Never The Empty Nest Vanessa Garcia, Nicole Garcia, Jackie Rivases

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!