Spain Explained

Marti Buckley
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  • Viagens e lugares
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Spain Explained is the podcast for people who want to understand Spanish culture, Spanish food, and Spanish traditions beyond the guidebook basics. Hosted by award-winning author and cook Marti Buckley, who's lived in Spain since 2010, this show unpacks the concepts, rituals, and quirks that make Spain… Spain. Whether you're planning a trip to Spain, obsessed with Spanish cuisine, dreaming of moving there, or just curious why lunch can last four hours, this podcast translates the untranslatable. Each episode dives into one single part of Spanish life, from sobremesa to siesta, café con leche to jamón ibérico, and explains what it is and why it matters. Marti is the author of cookbooks including The Book of Pintxos and Basque Country, writes for Condé Nast Traveler, The Telegraph, and Food & Wine,, and founded the International Society for the Preservation and Enjoyment of Vermouth. She's your insider guide to Spanish culture, Spanish daily life, and Spanish food traditions. This podcast is about understanding why Spain works the way it does. Perfect for Spain lovers, travelers, expats, and anyone who's wondered why Spaniards eat dinner at 10pm. New episodes weekly covering Spanish food culture, daily life in Spain, regional traditions, and the quirks of living in Spain.

  1. há 10 h

    What is Manchego? (EP 20)

    Manchego is Spain's most exported cheese ... and its most copied. Nearly 60 percent of all Spanish DOP cheese sold abroad carries that name, which makes the imitation market significant and the label worth reading carefully. This episode covers the cheese from the ground up: what the DOP designation actually requires, the Manchega breed and why their low milk yield is baked into every price tag, the three completely different flavor profiles that emerge across the aging stages, and how to identify the real thing at the counter. There's also a full breakdown of pairings from Rioja to fino sherry, a dive into why the zigzag rind, a case for drinking La Mancha's own wines alongside the cheese, and the story of Dehesa de los Llanos, a quesería near Albacete whose Gran Reserva Manchego was named the best cheese in the world in 2012. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com

    21 min
  2. You Might Also Like: On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    há 10 h ·  Bônus

    You Might Also Like: On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    Introducing Sara Al Madani: Stop Falling for “Potential” (Look for THIS Instead So You Don’t Waste Months on the Wrong Person) from On Purpose with Jay Shetty. Follow the show: On Purpose with Jay Shetty In this deeply honest conversation, Jay sits down with Sara Al Madani where she opens up about surviving toxic relationships, rebuilding her identity, and learning that love should never require abandoning yourself. Through pain, healing, and radical self-awareness, Sara shares how inner work became the foundation for every part of her life, from relationships to faith to self-love. Jay and Sara explore why we often confuse chemistry for compatibility, why we repeat familiar relationship patterns, and how healing starts the moment we stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for our choices. This episode is a reminder that love isn’t about chasing validation or fixing people, it’s about knowing yourself deeply enough to stop settling for less.  In this episode you'll learn: How to Stop Settling for Less How to Heal Before Dating Again How to Tell The Difference Between Want and Need  How to Break Toxic Relationship Patterns How to Choose Compatibility Over Chemistry How to Rebuild Self-Worth After Heartbreak How to Become the Love You Seek The moment you stop chasing validation, stop settling for breadcrumbs, and start choosing your peace, your life begins to change in ways you never imagined. Grab a copy of Sara’s book, Dear Narcissist: F*ck You, a bold, direct, and unfiltered guide to understanding narcissists in real life, just visit https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Narcissist-Spotting-Escaping-Narcissistic/dp/B0F54NB6LP  With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty JAY’S DAILY WISDOM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX Join 900,000+ readers discovering how small daily shifts create big life change with my free newsletter. Subscribe https://news.jayshetty.me/subscribe   Check out our Apple subscription to unlock bonus content of On Purpose! https://lnk.to/JayShettyPodcast  What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 02:07 The One Question to Ask Before Dating 04:15 Are You Looking for Love or Filling a Void? 05:57 What Are Your Dating Non-Negotiables? 08:56 Chemistry Is Not the Same as Compatibility 12:01 What Does Inner Work Actually Look Like? 15:41 The First Step Toward Healing 19:25 How to Raise Your Relationship Standards 22:33 Don’t Ignore These Dating Deal-Breakers! 27:37 Knowing When It’s Time to Leave 31:32 The Cost of Staying in a Toxic Relationship 34:42 Finding the Courage to Walk Away 39:10 Healing Through Your Relationship with God 42:49 What to Do When Someone Suddenly Ghosts You 45:58 Stop Falling in Love with Potential 47:00 You Can’t Force Someone to Change 49:51 Stop Waiting for Someone to Become Better 53:05 Don’t Abandon Self-Love For a Relationship 57:58 Manifestation Starts with Surrender 58:54 Is There Truth to These Popular Love Clichés? 01:00:52 Forgiveness Is Essential For Healing 01:03:13 How to Rewire and Train Your Mind 01:05:28 Sara on Final Five Episode Resources: Website | https://saraalmadani.com/  Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/iamsaraalmadani/  Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/saraalmadani/  TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@saraalmadani  X | https://x.com/sara_almadani See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

  3. 26 de mai.

    What is a Puente? (EP 19)

    In Spain, when a public holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, taking the working day in between as leave turns it into a four-day weekend. The country plans around this. The calendar gets studied. There is a specific word for it: puente, a bridge, because you are bridging the gap between the festivo and the weekend. This episode covers how the puente works, what technically qualifies as one versus just a long weekend, the most important puentes in the Spanish calendar, where the word came from, and what the whole tradition says about how Spain thinks about rest. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com

    16 min

  4. 19 de mai.

    What is San Fermín? (EP 18)

    Six fighting bulls. 849 meters. Under three minutes. Every morning for nine days straight, Pamplona does this during the fiesta of San Fermín. That's the part everyone knows. This episode covers that and all the rest. San Fermín is one of the oldest continuously celebrated fiestas in Spain, running every July 6th through 14th in Pamplona, the capital of Navarra. It is a Catholic feast day honoring a third-century saint born in Roman Pamplona and martyred in France, a commercial fair dating to 1381, eight centuries of Navarrese identity, and one American novel that turned all of it into a global phenomenon. It is also one of the most complex and layered festivals in Europe, and most outside coverage only understands a small percentage of what it's all about. This episode covers the history of the saint, how the July date came to exist, how the encierro actually works and what it costs, the religious procession on July 7th that Pamploneses consider the emotional heart of the fiestas, the vocabulary you need, the Hemingway connection, and the closing song at midnight on July 14th that makes people who haven't slept in nine days weep into their red scarves. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com

    20 min

  5. 12 de mai.

    What is a Tapa? (EP 17)

    While the word tapas may have gotten loose in the world, from London to Hong Kong, it is distinctly Spanish and distinctly different than what it has come to mean globally. Going out for tapas has its own verb in Spanish, tapear, and the full practice of drinking, eating tapas, and moving around has its own noun: el tapeo. Spain opened a formal UNESCO nomination file for the tradition in 2018. In other words, tapas are serious. This episode covers what tapas actually are, beyond the obvious answer. What constitutes a tapa? How does one enjoy them? Are they free? The real regional differences that make any single definition nearly useless: in parts of Andalucía a drink arrives with food automatically, no asking, no paying, while in the north the concept shifts into something with a completely different name and its own distinct rules. There's the ongoing and genuinely heated argument about whether the free tapa tradition is economically viable, with Spanish mayors publicly taking opposite sides. And there's the origin of the tapa, much disputed and with four royal origin legends, all set in Andalucía, that food historians are fairly skeptical of, alongside the 1904 travel memoir from Seville that gives us the most solid documentary evidence for how the word got attached to food in the first place. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com

    20 min

  6. 5 de mai.

    What is Gazpacho? (EP 16)

    Gazpacho looks like the simplest thing in the world. Blended vegetables, tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar. But did you know it spent centuries with no tomato, no red color, and no place in any serious cookbook? This episode gets into all of it.  In this episode learn what gazpacho actually is and how it varies across Spain, from the classic andaluz to gazpacho manchego, which is a completely different dish that Sancho Panza was eating in Don Quixote and bears almost no resemblance to what we know today. We go deep into the history, including how the dish spent centuries being considered too humble to write down, how the tomato entered the picture later than most people think, and how one of the earliest recognizable written recipes for tomato gazpacho turned up not in Spain but in a Virginia cookbook in 1824. We talk about the 1880s Madrid trend cycle that accidentally saved the recipe from obscurity, the Real Academia Española's definition that still fuels arguments today, and how to actually make a good one, including why the olive oil is structural, not decorative, and why bad tomatoes are the one thing you cannot work around. If you want more Spain content: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com.

    19 min

  7. 28 de abr.

    What is the Camino? (EP 15)

    Every year, hundreds of thousands of people walk across Spain to reach a single cathedral in the far northwest corner of the country. Some of them are religious. Some of them just want a really, really long walk. The Camino de Santiago has been pulling people across Europe for over a thousand years, and right now more people are doing it than at any point in recorded history. What's the deal with the scallop shell? What are the major routes? What is it actually like to walk over 500 miles across Spain? In this episode, Marti talks about her experience on the Camino Francés in 2006, from the boots, the blisters, and the pilgrim hostels to the strangers who become friends by nightfall. This episode also goes into the history. Legend says it starts in 813 AD, when a hermit noticed strange lights in a forest in Galicia and a king traveled from Oviedo to investigate, becoming the first recorded Camino pilgrim. It covers the medieval golden age when 250,000 people a year were crossing the continent on foot, the plague and the Reformation that nearly ended the whole thing, and the bishop who in 1589 secretly removed the relics of Saint James from the cathedral crypt to protect them from English attack, died without telling anyone where he'd hidden them, and left the mystery unsolved for three hundred years.  If you want more Spain content: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com

    28 min

  8. 21 de abr.

    What is a Churro? (EP 14)

    Churros are another one of those foods that reveals everything about Spain's regionality. This episode breaks down what churros actually are, where they come from, and why a food this simple produces this much regional passion. You'll learn the differences between churros, porras, and tejeringos, how oil temperature and dough technique make or break the whole thing, when people actually eat them across Spain, and why one of the country's most beloved foods almost never appears in a Spanish cookbook. If you want more Spain content: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com.

    21 min
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Sobre

Spain Explained is the podcast for people who want to understand Spanish culture, Spanish food, and Spanish traditions beyond the guidebook basics. Hosted by award-winning author and cook Marti Buckley, who's lived in Spain since 2010, this show unpacks the concepts, rituals, and quirks that make Spain… Spain. Whether you're planning a trip to Spain, obsessed with Spanish cuisine, dreaming of moving there, or just curious why lunch can last four hours, this podcast translates the untranslatable. Each episode dives into one single part of Spanish life, from sobremesa to siesta, café con leche to jamón ibérico, and explains what it is and why it matters. Marti is the author of cookbooks including The Book of Pintxos and Basque Country, writes for Condé Nast Traveler, The Telegraph, and Food & Wine,, and founded the International Society for the Preservation and Enjoyment of Vermouth. She's your insider guide to Spanish culture, Spanish daily life, and Spanish food traditions. This podcast is about understanding why Spain works the way it does. Perfect for Spain lovers, travelers, expats, and anyone who's wondered why Spaniards eat dinner at 10pm. New episodes weekly covering Spanish food culture, daily life in Spain, regional traditions, and the quirks of living in Spain.

Informações

  • Criado por
    Marti Buckley
  • Anos de atividade
    2 mil
  • Episódios
    21
  • Classificação
    Explícito
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Site do podcast
    Spain Explained

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