First Time Talks

In our season finale, Luis sat down with Christopher Farias, a News Producer who at the age of five immigrated to the United States with his mom and younger brother. During their talk, Chris shares his journey of crossing the border and the challenges he experienced as an undocumented immigrant.

In a previous episode, Luis talked with Emma Lozano about her mental health issues and how she started going to therapy to get help. While in that conversation Emma mentioned being a victim of sexual abuse. Luis asked if it was okay for her to talk about it if she felt safe enough. She was sexually abused twice by people she trusted. She talks about how victims are often scared to tell their story and aren't taken seriously

In this week's episode, Luis sat down with Eder Diaz. An openly gay podcaster, producer, and professor at Cal State Northridge. They talked about how he came up with the idea for his podcast, de pueblo, catolico y gay. Eder also mentioned how he was raised and his experience of coming out to his dad.

In this week's episode, Luis sat down with Kaylah Parard. A nursing student at Cerritos College who has experienced housing instability at a young age. Once her mom was financially stable and she and her family were no longer homeless. At the age of 19, her mother did not agree with her relationship and her sexuality, kicking out Kaylah and leaving her homeless once again.

In this week's episode, Luis sat down with Sammy Fernandes and Marcela Rosa, two Brazilian natives studying environmental journalism. Climate Change hits close to home for them, Brazil is experiencing massive deforestation in the Amazon as well as massive wildfires burning and killing millions of species. Both have changed their lifestyles to help fight the issue hoping to bring change and awareness before it is too late.

In this week's episode, Luis sat down with Emma Lozano, a 22-year-old mission college student from the San Fernando Valley. They discussed Emma's life and how she went to therapy as a young child and continued to as she grew up. Emma shared the first time she learned she had anxiety, depression, and how she went on about her day with people constantly making a story about her life. She also talks about how going to school and feeling this way made her feel alone and how she was able to find people that cared for her and helped her get through it.

In this week's episode, Luis sat down with Alex Behunin, a fellow podcaster and friend from school. They talked about the struggles Alex has faced while staying clean for almost 9 years, how he overcame his addiction to painkillers and how he deals with his addiction to this day. We hope that after listening to this episode you know that you are not alone and know that is ok to ask for help. Here are some resources if you are dealing with an addiction or know someone who is struggling with an addiction. https://www.publichealth.org/resources/addiction/ https://www.drugabuse.gov/ https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/find-local-aa

In this week's episode, Luis sat down with Sal Figueroa, a good friend from work who was willing to talk to him about his first encounter with racism. They talked about the experience of being one of the first Latino families in his neighborhood and how it exposed him to micro-aggression and the personal attacks towards him and his family.

In this week's episode, Luis sat down with Cristal Morales, a 22-year-old CSUN alumni from the San Fernando Valley. They had a first time talk about how she has been affected physically, mentally, and emotionally by the pandemic. Cristal also shares how she has grown as a person while dealing to cope with life during a pandemic.

In this episode, I sat down with Sebastian Araujo to have a first-time talk before and after voting in a presidential election. We discuss his in-person voting experience during a pandemic, his feelings while waiting for the results to come in and how he prepared himself for his first time voting.