Best Vanesa Podcasts (2026)

Rabbi Professor Shomo Pereira discussed his book "Monuments of Paper and Parchment: Hebrew Printing in Portugal in the Late 15th Century." He explained that while Portugal lacks physical Jewish monuments due to natural disasters, earthquakes, and persecution, the book highlights the country's rich Jewish history through its manuscript and printing …

1
Holiday Stressors 21:16

Play Pause

17d ago21:16

21:16

Send us a text What makes you stressed during the holidays and how do you deal? Hopefully its not recording a whole episode... twice because your mana can't do the one job she had, hitting record.... oops, sorry the stress got to us. Support the showBy KSV

1
Thankful Not Ungrateful 16:17

1M ago16:17

16:17

Send us a text We couldn't go past Thanksgiving without saying thank you and expressing our gratitude for our blessings. Have a blessed Holiday. Enjoy the time with family and those that matter most. Support the showBy KSV

1
Yolanda Aixelà-Cabré, "African Women’s Histories in European Narratives: The Afropolitan Krio Fernandino Diaspora (1850-1996)" (Leuven UP, 2025) 44:01

1M ago44:01

44:01

Little is known about the African women who came to Europe from the 1870s onwards, nor do we dare to imagine them as wealthy, elegantly dressed individuals with refined tastes and fluent in several languages. The Krio Fernandino represented a multisited, multilocal, transnational, transcontinental and Afropolitan community that lived between Africa…

1
Uncle Sam’s Reality TV Game Show: Starring Erika Perez Pt. 2 53:40

1M ago53:40

53:40

America dives into the world of surveillance, showing how constant monitoring shapes fear, behavior, and memory. From Erika Perez’s mother, who had to check in regularly with immigration, to America herself, triggered by everyday sounds like a doorbell, this episode exposes how tech, government systems, and societal pressure turn lives into a high-…

1
Uncle Sam’s Reality TV Game Show: Starring Erika Perez Pt. 1 1:24:46

1M ago1:24:46

1:24:46

When personal data becomes public drama, where do you draw the line between community and control? America unpacks a digital unraveling from online stalking to realizing her digital paranoia was the truth then turns to Erika Perez’s story to reveal how surveillance and systemic power shape real lives. The players are everywhere, the rules are uncle…

1
Tim Seiter, "Wrangling Pelicans: Military Life in Texas Presidios" (U Texas Press, 2025) 39:50

1M ago39:50

39:50

A richly detailed history of daily life for colonial Spanish soldiers surviving on the eighteenth-century Texas Gulf Coast. In 1775, Spanish King Carlos III ordered the capture of American pelicans for his wildlife park in Madrid. The command went to the only Spanish fort on the Texas coast—Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía in present-d…

1
Peda Tales 34:26

2M ago34:26

34:26

Send us a text To drink or not to drink... that is the question. The answer? Absolutely! Si no, how would we have the amazing content for this episode? Support the showBy KSV

1
Las Opiniones That Divide Us 34:46

2M ago34:46

34:46

Send us a text Las Manas are back with their opinions. Agree or Disagree? That is the question! Support the showBy KSV

1
Vanesa Rodríguez-Galindo, "Madrid on the Move: Feeling Modern and Visually Aware in the Nineteenth Century" (Manchester UP, 2021) 55:01

2M ago55:01

55:01

In her new book Madrid on the Move: Feeling Modern and Visually Aware in the Nineteenth Century (Manchester UP, 2021), Vanesa Rodríguez-Galindo explains how the modernization of this great city shaped and was shaped by print media and mass culture. A growing population, industrial immigration, mass connection with the wider world (making it both sm…

1
Spooky Stories to Tell in the Noche 34:49

2M ago34:49

34:49

Send us a text Spooky season continues as the Manas keep everyone scared. But don't fear, listen till the end to find out how to finish Spooky season sin mala energia. Support the showBy KSV

1
Rick A López, "Rooted in Place: Botany, Indigeneity, and Art in the Construction of Mexican Nature, 1570-1914" (U Arizona Press, 2025) 50:26

2M ago50:26

50:26

Since the first moment of conquest, colonizers and the colonized alike in Mexico confronted questions about what it meant to be from this place, what natural resources it offered, and who had the right to control those resources and on what basis. Focusing on the ways people, environment, and policies have been affected by political boundaries, in …

1
Spooky Date: Getting Ghosted 36:06

2M ago36:06

36:06

Send us a text Ever been ghosted on a date? How about spooked? Not like Melissa, we hope! Support the showBy KSV

1
Manas Get Real Life Spooked 34:20

2M ago34:20

34:20

Send us a text Getting scared is one thing, getting scared about real life spooky events is a whole other level. What real life scary things freak you out? Leave the manas a comment! Support the showBy KSV

1
Ada Ferrer, "Cuba: An American History" (Scribner, 2021) 53:27

2M ago53:27

53:27

“No country is ever just one thing.” In her new book Cuba: An American History (Scribner, 2021), NYU historian Ada Ferrer shows this again and again. In clear and engaging prose, Ferrer narrates five centuries of history from a decidedly different angle than previous one-volume studies; the main drivers of history in this book are not just familiar…

1
Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio, "Shipping Sculptures from Early Modern Italy: The Mechanics, Costs, Risks, and Rewards" (Brepols, 2025) 54:54

2M ago54:54

54:54

Shipping Sculptures from Early Modern Italy: The Mechanics, Costs, Risks, and Rewards (Brepols, 2025) by Dr. Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio focuses on enormous amounts of sculptures moved from Italy to Spain from ca. 1500-1750. An analysis of an important body of unpublished archival documentation regarding the practical issues involved in making and tr…

1
We're Back! 31:49

3M ago31:49

31:49

Send us a text Your favorite manas are back!! ...And just in time for SPOOKY SEASON! Support the showBy KSV

1
Adrian Pole, "Making Antifascist War: The International Brigades' Transnational Encounters with Civil-War Spain, 1936-1939" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 55:06

3M ago55:06

55:06

Making Antifascist War: The International Brigades' Transnational Encounters with Civil-War Spain, 1936-1939 (Cambridge UP, 2025) is a study of the 35,000 antifascists who joined the International Brigades in order to defend the Second Spanish Republic and of their encounters with civil-war Spain. Dr. Adrian Pole offers the first in-depth history o…

1
Martin Austin Nesvig, "The Women Who Threw Corn: Witchcraft and Inquisition in Sixteenth-Century Mexico" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 1:04:49

3M ago1:04:49

1:04:49

The Women Who Threw Corn: Witchcraft and Inquisition in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (Cambridge UP, 2025) by Dr. Martin Austin Nesvig tells the stories of women from Spain, North Africa, Senegambia, and Canaries accused of sorcery in sixteenth-century Mexico for adapting native magic and healing practices. These non-native women – the mulata of Seville…

1
Brian A. Stauffer, "Victory on Earth or in Heaven: Mexico’s Religionero Rebellion" (U New Mexico Press, 2019) 1:02:15

4M ago1:02:15

1:02:15

In Victory on Earth or in Heaven: Mexico’s Religionero Rebellion (University of New Mexico Press, 2019), Brian A. Stauffer reconstructs the history of Mexico's forgotten "Religionero" rebellion of 1873-1877, an armed Catholic challenge to the government of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. An essentially grassroots movement--organized by indigenous, Afro-…

1
Raymond Jonas, "Habsburgs on the Rio Grande: The Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Empire" (Harvard UP, 2024) 1:05:12

4M ago1:05:12

1:05:12

For a few years in the middle of the nineteenth century, Mexico was ruled by an Austrian and defended by a French army. This often neglected story is more than just historical trivia - it's a way of understanding 19th century imperial politics, and global insurgencies today. In Habsburgs on the Rio Grande: The Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Em…

1
Giles Tremlett, "The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War" (Bloomsbury, 2021) 53:27

5M ago53:27

53:27

When civil war broke out in Spain in 1936, tens of thousands of young men and women from across the world flocked there to fight against the Nationalist uprising. Though their history has been told before, Giles Tremlett’s The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War (Bloomsbury, 2021) draws upon previously unavailable mat…

1
Sasha D. Pack, "The Deepest Border: The Strait of Gibraltar and the Making of the Hispano-African Border" (Stanford UP, 2019) 1:00:54

5M ago1:00:54

1:00:54

In his new book, The Deepest Border: The Strait of Gibraltar and the Making of the Hispano-African Border(Stanford, 2019), Sasha D. Pack considers the Strait of Gibraltar as an untamed in-between space—from “shatter zone” to borderland. Far from the centers of authority of contending empires, the North African and Southern Iberian coast was a place…

1
Vanesa Carrillo: From the Border to Tech and the Start of Latinas & Lattes 1:03:13

6M ago1:03:13

1:03:13

Say hi or share a story! In this episode, I sit down with Vanessa Carrillo, a first-generation Latina, product marketing manager at Microsoft, and founder of Latinas and Lattes, before she gets too big. We talk about navigating college, showing up in professional spaces, and finding our way through career and identity shifts. Our conversation made …

1
Christopher Clarey, "The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay" (Grand Central Publishing, 2025) 1:11:22

6M ago1:11:22

1:11:22

In The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay (Grand Central Publishing, 2025) Christopher Clarey illuminates the skill and determination it took to accomplish Rafael Nadal’s most mind-blowing achievement: 14 French Open titles. Nadal has won big on tennis's many surfaces en route to becoming one of the greatest players of all time: securing…

1
Undocumented Creatives: We Build the Brand but It Wasn’t Built For Us. 47:28

7M ago47:28

47:28

Say hi or share a story! Undocumented creatives have helped shape the American brand but we’re only good for the brand until we speak up. Rarely are we trusted to shape our own narratives. In this episode, America Castillo sits down with Miriam Frutos, an influencer marketer, to talk about what it means to be a DACA recipient working in media and m…

1
Basma Al Dajani, "The Arab Andalusian Love Poetry: A Study of the Interaction Between Place and Man Through Time" (AU Cairo Press, 1994) 34:12

7M ago34:12

34:12

In this episode of Unlocking Academia, host Raja Aderdor speaks with Dr. Basma A. S. Dajani, Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, in a sweeping conversation on Arab-Andalusian love poetry and the cultural, linguistic, and emotional legacies it continues to inspire. Rooted in her 1994 book The Arab Andalusian Love Poetry: A Study of the Inte…

1
América, Where The Hell Have You Been Loca? 16:54

8M ago16:54

16:54

Say hi or share a story! América has been on a long hiatus. It’s a long story, but she won’t trauma dump or bore you with it today. She’s here to give a quick update and let her friends know what she’s been up to. Even though she’s still had a few “mental health breakdowns” along the way, her head is still in the game and more focused than ever. Fa…

1
Julia McClure, "Empire of Poverty: The Moral-Political Economy of the Spanish Empire" (Oxford UP, 2025) 41:51

7M ago41:51

41:51

Empire of Poverty: The Moral-Political Economy of the Spanish Empire (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Julia McClure examines how changing concepts of poverty in the long-sixteenth century helped shape the deep structures of states and empires and the contours of imperial inequalities. While poverty is often understood to have become a politic…

1
Emily Colbert Cairns and Nieves Romero-Diaz, "Early Modern Maternities in the Iberian Atlantic" (Amsterdam UP, 2024) 46:49

8M ago46:49

46:49

Emily Colbert Cairns of Salve Regina University and Nieves Romero-Díaz of Mount Holyoke join Jana Byars to talk about Early Modern Maternities in the Iberian Atlantic (Amsterdam University Press, 2024). It is the first volume to emphasize women's personal experiences and their life trajectories as mothers within the Peninsula and across the Atlanti…

1
Rochelle Rojas, "Bad Christians and Hanging Toads: Witch Crafting in Northern Spain, 1525–1675" (Cornell UP, 2025) 43:09

8M ago43:09

43:09

Bad Christians and Hanging Toads: Witch Crafting in Northern Spain, 1525–1675 (Cornell University Press, 2025) by Dr. Rochelle Rojas tells riveting stories of witchcraft in everyday life in early modern Navarra. Belief in witchcraft not only emerged in moments of mass panic but was woven into the fabric of village life. Some villagers believed witc…

1
Stephanie Schmidt, "Child Martyrs and Militant Evangelization in New Spain: Missionary Narratives, Nahua Perspectives" (U Texas Press, 2025) 49:20

8M ago49:20

49:20

A cornerstone of the evangelization of early New Spain was the conversion of Nahua boys, especially the children of elites. They were to be emissaries between Nahua society and foreign missionaries, hastening the transmission of the gospel. Under the tutelage of Franciscan friars, the boys also learned to act with militant zeal. They sermonized and…

1
Yolanda Aixelà-Cabré, "Spain’s African Colonial Legacies: Morocco and Equatorial Guinea Compared" (Brill, 2022) 58:07

8M ago58:07

58:07

The African cities of Bata and Al-Hoceima were created during the Spanish colonial rule of Equatorial Guinea and Morocco. Spain’s African Colonial Legacies: Morocco and Equatorial Guinea Compared (Brill, 2022) constructs their local history to analyse how Spanish colonialism worked, what its legacies were and the imprints it left on their national …

1
Donald S. Prudlo, "Stimulus Pastorum: A Charge to Pastors" (St. Augustine's Press, 2022) 29:27

8M ago29:27

29:27

The work of St. Bartholomew of Braga, O.P. (1514-1590) appears here in English for the first time despite its long and enduring influence in ecclesiastical circles. His meditations on the office of pastor have provided critical insight bishops since their initial circulation and have helped form the most famous among them, including Bartholomew's p…

1
Fernando Collantes, "Milk in Spain and the History of Diet Change: The Political Economy of Dairy Consumption Since 1950" (Bloomsbury, 2024) 1:00:02

8M ago1:00:02

1:00:02

In barely three generations the Spanish diet has changed beyond recognition. The traditional concerns around nutritional health and scarcity have been mostly left behind, but they have given way to new problems linked to excess. In Milk in Spain and the History of Diet Change: The Political Economy of Dairy Consumption since 1950 (Bloomsbury, 2024)…

1
Elisabeth Bolorinos Allard, "Spanish National Identity, Colonial Power, and the Portrayal of Muslims and Jews During the Rif War (1909-27)" (Boydell & Brewer, 2021) 46:42

9M ago46:42

46:42

How were Moroccan Muslim and Jewish cultures depicted in Spanish literature, journalism, and photography during the Rif War and what did this portrayal reveal about conflicting visions of Spanish identity? Runner-up for the 2017-18 AHGBI-Spanish Embassy Publication Prize Spanish National Identity, Colonial Power, and the Portrayal of Muslims and Je…

1
Season One Finale 44:14

10M ago44:14

44:14

Send us a text Well the mana's did it ya'll. One whole year! Enjoy the season finale episode and get hyped for season two....coming soon. We appreciate all your support and hope you come back for season two! Support the showBy KSV

1
Dreams & Mensajes 39:26

11M ago39:26

39:26

Send us a text Ever wonder if your dreams have hidden messages in them? What dreams from your life still live in your brain? Support the showBy KSV

1
Adelina Stefan, "Vacationing in Dictatorships: International Tourism in Socialist Romania and Franco's Spain" (Cornell UP, 2024) 1:02:54

10M ago1:02:54

1:02:54

Vacationing in Dictatorships: International Tourism in Socialist Romania and Franco's Spain (Cornell UP, 2024) examines the political effects of international tourism in socialist Romania and Francoist Spain in the postwar era. Despite sharp economic and political differences between the two dictatorial regimes at the start of the Cold War, signifi…

1
Amor y Chisme: Valentine's Day Edition 42:01

11M ago42:01

42:01

Send us a text V-day wouldn't be great without amor y chisme! Join the manas as they discuss the oh-so-famous holiday! Support the showBy KSV

1
Josef Stern, "Maimonides' "Guide of the Perplexed" in Translation: A History from the Thirteenth Century to the Twentieth" (U Chicago Press, 2019) 39:39

11M ago39:39

39:39

There is a common misconception that the Jewish religion does not believe in an afterlife. While it’s true that Judaism is focused on actions, intentions and thoughts in this life, it also believes in an afterlife, and has a variety of points of view about what happens after death. Today’s guest, Professor Joseph Stern, will discuss Maimonides’ uni…

1
Parenting Fails Parte Dos 45:32

11M ago45:32

45:32

Send us a text As promised, part two of parenting fails is here. Have you ever felt like you failed your child? Please share your stories with las manas! Support the showBy KSV

1
Un Poco De Todo! A Bit of Everything 39:27

11M ago39:27

39:27

Send us a text Our audio from 1/24/2025 has been recovered! Please enjoy it as a bonus episode now. Tiktok withdrawals, executive orders, school shootings. What more can 2025 bring? Support the showBy KSV

1
Parenting Fails Part Uno 25:42

11M ago25:42

25:42

Send us a text Parenting isn't a perfect art and kids will be kids. How many times has your kid thrown you under the bus? Support the showBy KSV

1
Adam Franklin-Lyons, "Shortage and Famine in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon" (Penn State Press, 2022) 58:44

11M ago58:44

58:44

Adam Franklin-Lyons joins Jana Byars to talk about Shortage and Famine in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon (Penn State Press, 2022). In the late fourteenth century, the medieval Crown of Aragon experienced a series of food crises that created conflict and led to widespread starvation. Adam Franklin-Lyons applies contemporary understandings of comp…

1
Jorge Flores, "Empire of Contingency: How Portugal Entered the Indo-Persian World" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) 54:04

11M ago54:04

54:04

Portuguese India was tiny—a handful of trading posts and enclaves, centered on the colony of Goa. The Estado da Índia faced the Mughal Empire and the Deccan Sultanates, large Muslim and Persian-based societies that ruled the subcontinent. How did Portuguese India survive? Well, by spying. Jorge Flores in his book Empire of Contingency: How Portugal…