Pod-Alization: Kim Petras on "Best Advice"; "Open To Debate" On Florida; "Silenced: The Radio Murders Debuts"

 Grammy winner Kim Petras on Best Advice Podcast

Spotify has released the final episode of the Best Advice Podcast season 2, featuring an interview with GRAMMY Award-winning recording artist, Kim Petras. The singer/songwriter known for popular hits like “Unholy” and “Malibu” sat down with host Kim Taylor Bennett to talk about dealing with criticism, smashing stereotypes, and her love for her fans.

In this episode, the songstress, who started writing songs at 12 years old, opens up about feeling like an outsider for most of her life and how her fans have allowed her to be her true self and form connections with others in a way she never could before.

“I have so many of my fans that I trust, and have true friendships with, and that I check in with – and especially trans girls in like different cities in the US that I've met over the years that I check in with, and care about, and make sure they're okay. They're really like my, you know, kind of my chosen family is my fans,” says Kim Petras.

 

Open To Debate podcast on Florida as a place to live

In the new episode of the nonpartisan debate podcast Open to Debate, the question under discussion is: "Is Florida Eating New York's Lunch?"

Former NYC mayor Bill de Blasio argues no. "The future, unfortunately, is not bright for Florida," he says. "The human-made threats coming out of their state government are bad enough and will hinder Florida's economic and social future. But the threat from mother nature is so much greater."

Arguing yes is Manhattan Institute president Reihan Salam. "You can criticize Florida in all sorts of ways, but Florida is stealing our thunder," he says. "We should fight to reestablish New York as the opportunity state, but the first step is realizing that we have a problem." 

No comment from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has managed to anger the largest employer in his state. What's next for him? Hating on oranges? Designating the sand on the state's beaches as "woke?"

Find the full episode at the Open to Debate website.

Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts Launch New Podcast, Silenced: The Radio Murders

Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts, in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have announced the launch of a new eight-part series, Silenced, that re-examines the murders of radio broadcasters in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood in the early 1990s. The murders were never solved, leaving a wound in Little Haiti that is still open to this day. 

One of the detectives involved in the investigation declared, “These men were killed for words they spoke on the airwaves.” The new podcast has just debuted at a time when the rights of journalists reporting abroad continue to be violated in record numbers, with the shocking detention of Evan Gershkovich in Russia the latest example.

Co-hosted by Oz Woloshyn, Kaleidoscope co-founder, and Ana Arana, an award-winning veteran investigative journalist, Silenced: The Radio Murders investigates the Haitian broadcasters’ assassinations during a period of extraordinary hope for the establishment of democracy in Haiti. Arana first reported on these murders in the early 1990s for CPJ and is returning to the investigation in hopes of finding the masterminds behind the murders and have them held accountable. Woloshyn investigated the serial murders of hundreds of women along the U.S.-Mexico border in his previous podcast series, “Forgotten: Women of Juarez,” and hopes to deliver a similarly far-reaching impact with “Silenced: The Radio Murders.”

To illuminate the context and possible motive for the murders, Woloshyn and Arana will speak with DEA agents who shed light on rampant cocaine trafficking among the Haitian military, which enjoyed strong support in certain quarters in the US. Throughout the series, the two will uncover elements that show missteps and mysteries, perhaps politically motivated, that remain unaccounted for decades later.

Ana Arana remarked, “When we began this podcast, we wanted to tell a story about impunity and the impact it has on immigrant communities. However, as the series developed, we realized the need to have federal authorities re-examine the cases because they encroached on the First Amendment and the essential right to free speech. With their murders, these voices and the ideas that those broadcasters held were silenced.”