May 1, 2025 • 44 mins
Three U.S. citizen children were deported—one with stage 4 cancer—while Trump downplays the fallout in a chaotic ABC interview. His national security adviser resigns over a Signal scandal. Women are quietly signaling a recession through canceled appointments and DIY beauty. And Yale launches a Bad Bunny course that’s really about Puerto Rico, colonialism, and cultural power.
https://wearemitu.com/wearemitu/news/children-citizens-deported/
https://fiercebymitu.com/work-and-money/women-spending-recession-signal/
https://wearemitu.com/wearemitu/entertainment/bad-bunny-course-at-yale/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Alright, let me talk about here we go. He said,
you live in life as a gringo, where you question
when you fit in. Every time you mingle, they say
you do. This would not that this life as a Yes, Hello,
and welcome to another episode of Life as a Gringo.
(00:26):
I am Dramas course Man, episode one O two, one
O two of one oh five. Technically, so we are.
I think we're exactly two weeks left in the show
sort of, it's like a week and a half if
(00:46):
you're counting business days whatever. We have three more shows
left after this episode of Life as a Gringo, and
and that's it. That's it for Life as a Gringo officially.
And then of course, like I've been teasing, we're gonna
have some bonus episodes that are airing throughout May, I
think into June as well, so there'll be tough to to,
(01:11):
you know, hold you over. There's other things coming. I
can say that I can say, stay subscribed to this feed.
If you're not subscribed to this podcast feed, there's another evolution.
I think of me and where I am at this
point in my life and the things I want to
talk about and how I feel like I can contribute
(01:35):
to the culture and the progression, and I think just
authentically who I am right now, you know. And I've
grown so much with this podcast and get I'll save
the sappy reminiscing for probably the last episode in a
couple of weeks. But yeah, I'm excited for the next chapter.
(01:58):
I'm excited that there is another chapter that I'll be
able to kind of talk about or transition into sooner
rather than later. For anybody that has you know, I
get it if you're a fan of the podcast, it
might be a part of your routine in some sort
of way, and I'm so grateful for that. And I
(02:20):
don't only be hanging right if you've enjoyed this time
that we've had together. I know I have. I will
say though, as we're about to get into Thursday trends,
I'm not gonna miss regularly talking about politics quick inside baseball.
As I was kind of figure out what the next
(02:41):
move was going to be after the end of life
as a get Engle, you know, I was getting different
opportunities and I was pitching different ideas and one of
the ones that sort of had garnered interest was me
having a political podcast, and that sort of being the
(03:03):
main focus of the show, and you know, I kind
of had to have a real conversation with myself and
sort of say, like, I'm just kind of drained by Dawn.
I don't know what that means, you know. I think
I'll always be active in it and using my voice,
using my platform as best as I can, but as
(03:26):
far as you know, week in week out, having to
talk about it and report about it and relive it,
you know, particularly under this administration, it's taxing, it's exhausting.
It's not something I personally I think is best for
(03:49):
me and my mental as well as you know, It's
just not something I want to be doing on a
regular basis. You know. It's a lot not to say
that I don't think it's important work, but for me personally,
I kind of need a break from that, you know,
(04:09):
a bit. And I think I can contribute in being
a voice and speaking up for the community in other
ways and in ways that maybe feel a bit more
natural and on the cusp rather than having to sit
down and talk about all this stuff. As important as
(04:29):
it is, I think you have to be informed, you know,
but it is draining to be The more informed you
are Unfortunately, the more draining it is, like, the more
aware you are of all the wild shit that's currently
happening in this world, in this country, it really is
fucking draining, you know, and you kind of have to
pick and choose your battles, so to speak. So yeah,
(04:52):
just kind of bearing it all out there for you.
With that said, Thursday trends, What are we talking about
this week? Let's talk about this interview with Donald Trump
where he was asked about Abadeo Garcia, who is the
man from Maryland who was wrongfully deported to an Elsahalvador
(05:12):
in prison. They're now trying to spin the story that
he was a violent gang member as a part of
MS thirteen and Trump just embarrassed himself in this interview.
We'll talk about that, more stuff out of the Trump administration,
breaking news that one of Trump's main cabinet members is
now out after a scandal, and we'll talk a bit
(05:34):
about the economy. Women are trying to find ways to
save money. I think we all are. We'll just have
a general discussion about that, and then on a positive
side of things, Bad Bunny is going to the ivy leagues.
I will get into what I mean by that Yale
University get ready for Bad Bunny. And I don't just
mean a performance, I mean a course. We'll talk about that,
(05:58):
but first and foremost, let's die. It's the nonsense, the
bs and a segment call for the people in the back,
say a lot for the people in the say a
lot of the people in the A lot of the people.
(06:21):
All right, So I'm it's just I like, and this
is the other part, you know again, why like the
political stuff is so exhausting because we're just fucking talking
in circles right where it feels like I'm just constantly
repeating myself and quite frankly, that's what a lot of
mainstream news is. You tune in, it's the same shit
(06:43):
over and over again. And that's what's exhausting about it, right,
because it's like, how many more stupid Donald Trump stories
or crazy Donald Trump stories or racist Donald Trump stories
can you talk about before it's just fucking groundhog day? Right?
And you know, you you have this interview with Donald Trump.
I believe it was ABC News that was doing the interview,
(07:05):
and they're talking about Abrego Garcia again, the man who
was wrongfully deportal Salvador even though he was, he had
a stay order, which meant that he was legally in
the country. And now in real time, you're seeing the
just disgusting smearing of this man's name with no evidence
(07:31):
and tying him to the MS thirteen gang and essentially
trying to clear themselves of both their ineptitude, but also
the fact that they're defying the court system who has
ordered for them to process this man and coordinate his
return back to the US. Rather than doing what's right
(07:54):
and really admitting their mistake, they're just trying to spin
this any way they can and turn him into a
violent gang member who is affiliated and a member of
MS thirteen, And in this sort of idiotic and almost
comical it'd be comical if it wasn't for the fact
(08:16):
that we are talking about a human being who is
literally his life has been uprooted illegally and people are
making a game out of it, and he's been torn
away from his family and set to what has been
globally recognized as one of the worst prisons in the world.
(08:38):
That seems like, so you had Trump on this interview
and he claims this guy has MS thirteen tattooed clear
his day on his knuckles. And the picture that he's
referring to is a picture of this man's knuckles, and
(08:58):
this man does have tattoos on his knuckles, but there's
no MS thirteen. It's symbols. And a picture that Trump
holds up has MS thirteen in like regular aerial font
over each knuckle. Now, the assumption of the picture is
they're saying that those symbols are short for or those
(09:22):
symbols represent the each letter and each number. But this
dumbass Donald Trump seems to have literally thought that the
MS thirteen and aerial font that has very clearly been
put on the picture via a computer and not done
even in a way that is cleanly that would make
(09:43):
you think this is a real tattoo. He somehow thinks
that the Microsoft paint letters of MS thirteen above the
symbols were the actual tattoo on this man's knuckles. And
he's arguing in this interview with the interviewer who says, no, mister, press,
that's a photoshop. They're saying that the symbols represent MS thirteen,
(10:07):
that's the argument, and he's said, no, no thought in argument.
They're not saying that he represents. It's clear as day
MS thirteen on his knuckles. This dumbass literally thought that
the aerial font that was placed on the photo as
a sort of translation. This dumbass literally thought that it
was a tattoo on the person's knuckles. And it's like,
(10:33):
I think the more frustrating thing is at moments he
seems like the dumbest person on earth. At other times
it's like he's the most conniving, evil genius. And I
think that is what's partially frustrating, is like not knowing
which is which, And I'm leading towards him just being
a complete dumbass who, because of his brazenness at times
(10:56):
falls into situations that make him seem sharper than he
actually is. But again, the crude part about this is,
you guys are creating this fake narrative. And I say
you guys, I mean the Trumper's the right, the Fox
News is of the world. You're creating this narrative, smearing
(11:20):
this man's reputation and literally ruining his life and his
family's life, just so you don't have to admit that
you were wrong, and while doing so, spitting on democracy
by defying the courts that are supposed to keep everybody
in check, even the President of the United States. And
(11:45):
again I feel like a broken record, repeating myself quickly
out to this other breaking news story that happened. Mike Waltz,
Trump's national security advisor is now out. He is no
longer working for Trump, apparently fired or quit no longer
working there after the scandal where he was in a
(12:07):
group text message via the app Signal and by mistake,
included a journalist in a conversation with people including the
Vice President of the United States, that had war plans
in real time. They were discussing real time war plans
(12:27):
on an attack on Iran. So I mean that's I
guess that's some positivity, right, This dumbass is no longer
holding that position, which he was obviously unqualified for. They're
talking about unqualified people with DEI look at the fucking
cabinet of the president. You see, I'm gonna go down
(12:47):
this rabbit hole of just getting frustrated, right, idiots, just
fucking morons, completely morons, and then talking about I guess
where we're going. Right, As a result of these idiots,
you have this trend on TikTok. Now they're calling it
(13:10):
recession hair, which also involves things like press on nails,
And they're talking about how women are spending less at
how the recession has already started. And they're saying this
trend is not just about ditchitc salam visits, it's an
economic strategy. According to USA Today, they're saying women are
(13:32):
coloring hair at home or letting their roots grow out
to save money. Google searches for blonde to burnett hair
rose seventeen percent and early twenty twenty five, a sign
that high maintenance looks are being swapped for affordability. Jordan Bayerd,
a stylist in Georgia, told USA Today that her clients
are candid about costs. I cannot afford this this many weeks.
(13:53):
I can afford this three times a year. She dabts
by offering low maintenance options like I don't know what
the fucking any of this is, Like bally edge and
color merits. I don't know what that is, ladies. I'm
sure you know what that is. Or color melts. I
also can't read. Apparently Alex's killing me to extend time
(14:15):
between visits. Black women, as Kimberly aaron Quitola shared, are
navigating this shift too, often taking on chemical relaxers and
braiding at home to avoid the long cost of one
hundred to one hundred and twenty dollars per session. Obviously,
I can't relate to the at home salon part. I
will say, though, I'm no longer fucking recklessly spending sixty
(14:41):
dollars on a haircut. Well, I think it's like my
haircut was like sixty bucks plus tip or fifty plus tip,
whatever it was, and I was driving out of the
way to do it. Great barber, but I had to
find another option. I was like, this is kind of crazy,
and in the on certain times that we live in
(15:01):
I probably should be a little bit smarter with the
things that I can be, Especially I'm going here twice
a week, right if I have an event, I might
be going there once a week, you know, and that
I've been like I was a once a week guy
for a long time as far as going to the
barber and getting my hair cut, you know, a skin
(15:23):
fade guy. So like that after three days it feels
like I could go back to the barber. But I
think it's a I think it's a lot of sort
of what we are thinking and feeling and anticipating, right.
(15:45):
I know, clubs are not as busy as they once were,
and there's a lot of argument to be made. I
don't think it's just one thing, but I think a
part of it is people are not going out as
much right where back in you know, just a couple
of years ago, it was like every Friday Saturday night
was jam packed. Now Friday feels a little lighter. Saturday
(16:08):
is still packed, but it's almost like Friday. I've said
this before, Friday has become like the new Thursday. And again,
I think there's an argument to be made about entertainment
and things like that, and people not just you know,
wanting to jump and you know, just go out for
the sake of going out. I think, you know, we'd
(16:30):
be legal, particularly here in New Jersey. You know, you
probably have people who do that instead of drinking. I
think gen Z is not as heavy as a drinker
as my generation was. There's a lot of different factors,
but I do think cost has something to do with it.
You know, it's it's hard to justify buying a beer
(16:53):
for eight dollars, you know, knowing I can get a
six pack for ten, right, And I think it's I
think it's in the back of a lot of people's minds.
And maybe I'm speaking in my own bubble, so to speak,
but I can't help but feel like these things are
(17:18):
living in people's head a bit more. Right, you're a
bit more proactive or conscious of the money you're spending
then maybe you were just a few years ago. And
it's not necessarily a bad thing. But I think the
fear because of the economy and where we are, that
is obviously a bad thing. It's one thing if you're
(17:39):
trying to be better with money and finances. It's another
if you're doing it because you live in fear of
what's around the corner economically with this country. And I
was listening to the daily sort of podcast I use
for news and they were talking about, you know, job
growth is down higher than it was, I think the
(18:03):
lowest it's been in like nineteen months or something like that.
You know, job loss is rising. You have companies like
Amazon talking about how they're gonna display the tariff costs
on each item so people know sort of, I guess
(18:25):
who's to blame for why something costs more money now?
And even you know, I mean, this has been issue
for a while, but like, I do think that the
prices have gotten to the point that most of us
are far more conscious of it than we ever have been.
(18:49):
I've never been a guy who's like been conscious of
supermarket prices, and that's a privileged statement to say, but
twenty twenty five, I'm like, man, how much is that that? Like?
I'm like, I'm actually, like, you know, far more conscious
of like what do I really need and how do
I make, you know, purchases that are gonna last me
(19:11):
more meals and things of that nature, because I'm like,
it's crazy to me to be spending over two hundred
dollars every two weeks on groceries. That just sounds nuts
to me. I can't wrap my brain around it. I'm
one person and a large zug, right, Like, we should
not be spending two hundred dollars a week on in
this household, but I am. And it's like I'm trying
(19:32):
to figure that out, right, And again it's it's on
my mind because of the level of uncertainty that there
is in the economy and the sort of I guess,
(19:57):
the fear of the economy, and then also saying, hey,
there's not a ton of money out there like there is,
but there isn't. So I can't live under the notion
of like I'm just gonna go get another and bigger
(20:18):
check constantly. I have to live on a notion of saying,
like maybe I'm in certain lanes or avenues or gigs
that I have, I'm probably capping out. So I need
to save where I can so that I don't stretch
myself too thin, or I don't have to think about
(20:41):
it essentially, right, And I get these are like conversations
with myself that I didn't have just a few years ago.
And you know, we're not officially in recession or people
saying that we are getting dangerously close to one. But
I just think it's we're are all far more conscious
(21:03):
of it than maybe we were before. And obviously it's
not a great a great way to live, a great
way to feel. And I don't know, I just I
guess I want to bring this conversation to the forefront
of case anybody else is sort of feeling the strain
of that or the fear of that you're not alone.
(21:23):
It's a TikTok trend now, But yeah, I don't know,
even like I've seen I have you know people that
I follow who are entrepreneurs. I know somebody who owns
a VI's his clothing store here in New Jersey, and
I like his content and he's very like great about
(21:44):
giving you inside baseball and stuff like that. And he
had a video where he had somebody basically come in
to sell him clothes, right and what he was telling
the guy, I was like, Bro, you're charging me twenty
twenty prices. It's twenty twenty five, Like I can't charge
what I was charging a few years ago. He's like, Yeah,
(22:06):
people are still buying clothing, they still want to look fresh,
but they're not spending the same amount of money anymore.
They're trying to do it on a far more conscious budget.
And I think that's sort of where we are right now.
(22:29):
I think for the a lot of I mean a
lot of people are probably hurting as well. Like I
can't even I don't want to speak out, but I'm
just saying, like, I think this is like the world
that we're moving into because of the level of uncertainty
of it all, you know, the level of uncertainty that
we are living in and quite frankly, you know, looking
at things through more Rose colored glasses. Maybe these are
(22:51):
like better lessons, right, Like, maybe maybe if we become
a little more self sufficient, we can save a little
bit more money. And maybe if we're more conscious of
our purchases, we're now buying things or spending money on
things that truly mean something to us rather than just
fucking burning it away essentially, right, And the haircut thing
(23:15):
hurts me. I'm not gonna lie to you, guys. My
new barber is good, but he's not as consistently incredible
as my other barber. And I have to justify it
because it's more than it's roughly half the price of
(23:36):
what I was paying. I can get two haircuts for
the price of what I was paying for the other one,
So like, I can't not justify that anymore, right, I
can't be like, yeah, but it's really good. Now, Like
this guy gives a haircut seventy five percent of what
the other guy was giving to you have to be
(23:57):
okay with saying I'm literally getting one free hair cut, essentially, like,
let's put away that extra you know, sixty whatever bucks
and uh, you know that is that to fucking take
a guess Essentially that lasts me a week or whatever
it is. Yeah, I don't I don't know if you know,
it's it's just it's just crazy, Like stats are crazy
(24:21):
right now, there's all kinds of wild shit. It's a
it's an incredibly uncertain time period, and I don't want
to keep dragging this conversation out. But also somebody posted
something and the fact check it, but like they were
saying something like sixty percent of gen z uh people
get laid off or get fired from the job they
were hired at. Like is that a sign of the
(24:44):
economy where that just gen z sucks? You know, But
like there's just I just think we're in this really
weird fucking time period. And then we have this imbecile
who's at the fucking you know, driving the car and
making it way worse than it actually needs to be,
and that's sort of where we are. And then now
all of us are like, you know, how the fuck
(25:06):
can I be proactive in like not losing my shirt essentially,
you know, like I need to be a bit smarter.
And again, in some ways it's a good thing. In
other ways, it's a fucking very scary and uncertain future
we're heading towards. And you know, we can speculate all
we want and hear the talking pundits, but only time
will tell, And I guess in the meantime, my approach,
(25:28):
as it seems like it's being shared by a lot
of other people, is like, hey, don't know what shit's
going to look like moving forward. It might be getting
kind of rough. Let me like be a bit smarter,
Let me be a bit you know, more intentional with
how I'm spending my money, just in case so that
(25:49):
I don't, you know, get put into a position where
I'm now getting the rug pulled out from under me,
you know, And I think that's probably where a lot
of people are. And again it's living with a bit
more intention which I think is a good thing. And
hopefully you know, what we're preparing for never actually happens.
Now if I haven't depressed you on just some positivity,
(26:12):
we'll talk about bad money going to the ivy leagues,
but first we'll take a quick break and then we'll
be right back. All right, So I mean, cool story here,
(26:32):
And this is literally case and point why I talk
about music and entertainment mattering right, because it can lead
to something incredible, and also doing it with intention, not
just creating entertainment for the sake of entertainment or music
for the sake of music, but actually having a real
intention behind it. And you know, we all fall victim
to listen. Everything doesn't have to be super serious and
(26:56):
you know, fucking deep. Sometimes you just want to watch
something mine right. Sometimes you just want to listen to
some ratchet music in the club, whatever it is. But
there is something special that happens when you actually intentionally
go out to move people beyond just physical dancing or whatever,
but actually having your legacy and your art needs something
(27:21):
bigger than you. And that's what Bad Bunny has done,
particularly with this last album and again sounding like a
fucking broken record, but it just keeps on unfolding and
a beautiful moment for culture. Here. Yale University IVY League,
one of the most prestigious schools you know, known around
the world, is announcing a Bad Bunny class. It's called
(27:43):
Bad Bunny Musical Aesthetics and Politics. The course is being
taught by Yale Sociate Professor Albert Laguna, who specializes in
American studies and ethnicity, race and migration. According to the
Yale Daily News, Laguna was inspired to build the class
after listening to Bad Bunny's latest album to Be Fis
Photos on repeat during a trip to Nora and saying quote,
(28:06):
I was taken by how every song opens up avenues
of exploration in relation to topics that are important to men,
told the outlet, I mean, same, bro, same, And by
the way, can I if I could toot my own
horn here for a second, because I've I always look
(28:26):
deep into things and I was doing like a lot
of when the when this album came out, I did
a lot of content breaking down in depth maybe some
of the songs or even just why this album is
so fucking special. And I remember I would not everybody
a lot most people were like, yeah, you know, we're
we're into hearing that the breakdowns and like, you know,
(28:49):
looking into things deeper. But I would get some copts
where people like, it's not that deep, bro, looking too
much into it, and it's like, dude, you don't get
it because what I don't know. I'm like, now, why
am I getting mad about a comment from months ago?
But anyway, what I'm trying to say is what a
lot of people have to recognize when you talk about
(29:09):
music historically, particularly in our community and black communities. Music
was a form of protest for many people of color.
It wasn't a luxury. And in fact, people of color
have been having their music stolen by white people for
(29:31):
as long as you know. Recording music has been going
on longer than that. But music was a way of
keeping spirits up, of not allowing your colonizer or you know,
(29:54):
the person holding you down, not allowing them to break
your spirit. And we saw this with Slaves and the
music right and the musical they brought to Puerto Rico,
things like Bomba and all of this stuff has deep
rooted history and not only celebrating our culture, but also
(30:17):
as a form of protest and resistance. And that's what
makes this album so special, as Bad Bunny brought that
energy into the modern era. And that is obviously what
inspired this class here and what this professor was so
taken it back by that he felt like he had
to build a class around it. Now they're talking about
(30:41):
how Bad Bundy's newest album has shaped the Yale syllabus.
They say the class will use Davi Fia maas Potos
Bad Bunny's sixth studio album as a primary text. The
album features a seventeen long I'm Sorry seventeen song long
track list including artists such as Right Now, Laploneiros The
La Gresta, and Chewy and tapped the Billboard two story
(31:04):
top the Billboard two hundred chart in January. You could
see this if you're watching the video version. I'm blinking
a million miles an hour right now because I have
contact saying my alergies are killing me, so I've tried
to read while also doing that. Professor Gunna highlighted the
opening track as specific as especially Pivotal. Pivotal the song
(31:24):
samples oft Rico, their song grounding the album in the
historical relationship between Puerto Rico and New York. Thank you.
I know I'm not the only one saying these things,
but damn, damn, damn, I should be. I should be
a fucking yell. That's my takeaway. I should be a Yelle. Professor,
(31:46):
maybe that's in the cards the next next time out,
because I did a whole video talking about this, about
this song, celebrating the relationship and being a bridge to
the diaspora, to the gringos like you and I right
to being a musical co sign and extension of the
(32:12):
hand to say you are one of us, and honoring
the contributions that Latinos from the diaspora in this case specifically,
you're talking about New Yorkans. Well, I think it was
a Cuban who wrote that song technically, but Latinos from
the diaspora and the impact they had on Puerto Rican
(32:35):
culture back on the island, and that song being a
celebration of that and an invitation to explore that history.
As the professor says, you cannot tell the story of
Puerto Rico from the nineteenth century to the president without
New York and the movement of people and cultural production
back and forth between both places. Amen. What a great way,
(33:01):
as we, you know, get out of life as a
goingo here, great sort of closing ideals here, closing stories
that are so much of the story and the narrative
I wanted to tell when I started this podcast. And
by the way, I know we're talking about Bad Bunny,
We're talking about Puerto Rico, we're talking about in New
York City, but it doesn't end there. Think about Chicano
(33:23):
culture of the West Coast, which I'm not going to
pretend like I'm an expert on, but I think it's
probably safe to say that even back in Mexico, there's
some sort of influence on the West coast Mexican American culture,
and there's a connection obviously between the motherland and the
(33:47):
greater Los Angeles area and vice versa. And again things
like this, conversations like this one for those of us
asking where do I fit in? Or I had somebody
commenting on another post that had posted this week basically
(34:09):
saying that children of Latinos, those of us born in
the States, not born in our homeland, We're not actually Latinos,
our parents are. We're not actually Latinos. And obviously this
is an incredibly ignorant and dumb statement that I didn't
even feel. I didn't answer, I didn't go back on that,
(34:30):
you know, go back and forth with this person, because
it's just a dumb statement. But topics of conversation like
this one prove how incredibly ignorant that statement is, particularly
as we talk about the contributions that Latinos of a
diaspora have made back to their homelands, and in this
(34:51):
case specifically the incredible influence New York has had on
the island of Puerto Rico and vice versa. Now The
Bad Bunny Court at Yale will also take on capitalism
or colonialism. Guys, bear with me, all right, I swear
I could read good in normal circumstances. My eyes are
(35:14):
just screwed right now. It's blurry. Yeah. The Bad Bunny
course that Yell takes on colonialism and diaspora. The course
doesn't shy away from the hard stuff like going to
want students to confront colonial colonialism, gentrification, and the politics
of travel culture embedded in Bad Bunny's work. He also
plans to dig into genres that shape his music, plana,
(35:37):
salsa and regaton. Quote, you can hear what the mass
migration of Puerto Ricans made possible. Puerto Rico cannot be
divorced from musical flows in the region. It's inseparable from
colonial projects in the Americas and locally the politics of
policing on the island. In other words, this is more
(36:01):
than Bad Bunnies chart topping hits. It's about what they
carry and this I would love to say. I wish
they offer this shit online. I would love to take
this class. I don't think at this point in my
life I'm gonna get accepted to Yale, so hopefully somebody
could bootleg this the syllabus or something online and I
could get in that way. But it's just again like,
(36:26):
this is what I mean. This is why this is
a career defining album for him, because of the layers
of depth here. And this is you know, if he
was a painter, this would be the shit displayed in
a museum that would tell a narrative. Right. He's really
(36:46):
telling so much of the story of Puerto Rico in
various different ways, and in twenty twenty five, giving us
new protest anthems and also giving us history and context
and all these things. It's while at the same time
giving you music for a while out with you know,
with your friends, which is okay as well, but this
(37:12):
is like, as you can tell, this is type of
shit that gets me fucking amped up. It's also a teaser.
The new podcast is not just centered around music. It
will have music aspects. But I mould have said too
much already, but who knows. I love you all your family.
(37:34):
The new project that I'm working on that will you know,
follow life as a gringo after we close this chapter
will allow me to have more in depth sort of
observations and investigations into topics like this one, and I
(37:56):
know that I actually did do an episode on that
with the Today Must those. I think it's some of
the takeaways personally, but I think I would love to
have done like you know, this Yale class in the
form of a one hour you know podcast of like
deep diving into some of these things as well. So
(38:16):
my next project isn't allow me to do some things
like that as well. I think I've already said too much,
but yeah, beautiful stuff to say. And by the way,
again this this is Yale University. This is Yale University
teaching a class on a on a kid from a
small town in Puerto Rico. You have to think about
(38:40):
how big that is. These are institutions where traditionally we
were made to feel like we didn't belong, and now
we not only have representation, we are also educating the
next We're also being honored in this way because that's
(39:04):
what it is, and our story is being shared in
an institution like this one, which has a long history
of global exceptionalism. And that's a beautiful thing. And again
it shows that each and every one of us belong
in any fucking room that we see fit because bad
(39:26):
Bunny has a class being taught at Yale University. Amazing.
With that said, let's time everything we talked about today
in the Little Bow in a segment we call conclusions too.
But first we'll take a quick break and then we'll
be right back. Time for compan all right, So to
(39:53):
some eyeshole that we talked about today, basically just Donald
Trumps a fucking idiot. I feel like that kind of
summarizes everything he made. Some bad cabinet hires. They were
obviously idiots and not up to par with the job
title and shocker in the first one hundred days. Basically
(40:13):
one of them is already out. And we've seen this
consistently even in his last tenure as president, where cabinet
members were fucking falling dropping like flies. Not a shocker here,
more sort of just disgusting weaponization of human beings and
(40:40):
no concern for the fact that, again, these are human
beings with real lives, but instead turning them into political
pawns for your own game and as a means of
covering up your own fuck ups in the case of
the man who is wrongfully detained by Ice and then
(41:00):
and then support it. Just disgusting. And by the way,
there was another story I would quickly just to attack
it in there with like this whole ice thing. You
had immigration officials supporting three children this last weekend, all
(41:22):
of which were US citizens, one of them who's receiving
treatment for stage four cancer. Now Trump officials are attempting
to rewrite the narrative and say that you know, the
parents were given the option of the kids they here,
and the parents are saying it's bullshit. And legal representatives
(41:47):
are trying to raise concerns like, hey, we're not having
a proper due process with these deportations, and Trump doesn't
believe that we have time for due process, even though
that is a part of this country. And again people
are wrongfully being deported for just being treated inhumanely, and
(42:10):
it's just again, it's just ineptitude, a lack of empathy,
and unfortunately more of the same. We talked about people
sort of like you know, recession hair and present nails
and do you know, I'm not an economist, but I
(42:30):
feel the pressure of everything, and I feel the weight
of like how expensive it already is and how disastrous
it seems like Trump's policies are and where we're heading
and yeah, I'm most definitely trying to be proactive, and like,
(42:50):
where can I save a couple bucks here and there,
you know, and put some money away so that if
shit does hit the fan, I'm in a better position.
And how can I be a bit more intentional with
my money? And Bad Bunny having a class at Yale. Like, again,
we can we can brush it off as just like
a thing, you know, to get pressed or whatever it is,
(43:12):
and you can sort of just say it's a class
on you know, for a fun elected electa elective. But
I see it as so much more than that. These
again are circles that we were not even supposed to
be a part of or even you know, attend these
(43:35):
these types of institutions, these schools, they weren't built for us.
Yet now we have classes in these institutions being taught
about us. That's it's huge, And again that should be
inspiration for anybody. Like you could be in any room
that you want to see, doesn't matter where you're from. Again,
Bad Bunny is a guy from a small town in
(43:57):
Puerto Rico. Small town, I'm a small island in the Caribbean.
And here he is having a Yale University class taught
about him. It's fucking insane. When you really slow down
and think about that, it's beautiful. Thank y'all so much
for tuning in. Man, we're getting close to the end here.
(44:17):
I appreciate. I just want you know ahead of time
to say I appreciate y'all for sticking by me in
this journey and more stuff on the way, I promise.
With that said, have an amazing weekend and I'll talk
to y'all on Tuesday to that's day safe. We talk soon.
Life as a Good INDO is a production of the
(44:37):
micro Thura podcast network and iHeartRadio
Alright, let me talk about here we go. He said,
you live in life as a gringo, where you question
when you fit in. Every time you mingle, they say
you do. This would not that this life as a Yes, Hello,
and welcome to another episode of Life as a Gringo.
(00:26):
I am Dramas course Man, episode one O two, one
O two of one oh five. Technically, so we are.
I think we're exactly two weeks left in the show
sort of, it's like a week and a half if
(00:46):
you're counting business days whatever. We have three more shows
left after this episode of Life as a Gringo, and
and that's it. That's it for Life as a Gringo officially.
And then of course, like I've been teasing, we're gonna
have some bonus episodes that are airing throughout May, I
think into June as well, so there'll be tough to to,
(01:11):
you know, hold you over. There's other things coming. I
can say that I can say, stay subscribed to this feed.
If you're not subscribed to this podcast feed, there's another evolution.
I think of me and where I am at this
point in my life and the things I want to
talk about and how I feel like I can contribute
(01:35):
to the culture and the progression, and I think just
authentically who I am right now, you know. And I've
grown so much with this podcast and get I'll save
the sappy reminiscing for probably the last episode in a
couple of weeks. But yeah, I'm excited for the next chapter.
(01:58):
I'm excited that there is another chapter that I'll be
able to kind of talk about or transition into sooner
rather than later. For anybody that has you know, I
get it if you're a fan of the podcast, it
might be a part of your routine in some sort
of way, and I'm so grateful for that. And I
(02:20):
don't only be hanging right if you've enjoyed this time
that we've had together. I know I have. I will
say though, as we're about to get into Thursday trends,
I'm not gonna miss regularly talking about politics quick inside baseball.
As I was kind of figure out what the next
(02:41):
move was going to be after the end of life
as a get Engle, you know, I was getting different
opportunities and I was pitching different ideas and one of
the ones that sort of had garnered interest was me
having a political podcast, and that sort of being the
(03:03):
main focus of the show, and you know, I kind
of had to have a real conversation with myself and
sort of say, like, I'm just kind of drained by Dawn.
I don't know what that means, you know. I think
I'll always be active in it and using my voice,
using my platform as best as I can, but as
(03:26):
far as you know, week in week out, having to
talk about it and report about it and relive it,
you know, particularly under this administration, it's taxing, it's exhausting.
It's not something I personally I think is best for
(03:49):
me and my mental as well as you know, It's
just not something I want to be doing on a
regular basis. You know. It's a lot not to say
that I don't think it's important work, but for me personally,
I kind of need a break from that, you know,
(04:09):
a bit. And I think I can contribute in being
a voice and speaking up for the community in other
ways and in ways that maybe feel a bit more
natural and on the cusp rather than having to sit
down and talk about all this stuff. As important as
(04:29):
it is, I think you have to be informed, you know,
but it is draining to be The more informed you
are Unfortunately, the more draining it is, like, the more
aware you are of all the wild shit that's currently
happening in this world, in this country, it really is
fucking draining, you know, and you kind of have to
pick and choose your battles, so to speak. So yeah,
(04:52):
just kind of bearing it all out there for you.
With that said, Thursday trends, What are we talking about
this week? Let's talk about this interview with Donald Trump
where he was asked about Abadeo Garcia, who is the
man from Maryland who was wrongfully deported to an Elsahalvador
(05:12):
in prison. They're now trying to spin the story that
he was a violent gang member as a part of
MS thirteen and Trump just embarrassed himself in this interview.
We'll talk about that, more stuff out of the Trump administration,
breaking news that one of Trump's main cabinet members is
now out after a scandal, and we'll talk a bit
(05:34):
about the economy. Women are trying to find ways to
save money. I think we all are. We'll just have
a general discussion about that, and then on a positive
side of things, Bad Bunny is going to the ivy leagues.
I will get into what I mean by that Yale
University get ready for Bad Bunny. And I don't just
mean a performance, I mean a course. We'll talk about that,
(05:58):
but first and foremost, let's die. It's the nonsense, the
bs and a segment call for the people in the back,
say a lot for the people in the say a
lot of the people in the A lot of the people.
(06:21):
All right, So I'm it's just I like, and this
is the other part, you know again, why like the
political stuff is so exhausting because we're just fucking talking
in circles right where it feels like I'm just constantly
repeating myself and quite frankly, that's what a lot of
mainstream news is. You tune in, it's the same shit
(06:43):
over and over again. And that's what's exhausting about it, right,
because it's like, how many more stupid Donald Trump stories
or crazy Donald Trump stories or racist Donald Trump stories
can you talk about before it's just fucking groundhog day? Right?
And you know, you you have this interview with Donald Trump.
I believe it was ABC News that was doing the interview,
(07:05):
and they're talking about Abrego Garcia again, the man who
was wrongfully deportal Salvador even though he was, he had
a stay order, which meant that he was legally in
the country. And now in real time, you're seeing the
just disgusting smearing of this man's name with no evidence
(07:31):
and tying him to the MS thirteen gang and essentially
trying to clear themselves of both their ineptitude, but also
the fact that they're defying the court system who has
ordered for them to process this man and coordinate his
return back to the US. Rather than doing what's right
(07:54):
and really admitting their mistake, they're just trying to spin
this any way they can and turn him into a
violent gang member who is affiliated and a member of
MS thirteen, And in this sort of idiotic and almost
comical it'd be comical if it wasn't for the fact
(08:16):
that we are talking about a human being who is
literally his life has been uprooted illegally and people are
making a game out of it, and he's been torn
away from his family and set to what has been
globally recognized as one of the worst prisons in the world.
(08:38):
That seems like, so you had Trump on this interview
and he claims this guy has MS thirteen tattooed clear
his day on his knuckles. And the picture that he's
referring to is a picture of this man's knuckles, and
(08:58):
this man does have tattoos on his knuckles, but there's
no MS thirteen. It's symbols. And a picture that Trump
holds up has MS thirteen in like regular aerial font
over each knuckle. Now, the assumption of the picture is
they're saying that those symbols are short for or those
(09:22):
symbols represent the each letter and each number. But this
dumbass Donald Trump seems to have literally thought that the
MS thirteen and aerial font that has very clearly been
put on the picture via a computer and not done
even in a way that is cleanly that would make
(09:43):
you think this is a real tattoo. He somehow thinks
that the Microsoft paint letters of MS thirteen above the
symbols were the actual tattoo on this man's knuckles. And
he's arguing in this interview with the interviewer who says, no, mister, press,
that's a photoshop. They're saying that the symbols represent MS thirteen,
(10:07):
that's the argument, and he's said, no, no thought in argument.
They're not saying that he represents. It's clear as day
MS thirteen on his knuckles. This dumbass literally thought that
the aerial font that was placed on the photo as
a sort of translation. This dumbass literally thought that it
was a tattoo on the person's knuckles. And it's like,
(10:33):
I think the more frustrating thing is at moments he
seems like the dumbest person on earth. At other times
it's like he's the most conniving, evil genius. And I
think that is what's partially frustrating, is like not knowing
which is which, And I'm leading towards him just being
a complete dumbass who, because of his brazenness at times
(10:56):
falls into situations that make him seem sharper than he
actually is. But again, the crude part about this is,
you guys are creating this fake narrative. And I say
you guys, I mean the Trumper's the right, the Fox
News is of the world. You're creating this narrative, smearing
(11:20):
this man's reputation and literally ruining his life and his
family's life, just so you don't have to admit that
you were wrong, and while doing so, spitting on democracy
by defying the courts that are supposed to keep everybody
in check, even the President of the United States. And
(11:45):
again I feel like a broken record, repeating myself quickly
out to this other breaking news story that happened. Mike Waltz,
Trump's national security advisor is now out. He is no
longer working for Trump, apparently fired or quit no longer
working there after the scandal where he was in a
(12:07):
group text message via the app Signal and by mistake,
included a journalist in a conversation with people including the
Vice President of the United States, that had war plans
in real time. They were discussing real time war plans
(12:27):
on an attack on Iran. So I mean that's I
guess that's some positivity, right, This dumbass is no longer
holding that position, which he was obviously unqualified for. They're
talking about unqualified people with DEI look at the fucking
cabinet of the president. You see, I'm gonna go down
(12:47):
this rabbit hole of just getting frustrated, right, idiots, just
fucking morons, completely morons, and then talking about I guess
where we're going. Right, As a result of these idiots,
you have this trend on TikTok. Now they're calling it
(13:10):
recession hair, which also involves things like press on nails,
And they're talking about how women are spending less at
how the recession has already started. And they're saying this
trend is not just about ditchitc salam visits, it's an
economic strategy. According to USA Today, they're saying women are
(13:32):
coloring hair at home or letting their roots grow out
to save money. Google searches for blonde to burnett hair
rose seventeen percent and early twenty twenty five, a sign
that high maintenance looks are being swapped for affordability. Jordan Bayerd,
a stylist in Georgia, told USA Today that her clients
are candid about costs. I cannot afford this this many weeks.
(13:53):
I can afford this three times a year. She dabts
by offering low maintenance options like I don't know what
the fucking any of this is, Like bally edge and
color merits. I don't know what that is, ladies. I'm
sure you know what that is. Or color melts. I
also can't read. Apparently Alex's killing me to extend time
(14:15):
between visits. Black women, as Kimberly aaron Quitola shared, are
navigating this shift too, often taking on chemical relaxers and
braiding at home to avoid the long cost of one
hundred to one hundred and twenty dollars per session. Obviously,
I can't relate to the at home salon part. I
will say, though, I'm no longer fucking recklessly spending sixty
(14:41):
dollars on a haircut. Well, I think it's like my
haircut was like sixty bucks plus tip or fifty plus tip,
whatever it was, and I was driving out of the
way to do it. Great barber, but I had to
find another option. I was like, this is kind of crazy,
and in the on certain times that we live in
(15:01):
I probably should be a little bit smarter with the
things that I can be, Especially I'm going here twice
a week, right if I have an event, I might
be going there once a week, you know, and that
I've been like I was a once a week guy
for a long time as far as going to the
barber and getting my hair cut, you know, a skin
(15:23):
fade guy. So like that after three days it feels
like I could go back to the barber. But I
think it's a I think it's a lot of sort
of what we are thinking and feeling and anticipating, right.
(15:45):
I know, clubs are not as busy as they once were,
and there's a lot of argument to be made. I
don't think it's just one thing, but I think a
part of it is people are not going out as
much right where back in you know, just a couple
of years ago, it was like every Friday Saturday night
was jam packed. Now Friday feels a little lighter. Saturday
(16:08):
is still packed, but it's almost like Friday. I've said
this before, Friday has become like the new Thursday. And again,
I think there's an argument to be made about entertainment
and things like that, and people not just you know,
wanting to jump and you know, just go out for
the sake of going out. I think, you know, we'd
(16:30):
be legal, particularly here in New Jersey. You know, you
probably have people who do that instead of drinking. I
think gen Z is not as heavy as a drinker
as my generation was. There's a lot of different factors,
but I do think cost has something to do with it.
You know, it's it's hard to justify buying a beer
(16:53):
for eight dollars, you know, knowing I can get a
six pack for ten, right, And I think it's I
think it's in the back of a lot of people's minds.
And maybe I'm speaking in my own bubble, so to speak,
but I can't help but feel like these things are
(17:18):
living in people's head a bit more. Right, you're a
bit more proactive or conscious of the money you're spending
then maybe you were just a few years ago. And
it's not necessarily a bad thing. But I think the
fear because of the economy and where we are, that
is obviously a bad thing. It's one thing if you're
(17:39):
trying to be better with money and finances. It's another
if you're doing it because you live in fear of
what's around the corner economically with this country. And I
was listening to the daily sort of podcast I use
for news and they were talking about, you know, job
growth is down higher than it was, I think the
(18:03):
lowest it's been in like nineteen months or something like that.
You know, job loss is rising. You have companies like
Amazon talking about how they're gonna display the tariff costs
on each item so people know sort of, I guess
(18:25):
who's to blame for why something costs more money now?
And even you know, I mean, this has been issue
for a while, but like, I do think that the
prices have gotten to the point that most of us
are far more conscious of it than we ever have been.
(18:49):
I've never been a guy who's like been conscious of
supermarket prices, and that's a privileged statement to say, but
twenty twenty five, I'm like, man, how much is that that? Like?
I'm like, I'm actually, like, you know, far more conscious
of like what do I really need and how do
I make, you know, purchases that are gonna last me
(19:11):
more meals and things of that nature, because I'm like,
it's crazy to me to be spending over two hundred
dollars every two weeks on groceries. That just sounds nuts
to me. I can't wrap my brain around it. I'm
one person and a large zug, right, Like, we should
not be spending two hundred dollars a week on in
this household, but I am. And it's like I'm trying
(19:32):
to figure that out, right, And again it's it's on
my mind because of the level of uncertainty that there
is in the economy and the sort of I guess,
(19:57):
the fear of the economy, and then also saying, hey,
there's not a ton of money out there like there is,
but there isn't. So I can't live under the notion
of like I'm just gonna go get another and bigger
(20:18):
check constantly. I have to live on a notion of saying,
like maybe I'm in certain lanes or avenues or gigs
that I have, I'm probably capping out. So I need
to save where I can so that I don't stretch
myself too thin, or I don't have to think about
(20:41):
it essentially, right, And I get these are like conversations
with myself that I didn't have just a few years ago.
And you know, we're not officially in recession or people
saying that we are getting dangerously close to one. But
I just think it's we're are all far more conscious
(21:03):
of it than maybe we were before. And obviously it's
not a great a great way to live, a great
way to feel. And I don't know, I just I
guess I want to bring this conversation to the forefront
of case anybody else is sort of feeling the strain
of that or the fear of that you're not alone.
(21:23):
It's a TikTok trend now, But yeah, I don't know,
even like I've seen I have you know people that
I follow who are entrepreneurs. I know somebody who owns
a VI's his clothing store here in New Jersey, and
I like his content and he's very like great about
(21:44):
giving you inside baseball and stuff like that. And he
had a video where he had somebody basically come in
to sell him clothes, right and what he was telling
the guy, I was like, Bro, you're charging me twenty
twenty prices. It's twenty twenty five, Like I can't charge
what I was charging a few years ago. He's like, Yeah,
(22:06):
people are still buying clothing, they still want to look fresh,
but they're not spending the same amount of money anymore.
They're trying to do it on a far more conscious budget.
And I think that's sort of where we are right now.
(22:29):
I think for the a lot of I mean a
lot of people are probably hurting as well. Like I
can't even I don't want to speak out, but I'm
just saying, like, I think this is like the world
that we're moving into because of the level of uncertainty
of it all, you know, the level of uncertainty that
we are living in and quite frankly, you know, looking
at things through more Rose colored glasses. Maybe these are
(22:51):
like better lessons, right, Like, maybe maybe if we become
a little more self sufficient, we can save a little
bit more money. And maybe if we're more conscious of
our purchases, we're now buying things or spending money on
things that truly mean something to us rather than just
fucking burning it away essentially, right, And the haircut thing
(23:15):
hurts me. I'm not gonna lie to you, guys. My
new barber is good, but he's not as consistently incredible
as my other barber. And I have to justify it
because it's more than it's roughly half the price of
(23:36):
what I was paying. I can get two haircuts for
the price of what I was paying for the other one,
So like, I can't not justify that anymore, right, I
can't be like, yeah, but it's really good. Now, Like
this guy gives a haircut seventy five percent of what
the other guy was giving to you have to be
(23:57):
okay with saying I'm literally getting one free hair cut, essentially, like,
let's put away that extra you know, sixty whatever bucks
and uh, you know that is that to fucking take
a guess Essentially that lasts me a week or whatever
it is. Yeah, I don't I don't know if you know,
it's it's just it's just crazy, Like stats are crazy
(24:21):
right now, there's all kinds of wild shit. It's a
it's an incredibly uncertain time period, and I don't want
to keep dragging this conversation out. But also somebody posted
something and the fact check it, but like they were
saying something like sixty percent of gen z uh people
get laid off or get fired from the job they
were hired at. Like is that a sign of the
(24:44):
economy where that just gen z sucks? You know, But
like there's just I just think we're in this really
weird fucking time period. And then we have this imbecile
who's at the fucking you know, driving the car and
making it way worse than it actually needs to be,
and that's sort of where we are. And then now
all of us are like, you know, how the fuck
(25:06):
can I be proactive in like not losing my shirt essentially,
you know, like I need to be a bit smarter.
And again, in some ways it's a good thing. In
other ways, it's a fucking very scary and uncertain future
we're heading towards. And you know, we can speculate all
we want and hear the talking pundits, but only time
will tell, And I guess in the meantime, my approach,
(25:28):
as it seems like it's being shared by a lot
of other people, is like, hey, don't know what shit's
going to look like moving forward. It might be getting
kind of rough. Let me like be a bit smarter,
Let me be a bit you know, more intentional with
how I'm spending my money, just in case so that
(25:49):
I don't, you know, get put into a position where
I'm now getting the rug pulled out from under me,
you know, And I think that's probably where a lot
of people are. And again it's living with a bit
more intention which I think is a good thing. And
hopefully you know, what we're preparing for never actually happens.
Now if I haven't depressed you on just some positivity,
(26:12):
we'll talk about bad money going to the ivy leagues,
but first we'll take a quick break and then we'll
be right back. All right, So I mean, cool story here,
(26:32):
And this is literally case and point why I talk
about music and entertainment mattering right, because it can lead
to something incredible, and also doing it with intention, not
just creating entertainment for the sake of entertainment or music
for the sake of music, but actually having a real
intention behind it. And you know, we all fall victim
to listen. Everything doesn't have to be super serious and
(26:56):
you know, fucking deep. Sometimes you just want to watch
something mine right. Sometimes you just want to listen to
some ratchet music in the club, whatever it is. But
there is something special that happens when you actually intentionally
go out to move people beyond just physical dancing or whatever,
but actually having your legacy and your art needs something
(27:21):
bigger than you. And that's what Bad Bunny has done,
particularly with this last album and again sounding like a
fucking broken record, but it just keeps on unfolding and
a beautiful moment for culture. Here. Yale University IVY League,
one of the most prestigious schools you know, known around
the world, is announcing a Bad Bunny class. It's called
(27:43):
Bad Bunny Musical Aesthetics and Politics. The course is being
taught by Yale Sociate Professor Albert Laguna, who specializes in
American studies and ethnicity, race and migration. According to the
Yale Daily News, Laguna was inspired to build the class
after listening to Bad Bunny's latest album to Be Fis
Photos on repeat during a trip to Nora and saying quote,
(28:06):
I was taken by how every song opens up avenues
of exploration in relation to topics that are important to men,
told the outlet, I mean, same, bro, same, And by
the way, can I if I could toot my own
horn here for a second, because I've I always look
(28:26):
deep into things and I was doing like a lot
of when the when this album came out, I did
a lot of content breaking down in depth maybe some
of the songs or even just why this album is
so fucking special. And I remember I would not everybody
a lot most people were like, yeah, you know, we're
we're into hearing that the breakdowns and like, you know,
(28:49):
looking into things deeper. But I would get some copts
where people like, it's not that deep, bro, looking too
much into it, and it's like, dude, you don't get
it because what I don't know. I'm like, now, why
am I getting mad about a comment from months ago?
But anyway, what I'm trying to say is what a
lot of people have to recognize when you talk about
(29:09):
music historically, particularly in our community and black communities. Music
was a form of protest for many people of color.
It wasn't a luxury. And in fact, people of color
have been having their music stolen by white people for
(29:31):
as long as you know. Recording music has been going
on longer than that. But music was a way of
keeping spirits up, of not allowing your colonizer or you know,
(29:54):
the person holding you down, not allowing them to break
your spirit. And we saw this with Slaves and the
music right and the musical they brought to Puerto Rico,
things like Bomba and all of this stuff has deep
rooted history and not only celebrating our culture, but also
(30:17):
as a form of protest and resistance. And that's what
makes this album so special, as Bad Bunny brought that
energy into the modern era. And that is obviously what
inspired this class here and what this professor was so
taken it back by that he felt like he had
to build a class around it. Now they're talking about
(30:41):
how Bad Bundy's newest album has shaped the Yale syllabus.
They say the class will use Davi Fia maas Potos
Bad Bunny's sixth studio album as a primary text. The
album features a seventeen long I'm Sorry seventeen song long
track list including artists such as Right Now, Laploneiros The
La Gresta, and Chewy and tapped the Billboard two story
(31:04):
top the Billboard two hundred chart in January. You could
see this if you're watching the video version. I'm blinking
a million miles an hour right now because I have
contact saying my alergies are killing me, so I've tried
to read while also doing that. Professor Gunna highlighted the
opening track as specific as especially Pivotal. Pivotal the song
(31:24):
samples oft Rico, their song grounding the album in the
historical relationship between Puerto Rico and New York. Thank you.
I know I'm not the only one saying these things,
but damn, damn, damn, I should be. I should be
a fucking yell. That's my takeaway. I should be a Yelle. Professor,
(31:46):
maybe that's in the cards the next next time out,
because I did a whole video talking about this, about
this song, celebrating the relationship and being a bridge to
the diaspora, to the gringos like you and I right
to being a musical co sign and extension of the
(32:12):
hand to say you are one of us, and honoring
the contributions that Latinos from the diaspora in this case specifically,
you're talking about New Yorkans. Well, I think it was
a Cuban who wrote that song technically, but Latinos from
the diaspora and the impact they had on Puerto Rican
(32:35):
culture back on the island, and that song being a
celebration of that and an invitation to explore that history.
As the professor says, you cannot tell the story of
Puerto Rico from the nineteenth century to the president without
New York and the movement of people and cultural production
back and forth between both places. Amen. What a great way,
(33:01):
as we, you know, get out of life as a
goingo here, great sort of closing ideals here, closing stories
that are so much of the story and the narrative
I wanted to tell when I started this podcast. And
by the way, I know we're talking about Bad Bunny,
We're talking about Puerto Rico, we're talking about in New
York City, but it doesn't end there. Think about Chicano
(33:23):
culture of the West Coast, which I'm not going to
pretend like I'm an expert on, but I think it's
probably safe to say that even back in Mexico, there's
some sort of influence on the West coast Mexican American culture,
and there's a connection obviously between the motherland and the
(33:47):
greater Los Angeles area and vice versa. And again things
like this, conversations like this one for those of us
asking where do I fit in? Or I had somebody
commenting on another post that had posted this week basically
(34:09):
saying that children of Latinos, those of us born in
the States, not born in our homeland, We're not actually Latinos,
our parents are. We're not actually Latinos. And obviously this
is an incredibly ignorant and dumb statement that I didn't
even feel. I didn't answer, I didn't go back on that,
(34:30):
you know, go back and forth with this person, because
it's just a dumb statement. But topics of conversation like
this one prove how incredibly ignorant that statement is, particularly
as we talk about the contributions that Latinos of a
diaspora have made back to their homelands, and in this
(34:51):
case specifically the incredible influence New York has had on
the island of Puerto Rico and vice versa. Now The
Bad Bunny Court at Yale will also take on capitalism
or colonialism. Guys, bear with me, all right, I swear
I could read good in normal circumstances. My eyes are
(35:14):
just screwed right now. It's blurry. Yeah. The Bad Bunny
course that Yell takes on colonialism and diaspora. The course
doesn't shy away from the hard stuff like going to
want students to confront colonial colonialism, gentrification, and the politics
of travel culture embedded in Bad Bunny's work. He also
plans to dig into genres that shape his music, plana,
(35:37):
salsa and regaton. Quote, you can hear what the mass
migration of Puerto Ricans made possible. Puerto Rico cannot be
divorced from musical flows in the region. It's inseparable from
colonial projects in the Americas and locally the politics of
policing on the island. In other words, this is more
(36:01):
than Bad Bunnies chart topping hits. It's about what they
carry and this I would love to say. I wish
they offer this shit online. I would love to take
this class. I don't think at this point in my
life I'm gonna get accepted to Yale, so hopefully somebody
could bootleg this the syllabus or something online and I
could get in that way. But it's just again like,
(36:26):
this is what I mean. This is why this is
a career defining album for him, because of the layers
of depth here. And this is you know, if he
was a painter, this would be the shit displayed in
a museum that would tell a narrative. Right. He's really
(36:46):
telling so much of the story of Puerto Rico in
various different ways, and in twenty twenty five, giving us
new protest anthems and also giving us history and context
and all these things. It's while at the same time
giving you music for a while out with you know,
with your friends, which is okay as well, but this
(37:12):
is like, as you can tell, this is type of
shit that gets me fucking amped up. It's also a teaser.
The new podcast is not just centered around music. It
will have music aspects. But I mould have said too
much already, but who knows. I love you all your family.
(37:34):
The new project that I'm working on that will you know,
follow life as a gringo after we close this chapter
will allow me to have more in depth sort of
observations and investigations into topics like this one, and I
(37:56):
know that I actually did do an episode on that
with the Today Must those. I think it's some of
the takeaways personally, but I think I would love to
have done like you know, this Yale class in the
form of a one hour you know podcast of like
deep diving into some of these things as well. So
(38:16):
my next project isn't allow me to do some things
like that as well. I think I've already said too much,
but yeah, beautiful stuff to say. And by the way,
again this this is Yale University. This is Yale University
teaching a class on a on a kid from a
small town in Puerto Rico. You have to think about
(38:40):
how big that is. These are institutions where traditionally we
were made to feel like we didn't belong, and now
we not only have representation, we are also educating the
next We're also being honored in this way because that's
(39:04):
what it is, and our story is being shared in
an institution like this one, which has a long history
of global exceptionalism. And that's a beautiful thing. And again
it shows that each and every one of us belong
in any fucking room that we see fit because bad
(39:26):
Bunny has a class being taught at Yale University. Amazing.
With that said, let's time everything we talked about today
in the Little Bow in a segment we call conclusions too.
But first we'll take a quick break and then we'll
be right back. Time for compan all right, So to
(39:53):
some eyeshole that we talked about today, basically just Donald
Trumps a fucking idiot. I feel like that kind of
summarizes everything he made. Some bad cabinet hires. They were
obviously idiots and not up to par with the job
title and shocker in the first one hundred days. Basically
(40:13):
one of them is already out. And we've seen this
consistently even in his last tenure as president, where cabinet
members were fucking falling dropping like flies. Not a shocker here,
more sort of just disgusting weaponization of human beings and
(40:40):
no concern for the fact that, again, these are human
beings with real lives, but instead turning them into political
pawns for your own game and as a means of
covering up your own fuck ups in the case of
the man who is wrongfully detained by Ice and then
(41:00):
and then support it. Just disgusting. And by the way,
there was another story I would quickly just to attack
it in there with like this whole ice thing. You
had immigration officials supporting three children this last weekend, all
(41:22):
of which were US citizens, one of them who's receiving
treatment for stage four cancer. Now Trump officials are attempting
to rewrite the narrative and say that you know, the
parents were given the option of the kids they here,
and the parents are saying it's bullshit. And legal representatives
(41:47):
are trying to raise concerns like, hey, we're not having
a proper due process with these deportations, and Trump doesn't
believe that we have time for due process, even though
that is a part of this country. And again people
are wrongfully being deported for just being treated inhumanely, and
(42:10):
it's just again, it's just ineptitude, a lack of empathy,
and unfortunately more of the same. We talked about people
sort of like you know, recession hair and present nails
and do you know, I'm not an economist, but I
(42:30):
feel the pressure of everything, and I feel the weight
of like how expensive it already is and how disastrous
it seems like Trump's policies are and where we're heading
and yeah, I'm most definitely trying to be proactive, and like,
(42:50):
where can I save a couple bucks here and there,
you know, and put some money away so that if
shit does hit the fan, I'm in a better position.
And how can I be a bit more intentional with
my money? And Bad Bunny having a class at Yale. Like, again,
we can we can brush it off as just like
a thing, you know, to get pressed or whatever it is,
(43:12):
and you can sort of just say it's a class
on you know, for a fun elected electa elective. But
I see it as so much more than that. These
again are circles that we were not even supposed to
be a part of or even you know, attend these
(43:35):
these types of institutions, these schools, they weren't built for us.
Yet now we have classes in these institutions being taught
about us. That's it's huge, And again that should be
inspiration for anybody. Like you could be in any room
that you want to see, doesn't matter where you're from. Again,
Bad Bunny is a guy from a small town in
(43:57):
Puerto Rico. Small town, I'm a small island in the Caribbean.
And here he is having a Yale University class taught
about him. It's fucking insane. When you really slow down
and think about that, it's beautiful. Thank y'all so much
for tuning in. Man, we're getting close to the end here.
(44:17):
I appreciate. I just want you know ahead of time
to say I appreciate y'all for sticking by me in
this journey and more stuff on the way, I promise.
With that said, have an amazing weekend and I'll talk
to y'all on Tuesday to that's day safe. We talk soon.
Life as a Good INDO is a production of the
(44:37):
micro Thura podcast network and iHeartRadio
Host
DJ Dramos
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