Explore every episode of the podcast LA LISTA: A Latinx Writers Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201. SYLVIA BRINDIS | 27 Oct 2026 | 00:41:27 | |
A SELF-TAUGHT LATINA WRITER For our season seven finale, Sylvia Brindis shares growing up between Guatemala and Southern California, finding her way from USC film school and acting into writing by learning to embrace being a beginner, creating and starring in the kids' series Fluff Piece to teach media literacy, and developing a project about the CIA's role in Guatemala's 1954 coup and the fake-news campaign behind it.
Season 8 of the pod starts back up March 2027!
Instagram - @lalistapodcast
Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #17 - Rubén & Thulio's 1st Annual Punch-Up-Palooza! | 20 Oct 2026 | 00:36:53 | |
This week: We close out the season hungover and toothless, Thulio serves Princess Diana street style before partying until 5 a.m., Rubén nearly goes straight after getting showered with compliments at a cocktail party serving poppers over ice, and a three-hour grifter documentary has Thulio gagged while Rubén wonders why we keep giving scammers the cinematic universe treatment. Plus our first annual Punch-Up-Palooza: Big Laundry, Ralph's discounted meat, billionaires who can't hire cashiers, AI-generated flyers, family Euro trips masquerading as solo trips, and Apple Cash's fraud department are all taken to task! See you in March, divas!!! La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 200. RICHARD VILLEGAS JR. RETURNS! | 13 Oct 2026 | 00:56:21 | |
A QUEER CHICANO WRITER FROM EAST LA, ÓRALE The podcast comes full circle for Episode 200 as first-ever guest Richard Villegas Jr. returns to talk about leaving a teaching career to pursue writing, weathering COVID and the writers' strike with writing as his North Star, turning his stories from two decades of public school teaching into the memoir Your a Fat Suckr Bich: Notes on the Merry but Perilous Work of Schoolteaching in Los Angeles, and continuing to build community through playwriting. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #16 - Thulio & Rubén Go Gay, Go Dark, Go Sad | 06 Oct 2026 | 00:41:03 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on putting down Taylor Swift and picking up Tinashe... and businesses guilt-tripping customers into rebooking a $500 service. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 199. ANGELA M. SÁNCHEZ | 29 Sep 2026 | 00:44:12 | |
A MODERN FOLKLORIST LATINX WRITER Angela M. Sánchez shares growing up Chicanx in Los Angeles, how experiencing homelessness as a teenager shaped her commitment to telling stories about people too often overlooked, finding her creative voice through anime, comics, and fanfiction, going from education and philanthropy to building community with Latinx in Animation, writing for Primos, Dora, and the PAW Patrol universe, and turning a Los Angeles strip mall into a modern folktale with her animated short Spin Cycle. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #15 - Rubén Buries His Underwear, Thulio Wants Beyoncé to Play Him | 22 Sep 2026 | 00:31:32 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on keeping Ryan Murphy away from your life rights... and rewarding spaces that build real community, because vibe-less branding is not it. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 198. CHRISTOPHER MONCAYO-TORRES | 15 Sep 2026 | 00:57:57 | |
A NO SABO ECUADORIAN-AMERICAN SAD BOY WRITER FROM QUEENS Christopher Moncayo-Torres shares growing up Ecuadorian American in Queens as a recovering no sabo and latchkey kid, discovering writing through college creative writing classes and New York theater spaces, building community through The Moth and Fail Better Arts, turning his relationship with his dad into the Hollywood Fringe show No Sabo, and bringing both parents onstage in Before It's Too Late to explore family, language, loneliness, and what it means to be seen. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #14 - Thulio Tosses Out the Breadsticks, Rubén Peaks in 2050 | 08 Sep 2026 | 00:30:34 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on letting the Harry Potter reboot die already... and giving Brittany Murphy the Oscar she was owed. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 197. NATALIA MEJÍA | 01 Sep 2026 | 00:46:41 | |
A CHILANGA MOM WRITER Natalia Mejía shares growing up in Mexico City, starting her TV career straight out of college writing Mexican telenovelas, moving to Los Angeles to get her MFA at UCLA and learn to write in English while keeping her voice, working in U.S. rooms like Snowfall and FBI: International, and exploring motherhood, contradiction, and women caught between worlds in her work. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #13 - Rubén Takes a Bible to the Face, Thulio Brings His Own Trade | 25 Aug 2026 | 00:29:07 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on BYOT pool-party etiquette... and AirPods so bad they become anti-tech propaganda. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 196. DYLAN GUERRA | 18 Aug 2026 | 01:01:13 | |
A MAGICALLY REALISTIC, QUEER COLOMBIAN LATINÉ WRITER MAKES AN ATTEMPT Dylan Guerra shares growing up queer and Colombian in Miami, being raised by artist parents in a world of improv, stand-up, and DIY theater, finding his voice after moving to New York and writing the wildly personal solo show Find Him, getting staffed on The Other Two, and using ghosts, monsters, grief, comedy, and queer Latine mythos to build his own version of American folktale. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #12 - Thulio Has His Finger on the Pulse, Rubén Believes Men | 11 Aug 2026 | 00:29:09 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on job interviews with more rounds than Interview with the Vampire... and Black and Brown creatives whose indie projects somehow still have all-white casts. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 195. FIORELLA VESCOVI | 04 Aug 2026 | 00:51:35 | |
A QUEER LATIN AMERICAN WRITER-DIRECTOR Fiorella Vescovi shares growing up in Montevideo, Uruguay, feeling trapped until sports opened a path to the U.S., driving from Missouri to Los Angeles with emo music and black nails, finding herself beyond acting by falling in love with writing and directing, joining the queer series And Also With You, and turning her father's experience during Uruguay's dictatorship into the tender LALIFF/Netflix-supported short Pilotos de Papel. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #11 - Rubén's Odyussy Awakens, Thulio Has Places to Be | 28 Jul 2026 | 00:30:50 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on the gay guide to escalator etiquette... and late-stage capitalism turning everyone at LAX into the villain. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 194. JON-ALEXANDER GENSON | 21 Jul 2026 | 01:02:10 | |
A MEXICAN-AMERICAN WRITER AND ARMY VETERAN FROM CHICAGO Jon-Alexander Genson shares growing up Mexican-American in northern Illinois, joining the Army to escape his hometown before a deployment to Guantanamo Bay helped him start accepting who he was, studying creative writing at Illinois State, breaking in through the Writers Guild Foundation's Veteran Writing Project and Support Staff Training Program, co-writing an episode of FBI: Most Wanted, and exploring masculinity, shame, and outsiders stumbling toward self-awareness in his work. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #10 - Thulio vs. The Bling Ring (Rubén's Fault) | 14 Jul 2026 | 00:31:47 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on FIFA refs choosing favorites... and Riverside, the AI podcasting hellbox holding us hostage. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 193. LISA QUINTELA | 07 Jul 2026 | 00:50:59 | |
A CAN'T STOP, WON'T STOP LATINX WRITER Lisa Quintela shares growing up Cuban-American between New Jersey, Miami, and New York, how her parents' harrowing escape from Cuba shaped her drive and storytelling, moving from Tisch-trained actor to journalist to lawyer before writing a pilot about her family that brought her to LA, breaking into TV on The L Word: Generation Q, and using her legal background and love of exposing hidden rot in shows like The Lincoln Lawyer and CBS's Matlock. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #9 - Rubén and Thulio Clam Slam Into Summer | 30 Jun 2026 | 00:30:49 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on airlines forcing broke bitches to gate-check their carry-ons... and politicians letting data centers and toxic fires get way too comfortable in our neighborhoods. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro (New) Portable Projector with Multi-Angle Stand Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 192. EUGENE GARCIA-CROSS | 23 Jun 2026 | 00:55:26 | |
A GRATEFUL, CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC, IN-HIS-HEAD, OCD LATINX WRITER Eugene Garcia-Cross shares growing up half Puerto Rican in Erie, Pennsylvania, feeling like the Latino kid in his hometown and the gringo cousin in Puerto Rico, trading a decade in academia for a last-chance leap into TV writing, breaking in through the NBC Writers Program and writer's PA jobs, and finding his old-school sitcom dream on NBC's Happy's Place. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #8 - Thulio Saves Y2K, Rubén Goes IMAX | 16 Jun 2026 | 00:31:48 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on Y2K parties with no whimsy... and nosy gays turning open vs. monogamous relationship discourse into a courtroom drama. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 191. MICHELLE SALCEDO | 09 Jun 2026 | 00:53:56 | |
A CUBADORIAN WRITER-ACTION DIRECTOR Michelle Salcedo shares growing up Cuban and Ecuadorian in Miami, turning her parents' immigrant love story into creative fuel, finding her voice through years of writing features at the library, making her Sundance-supported short 'Cinnamon Skin,' breaking into action with her feature 'Switch and Bait,' and exploring why her work keeps returning to underestimated heroes, complicated morality, and the cost of freedom. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #7 - Rubén Is a Girls' Girl, Thulio Moshes in the Backrooms | 02 Jun 2026 | 00:30:24 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on NPCs asking too damn much... and Spectrum, AT&T, and every other company failing to provide the service we're literally paying for. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 190. ALBERTO ROLDÁN | 26 May 2026 | 00:51:23 | |
A LATINO WRITER WHO WOULD LIKE EVERYTHING TO BE 10% WEIRDER, THANK YOU Alberto Roldán shares growing up Puerto Rican in rural central Pennsylvania, having his artistic world cracked open by Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, detouring through Northwestern, NPR, and political work, navigating the long road to his first staff job, learning when to let the clown play before the professor takes over, and bringing his love of weird, thoughtful entertainment to Apple TV's Widow's Bay. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #6 - Thulio Wants Boy Broth, Rubén Loses Reception | 19 May 2026 | 00:31:09 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on the DACA renewal backlog... and a punch-around on bad beard lines, AI Met Gala delusion, and people checking their Apple Watches mid-conversation. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Free Tix for Brown & Out 8 on May 24th! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 189. CHRISTINA PIÑA | 12 May 2026 | 00:59:15 | |
A DRIVEN LATINA WRITER Christina Piña shares growing up in a loud Cuban-American Miami household, secretly applying to USC against her dad's wishes, cutting her teeth through years of assistant jobs before breaking in through the Paramount Writers Mentoring Program, rising from staff writer to supervising producer, breaking down strategies for how Latino writers can survive in a shifting industry, and writing on the new Miami-set NBC/Peacock series M.I.A.! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #5 - Rubén Gets Face-Mogged at Sephora, Thulio Is TJ Maxxing | 05 May 2026 | 00:32:00 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on looksmaxxers... and immigrant stories that still treat us like set dressing. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Tower 28 SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 188. PHILIPPE BOWGEN | 28 Apr 2026 | 01:01:23 | |
A CHAOTIC AND RELENTLESS FIRST-GEN LATINO WRITER Philippe Bowgen shares growing up between Peruvian and British cultures in wealthy, white Connecticut, hiding his sexuality at an all-boys prep school while striving to excel at everything, abandoning a path to diplomacy for acting and writing, and how his obsession with messy families, identity, and belonging inspired The Set Up, a scripted podcast from Sonoro and iHeartRadio. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #4 - Thulio Quits the Chat, Rubén Goes to the Movies | 21 Apr 2026 | 00:31:31 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on flaky gay guy group chats... and influencers getting paid to tell you how to vote. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 187. GLENÍS HUNTER | 14 Apr 2026 | 00:43:39 | |
A VOCAL MULTIETHNIC MULTI-HYPHENATE WRITER Glenís Hunter shares growing up between the Bronx and the Dominican Republic, leaving behind a path in psychology to pursue acting and storytelling, exploring themes of identity and grief in her short films, and breaking through with the Netflix-sponsored LALIFF Inclusion Fellowship and the Mitú x Walmart Filmmaker Mentorship Program. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #3 - Rubén Is Sick, Thulio Gets Bimbofied | 07 Apr 2026 | 00:31:48 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on indie artists who won't drop their music… and moderates who keep flopping. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Come See Brown & Out at the LA LGBT Center April 10th! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 186. ALEJANDRO MONTOYA MARÍN | 31 Mar 2026 | 00:48:05 | |
A "VIVA INDIE" LATINO WRITER & FILMMAKER Alejandro Montoya Marín shares growing up between Laredo and Merida, opening a video store in Monterrey before taking the leap to film school in Vancouver, grinding for years in New Mexico before landing on Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without a Crew: The Series, and how betting on himself led to his latest action comedy The Unexpecteds on Tubi, backed by indie film champion Kevin Smith. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #2 - Thulio Survives MomTok, Rubén Touches Grass | 24 Mar 2026 | 00:31:21 | |
This week: Plus a Punch-Up on Hollywood's lack of emotionally resonant TV... and the gays being way too horny in IG Reels comments. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Come See Brown & Out at the LA LGBT Center April 3rd & 10th! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 185. MAOR | 17 Mar 2026 | 00:48:39 | |
A QUIRKY LATINA WRITER Maor shares her upbringing in Miami between Honduran and Moroccan Jewish cultures, discovering improv and comedy as a way to channel her outsider perspective, moving to Los Angeles after studying screenwriting at UCLA, surviving the pandemic and strikes while building a creative life in Hollywood, and how years of writing, collaboration, and persistence led to her first TV writing credit on Peacock's emerging creator series The Kouncil, Telemundo's first English-language series. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| The Punch-Up: Minisode #1 - Rubén Is Vertical-Pilled, Thulio Wants Secret Friends | 10 Mar 2026 | 00:31:47 | |
This week: La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered conversations about their chaotic creative lives — covering new writing projects, hot takes on industry trends, dating disasters, and whatever discourse the algorithm served them that morning. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Sunny Side - Airstream | |||
| 184. BERNARDO CUBRÍA | 03 Mar 2026 | 01:00:03 | |
A MEXICAN PLAYWRIGHT RELUCTANTLY PARTICIPATING IN HOLLYWOOD In our Season 7 premiere, Bernardo Cubría shares growing up between Mexico City and Houston in a fiercely Mexican household that resisted assimilation, discovering theater after a year in human rights activism, turning to satire to break away from narco stereotypes in American storytelling, writing authentically Latino stories on Acapulco (Apple TV), and why protecting your voice matters more than chasing the next job. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 183. ANNA SALINAS | 28 Oct 2025 | 00:58:35 | |
AN INSECURE FREAKY LATINA WRITER For our Season 6 finale, Anna Salinas shares growing up in the conservative retirement town of Sarasota, how teaching art gave her the confidence to pursue improv at UCB, building Latino community with her team Menudo and the show Feliz Hour, breaking into TV on Human Resources, Mo, and Loot, and how her webcomic Bad Comix by Anna and short films helped her break out as a filmmaker! Season 7 of the pod starts back up March 2026! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 182. YOSIMAR REYES RETURNS! | 14 Oct 2025 | 01:00:02 | |
A LATINO WRITER WHO WRITES ABOUT JOY & GRIEF Yosimar Reyes (Ep. 113) is back to talk about bringing his solo show Prieto to its LA premiere (Nov 20–23), navigating the loss of his grandmother with the help of therapy, reflecting on undocumented life in a shifting political landscape, and creating theater rooted in joy, grief, and humor! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 181. STEPHANIE RODRIGUEZ | 30 Sep 2025 | 00:55:10 | |
AN AWKWARD DOMINICAN YORK WRITER Stephanie Rodriguez shares growing up between the Bronx and Tampa, hustling her way into art school, creating her graphic novel Doodles from the Boogie Down, transitioning from comics to screenwriting, moving to LA with a New York hustle, and breaking into children's media through the Fred Rogers Productions Writers' Neighborhood program! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 180. JAMES EASON-GARCIA | 16 Sep 2025 | 00:50:47 | |
AN ANIMATED GAY LATINX WRITER/PRODUCER James Eason-Garcia shares growing up Mexican-American in Colorado, coming out as the first openly gay student at his high school, rising from a PA for Elena of Avalor to co-executive producer for "Marvel's Iron Man and His Awesome Friends," and diving into preschool animation through visual storytelling and lessons in kindness! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 179. MONTSERRAT LUNA-BALLANTYNE | 02 Sep 2025 | 00:54:33 | |
A BUBBLY & COLORFUL SPOOKY LATINA WRITER Montserrat Luna-Ballantyne shares growing up between Monterrey and Ventura County, leaving the Mexican Consulate to break into TV with Mayans MC, surviving Zoom rooms and the strike, and finding new creative joy through Film Independent's Project Involve with her horror/psychological thriller short In Sickness and in Health! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 178. MARCELINA CHAVIRA | 19 Aug 2025 | 00:58:39 | |
A SMART-ASS TEJANA WRITER Marcelina Chavira shares growing up in Texas with Mexican and white roots, moving from anthropology into sketch and voiceover, writing for Amazon's Upload in the thick of our AI anxieties, bringing her Texas upbringing to the King of the Hill continuation, and shaping a voice grounded in magical realism and postcolonial identity in our current climate! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 177. JORGE MOLINA | 05 Aug 2025 | 01:01:01 | |
A PROUDLY FORMULAIC IMMIGRANT WRITER Jorge Molina shares growing up gay in Cuernavaca, Mexico and dreaming of Hollywood from afar, skipping the traditional assistant path after USC due to visa constraints, building a career curating shorts at top queer and Latino film festivals and demystifying the submission process for filmmakers, and channeling his whodunit obsession into the Gina Torres-led audio drama A Murder in Montecito! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 176. HELEN FERNANDEZ | 22 Jul 2025 | 00:54:37 | |
A PROUD LATE-BLOOMER, DAUGHTER TO IMMIGRANTS, NOW TRAUMATIZED & SEARCHING FOR A HYPNOTIST Helen Fernandez shares her upbringing between Phoenix, San Antonio, and Mexico, navigating toxic assistant gigs and breaking through via the NBC TV Writers Program, how getting staffed on Happy's Place and not being asked back taught her the highs and heartbreaks of working in TV, and creating the live comedy show Single Riders Only to explore the absurdity of modern dating! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 175. REUBEN BERNARDO QHAPAQ | 08 Jul 2025 | 01:02:11 | |
A QUEER LATINO-INDIGENOUS DRAG QUEEN TURNED FILMMAKER Reuben Bernardo Qhapaq shares his journey from Ecuador to San Francisco, surviving chronic illness and a rigid adoptive home, finding community as a teenage runaway in the city's underground Latino drag scene, going from high school dropout to AFI graduate, and why his upcoming short Esta Noche honors the queer elders who helped him survive. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 174. RONALD HINTON | 24 Jun 2025 | 01:06:28 | |
A PROUD QUEER, AFRO-NUYORICAN WRITER, ACTOR, & PRODUCER Ronald Hinton shares growing up with his grandmother in NYC's Upper West Side, reclaiming pride in his roots through writing, launching his Queerty-nominated web series Natives to spotlight queer life in public housing, and building community through the Queer Voices: NYC Film Festival. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 173. ALESSANDRA JARA DEL CASTILLO | 10 Jun 2025 | 00:49:45 | |
A TEXAN PERUVIAN LATINA WRITER OBSESSED WITH FANTASTICALLY FLAWED WOMEN Alessandra Jara Del Castillo shares growing up between Peru and Texas, discovering screenwriting at UT Austin after starting in journalism, breaking into writers' rooms through Twitter and mentorship, channeling her love of messy family dynamics into her scripts, and gaining rare production access as an assistant thanks to generous showrunners. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 172. KAHLIL MASKATI | 27 May 2025 | 00:57:11 | |
A MIXED-RACE WANNABE RAPPER DIY LATINO FILMMAKER Kahlil Maskati shares growing up half Puerto Rican and half Indian in New Jersey, finding his creative voice through rapping and filmmaking, getting staffed on So Help Me Todd after the Paramount Writers Mentoring Program, and how making his indie feature Do I Shock You Like Lightning? led him to direct a new Chicano detective short set in Bakersfield. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 171. YOHANNA BAEZ | 13 May 2025 | 00:45:23 | |
A BOUNDLESS & LIMITLESS LATINX WRITER Yohanna Baez shares growing up Dominican in L.A., how a short doc on climate justice in her native DR sparked her storytelling path, her move to NYC to pursue the indie route, and turning All Night Deli—a genre-blending audio series about bodegas, designer drugs, and interdimensional portals—into a podcast, video game, and manga. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 170. SEBASTIÁN REA | 29 Apr 2025 | 00:54:16 | |
A QUEER ECUADORIAN WRITER FROM QUEENS Sebastián Rea shares his journey from Ecuador to Queens, his hustle as a teen party promoter, working with Tribeca and Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions, and how the NBC TV Writers Program led him to his first staff job on Peacock's upcoming limited series Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy. Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||
| 169. TAWNYA BENAVIDES BHATTACHARYA | 15 Apr 2025 | 01:04:12 | |
A BOSS BABE LATINX WRITER WHO BUILT HER OWN LADDER & HELPS OTHERS CLIMB UP IT Tawnya Benavides Bhattacharya shares what it was like growing up in a tiny farming town in Eastern Washington, how uncovering family secrets led her to embrace her Mexican roots later in life, why she founded the screenwriting school Script Anatomy, and how a relentless work ethic helped her staff on shows like Bel-Air, A Million Little Things, Ginny & Georgia, and My Life with the Walter Boys! Instagram - @lalistapodcast Music: Arriba Mami - Jingle Punks | |||