Forget left-wing vs. right-wing radio paradigms: a new podcast program coming from Cal State Long Beach is centered on engaging issues from both the left and right brain. The Academic & The Artist is co-hosted by Dr. José Moreno (the academic) and Sergio Muñoz (the artist) and bills itself as a space for “dialogues for a multicultural & multilingual society.”
Dr. Moreno, of course, is an Anaheimer who by day is an Associate Professor of Latino Education & Policy Studies at CSULB. He's also Chair of Los Amigos and a board member of the Anaheim City School District. Muñoz is a writer and artist from Santa Ana involved in a community art project called GAMMA RAE.
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“We talk about community affairs and feature music from big name artists,” Muñoz wrote via email. “The idea is to take a topic and run it through two filters: that of the academic and that of the artist.”
The podcast, which started in mid-March and is broadcast from Kbeach Radio, tackles issues such as the notion of 'race hustling' in this week's episode. It also has featured music coming mostly from the Latin Alternative world with Nacional Records artists such as Ana Tijoux and Pacha Massive on the playlists.
Dr. Moreno is always civil in tone, but firm in intellect like when he respectfully addressed the Anaheim City Council earlier this year over the now infamous bed-tax giveaway by reading an excerpt from Councilwoman Gail Eastman's Anna's Home by the River children's book where she writes of the revenue base and how it helped develop the city's Convention Center! For his part, Muñoz is feeling himself out as a capable host and producer. With only a few shows under their belt, the two are developing a chemistry in their dialogues that hopefully will fine-tune itself and progress.
The target audience for the podcast is the younger and browner among us. The approach is unique. Since there's not too many media outlets that court the demographic in this particular manner, subscribe to the joint Santanaheim effort on iTunes!
Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!