There wasn't

a place where Spanish speaking folks could go and listen to,

you know, the top headlines of what's happening in this state.

There wasn't a place that's accessible that you can just tune

in, press play and listen.

Welcome to CADL CAST with Capital Area

District Libraries Executive Director Scott Duimstra.

The news connects us, informs us and inspires us.

Access to the news is vital to our communities.

And yet many of our Spanish speaking

residents have been underserved by traditional media.

Enter Que Onda Michigan?, which translates as What's up Michigan?

It's a podcast produced by WKAR that reports the top headlines that focus

on the people and issues most important to Michigan's Latinx community.

With us today is the host of the podcast and WKAR’s

Bilingual Latinx Interest Stories reporter, Michelle Josik Polo.

Michelle, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thank you for having me.

I'm so thrilled to be here with you.

This is the first and only show of its kind in Michigan.

What inspired you to start it?

Yeah, so we are like you said, we are the first and only

Spanish language news podcast in the region, in the state.

And what really inspired me to start this is, is exactly

that there wasn't a place where Spanish speaking folks could go and listen

to, you know, the top headlines of what's happening in this state.

There are a few print newspapers in the region that are in Spanish,

but there wasn't a place that, you know, that's accessible, that you can

just tune in, press play and listen.

I saw that as not only, you know, an opportunity, but also a gap, a need.

The community deserves

to know the news in their language, news that matter to them.

And that's essentially what inspired us to start the podcast.

We talk about news that matters to them with so much happening in the world.

How do you choose what topics to report on?

That's a really good question.

Essentially, we look at all the news that are happening

in the state and we look at what are some of the most important things like.

Right now, we're looking at elections.

Elections are less than a you know, less than a month away.

And folks not only need to know who are the candidates in their ballots,

they also need to know how to to vote.

And since we have so many options these days, there's absentee voting.

There is, you know, getting your absentee ballot either via in-person or online.

And folks don't know how to do that.

Many I think even some of us English speaking folks, it's it's hard to

to parse through all of that information.

And so, you know, we we essentially just try to be practical and think

of, okay, what's the most important news right now happening?

What are, you know, English speaking folks thinking, talking about

what are other news outlets covering and finding a happy medium

of like this is this is really, really important for the communities.

You know, in the case of election coverage.

And with it with the podcast being released,

what kind of impact have you noticed?

That's a great question.

You know, the impact when we first launched on that, Michigan

people were really excited because there wasn't

there was an opportunity to tune in to news.

And I

think they didn't have like high expectations and we blew them

out of the water because our our work is really narrative nonfiction.

We want to make it interesting for our community to tune in to the news.

So for example, you can think of elections and think like, oh, like that's

kind of like a dry topic.

Yeah, but if you think about it, there's an opportunity

to make it a very interesting topic when you know, for example, in Michigan,

we have one of the most expensive races happening in the state

and that's interesting.

Think about what all goes into that and let's let's use that to tell a story.

I like that and I like that

that you used narrative nonfiction that's actually

from the library world is huge in publishing right now as well too.

And there's a lot of interest.

And so is that impact that you've seen with that narrative nonfiction approach?

Is that what you expected?

I think

what I expected was that,

you know, I'm very passionate about narrative nonfiction,

and I just hoped that people would find that interesting.

And it and I mean, it took off and, you know, people are subscribed.

People listen.

We have more than 500 subscribers and that's not count.

You know, those are people that are tuning in week after week.

That's not counting the people that, like, maybe aren't subscribed.

But, you know, hear us on the radio or tune

in through through other means.

And that's really, really exciting.

That week after week, even on those weeks where we take, you know, we do

repeat episodes or we take breaks for the holidays or whatnot.

People are still tuning in to to our work and are excited

to tune in to something that maybe they heard earlier in the year.

But it's still relevant to them today.

And recently, CADL has become the sole underwriter of Que Onda Michigan.

And we're thrilled about this partnership.

Starting in January, we'll be developing special episodes

about library services for Michigan's next community.

Do you think these episodes

will have an impact on the mission of Que Onda Michigan? Yes.

I it's so exciting to me that CADL became

the sole and the first underwriter of the podcast.

I don't think I ever imagined that that, you know, that would be a possibility.

But if you think about it, libraries are such an open,

inclusive space for everyone.

It's I was reading an article recently and like it said that

libraries can be the most welcoming and inclusive of spaces in our community.

And that's exactly I think it matches

well with the mission of Que Onda Michigan, to provide news and information

and in a way that matters to the community and in their own language.

And I think cattle that that mission,

it matches up with CADL and the work that you all are doing.

And I'm also really excited to dove

into some of the resources that CADL offers to the community

and share and impart those resources with our listeners.

You know,

we're going to be doing a lot of work in the next coming months with CADL and,

you know, connecting with some of your staff,

even providing some like stories and Spanish for our listeners.

Like having someone read them on the radio and you know, you

think, you know, maybe that's not news, but in a sense it is.

It brings you respite when we're suddenly surrounded by these like hard news.

And we need a little break from that.

And I'm excited to both

partner with CADL to offer news and also like a respite from news.

Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree.

And I'm so glad you talked about the mission

and the open access of libraries, because that's what we do

when we go out and we look for community partners like yourself

who align with our mission and find mission similar to the library.

So I'm very glad you recognize that in a way.

And speaking of libraries, we always like to end with a library type question,

and it doesn't have to be something in your professional work,

although it can be it can be your personal work as well too.

And just something that you've read, what you're listening to,

just to even relax on the weekend.

So do you have a title that you've read recently, watched recently

or listened to recently that you'd recommend to our listeners?

Yes. So I am currently reading Banana Leaves

and it's it's it's

this essays on indigenous communities

and it's talking about decolonizing our spaces

and how we, how we build community

in a way that is inclusive of everyone.

And I think, you know, I'm not indigenous myself and just learning

from the people that were here long before some of us got here

and that are still present and learning about their values

has giving me respite from everything that's going on in the world.

I love it. It's a great recommendation.

Michelle, thank you so much for joining us again today and for all

the work that you do to connect with our Latinx community.

You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

New episodes of Que Onda Michigan are available Fridays at 3 p.m.

on all popular podcast platforms.

You can also tune in Saturdays at 9:45 a.m.

and Sundays at 8 a.m.

and 870 AM and 102.3 F.M..

Don't miss another great interview.

Subscribe to the CADL CAST podcast and share it with a friend.

Hey there.

It's Tyler Reeder, but you can call me Ty, the library guy.

Hey, did you know you can enjoy library titles anytime, anywhere?

Yeah, that's right.

Thanks to the library digital collection, you can access audio

books, music, movies, and more from any mobile device.

So stop the subscription shuffle and enjoy great content for free with a library

card. That's pretty sweet if you ask me.

Start enjoying Capital Area District Library's Digital Collection

by visiting Seattle Dawgs Digital.

Until next time. I'm Ty. The Library guy.

I'm the library guy.