Luego de subir el episodio me di cuenta de que el audio tuvo problemas. El problema fuer de Story Corps al grabar, pero de todos modos decidí dejarlo para los que son hardcore y aún así quieran escucharlo. Verifiqué los otros audios y en esos no hay problemas así que los episodios futuros se escucharán bien. La transcripción está abajo, por si se les hace más facil leerla. Esta semana les tengo un episodio exclusivo para Patreon de una conversación que tuve con Penny en un proyecto de Story Corps. Tuve un total de cuatro conversaciones con diferentes personas para este proyecto y las iré publicando en exclusivo para Patreon. Esta es la primera. La conversación, como se pueden immaginar es en inglés. Transcripción: [00:00] MANUEL MATOS: Got a timer. [00:00] PENNY CANNON: I guess we both have to hit record. All right. [00:05] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah, I think it records the voices separately. [00:11] PENNY CANNON: Um, uh, everybody calls me, uh, Manuel or Manny. Okay. [00:20] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah, yeah, it says it's nice to meet you. [00:25] MANUEL MATOS: Nice. [00:26] MANUEL MATOS: We're supposed to read our— each other's, uh, bios. [00:33] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah, yeah, that's at the beginning of the recording. [00:37] MANUEL MATOS: So I'm gonna read yours. It's Penny from Decatur, Georgia, and she's a wife and mother of one teenager who is entering their senior year in high school. I am the youngest one of— I was very lucky to have dinner with my sister and my aging parents once a week. In addition to my teenager, I have a dog and my time trying to understand them. I spend much time walking the dog and having a good day and meaningful conversations with kind people. So, and you are she/her according to this? [01:15] PENNY CANNON: Yes. [01:15] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah, okay. [01:18] PENNY CANNON: Yeah, cool. [01:18] MANUEL MATOS: Then I don't know if you want to read mine. Do you have mine at the top? [01:22] PENNY CANNON: I do, I do. I see it right here. Okay, Manuel— Manolo redacted was born in Utuado. Am I saying that right? [01:37] MANUEL MATOS: Yes. [01:37] PENNY CANNON: Utuado, Puerto Rico, nestled in the heart of the island's central mountains. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Piedras and a Master of Science in Water Science from Murray State University. He's also a SCUBA instructor— all caps on SCUBA— chemist, and podcaster. He's been curating personal stories since 2010 on his podcast. He moved to Kentucky in 2002 and has a wife of 20 years, 3 kids, and a spoiled Great Dane. Wonderful. [02:22] MANUEL MATOS: So I also spend time to understand my dog. [02:27] PENNY CANNON: Yeah, yeah, uh, I have a large dog, but anyway, yeah. [02:33] MANUEL MATOS: Oh really? Why? [02:36] PENNY CANNON: He is, um, part pit bull, part mastiff, part something else. Uh, we don't know. [02:44] MANUEL MATOS: Oh, so he's a big one then, because if it's part massive, he's 90 pounds. [02:51] PENNY CANNON: Um, and he is, uh, yeah, yeah, he's, he's full of it. Um, but he's great. [02:59] MANUEL MATOS: So good deal. [03:01] PENNY CANNON: All right, shall we try our questions? Very good. [03:04] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah, I guess. Yeah, the first one is, uh, is Yes, Connect360 or 250, sorry. [03:15] PENNY CANNON: Yeah, 250, 360. Um, I, with the first time I heard this on NPR, I thought, oh my gosh, I have to do that. Um, I, my job is, uh, talking to people. Um, and I'm sorry that I'm wearing my, my golf shirt, uh, at work today. Um, and Branded. Um, but I, yeah, I talk to people for a living. I interview customers, and, um, I'm fascinated by people and people's experiences and how different people see the world. And, um, I learned so much by hearing from other people and talking to other people. Uh, and the idea of talking to people that are not in my circle, uh, was— and people from across the country just immediately jumped out to me, and I thought, this is, this is just my speed. So, um, yeah, yeah, I had to do it. [04:18] MANUEL MATOS: I decided to do this because, first of all, I'm a huge fan of StoryCorps. I've used them, I've used their questions for my podcast. I've been doing it since 2010. And, uh, personal stories. So it's basically the same as StoryCorps, but I sit with the person and we have a conversation. So this is basically what we're doing here. Some of them are friends, some of them are just people that send me stories that they record with their phone. So you never know, sometimes you get some stories that are like, you know, incredible on a 20-minute audio on your email, and you're like, wow, this is unbelievable. So yeah, I've done stories about everything. I've had, I've had, you know podcast talking about the transition and how are they treated and all that. I've had, I had somebody that had an accident and was telling me about the accident and how she's in a wheelchair now. And I mean, it's so many stories I have about— oh, so, uh, it's— [05:21] PENNY CANNON: What is, what is your podcast? What is your podcast about? [05:26] MANUEL MATOS: Well, it's, it's called Cucubano, and it's in Spanish. That's the only problem for people that don't speak Spanish. But, uh, but yeah, it's, it's Kukuano, and, and, uh, and I started it— I started podcasting in 2010, but then I started doing this podcast in, uh, 2015. So I've been doing this one specifically for 11 years, and, uh, and like I said, I have about 500 episodes. I have probably with all my podcasts, I probably have 2,500, 3 Conversations. Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty interesting. I'm like you, I learn a lot from people, from, from it. [06:06] PENNY CANNON: Yeah. What is cucabano, you said? I'm probably not saying it quite right, but what is the theme? What ties all these stories together? [06:16] MANUEL MATOS: Nothing. One has nothing to do with the next one. You never know what you're gonna get. [06:22] MANUEL MATOS: Sometimes you're crying, sometimes appalled, you know, it's like it depends on what people come and tell me. [06:30] MANUEL MATOS: But like I said, I, I, my philosophy when I do it is I, I don't— so I'm not going to go and read bios of the people, flow freely and go wherever you have to go. And also, I, I don't have any limitation on language, about language, or subjects, or themes. I talk about whatever the person wants to talk to me. And some of them come with a story planned, and some of them just want to tell me about their lives, and I just ask questions. And I don't know, my— the, the, the phrase that I use on my podcast all the time is, everybody has a story. And some people don't realize that they have a story, but they do. So that's what I'm interested in. [07:22] PENNY CANNON: Yeah, that's a really wonderful way of putting it. It's a real gift to be able to help people figure out that they have a story and that helping them tell and figure out that they have something to say. [07:38] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah, I have some people that have sent me messages, I don't know how you get these stories from these people, but It's like magic, you know. And I'm like, well, you just have to listen and be interested, like truly interested, not just trying to look for a story, but just truly interested in what they have to say. [07:55] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah. [07:55] MANUEL MATOS: So, you know, and, and I've also— 40 minutes is not enough because usually when I record, the story starts, usually the person gets comfortable, and after an hour is when they tell me the stories, you know. Yeah, but yeah, so where is, uh, where is, uh, Decatur, Georgia? [08:18] PENNY CANNON: Uh, it's pronounced Decatur. It's in, um, it's right outside of Atlanta. You have to say it with a little bit of a southern accent. Decatur. It's right outside of Atlanta on the east. It's technically in Atlanta, but it's the east side. It's a small city. Um, right outside of Atlanta. [08:41] MANUEL MATOS: So yeah, I'm just trying to like, like figure it out because, uh, Atlanta— I mean, not Atlanta, my aunt lived in Marietta and then she lived in, uh, Kennesaw. [08:57] PENNY CANNON: Okay, yeah, throughout my life. [09:00] MANUEL MATOS: Yeah, that's north and west of Atlanta and Yeah, yeah, yeah, my, my cousin lives in Paulding County. I think it's Paulding, the name of it, which is close to Kennesaw. And he's, uh, he's for the, for the, for the county. So cool, he's very proud. I have to say, when, when I say this, I have to say that he's the first Hispanic superior judge in Georgia. So, uh, he wants me to stress that, you know. [09:42] PENNY CANNON: Yeah, that's impressive. Um, my husband is very important with the court system. [09:49] MANUEL MATOS: Oh really? [09:50] PENNY CANNON: Um, yeah. [09:50] MANUEL MATOS: Oh wow. [09:50] PENNY CANNON: Yeah, so that's, that's cool. Um, I'm curious about question 3. Tell me a little bit about your life growing up. [10:03] MANUEL MATOS: Well, in Puerto Rico, like I said, in Utuado, which is right in the middle of the island. If you take the island of Puerto Rico and you throw a dart and it hits right in the middle, that's where I am. That's where I was born. And, uh, and I was born and raised there. And then after I finished my high school, then I went to San Juan and went to the University of Puerto Rico to do my environmental science. But, uh, but it's a very small town. Uh, it has about 30,000 people. [10:30] MANUEL MATOS: Uh, very— [10:34] MANUEL MATOS: I don't know, I would say isolated, even though it's— the island is so small, you know. It's, it's— when I was growing up, thinking of San Juan and the metropolitan area was like, that's way over there, you know, even though it's an hour away. Uh, but I loved it because it's sheltered. My mom was a librarian. My dad worked at a co-op. He was the manager of an agricultural co-op, uh, and they, they bought coffee and tobacco from farmers, and then they w
