Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Lorely Rodriguez –aka Empress Of– indie pop singer, songwriter, and producer, for a conversation about identity, resilience, and her new album Dream House, made while simultaneously rebuilding an actual house in Altadena alongside her mom.
Lorely traces her path from growing up Honduran-American in Altadena, absorbing her mom's music and community at home while privately obsessing over jazz as a teenager, to catching Lady Gaga at the Avalon before anyone knew who she was, to moving to New York and falling into the indie music scene that would define her early career. She also talks about the afternoon she met Blood Orange walking down the street and how they made Best to You, a song that now apparently plays at quinceañeras and first communions.
She talks about the emotional weight behind Dream House. How she wrote a song for her mom about building her a home without ever telling her, and what happened the day her mom stood in the house and said she had finally built her dream house. She also opens up about what led her to start listening to hardcore music, going to her first Sound and Fury festival alone in LA and why Knocked Loose became an unlikely form of catharsis.
Plus: Why she thinks LA is a hard place to date.
Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro.
🎙 De Los Podcast drops new episodes every week on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.

Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Dr. Vanessa J. Díaz, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, for a wide-ranging conversation about what Bad Bunny's ascent really means — for Puerto Rico, for Latinos in the U.S., and for the future of Latin music.

They trace the through line from 2019 — when Bad Bunny abandoned his European tour to join mass protests against Puerto Rico's Governor Rosselló — to his Super Bowl halftime show, where he took the stage holding the light blue Puerto Rican independence flag, the same flag the U.S. government made illegal to own under the Gag Law of 1948.

The conversation covers why the 2023 Grammys captioned Bad Bunny's performance as "singing in non-English," how that same erasure played out again during Super Bowl backlash, and why calling him a diversity hire — when he is the most-streamed artist in the world — says everything about how Latinos continue to be othered regardless of their cultural dominance. They also talk about Ricky Martin's appearance at the halftime show, why Vanessa and Suzy call that segment "Lo Que Le Pasó Ricky Martin," and what it means that he got to sing entirely in Spanish about refusing to assimilate.

Plus: why Latin music generated $1.4 billion in revenue in 2024 and why the concept of a Latin crossover is not just obsolete — it never made sense.

Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro.

🎙 De Los Podcast drops new episodes every week on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.

Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Pedro Tovar, songwriter and frontman of Eslabón Armado, fresh off the release of Nocturno — their latest album, which debuted at number six on the Billboard 200.

Pedro traces everything back to a car ride to elementary school when Ariel Camacho came on the radio, a guitar his dad found in a garage, and YouTube tutorials that turned into quinceañera gigs and later turned into a band. He talks about the moment The Notebook unlocked a new lane for him as a songwriter, and how Con Tus Besos — a song he thought was too corny to release, uploaded from his school library's Wi-Fi — went viral on TikTok a month after COVID sent everyone home.

He tells the full origin story of Ella Baila Sola. He also addresses the alleged beef with Peso Pluma that followed the song's success, and shares what really happened the night they reunited to record Amigos Con Derechos for Nocturno — including Peso playing the track 20 times in a row before saying yes.

Plus: why Pedro chose to go independent after a difficult 2024 with his label, what his mom — who is also his manager — taught him about investing, why he bought a Golden Corral instead of a watch, and what happened in the delivery room when his 10.5-pound son was born.

Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro.

🎙 De Los Podcast drops new episodes every week on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.