absolutely right. It's like
look over here. Meanwhile, like there's a fucking burning house
behind you know, behind you you know, and and it's
it's like the old card game, like the three card
Monti type of thing, where they're sort of playing these
tricks of the eye on you when you're absolutely right.
(11:37):
If mental health is a true concern for children, then
why not find a way to have universal mental health
care for children in school systems?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And and that be a policy. Right, It's the same
shit with like abortion and like they claim, you know,
being pro life, but are able to ignore you know,
gun violence and ignore people starving and ignore yeah, you know,
kids not having the resources needed to live a healthy lifestyle.
So yeah, I think that that's probably the best way
(12:09):
I can summarize it is piggybacking off of what you said.
Is like, you know, there, maybe there there is some
truth here in in sort of what is being said
about the harmful effects of social media, but it's just
another sort of performative band aid and it means to
ignore the much larger problem so that they don't have
(12:30):
to spend more money or you know, go after their
NRA buddies when we're talking about concert or things like that,
you know, or the pharmaceutical companies when it comes to everything.
I mean, it's just like obviously all this stuff is
really just again it's it's performative band aids. I think
at the end of the day, to piggyback off of
kind of what you.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Said, truly.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, all right, Well another performative person here, Donald Trump.
He has brought us the Trump Gold sneakers. There was
also an NFT Back in the day, there was a
Trump University that I forgot about. I read about that
when I was reading this article. And now his latest
(13:10):
ploy to his base is releasing a set of Bibles.
So Donald Trump this last week started promoting a line
of bibles in partnership with country music star Lee Greenwood,
whose song God Blessed the USA has been played countlessly
at the president's of political rallies. Trump has, of course
(13:33):
encouraged his followers to spend the sixty dollars on these
bibles that doesn't include chipping and taxes, and the bible
is named the God bless the USA Bible. Now, of course,
this is all coming on the back of Trump owing
close to half a billion dollars in fines from New
York City alone in fraud, even though his bond was
(13:55):
lowered to one hundred and seventy five million dollars, which
he has to pay. But the latest ploy from Donald
Trump to make money and it's a Bible. Your thoughts
on this.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I mean, I hope it goes about saying obviously I
fucking hate this man, but yeah, I mean this is
I mean, this is genius, like he is, like it's
marketing one oh one, because hypocrisy is literally the backbone
of is right right lean Christianity. So I mean, yeah,
(14:29):
he knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
He is a master salesman. I like, I have to
give it to him. The man, the man, like you said,
knows what he's doing. He's somehow, some way always keeps
like slipping out of whatever fucking hole he digs himself into,
and his merch is fire. Like I wish I was
(14:52):
a Donald Trump fan, you know, Like I was a fan,
I would be so Sue, you can get Donald Trump
everything you know, and and it's it's fucking genius at
the end of the day. And now it's obviously scary
because to me, I look at it and I'm like, man,
he's really just putting on a masterclass on being successful,
(15:14):
basically on the fact that if you have zero morals,
how successful you could genuinely be, Like, if you have
no moral compass whatsoever, you literally could do anything you
want in this world and not be held accountable at
least up to this point, right, because this man really
has zero shame whatsoever, and somehow, some way has all
(15:36):
of these people tripping over themselves to support every crazy
fucking idea that he has. And it's it's genius in
the most scary way humanly possible, but it is incredibly genius.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Agreed.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah, it's just I mean, I it's genius as it
is for him. I am second hand embarrassed for the man,
Like if you're broke, just say that. That's how I feel,
right And this is like one set below him starting
his own gofund me. That's yeah, like i'd love. I mean,
I know that they touched on in the article about
you know, him not even knowing anything about the Bible,
(16:14):
like you're far removed from Christianity is as it gets.
So this is it's just, I mean, you have to
laugh otherwise it's so upsetting, really.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well what brk you? The only thing you can do
is laugh because it's it's so like, it's so illogical
that as a logical person you start to feel fucking
crazy because it's like am I missing something? Because this
is so painfully obvious like nonsense and bs and like
(16:44):
I have you know, extended family who are Trumpers, who
are conservative religion people and will find ways to justify
his actions or back him up or turn a blind eye.
And it's like I genuinely at times feel like I
might be the crazy one when I have conversations with them,
because it's like, how are you not seeing this?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Right?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Like it's literally right there playing his day, Like you know,
this isn't my opinion. It's like the man has shown
you countless times who he is, but somehow, some way,
it's like you you totally are blind to it. And
it's just wild to me, honestly.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I mean, yeah, he's just gaslighting us, like he's legitimate.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, literally gaslighting us.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And I don't know the people that I mean, he
knows his base, he knows his face, so I get.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I don't even I have no words really because I'm
just like, don't find that Bible, like go by.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
A different Yeah. I wish, I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately,
it seems like people are going to shell out the
sixty dollars for the Bible and like also not for nothing.
Like and this is I don't say this in a
disparaging way. Most of his base are not wealthy people,
but they're like, any ways to cough up sixty dollars
(18:02):
on this bullshit Bible or whatever however much those sneakers
cost and things like that, and like that's also I
think the scary part is that a lot of people
are not like him, who have grown up privileged but
are literally like putting their own livelihoods at stake on
a regular basis just for supporting this man and his nonsense.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I mean, yeah, this man has shown you who he
is over and over and over again, and that he
doesn't care. I mean, he doesn't care that you're broke
and that this sixty dollars could be detrimental to you
and your family and your well being. That he just
has to pay some court findes and that's all that
he cares about.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So yeah, again, I at a loss for words. I really,
I feel like you, we just have to talk about
it because it's so fucking ridiculous. We have to just
say it out loud to make sure we're not going crazy.
But yeah, not much of a more of us story here,
you know, I wish, yeah, I like, it's legitimately like
(19:05):
the worst you know, less than one could be taught
is that you could be a scam artist like this
man and rise to the highest levels you know, known
to humankind essentially, which is a scary thought. But all right,
we're gonna move on from the nonsense the bs. We're
gonna lighten it up a little bit. We'll get into
our hint this segment, but first we'll take a quick
(19:26):
break and then we'll be right back. I thinks, all right.
So on the positive side of things, here we have
an award show, Latin American Music Awards. They've announced a
(19:49):
twenty twenty four and nominees now. This will take place
April twenty fifth at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in
Las Vegas. This will air at seven pm on UNIVISIONG
and Fade are leading the nominees with twelve nominations each
this year. First and foremost are what's your your thing
(20:10):
on Latin music in general? Or who are you a
fan of? What's what's your take? What's your things?
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I love Latin music, okay, like okay, but I'm like,
I feel like I'm very old for the trending music,
like I of course I.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Know, oh break that down.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I know who best of Luma is.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I know be G, I know all the people write,
but I don't. It's not so bad that I say
I don't know. I don't listen to them. I'm like,
I'm like on my Jenny di Veda, like yeah, I
like the old stuff and so, but I'm happy for
them because I suppoor all the people.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
So yeah, of course, listen, there's nothing nothing wrong with
with that that you're you're on like the Uh, I'm
trying to think who I saw on here because they
have album Artists of the Year. Yeah, I'm trying to
find an old person for you. Hold Love's No. I
think somebody was getting honored, was it? I think it
(21:04):
was it was young Dell from we see on that list?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Is Yeah, Okay, that just made my day. I fucking
love that when I was, you know, back in my prime.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Okay, perfect, So we're we're right there. So so Jan
Dell is actually going to get a special award during
the ninth edition of this Who Else? Ricardo? I think
it's how you pronounced his last name Labanda Lisa Lisa
Haga uh. And then yeah, those are ones, those are
(21:38):
the ones that are getting special awards over here. I
think I was supposed to interview Ricardo, uh, but then
they didn't. He didn't want to speak English, I think,
and my Spanish is trashed. That didn't happen. Yeah, but
if it's okay, I'm not bitter about it. I know
(21:59):
I was to it. I was like, I was totally
cool with it. I think they also thought this is
when I went to Miami and I was I was
like hosting a like a backstage thing at the iHeart
Festival and no shade. But I think they thought they
think my Spanish is less than it actually is, like
that I wouldn't be able to just like make it work.
So so yeah, shame on them for doubting me. Whoever
was doubting me on that.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
But but yeah, so you need your Spanish so that
way he can come on.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
It's true. Listen, I do have a tutor. I have
a virtual tutor, so I'm working on. Yeah, I'm working out.
Or I might just escape to Puerto Rico for a
year and come back just fluid in Spanish as my
other backup plan. So I would love to do that
as well. But you know, we'll see, We'll see how
it works out. Let's see though. Okay, so I was
gonna ask you artists of the Year, but you don't
(22:45):
listen to any of these artists, so it's it's gonna
be okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna say the nominations for
artists just because actually you're gonna know some of them
actually artists A year bed buddy obviously, you know which
I am not familiar with. Isla Bo, I'm not familiar
with Fade Yes, uh, Forsa Hida, Carol g Be, Romeo Santos.
(23:14):
I'm not sure if you're about Shata Fan yes, and
then Shakira.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Oh yes, who doesn't love Shakira?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Okay, you know what's interesting, This is a side conversation.
I'd love to get your take if you've been seeing
the cringe worthy videos on JLO that have been going
on on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I'm just a case so you're familiar.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yes, let's let's discuss this, because Shakira has found a
way to I think age gracefully. And when I say age,
I'm not talking about looks wise or anything like that,
but as an artist where it doesn't feel like she's
trying to be keeping up with what's cool in the
hip it. She just feels like a dope artist still right,
(23:55):
Whereas j Loo, A lot of the critique that has
been happening is people are being sort of calling her
cringey because it feels like she's performing and trying to
like keep up with what's hot or trying to give
off this like facade of realness that just comes across
as very inauthentic. What's your takeing what made you repost
the Jlo thing?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I mean, I've never really been a huge Jelo fan,
and I know I just said, like I support all,
like I love her career, I love her, and so
less sure. I just don't feel like she's a woman
that's for other women. I've always kind of got that
vibe from her, and she is cringey just because she's
I think Shakita is like authentic, you know what I mean,
(24:37):
Like she does music that's authentic to her, and I
feel like Jala's just trying to do whatever it is
that's gonna give, you know, bring her some source of income,
which I hate the hustle.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I guess yeah, I mean it is there is something.
There's always been something off about Jlo, I will say, right,
And it hurts my heart to say that because she's
she's Puerto Rican and from New York City, you know,
like myself, and I think she's incredibly talented in many ways,
and you have to give it up for her career.
(25:10):
At the end of the day, She's had this incredible
career in knowledge just music, but acting and everything like that.
She's a legend. But yeah, there always feels like this
performative element, like we don't really know who she actually is. Like,
you know, she sort of is, to your point, the
opposite of Shakiir, where she comes across as incredibly inauthentic.
(25:31):
You know, it's like she's always putting on this show,
this facade almost of being untouchable, right, And I think
you can't have it. You can't have it both ways,
you know, where you're like untouchable and you are this
sort of larger than life character, but at the same
time you're trying to claim that you're still that same
person from from the block type of thing. Because I
(25:53):
think it then just again feels incredibly inauthentic. And what's
also interesting is like Beyonce is that character, right, She's
larger than life. She is, you know, not like the
everyday person, right, She's like Queen Bee at the end
the day, right, she's obviously, but like she doesn't get
that same critique because I think she presents herself in
a far different manner. I feel like she doesn't feel
(26:15):
like she's I think it's like posturing is really what
Jlo kind of tries to do almost, Whereas if you're
going to be like this sort of uh you know,
larger life icon, you kind of have to live in
that world and that's sort of your persona and let
people sort of meet you there. I don't I don't know.
I'm really just trying to analyze, like what what it
is that I think people are like having this almost
(26:37):
gag reflex too currently.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah, I like the comparison that you made to Beyonce
because I literally I don't want to be eaten up alive,
but I'm.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Not a big thing.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
And yeah, because on the other spectrum, like I don't
feel like she gives enough of herself. Like I don't
know anything about Beyonce, like, but she does live in
this world and she owns it, you know, like I'm
kind of up here. I mean, she doesn't say that,
but she's just not showing you her day to day
lives and so I don't know, Jaylo just needs to
(27:12):
like figure out which one she's gonna do and do it.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah. Yeah, I think also Shakiro, we're bringing back that
comparison Shakira, like because she collaborated with like Karaji who's
like a new newer artist, you know, of this of
this moment of this generation, and doesn't Yeah, and Cardi
B absolutely so. And it doesn't feel like she's like
trying to like grab on to their success to kind
(27:40):
of elevate herself back into the limelight. It just feels
like she's just kind of like joining them where they
are where I feel like, I don't know if there's
something about Jylo that everything just feels forced about it.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yes, I feel like she gives pick me and yeah,
I think she's a Leo. She gives me Leo vibe,
you know, like she made this full ass documentary.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And oh my god, I have no I can't bring
myself to do it. I've seen enough clips on TikTok
that I'm like, there's no fucking way that I would
make it through an hour and a half of this
ship over and over. It's bad, it's horrendous looking. It's
so it's giving, like you know, like it's like when
(28:23):
somebody's like when you were all one of those friends
who's way too extra for their birthday and just like
really just makes it this whole fucking thing and we're
all just along for the ride, like, all right, this
is what they do. I guess we're gonna just all
shut up and like plan into it for the night.
You know that that's like what she is, but on
such a larger scale, especially with this movie that she
apparently like self funded herself. You know, it's just it's
(28:45):
so fucking cruys and I want I want to be
able to support her so badly, like and I don't
want to down talk it, but it's just so cringey.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah, you're having a visceral reaction to.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
I really, I really, And it's because also because it's like,
by the way, I think we're all cringy in our
own way. We're all cringy to somebody, right, And I
don't think you should hold back just for the sake
of being having mass acceptance. But like her cringiness is
like cringey because it's not even cringy because she's being
(29:19):
authentically her. It's cringey because she's like putting on this
show that is so obviously not her. That's what makes
it cringey, you know what I mean. So like that
that's where I'm like, Okay, I think we can critique
it because it's not like, you know, it's not like
Britney Spears, who's doing these weird dances, but it's like
that's what she apparently does, Like on a you know,
Wednesday afternoon, she just films herself in her living room
(29:41):
dancing around. That's her, right, Yeah, And that's a little
bit different.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Because it's real, exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Right, exactly exactly, whereas j Lo, everything about it feels
so like forced, you know, but forced but at the
same time trying to make you feel like it's not forced. Right,
that's what it is, like you're you're forcing it, but
then you're trying to tell me that, oh, it's just
all naturally happening. Unveiling at this you know, like this
is not me trying to put forth a character. It's
(30:07):
it's the real thing. When we all can really see that,
it's it's so much bullshit, you know, layers of nonsense.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yes, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And I just need to say keep the TikTok videos
coming because they've just been giving me so much joy
the last week.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And a the parodies. Also, by the way, we're not
just attacking a Latin one because justin Tarror Lake has
been falling into the same boat as well. Him and
j Low have been hand in hand in like the
cringe wars. I feel like as well, I'm not sure
if you've you've been on that bandwagon as well.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
I haven't. I haven't. I had for what for what
is he doing? I didn't even know he was relevant.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, because he just put out a new album that
apparently did horribly, you know, And and I guess a
lot of people are saying the same thing, where he's
trying to, you know, sort of be this relevant current
artist and it's just not working for him. It's like
people have sort of the tithes of change for whatever reason, right,
and then he's like bringing it sync into it, I think,
(31:05):
to try to gain the nostalgia thing, and for whatever reason,
it's just not clicking. And I think there was a
lot of backlash about people saying that he basically made
a career off of sort of his interpolation of black
music essentially right, and now in today's day and age,
(31:25):
there's sort of it's very obvious. I think there's a
lot less acceptance for that, and I think there are
a lot more black artists doing it at a high
level and mainstream where it's like, justin Timberlake is irrelevant
in comparison to those who are genuinely doing it, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, totally. I thought some of the like back I
don't know what backlash, but was also because of ol
Britney Spears memoir and like yes he did are so dirty,
and yeah, I don't support that man, And honestly, I
never was like a huge pop person, So yeah, I
don't follow him at allme.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
No harm, you don't even Yeah, listen, you're probably better off.
It's one less Instagram trend you have to follow right now,
TikTok trend that you have to follow. But yeah, I
think I just think it's really interesting. I think even
just in like the current climate right for all the
shit that I give, social media one thing that's really
interesting and I think like a positive thing. And it's
(32:25):
evident when you see people having this reaction to j Loo,
it's like, I think we are kind of moving into
an error where authenticity is sort of leading the way
and is sort of what people are yearning for right
after we've had you know whatever, I guess a decade
at this point of like, you know, hyper perfect social
media era. Now, people think are craving a little bit
(32:46):
more realness. And I think some of these older pop
stars from you know, like the two thousands are having
a trouble, having trouble transitions because their whole thing was
built on this larger than life type of performance and
people are crave being a bit more. And I think
those who don't necessarily have an authentic bone in their
body or don't know how to be you know, open
(33:08):
and vulnerable and things like that, they're probably having a
hard time making that transition into uh, you know, the
more authentic and vulnerable I think sort of trend that's
going on in media in general.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah, and that it makes me think because how I mean,
are we to blame also because or not or just
the industry in general. You know, like maybe Jala doesn't
know who she is because from this young age she
was told like, this is going to be your demographic
(33:43):
and this is what you're going to sell to. And
you know, when she was with PDNY, she was this way,
and she was Mark Anthony, she was this way, and
so she doesn't have an identity and now and then
now on the like we're demanding one, you know, like
figure it out who are you so we can like
you or not like you.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
So yeah, yeah, I think that that's that's an interesting
point as well. I think that the entertainment industry is
a lot different back then where you had they were
literally like these executives crafting stars, right and like creating
their whole personas you know. And yet to your point,
I imagine it's hard to sort of grow up in
(34:21):
that you probably lost yourself somewhere along the way and
then now you're sort of everything that you ever did
to be successful is like backfiring on you. And it's
probably an incredibly scary place to to sort of be.
And you know, she's grasped me. I think it's straws
to try and hold on to that that identity I
(34:42):
gets at this point that was created probably now is
her to your point where she doesn't even know who
how she is at this point?
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Yeah, now I feel now I'm over here a feeling
stopped for Jaila.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Maybe that shit, you got to make a reaction video
where you showcase this perspective of the of the Jalo
crete that might be might be a winning thing. And
let's let's talk about your your buddy media career over here.
Okay as you have launched the Okayla podcast, which congratulations.
I'm incredibly proud of you. I remember when you were
(35:13):
talking about this, when we would we all get together
for the just Be Social Club Mastermind group, and you would,
you know, express the interest in that. And now you
are one of the few people in general, not just there,
but in life who expresses an interest in something, puts
in the work, and then actually goes out and does it,
and it consistently does it because I think you just
(35:33):
what crossed with the twenty episodes or something like that.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Yeah, what I was.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
So that's not easy to do because a lot of
people underestimate how much work a fucking podcast actually is.
So yeah, tell us. I guess about the podcast first
and foremost, like, what's the premise of it all?
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, So it's a podcast that I do with my sister.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
We say, like, our whole thing is we're complete opposites,
but we're exactly the same. So and then just our mission,
I guess, is to kind of create dialogue within our
community and provide information for people in a way that's genuine, authentic.
And I guess our whole the whole gist of it
(36:14):
is that we're just like normal ass regular women, you know,
like there's nothing particularly special about us, you know, I
don't know. I just feel like we're very relatable and
I want to share, yeah, share information with people, like
how I would have these conversations with my sister privately.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
So yeah, that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
It's beautiful. So I want to I want to now
pick your brain from the perspective of what has surprised
you most about the podcasting game that you didn't expect
when you were sort of conceptualizing the idea, because I
think this is a great case study for people who
are interested in it. And I always get asked about
podcasting or d about it, and I want to I
(37:02):
don't think people know what they are getting themselves into.
So I would love for you to to let me
know some things that surprise you about podcasting.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Well, honestly everything, Like first the time, I mean, I
knew it was going to be time consuming, but just right,
I'm like, I also have a full time job, I'm
a mom and a wife and all of these things,
so trying to make time for that was really hard
in the beginning. And now we kind of have a
routine and then like I don't know shit about audio
(37:30):
or technical stuff like, so I had to figure all
of that on my own. I'm like youtubing stuff and yeah,
and we're not perfect by any means, but it's just
doing it really.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I think that's great. That's that's a great
uh sort of tag or phrase to get from. That
is like it really is. You just have to do
it right. It's like it gets it genuinely gets better
over time just by proxy of you putting in the reps.
And I think I think a lot of people get
caught up in the perfectionism part of it, where they
(38:04):
might like listen to their favorite podcast and then if
it doesn't sound exactly like they're like that podcast, they
think there's this complete shit it just should be abandoned
or like that. You know, they're they're just not cut
out for it. And I think there are are levels
to it at the end of the day that people
just have to allow themselves to sort of slowly, slowly
get to, you know. I mean, I think even if
(38:25):
you listen to like the first episode of this show
to now it's like if you're I mean, I'm more
of like an audio nerd, So like I can tell
you the audio quality was shit back then because I
was like, you know, recording it in a dining room
that wasn't you know, sound controlled whatsoever. And I didn't
know how to properly process or edit it, you know
at the time. You know. So it's like those sorts
of things, like you have to just be okay with it.
(38:47):
And I think also it's like, I don't want to
use the word failing. I'm using this loosely, but you
have to be okay with failing publicly, and failing is
in air quotes right now as I say that. But
you have to be okay with it not being the
like polished version that you sometimes have in your head,
and understand that like consistency is always better than like,
you know, just obsessing over every little detail totally.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
And yeah, I mean, like I said, we're still learning, sure,
and yeah, if we waited for perfection, we wouldn't one
can be consistent or we would have have ever started.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So yeah, and how has that with your working with
your your sister like that?
Speaker 3 (39:27):
I'm curious, Oh man, We've had so many podcasts that
haven't like aired because we're just like well, I guess
we're not as entertaining as we thought we were or
were just on the verge of throwing blows.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
So yeah, yeah, but it's fun.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
And it gives us a reason to kind of make
sure that we're consistent, like she has to come over
every week, and I mean we're close anyways, but I
love making that time for us to like just have
adult conversations.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah. I think that's the other thing as well, where
a lot of people get so caught up on the
end result, like of it becoming something, right, like having
listeners and figure out ways to monetize it and things
like that, which is all great. Those are all great
goals to have in mind, but something I always constantly
try to reiterate is like it also should just be
(40:16):
something that like fills your cup a bit, right, that
brings you joy in the moments that you do it.
It's something that breaks you out of your normal routine, right,
It's something creative for you to do something for you
to just have an outlet for your voice, for your opinion,
you know, and that we're we all need that at
some point. And I think a lot of people, because
they're so fixated on the end result don't realize that,
(40:37):
Like you know, and I'm not saying this for your
podcast or anybody out there who's just starting, like at
the bare minimum, if you just have an outlet that
gives you joy for an hour or two a week,
that you could just release that energy and like, you know,
scratch it, that creative itch. It's worth it. At the
end of the day. It doesn't matter if nobody is
listening or if a million people are listening. Like, if
(40:58):
it brings you joy, it's already a success within that. Right.
I think adult life we try to quantify how we
spend our time with like you know, monetary things, right,
how how is it valuable? Is it making me money?
Is it this or or else? It's not worth it?
And like, just like you know, as kids, we needed
hobbies to break outside of our normal. I don't think
as adults we lose that. But just like we get
(41:18):
caught up in adult life and we think we no
longer need those things or they're not useful. And really
I think there's a lot to learn from from the
way kids can sort of just play without having that
grand us vision of mine.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
Yeah, I like that what you said a lot because
I found myself. The reason for the podcast was I
just like, didn't I mean, taking it back to j Lo,
I didn't know who I was.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
I was just I was just a mom.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
And just a teacher, and just a wife and just
a chauffeur and a cook, and I didn't have anything
that I felt was just mine. And yeah, my sister's
doing it completely by herself. She's a single parent, so
hurt even more so than me. So this was just
something that kind of gave us that joy. Not that
(42:06):
not that all those other things, don't you know, because that.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Was like not.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
They're like, what the fuck?
Speaker 4 (42:14):
They give me the most joy?
Speaker 1 (42:16):
But there you go than amazing. You almost get yourself
tripped up there. That's also part of the scary part
about recording everything that you're doing is, uh, there's evidence
when you fuck up or say something stupid. But all right,
So people can can check out the okay La podcast
(42:38):
anywhere you find podcasts. It is oh and then the
Spanish word get q u e la podcast where can
people follow you and keep up with all you're doing.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
So we're on instagramla o q u e l a
dot podcast and we're actually I just kind of organized
a series of lives for the month of April, so
you'll definitely want to check us out.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
There, and yeah, we're.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Excited if you want to go listen to us and
all the shit we talk.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Do it. Yes, you gotta just go check it out. Also,
I think I saw one of the lives you're doing. Brenda,
a friend of the show, is going to be on
one of the lives, right.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Yes, I'm so yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. Yeah, I
asked her. Yeah, that's yoah for sure, and she's so
freaking busy, so I'm like thrilled that she said yes.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Yeah. But this is the other thing too that I'll
like put a pin on what we're talking about. Like
even just you get to connect with other interesting fucking
people by doing the podcast, right, Like, it doesn't always
have to be the most famous person in the world
or whatever. It's just really cool to be in community
with other people, to like have access to conversation with
other people that you find to be interesting, right, And
(43:53):
that's like a gift again in itself, is to be
able to sit down, even if it's just virtually and
just have a conversation with somebody that you find to
be interesting and like the you know, sort of inspiration
or just I don't know, the human need for having
good conversation, like all that is so tied into this
as well. Yes, that it's the benefits are so much
bigger than listenership or or money at the end of
(44:15):
the day, you know, And I want to always harp
on that because I know it's it's it's tough to
not it's tough to start out from scratch, and then
you're like, you know, putting the pressure to get listeners
and all these different things, and I think you end
up forgetting all of the positives that are coming out
of you just sort of giving your all to this
this project at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's so it's so good just to connect.
And I think that's like where we put a lot
of the weight, like the purpose of the podcast just
we want to talk to people.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
I love it. I love it well, Nicole, it is
amazing to have you on the show. I am loving
this full circle moment right here. Congrats on on starting
the podcast and all the work that you've been been
putting and uh, it's just beautiful, beautiful to see. It's
inspiring to me. To see your growth and all that
to have you on the show. So I appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I really just want to carve this little time out
to say thank you you. I truly do feel like
you inspired this change in me. Like I did all
the work, I understand that, but just you having your
platform and you know, I just typed in like Latino
(45:29):
podcasts or Latina podcast and you popped up and I've
been listening ever since, and just seeing a space where
I felt like I belonged has really been transformative for me.
So I really want to thank you for doing that.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Thank you. Yeah, thank you for sharing. I was having
a mild panic attack accepting this accomplishence, thank you so much.
I'm receiving it. I'm taking it in all right, I'm
not going to brush it off. I really do genuinely
appreciate that. And yeah, it's it's always nice to to
be able to connect with people. And I appreciate your
support that you've you've given me along the way, and
(46:05):
I think it's just sort of I don't know, it's
just a reminder of how important it is to sort
of express your interests to the world and put yourself
out there because you never know where it's going to
lead you, or the sort of circles or communities that
you'll find yourself in as a result, and sort of
(46:26):
the joy that it's inevitably going to bring you just
by being able to connect with other like minds. So yeah,
it's beautiful. So thank you, thank you so much, and
great to have you here on the show. Of course
we'll do it again sooner rather than later, but thank
you for making your podcast debut. Your life is an
ago debut, I should say on today's show.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Man, big shots of my guest this week, the Cole
vague of hopping on the show, just amazing man. And
by the way, Nicole got on the show because she
actually just asked and threw it out there and said, hey,
if you ever need a guest for Thursday Trends, I
would love to do it, and here we are. She's
a guest on the show. So you know, as they say,
closed mouths do not get fed, and that's why she
(47:09):
is on the show. I'm so proud of her, so
happy all that she's accomplished and the growth that's happened
over the last year or so of me really getting
to know her. Just amazing to see so beautiful stuff.
Loved having her on the show. Shout out to the
entire Just Be Social Club as well, which we'll be
opening back up end of April is the target date,
(47:29):
so stay tuned for that. And yeah, you could be
a part of it as well, our little growing community
that we have. With that said, I want to get
y'all's take on one of the topics that we were
talking about today. Will do that far ask a getting segment,
but first to take a quick break and then we'll
be right back ask all right, So the story I
(47:57):
wanted to get y'all's take on because I just find
it really interesting and I want to see if maybe
Nicole and I are on an island by ourselves. But
j Loo and all the hate that j Loo has
gotten as of late is fascinating to me, particularly on
the internet. So I'm gonna read some of the responses
I got. Let's see here at Talia Facus says apparently
(48:20):
her journey to success wasn't genuine. She'd steal people's songs
all the time. Also, she can perform, but people claim
she can't sing. I love how Talia said people claim
she can't sing, instead of maybe saying herself that she
can't say that that jay Loo can't sing, throwing a
little shade, but with claiming it's coming from other people.
(48:41):
I see you, Tilia. You're not pulled anybody, but you're
you're learning, You're learning quickly. Your your pop training, pop
star training, is working out where you are not going
to get yourself in unnecessary drama. And I respect that.
But yeah, I think that's actually interesting to argue it
about her stealing songs. But what's fascinating to me is
(49:02):
this is legitimately just pop music one on one. It's
this is what happens like most of you, of your
favorite pop stars don't actually write their own music, right,
they're presented songs, I mean, and this is anybody like
for the most part, or they have, you know, a
hand in sort of what the topics of conversation are
(49:25):
in the writing process, but they're not really writing it themselves.
They have a team of writers or a songwriter that
they're specifically working with, you know. So that's very calm.
I know a lot of people sort of say has
she stole like a lot of Ashanti songs early on,
And I don't know if stealing is the right word.
I think it's just the nature of the industry. A
lot of times you have an artist who, like a
(49:48):
Shanty maybe before she blew up, wasn't a household name,
but wrote a great song, and the label or producers
are like, hey, let's give it to Jennifer Lopez, who's
a gigantic star, and this song could be a hit,
because with you right now, at the level of your
career is at, it probably won't be a hit, right,
So that's sort of the idea. But that's a story
(50:09):
as old as time. I mean, anybody you know, Justin
Bieber love Yourself. That song was written by Ed Sheerner,
you know, and then give it to Justin Bieber like
like that happens all the time. Now, is she the
Jennifer Lopez the world's greatest singer? No, I don't think so.
She's a great performer though, and so basically what Britney
Spears built a career off of as well, So she's
(50:29):
not the only one. She's a star. She's had great,
great songs back in the day and put on a
hell of a show. So I think that's sort of
what it is, and people are of course are gonna
hate on that. What I also love is people in
my DMS coming to her defense. I think it's absolutely amazing.
Let me see the homie Andrew. But you guys said,
(50:50):
if you need someone to come fervently to her defense,
I'll send my mom your way. She'd be ready to
fight people over j Lo's name. That's amazing. It's not everyone.
It doesn't just hate her, obviously, Jennifer Lopez is a star.
Plenty of fans. People love her, people fuck with her.
I think, particularly of a certain generation. I just think
(51:10):
it's there's some sort of disconnect between the younger generation
or current you know, social media climate and Jennifer Lopez,
you know where she I think people don't necessarily respect
the history. I think that's also what happens. We also
could be I think, to a degree, prisoners of the moment.
(51:31):
We forget just how big of a star Jennifer Lopez
was in both music and film when she was at
the top of her game, Like, if I'm not mistaken,
she was like the first person to have a number
one movie and number one album in the same week
or something like that, or at the same time. So
she was a gigantic star in her day, still a
huge star, but like you know, trend shitting star at
(51:53):
the peak of her career. So I think we forget
that just a little bit at Yes he underscore, yes, yes,
says who's hating on j Lo? Question mark exclamation points.
Oh nah, so we got some j Lo lovers out here? Okay,
I mean again, I want to defend j Loo so bad.
(52:14):
I respect the shit out of her, I genuinely do.
But she always has struck me as like a bit inauthentic,
and I thought it was just me because I feel
like I have hyper sensitive to that, because you know,
authenticity is kind of my thing, and I felt like
I'm always a bit hyper sensitive to people who it
(52:35):
feels like they're putting on a show always or a
performance and not really just letting themselves hang loose, you know,
and even in media. You know, I'm now like I
feel like weird divulging a lot of stuff. But like,
you know, I think certain artists when they walk in
(52:55):
the room because I've been in the room with Jennifer
Lopez before and we were to giving an interview, and yeah,
I think there is sort of this performance element of
they are above. I don't want to say they're above,
but they come from a different time period where you
didn't open up about your deepest and darkest emotion secrets
(53:17):
to vulnerability. Right. It today's climate, someone goes on a
fucking Jay Shetty podcast and spills their heart basically, right,
or goes on the breakfast club and cries or whatever, right,
you know, And back in the day, that wasn't really
the norm. You know, it was you know, it was
just like very sort of super even more superficial than
(53:38):
it is now. It was very much just like, let's
talk about the music or the project that you're promoting,
right or you know, sort of the very superficial aspect
of your career, very like let's protect the pop star
image type of thing. And again that's an old mentality,
and I think from my perspective looking in, that was
(53:59):
a bit of what I sort of noticed sort of
being in a room where Jennifer Lopez was being interviewed.
It was a lot of that like old school let's
protect the pop star image sort of mindset coming in
there and aura that was happening, especially with the team
around her. And again, it's no shade. That's you know,
operating from a different time. But I just think that
(54:19):
doesn't translate into day Today's sort of hyper connected, hyper
vulnerable day and age that we live in. With that said,
thank y'all so much for participating in that conversation at
DJA Dramas Instagram. I just want to get y'all's take
on that. See if I'm the only crazy one. I
love how we just kind of went there randomly. Now,
let's tie everything we talked about today in a neat
little boat in a segment we call conclusion stew.
Speaker 6 (54:43):
Time for conclusion, all right, So again, big shout out
to the homie Nicolevega, host of the Okay Lab podcast
and og.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Member of the Just Be Social Club to have her
on the show today. A little full circle moment is
a beautiful thing. Now to recap all we talked about today,
Miss Florida social media band for children under the age
of fourteen. Yeah, I mean I struggle with this, and
I like my knee jerk reaction is like awesome, amazing.
(55:19):
But then, like as I've kind of have been like
digesting it a little bit, I'm not flip flopping on
my opinion per se but I think it is kind
of like scary to be like, all right, well, like
are we giving the government just a little bit too
much power here over things that are kind of menial
or could be personal to a parent's decision, rather than
(55:40):
like needing the government to step in, right, And I
think my initial reaction was like, yeah, social media I
think is incredibly damaging for teenagers and younger. I think
it's incredibly damaging for adults when we realize it or
want to admit it or not. That I can imagine
as a teenager who you know, is not as emotionally intelligent,
be a very scary sort of place to to have
(56:03):
to grow up in front of, right, and a lot
of a lot of pressure. I think Nicole brought that
up as well as a woman and you know, beauty
standards and all these different things as well, and just
so much like a fuck with a kid's mental But
to her point, I think we can have that sort
of back and forth about is this the government overstepping
I think at the end of the day to what
she said, what Nicole was saying was if they're really
(56:25):
interested in people's mental health, specifically children's mental health, then
provide mental health resources. Make that something that you are championing.
Championing why is that word sound so weird? Championing. Make
that something you're getting behind, if you will, instead of
of sort of this performative thing where you know it's
(56:45):
gonna draw headlines. And that's probably why they're doing this, right,
It's gonna draw a lot of headlines about you know,
banning social media rather than like investing money into mental
health resources. Right. That's not a sexy of a headline
that's gonna get reposted on the blogs, and they know that.
And that's the same part, is this sort of performance
element that really just provides band aids because unfortunately, the
(57:06):
band aids provide sexier headlines, right, and are far easier
than actually creating substantial change. So I think that's what
we're seeing a lot of in stuff like this and
the Trump Bibles. I mean, you know, I was seeing,
of all people, I came across this article or this
post from Jake Paul on TikTok. I think it was
a clip either from one of his podcasts or him
(57:27):
doing an interview talking about the Trump Bibles. And shockingly,
he had a great perspective of sort of talking about
how Trump is now coming across as just like this
sleazy salesman that is trying to make a quick bucket
all turns right, and almost coming across as desperate, right,
not moving from a place of strength, And I think
(57:48):
that's totally right. I think he's just throwing his name
on a bunch of random shit and doing it during
the time when he obviously needs to be raising money.
Obvious what he's doing. The only problem is that his supporters,
I think majority of them are not going to see
it that way. They are kind of too far in,
(58:08):
They've drank too much of the kool aid, and they're
not going to see him as like the sleazy salesman
who's just like a used car salesman trying to you know,
get a quick buck on you. Unfortunately, I think they're
all too deep into kind of recognize just how weird
and just gross this whole thing is, Particularly when you're
using people's faith against them, I think is particularly disgusting.
(58:31):
And unfortunately, much like we talked about today, I think
most people who are still you know, supporting him and
spending their hard earned money even when they're not in
a position of you know, crazy monetary privilege. I think
unfortunately they are sort of just too far gone at
this point. If they haven't, you know, sort of come
to come to Jesus if you will to keep it
(58:54):
in religion now, I mean hit that segment. We talked
a bit about the Latin of American Music Awards. Shout
out to Yandell, one of my favorites growing up. Who's
gonna be honored with a special award. It's happening April
twenty fifth in Vegas. It'll air on UDI visiong Best
Blooma and Fade leading with the nominations with twelve each,
which is absolutely amazing. It's cool to see like the
(59:16):
next class of artists coming through and killing it, and
Bad Buddy is still obviously relevant people like that. But
then you have like Best Blooma representing for the Mexicans
and just representing a whole other class of people, and
Fade is from Puerto Rico. If I'm not mistake, I
feel like I oftentimes will claim an artist that I
like just to to make them Puerto Rican. I'm becoming
(59:40):
like my father. But yeah, I think Fad is from
Puerto Rico. Just googling it to make sure. Oh, fate
is actually from Columbia. You see, this was one of
those instances where I wanted to claim Fade as one
of our So he is from Columbia. I listen, I
(01:00:02):
love Columbia. Shot to Columbia. But yeah, he's one of
my favorite artists currently and I wanted him to be
Puerto Rican so badly. So that's my own personal bias
right there. So a big shot to him though, leading
in those nominations Game twelve nominations along with bestl Bloomba,
which is crazy, and yeah, Artist of the Year, I'll
give my take. I don't know. If I did give
my take on that, I would say artists of this
(01:00:25):
last year. For me personally, I would you have to
go Karl Ge. I think Carolgi crossed over into super
stardom beyond even just the Latin market. I think the
same way Bad Bunny did that maybe what a year ago,
two years ago, whatever it was essentially with the when
(01:00:49):
that came out, that really just crossed over into mainstream
superstardom success for him. I think Calgi did very much
that for herself in this last year, so I would
have to give it to her person sing humbly. That's
my opinion. I don't vote, or you don't know how
the voting does work, but yeah, that's just my humble
opinion here on this podcast, and we randomly got to
(01:01:10):
j Lo again. I just think authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. I
will sing that till the cows come home. If that
isn't saying, right, I personally just think in today's day
and age, we are all so sick of the fake
shit that we're starving for real people, real connection, real
(01:01:32):
human beings to support with our time, energy and money. Right,
I think that social media has exhausted us of seeing
perfection all the time, every day, all day, every day. Right,
these perfect ig models and amazing lifestyles and rich bros
with awesome cars and blah blah blah blah blah. My
life is so amazing. Life is so amazing, and it's
(01:01:55):
incredibly unrelatable. But it's exhausting because I think we've all
initially at this point, or I say not initially, but
now I've gotten to the point where we realize it's
all bullshit. We've seen enough of these people, these stars
or these whatever content creators be called out on their
bullshit and their lives aren't what they've made them out
(01:02:16):
to be. So I think we're all sort of sick
of the fake shit. We want somebody we could relate
to that doesn't make us feel like our life sucks
or that we are abum in comparison, And I think
a lot of again the legacy artists, are having trouble
sort of making that switch because they've grown up during
a time. It came up during a time where they
had to put on this sort of picture perfect pop
(01:02:39):
star persona, and for some of them, they're probably incredibly
uncomfortable having to be vulnerable and so intimate in the
way that today's social media era sort of demands of
pop stars at tabloid culture and all the above and
and internet culture, podcasting, all these different things, these different
avenues for people to sort of be in the loop
(01:03:01):
of what you're doing, and I think it's probably incredibly uncomfortable.
A lot of them, again didn't grow up or didn't
come up in their career having to open up in
that way to their fans, and I think it's probably
a weird transition for many people. So that's my take
on it. Again, I know we had a lot of
opinion responses to j Lo I still think she's an
(01:03:22):
absolute legend. You can't take away the amazing career that
she's had. I think she's sort of really indirectly had
sometimes directly done a great job at just being Latin
representation right in a world that really didn't didn't do that.
(01:03:43):
At the time when she was popular, particularly as somebody
from New York, as a Puerto Rican, it was great
to sort of see her, especially during the on the
sixth era, you know, I think it was amazing the
music was fired during that time as well, and then
even you know, more recently, the Super Bowl wromance to
me is still legendary. It goes down as my favorite
one of all time with her, Shakira, Bed Bunny and
(01:04:05):
Jay Balvin. So I just think just beautiful, beautiful stuff.
In that way, I think she's a legend. She's cemented that,
you know, regardless of if she's become the internite's new
favorite meme or whatever, it is still legend. Still an
amazing career, just different at the end of the day. Now,
with that said, thank y'all so much for tuning into
(01:04:26):
today's episode. I will catch you on Tuesday with a
brand new show. Until then, stay safe, have an amazing weekend,
and I'll talk to you soon. Life as a Good
Ino is a production of the micro Thura podcast network
and iHeartRadio
Hi, let me talk about Tom. Here we go, he
said he live in life pasic ringle.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wait, you question when you feel in Every time you mingle,
they say, you do this with not fingo. Yes, Hello,
and welcome to another episode of Life as a Gringo.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I am dramos. Of course it is Thursday, so that
means it's time for our Thursday Trends episode and joining
me on the show today. A friend of the show
basically from day one. She is the host of the
New Okay podcast. She's an og member of the Just
Be Social Club. Nico Vega, how you feeling?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Hi, Hi, I'm doing good. I'm glad to be here, Excited, nervous,
all the things.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, I mean all the things. But this is amazing
full circle moment because if I'm not mistaken, I believe
you were a listener of the podcast right prior to
you and I knowing each other, and then for the
Just Be Social Club, we've gotten to know each other
and you now are a podcast to yourself. So man,
here we are.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Yeah. Yeah, definitely full circle. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It feels like a little surreal being here because I mean,
I know you've been like three years in but it
feels like just yesterday, I just started listening.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So yeah, it's amazing how fast it all goes by.
But you've been one of the active listeners. You might
know her. I think it's as at nik Alosa underscore
Vega if I'm not mistaken. So I feel like you've
been on the show before. But I think it's cool
to see you doing your thing. And we'll get into
the new podcast that you've just launched you been working on.
(01:44):
But of course we got to get to these stories
this week, so we're gonna talk about social media and
this new band that is happening in Florida for teenagers.
I want to get your take on that. Donald Trump
is back to his creative fundraising, if you want to
call it that, So we'll touch on that. I also,
(02:04):
I'm throwing this to you last minute, but we added
Latin American Music Awards twenty twenty four. The nominees haven't announced.
I'm gonna get your take on some music as well.
And then of course we will talk about your podcast.
But before we get into all the warm and fuzzy stuff,
let's just dive into the nonsense the bs. In a
segment we call for the people in the back say,
(02:29):
a lot of.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
The people in the back say A lot of the
people in the say a lot of the people in
the back.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
All right, So let's first and foremost start here with
this social media band in Florida, right, And I definitely
want to get your take on this, but I have
to say, for me, I'm just gonna preface it by
saying this might be one of the few times I
agree with Florida Governor Ron Desantas on something, as he
signed a bill on Monday to ban social media for
(03:08):
children under the age of fourteen. Now. The legislation is
titled HB three. It also requires parental consent for children
aged fourteen and fifteen to create social media accounts. It
will not take effect until January first of twenty twenty five. Again,
this is in Florida, and they're saying that this marks
one of the most restrictive social media bands for miners
(03:28):
in the United States. Republican speaker Paul Renner, who championed
the bill, said he expects social media platforms to quote sue,
but quote unquote he plans to beat them. He also
stated that the platforms addictive technologies could harm children's developing brain,
so I've already kind of said my piece a little
bit here. I want to get your take. I know
you are both a teacher and a parent, if I'm
(03:51):
not mistaken, right, So you have a great, I think
perspective to give on this. What is your thoughts when
you see this happening?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
At first, I'm not surprised it's in Florida, right, Like,
I'm not second, I kind of call bullshit. I feel like, I, oh, yeah,
so I'm surprised that you are in agreement. I do understand,
like it is addictive and it's not good for children,
but I think, I mean, we need to stop trying
to legislate parenting really, and I yeah, I just don't
(04:23):
feel like I know he's saying that it's like for
mental kids well being, but I just don't. I don't
find that to be true. Like, if you're worried about
kids mental health, yeah, how about you make free mental
health care for for all youth or you know?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Right?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Yeah, I just like, yeah, I call bullshit.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I mean I have to agree in that capacity.
A I think there's probably other bigger fishes to fry,
if you will, if we truly are caring about other people, right,
I think there are children going hungry all over the
country and school programs being defunded all over the country
that could use far more funding to actually take care
of those children. But I think, you know, bullshit aside,
(05:08):
and obviously all of this stuff is very much its
performance are at the end of the day, modern politics
is performative. I think I think I agree solely just
because I'm so scared of social media and I see
what it does to adults, and I think it's it's
it's fun. Like I was on social media probably around
(05:31):
this age, like early stages of it. Maybe MySpace was
around during that time. I think there were a couple
other ones that were more like less social media, but
maybe I don't know. I remember there's a couple, like
a couple of old school ones I can't remember the
name off the top of my head that were like
the pre you know, kind of the predecessors to the
modern social media era, right, And the thing is there
(05:53):
was a barrier to access because it wasn't like you
you had it on your phone where you can look
at it all day. The entire school was on. All
your friends weren't necessarily on it, like I was one
of the rare people who knew about it from like
an older cousin or something like that. Right, So if
I did something on there, it wasn't like I had
to go face the entire school the next day, or
that I could be bullied or something like that. Now,
(06:14):
I think you bring up a great point about parenting, right,
and where this then crosses the line into somebody telling
you how to raise your kids. And that's something I
obviously am ignorant to not having children, but I do
find it sort of fascinating that there is sort of
that line. I'd love for you to kind of dive
(06:35):
into that bit deeper kind of what your stance is
a bit on that.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I mean, yeah, I agree with the sentiment like kids
should be monitored on social media. My kids are super young,
they're six and seven, so I'm not quite there yet,
thank god. But I do work in a high school setting,
and so I see the impact of social media, and
a lot of it is negative, and just as a woman,
like the pressure as a grown woman, so I can't
(07:01):
imagine for a child. Again, I just don't think we
need to waste time and effort and tax dollars to parent.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I yeah, I mean it wouldn't make a difference to
me because my kids aren't going to have social media
until I deem them responsible enough to have social media,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's a I mean, yeah, it's it's it's
tough because it's like, you know, you you want to
leave it up to the parents, which I get that sentiment, like,
you know, let the parents parent their kids as they
as they see fit. And I think there is this
gray area of of like how much is too much
power to give to the government at the end of
the day, right where you're really relinquishing a lot of
(07:42):
control into the hands of these people who again are
performing more than anything else. And to your point, when
they're inviting lawsuits, the people paying for the lawsuits are
going to be the taxpayers of Florida at the end
of the day having to fund the attorney fees. When
you know, Instagram and or TikTok and all them decide
to file these lawsuits if they do come into play,
(08:05):
it's it's it's tough. Honestly, I don't like, I don't
have the right answer at the end of the day.
I wish I wish I really had a more concise thing.
I think. Again, obviously there are are worst things happening
for kids, but I think social media is just fucking
scary even as an adult. You know it is. And
I feel like I harp on this a lot, but
I feel like people are glossing over just how much
(08:27):
of an impact it has had on just like everyday
culture as a human being and the way that we
all operate and sort of what we've normalized as a
result of just having something like social media that really
preys upon all of our insecurities, you know, in the
deepest way, and also is purposely designed to be incredibly addictive.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, that part, I guess I don't really even realize
how addictive it is. I mean for myself, like again,
a grown a grown ass woman. So I guess, yeah,
I get what you're saying, and I get I guess
what the Stantia's a saying, but.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Right, but.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It is a slippery slope. Yeah, I don't have the
right answer.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I think that what they fucked up on initially
is like, unfortunately, because of the age demographic of those
in power, they sort of slept on social media and
allowed these companies to become incredibly powerful with zero regulation, right,
and now it's become this everyday part of our life,
(09:41):
and we're trying, they're trying to play catch up, but
it's like it's got it's gone too fucking far at
this point. What it's legitimately controlling everything, every aspect that
controls the way political campaigns are run. It is the
new television, it's the new media. Everybody you know, is
every industry is figuring out out how to do the
social media thing. Right, They are all bending to that.
(10:03):
So it really has a stranglehold on every aspect of
someone's life, you know. And and that's sort of where
they fucked up at the end of it. They really
allowed this to get far bigger than and more powerful
than it probably should have been. And also, I mean,
I don't I don't know how to fuck you regulate
this really. I mean, you know, there's gonna be workarounds
(10:26):
for it and things like that. I really don't even
know how this in a practical sense would even work.
But I guess to kind of surmise all that we're
talking about, for you, you feel like things like this
fall more in line with what the parents' responsibility is
as opposed to anything else I do.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And I just like want to reiterate, like what is
the I guess what is the point of this ban?
You know, like if you're saying that it's mental health
worrying about kids' mental health, then let's address mental health.
There's way better ways to address mental health. Is it safety,
Let's address safety. It's just I feel like, look over
here kind of moment, and yes, yeah so, and yeah,
(11:05):
you're counters that, right. We don't have the resources or
the capacity even to address how big of an issue
of social media is. So we're just like scratching at whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah. I mean, but this is typical, like you know,
political gamesmanship where they're like, you're absolutely right. It's like
look over here. Meanwhile, like there's a fucking burning house
behind you know, behind you you know, and and it's
it's like the old card game, like the three card
Monti type of thing, where they're sort of playing these
tricks of the eye on you when you're absolutely right.
(11:37):
If mental health is a true concern for children, then
why not find a way to have universal mental health
care for children in school systems?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And and that be a policy. Right, It's the same
shit with like abortion and like they claim, you know,
being pro life, but are able to ignore you know,
gun violence and ignore people starving and ignore yeah, you know,
kids not having the resources needed to live a healthy lifestyle.
So yeah, I think that that's probably the best way
(12:09):
I can summarize it is piggybacking off of what you said.
Is like, you know, there, maybe there there is some
truth here in in sort of what is being said
about the harmful effects of social media, but it's just
another sort of performative band aid and it means to
ignore the much larger problem so that they don't have
(12:30):
to spend more money or you know, go after their
NRA buddies when we're talking about concert or things like that,
you know, or the pharmaceutical companies when it comes to everything.
I mean, it's just like obviously all this stuff is
really just again it's it's performative band aids. I think
at the end of the day, to piggyback off of
kind of what you.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Said, truly.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, all right, Well another performative person here, Donald Trump.
He has brought us the Trump Gold sneakers. There was
also an NFT Back in the day, there was a
Trump University that I forgot about. I read about that
when I was reading this article. And now his latest
(13:10):
ploy to his base is releasing a set of Bibles.
So Donald Trump this last week started promoting a line
of bibles in partnership with country music star Lee Greenwood,
whose song God Blessed the USA has been played countlessly
at the president's of political rallies. Trump has, of course
(13:33):
encouraged his followers to spend the sixty dollars on these
bibles that doesn't include chipping and taxes, and the bible
is named the God bless the USA Bible. Now, of course,
this is all coming on the back of Trump owing
close to half a billion dollars in fines from New
York City alone in fraud, even though his bond was
(13:55):
lowered to one hundred and seventy five million dollars, which
he has to pay. But the latest ploy from Donald
Trump to make money and it's a Bible. Your thoughts
on this.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I mean, I hope it goes about saying obviously I
fucking hate this man, but yeah, I mean this is
I mean, this is genius, like he is, like it's
marketing one oh one, because hypocrisy is literally the backbone
of is right right lean Christianity. So I mean, yeah,
(14:29):
he knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
He is a master salesman. I like, I have to
give it to him. The man, the man, like you said,
knows what he's doing. He's somehow, some way always keeps
like slipping out of whatever fucking hole he digs himself into,
and his merch is fire. Like I wish I was
(14:52):
a Donald Trump fan, you know, Like I was a fan,
I would be so Sue, you can get Donald Trump
everything you know, and and it's it's fucking genius at
the end of the day. And now it's obviously scary
because to me, I look at it and I'm like, man,
he's really just putting on a masterclass on being successful,
(15:14):
basically on the fact that if you have zero morals,
how successful you could genuinely be, Like, if you have
no moral compass whatsoever, you literally could do anything you
want in this world and not be held accountable at
least up to this point, right, because this man really
has zero shame whatsoever, and somehow, some way has all
(15:36):
of these people tripping over themselves to support every crazy
fucking idea that he has. And it's it's genius in
the most scary way humanly possible, but it is incredibly genius.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Agreed.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah, it's just I mean, I it's genius as it
is for him. I am second hand embarrassed for the man,
Like if you're broke, just say that. That's how I feel,
right And this is like one set below him starting
his own gofund me. That's yeah, like i'd love. I mean,
I know that they touched on in the article about
you know, him not even knowing anything about the Bible,
(16:14):
like you're far removed from Christianity is as it gets.
So this is it's just, I mean, you have to
laugh otherwise it's so upsetting, really.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well what brk you? The only thing you can do
is laugh because it's it's so like, it's so illogical
that as a logical person you start to feel fucking
crazy because it's like am I missing something? Because this
is so painfully obvious like nonsense and bs and like
(16:44):
I have you know, extended family who are Trumpers, who
are conservative religion people and will find ways to justify
his actions or back him up or turn a blind eye.
And it's like I genuinely at times feel like I
might be the crazy one when I have conversations with them,
because it's like, how are you not seeing this?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Right?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Like it's literally right there playing his day, Like you know,
this isn't my opinion. It's like the man has shown
you countless times who he is, but somehow, some way,
it's like you you totally are blind to it. And
it's just wild to me, honestly.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I mean, yeah, he's just gaslighting us, like he's legitimate.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, literally gaslighting us.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And I don't know the people that I mean, he
knows his base, he knows his face, so I get.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I don't even I have no words really because I'm
just like, don't find that Bible, like go by.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
A different Yeah. I wish, I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately,
it seems like people are going to shell out the
sixty dollars for the Bible and like also not for nothing.
Like and this is I don't say this in a
disparaging way. Most of his base are not wealthy people,
but they're like, any ways to cough up sixty dollars
(18:02):
on this bullshit Bible or whatever however much those sneakers
cost and things like that, and like that's also I
think the scary part is that a lot of people
are not like him, who have grown up privileged but
are literally like putting their own livelihoods at stake on
a regular basis just for supporting this man and his nonsense.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I mean, yeah, this man has shown you who he
is over and over and over again, and that he
doesn't care. I mean, he doesn't care that you're broke
and that this sixty dollars could be detrimental to you
and your family and your well being. That he just
has to pay some court findes and that's all that
he cares about.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So yeah, again, I at a loss for words. I really,
I feel like you, we just have to talk about
it because it's so fucking ridiculous. We have to just
say it out loud to make sure we're not going crazy.
But yeah, not much of a more of us story here,
you know, I wish, yeah, I like, it's legitimately like
(19:05):
the worst you know, less than one could be taught
is that you could be a scam artist like this
man and rise to the highest levels you know, known
to humankind essentially, which is a scary thought. But all right,
we're gonna move on from the nonsense the bs. We're
gonna lighten it up a little bit. We'll get into
our hint this segment, but first we'll take a quick
(19:26):
break and then we'll be right back. I thinks, all right.
So on the positive side of things, here we have
an award show, Latin American Music Awards. They've announced a
(19:49):
twenty twenty four and nominees now. This will take place
April twenty fifth at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in
Las Vegas. This will air at seven pm on UNIVISIONG
and Fade are leading the nominees with twelve nominations each
this year. First and foremost are what's your your thing
(20:10):
on Latin music in general? Or who are you a
fan of? What's what's your take? What's your things?
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I love Latin music, okay, like okay, but I'm like,
I feel like I'm very old for the trending music,
like I of course I.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Know, oh break that down.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I know who best of Luma is.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I know be G, I know all the people write,
but I don't. It's not so bad that I say
I don't know. I don't listen to them. I'm like,
I'm like on my Jenny di Veda, like yeah, I
like the old stuff and so, but I'm happy for
them because I suppoor all the people.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
So yeah, of course, listen, there's nothing nothing wrong with
with that that you're you're on like the Uh, I'm
trying to think who I saw on here because they
have album Artists of the Year. Yeah, I'm trying to
find an old person for you. Hold Love's No. I
think somebody was getting honored, was it? I think it
(21:04):
was it was young Dell from we see on that list?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Is Yeah, Okay, that just made my day. I fucking
love that when I was, you know, back in my prime.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Okay, perfect, So we're we're right there. So so Jan
Dell is actually going to get a special award during
the ninth edition of this Who Else? Ricardo? I think
it's how you pronounced his last name Labanda Lisa Lisa
Haga uh. And then yeah, those are ones, those are
(21:38):
the ones that are getting special awards over here. I
think I was supposed to interview Ricardo, uh, but then
they didn't. He didn't want to speak English, I think,
and my Spanish is trashed. That didn't happen. Yeah, but
if it's okay, I'm not bitter about it. I know
(21:59):
I was to it. I was like, I was totally
cool with it. I think they also thought this is
when I went to Miami and I was I was
like hosting a like a backstage thing at the iHeart
Festival and no shade. But I think they thought they
think my Spanish is less than it actually is, like
that I wouldn't be able to just like make it work.
So so yeah, shame on them for doubting me. Whoever
was doubting me on that.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
But but yeah, so you need your Spanish so that
way he can come on.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
It's true. Listen, I do have a tutor. I have
a virtual tutor, so I'm working on. Yeah, I'm working out.
Or I might just escape to Puerto Rico for a
year and come back just fluid in Spanish as my
other backup plan. So I would love to do that
as well. But you know, we'll see, We'll see how
it works out. Let's see though. Okay, so I was
gonna ask you artists of the Year, but you don't
(22:45):
listen to any of these artists, so it's it's gonna
be okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna say the nominations for
artists just because actually you're gonna know some of them
actually artists A year bed buddy obviously, you know which
I am not familiar with. Isla Bo, I'm not familiar
with Fade Yes, uh, Forsa Hida, Carol g Be, Romeo Santos.
(23:14):
I'm not sure if you're about Shata Fan yes, and
then Shakira.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Oh yes, who doesn't love Shakira?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Okay, you know what's interesting, This is a side conversation.
I'd love to get your take if you've been seeing
the cringe worthy videos on JLO that have been going
on on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I'm just a case so you're familiar.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yes, let's let's discuss this, because Shakira has found a
way to I think age gracefully. And when I say age,
I'm not talking about looks wise or anything like that,
but as an artist where it doesn't feel like she's
trying to be keeping up with what's cool in the
hip it. She just feels like a dope artist still right,
(23:55):
Whereas j Loo, A lot of the critique that has
been happening is people are being sort of calling her
cringey because it feels like she's performing and trying to
like keep up with what's hot or trying to give
off this like facade of realness that just comes across
as very inauthentic. What's your takeing what made you repost
the Jlo thing?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I mean, I've never really been a huge Jelo fan,
and I know I just said, like I support all,
like I love her career, I love her, and so
less sure. I just don't feel like she's a woman
that's for other women. I've always kind of got that
vibe from her, and she is cringey just because she's
I think Shakita is like authentic, you know what I mean,
(24:37):
Like she does music that's authentic to her, and I
feel like Jala's just trying to do whatever it is
that's gonna give, you know, bring her some source of income,
which I hate the hustle.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I guess yeah, I mean it is there is something.
There's always been something off about Jlo, I will say, right,
And it hurts my heart to say that because she's
she's Puerto Rican and from New York City, you know,
like myself, and I think she's incredibly talented in many ways,
and you have to give it up for her career.
(25:10):
At the end of the day, She's had this incredible
career in knowledge just music, but acting and everything like that.
She's a legend. But yeah, there always feels like this
performative element, like we don't really know who she actually is. Like,
you know, she sort of is, to your point, the
opposite of Shakiir, where she comes across as incredibly inauthentic.
(25:31):
You know, it's like she's always putting on this show,
this facade almost of being untouchable, right, And I think
you can't have it. You can't have it both ways,
you know, where you're like untouchable and you are this
sort of larger than life character, but at the same
time you're trying to claim that you're still that same
person from from the block type of thing. Because I
(25:53):
think it then just again feels incredibly inauthentic. And what's
also interesting is like Beyonce is that character, right, She's
larger than life. She is, you know, not like the
everyday person, right, She's like Queen Bee at the end
the day, right, she's obviously, but like she doesn't get
that same critique because I think she presents herself in
a far different manner. I feel like she doesn't feel
(26:15):
like she's I think it's like posturing is really what
Jlo kind of tries to do almost, Whereas if you're
going to be like this sort of uh you know,
larger life icon, you kind of have to live in
that world and that's sort of your persona and let
people sort of meet you there. I don't I don't know.
I'm really just trying to analyze, like what what it
is that I think people are like having this almost
(26:37):
gag reflex too currently.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah, I like the comparison that you made to Beyonce
because I literally I don't want to be eaten up alive,
but I'm.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Not a big thing.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
And yeah, because on the other spectrum, like I don't
feel like she gives enough of herself. Like I don't
know anything about Beyonce, like, but she does live in
this world and she owns it, you know, like I'm
kind of up here. I mean, she doesn't say that,
but she's just not showing you her day to day
lives and so I don't know, Jaylo just needs to
(27:12):
like figure out which one she's gonna do and do it.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah. Yeah, I think also Shakiro, we're bringing back that
comparison Shakira, like because she collaborated with like Karaji who's
like a new newer artist, you know, of this of
this moment of this generation, and doesn't Yeah, and Cardi
B absolutely so. And it doesn't feel like she's like
trying to like grab on to their success to kind
(27:40):
of elevate herself back into the limelight. It just feels
like she's just kind of like joining them where they
are where I feel like, I don't know if there's
something about Jylo that everything just feels forced about it.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yes, I feel like she gives pick me and yeah,
I think she's a Leo. She gives me Leo vibe,
you know, like she made this full ass documentary.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And oh my god, I have no I can't bring
myself to do it. I've seen enough clips on TikTok
that I'm like, there's no fucking way that I would
make it through an hour and a half of this
ship over and over. It's bad, it's horrendous looking. It's
so it's giving, like you know, like it's like when
(28:23):
somebody's like when you were all one of those friends
who's way too extra for their birthday and just like
really just makes it this whole fucking thing and we're
all just along for the ride, like, all right, this
is what they do. I guess we're gonna just all
shut up and like plan into it for the night.
You know that that's like what she is, but on
such a larger scale, especially with this movie that she
apparently like self funded herself. You know, it's just it's
(28:45):
so fucking cruys and I want I want to be
able to support her so badly, like and I don't
want to down talk it, but it's just so cringey.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah, you're having a visceral reaction to.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
I really, I really, And it's because also because it's like,
by the way, I think we're all cringy in our
own way. We're all cringy to somebody, right, And I
don't think you should hold back just for the sake
of being having mass acceptance. But like her cringiness is
like cringey because it's not even cringy because she's being
(29:19):
authentically her. It's cringey because she's like putting on this
show that is so obviously not her. That's what makes
it cringey, you know what I mean. So like that
that's where I'm like, Okay, I think we can critique
it because it's not like, you know, it's not like
Britney Spears, who's doing these weird dances, but it's like
that's what she apparently does, Like on a you know,
Wednesday afternoon, she just films herself in her living room
(29:41):
dancing around. That's her, right, Yeah, And that's a little
bit different.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Because it's real, exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Right, exactly exactly, whereas j Lo, everything about it feels
so like forced, you know, but forced but at the
same time trying to make you feel like it's not forced. Right,
that's what it is, like you're you're forcing it, but
then you're trying to tell me that, oh, it's just
all naturally happening. Unveiling at this you know, like this
is not me trying to put forth a character. It's
(30:07):
it's the real thing. When we all can really see that,
it's it's so much bullshit, you know, layers of nonsense.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yes, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And I just need to say keep the TikTok videos
coming because they've just been giving me so much joy
the last week.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And a the parodies. Also, by the way, we're not
just attacking a Latin one because justin Tarror Lake has
been falling into the same boat as well. Him and
j Low have been hand in hand in like the
cringe wars. I feel like as well, I'm not sure
if you've you've been on that bandwagon as well.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
I haven't. I haven't. I had for what for what
is he doing? I didn't even know he was relevant.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, because he just put out a new album that
apparently did horribly, you know, And and I guess a
lot of people are saying the same thing, where he's
trying to, you know, sort of be this relevant current
artist and it's just not working for him. It's like
people have sort of the tithes of change for whatever reason, right,
and then he's like bringing it sync into it, I think,
(31:05):
to try to gain the nostalgia thing, and for whatever reason,
it's just not clicking. And I think there was a
lot of backlash about people saying that he basically made
a career off of sort of his interpolation of black
music essentially right, and now in today's day and age,
(31:25):
there's sort of it's very obvious. I think there's a
lot less acceptance for that, and I think there are
a lot more black artists doing it at a high
level and mainstream where it's like, justin Timberlake is irrelevant
in comparison to those who are genuinely doing it, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, totally. I thought some of the like back I
don't know what backlash, but was also because of ol
Britney Spears memoir and like yes he did are so dirty,
and yeah, I don't support that man, And honestly, I
never was like a huge pop person, So yeah, I
don't follow him at allme.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
No harm, you don't even Yeah, listen, you're probably better off.
It's one less Instagram trend you have to follow right now,
TikTok trend that you have to follow. But yeah, I
think I just think it's really interesting. I think even
just in like the current climate right for all the
shit that I give, social media one thing that's really
interesting and I think like a positive thing. And it's
(32:25):
evident when you see people having this reaction to j Loo,
it's like, I think we are kind of moving into
an error where authenticity is sort of leading the way
and is sort of what people are yearning for right
after we've had you know whatever, I guess a decade
at this point of like, you know, hyper perfect social
media era. Now, people think are craving a little bit
(32:46):
more realness. And I think some of these older pop
stars from you know, like the two thousands are having
a trouble, having trouble transitions because their whole thing was
built on this larger than life type of performance and
people are crave being a bit more. And I think
those who don't necessarily have an authentic bone in their
body or don't know how to be you know, open
(33:08):
and vulnerable and things like that, they're probably having a
hard time making that transition into uh, you know, the
more authentic and vulnerable I think sort of trend that's
going on in media in general.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah, and that it makes me think because how I mean,
are we to blame also because or not or just
the industry in general. You know, like maybe Jala doesn't
know who she is because from this young age she
was told like, this is going to be your demographic
(33:43):
and this is what you're going to sell to. And
you know, when she was with PDNY, she was this way,
and she was Mark Anthony, she was this way, and
so she doesn't have an identity and now and then
now on the like we're demanding one, you know, like
figure it out who are you so we can like
you or not like you.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
So yeah, yeah, I think that that's that's an interesting
point as well. I think that the entertainment industry is
a lot different back then where you had they were
literally like these executives crafting stars, right and like creating
their whole personas you know. And yet to your point,
I imagine it's hard to sort of grow up in
(34:21):
that you probably lost yourself somewhere along the way and
then now you're sort of everything that you ever did
to be successful is like backfiring on you. And it's
probably an incredibly scary place to to sort of be.
And you know, she's grasped me. I think it's straws
to try and hold on to that that identity I
(34:42):
gets at this point that was created probably now is
her to your point where she doesn't even know who
how she is at this point?
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Yeah, now I feel now I'm over here a feeling
stopped for Jaila.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Maybe that shit, you got to make a reaction video
where you showcase this perspective of the of the Jalo
crete that might be might be a winning thing. And
let's let's talk about your your buddy media career over here.
Okay as you have launched the Okayla podcast, which congratulations.
I'm incredibly proud of you. I remember when you were
(35:13):
talking about this, when we would we all get together
for the just Be Social Club Mastermind group, and you would,
you know, express the interest in that. And now you
are one of the few people in general, not just there,
but in life who expresses an interest in something, puts
in the work, and then actually goes out and does it,
and it consistently does it because I think you just
(35:33):
what crossed with the twenty episodes or something like that.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Yeah, what I was.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
So that's not easy to do because a lot of
people underestimate how much work a fucking podcast actually is.
So yeah, tell us. I guess about the podcast first
and foremost, like, what's the premise of it all?
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, So it's a podcast that I do with my sister.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
We say, like, our whole thing is we're complete opposites,
but we're exactly the same. So and then just our mission,
I guess, is to kind of create dialogue within our
community and provide information for people in a way that's genuine, authentic.
And I guess our whole the whole gist of it
(36:14):
is that we're just like normal ass regular women, you know,
like there's nothing particularly special about us, you know, I
don't know. I just feel like we're very relatable and
I want to share, yeah, share information with people, like
how I would have these conversations with my sister privately.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
So yeah, that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
It's beautiful. So I want to I want to now
pick your brain from the perspective of what has surprised
you most about the podcasting game that you didn't expect
when you were sort of conceptualizing the idea, because I
think this is a great case study for people who
are interested in it. And I always get asked about
podcasting or d about it, and I want to I
(37:02):
don't think people know what they are getting themselves into.
So I would love for you to to let me
know some things that surprise you about podcasting.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Well, honestly everything, Like first the time, I mean, I
knew it was going to be time consuming, but just right,
I'm like, I also have a full time job, I'm
a mom and a wife and all of these things,
so trying to make time for that was really hard
in the beginning. And now we kind of have a
routine and then like I don't know shit about audio
(37:30):
or technical stuff like, so I had to figure all
of that on my own. I'm like youtubing stuff and yeah,
and we're not perfect by any means, but it's just
doing it really.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I think that's great. That's that's a great
uh sort of tag or phrase to get from. That
is like it really is. You just have to do
it right. It's like it gets it genuinely gets better
over time just by proxy of you putting in the reps.
And I think I think a lot of people get
caught up in the perfectionism part of it, where they
(38:04):
might like listen to their favorite podcast and then if
it doesn't sound exactly like they're like that podcast, they
think there's this complete shit it just should be abandoned
or like that. You know, they're they're just not cut
out for it. And I think there are are levels
to it at the end of the day that people
just have to allow themselves to sort of slowly, slowly
get to, you know. I mean, I think even if
(38:25):
you listen to like the first episode of this show
to now it's like if you're I mean, I'm more
of like an audio nerd, So like I can tell
you the audio quality was shit back then because I
was like, you know, recording it in a dining room
that wasn't you know, sound controlled whatsoever. And I didn't
know how to properly process or edit it, you know
at the time. You know. So it's like those sorts
of things, like you have to just be okay with it.
(38:47):
And I think also it's like, I don't want to
use the word failing. I'm using this loosely, but you
have to be okay with failing publicly, and failing is
in air quotes right now as I say that. But
you have to be okay with it not being the
like polished version that you sometimes have in your head,
and understand that like consistency is always better than like,
you know, just obsessing over every little detail totally.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
And yeah, I mean, like I said, we're still learning, sure,
and yeah, if we waited for perfection, we wouldn't one
can be consistent or we would have have ever started.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So yeah, and how has that with your working with
your your sister like that?
Speaker 3 (39:27):
I'm curious, Oh man, We've had so many podcasts that
haven't like aired because we're just like well, I guess
we're not as entertaining as we thought we were or
were just on the verge of throwing blows.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
So yeah, yeah, but it's fun.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
And it gives us a reason to kind of make
sure that we're consistent, like she has to come over
every week, and I mean we're close anyways, but I
love making that time for us to like just have
adult conversations.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah. I think that's the other thing as well, where
a lot of people get so caught up on the
end result, like of it becoming something, right, like having
listeners and figure out ways to monetize it and things
like that, which is all great. Those are all great
goals to have in mind, but something I always constantly
try to reiterate is like it also should just be
(40:16):
something that like fills your cup a bit, right, that
brings you joy in the moments that you do it.
It's something that breaks you out of your normal routine, right,
It's something creative for you to do something for you
to just have an outlet for your voice, for your opinion,
you know, and that we're we all need that at
some point. And I think a lot of people, because
they're so fixated on the end result don't realize that,
(40:37):
Like you know, and I'm not saying this for your
podcast or anybody out there who's just starting, like at
the bare minimum, if you just have an outlet that
gives you joy for an hour or two a week,
that you could just release that energy and like, you know,
scratch it, that creative itch. It's worth it. At the
end of the day. It doesn't matter if nobody is
listening or if a million people are listening. Like, if
(40:58):
it brings you joy, it's already a success within that. Right.
I think adult life we try to quantify how we
spend our time with like you know, monetary things, right,
how how is it valuable? Is it making me money?
Is it this or or else? It's not worth it?
And like, just like you know, as kids, we needed
hobbies to break outside of our normal. I don't think
as adults we lose that. But just like we get
(41:18):
caught up in adult life and we think we no
longer need those things or they're not useful. And really
I think there's a lot to learn from from the
way kids can sort of just play without having that
grand us vision of mine.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
Yeah, I like that what you said a lot because
I found myself. The reason for the podcast was I
just like, didn't I mean, taking it back to j Lo,
I didn't know who I was.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
I was just I was just a mom.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
And just a teacher, and just a wife and just
a chauffeur and a cook, and I didn't have anything
that I felt was just mine. And yeah, my sister's
doing it completely by herself. She's a single parent, so
hurt even more so than me. So this was just
something that kind of gave us that joy. Not that
(42:06):
not that all those other things, don't you know, because that.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Was like not.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
They're like, what the fuck?
Speaker 4 (42:14):
They give me the most joy?
Speaker 1 (42:16):
But there you go than amazing. You almost get yourself
tripped up there. That's also part of the scary part
about recording everything that you're doing is, uh, there's evidence
when you fuck up or say something stupid. But all right,
So people can can check out the okay La podcast
(42:38):
anywhere you find podcasts. It is oh and then the
Spanish word get q u e la podcast where can
people follow you and keep up with all you're doing.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
So we're on instagramla o q u e l a
dot podcast and we're actually I just kind of organized
a series of lives for the month of April, so
you'll definitely want to check us out.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
There, and yeah, we're.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Excited if you want to go listen to us and
all the shit we talk.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Do it. Yes, you gotta just go check it out. Also,
I think I saw one of the lives you're doing. Brenda,
a friend of the show, is going to be on
one of the lives, right.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Yes, I'm so yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. Yeah, I
asked her. Yeah, that's yoah for sure, and she's so
freaking busy, so I'm like thrilled that she said yes.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Yeah. But this is the other thing too that I'll
like put a pin on what we're talking about. Like
even just you get to connect with other interesting fucking
people by doing the podcast, right, Like, it doesn't always
have to be the most famous person in the world
or whatever. It's just really cool to be in community
with other people, to like have access to conversation with
other people that you find to be interesting, right, And
(43:53):
that's like a gift again in itself, is to be
able to sit down, even if it's just virtually and
just have a conversation with somebody that you find to
be interesting and like the you know, sort of inspiration
or just I don't know, the human need for having
good conversation, like all that is so tied into this
as well. Yes, that it's the benefits are so much
bigger than listenership or or money at the end of
(44:15):
the day, you know, And I want to always harp
on that because I know it's it's it's tough to
not it's tough to start out from scratch, and then
you're like, you know, putting the pressure to get listeners
and all these different things, and I think you end
up forgetting all of the positives that are coming out
of you just sort of giving your all to this
this project at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's so it's so good just to connect.
And I think that's like where we put a lot
of the weight, like the purpose of the podcast just
we want to talk to people.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
I love it. I love it well, Nicole, it is
amazing to have you on the show. I am loving
this full circle moment right here. Congrats on on starting
the podcast and all the work that you've been been
putting and uh, it's just beautiful, beautiful to see. It's
inspiring to me. To see your growth and all that
to have you on the show. So I appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I really just want to carve this little time out
to say thank you you. I truly do feel like
you inspired this change in me. Like I did all
the work, I understand that, but just you having your
platform and you know, I just typed in like Latino
(45:29):
podcasts or Latina podcast and you popped up and I've
been listening ever since, and just seeing a space where
I felt like I belonged has really been transformative for me.
So I really want to thank you for doing that.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Thank you. Yeah, thank you for sharing. I was having
a mild panic attack accepting this accomplishence, thank you so much.
I'm receiving it. I'm taking it in all right, I'm
not going to brush it off. I really do genuinely
appreciate that. And yeah, it's it's always nice to to
be able to connect with people. And I appreciate your
support that you've you've given me along the way, and
(46:05):
I think it's just sort of I don't know, it's
just a reminder of how important it is to sort
of express your interests to the world and put yourself
out there because you never know where it's going to
lead you, or the sort of circles or communities that
you'll find yourself in as a result, and sort of
(46:26):
the joy that it's inevitably going to bring you just
by being able to connect with other like minds. So yeah,
it's beautiful. So thank you, thank you so much, and
great to have you here on the show. Of course
we'll do it again sooner rather than later, but thank
you for making your podcast debut. Your life is an
ago debut, I should say on today's show.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Man, big shots of my guest this week, the Cole
vague of hopping on the show, just amazing man. And
by the way, Nicole got on the show because she
actually just asked and threw it out there and said, hey,
if you ever need a guest for Thursday Trends, I
would love to do it, and here we are. She's
a guest on the show. So you know, as they say,
closed mouths do not get fed, and that's why she
(47:09):
is on the show. I'm so proud of her, so
happy all that she's accomplished and the growth that's happened
over the last year or so of me really getting
to know her. Just amazing to see so beautiful stuff.
Loved having her on the show. Shout out to the
entire Just Be Social Club as well, which we'll be
opening back up end of April is the target date,
(47:29):
so stay tuned for that. And yeah, you could be
a part of it as well, our little growing community
that we have. With that said, I want to get
y'all's take on one of the topics that we were
talking about today. Will do that far ask a getting segment,
but first to take a quick break and then we'll
be right back ask all right, So the story I
(47:57):
wanted to get y'all's take on because I just find
it really interesting and I want to see if maybe
Nicole and I are on an island by ourselves. But
j Loo and all the hate that j Loo has
gotten as of late is fascinating to me, particularly on
the internet. So I'm gonna read some of the responses
I got. Let's see here at Talia Facus says apparently
(48:20):
her journey to success wasn't genuine. She'd steal people's songs
all the time. Also, she can perform, but people claim
she can't sing. I love how Talia said people claim
she can't sing, instead of maybe saying herself that she
can't say that that jay Loo can't sing, throwing a
little shade, but with claiming it's coming from other people.
(48:41):
I see you, Tilia. You're not pulled anybody, but you're
you're learning, You're learning quickly. Your your pop training, pop
star training, is working out where you are not going
to get yourself in unnecessary drama. And I respect that.
But yeah, I think that's actually interesting to argue it
about her stealing songs. But what's fascinating to me is
(49:02):
this is legitimately just pop music one on one. It's
this is what happens like most of you, of your
favorite pop stars don't actually write their own music, right,
they're presented songs, I mean, and this is anybody like
for the most part, or they have, you know, a
hand in sort of what the topics of conversation are
(49:25):
in the writing process, but they're not really writing it themselves.
They have a team of writers or a songwriter that
they're specifically working with, you know. So that's very calm.
I know a lot of people sort of say has
she stole like a lot of Ashanti songs early on,
And I don't know if stealing is the right word.
I think it's just the nature of the industry. A
lot of times you have an artist who, like a
(49:48):
Shanty maybe before she blew up, wasn't a household name,
but wrote a great song, and the label or producers
are like, hey, let's give it to Jennifer Lopez, who's
a gigantic star, and this song could be a hit,
because with you right now, at the level of your
career is at, it probably won't be a hit, right,
So that's sort of the idea. But that's a story
(50:09):
as old as time. I mean, anybody you know, Justin
Bieber love Yourself. That song was written by Ed Sheerner,
you know, and then give it to Justin Bieber like
like that happens all the time. Now, is she the
Jennifer Lopez the world's greatest singer? No, I don't think so.
She's a great performer though, and so basically what Britney
Spears built a career off of as well, So she's
(50:29):
not the only one. She's a star. She's had great,
great songs back in the day and put on a
hell of a show. So I think that's sort of
what it is, and people are of course are gonna
hate on that. What I also love is people in
my DMS coming to her defense. I think it's absolutely amazing.
Let me see the homie Andrew. But you guys said,
(50:50):
if you need someone to come fervently to her defense,
I'll send my mom your way. She'd be ready to
fight people over j Lo's name. That's amazing. It's not everyone.
It doesn't just hate her, obviously, Jennifer Lopez is a star.
Plenty of fans. People love her, people fuck with her.
I think, particularly of a certain generation. I just think
(51:10):
it's there's some sort of disconnect between the younger generation
or current you know, social media climate and Jennifer Lopez,
you know where she I think people don't necessarily respect
the history. I think that's also what happens. We also
could be I think, to a degree, prisoners of the moment.
(51:31):
We forget just how big of a star Jennifer Lopez
was in both music and film when she was at
the top of her game, Like, if I'm not mistaken,
she was like the first person to have a number
one movie and number one album in the same week
or something like that, or at the same time. So
she was a gigantic star in her day, still a
huge star, but like you know, trend shitting star at
(51:53):
the peak of her career. So I think we forget
that just a little bit at Yes he underscore, yes, yes,
says who's hating on j Lo? Question mark exclamation points.
Oh nah, so we got some j Lo lovers out here? Okay,
I mean again, I want to defend j Loo so bad.
(52:14):
I respect the shit out of her, I genuinely do.
But she always has struck me as like a bit inauthentic,
and I thought it was just me because I feel
like I have hyper sensitive to that, because you know,
authenticity is kind of my thing, and I felt like
I'm always a bit hyper sensitive to people who it
(52:35):
feels like they're putting on a show always or a
performance and not really just letting themselves hang loose, you know,
and even in media. You know, I'm now like I
feel like weird divulging a lot of stuff. But like,
you know, I think certain artists when they walk in
(52:55):
the room because I've been in the room with Jennifer
Lopez before and we were to giving an interview, and yeah,
I think there is sort of this performance element of
they are above. I don't want to say they're above,
but they come from a different time period where you
didn't open up about your deepest and darkest emotion secrets
(53:17):
to vulnerability. Right. It today's climate, someone goes on a
fucking Jay Shetty podcast and spills their heart basically, right,
or goes on the breakfast club and cries or whatever, right,
you know, And back in the day, that wasn't really
the norm. You know, it was you know, it was
just like very sort of super even more superficial than
(53:38):
it is now. It was very much just like, let's
talk about the music or the project that you're promoting,
right or you know, sort of the very superficial aspect
of your career, very like let's protect the pop star
image type of thing. And again that's an old mentality,
and I think from my perspective looking in, that was
(53:59):
a bit of what I sort of noticed sort of
being in a room where Jennifer Lopez was being interviewed.
It was a lot of that like old school let's
protect the pop star image sort of mindset coming in
there and aura that was happening, especially with the team
around her. And again, it's no shade. That's you know,
operating from a different time. But I just think that
(54:19):
doesn't translate into day Today's sort of hyper connected, hyper
vulnerable day and age that we live in. With that said,
thank y'all so much for participating in that conversation at
DJA Dramas Instagram. I just want to get y'all's take
on that. See if I'm the only crazy one. I
love how we just kind of went there randomly. Now,
let's tie everything we talked about today in a neat
little boat in a segment we call conclusion stew.
Speaker 6 (54:43):
Time for conclusion, all right, So again, big shout out
to the homie Nicolevega, host of the Okay Lab podcast
and og.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Member of the Just Be Social Club to have her
on the show today. A little full circle moment is
a beautiful thing. Now to recap all we talked about today,
Miss Florida social media band for children under the age
of fourteen. Yeah, I mean I struggle with this, and
I like my knee jerk reaction is like awesome, amazing.
(55:19):
But then, like as I've kind of have been like
digesting it a little bit, I'm not flip flopping on
my opinion per se but I think it is kind
of like scary to be like, all right, well, like
are we giving the government just a little bit too
much power here over things that are kind of menial
or could be personal to a parent's decision, rather than
(55:40):
like needing the government to step in, right, And I
think my initial reaction was like, yeah, social media I
think is incredibly damaging for teenagers and younger. I think
it's incredibly damaging for adults when we realize it or
want to admit it or not. That I can imagine
as a teenager who you know, is not as emotionally intelligent,
be a very scary sort of place to to have
(56:03):
to grow up in front of, right, and a lot
of a lot of pressure. I think Nicole brought that
up as well as a woman and you know, beauty
standards and all these different things as well, and just
so much like a fuck with a kid's mental But
to her point, I think we can have that sort
of back and forth about is this the government overstepping
I think at the end of the day to what
she said, what Nicole was saying was if they're really
(56:25):
interested in people's mental health, specifically children's mental health, then
provide mental health resources. Make that something that you are championing.
Championing why is that word sound so weird? Championing. Make
that something you're getting behind, if you will, instead of
of sort of this performative thing where you know it's
(56:45):
gonna draw headlines. And that's probably why they're doing this, right,
It's gonna draw a lot of headlines about you know,
banning social media rather than like investing money into mental
health resources. Right. That's not a sexy of a headline
that's gonna get reposted on the blogs, and they know that.
And that's the same part, is this sort of performance
element that really just provides band aids because unfortunately, the
(57:06):
band aids provide sexier headlines, right, and are far easier
than actually creating substantial change. So I think that's what
we're seeing a lot of in stuff like this and
the Trump Bibles. I mean, you know, I was seeing,
of all people, I came across this article or this
post from Jake Paul on TikTok. I think it was
a clip either from one of his podcasts or him
(57:27):
doing an interview talking about the Trump Bibles. And shockingly,
he had a great perspective of sort of talking about
how Trump is now coming across as just like this
sleazy salesman that is trying to make a quick bucket
all turns right, and almost coming across as desperate, right,
not moving from a place of strength, And I think
(57:48):
that's totally right. I think he's just throwing his name
on a bunch of random shit and doing it during
the time when he obviously needs to be raising money.
Obvious what he's doing. The only problem is that his supporters,
I think majority of them are not going to see
it that way. They are kind of too far in,
(58:08):
They've drank too much of the kool aid, and they're
not going to see him as like the sleazy salesman
who's just like a used car salesman trying to you know,
get a quick buck on you. Unfortunately, I think they're
all too deep into kind of recognize just how weird
and just gross this whole thing is, Particularly when you're
using people's faith against them, I think is particularly disgusting.
(58:31):
And unfortunately, much like we talked about today, I think
most people who are still you know, supporting him and
spending their hard earned money even when they're not in
a position of you know, crazy monetary privilege. I think
unfortunately they are sort of just too far gone at
this point. If they haven't, you know, sort of come
to come to Jesus if you will to keep it
(58:54):
in religion now, I mean hit that segment. We talked
a bit about the Latin of American Music Awards. Shout
out to Yandell, one of my favorites growing up. Who's
gonna be honored with a special award. It's happening April
twenty fifth in Vegas. It'll air on UDI visiong Best
Blooma and Fade leading with the nominations with twelve each,
which is absolutely amazing. It's cool to see like the
(59:16):
next class of artists coming through and killing it, and
Bad Buddy is still obviously relevant people like that. But
then you have like Best Blooma representing for the Mexicans
and just representing a whole other class of people, and
Fade is from Puerto Rico. If I'm not mistake, I
feel like I oftentimes will claim an artist that I
like just to to make them Puerto Rican. I'm becoming
(59:40):
like my father. But yeah, I think Fad is from
Puerto Rico. Just googling it to make sure. Oh, fate
is actually from Columbia. You see, this was one of
those instances where I wanted to claim Fade as one
of our So he is from Columbia. I listen, I
(01:00:02):
love Columbia. Shot to Columbia. But yeah, he's one of
my favorite artists currently and I wanted him to be
Puerto Rican so badly. So that's my own personal bias
right there. So a big shot to him though, leading
in those nominations Game twelve nominations along with bestl Bloomba,
which is crazy, and yeah, Artist of the Year, I'll
give my take. I don't know. If I did give
my take on that, I would say artists of this
(01:00:25):
last year. For me personally, I would you have to
go Karl Ge. I think Carolgi crossed over into super
stardom beyond even just the Latin market. I think the
same way Bad Bunny did that maybe what a year ago,
two years ago, whatever it was essentially with the when
(01:00:49):
that came out, that really just crossed over into mainstream
superstardom success for him. I think Calgi did very much
that for herself in this last year, so I would
have to give it to her person sing humbly. That's
my opinion. I don't vote, or you don't know how
the voting does work, but yeah, that's just my humble
opinion here on this podcast, and we randomly got to
(01:01:10):
j Lo again. I just think authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. I
will sing that till the cows come home. If that
isn't saying, right, I personally just think in today's day
and age, we are all so sick of the fake
shit that we're starving for real people, real connection, real
(01:01:32):
human beings to support with our time, energy and money. Right,
I think that social media has exhausted us of seeing
perfection all the time, every day, all day, every day. Right,
these perfect ig models and amazing lifestyles and rich bros
with awesome cars and blah blah blah blah blah. My
life is so amazing. Life is so amazing, and it's
(01:01:55):
incredibly unrelatable. But it's exhausting because I think we've all
initially at this point, or I say not initially, but
now I've gotten to the point where we realize it's
all bullshit. We've seen enough of these people, these stars
or these whatever content creators be called out on their
bullshit and their lives aren't what they've made them out
(01:02:16):
to be. So I think we're all sort of sick
of the fake shit. We want somebody we could relate
to that doesn't make us feel like our life sucks
or that we are abum in comparison, And I think
a lot of again the legacy artists, are having trouble
sort of making that switch because they've grown up during
a time. It came up during a time where they
had to put on this sort of picture perfect pop
(01:02:39):
star persona, and for some of them, they're probably incredibly
uncomfortable having to be vulnerable and so intimate in the
way that today's social media era sort of demands of
pop stars at tabloid culture and all the above and
and internet culture, podcasting, all these different things, these different
avenues for people to sort of be in the loop
(01:03:01):
of what you're doing, and I think it's probably incredibly uncomfortable.
A lot of them, again didn't grow up or didn't
come up in their career having to open up in
that way to their fans, and I think it's probably
a weird transition for many people. So that's my take
on it. Again, I know we had a lot of
opinion responses to j Lo I still think she's an
(01:03:22):
absolute legend. You can't take away the amazing career that
she's had. I think she's sort of really indirectly had
sometimes directly done a great job at just being Latin
representation right in a world that really didn't didn't do that.
(01:03:43):
At the time when she was popular, particularly as somebody
from New York, as a Puerto Rican, it was great
to sort of see her, especially during the on the
sixth era, you know, I think it was amazing the
music was fired during that time as well, and then
even you know, more recently, the Super Bowl wromance to
me is still legendary. It goes down as my favorite
one of all time with her, Shakira, Bed Bunny and
(01:04:05):
Jay Balvin. So I just think just beautiful, beautiful stuff.
In that way, I think she's a legend. She's cemented that,
you know, regardless of if she's become the internite's new
favorite meme or whatever, it is still legend. Still an
amazing career, just different at the end of the day. Now,
with that said, thank y'all so much for tuning into
(01:04:26):
today's episode. I will catch you on Tuesday with a
brand new show. Until then, stay safe, have an amazing weekend,
and I'll talk to you soon. Life as a Good
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