October 5, 2022 • 23 mins
We're in our network era, locamores! Your longtime indie podcasters have joined the My Cultura Podcast Network at iHeartMedia. Tune in as we reflect on our last six seasons and what this new era looks like for Locatora Radio.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Look at Our Radio is a radiophonic novela, which is
just a very extra way of saying a podcast. I'm
theos f M and I am malays. Local Radio is
your pretty must favorite podcast hosted by us Mala and
Diosa where Too I g friends turned podcast partners, breaking
(00:22):
down of pop culture, feminism, sexual wellness, and offering fresh
takes on strending topics through nuanced interviews with up and
coming lat Next creatives known as Las Locals, Las Mammy,
Submit and Bullshits, Next Store and Las Bores. We've been
podcasting independently since and we're bringing our radiophonic novela to
(00:46):
the Micuda Network to continue sharing stories from the Latin
Next community. Welcome to Local Radio Season seven. Take us
to your network, La La Locomotives, Welcome to season seven.
Take us to your network, Take us to your network. Indeed,
this is our very first episode as Look at Our
(01:08):
Radio for the Michael Duta Network. We're beyond thrilled. We're
in a legitimate studio space and we have not seen
the inside of one of these in many years. We've
been feral, outdoor podcasters and now we're here, So we're thrilled.
We're excited, and we want to introduce ourselves to all
of our new listeners. We're network girlies now, can you
believe it? I'm so excited, so thrilled to check in
(01:31):
with our long time listeners and welcome our new listeners.
And if you tuned into our last episode, the season
finale for season six, we left a lot of hints,
a lot of vague clues about ending an era of
look at What our Radio and starting a whole new one.
And this is it, babies, this is our network era.
We're here, We've made it. We've been podcasting for six
(01:53):
years six season seven now, and we wanted to take
this as an opportunity to reassure our long time listeners
were still here. We're still doing the damn thing. But
also so our new folks who are tuning in can
get to know us. Yeah, so we want to bring
back probably our longest ever running segment, which is aye
look Us, where we answer listener questions. And because we've
(02:14):
gotten an overwhelming amount of questions, because obviously we were
super cryptic the last couple of episodes, and we've been
cryptic online. We've been tweeting cryptic things as well. We
wanted to take an opportunity to bring the segment back
and answer these questions, and so I'm just going to
queue up the first one. Can you talk about the
last six seasons and some of your favorite themes? There
(02:37):
have been so many over the years. If you follow
our Instagram We're at Local Underscore Radio, or if you
check out our website look at our Radio dot com,
you'll see that since the very beginning, we have loved
to add visuals to every podcast season and we love
to have a new theme. We love to give ourselves
sort of a new edge and identity, Like each time
(03:00):
Tim we rev up for a new season of Look
at Our Radio. And I have to say that one
of my favorites has been the podcast that us next
Door season six, our most recent season, just because I
think that over the course of the pandemic we really
got our visuals together. Like I think the theme was
so cute. We set up a fake lemonade stand and
we were like raising fake funds for our new podcast.
(03:21):
We recorded a whole little skit. Our makeup artist Robert
was in it. That one was a really fun one
for me, and I'm very proud of those visuals and
even though this was our shortest season, we ended in
August so that we could start now in October with
My Heart with Michael Dua. But yeah, I loved our
last season. Yeah, this is definitely new territory for us
because we've always done and I think unique to us.
(03:43):
We've always always done like calendar seasons like we've done,
We've always done a full year of episodes and so
the seasons have always been a year long, and so yeah,
this is definitely new for us, but we're really excited
and thinking about. One of my favorite seasons would probably
be our boas where we did the lingerie and we
did the like Angel Devil type of you know, Thesamla visuals,
(04:07):
Like we really personified it, and we had like a
beautiful set that are photographer Jessica Magna made and she
like constructed, created these beautiful flames for Mala to like
lay in front of, and then she created these like
clouds for me to lay on top of. And I
think that that was probably like our most like edgy shoot,
(04:29):
our edgiest shoot us to date, because we were literally
in lingerie and I loved that your Mom's response to
us and the Lingerie was was it really necessary? Yeah,
it was, it was. It was necessary. She was like why,
but for what? How do we explain? Yeah, And we
(04:49):
didn't really start doing like actual themes until probably season three,
which was and like we've always paired visuals with our seasons,
but I think like that's when we really started to
identify each season with a particular theme, and I think
allowed us to be creative and keep things fresh on
(05:11):
because obviously we're now in our seventh season, six years
of doing it, like, we want to keep it fresh
and keep it cute totally, and so this season we're
going to keep going back in time. But for this season,
you know, we're picking up where podcast us next Door
took off, just your friendly neighborhood podcasters. And now we've
been beamed up by the I Heart Michael Duta network
(05:34):
and we're here. We've landed on planet Michael Duda, Planet
my Heart, and we're excited to uh inhabit this place.
Were networks in the network space, Yes, we are, and
we're excited to do all of that. And we're very
excited especially because our origins at the beginning, you know,
(05:56):
we've been recording from home, we've been recording on Zoom,
which has worked out just fine. It allowed us to
stay safe and to keep producing content and pumping out episodes.
Before that, we recorded at a community radio station in
Boil Heights called Espaso on First Street in Mariachi Plaza,
and that was our home for a good while. A
(06:17):
good chunk of our podcasting career was out there at Espasio.
And I loved recording at Espasio because if you listen
back to those episodes, like it very much feels like
you're in the community with us, and that's a part
of our origin story. And so even though you can
sometimes literally hear a mariachi, you know, blowing his trumpet,
(06:38):
or you can hear sirens because there's a hospital right
there by Mariachi Plaza, Like, I love that because it
really shows where we are in the community and where
we were recording. And so even though it wasn't you know,
perfect studio quality, like it got us what we needed
and we're like so grateful and thankful that we had
that space and it was so fun to like, you know,
(06:59):
show betest past you every Saturday and record. And also,
like we love Boile Heights because that's where look at
thought our radio was literally born. Yes, truly, we as
a podcast, going way, way way back to the very beginning.
You and I met on social media, following each other
on Instagram, friends online, and it wasn't until after we
(07:23):
had each graduated from college and moved back home. I
was at Tufts in Massachusetts and I was at you
see Santa Barbara. Yeah, and we finally come back to
southern California. There was this like Latina meet up basically
that had been posted to Facebook, and I remember seeing
it at my house and thinking, every Latina with an
Instagram handle is going to be at this meet up.
(07:45):
And this was years ago now, it was not the
same social media landscape that it is now. This I mean,
you're talking about Facebook, like, this is the time when
there were Facebook events and every time you had an event,
you had to have a Facebook event to accompany it.
So that alone like tells us we were in and
we were on Facebook, like Facebook was still a useful,
(08:07):
not cringe e space that we were really on um
and more and more and more Instagram and Twitter TikTok
was not even a twinkle in anybody's eye yet, like
it was, it was not around, So we go to
this meetup, we see each other for the first time,
we become friends, we hang out, we party a lot,
and then one day I get a text message from
(08:29):
the Austa and she asked me the most life altering
question that anyone. It's like when you're in a movie
and there's that one person from the future that does
one thing and changes the course of everything, like that
was that question. Yeah. So I had started listening to
podcast and they were also indie podcast and I I
thought like, wait, I want to do a podcast, like
(08:51):
I want to start a passion project, creative project. And
at the time, Whiline I were getting to know each other,
and so I texted her and was like, do you
want to start a podcast with me? And immediately she
was like yes, no questions, no doubts, just let's do it.
And and a couple of months later we met finally
in person to like really strategize, like what is this
(09:12):
podcast going to be about, what are we going to
name it, who is our audience, and all of that
that we that we went through when we met. And
that's how look, I thought our radio was born. And
years you know, years and years and years of indie podcasting, touring,
throwing podcast parties, live events, workshops, so many things that
we've done and accomplished to now this moment, our first
(09:35):
episode with Michael at iHeart Media. It's so true. And
let me tell you, if there's a lot of podcasts
that have not survived these years, there's a podcast graveyard
out here. It's hard. It's hard to be an indie
podcaster and keep it going. Because if you've your podcaster yourself,
or maybe you've started one and couldn't continue, you know
(09:56):
that it's a lot of work. It's a cute idea,
it's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot
of work and it takes a lot of time. And
we've had full time jobs while building this little mini empire.
By building local Landia maintained full time jobs and then
now we're at this point like it's been so many
years in the making, and we've done other things along
(10:17):
the way. You know, the podcast we haul it radiophonic
novella because we want to document our own lives in
each episode. Now we don't go out until you guys everything,
but over the years, if you go back and listen
from season one, episode one up until now, that's a
hundred and thirty four episodes of us just living life
(10:41):
and then getting together once a week and chatting on
the mic. And so there's a little bit of an
archive out there, not only of our lives, but I
think a particular moment in l a in particular and
in the sort of indie Latin X creative space, because
we have been interviewing like latin X creatives for years now,
(11:02):
you know, on the come up, on the rise, just
as they were starting to make their mark, and now
a lot of the folks that we've interviewed are out
there doing incredible, amazing things. Somebody that we talk about
all the time that we're so proud of is Vanessa
Romo Model cover girl. We had her on Look right
when she had been like accepted, she had passed her
(11:23):
audition to be on Latina and now Vogue cover girl. Yeah. Yeah,
you know. We call Look At Radio a radio novella
and also an audio archive or archiving the legacy's geniuses
of women of color, women in fens of color, and
so to us to be able to document all the
different work, all the different art that our people, our
community are creating, and to have that just live on
(11:45):
and then to see where they're at later in life
and where they are we interviewed them in seventeen and
to see where they are now in two you know,
is incredible, and so we encourage all of you, if
you're a new listener, if you're if you're an o
G listener, to always go back listen to the older episodes.
You know, if there's an artist that you've been wanting
to learn more about, chances are they've probably been interviewed
(12:07):
on Locata Radio it's true, or they will be sometime soon,
especially now that we're at a network. It's one thing
to get folks on your show, you know, when you're
indie and you're just doing it yourself on your Gmail account. Um,
when you have the cloud of a network, anything is possible.
So we're super excited to bring our o G listeners
(12:27):
even like a higher caliber interviews and stories, and to
check in with our guests who are in a way
different place now than they were when we first interviewed them.
Like we've interviewed some folks like you guys may follow
or no, and if you don't like got that from
we interviewed her a couple of years ago. Now we
(12:49):
were like in the middle of the pandemic. In the
middle of the pandemic, I can't believe it's been years.
But she's somebody who now has gone on to work
with Spotify on the Loud podcast about the history of rage,
and she's writing for Rolling Stone, she's doing a lot
of cool video work with and that's somebody that you
can also go back and listen to her story. You know,
(13:12):
on Look at Our Radio, Molina Barbabia, actress, we talked
about her film for Rosa on HBO Max at the time.
Also it's been a couple of years now you can
go back and listen to that. And at the time
that for Rosa actually hadn't been placed with HBO Max.
It was still like it was just streaming in different places,
different community places as well, but it hadn't been placed.
(13:34):
So I think that's also a good example, like so
many changes have happened, you know, since we've had guests on,
so we're excited to bring some of them back and
to also have new guests as well. And I think
that that's a good segue to our next question, which
(13:56):
is what does this new era mean for Look At
At Radio? Oh my gosh, so many things. I think
we don't even fully appreciate what this new era everything
that it can mean for us. Well, for one, we
have been podcasting with essentially no budget for the past
six seasons. We have our gigs here and there. We
(14:17):
have done tours and workshops, and we've sold ad space,
and we've done social media work and collapse and things,
and we've worked with folks like now you know, HBO,
Max and Netflix and Brothers. But you know that's all
like as an indie project, that has all been freelance work.
(14:38):
And there's two of us, and we have bills and
we have a team, and we pay folks and so
you know, and it's l a so the dollar doesn't
stretch very far when you're indie and self funded. But
now the support of a network, we can now pay
ourselves to a podcast, which is like the wildest statement
that I've made in years, Like a sal right, oh,
(15:01):
Like this is really our job now and that is
huge in ways that I don't think we can fully
appreciate yet. Yeah, I agree. I mean, we've been working
so hard to get to this point, and I think
that there was a moment where we didn't think it
was going to happen anymore. We got a lot of
nos in. We heard a lot of nos in as
well about either our show or new shows, and so
(15:24):
you know, that kind of persistence to keep it going
even in the face of lots of rejection, to be honest, um,
And so we're really happy and proud that Michael shoutout
Gazelle like saw something in us, since she saw the
value in the community that we've built because of y'all
and our listeners and decided to bring us on. And
(15:45):
so we're super excited about that. But I think also,
like you know, I'm very firmly rooted in keeping this
as an audio archive and that look at that is
going to continue to highlight community voices and folks that
don't always get the air time or media attention that
they should. And while maybe the nature of our guests
(16:06):
may change a little bit, we still are committed to
uplifting the voices and narratives that don't always get the
attention that they deserve. Yes, totally. And part of what
we've noticed is sometimes folks are doing incredible, incredible impactful
work and are not getting interviews, they're not getting pressed,
(16:26):
they're not getting put on in any way, shape or form.
And we've also, in the same way, been very proud
of like having only said now this on our show.
While she was campaigning running for city council. She was
running against an incumbent and she won and she won. Similarly,
in the past, we've done a Latinas in Politics series,
(16:47):
and this year in particular because so many Latinas were
first time candidates running for political office, city council level,
the Senate level, the Congress level, what have you. And
we also interviewed Nicole Lopez who was a first time
candidate running for Congress, and also Elizabeth Alganta who was
running for Assembly, and we're so proud that we were
(17:08):
able to interview them. And that's a series of recurring
series that we have on look at that our radio.
We don't have it every election cycle, but this one
in particular, we felt we needed to cover and so
we'll continue to cover it here and there. It is
a recurring series and you will be seeing another Latinos
in Politics episode in the near future in the next
couple of episodes, so look out for that one. You
(17:30):
can tune in once it's available. But yeah, we've interviewed
some incredible, incredible mohad Is incredible people over the last
six years. Collie Fajardo, Anstein author, most recently of her
debut novel, Woman of Light. She was self funding a
(17:51):
tour um when we first spoke to her, and she
was doing a reading with Yosima in boil Heights and
stopped by look at our radio again years ago when
we were at EsPAS. And now she's published all kinds
of works and she's won all kinds of prizes and
is a very very notable author, and we're very proud
(18:11):
of her. So also go back and listen to Collie's interviews. Yeah, so,
if you're a new listener, there's a hundred and thirty
three episodes for you to go back and listen to.
We really could be kind to us if you're going
back to the early episodes. The audio quality is not great,
but that's also a really important part of our origin story.
We have funded this by ourselves. We started our first
(18:32):
couple episodes were recorded at a boutique in Highland Park
called me Vi That so, and I think that that's
also an opportunity to say, like, if you want to
do something like it doesn't matter what resources you have
available to you, you're gonna make it work. And we
made it work at a boutique recording there after hours.
You can hear the space in the audio. You can
(18:53):
hear we're in a in a big room, and then
being at a community radio station too, then recording from
home now here at a at a real studio. Yeah.
You you can literally hear the journey in each episode
and in the quality of the episodes over the years.
It's true. So we're grateful to be here, and we're
also grateful to all of you who have listened, even
(19:15):
through spotty audio. Not everybody, not everyone king, not everyone
likes it. I get it. I listened to podcasts too.
I also kind of cringe sometimes. But we appreciate you
for rocking with us in spite of, you know, some
poor quality or some audio issues. It happens, but we
made it here. We made it. The spirit of local
(19:36):
thora was always there, always regardless of sound quality. So
thank you, guys, and um. I think the other piece
that we really love about our show and that has
carried us to this point, our show has brought people
together in person online Almost immediately we started the parties
(20:01):
in the form of our podcast parties or anniversary parties.
Every year around November, we like to throw Look at
Alive a podcast party. We had to have a little
bit of a hiatus during the pandemic, but first season
six we came back with Look At Alive in the
Arts District at resident and we love to do like
a variety show and then party with our listeners. And
(20:22):
I know that a lot of listeners over the years
have connected with each other, have become friends, have met
at our parties and events, and we've we ourselves have
connected with a lot of our listeners and we've ended
up working with listeners or becoming friends with our listeners.
And I think that's also something that's very special about
our show. Yeah, I agree, And I think part of
(20:43):
the origin story is that the podcast started as a
survivor centered podcast and that still carries through. That's still
a thread that's very important to us, and it comes
up not every episode, but throughout each season. And I
think that with cultivating the party space, was also cultivating
a space where our listeners out comfortable going alone and
meeting people, which you don't always feel comfortable doing that
(21:04):
when you're going to go out, especially to a party,
but creating this space where listeners could meet and they
could party together and they felt safe enough to do that,
I think is like so valuable, you know, and so
incredible that we've been able to cultivate that. So keep
your eye out for future events. We're definitely going to
be throwing a party. Don't have so much to celebrate now, yeah,
(21:25):
So make sure you follow us. We're at Local Underscore Radio.
That's our podcast page. That's the same handle on TikTok
on Twitter, on Instagram, and I'm at Mala Underscore Munios
and we're always posting yeah, and I'm at the s
f M on All Things on All Things UM. You
can also head to our website and subscribe to our
newsletter BESOS. Our website is look at our Radio dot
(21:48):
com and we put out a newsletter with more in
depth info than we can always share on air, So
make sure you keep up with us. You can listen
to us now every Wednesday, Everyone's Day. We're a weekly show.
You can listen to us on the I Heart Radio
app and Apple Podcasts, Spotify, audio Boom, all the different
(22:09):
places you can listen to podcast. Leave us a review,
leave us a comment, a rating, share with a friend.
We have been told by a number of folks, oh,
my pretty mup put me onto this podcast. My friend
put me onto this podcast. Word of mouth goes a
long way. This just might be your pretty much favorite podcast.
So sent her the link. All right, y'all, Well that's
(22:30):
all for today. We will catch you next time. I've
been Mala and I'm Thesa. This has been look at
Our Radio. Look at Our Radio is a production of
look at the Productions in partnership with I Hearts Michael
podcast Network. For more podcasts, listen to the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(22:52):
favorite shows. Look at Our Radio a radio phonic novella
posted by Mala Munyas and the ASA. Then take us
(23:55):
to your network.
Look at Our Radio is a radiophonic novela, which is
just a very extra way of saying a podcast. I'm
theos f M and I am malays. Local Radio is
your pretty must favorite podcast hosted by us Mala and
Diosa where Too I g friends turned podcast partners, breaking
(00:22):
down of pop culture, feminism, sexual wellness, and offering fresh
takes on strending topics through nuanced interviews with up and
coming lat Next creatives known as Las Locals, Las Mammy,
Submit and Bullshits, Next Store and Las Bores. We've been
podcasting independently since and we're bringing our radiophonic novela to
(00:46):
the Micuda Network to continue sharing stories from the Latin
Next community. Welcome to Local Radio Season seven. Take us
to your network, La La Locomotives, Welcome to season seven.
Take us to your network, Take us to your network. Indeed,
this is our very first episode as Look at Our
(01:08):
Radio for the Michael Duta Network. We're beyond thrilled. We're
in a legitimate studio space and we have not seen
the inside of one of these in many years. We've
been feral, outdoor podcasters and now we're here, So we're thrilled.
We're excited, and we want to introduce ourselves to all
of our new listeners. We're network girlies now, can you
believe it? I'm so excited, so thrilled to check in
(01:31):
with our long time listeners and welcome our new listeners.
And if you tuned into our last episode, the season
finale for season six, we left a lot of hints,
a lot of vague clues about ending an era of
look at What our Radio and starting a whole new one.
And this is it, babies, this is our network era.
We're here, We've made it. We've been podcasting for six
(01:53):
years six season seven now, and we wanted to take
this as an opportunity to reassure our long time listeners
were still here. We're still doing the damn thing. But
also so our new folks who are tuning in can
get to know us. Yeah, so we want to bring
back probably our longest ever running segment, which is aye
look Us, where we answer listener questions. And because we've
(02:14):
gotten an overwhelming amount of questions, because obviously we were
super cryptic the last couple of episodes, and we've been
cryptic online. We've been tweeting cryptic things as well. We
wanted to take an opportunity to bring the segment back
and answer these questions, and so I'm just going to
queue up the first one. Can you talk about the
last six seasons and some of your favorite themes? There
(02:37):
have been so many over the years. If you follow
our Instagram We're at Local Underscore Radio, or if you
check out our website look at our Radio dot com,
you'll see that since the very beginning, we have loved
to add visuals to every podcast season and we love
to have a new theme. We love to give ourselves
sort of a new edge and identity, Like each time
(03:00):
Tim we rev up for a new season of Look
at Our Radio. And I have to say that one
of my favorites has been the podcast that us next
Door season six, our most recent season, just because I
think that over the course of the pandemic we really
got our visuals together. Like I think the theme was
so cute. We set up a fake lemonade stand and
we were like raising fake funds for our new podcast.
(03:21):
We recorded a whole little skit. Our makeup artist Robert
was in it. That one was a really fun one
for me, and I'm very proud of those visuals and
even though this was our shortest season, we ended in
August so that we could start now in October with
My Heart with Michael Dua. But yeah, I loved our
last season. Yeah, this is definitely new territory for us
because we've always done and I think unique to us.
(03:43):
We've always always done like calendar seasons like we've done,
We've always done a full year of episodes and so
the seasons have always been a year long, and so yeah,
this is definitely new for us, but we're really excited
and thinking about. One of my favorite seasons would probably
be our boas where we did the lingerie and we
did the like Angel Devil type of you know, Thesamla visuals,
(04:07):
Like we really personified it, and we had like a
beautiful set that are photographer Jessica Magna made and she
like constructed, created these beautiful flames for Mala to like
lay in front of, and then she created these like
clouds for me to lay on top of. And I
think that that was probably like our most like edgy shoot,
(04:29):
our edgiest shoot us to date, because we were literally
in lingerie and I loved that your Mom's response to
us and the Lingerie was was it really necessary? Yeah,
it was, it was. It was necessary. She was like why,
but for what? How do we explain? Yeah, And we
(04:49):
didn't really start doing like actual themes until probably season three,
which was and like we've always paired visuals with our seasons,
but I think like that's when we really started to
identify each season with a particular theme, and I think
allowed us to be creative and keep things fresh on
(05:11):
because obviously we're now in our seventh season, six years
of doing it, like, we want to keep it fresh
and keep it cute totally, and so this season we're
going to keep going back in time. But for this season,
you know, we're picking up where podcast us next Door
took off, just your friendly neighborhood podcasters. And now we've
been beamed up by the I Heart Michael Duta network
(05:34):
and we're here. We've landed on planet Michael Duda, Planet
my Heart, and we're excited to uh inhabit this place.
Were networks in the network space, Yes, we are, and
we're excited to do all of that. And we're very
excited especially because our origins at the beginning, you know,
(05:56):
we've been recording from home, we've been recording on Zoom,
which has worked out just fine. It allowed us to
stay safe and to keep producing content and pumping out episodes.
Before that, we recorded at a community radio station in
Boil Heights called Espaso on First Street in Mariachi Plaza,
and that was our home for a good while. A
(06:17):
good chunk of our podcasting career was out there at Espasio.
And I loved recording at Espasio because if you listen
back to those episodes, like it very much feels like
you're in the community with us, and that's a part
of our origin story. And so even though you can
sometimes literally hear a mariachi, you know, blowing his trumpet,
(06:38):
or you can hear sirens because there's a hospital right
there by Mariachi Plaza, Like, I love that because it
really shows where we are in the community and where
we were recording. And so even though it wasn't you know,
perfect studio quality, like it got us what we needed
and we're like so grateful and thankful that we had
that space and it was so fun to like, you know,
(06:59):
show betest past you every Saturday and record. And also,
like we love Boile Heights because that's where look at
thought our radio was literally born. Yes, truly, we as
a podcast, going way, way way back to the very beginning.
You and I met on social media, following each other
on Instagram, friends online, and it wasn't until after we
(07:23):
had each graduated from college and moved back home. I
was at Tufts in Massachusetts and I was at you
see Santa Barbara. Yeah, and we finally come back to
southern California. There was this like Latina meet up basically
that had been posted to Facebook, and I remember seeing
it at my house and thinking, every Latina with an
Instagram handle is going to be at this meet up.
(07:45):
And this was years ago now, it was not the
same social media landscape that it is now. This I mean,
you're talking about Facebook, like, this is the time when
there were Facebook events and every time you had an event,
you had to have a Facebook event to accompany it.
So that alone like tells us we were in and
we were on Facebook, like Facebook was still a useful,
(08:07):
not cringe e space that we were really on um
and more and more and more Instagram and Twitter TikTok
was not even a twinkle in anybody's eye yet, like
it was, it was not around, So we go to
this meetup, we see each other for the first time,
we become friends, we hang out, we party a lot,
and then one day I get a text message from
(08:29):
the Austa and she asked me the most life altering
question that anyone. It's like when you're in a movie
and there's that one person from the future that does
one thing and changes the course of everything, like that
was that question. Yeah. So I had started listening to
podcast and they were also indie podcast and I I
thought like, wait, I want to do a podcast, like
(08:51):
I want to start a passion project, creative project. And
at the time, Whiline I were getting to know each other,
and so I texted her and was like, do you
want to start a podcast with me? And immediately she
was like yes, no questions, no doubts, just let's do it.
And and a couple of months later we met finally
in person to like really strategize, like what is this
(09:12):
podcast going to be about, what are we going to
name it, who is our audience, and all of that
that we that we went through when we met. And
that's how look, I thought our radio was born. And
years you know, years and years and years of indie podcasting, touring,
throwing podcast parties, live events, workshops, so many things that
we've done and accomplished to now this moment, our first
(09:35):
episode with Michael at iHeart Media. It's so true. And
let me tell you, if there's a lot of podcasts
that have not survived these years, there's a podcast graveyard
out here. It's hard. It's hard to be an indie
podcaster and keep it going. Because if you've your podcaster yourself,
or maybe you've started one and couldn't continue, you know
(09:56):
that it's a lot of work. It's a cute idea,
it's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot
of work and it takes a lot of time. And
we've had full time jobs while building this little mini empire.
By building local Landia maintained full time jobs and then
now we're at this point like it's been so many
years in the making, and we've done other things along
(10:17):
the way. You know, the podcast we haul it radiophonic
novella because we want to document our own lives in
each episode. Now we don't go out until you guys everything,
but over the years, if you go back and listen
from season one, episode one up until now, that's a
hundred and thirty four episodes of us just living life
(10:41):
and then getting together once a week and chatting on
the mic. And so there's a little bit of an
archive out there, not only of our lives, but I
think a particular moment in l a in particular and
in the sort of indie Latin X creative space, because
we have been interviewing like latin X creatives for years now,
(11:02):
you know, on the come up, on the rise, just
as they were starting to make their mark, and now
a lot of the folks that we've interviewed are out
there doing incredible, amazing things. Somebody that we talk about
all the time that we're so proud of is Vanessa
Romo Model cover girl. We had her on Look right
when she had been like accepted, she had passed her
(11:23):
audition to be on Latina and now Vogue cover girl. Yeah. Yeah,
you know. We call Look At Radio a radio novella
and also an audio archive or archiving the legacy's geniuses
of women of color, women in fens of color, and
so to us to be able to document all the
different work, all the different art that our people, our
community are creating, and to have that just live on
(11:45):
and then to see where they're at later in life
and where they are we interviewed them in seventeen and
to see where they are now in two you know,
is incredible, and so we encourage all of you, if
you're a new listener, if you're if you're an o
G listener, to always go back listen to the older episodes.
You know, if there's an artist that you've been wanting
to learn more about, chances are they've probably been interviewed
(12:07):
on Locata Radio it's true, or they will be sometime soon,
especially now that we're at a network. It's one thing
to get folks on your show, you know, when you're
indie and you're just doing it yourself on your Gmail account. Um,
when you have the cloud of a network, anything is possible.
So we're super excited to bring our o G listeners
(12:27):
even like a higher caliber interviews and stories, and to
check in with our guests who are in a way
different place now than they were when we first interviewed them.
Like we've interviewed some folks like you guys may follow
or no, and if you don't like got that from
we interviewed her a couple of years ago. Now we
(12:49):
were like in the middle of the pandemic. In the
middle of the pandemic, I can't believe it's been years.
But she's somebody who now has gone on to work
with Spotify on the Loud podcast about the history of rage,
and she's writing for Rolling Stone, she's doing a lot
of cool video work with and that's somebody that you
can also go back and listen to her story. You know,
(13:12):
on Look at Our Radio, Molina Barbabia, actress, we talked
about her film for Rosa on HBO Max at the time.
Also it's been a couple of years now you can
go back and listen to that. And at the time
that for Rosa actually hadn't been placed with HBO Max.
It was still like it was just streaming in different places,
different community places as well, but it hadn't been placed.
(13:34):
So I think that's also a good example, like so
many changes have happened, you know, since we've had guests on,
so we're excited to bring some of them back and
to also have new guests as well. And I think
that that's a good segue to our next question, which
(13:56):
is what does this new era mean for Look At
At Radio? Oh my gosh, so many things. I think
we don't even fully appreciate what this new era everything
that it can mean for us. Well, for one, we
have been podcasting with essentially no budget for the past
six seasons. We have our gigs here and there. We
(14:17):
have done tours and workshops, and we've sold ad space,
and we've done social media work and collapse and things,
and we've worked with folks like now you know, HBO,
Max and Netflix and Brothers. But you know that's all
like as an indie project, that has all been freelance work.
(14:38):
And there's two of us, and we have bills and
we have a team, and we pay folks and so
you know, and it's l a so the dollar doesn't
stretch very far when you're indie and self funded. But
now the support of a network, we can now pay
ourselves to a podcast, which is like the wildest statement
that I've made in years, Like a sal right, oh,
(15:01):
Like this is really our job now and that is
huge in ways that I don't think we can fully
appreciate yet. Yeah, I agree. I mean, we've been working
so hard to get to this point, and I think
that there was a moment where we didn't think it
was going to happen anymore. We got a lot of
nos in. We heard a lot of nos in as
well about either our show or new shows, and so
(15:24):
you know, that kind of persistence to keep it going
even in the face of lots of rejection, to be honest, um,
And so we're really happy and proud that Michael shoutout
Gazelle like saw something in us, since she saw the
value in the community that we've built because of y'all
and our listeners and decided to bring us on. And
(15:45):
so we're super excited about that. But I think also,
like you know, I'm very firmly rooted in keeping this
as an audio archive and that look at that is
going to continue to highlight community voices and folks that
don't always get the air time or media attention that
they should. And while maybe the nature of our guests
(16:06):
may change a little bit, we still are committed to
uplifting the voices and narratives that don't always get the
attention that they deserve. Yes, totally. And part of what
we've noticed is sometimes folks are doing incredible, incredible impactful
work and are not getting interviews, they're not getting pressed,
(16:26):
they're not getting put on in any way, shape or form.
And we've also, in the same way, been very proud
of like having only said now this on our show.
While she was campaigning running for city council. She was
running against an incumbent and she won and she won. Similarly,
in the past, we've done a Latinas in Politics series,
(16:47):
and this year in particular because so many Latinas were
first time candidates running for political office, city council level,
the Senate level, the Congress level, what have you. And
we also interviewed Nicole Lopez who was a first time
candidate running for Congress, and also Elizabeth Alganta who was
running for Assembly, and we're so proud that we were
(17:08):
able to interview them. And that's a series of recurring
series that we have on look at that our radio.
We don't have it every election cycle, but this one
in particular, we felt we needed to cover and so
we'll continue to cover it here and there. It is
a recurring series and you will be seeing another Latinos
in Politics episode in the near future in the next
couple of episodes, so look out for that one. You
(17:30):
can tune in once it's available. But yeah, we've interviewed
some incredible, incredible mohad Is incredible people over the last
six years. Collie Fajardo, Anstein author, most recently of her
debut novel, Woman of Light. She was self funding a
(17:51):
tour um when we first spoke to her, and she
was doing a reading with Yosima in boil Heights and
stopped by look at our radio again years ago when
we were at EsPAS. And now she's published all kinds
of works and she's won all kinds of prizes and
is a very very notable author, and we're very proud
(18:11):
of her. So also go back and listen to Collie's interviews. Yeah, so,
if you're a new listener, there's a hundred and thirty
three episodes for you to go back and listen to.
We really could be kind to us if you're going
back to the early episodes. The audio quality is not great,
but that's also a really important part of our origin story.
We have funded this by ourselves. We started our first
(18:32):
couple episodes were recorded at a boutique in Highland Park
called me Vi That so, and I think that that's
also an opportunity to say, like, if you want to
do something like it doesn't matter what resources you have
available to you, you're gonna make it work. And we
made it work at a boutique recording there after hours.
You can hear the space in the audio. You can
(18:53):
hear we're in a in a big room, and then
being at a community radio station too, then recording from
home now here at a at a real studio. Yeah.
You you can literally hear the journey in each episode
and in the quality of the episodes over the years.
It's true. So we're grateful to be here, and we're
also grateful to all of you who have listened, even
(19:15):
through spotty audio. Not everybody, not everyone king, not everyone
likes it. I get it. I listened to podcasts too.
I also kind of cringe sometimes. But we appreciate you
for rocking with us in spite of, you know, some
poor quality or some audio issues. It happens, but we
made it here. We made it. The spirit of local
(19:36):
thora was always there, always regardless of sound quality. So
thank you, guys, and um. I think the other piece
that we really love about our show and that has
carried us to this point, our show has brought people
together in person online Almost immediately we started the parties
(20:01):
in the form of our podcast parties or anniversary parties.
Every year around November, we like to throw Look at
Alive a podcast party. We had to have a little
bit of a hiatus during the pandemic, but first season
six we came back with Look At Alive in the
Arts District at resident and we love to do like
a variety show and then party with our listeners. And
(20:22):
I know that a lot of listeners over the years
have connected with each other, have become friends, have met
at our parties and events, and we've we ourselves have
connected with a lot of our listeners and we've ended
up working with listeners or becoming friends with our listeners.
And I think that's also something that's very special about
our show. Yeah, I agree, And I think part of
(20:43):
the origin story is that the podcast started as a
survivor centered podcast and that still carries through. That's still
a thread that's very important to us, and it comes
up not every episode, but throughout each season. And I
think that with cultivating the party space, was also cultivating
a space where our listeners out comfortable going alone and
meeting people, which you don't always feel comfortable doing that
(21:04):
when you're going to go out, especially to a party,
but creating this space where listeners could meet and they
could party together and they felt safe enough to do that,
I think is like so valuable, you know, and so
incredible that we've been able to cultivate that. So keep
your eye out for future events. We're definitely going to
be throwing a party. Don't have so much to celebrate now, yeah,
(21:25):
So make sure you follow us. We're at Local Underscore Radio.
That's our podcast page. That's the same handle on TikTok
on Twitter, on Instagram, and I'm at Mala Underscore Munios
and we're always posting yeah, and I'm at the s
f M on All Things on All Things UM. You
can also head to our website and subscribe to our
newsletter BESOS. Our website is look at our Radio dot
(21:48):
com and we put out a newsletter with more in
depth info than we can always share on air, So
make sure you keep up with us. You can listen
to us now every Wednesday, Everyone's Day. We're a weekly show.
You can listen to us on the I Heart Radio
app and Apple Podcasts, Spotify, audio Boom, all the different
(22:09):
places you can listen to podcast. Leave us a review,
leave us a comment, a rating, share with a friend.
We have been told by a number of folks, oh,
my pretty mup put me onto this podcast. My friend
put me onto this podcast. Word of mouth goes a
long way. This just might be your pretty much favorite podcast.
So sent her the link. All right, y'all, Well that's
(22:30):
all for today. We will catch you next time. I've
been Mala and I'm Thesa. This has been look at
Our Radio. Look at Our Radio is a production of
look at the Productions in partnership with I Hearts Michael
podcast Network. For more podcasts, listen to the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(22:52):
favorite shows. Look at Our Radio a radio phonic novella
posted by Mala Munyas and the ASA. Then take us
(23:55):
to your network.
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