While not a country we hear about often these days, Nicaragua has gone through quite a turbulent history that has left it with long-lasting economic, political and social scars. And leaving aside the subject of Daniel Ortega, current dictator of Nicaragua and one of the longest-lasting presidential terms in the world (with 26 interrupted years in power), Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution, in particular, brought massive transformation to the country, although with great controversy attached ...
May 07, 2024•30 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast If you want to see historic sights everywhere you go, you go to Europe. But if you want to have fun, Latin America is the place to be. Known as the land of dance, music, and smiles, Latin America just has "something else" that makes it a spicy and sweet combination of great food, fantastic nightlife, and quick friendships unlike any other. It's in the culture. It might even be in the genes, if we dug deeper (hmmm...) But that's still too vague, right? How exactly is this cult...
Apr 30, 2024•28 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast There could be a war brewing in South America... and it's a conflict that has been a long time coming. You see, Guyana and Venezuela have been fighting a silent battle for centuries over a large territory that makes up two-thirds of Guyana - the Essequibo. During the late 1800s, Venezuela lost this territory to a treaty signed by the United Kingdom and the United States, and things seemed to end there. However, the recent discovery of oil deposits containing up to 700 million barrels of oil...
Apr 23, 2024•27 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Love him or hate him, it is clear that Javier Milei has rapidly made himself quite a controversial figure in global politics. Carrying a message that is unique and very different from traditional South American politicians, Milei has vowed to reduce the "parasitic" state in his country. But his appearance may be ideal for the nation, and his recent victory as President of Argentina is a sign that the people of Argentina are tired of the old, stagnant systems of Peronism and Kirchnerism...
Apr 16, 2024•29 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Believe it or not, there are communities of people out there who have never been contacted: they've only ever seen a handful of outsiders in their lifetimes, never been on the internet, driven a car (or bicycle) and are still several centuries behind us in terms of technological advancement. It sure is hard to imagine, right? But in fact, that are several communities in South America that are so remote and separated from civilization that they have managed to maintain their ancient traditio...
Apr 09, 2024•28 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast Before Simón Bolívar, before José de San Martín, there was someone else. A man who fought for independence not only in South America but in France and the United States, and whose name is the ONLY American one (North or South) to be engraved in the Arc de Triomphe. I'm talking about Francisco de Miranda, who was born around this time of the year in 1750, and who pretty much got the independence efforts going in Venezuela and South America in general. Born into a Spanish family, Miranda actu...
Apr 02, 2024•27 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast What will Latin America look like in 2040? It's a question that many experts and onlookers have been asking for a while now. With climate change, socioeconomic equality and the security of the region having become such important subjects in recent decades, one must wonder if the nation comprising Latin America are ready to face them. This is why two experts, Laura and Rafael, have united to create a new global initiative that will bring Latin America forward several decades and get the whee...
Mar 26, 2024•30 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast We often talk about the "discovery of America" when we speak of Columbus and the Spanish. But they didn't really discover America. Think about it: they only came across a continent that was already populated. So the real question would be: how did the first natives in North and South America come to "discover" this land? After all, science has found that humanity originated very far away from the American continent and that these inhabitants are relatively recent compare...
Mar 19, 2024•28 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast Bad Bunny, Karol G, and even Shakira in more recent years... If these names don't sound like anything to you, it's time to dust those earphones off and tune in to the most recent craze of Latin American music that has dominated the planet: reggaeton. Originating in the Caribbean as a result of fusing traditional reggae and Jamaican dancehall, reggaeton has outgrown its forebears and become the strongest source of Latino culture across the world. In fact, it is enjoyed in anywhere from ...
Mar 12, 2024•28 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast You've probably wondered what's beyond the veil between life and death, and that's normal. But some people really want to take it beyond just wondering and actually discover what that is. In the case of the two men we'll talk about today, a Spaniard doctor by the name of Pedro González de Velasco, and a German doctor named Gottfried Knoche, the line between life and death was not as defined as it would be for the rest of us. Because, as we'll soon learn, these doctors di...
Mar 05, 2024•27 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast Latin America might be the most diverse region on the planet - after all, it is home to over 660 million people from countless origins, including Spanish, Pre-Columbian, British, Portuguese, African, Indian, Japanese, and more - so it would be fair to say that racism doesn't really exist there... Right? Wrong! Unfortunately, even this incredibly multicultural region of so many skin colors and ethnic background has not been saved from discrimination, and it usually comes as a result of the s...
Feb 27, 2024•28 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast While many of them are cute and fluffy, we've come to learn that some animals out there are VERY dangerous. Latin America is one such place which - though not as "everything is out to get you" as Australia, is still home to venomous snakes, ravenous piranhas, skull-breaking jaguars, and more. In this region of great beauty and a fascinating variety of creatures, you're bound to be safe, until... you're not. So, to help you keep yourself careful out there while on your La...
Feb 20, 2024•27 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast ¡Azúcar! - Whenever you hear this cry, you just know some amazingly good Salsa music is about to begin, as Celia Cruz's voice is moments away from hitting your headphones. And what a character she was, with her flashy hairstyles and extravagant clothing style, her wide smile and powerful voice. But what was her story, before all the fame? How did a young, female Cuban singer with no industry connections end up becoming the Salsa legend? It had a lot to do with her determination and grit. It...
Feb 13, 2024•27 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Hidden in the Andes mountain range for close to 400 years, Peru's Machu Picchu has long been an incredibly famous South American tourist destination. After all, it's wonderful location, beautiful views and the advanced technology with which it was created (how were those rocks even transported up there?!) make it unique not only in Latin America, but the world. But was it just a temple for the Sun god, Inti, or was it something more? After all, there is evidence that leads scientists t...
Feb 06, 2024•28 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Move aside, the Himalayas. The Andes might not have the highest peaks in the world, but it's actually the most extensive mountain range on our planet, encompassing 7,242 kilometers and stretching across SEVEN different nations. It's South America's pride. But what's so special about the Andes, and what type of terrain, flora, and fauna can you expect to find there? Oh, and why was it so important for human civilization, who not only lived there but turned it into the birthpla...
Jan 30, 2024•26 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Eva 'Evita' Perón, a woman who caused so much amazement and admiration over the decades that even Madonna, the Queen of Pop, begged to play her in a film. A young woman who, despite growing into the wealth of Argentine politics, actually came from a poor background and knew what it meant to be hungry. The wife of controversial president, Juan Domingo Perón, Evita was a radically contrasting figure. On the one hand, she mingled with the poor and brought women's rights forward a few...
Jan 23, 2024•26 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Do you love soccer? Argentinians do, that's for sure. Their two top teams - Boca Juniors and River Plate - are actually among the fiercest rivals in world soccer, and have seen some of the most amazing encounters that Latin American football has to offer. In this fantastic DUAL episode, we find Lucas and Paula getting ready to enter this year's Superclásico - that is, the duel between these two legendary teams. Having a bit of time to spare before the match, they decide to share a bit ...
Jan 16, 2024•28 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes, waiting for law enforcement to help is not enough, especially if the local police are involved in the crime you expect them to solve. Such was the belief of a brave mother named Miriam Rodriguez, who in January of 2014, realized that nobody was going to help her get her daughter back after she was kidnapped. This woman, one of the bravest we've ever heard of, decided to take justice into her hands and commence both an investigation and manhunt like no other. She would go after ev...
Jan 09, 2024•28 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast How much do you know about what goes on in North Korea? Probably not much. Perhaps you think that a lot of what is said is just negative propaganda by anti-communists. But what if I told you that a Venezuelan communist was imprisoned there and got to see how horrible the prisoner treatment was up close? Now, you must be wondering... what was a Venezuelan poet doing working in North Korea? Today's story is precisely about this man and what led him there. Ali Lameda was a passionate dreamer, ...
Jan 02, 2024•28 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever heard of the Mapuche people, or the historical country of “Wallmapu”? Probably not, and there’s a reason for that: the Mapuche people have been conquered, colonized, and excluded for centuries, since the Spanish arrived in South America... to the present day when modern governments continue to ostracize and bar them from possessing the same rights as everyone else. It’s a controversial subject and one that has caused great bloodshed in the south of South America, with fierce protes...
Dec 26, 2023•27 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast While capitalism has undoubtedly brought us some of our most impressive advancements as a species, it has also done some pretty terrible stuff to people across the world. Latin America is not an exception. In the early 20th century, as corporations in the United States began looking outward and started entering poorer countries (under the guise of "foreign investment"), governments across Central and South America would greedily accept them and allow them to do whatever they wanted. So...
Dec 19, 2023•27 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast When you watch a pirate movie, have you ever asked yourself where most of them are based? Heck, isn't the most famous movie pirate saga based in, precisely, Latin America (the Caribbean)? And I bet you didn't know that most of those characters, events, and legends are based (loosely) on real stories and treasures - yes, it's not an exaggeration when we're told that reality surpasses fiction. So... what is it that drove pirates and explorers to venture into the Caribbean and S...
Dec 12, 2023•27 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Did you grow up loving dinosaurs like me? Maybe, maybe not, but you have to admit that it's sad how they disappeared. One day they were out there doing their thing, and then BOOM! A giant asteroid fell from the sky and ended them all. But where did that asteroid land? To be honest, there are mixed studies, but it is widely believed that the Yucatan extinction event was the cause for the disappearance of dinosaurs and 75% of all animal and plant life on Earth. Its crater, specifically known ...
Dec 05, 2023•26 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast It may be surprising if you didn't already know this, but back in the late 1980s, a son of first-generation Japanese immigrants rose enough in political power and popularity to become president of a South American nation. We're talking of the ex-president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, who was elected in a time of great economic and social struggle in the nation. There was even an ongoing war against the widespread terrorism brought about by Abimael Guzman's Sendero Luminoso (which we...
Nov 28, 2023•28 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast What if I told you that there was a "day in which the mountain rolled into the sea" in Venezuela? What would you think? It sounds almost poetic, but it describes the country's worst natural tragedy in history. It all began with a week of heavy rain, a storm at the beginning of December 1999, when the whole nation's attention was fixed almost entirely on the shifting political events that would mark the end of an era and the beginning of something revolutionary - the age of a ...
Nov 21, 2023•28 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Did you know that one of the most influential writers in history is actually from Latin America? Colombia, to be exact – I’m talking of Gabriel García Márquez, of course! Father of the amazing and refreshing genre known as “Magical Realism”, this Aracataca-born man changed the course of Latin American literature forever with his classic “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. In this latest episode of the Learn Spanish with Stories podcast, we’ll cover his life, his inspiration, the way he worked and w...
Nov 14, 2023•26 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Do you know what’s one of the strangest things in Latin America? The fact that the biggest country in a Spanish-majority region (with a third of the total population in Latin America) speaks a different language: Portuguese. You’d think that somehow, Brazil would have adopted Spanish like their neighbors, but they never did, and even today, it is a minority language among many others. So… why? Why does Brazil speak Portuguese? Basically, it has a lot to do with its origins and how the colonized ...
Nov 07, 2023•31 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever wondered why Paraguay isn’t really a big, star destination in South America? In fact, it’s actually one of the least talked about locations in all of Latin America despite its size and location. Well, this might have a lot to do with the fact that it went through a truly terrible war in the 1800s that decimated its infrastructure and even its population (up to HALF of Paraguayans died!), leaving the country more or less in ruins, and in need of serious rebuilding. And who were the ...
Oct 31, 2023•28 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Many of the best heroic stories end in tragedy. Such is the case of Kiki Camarena, the ace DEA agent with a magnificent sixth sense and an ability to sniff out the bad guys unlike any other. Although his career was centered on U.S. law enforcement, this Mexican-born special agent was transferred to Mexico to keep an eye on the ongoing events of the criminal underworld and soon realized that things were getting really bad, really quickly, way before anyone else did. Infiltrating himself into the ...
Oct 24, 2023•29 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Some people are born different. Talented, special, prodigies… whatever you want to call them, they are able to do things others could only dream of. Gustavo Dudamel is one such man – from a young age, he demonstrated an immense ability in the world of music. This music conductor not only became the best of his nation, Venezuela, by the age of 18, but also soon dominated South America, Europe, and the entire world with his ability to lead orchestras of all shapes and sizes. Discover the story of ...
Oct 17, 2023•26 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast 
