Podcasting Getty’s Lesser-Known Stories

I’m the cocreator, host, producer, and post-producer of Getty’s podcast ReCurrent (though the show is truly a team effort!). It explores stories that make up our current cultural heritage and the impact of keeping the past alive in the present.

Season 1 premiered last year and featured topics such as the cultural heritage of barbershops, how food connects generations, and the controversial history of the América Tropical mural in Los Angeles. Season 2 launched in November and shares stories about how the Virgin Mary has been imagined throughout history and today; an East LA teen photography program called Las Fotos Project; photographer George Rodriguez, who has long documented LA’s Mexican American community; and more. I tell people ReCurrent is like a good intro into some really interesting, little-known stories. I’m like, “Hey, here are things we do at Getty,” and I bring you in and you can dive deeper from there. It’s about looking at the culture around us: looking at intangible and tangible cultural heritage and how it affects us all whether we know it or not.

First-generation Californian

My parents immigrated to Los Angeles from Mexico when they were 18. They met at a neighborhood dance in their small town of Tonalá, Guerrero, then got married and came to Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley; we had a lot of family in that area. They moved to the Central Valley because they were able to get field work and later factory jobs. So my siblings and I grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, camping, learning to swim in the river, and going to Sequoia National Park.

Eventually my parents opened a jewelry business in the Central Valley in a small town named Lindsay. For four or five years, I’d go with them to the jewelry district in Downtown LA on weekends. We’d come early, get literally the same parking spot, and start the day at Clifton’s Cafeteria. Then they’d spend hours buying jewelry, and I’d go play in the arcade around the corner. As I got a little older, they let me just roam around. I’d go to a pizza place, sit and eat pizza and people-watch, at nine or 10 years old. Then I’d walk around Seventh Street and Broadway and roam into the music stores and look at the DJ stuff. We’d finish the day by going to East LA for tacos.

When I go to Downtown now, it’s very nostalgic for me, because both my parents have passed. I always say I’m the proud son of immigrants, and I try to continue their legacy in what I do and how I am, because I am the continuation of what they sacrificed.

Music and mixing at church

All my mom’s brothers and my grandpa were musicians. On my dad’s side, all my cousins and uncles played music, and my dad sang a little bit and played the harmonica. I play the drums. It’s just a thing you do in the family. We went to a Hispanic church, which I know now was unique because they gave us kids a lot of opportunities to learn due to a lack of resources. A lot of what I do on the podcast started with the sound work I did as a kid—like traveling with mics, mic placement, creating music, and mixing. Imagine an 11-year-old using a sound mixer. It helped me so much because I learned how to mix live on the fly. If we messed up, we got yelled at. I still use all these skills when making ReCurrent.

Teaching by day, podcasting by night

After high school, I got a job at an after-school program to make some extra money. That’s when I caught the bug of teaching. I became an elementary school teacher—first grade and PE. But I was still always involved in music. I met a friend who asked me to record drums for him and help him play small gigs. Then he was offered an opportunity to do an Internet radio show from 11pm to 1am, and he asked me to be his cohost. I thought: “Why not? It’ll be fun.”

That same bug I caught with teaching I caught with radio. After I did a radio show, I’d get this natural high of euphoria. I eventually left the show because I felt like we were going in a direction I didn’t like. But I started freelancing on the side while still teaching, working little editing gigs and creating podcasts of my own, like one I called 60 Seconds…ish featuring inspirational thoughts and audio to start your day. Eventually it came to the point where I realized I couldn’t do both radio and teaching, so I left teaching to pursue radio and podcasting full-time.

All roads lead to Getty

I produced a series of stories for the KCRW podcast UnFictional. From there I landed a full-time gig at UNINTERRUPTED, which is LeBron James’s media company. I was the head audio engineer, recording and editing podcasts. It was a really good experience that let me see the corporate side of things and how the sports media machine works. But I wanted to continue doing what I was doing for UnFictional—creating stories, talking with people. And that’s when I applied for a job at Getty. The posting said, “Create your own show.” I felt like the skills I had acquired up until this point helped me land this role.

I didn’t know the depth of what Getty does until I started here. Getty’s work runs deep into LA and all over the world. The intentionality of the work Getty does, and where it puts its resources, makes me proud and excited to be here. I see the school tours that come here, and I see people I identify with: Latino kids. I’m like, “Dude, if I could just grab you and say: ‘There’s so much here for you. Yeah, look at the art. But there’s so much more that goes on here.’”

Creating ReCurrent

During my first couple weeks on the job, I heard about a concert taking place at the Getty Center of Julius Eastman’s music. Eastman was a Black, openly gay artist making avant-garde, minimalist music in the 1970s and ’80s in a mostly white classical music world. He was evicted from his apartment, and all his belongings and music were thrown out onto the street, and he died in obscurity in 1990. I thought that was a really poignant hook, so I went to the concert and interviewed some people. That started the theme of the podcast—that I’m learning along with the audience and am out there in the field. We call it real-world audio. You’re out with me, hearing the cars zooming by or whatever I’m hearing.

Then my mom passed in the first two months after I started the job. So in the first episode of the whole series you hear her voice, and I talk about dealing with her passing and how I still connect with her through food (which is a form of cultural heritage!) and go to eat at her favorite spots. That wasn’t originally planned, but it felt like the right way to introduce myself to an audience.

Memorable moments in the field

When I traveled to New York for the Julius Eastman episode, I went to his brother Gerry’s jazz club. That was so much fun because I landed, got to the hotel, changed my shirt, took an Uber to the club in Williamsburg, and just enjoyed a night of jazz. I like jazz and wanted to go, but also I had been in communication with Gerry, and I wanted to show my face and be like, “Hey, I’m here to support your business too.” And so we met, and it was just perfect.

I also loved visiting Greg Faucett of StylesVille Barbershop and Beauty Salon in Pacoima, because I got to get a haircut and learn about Greg’s history and how StylesVille functions as a cultural hub. People pass by the barbershop all the time but don’t know the history there, which is super intriguing to me.

What I’m listening to

A new podcast I’m listening to is called The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos. Jorge Ramos is the Walter Cronkite of Latin America. My parents and I would watch him when I was growing up. He was a source of true journalism. Paola Ramos is his daughter and an emerging journalist, kind of like the new wave. They do a podcast together about the Latin American perspective on current events. It’s really good.

The key to a great podcast

I think having a sense of honesty is important. I can listen to past episodes and know that I’m not that same person now, but at the time, I was being honest about who I was and my experiences. I think having that human element and empathy make a good podcast. Hopefully, people can feel the humanity and empathy that I try to bring to each story and can learn from who I’m interviewing.

Listen to ReCurrent online or find it wherever you get your podcasts.