Never The Empty Nest

The Nest welcomes Linette Garcia: actress, influencer, and social media star —- you probably follow her on Instagram @linettestorybook. We talk miami characters, Hispanic households, getting discovered, leftovers, and becoming our grandmothers. 

The nest welcomes actress, comedian, producer, and overall badass, Natalie Birriel, as we talk about Miami Magic and Miami returns. We also talk about things like crying in a McDonald’s take-out line, finding your tribe, and the Artists v. Money line we all walk. 

Lucy Lopez, the voice of the 305, and the Nest talk about “plomo,” and what it’s like to carry the weight of responsibility, but live and love in the light of familia. You know…nest life! Let’s whistle, connect, and add a little Cubaneo to the sazón. 

Join us for some Cuban food, cigars, friendship, Michelin Stars, and new baby talk with the award-winning chef and owner of Ariete Hospitality, Michael Beltran, alongside Nicolas Jimenez, the Cigar guy at El Vecino and so much more!  

Making friends in adulthood can be a challenge, but maybe that’s not terrible. Maybe we’re just more discerning. Or, maybe to make it easier, we just have to cut through life’s built-up static. Trust, intuition, auras— we get into all of it on this episode! Welcome back, friends. 

When life and death are in the balance, we don’t talk about it. Meaning women, we keep a lid on it, to survive. In trying to make sure everything goes alright, we forget to keep the blueprints of the emergency, however. Once urgency passes, we forget the details: birth, divorce, menopause, rearing adolescents, etc etc etc. So how do we make sure our daughters know the way, once we’ve blazed throug...

The nest jokes that Jackie is their “Yoda Mom,” because she kind of knows it all, oh wise sage. We all have one of these in our nests— here’s to them, all of them, the wise we learn from. 

Woah, dating is hard right now, bruh. Where are the eligible bachelors? This is what the nest discovered when it set itself upon a hunt, to find Victoria Collado (see Season 5, Ep 7) a date. Come on the adventure with us. 

Writer, director, and storyteller, Andi Teran talks to the nest about her life as a writer and life’s latest series of plot twists, the ups and downs on her journey toward recovery from a breast cancer diagnosis. Teran is the author of the wonderful coming of age novel, Ana of California, a Latinx version of Anne of Green Gables. On this episode, she talks to us about being born in El Paso, being...

Clinical social worker, psychoanalyst and parent guidance expert, Erica Komisar, joins the nest to talk about those two paramount moments of child rearing — those first three years, and that second chance (cue horror yelp): adolescence! It’s all about Being There , which is the title of one of her books on the subject. 

Jennifer Lucio Vargas, founder of 305 Communications and Events, a Global live and virtual events company, talks to the nest about working for U.S. presidents, and what it was like to start her company. She talks to Vanessa and Nicole about moving back home and taking care of her parents, about the storm that came with losing them and the strength they left in her that will never leave – their mar...

Without the Jewish Deli, we’d be a nation without Pastrami on Rye and Matzo Ball Soup. But, it’s so much more than that. It’s the stories carried across generations and exile, which the Deli slices, pickles, and serves, that are so important. So what happens when the Deli, as an institution, starts to die? Author David Sax tells us what’s at stake in a book he wrote around 15 years ago, but which...

Our nests are not just our immediate family, they are also our extended families. Our doctors, our friends, our priests and spiritual guides, our counselors, our aunts and uncles, our honorary aunts and uncles, our teachers, our mentors. On this episode of nest, we cast the nest’s net to faith and the community it catches, as a result. 

Emiliana was a high-powered, fast-paced woman on the rise in journalism. She’d reached one of the pinnacles of media coverage: she was covering the White House. When something shook her nest from the very roots, Emiliana had a kind of awakening. Today, she seeks truth, joy, and is trying to bring her awakening to the nest of journalism itself.

The nest welcomes one of country music’s rising stars, Orlando Mendez. Also known as The Cuban Cowboy, Orlando hails from Miami and talks to us about migrating his nest to Nashville, missing family, and staying true to his roots as he routes his way across America, guitar in hand, guajiro soul in tow! 

Life doesn’t always go as planned, and neither do episodes. Sometimes though, it’s even better. We end season 5 with a kind of hash brown platter. We think it’s crispy and yummy and reinvigorating — hope you do too! Our nest is filled with love, from our nest to yours. 

When her dad had a health scare, Andrea moved in with him. Her friends told her she was crazy, that she was wasting her life, even some of her family members thought she’d lost it, but Andrea has another point of view. These days with her dad have their ups and downs, some are magical, some much grittier and grumpier than others, but, overall, it just feels “right,” and enlightening. Andrea’s also...

Vanessa’s business partner in her production company, Victoria Collado - aka: Vicky - is pushing 35 and she hasn’t found the right guy yet. Ideally, in her book, she finds the right guy and then has a baby with him, but what if the egg comes before the chicken? Vicky’s got a sense of humor about it, but in all seriousness, what she’s dealing with is something many successful women deal with. Our b...

Jenny Torres Sanchez is a Young Adult and Children’s Book author. The Nest talks with Jenny about a few of her books, particularly her Young Adult story We Are Not From Here, which is about the escape of unaccompanied youth from Guatemala on a train called La Bestia. She talks about where the impetus for the story came from, the research she did, and why she wrote the book. She talks about the rea...

Niko’s at the point where the kids are in school now, and she’s been working and writing music, but not full time, and now she’s wondering who the heck she is, what she really wants, and really what she’s always reaaaallly wanted. Midlife crisis? Or is it: midlife experience? It’s funny because this season has been a lot about female authors and Vanessa argues that if 20th century’s lit was fueled...

The kids are growing up and it’s the moms that have the growing pains. Nicole and Vanessa hash out the trials, tribulations, total glories and love explosions of watching the kids grow. Yoda mom chimes in, an old pro at the emotional roller coaster. You know what they say: “You never stop growing.” “And it all goes so fast…” Platitudes? Maybe. But you know what, they’re also big truths. So, yeah,...

Alice Marble ruled the tennis court in the 30s and 40s. In 1939, she was ranked number 1 in the world. Among her most important and lasting accolades is her fight against the color line in Tennis in 1950. She hung out with the likes of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, and she even had her own line of clothes. Yet, she is largely forgotten. Blais is working to fix that!

Author Kerri Maher tackles a very specific nest – the Jane Collective -- an underground group of women before Roe v. Wade that worked to help women when the law was working against them. Set in 1970s Chicago, the book rings particularly timely after the 2022 Dobbs Decision.

Ruth Behar: Pepita Meets Bebita We begin our Bookfair tour with the profound and magical, Ruth Behar, talking to us about writing a children’s book with her son, Gabriel. From Anthropology to children’s book writing, Ruth takes us through her nest, and it includes the history of Jewish Cubans and the snuggles of a little pup named Pepita.

It’s here: the days are longer and the kids are out of school. Now: What do we do with them? How do we make sure they make the most of their time off, and also make the most of their boredom? Nicole and Vanessa explore these questions. Their answers aren’t always the same (are they ever?), but the convo is fun! Almost as fun as summer.