LA LISTA: A Latinx Writers Podcast

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 backgro...

This week: Thulio returns from Gilmore Girls country and enters his World Cup Brazilian era, Rubén turns 35 and discovers his head is now extra-wide at Warby Parker, a queer vaquero fundraiser cracks the TikTok marketing code, Love Island takes over the algorithm, and the feed is fake but the clips are forever. Plus a Punch-Up on airlines forcing broke bitches to gate-check their carry-ons... and...

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 drea...

This week: Corporate Pride is dead (but the Chase Sapphire rainbow logo lives in our hearts), Thulio dodges the WeHo Pride tax, Rubén hits Club Cobra and begs DJs to let a song breathe, the LA mayoral race takes a post-Spencer Pratt breath, and Unc cinema faces the rise of Gen Z excellence. Plus a Punch-Up on Y2K parties with no whimsy... and nosy gays turning open vs. monogamous relationship disc...

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 underest...

This week: Thulio gets spit-roasted by ailments, Brown & Out 8 has its final-final encore at the WeHo Pride Arts Festival, Akbar delivers DFMO antics, Gen Z boos AI and war criminals at commencement, and Gen Z filmmakers take over the box office with Obsession and Backrooms . Plus a Punch-Up on NPCs asking too damn much... and Spectrum, AT&T, and every other company failing to provide the service...

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, a...

This week: Thulio gets fed and read at Courier Cumbia, Rubén goes full wilderness girlie at Point Mugu, Brown & Out 8 gets a free encore at the WeHo Pride Arts Festival, Instagram launches "Instants" for some reason, and AI discourse hits  Hacks , The Comeback , and our last nerve. Plus a Punch-Up on the DACA renewal backlog... and a punch-around on bad beard lines, AI Met Gala delusion, and peopl...

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,...

This week: Thulio survives a UTI (Rat Beach will pay for its crimes), summer is coming (Lorde hive rise), The Devil Wears Prada 2 review, Beyoncé Act III conspiracy theories, and TV fellowship season is among us... let's get in formation. 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 dit...

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 podca...

This week: Closing night of Brown & Out, defining Club Tempo trade, Sizzler hot bar theology, Alex-on-Alix podcast beef, and Ruben walks back his "cinema is dead" thesis. 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, unfilte...

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 - @lalist...

This week: Opening night of Brown & Out (Thulio's playwright era unlocked), theater audiences treating it like a group chat, bimbofication scandals, Sisters in Christ burritos, and the WGA staff strike exposing how unaffordable LA really is. 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 di...

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 indi...

This week: Fellowship rejection season is upon us (and the girls are coping), Thulio goes full Heated Rivalry at an LA Kings game, the male loneliness epidemic (but make it queer), Mormon MomTok chaos, and Ruben's take on why AI in Hollywood is a very expensive nothing burger. Plus a Punch-Up on Hollywood's lack of emotionally resonant TV... and the gays being way too horny in IG Reels comments. L...

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 w...

This week: Thulio's Sniffies hookup story (including a brutal gym neg), writing plays at the LA LGBT Center, Selena Gomez foot-kissing discourse, a long-awaited job update (!!), and Rubén's unhinged thesis that vertical micro-dramas are the next streaming revolution. La Lista Podcast host Rubén Mendive and writer Thulio DaSilva ditch the formal interviews and hop on the mic for quick, unfiltered c...

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 Acapulc...

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 brea...

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

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 - @lalistapodca...

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 Mus...

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 Mu...

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 - @lalist...