Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Sam Quinones, journalist, former L.A. Times staff writer and one of the first reporters to write about Chalino Sánchez in the U.S., to talk about the man who looms large over Mexican-American music and the legend that outlived him.
They start with who Chalino was: an immigrant from Sinaloa who wrote corridos in Los Angeles, sang them “like battery acid,” and became a star in the Southeast cities before he was killed in Culiacán in 1992. Sam explains how he reported a biography on a man with almost no paper trail, from the polleros of Tijuana to the engineer who recorded his first album, and why he’s comfortable with a story where the myth is part of the record.
Then they dig into why Chalino connected. Sam talks about the Southeast L.A. cities as one big rancho, the cowboy hats, belt buckles and brick cell phones at El Parral, and how a singer who sounded like his audience closed the gap between star and fan. They trace how he got famous without radio, selling tapes at bakeries, car washes and swap meets and blasting them from truck stereos, and compare it to punk and early hip-hop. They also talk about why Sam sees the murders of corrido singers after Chalino as vengeance, not censorship, and how the corrido went from a poor man facing power to propaganda for the powerful.
Plus: how Chalino made the tuba cool, and Sam’s latest book, a photo project on the Virgen de Guadalupe murals of Los Angeles, with an interactive map where you can add your own.
And because this is De Los Podcast, they end with Sam’s lesson from Chalino: don’t copy the hat, find your own way.
Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro.
🎙 De Los Podcast drops new episodes every week on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.

Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Guadalupe Nuñez, a licensed therapist who works with Latinos in Los Angeles, for a conversation about Latinos and mental health.
Guadalupe shares what she’s seeing in her clients as ICE raids, discrimination and the pressure to “blend in” weigh on the community, and how the clash between cultures at home and at school takes a toll on young Latinos. Then they ask why Latinos are less likely to get mental health treatment, from the belief that you don’t air the dirty laundry outside the household to the classic Latino parent comebacks: “You have God” and “I had it worse.”
Then they get practical. Guadalupe explains how to find a therapist who’s the right fit, from asking for a free consultation to saying you want to speak Spanglish, and why you have permission to switch therapists or ask for a specialist. Suzy tells the story of the first therapist she ever fired, and she and Fidel share what finally worked for them. Guadalupe also breaks down EMDR, a therapy where you don’t have to retell your trauma in detail. They also dig into the barriers: language, cost, stigma and machismo.
Plus: Fidel and Suzy’s Goldilocks search for the right therapist, and why some people love therapy homework while others don’t.
And because this is De Los Podcast, they end with a reminder: you’re allowed to change therapists.
Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro.
🎙 De Los Podcast drops new episodes every week on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.

Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Alex Rivera, writer and director of the cult classic Sleep Dealer, professor at Arizona State University and co-founder of the Borderlands Cinematic Arts lab, to talk about sci-fi, the border and what it means to make Latino films in Hollywood.
Alex traces his path to filmmaking, from meeting Pete Seeger as a teenager to a first short film about his Peruvian father and the potato that premiered at an open mic night in NYC and ended up at MoMA. He walks them through Sleep Dealer, a 2008 film set in a world of open internets and closed borders, where workers plug into machines that do their labor across the border while their bodies stay behind. Fidel shares what the borderlands looked like from South Texas, and Suzy and Fidel ask why the film feels more relevant every year, from delivery apps to AI.
Then Alex tells the story of the tech CEO who told a filmmaker friend he got the idea for his company from Sleep Dealer, and they get into why Silicon Valley keeps treating cautionary tales as instruction manuals. Alex shares what he thinks AI should look like instead: a “patrimony of humanity” owned by the people it was built from, with farmworker guilds, platform co-ops and robots that pick the oranges. He also explains why he calls the border a time machine, and how a place with fewer rights becomes a laboratory for surveillance technology that gets rolled out to everyone else.
Plus: what it took to get a film like Sleep Dealer made, and why Alex says Latinos are still only about 3% of writer-directors in Hollywood.
And because this is De Los Podcast, they end with a plea: save the puppets.
Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro.
🎙 De Los Podcast drops new episodes every week on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.