This is how it was Estación Podcast in Spain+ Minitour de Lau
I'm home again and I want to tell you everything :)
Juventud Maldito Vacío’s preview at Estación Podcast was spectacular. First of all because I had the chance to see several colleagues in person during the four days of the festival, a pleasure! especially because some of them were also on stage. We produce so many times alone and remotely, that seeing each other in person rekindles the flame of love for this.
About the festival: I double-checked, Spain is the most solid market for Spanish-language podcasting today. All the talks were attended by more than 60 people and conversational podcasts are such a massive phenomenon that all the shows of this format had full capacity and even a waiting line to enter the auditorium. I am very impressed. Jose Antonio Gelado told me “In Madrid nowadays people choose on the weekend whether to go see a movie, a concert, or a podcast live”. The buzz is so huge that Gelado has a Google Calendar just to keep up with so many live shows. My biggest discoverings during the festival were: Simulacro (audio fiction), Gemelos Digitales (audio essay) and Radio Savia (narrative podcast from Cauca, Colombia). I made a playlist with the episodes that called my attention more, find it here.
About my event: Check out this video version of our trailer! We gathered over 60 people at the Circulo de Bellas Artes to hear for the first time the trailer for Juventud Maldito Vacío and a snippet of the first episode. I started with a retrospective of my career up to this point and how the downfall of the US podcast industry motivated me to finally produce this project.
Then I made two bold moves: first, I coined the term Conceptual Podcast.
A podcast with aesthetic rules that extend beyond the audio. I believe that conceptual works are not new, but in Podcasting, is a path that is now starting to be explored. Juventud Maldito Vacío is a Conceptual Podcast.
I’ll tell you more about it in a separate newsletter dedicated only to Conceptual Podcasts. For now, I can say that we are going to narrate in audio, music, illustration, and something tactile, how we reconcile that giant gap between what we are in our 20s and what we dream to be. You will see its full form from September 4, 2024.
That's the second bold move: we presented our trailer and asked our audience to join us on the creative journey until September 4th, when we will premiere the first episode and then a new episode every two weeks until we complete the six episodes of the first season. It's an ambitious project, but after seeing the reaction from the first listeners in Madrid, I'm even more confident that you and I are at the beginning of a project unlike anything I've seen out there. We want our community to grow as we produce. If you want to support us, help us share the trailer and suscribe on Youtube. We’re in Spotify too.
Once again: none of this would have been possible without my team. Laura Hernández shined so bright on her production and Nilsson Cajamarca designed such beautiful visuals. More about us here. Special thanks to Bad Influencer for dressing me and to Cari Caribeña for the jewelry you see in this pic. Both killer indie brands from Colombia.
The Mini Tour de Lau June 2024. Houston - San Francisco - Madrid - Houston
Can you believe it? My God, I feel blessed. I have always wanted to grow regionally and now I am fortunate enough to be presented with opportunities to do so. I wanted all this to happen. Now I am going for it.
June 6 - Live in San Francisco
Earlier this year I had the honor of being part of an audio adaptation of “Soroche” a short story by Monica Ojeda, a brilliant Ecuadorian writer. Now the story is going to be shown live, at the Brava Theatre in San Francisco, and I am very proud to be part of the cast.
This project is very special for several reasons: first, it’s a big step from Two Line Press and Cuentero Productions to attract audiences to Latin American literature through audio fiction. The story is part of a compilation called Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories, which has received very good reviews for its selection of authors and stories. They are not the typical stories where the Swamp Thing takes the girl. They are psychological horror stories that are also a critique of Latin American society.
The team behind this audio adaptation is latinx and multilingual, another reason why I am thrilled to be a part of it. This is my second time collaborating with Camilo Garzón from Cuentero Productions and I’m so happy about it. This time I co-directed the voice acting, edited the first version of the audio and I'm playing one of the main characters: Nicole.
It will be memorable. I would like to highlight the wonderful work of Daniel Murcia in the sound design of this piece, the creative direction by Camilo Garzón, the production by Catherine Girardeau, the original scoring by María Linares, and the stunning performances by Catalina Plata, MJ García and Claudia Escobar.
June 19 - Premios Ondas in Madrid
I will be back in Madrid, of course I will. As part of the jury of the III Premios Ondas Globales del Pódcast I will have the honor of being at the awards gala on June 19 to meet and celebrate in person the winners of this year's 14 categories.
It was an arduous and demanding task. I wrote more about it here. I am very happy to be able to be there in person to celebrate the award ceremony. May it be one more motivation for all my colleagues to continue in their productions and that more spaces of circulation and recognition of the Spanish language podcast come, because we need it so much.
What continues to strike me most about the industry in Spain is the vitality and popularity of the conversational podcast for large audiences.
More on that in the next delivery of Escribir en Voz Alta.