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Cristina of espooky
1.4k Plays1 year ago
Cristina Lumague is a freelance podcast producer, editor and the host of Espooky Tales, Historias Unknown and Novelas Con Cafecito.
Enjoy this SRTN Halloween Special! Cristina and Ken talk about spooky tales, horror movies, telenovelas, podcasting, art y mas . . .
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Volante. Editor and producer Peter Bauer.
00:00:17
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast, and I am super excited to have Christina from the podcast, Storia's Unknown, and Ispuki, which I listen to compulsively. So Christina, welcome on to the Something Rather Than Nothing program. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited. I feel so bad about accidentally missing the last scheduled recording we had.
00:00:47
Speaker
Hey listeners, what Christina said never happened. It was in a multiverse. We are here, we are good. It was a multiverse. We both are aware of a multiverse happening.
Christina's Podcast Journey
00:01:00
Speaker
So Christina, just, all right, so I love your stuff. I love your podcast stuff with the stories unknown. I love history and I love the history of the people.
00:01:15
Speaker
that people don't know. So for me, I just like click and listen and I love it. When he's spooky, it's just some
00:01:27
Speaker
It's really fun to hang out and hear a lot of stories that I haven't heard and legends. And I think you do an MJ and Carmen sometimes guests on the show do just an incredible job with that. Can you? Thank you. Yeah. Can you like let's start with like.
00:01:49
Speaker
It's spooky like you was that you're hanging around you you tell all these type of stories This is in your wheelhouse and you're like, let's do a podcast or what what happened? How did that come about? Yeah, so my my first podcast is actually a Mexican soap opera rewatch podcast. Holy shit. Holy shit. Let's stop there. Let's stop there. Yeah I went in that apartment
00:02:15
Speaker
Missed that one. Okay, that's like my smallest one that takes the biggest breaks that it's just like that's purely Fun and not serious and so it's like my oldest one. It takes a month long breaks a year That's been going on since yeah, I mean 2020 but I Had been wanting to start a podcast for a while like I started listening to them and I was like man There's not a lot of like
00:02:44
Speaker
Latin American or US Latin stuff like out there. I've already listened to, you know, the podcast that exists, finished them. And I was like, I need more. And so I had been asking my twin for a while to start the rewatch podcast with me because we love soap operas. We grew up watching them with mom. And she finally agreed.
Filling Gaps in Podcast Topics
00:03:05
Speaker
Like it took a lot convincing her because and MJ the same thing. Both of them were like, well, I don't like the sound of my voice. And I was like, who cares? I don't like it either.
00:03:13
Speaker
like my own not theirs and She finally agreed and then it was like a couple months of having that one And I was like man. Why is there no like? haunted Latin American type podcasts I found to I finished all of them and they were both on breaks and Then I was like there's nothing else out there telling these stories and I mean I've already heard all the other
00:03:37
Speaker
I mean, I love paranormal podcasts. I was like the main type of podcast. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, none of them are telling the stories that I grew up listening to or hearing from my family members or when they do, it's all wrong or it's only one side of it. So I was like, why?
00:03:56
Speaker
I was like, why don't I just start one? Because I want it, probably other people want it, but I really, I just want it. And so I asked Carmen to do it with me, but her work at the time was insanely busy. And I worked part time, so I don't know. And I'm always looking for more to do because I have problems. And so it's never enough. It's all right. I get that point. Yeah, it's good.
00:04:19
Speaker
I learned now that apparently it's part of having ADHD because back then I didn't know but I was like I always needed something new to be working on and so that was what I wanted to do and yeah Carmen was too busy to do it with me and I just posted on Twitter one day and I was like man my twin is too busy to do this with me but I really want to start a podcast about haunted places in Latin America and MJ was like oh I'll do it and
00:04:45
Speaker
And then she was like, no, I don't know. And then she was like, OK, no, I'll do it. And eventually she finally agreed. And that was the start of a spooky tales. Yeah. And then Istori hasn't known my history when that one. Yeah, we covered it was like a woman's history. No, women's it was called International Women's Day month. This whole month where you see, you know,
00:05:07
Speaker
And as for His Spooky Tales, we were going to cover just like historic women. And then I was like, no, now I want to do a whole podcast on this, but I don't want to do it with His Spooky Tales. I want it to be its own podcast. And then my twin, Carmen, her work finally calmed down a little bit and she agreed to do Istori as a known with me. That's how the history once started, because we did a month of all history topics on His Spooky Tales. And I was like, I want to do more of this. Yeah.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, I and great and great job. And it's interesting. So that Carmen, your twin, I had a guest on that was part of triplets. She was the last one born coming on the show, Amy Long. And I was like, sometimes when you do, you know, these art things, it's like, oh, what's going on here? No. And, you know, I find the
00:06:00
Speaker
I find the one of the things when you're mentioning to the ADHD, I just bumped into this podcast is ADHD AF, but is as females.
ADHD and Podcasting
00:06:10
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I listened to a few episodes. Yeah, yeah, I was listening. I was listening to that. It's just it's really interesting to kind of see like even with the root of you.
00:06:22
Speaker
Creating the shows that you wanted to it's like that art thing where it's like alright shit I'm gonna consume what I want to see you're like if it's not there or you know and Yeah, I bet if we if there was like a Venn diagram of like podcasters and people with ADHD. There's like a huge overlap Cuz yeah, I mean that's how that's how I started I was like this idea I just got stuck in my head and I was like I need to do it and then Then I just needed more to do and I was like, well, let me start another podcast and another one. I
00:06:51
Speaker
Well, thank you for doing, you know, for doing all the podcasts. Yeah, and I see, you know, even with the Spooky Sea on Patreon and a lot of supporters, my guests just like seeing that is just like, this is just content that like you tapped into. I want to see more of this. You've got a good fan base there, don't you?
00:07:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. Sometimes I'm surprised, but at the same time I'm not because like I said, if I had been searching for it, other people had. And yeah, we get a lot of messages like, oh, it feels like hanging out with my cousins or with my spooky tías or tíos, well, tías. Because it's a very common thing in Latin American families to gather around and every party somehow ends with everyone telling some creepy story.
00:07:46
Speaker
I need more of that. I need more of that, but I have your podcast so I can just hang around there. Yeah, I don't even have that anymore. All my family's moves spread across different places. We all used to be in the Bay Area, and since then, now my family's moved to Texas. Other members have moved. I mean, I'm in Washington. My brother's here too now, but other families spread across California. Nobody's in the same place anymore, so yeah, it doesn't happen.
00:08:09
Speaker
for me either anymore. So that was another another reason to
Creepy Stories and Hidden Histories
00:08:13
Speaker
start Spooky Tales. Like I just miss that feeling of like gathering with your family and sharing all these scary stories.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, well, in talking about the scary stories, you don't have to go into it, you know, completely, but just like, I don't want you to start hearing about this content, at least for me as a listener, I'm like, Oh, like, I want to hear some stuff I enjoyed just telling you I enjoyed the episode with the students, a small group disappeared in the
00:08:42
Speaker
in the jungle. And what I wanted to ask you, Christina, the stories that you've done, is there a story or two that just sticks out where you're like, holy shit, how do people not know this hidden history or this wild thing? Is there a story that sticks out for you that's like, holy shit, I literally can't believe this.
00:09:13
Speaker
Um, yeah, for for both of the podcasts, I think for for spooky toes, I think just probably all the
00:09:23
Speaker
Although bigger, because everyone believes in the little people where there's these little creatures that live in your home and take your things. But then there's another side of it where they're living in the jungles and they either protect you or they can harm you.
00:09:44
Speaker
that story of the kids that went missing and then they were found, you know, still alive and the grandma of the kids in like the Amazon, she believes that when they had taken them or in that same, you know, Amazon, but now in what country was it because this was Colombia and I want to say the other place was like
00:10:05
Speaker
somewhere in South America too, but I can't remember the country. But another, it's also like a national park in the Amazon. And this guy was part of like this tourist company taking the tour with them. And everyone always did this ritual to like get permission from the jungle to enter. It's like a very normal thing to do. You want these things to respect you and you want to respect them, right? Or things can go bad. And he refused to participate in that ritual.
00:10:34
Speaker
he went missing for like I think it was like a day and he was found not far away from the initial camp and but that area had already been searched so it was also the same thing people believed other people like locals believe that the Dwinde had taken them because he didn't participate in that ritual he later was like no that's not true but at the beginning he did think that a Dwinde had
00:11:01
Speaker
had taken him, which is very interesting. So those types of stories are always like, oh my God, those are probably my favorites to read about or hear. And then with these stories unknown, every single topic, I'm like, oh my God, how do we not learn this? Which is the whole reason for starting the podcast.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's it's yeah so many stories that I'm just it's wild to me like we just covered the the bath riots that happened in in Texas and that those same
00:11:34
Speaker
I guess it's like, yeah, heavily informed by eugenics, but the dirty Mexican stereotype was just widely believed in. So anyone crossing the border for Mexico into the United States had to go through these delousing baths or showers. And the same showers inspired Nazis to then use those same chemicals that later killed an insane amount of Jewish people. Why do they tell us that?
00:12:04
Speaker
I, you know, so yeah, every topic that I'm like, it just mind blown. Yeah, I, you know, and that's, I found, you know, on that too, like even talking about the eugenics and those practices and the dehumanization, which, you know, this is this reflexive, I think thing historically, oh, the Germans, the Nazis, and you and I know that the eugenics, the hotbed,
00:12:33
Speaker
Thinking and policy was the United States and yeah, you know So it's like I don't think a lot of people realize that well and I want to go on on that point, too Right. So I listened to a story. It's unknown and I've Pretty much throughout my life somewhere after high school. I was like I
00:12:54
Speaker
you know, I've been exposed to so much bullshit history, you know, it's the unlearning and learning. And sometimes it feels like in intimidating. And I wonder if you, if you, if you feel that and doing the show and intimidating in the sense of like, this shit happened. These things were covered up. These things were never
00:13:19
Speaker
taught, I mean, you have to be as a citizen or a person kind of go looking for them or somebody tell you about them. And so what you're doing is deeply important with that. How do you deal with the frustration of being like, yo, this, you know, like this happened, this is important. How do you, or you kind of, you're okay with that and just people are people.
00:13:42
Speaker
Um, I mean, it's yeah, whenever we come across a new topic, we're just like, we luckily my twin is my co host. And so while we're going through, we're just like, I cannot believe this. And we're like airing our frustrations together at the same time anyway. So I think that helps if I was doing it by myself, researching all this, that'd be and then talking about it by myself, I'd be so mad. But it's also I think me and her, you know, growing up, I don't know,
00:14:08
Speaker
being children of immigrants, a Mexican mom and a Salvadorian dad. We both knew, like my dad in the Salvadorian Civil War, we've been
00:14:21
Speaker
Learning more about or reading way more about that because he would tell us a little bit here and there But it's also I don't know very traumatizing. So he would only share like very tiny amounts And so the more we read about that we were like, oh my god, like this is wild So I think just I don't know the interest in in learning more about our past or our history I kind of kind of trumps that like feeling of
00:14:48
Speaker
being mad over what happened. And it's also like a normal thing, I don't know, growing up as a child of immigrants where, like we talked about it in our episode on immigration. There was a bill that was trying to get passed that there was a huge protest. It was against like H.R. 4437. And
00:15:12
Speaker
It was like this antime and I mean, all these things that we were trying to protest back then are happening now and worse. But back then, like there was this fear of like, I don't know, your parents always being deported. Like we couldn't go to the flea market without being scared. Like, oh, my God, is there going to be a raid and our parents are going to get taken away?
00:15:30
Speaker
And so we were out there like, you know, tiny little 10, 11 year olds walking out of school to protest things like that already. So like that, that like being mad over these type of things, that type of treatment, growing up in Oakland, California and seeing, you know, mistreatment by the police like daily, like that type of rage, it's whatever, it's normal. So I think just reading about these topics, it's already like a familiar feeling. So it wasn't like,
00:15:57
Speaker
that it was, it was like a normal, like feeling, if that makes sense. Well, it does because I mean, sometimes like, uh, I, I think there's like, even in asking this school, like, let me give you an example. Like in asking this question, I was, I had a, uh, indigenous guest on and I was like, sort of like outrage. Cause I went to like, to the baseball game and I wanted more, I wanted more.
00:16:24
Speaker
of the powwow and the indigenous, cause it was indigenous night up at the Mariners game or something. And she was like, is a friend of mine too. But she was like, no, we were totally down with everything we got and every single moment we had. And I was like, man, like I felt, I felt kind of silly and stupid with what I was saying. It was just normal. It's like what I was thinking. I was like, fuck, like, like, you know, cause I'm a union guy and I protest and all that stuff. But it was such a learning moment. Cause I was, it was like, it was like,
00:16:54
Speaker
No, no, we had a beautiful time on the field. That makes sense. I'm like, shit. So it was a recalibration for me and clumsy, clumsy, but a recalibration.
Unlearning History
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah, so everybody talking with Christina of Ispuke and Stories Unknown. And so I enjoy your podcast. I view them as what we do is like pieces of art and creation. I know you have some interest in art and, you know, my question is for you,
00:17:38
Speaker
is what is art, Christina? What do you think art is in trying to create something that's art? Oh, man. I don't know. I guess something made by someone that is passionate about that thing for people to
00:17:59
Speaker
Not even, I mean, because you can make it and people don't have to look at it. I was going to say for people to look at, but I think something that someone is interested in or passionate about that then takes form, I guess, they form a shape, whether it be, you know, a sculpture, a painting or something you listen to. Yeah.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah, we got a we got a hard answer from Christina. Thanks so much. What do you think? What do you think about the the the role of art? And I'm not going to assume anything here. Right. So like. I think for myself, if I make things like in my head, it needs to be doing something or it fills a role. And one of the questions I ask lately is about
00:18:45
Speaker
The role of art right now and whether that's changed and I just point to being like temperatures again like crazy hot Politics feels super strange worried about
Art and Expression
00:18:59
Speaker
at least me US fascism Democracy type of stuff like all these things that are going on and the question I ask is like
00:19:11
Speaker
for art and arts role, has that changed recently or is art just art-ing and doing what it's supposed to do no matter what?
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think whenever you look throughout history, art has always been so important and will always be important. So I don't think the role of it has changed. It's how humans express themselves. And it's sad to see, I don't know, funding for art in schools, bless it and decrease. Because it's so important. And it doesn't have to be these fantastic art pieces and these drawings.
00:19:48
Speaker
like I took dance all through growing up and that was art and and my brother and me and my twin and my mom we used to we used to break dance together it was funny but like that's art like and so like these dance programs these art programs they're all they're disappearing and it's I don't know it's sad because it's important people it's not just about I don't know STEM right like science math
00:20:12
Speaker
what is the other engineering whatever the other things yeah i don't know what they stand for those those those classes said i saw that they existed but i didn't take it so but there's such a focus on that now and it's like okay but what about you know art it's still important and like as i don't know things get um
00:20:32
Speaker
worse or the state of like the world gets worse people it's it's a thing for people to throw themselves into and to create you know and so yeah it's important yeah well part of the thing I you know in talking there a bunch of things you say they stop and start thinking about but I did hear breakdancing
00:20:56
Speaker
And I'm a former breakdancer, like, like seriously, like 84.
00:21:05
Speaker
1985 cardboard Bomber jacket. Yeah in Mexico her and her cousin carry a cardboard and a little stereo with them and just practice together and so when my me my brother and my sister we were in high school slash middle school she would teach us what she knew which was just like a top-rocking really and she knew a few like
00:21:29
Speaker
a little bit of footwork, but not a lot. And so then we would just watch YouTube videos and all dance together. And my brother got really, he got really good. Like he could spit on his head and he could stand on his hands, you know, like do this. And all I could do was what are they called when you just like hold the pose like on your hands? I can remember the name anymore.
00:21:50
Speaker
Well, just kind of like popping and locking like this. The listeners are like, what are they doing? What are they doing on this video? None of them makes any sense. We're popping, listeners, we're popping and locking. So that's how you get your breakdance in combination of first generation plus
00:22:12
Speaker
Add-in the YouTube on there's no commitments here, but someday somewhere I believe something rather than nothing East is spooky or maybe other Podcasters may have to have a competition that the listeners really want Which is the break dance? I'll do it, but I'll lose
00:22:37
Speaker
Shit, Christina, I'm 51 and out of commission for a long time. So I didn't say we're bringing in. I'm going to bring my brother. And I heard what your brother can do. I heard what your brother can do. I'd like to see what your brother can do, but I don't think. He's probably out of commission now too.
00:22:59
Speaker
Oh gosh, what's happening to our knees? Um, the, the service we both served, but his, his knees were destroyed. Oh, really? Yeah. He's yeah. So I don't, he might, he might try it for a little bit though. It was fun. It was fun. I miss, I miss dancing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I've had like.
00:23:20
Speaker
And one of the things with the show is talking about movement and dance and ways of expression that aren't naturally just intuitive for me and is more intuitive for other folks.
Love for Horror Movies
00:23:32
Speaker
So I become really interested in just movement and how that can help and express dance just to feel better. So if your knees are good, if your knees are good.
00:23:50
Speaker
Right, right. No, so the breakdancing really threw me off. Okay, so I'm a horror freak, Kristina, like movies, like last night I watched Alien again, you know, Space. Oh, my God. Like each time. And another one I watched was
00:24:15
Speaker
the town that dreaded sundown, which I'd never seen. It was 77, 78. It was, um, uh, it was, it was really good is, is, is, is, is, um, the kind of like 70s, like the poster. Yeah. Um, quite a good, quite a good movie. And, um, so I just adore,
00:24:37
Speaker
Horror movies and I'm in a like horror movie type mood September October it is officially spooky season it is Christina just like Open-ended you you freak out on some of this stuff What what do we need to see or read or even if it's one of your own episodes? Like what's what's the material right now in your head for? horror stuff like tell tell us please I
00:25:07
Speaker
I love people calling in and telling their own scary stories like this in the podcast. Actually, there's one super old radio show.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah, there was this old, it's one of the inspirations for Espooky Tells, except we don't have people calling and tell their stories, but there's this old Mexican radio show called La Mano Peluda. And we've covered a few of the phone calls that people do on that show, on Espooky Tells. But that is, yeah, people just calling in and telling their stories. And it's been going on, I think since the 90s. And so it was one of the things that we've listened to as kids, which is,
00:25:45
Speaker
which is probably another thing we do as a family is go and watch horror movies like together which is so random like we went when dawn of the dead came out we went to go see it together um and like texas chainsaw massacre when the remake came out in the 2000s we went to go see that together that was that one was actually scary i think it was like we were in middle school when it came out something like that and my brother like
00:26:11
Speaker
My sister and I pretended that we weren't as scared, but we were like a good thing he was scared because we were also scared and wanted to leave. That one was a mistake on my parents, I think.
00:26:22
Speaker
But like Chucky and all those movies, like we just grew up watching. So, yeah, I love horror. But one of the podcasts I've been listening to, which I've been meaning to listen to for the longest time and I never had, is Jim Harrell's Campfire Stories. So people call in and like tell them their scary stories. That has been a really fun listen. I also started editing story editing for
00:26:46
Speaker
podcast called what's called true scary story people are calling in and telling their stories That's a that's a really fun one to listen to even before I started like doing the editing I would listen to that one too because yeah, it's just people calling it and just calling in
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah, some of them are so scary. I'm trying to remember one of the ones I have to look at, which one it was for him that was like so, so creepy that I'm like, Oh, start with that one. Let me see. Well, it's something too about even just the format with kind of like that raw, like story of somebody just hearing somebody's voice. And sometimes, you know, that yeah, there's like nothing like it, you know,
00:27:32
Speaker
Okay, so on true scary story, the witch, that's a really good one. Behind the rocking chair, another really good one. But yeah, I love true scary stories, another good one that people are just telling their own stories. And then what was the other one?
00:27:48
Speaker
Oh my god, what is the name? And I never remember names, I just... Otherworld, that's what it is. Otherworld. It's so good. From Otherworld, Kareem and the Djinn, it's episode six. That's a creepy episode.
00:28:05
Speaker
But yeah, Otherworld is another really good one that I like a lot. And then movies, I mean, I don't even, there's so many movies that I like. Lately, though, the last really, to me, creepy horror movie that I watched, it's on Shutter. It's called Aterados. It's in Spanish, but you can put the English subtitles on it. I've never seen a horror movie to start off.
00:28:27
Speaker
Within the first five minutes, it was wild. And I was like, Oh my God, what a fast start. I think it's called like terrified if you look it up in English. I'm pretty sure. Okay. I'm going to check that out. My, uh, just about my, one of my favorite horror movies is, uh, well, it said in, uh, Spain, um, rec REC record, which is a found footage. Oh my God. So good. Yeah.
00:28:56
Speaker
Found footage Zombie hey listeners. We're geeking out of stuff record REC. So if you think the brackets around REC you must see that movie Record Yeah, I'm a huge found footage person. I just adore Yeah, I love footage
00:29:26
Speaker
That's just way up there.
Family Traditions and Soap Operas
00:29:28
Speaker
There was interest in things with Alien, just having recently watched it. There's so many, at least for me, I'm like an Alien universe, like throw me into that universe, I'll live there, tell me stories about it, I'll listen to books about it, I'll watch the movies, I'll read the comic books. But what was so cool about that original movie was little pieces I didn't realize, such as like the use of found footage, that it was just like this raw video when the
00:29:40
Speaker
I was watching the...
00:29:54
Speaker
um some of the crew went out onto the planet and it's just like this raw almost closed caption like this um caption uh tv like footage like the cctv or whatever yeah yeah and i'm like this is like this is even messing with like all these different conventions such i i don't as i had a thrills just like seeing that little piece um in in there in there with it uh
00:30:21
Speaker
I, not to go back again, I did it with the breakdancing, but the telenovelas, my
00:30:31
Speaker
My mom got me hooked on Days of Our Lives, which I'm still like hooked. And I got to tell you, there's a couple I end up getting sucked in on Netflix. And so was that a big, huge piece of watching the stories with with mama and spent a time watching the stories growing up? Oh, yeah, there was
00:30:57
Speaker
daily, I mean, not daily, but like, I think it was like 6pm or 7pm every night, there was a soap opera we were watching together, like, there's one called Teresa we used to watch together, that's the one we're rewatching on my podcast. Right now it's like this
00:31:13
Speaker
young woman who's born in the lower income part of town and she's trying to do what she can to get out of that and Mary's a rich man that she doesn't love and just kind of burns every single bridge.
00:31:28
Speaker
possible. And she's like the main person. So it's always fun when the main person isn't good either. Yeah, that's what we're that's what we're watching right now. Teresa and it's the 2010 one. So but there was also like a 90s one with some Hayek. Wow, that was one of the remakes. But the original is a Colombian soap opera, which I've never seen the older versions of it.
00:31:52
Speaker
And then, what was it called? Have you seen Ugly Betty?
00:31:59
Speaker
I haven't seen it. I know about it. I haven't seen it, though. Okay. I haven't seen it either, but one of the soap operas that it's based on, the Spanish version, not the original, but a Mexican remake, we used to watch that together. It's called La Famas Beja. Just nightly, whatever main soap opera was on, Univision or Telemundo, we'd watch together, so that was a big part of it. Soap operas in horror movies is basically what we'd watch together as a family.
00:32:29
Speaker
I, you know, that's been a recipe for me with my time as well. And hey, results must be okay for both of us. That's all I'll say. They must write. They're all right. We're like, I mean, we're doing a show and everything. And like, you know, it's legit.
00:32:49
Speaker
All right. Um, I got one super big philosophical question, uh, as well as asking about the, what is our, and this is, um, the something rather than nothing question is why is there something rather than nothing?
Philosophical Reflections
00:33:07
Speaker
Why is there something rather than nothing? Yeah. Yeah. Like why, like why at all?
00:33:15
Speaker
Why at all? Because I think like nothing is boring. I don't know. There needs to be something or I would die. Yeah. I physically cannot be bored. It's painful. So, yeah.
00:33:30
Speaker
I like the, um, I asked the question a lot and it's like, uh, I like to think about in a format of, um, you know, with, with creators and like creating things like it's, I think it's so fun and so, so, uh, thrilling to, um, to enjoy somebody else's art and what they create, like what you create and listen to your shows and like, I don't know, it's just a vibe that I really enjoy. Then talk about like.
00:33:55
Speaker
putting this out and what podcasts are. I've gotten really into podcasts. I've done the show for four years, but I didn't start from a trajectory of being like, I love this shit so much. I want to do it. That wasn't me. That's what I
The Appeal of Podcasting
00:34:16
Speaker
did.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yeah, okay. For me, I liked certain podcasts and it certainly didn't seem to be as many or a lot of things that pulled me in or hadn't found them yet. But I was so intrigued by and attracted to
00:34:35
Speaker
how you could make something and really put it out there as like a legit thing, like doing it and spending the time. And for me, for my head, for the honor and excitement of being able to talk to creators and yes, the questions are the same, but being like to find out. So that was my main drive and I've gotten more into podcasts.
00:35:04
Speaker
And it's a good time to be into podcasts right now because you and I know that there's so many good things out there. Yeah. Almost too much. There's not enough time in the world to like listen to everything. Well, as a creator, as a creator, my, the episodes be like, yeah, I think on average like 45 minutes. And then like, I love like,
00:35:28
Speaker
Bless anybody who's creating something and putting out the content amount, but with so much out there, I think sometimes it's like,
00:35:35
Speaker
you know, how long the episode is or like, you know, that type of thing, not to like tweak and change everything, but like people are in the podcast. And the listenership, I think the biggest thing with it is the amount of listenership for like ages below 30, like it's the radio, it's like V radio for a whole generation. And so I don't know, it's pretty cool.
00:36:02
Speaker
Pretty cool time to be doing podcasts. Do you really enjoy the process? It's a lot of work, we both know, in doing it. But in being a podcaster, what's your vibe with it?
00:36:17
Speaker
Oh yeah, I love it. I love it. Taking something that you found interesting, putting it into a format people can listen to, then polishing that thing people are going to listen to, and then putting it out there. I love it.
00:36:34
Speaker
Yeah. And then I mean, there's a lot of people that like, I don't know, hate parts of it. I don't like the marketing or like part of it, social media. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I get so sick of it, but like the writing it, recording it, editing it, all that part. I'm like, yes, I love it.
00:36:55
Speaker
You did. But even with the merchandise with the spooky, a lovely merchandise of lovely, lovely beanies and. Yeah, so comfy. I mean, yeah, some really some really cool stuff. And folks, like I had mentioned, Patreon for you spooky, a lot of cool content. They they say your name. I always hear my name, Ken, in there. So it's really sweet. Yeah, really shout out.
00:37:25
Speaker
Look, I'm a simple person. I hear that. I get excited. That's the way I answer it. Yeah, I know. All of our listeners that are patron members, they love the shout outs. I'm like, wow, I didn't know people. I guess it's fun to listen to your name. We have a couple listeners out there, kids also listen. So they're like, can you also say the kid's name? And I'm like, yeah, we'll throw it in there. Or can you say their name instead of mine? And so that's always fun.
00:37:49
Speaker
I like where mine fits in like sometimes it's always like, there's like a nice list of Teresa Guillermo. It's like Ken, Ken, it's like, ah, ah.
00:38:01
Speaker
Ken! I love that piece. Christina, tell listeners where to find the show, whether to find what you do. Tell folks about that.
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, so as Spooky tells, you can find it. I mean, if you just Google as Spooky tells, it'll be like the first thing that pops up. But it's Spooky with an E in front of it, as Spooky tells. And then, yeah, in any podcast app, TikTok, I mean, yeah, if you just Google it, it'll come up our website. And there's links to, you know, social media, any podcast app that you want to find us on. Sometimes YouTube, I will post not all the time because that's more work.
00:38:52
Speaker
And then Istóreas Unknown, it's, you know, the Spanish word for stories. So Istóreas, which is also the Spanish word for history, which is why it's another like, fun name. So Istóreas, and then unknown.com, you can find us there. Or if you just type in Istóreas Unknown at any podcast
00:39:09
Speaker
app as well as Instagram. Um, and then if, if you happen to like Mexican soup operas and then just like recap, a recap of the whole episode that is novellas con cafecito again in any podcast app. And then me, I guess like Twitter is probably the main place that I, I personally am on, although it's like dying and I'm like, I don't really like it anymore, but
00:39:34
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah. So that is I underscore am underscore Christie. I guess it's not even Twitter anymore. It's like X now. All right.
00:39:46
Speaker
Yes, yes. Well, you know, on another topic. No, it's great to hear all the places that we can find your listeners.
The Importance of Understanding History
00:40:00
Speaker
Like totally check out Christina, MJ, and it's Christina and Carmen.
00:40:06
Speaker
on the historians and uh but uh various combinations and um really just love the stuff that you do as you know like i was telling you i get i get a thrill talking about uh the stuff and and and just like i i'm on the vibe of like loving those type of stories but even on the deeply deeply deeply important uh stories unknown like
00:40:30
Speaker
For me, when I listen to one of my feelings that I have is that to not know some or all of the things that you say is kind of unacceptable. That there's some sort of duty, I feel, to come in contact with what actually went down. I don't think it's such a radical idea. I don't know. I'm just processing here.
00:41:00
Speaker
what occurred, who did what, what was the story, and why did it, you know, like, yeah, and just handle that. But yeah, that is Yeah, I think, I don't think there's a lot of podcasts talking about all these stories that like,
00:41:20
Speaker
have to do with Latin America or Latin Americans in the United States. So I don't know. It's sometimes depressing part has to do, but sometimes some of the stories are also so inspiring. But it's also, I don't know, it feels important. One of our listeners sent us a message. We talked about
00:41:39
Speaker
El Ponce massacre that it's a massacre that happened in Puerto Rico in the town of Ponce of course brought on by Americans and American governor was Because this is the time where yeah all elected officials in Puerto Rico were American. They were not Puerto Rican And there was an interest to keep sugar companies Their profit up and you know the more that happened
00:42:09
Speaker
the more local actual Puerto Ricans, the spread of like lower middle class and lower class was getting bigger. The white Americans were getting more rich. And so there was like a, I forget, because I haven't read about it in a while, but I think it was like the Puerto Rican national, something was their name, but it was like a movement. Like think Black Panthers, but in Puerto Rico,
00:42:36
Speaker
It was like their movement that was growing and you know to quell that They yeah ordered the massacre of like, oh my god, it was like 20 something people and it was like
00:42:50
Speaker
the American governor of the time ordered this massacre, and the Puerto Rican police, employed, paid for by the United States, enacted this massacre. So things like that. I had no idea happened, and a listener reached out to us after listening to the episode, sent us a message, a voice message, and she was like,
00:43:10
Speaker
My grandfather was there and he escaped the gunfire and she was crying. I've never heard anyone talk about this and it just means so much to know that there's people out there sharing our stories. And I was just like, oh my God, now I'm crying. So even if our listenership is not huge, getting messages like that, it's like you know you're doing something important.
00:43:38
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And it's it's it's so great to hear. And part of it, as I was mentioning, too, is to, you know, like in doing and doing the work and doing this important work, it's it's really important to kind of reflect on like somebody telling you that because it doesn't happen the other way, except for what you've done to prompt it, tell the story. And somebody's like, hey,
00:44:06
Speaker
I only heard it from this person or I didn't hear any of those details. Like you just, you just feel like at least somebody's out there, like having like understanding like what went down and that's really important. So nice job, Christina. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And we always put our sources in the show notes in case people want to read more. Cause there's like every episode is just honestly like an introductory to whatever happened. Like there's always more information. So we put it out there.
00:44:35
Speaker
Sometimes we'll read like a whole book for an episode, which is why we switch to every other week for now, because it's a lot of research. And like, you know, so we we put out a three part episode on El Salvador and the current, quote unquote, president of El Salvador. And it's like, we'll get a message. It's like, oh, you're so biased or this is like a bias. And it's like, yeah, we both are like left, leftist. Like, there's no doubt about that in my mind. But
00:45:05
Speaker
That president of El Salvador, I don't know how much you know about him, but literally on the road to be a dictator, has been slowly clawing at actual democracy. And so we did a three-parter, and the first one is the history of Bukele, where Carmen is just sharing all the fraud and terrible things he did before he became president. And that's our most listened to episode, because I think people love him. I don't know why people love him.
00:45:31
Speaker
But I think people were expecting to find like a good quote unquote good episode on him. And then we got like bombarded with one star. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But it doesn't matter because if one person listens to it and says, oh, my God, I didn't know he did all that.
00:45:48
Speaker
That's enough. That's enough for us because um, I don't know I don't know what his angle is but like it's important to and so we'll we'll occasionally do updates on what he's up to in El Salvador and like what's really happening because um, yeah, I mean People are treating him like this. I don't know
00:46:08
Speaker
good president. And it's bad. So yeah, well, episodes like that. Yeah, it all takes a lot of research, but it's all important to I mean, yeah, if even just one person listens to it and changes their mind about like one thing, that's enough for me.
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I uh I've worked in the labor movement for quite some time and like the stories sometimes that could be inspiring within labor Within labor can be helpful for people here. I think those more Reported I even I even remember what prompted me Telling me is like a good friend of mine For for quite some time he is his parents
00:46:55
Speaker
moved to Chile around Pinochet time. And they were just Anglo-Americans, academics, intellectuals actually. And so he was like, his first language was Spanish. He was young enough where, but he told me this story that like, it just haunted me, like the detail of it. And he was walking
00:47:24
Speaker
uh with his parents and there was a sign outside the stadio uh soccer stadium and it said something like free bicicletas right free bicycles and he starts to run towards it and his parents book it after him and pull him back like the sign was there to attract people in it was basically like
00:47:51
Speaker
uh, a shooting rounds inside a master. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I remember like, you know, like he was telling me the story. I'm like, what the fuck are you telling me? Like, like, like what, like what? Like, and, um, I just,
00:48:09
Speaker
I was just remember being so like, okay, I understand that that can happen. But I was like, the peril even for him was like walking by, I want to go see the bicycle. I'm like, this is so insidious. Like for me, there's some sort of evil or insidious or badness to it. Like, yeah.
00:48:24
Speaker
to think that now there's like right wingers wearing shirts that say Pinochet was right. It's like, come on, what is wrong with all of you? And then, you know, the more you look into these type of dictators that were doing these horrible things, they were all backed by who? The United States. So that's why we're like, and that's a topic that is on our list, but it's so big that it's like daunting almost to cover. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, same thing in Argentina.
00:48:54
Speaker
I forget the actual dictator's name, but they used to do these things called
00:49:03
Speaker
Well, no, there's this whole group of people that disappeared and they're called, they're known as the disappeared. And it's because the government was rounding up anyone who opposed them or even said anything, labor unions, things like that, rounding them up, putting them on a plane and pushing them out into the sea.
00:49:26
Speaker
and like that that dictator once was like you'll never find they're not alive they're not there they're just disappeared is what he said and yeah they're dead but they're never gonna be or the chances of them being found minimal because they were pushed out into the sea and there's only like
00:49:43
Speaker
very very basic coordinates of where the area where they were pushed out if that because then they burned all those documents and it's like When I learned about that, I was like, oh my god and and then yeah, you look into it and they were all supported by the United States, so Yeah, well, um Uh, just just some some some real Really difficult, you know histories and you know kind of imperialist
00:50:12
Speaker
control and just siphoning money out of these states. Even reading the reports and talking about Maui, talking about these histories that are hidden, that there are specific reasons for land use and indigenous rights and a whole host of issues that are right behind
00:50:32
Speaker
the fire, you know, the fire. And I think that's why like us talking like about this, like there is the ability to know and to make these type of connections if you're in contact with like what happened, what actually happened. It's like fighting for history, right? Like, yeah.
00:50:52
Speaker
like these Texas history books. I don't know. I don't know where we can go with this, Christina. It's terrible. It's terrible. But really just totally wanted to thank you for a shot. You're one of my favorite podcasters. Love your shows. Thank you, thank you. The breakdancing idea might be 15 months up ahead and we might have
00:51:19
Speaker
head-to-head bracket system or something. You just let me know when I'll be there. I need a goal to bring me back to my form. So who knows? Who knows? And maybe it's a problem for the knees for everybody, including Hiramano.
00:51:45
Speaker
Uh, great talking to you. Um, really look forward to listening to your programs. Everybody check out, uh, check out, uh, check out all your, uh, fun, uh, horror stuff, but check out these spooky, uh, stories unknown. There's some, uh, just some, uh, great content and, uh, Christina, thanks for popping on something rather than nothing and, um, you know, uh, chatting and having some fun. Yeah. Thanks for having me. It was fun learning. Yeah. Thanks for all the work that you do and, uh,
00:52:15
Speaker
Have a great day. You too! This is something rather than nothing.