Learn Spanish with Stories is the number one podcast for upper beginner to intermediate Spanish learners. The main objective of this podcast is to give students fun and interesting stories from Latin America to help students with Spanish immersion. You can read while you listen if you head over to podcast.lingomastery.com to find the transcript.
The US has done incredible things in its history, but it has also been involved in some of the most tragic events, too. The El Mozote Massacre that occurred on December 11, 1981, is among the worst of these US-sponsored tragedies. With communist guerrilla movements spreading across El Salvador, both the American and Salvadoran governments knew that they had to quickly put a stop to this before it got out of their control, so they planned "Operación Rescate" (Operation Rescue), a so-cal...
Este episodio narra la devastadora historia de Venezuela bajo las dictaduras de Hugo Chávez y Nicolás Maduro, desde la esperanza inicial hasta el colapso económico, la escasez, y el éxodo masivo. A través de experiencias personales, se describe cómo las políticas gubernamentales llevaron a la hiperinflación, la falta de servicios básicos y la emigración de millones de venezolanos en busca de un futuro mejor.
The lithium in your phone's battery, maybe the device you're using to read this - it may probably have come from Chile, and the copper in the wires of your charger may have come from Peru... Latin America is and has always been one of the main provider of precious metals in the world. And this didn't begin with the Spanish and Portuguese colonization, either... the natives had been mining long before the arrivals of Europeans, and knew how to keep these operations sustainable (som...
The gods of ancient Latin American belief were very interesting and different from what we have to come to know in Asia, Europe, and North America... they were somewhat more human, said to walk among us when they felt like it, and collaborated closely with animals and nature to make things occur. Quetzalcóatl, the Feathered Serpent, is one such example, perhaps the greatest of them all... disguised as a noble but aging traveler, he walked among men and taught them the marvels of science and engi...
Retiring in Latin America as a foreigner = 👍 Retiring in Latin America as a Latin American = ☠️ Let's face it - when you think of the Caribbean, Brazilian beaches, the Angel Falls in Venezuela, Mexican resorts and Argentine plains, there's a feeling of relief and joy that you can spend your final years just exploring the land and living for cheap. But what does it look like for a native, and how they survive while receiving a pension that is probably 30% (on average) of what they u...
There is a Filipino hero who, despite raising his voice and an entire nation against the Spanish colonizers, is so respected globally that he has his own monument in the center of Madrid, Spain's capital. His name is José Rizal - but what's the story behind this incredible figure, who, unlike Simón Bolívar or José de Martín (among others), never raised his arms against the Spanish and instead led with beautiful words, such as: "Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing race...
If you think only North American politics get crazy around, before or after election season, then you're very mistaken: Latin America has a serious problem with political polarization. And the worst part, frankly (as a Latin American myself), is that both sides are very poor at doing their job. Because sadly, both the left and the right wing of politics have failed to follow through with their promises, and have let their voters down, every single time. Whether it's the left giving awa...
"Spain should ask for forgiveness" - these were the words of Mexico's new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, shortly after being elected. She took it a step further and decided not to invite Spain's King Felipe VI after he failed to respond, and this initiated a grand debate: should Spain apologize for what their ancestors did 500 years ago? Some claim it is a fair demand by a number of Latin American groups, while others believe it to be excessive - after all, who from today was ...
Donald Trump is back in power, and he is already taking action to bring mass migration into the US from the south to a screeching halt (understandable based on the numbers we were witnessing, but not a popular decision). But he's also affecting Latin America in many other ways, several of which are extremely harmful for local economies. You see: Donald Trump is "America First", through and through, and though Latin America has been a geographical and philosophical ally for a long ...
If you think about a psychiatrist, you usually associate this with someone of very high social standing, and if it's somebody who even served the president, then there's no way they could be a wrongdoer, right? Right...? Wrong. Edmundo Chirinos, despite even being President Hugo Chavez's psychiatrist at one point, led a despicable double life in which he sedated and abused his female patients, committing terrible acts to hundreds of women, the enormous majority of which were unwar...
Fine, right off the bat I'm cheating - Equatorial Guinea is NOT a Latin American country, I know... but it's also incredibly linked to the Spanish-speaking culture, and is a case study in itself of how colonization has entirely derailed the future of a nation in good ways and in bad. Equatorial Guinea has a curious story behind it. Unlike with Christopher Columbus's "serendipitous" discovery of Latin America, the European powers were very aware of this African territory ...
Have you heard of the "War of the Pacific" before? Your mind will inevitably go to WWII, where the American soldiers fought the Japanese in an endless, bloody battle that culminated in the two atomic bombs being launched on Japan, but... That's certainly NOT what this was. What I'm talking about today is the war that occurred between Chile and the alliance of Bolivia and Peru, when some trade disagreements turned into a full-blown clash that ended up with very angry neighbori...
On April 22, 1997, at 15:23, one of the world's most incredible military operations occurred on the planet, and you've probably never heard of it... Operation Chavín de Huántar was a surgical military operation that took place after the MRTA (a far left-wing guerrilla movement) took close to 800 hostages at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru. It was not just any operation, however, but one that required an extreme amount of preparation, patience, and care. But after hearing more about ...
Few names of Venezuelan gangs and cartels have made as many headlines as El Tren de Aragua, especially in recent months. Named a terrorist organization by President Trump's administration and called "the most disruptive criminal organization operating nowadays in Latin America" by an esteemed Colombian former vice-president, this gang is among the most dangerous in the world. And the worst part is that they're not confined to Venezuelan borders, either - no, they're actu...
A wealthy and respected family... hiding dark secrets of kidnapping and murder behind the scenes. Nope, it's not your newest documentary on a streaming platform - this actually happened in Argentina in the 1980s, just after the right-wing state terrorism of Operation Condor, when a wide range of corrupt cops and torturers were left unemployed, and had to find another way to use their "talents". Arquímedes Puccio was one such individual - previously a military intelligence member, ...
Whenever you think of the Cuban Revolution, the first names that come to mind are Fidel and Raul Castro, and Che Guevara - right? But the amazing thing is that there is a name that should always equally appear alongside them, as one of the nicest and kind of the Cuban revolutionaries, who acted as a pacifying presence and kept everyone level-headed: Camilo Cienfuegos. And the most incredible part of Cienfuegos's story was not his life, but his death - you see, one day he simply disappeared ...
Neighbors, rivals, and sometimes even enemies: Argentina and Chile have long shared the tall but thin mountain range of the Andes as their border, many times coming close to blows over territorial differences, and long eyeing each other with distrust over their neighbor's plans. But both sides have their points to make, their truths, and their reasons to be as they are - and today we'll hear from both sides as, in this special DUAL NARRATOR episode, Juan and Isabel get into a debate ab...
What happened at Jonestown, Guyana, is something that has spawned an immense number of books, movies, and even day-to-day phrases, but what it created the most were questions. The biggest of all: why were his followers so easily convinced to drink the Kool-Aid (literally)? And why didn't anyone see this coming? In this episode of the Learn Spanish with Stories podcast, we travel to a country rarely featured in Latin American history, but which carries this dark stain to this day: the story ...
Just over 10 years ago, on September 26, 2014, a tragedy occurred in Guerrero, Mexico. 43 students heading to a protest in the capital vanished off the face of the Earth — or actually, they were taken off the face of the Earth. But nobody knew where, and nobody seemed to know who had taken them. All there was, was a flimsy explanation that was quickly accepted as "the official truth" by many. However, the families wouldn't give up, and the country was soon to light on fire as ever...
Climatology might seem like it's been around forever, but it's actually one of the newer sciences. One of the fathers of this science was Alexander von Humboldt, who traveled to South America and Mexico with one goal in mind—to demystify the New World and illuminate how the so-called "primitive" natives really lived there. In an extended journey across several nations with his companion, Aimé Bonpland, the scientists studied animals, mountains, the weather, people, settlement...
The U.S. has a shady history in Latin America - we all know this, as much as might love the United States. From the full-blown coups in Operation Condor to CIA involvement in protests, Latin America has often been relegated to becoming "the United States' back yard". But nothing is worse than what happened at the Bay of Pigs. You see, the invasion was planned and approved, and everything was ready for the removal of Fidel Castro... but at the last minute, JFK called most of it off...
Mexico has been through its fair share of injustice when it comes to foreign powers, and I'm not even talking of that time when they signed away 55% of its territory to the United States of America, but of something much more ridiculous. You see, in the 1830s, a small dispute over a local bakery turned into an international geopolitical conflict between Mexico and France, with bombings, embargoes and tensions heightened to the maximum. It also led us to learn just how vulnerable Latin Ameri...
Billionaires, whether you love them or hate them, have shaped a big part of the modern tech world, and are well-known for building some of the most impressive business ventures. Latin America, though not a Silicon Valley, has individuals who have amassed a large amount of their own wealth, whether through going big on a single startup or by patiently build their own empires. In this episode of the Learn Spanish with Stories podcast, we'll discover just who these impressive fortunes belong t...
The Mayan Civilization has long been held in an air of mystery - we're familiar with how the infamous calendar made everybody think the world was ending in 2012, due to how accurately the Mayans had mapped out the cycles and astronomy in such a primitive time. But there is more to the Mayans than apocalyptical scenarios and astronomy. In fact, they were one of the most advanced early civilizations in the world, and advanced technology, medicine and culture in the region by centuries within ...
Belize is a country you rarely hear about, but we can promise you: it is actually one of the most interesting in all of Latin America. With possibly one of the most interesting and diverse mix of ethnicities and cultures, Belize stands out from other nations as Spanish is *not* an official language here. So today, we will accompany our traveling friend, Eduardo, as he explores this amazing nation and goes to some of the most impressive natural reserves you'll ever discover in an episode of ...
Simón Bolívar is known as the Liberator, and he rightly gained this title... but there is another, one who fought as hard as Bolivar but was nowhere near as recognized as the Venezuelan: José de San Martín. Born in Argentina and raised as a Spanish soldier who fought for the Spanish Empire, José de San Martín's eyes were opened to the human desire for freedom, and made it his personal goal not only to topple the Spanish colonizers in South America, but to do it in the humblest and most self...
One of the creepiest tales to come out of Venezuela was that of Dorancel Vargas. A homeless man with severe mental issues who lived outside the city of San Cristobal, Vargas had a fascination that no human should have... He enjoyed eating human meat. And the ugliest thing of it all isn't that he just feasted on the meat, but the fact that he hunted people down like game, taking special advantage of runners who came through his territory. In this special DUAL narrator episode, we go over a p...
Latin America is beautiful, but it's also dangerous, and I'm not talking about the wildlife here... Holding 6 spots in the top 10 crimes rates worldwide, this region has unfortunately been one of the most deadly in recent decades, and its people have lived in fear of violent crime and terrorism for too long. And with organizations such as the FARC and ELN, FMLN, the US-backed Contras, Sendero Luminoso, and more, it's no surprise that there's plenty of content for today's...
We've given Mexico some love in recent times, after Season 3's finale "Te Amo, México" - and today is no exception. In fact, today we'll talk about how Mexico's modern political structure came to exist. The nation wasn't always a stable democracy (well, depending on who you ask these days). It has had its up and downs, and its downs have been preeetty low. With multiple authoritarians coming and going, it was inevitable that the people would rise up, and with i...
Do you love chocolate as much as we do (and if you don't, WHY)? Well, in that case, you might be curious as to how we ended up having this delicious sweet all across the world, on every continent. And yes, that includes Antarctica. Born in the heart of Mesoamerica and originally consumed by the Olmecs, Mayas and Aztecs, cacao (the precursor of chocolate) was discovered by Spanish conquistadors, who decided to take this curious fruit back home with them, which soon led to an explosion of del...
