Mija Podcast is back

On finding the courage to begin again.

This week I’m going to try something different. The following is a transcript of the first Mija Podcast episode to be published since December 2023.

Before you jump in, some context: as some of you may or may not know, this substack is the extension in written form of a podcast called Mija. The show told immigrant stories in an audio-novela format, and later became a hit interview podcast. I took a break from the show in January 2024 until now, because I became a mother. Mi hijo, my son, had to come first. So, I slowed down productions for my production company, Studio Ochenta, which I have been running for 6 years, and put away my microphone.

Despite a few setbacks, I’ve slowly started to find my voice again here in these semi-biweekly notes on Substack. Lately, I’ve been working up the courage to begin again, to raise my voice, because there is now, so so much to say.

Everything Ochenta and Mija stand for: preservation of culture, language, the voice, the sharing of the underrepresented stories from around the world, has slowly, but surely started to become impossible to make sustainably.

As a creator, I’m seeing firsthand how difficult the new media landscape is becoming. And so I’ve spent some time thinking: What’s next? What can we become?

So here’s me, raw, unedited, telling you why I’ve been so quiet and how we can raise our voices together. Listen here, or read the transcript below.

Transcript :

[00:00:00] I don't know where to start. Um, it's been a long time. It feels like ages since I published an episode or really allowed myself to speak anymore on a microphone. Um, for a long time actually. I've been asking myself whether I wanna keep doing this, whether I wanna keep telling stories with audio. In fact.

I am not sure I do. Let me backtrack. So at the end of 2023, Ochenta was launching one of our biggest shows ever. La Cabina Telefonica, with Fanny Lu, an incredible Colombian singer, an artist who I was super, super excited to work with. It was an incredible project that included 50 episodes of comedy in Spanish and English.

And then something happened.

[00:01:00] Spotify changed its policy. It was no longer going to invest in any new productions, no longer taking risks on anything that wasn't video. And when it came to translating stuff, it was gonna use AI, and that changed everything. Of course, it was a slow change. That was the beginning of 2024, and I was…

Eight months pregnant. At that time, I was getting ready to give birth when my company was going to start dying slowly, but I knew it was gonna happen. What I did wanna do before I was able to take my maternity leave was make sure that my team had at least one more year so that I could take a break and they could figure out what they were gonna do next.

Also so that I could figure out what I wanted to do. Was I gonna keep trying to keep Ochenta alive even though the landscape just…

[00:02:00] isn't conducive to that anymore? I wasn't sure. And so I decided to take my maternity leave and take that moment to really think about it. But obviously any of you who is a parent might know, and also being the child of someone, you know that the mom thing.

It changes everything about you as a person and also about what you find important in life. When I had my son, I definitely fell into the category of someone who basically defines themselves as mom One. And two business owner, CEO. Um, it became my first identity and my only identity for a long time. And when I started to slowly, slowly come back to work part-time, trying to think of ways in which I could feel creatively fulfilled, podcasting just didn't seem like the place for it anymore.

And we had these incredible shows

[00:03:00] that launched. We had, uh, we had, El Silencio de Tina Golarte, Nos Vemos Despues, we had all of these wonderful shows that just couldn't keep going. They all had to end, um, not disappear. They still are listenable, but they're not going to continue. There was no way for me to finance any new originals this year and I was just in the kind of stage of, well, let me just make sure I can pay my team.

Let me just make sure I can finance one more year. One more year, but one more year for what? And so I had to reflect, where am I going, what is happening, what's next? So I went to the drawing board, the same kind of drawing board that I used when I started launching Ochenta. When I first started the idea of this company, I literally wrote in my notebook ideas, ideas for being successful.

[00:04:00] Not only in the more strictest business-like sense of the term, but also successful in the sense of feeling fulfilled in what I'm creating and putting out into the universe. Right? And I think I think of these things in grand terms now because I'm a mother, but also because I've had six years Ochenta under my belt, six years of building things with people from all over the world of carrying language and culture with.

Care and being able to do so with, you know, the business side of things, you know, corporate branded podcasts, commissions from platforms, and no longer being able to do so, was really frustrating.

It's really frustrating, and so I was thinking like, how can we, how can anybody in this new landscape with AI and all of these things make something new?

How can we do something and actually still get paid for it? How can we still finance projects that don't necessarily have to be commercially successful, but

[00:05:00] have find their audience, find their niche, and so. You know, from this kind of drawing board, I started to create questions around this and I sent out a survey, and so some of you who are listeners and some of you who are not listeners might have gotten this survey in the last couple of weeks.

I am basically asking everyone who's ever worked with Ochenta. How do you feel about AI? And not because I wanna work with AI necessarily more directly, but because I kind of wanna imagine, well, obviously content is gonna be transformed by AI, but what, how can we exist in that future, in that landscape as Ochenta, whatever iteration of it is, whether we become a nonprofit, whether we become a platform or whatever, whatever we end up becoming and whatever we make end up making, I want it to be fair.

Ethical and of course financially sound so that everyone who is a creator, whether you're a voice actor or a

[00:06:00] writer or journalist that we've worked with, will still have a place in that new landscape, right? I feel like not many people are really actively asking them themselves.

This question on the business side, because AI is the answer right now, but it's not mine.

I just wanna know if it isn't the answer, is there an answer that makes sense? Hm. And I know that sounds a little bit convoluted. It is because that's, that's the reality right now we're in a convoluted space time, and so this is a note from me to you as founder of Studio Ochenta, as the voice behind Mija podcast.

The person who's been hidden behind the creative direction of these wonderful, multilingual stories that you've been listening to for the last six years, as someone who's looking for a better future, I, I am sending this note completely unedited for you so that you can

[00:07:00] hear just the context, the truth of, of where we're at.

Um. And so yes, this is a call to action for you as a listener of any show of Ochenta. If you've liked what we've done in the past, if you think that we deserve to keep existing in the future and that you'd like to work with us or help us build something new.

Go to the link in the episode ( scroll down if you’re reading!) and just take this quick survey and leave us a note with your thoughts.

There's lots of space in that survey for you to leave, like really, really think out your answer. And also, you're able to email me directly afterwards if you want. I wanna set up calls with people. I wanna talk to everyone who has I, if, if our shows have touched you in some way, I really wanna know why, how, and how can I keep making things that you like, and in this new landscape.

So that's where it is. This is the truth. [00:08:00]

Um, and thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your years of listenership.

Thank you for supporting us at every step of the way and, I am sending you much love with hugs from Mija.

And in case you missed the CTA there:
After six years of making multilingual podcasts, Mija, and Ochenta as a whole are at a crossroads—and we need your voice to shape what comes next.

If you’ve ever been moved by one of our stories, this is your chance to help us imagine a future that’s ethical, creator-led, and financially sustainable.

🎧 Take the 5-minute survey in English here and in Spanish here.

Thank you for listening. Always.