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 through the trail at least once, how do we make sure to light the path well? Journal, women, journal. Maybe that's the answer. Write. It. Down. While. It's. Happening.

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 a Mexi-Texican Yorker en Cali, her early days in NYC, where inspiration was everywhere, and about what it means to choose “visibility over vanity,” and “voice over silence.” 

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 mark. If this episode were an emoji it would be an arm flex right next to a giant heart. 

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 the nest is revisiting because of a project Vanessa has embarked on with her company, Abre Camino Collective.

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 asking herself whether we don't have it all wrong when it comes to how we care for the elderly in our society. We explore the ins and outs of what it means to go back to the nest to care of papa bird. 

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 bodies have clocks, and we have to make decisions around them… So what to do? Vicky discusses with the nest. 

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 real life Bestia, that beast of a train that takes and saves so many; about border crossings, about dire straits and about hope. 

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 by the male midlife crisis, then the 21st is really fueled by the female midlife experience. This is our mid-beat of the season, it's all connected! 

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, we better enjoy every second of it.

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 BebitaWe 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.

Vanessa is going through perimenopause – aka: that blurry time “around menopause.” It's come a little early, but it's here and it's, well, let's just say it's a bizarre little moment in time that's both enraging and empowering. Vanessa, Nicole, and Jackie, talk about how we've been getting women wrong for so many years. They also talk about the movement that's starting around the oh-so-sexy topic of menopause, which will hopefully set things right. 

Vanessa talks with her creative partner, Victoria Collado about their new collaboration on #Graced, alongside wonderful people like director Sarah Hughes and organizations like the Adrienne Arsht Center for the performing Arts in Miami, Zoetic Stage, and our podcast producer, Matt Corey! This episode is all about the nest that is the theatre – the artistic nest that catches us all, and how we all make it work, cast after cast – family after family. 

Best-selling author Dr. Katharine Esty speaks with the nest about her book “Eightysomethings”, and what she learned about herself and others in the process of interviewing over 100 octogenarians.   Do you know what “upside down parenting” is?   Listen, and find out from an expert on the subject.

A follow-up to the last episode, the nest carefully approaches Nicole and Vanessa's grandmother, Maman, and comes to the realization that sometimes love means throwing your plans, your scripts, and your outlines out the window, and just going with it: improvising. That, and Vanessa might be having a “mid-life crisis” – just another can of worms the nest is starting to crack open. Oh what fun. 

And The Oscar Goes To…. The nest discusses all things Oscars and, also, talks about the performances of their lives – trying to live inside the fictional (based on a true story) world of Maman, improvising along the way. Maman, Jackie's mom -- and Nicole and Vanessa's grandmother -- has been suffering a deepening of her dementia and in it, she's reliving a particular past trauma: the loss of her mother. The nest struggles, trying to find the way out through story and love.

While Yoda Mom tends to her company Christmas party, Vanessa and Nicole give life updates and share their thoughts on “Parenting Hacks” from the online community.  What even qualifies as a hack?  What are your favorite ways to “solve” your parenting issues?  We'd love to hear from you!

Vanessa and Nicole are back in this episode to chat about the daunting prospect of a child's first “crush.”  Aren't they too young for this?!  Is this a product of coeducation?  Nicole gets some guidance on the subject from a kind, (and unlikely) source.  On this episode, it is all love.  And community.  Who was your first crush?  

Yoda Mom is challenged at the moment with Maman, so Vanessa and Nicole tackle the topic of memory.  Why do we even have memory? The very young, the very old, even slugs make use of memory - in different ways. Often times, our memories come back to us when we don't expect it. Join us to hash it all out! 

In this episode, we discuss nesting as a lifestyle, its ups, downs, and all its circles...and cycles. Meanwhile, Yoda-mom turns back the clock and teens-out, escaping through Vanessa's back door. Vanessa is accused of "storytelling" (though you should judge for yourself). Roles reverse and irony ensues, but the warmth is turned up, even as Jackie's apartment goes topsy-turvy. This one's a big laugh -- hope you'll laugh with us!

Sabina Murray is an award winning author born (and now living) in the States, raised in Australia and Manila. She's won a Guggenheim, been a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe, received the PEN/Faulkner Award, a National Endowment for the arts, and the list goes on. In her new book, The Human Zoo, she takes on a particular political moment in Filipino History — Duterte's presidency — and she wraps it in a suspense-filled, love story which meets a journey of self understanding. The nest is everywhere as we chat with Sabina and we find the places where Filipino culture and Cuban culture meet, diverge, and swing as part of the bigger human net.

This week we break bread! We talk about all things Guava Babka with Cristina Fernandez, founder and Head Baker of I Knead More. And we definitely need more of her.  She talks to us about climbing the foodie/chef ladder as a woman, and what it was like in NYC, learning from the best of them, then coming back to Miami and how the pandemic helped her actually launch her business. And, of course, this all goes back to her nest. It was her dad, after all, that told her: bake bread, girl, bake bread! 

This week we have all the cousins gathered to talk about what makes their nest special. Yeap folks, we ventured to bring the kids on (that's why this week's is so short)! There's furniture involved, boogies on a mic, and a pulled plug. Yoda mom calls it a “fracass,” but we also call it family fun. 

Wendy White, whose short film ROSES ARE BLIND, has won so many awards the laurels hardly fit on the poster, is now sharing her story with us. The film is based on her life, whose beginnings were founded on a bumpy nest. She was wrongly institutionalized at the age of 19. Now, Vanessa is working with Wendy on a feature length film of the short, and they're both very excited. The girls (Vanessa, Wendy, and Nicole) revisit their past, trips to Amsterdam, Vanessa's first play, Barnard, the Ann Frank Museum, Edinburgh, and even Shoes & a Show.

In an effort to help the elderly, the undocumented, and those facing food insecurity during the pandemic in 2020, Jessica Gutierrez co-founded Buddy System MIA bringing artists together to work with the community. In this episode, we talk about what it means for a community to really come together, the flow you follow to make that happen, and the perseverance it takes to keep it all budding.

A place called Casa Cuba is blooming in Miami. It's a spot where the Cuban and Cuban-American story will be archived, where it can be studied, where it can root from. Maite Morales talks to us about what it's like to build this nest. We meander through her visits to the Smithsonian, Celia Cruz, Maite's dissertation about the emotions of the Cuban revolution, and archive fever.

Yoda Mom freaks out this week as we're joined by Asha Walker, whose dad is the OG (Original Gardner), Dr. Marvin Dunn. Asha's organization, Health in the Hood, brings abundance, education, nutrients and true greens to food deserts in Miami. And, she's working on expanding beyond Florida! We talk about good-food, favorite veggies, and what it means to really spread the love in our communities.

As Vanessa welcomes a new pup into her nest, Maman falls hard, and Nicole goes brunching, we welcome Bad Papi! Amelia Leon, whose drag name is Bad Papi, and who shares their journey from abuse to self-discovery with us. They share what it meant to discover drag kings, and the nest that made them feel things they didn't know they could. Journey with us!

In this episode, we discuss that ever-present, ever-frustrating, unbreakable, annoying, beautiful, one-of-a-kind bond between…hermanitas! Sisters, sisters! The fighting, the make-ups, the anecdotes of madness. It's all in this episode. Also, one of the Rivera sisters (Christy) is actually the person responsible for making Richard Blanco (from Season 2) a poet! Oh, and there's even a ladybug infestation in this episode. Fun and ….fortune?

Ruben Rabasa, who just played Uncle Walter in the 2022 remake of Father of the Bride, alongside Andy Garcia, is about to take the stage in his one person show, at 84-years-old. The show tells us the story of his spectacular life. Ruben has been in more movies to mention, sharing the screen with the likes of Adam Sandler and Colin Firth. Vanessa is the co-writer of his one-person show and Victoria Collado, who is also a guest in this episode, directs it. This is a beautiful work nest. A theatrical one. We talk about friendship, love, trust, birds, moms, and so much more.

Mom is still gone because she's got some protruded discs. Ouch! Rest-up Yoda Mom.  Niko turns into a massive Mamma bear who actually has to get bleeped. Oops. Let's just say there's trouble in the first grade (Niko's daughter's class). Vanessa, meanwhile, is a walking zombie because she's lost a close friend. She's heartbroken. Together, Nicole and Vanessa tackle what low-grade depression means right now for everyone. Like, for the whole world. For the collective. They explore what our collective post-pandemic depresion means and how to get out of it.

Nicole's husband, Jonathan, broke his jaw! Vanessa's releasing @theamparoexperience on Instagram. Mom is missing (don't worry, she'll be back), but their guest, Natalie Cabo, who has acted with the Garcia sisters is now on a reality show called Twenty Somethings: Austin (Netflix) and she's sharing all. Nat opens up about what it means to move out of the family nest for the first time with a robo camera to boot. She talks about the blind faith she had to have, the lack of privacy, the tricky financials, the quarter life crisis, new friends (Kiki!!), and… well, reality.

Richard Blanco was President Obama's Inaugural poet, but he also means a whole lot to the Nest Crew personally because his poetry resonates on so many levels. This week, Blanco joins the nest to talk about how smaller, character-filled nests in Maine can sing beautifully, how you can be a Turkey on the outside but picadillo on the inside, how to make a holiday out of spam and peanut butter, and how to find what we don't come to the page with…how to find that extra layer. Let's just say he gives Yoda Mom a cryball, and somehow, we all locate some lost marbles.

Work/Life balance, it's a thing. Jackie, Vanessa, and Nicole take a work/life balance test on air. Follow along with them, or just laugh with (at?) them as yoda mom gets called out for her secret-tortilla-chip obsession, Vanessa finds herself bragging, and Nicole tries to keep it cool (she's the jelly). But who's the most balanced? Find out on this episode of NTEN!

The nest processes a problem they are having “live” on the program: When to get a caretaker for Maman (Jackie's mom; Vanessa and Nicole's Grandma). Jackie is in denial, Vanessa wants to do a family vision board, and Nicole can, typically, see all sides of the problem. But what's the solution? This is, of course, a problem many families and nests are having as people live longer and more and more families grapple with aging parents and grandparents. What's your take?

Emotional, Intellectual, Physical, Material, Spacial, and Sexual boundaries – the ladies hash all of them out in the hopes that breaking a few eggs will make an omelet and not a disaster. Meanwhile, Grandma is seeing kittens and blondes, which are making boundaries blurry, not to mention Covid-residue boundaries taking a toll on Jackie. Plus old anecdotes including one about teen-crossing-boundaries that ended in Vanessa jumping out of a moving car.  And all that's just the start…

Today's nest-guest takes all of us on a journey from the divine feminine to the Black Madonna, who represents transformation through fire. In fact, the very core of this episode is about transformation itself; what it means to start again. The ladies talk about holy places – from Christchurch to Tinder and The Corner Bar;  the airline industry and what it means to be a Swuban (Swiss-Cuban for those wondering). It all ends in a meditation for everyone, which will hopefully lead to yet another tiny moment of transformation.