Time for a comeback: Welcome to Juventud Maldito Vacío.
It's been 9 years creating this podcast and I can finally tell you about it.
This is the most special issue of this newsletter
Ten months ago I declared my independence as a freelancer and as an author by creating this space. I did it to consider for the first time: Who would be interested in the things I can create?
You and the more than 300 subscribers to this space have been my support network. This is the perfect place to introduce you to the new narrative podcast series I'm working on.
Where does it come from?
As I have already shared in this Substack, last year was devastating for those of us who work in podcasting professionally. The tech industry, which sponsored a lot of content, reduced its investment in audio which led to the termination of many podcasts, budget cuts, and in short, massive layoffs in the audio industry. I was one of many. More than losing the job, it was a heartbreak, where I wondered what place should my job occupy in my life and what talents I wanted to continue developing.
The answer took several months to appear. I was silent and then began to write out loud. It is thanks to my family, friends, and colleagues who supported me from the very beginning, I learned that a job is just one way to cultivate my talents. My craft is the practice of audio storytelling. So I decided to continue in my practice eight months ago by picking up and creating, at last, a project I've wanted to do for 9 years.
It’s been almost a year since my heartbreak, this is my comeback. A love letter to audio storytelling.
Welcome to Juventud Maldito Vacío.
What is it about?
They say that being young is the best time of your life... but I don’t think so. If there's one thing that defines being young it's feeling adrift. With a lot of energy to do things but no idea of what to do. At 23 I was unemployed in Bogota, wasting time in the afternoons and talking for hours with my friends (recent college graduates like me) about what should happen to us. Future expectations were the most important topic, it consumed all our time and yet we rarely came up with anything practical to solve the uncertainty. The future was the scariest and most important thing that was going to happen to us. Gradually I saw how we each had to face it alone.
This series is about that battle. When you are young there is a giant, indifferent something between what you are and who you want to become. I call it el Maldito Vacío.
This series mixes essays with real-life stories and is a memoir in this first season because I decided that the passage between 20 and 30 years of life is such an intimate transformation that to address it the way I want to address it I have to start with me.
I want you to know that this was not a light decision. I wrote 20 different versions of Episode 1 over the years and experimented with many paths until I arrived at the Memory format. From there I'm going to approach the entire series. I believe in narrative audio as the perfect vehicle to intimately portray a moment in time just like a painting or a photograph.
Check out the Trailer. (Activate subtitles)
We’ll be launching in September 4th, 2024. There are three ways you can support the project starting now:
Follow us on Instagram if you use it.
Subscribe to the podcast feed on your favorite app now.
Donate what you consider to our production on Paypal.
This is a collective journey.
I am fortunate to have assembled a very talented team to develop the concept and shape of this series. Let me introduce them to you because from now on, I will speak in the plural thanks to...
Laura Hernández. Production manager.
With more than 15 years of experience producing content in traditional and digital formats, Laura has successfully led multilingual teams in the United States and Latin America. She’s also one of the editors for scripts. Colombian based in NY, about to move to Madrid, Spain. I always say that when you bring more than two Lauras together on a project, magical things start to happen, this is no exception because we have...
Laura Correal. Ilustrations.
Lau is a talented illustrator who loves to create emotions through color and light. A Bogotana like me, she directed the art for the short film “The Sun is Bad”, nominated for an Emmy and an Academy Award. She’s also less than 25 years old... ok. Check out her work here.
Sebastián Izáciga. Música original.
Con Sebas trabajamos desde Viajes Inmóviles y tenemos un gusto musical muy compatible. Es compositor, productor musical y hace música fantástica desde Bogotá con El Mad Tree y como solista en S.I.V.
I have collaborated with Sebas since Viajes Inmóviles and we have a very compatible musical taste. He is a composer, music producer and makes fantastic music from Bogota with El Mad Tree and as a soloist in S.I.V.
Daniel Murcia and Juan David Sarmiento. Sound Design and post production.
Representing Danmura studios. Daniel has worked on several international award-winning series and sound for film and video. A true audio nerd and in my opinion one of the best sound designers in Spanish-speaking countries. It is an honor to be collaborating with him in the aesthetics of this podcast and the execution of the concept, which I worked on with...
Nilsson Cajamarca.
I can't give him a single title because he has collaborated on this project in many, many ways. Nil is a brilliant Motion Graphics Designer who has worked with studios like Scholar and BUCK (on the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse movie among other projects). His audiovisual criteria have been fundamental to making this series something much bigger audio. Also, I have to say it: Nil is my partner and this is the first time we are collaborating on a project. I could talk about him for hours and how exciting the process has been.
Last but not least: I’m grateful to NK Kelly and Maru Lombardo for giving me editorial notes, those have helped me take all scripts to the next level.
Without further due: Welcome to Juventud Maldito Vacío.
Follow us on Instagram if you use it.
Subscribe to the podcast feed on your favorite app now.
Donate what you consider to our production on PayPal. We’ll reinvest in art and quality for this show.
See you on the next edition of Escribir en voz alta.
suuuper exciting