NPR Adds Radio Ambulante to its Podcast Lineup

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Starting November 22, NPR will begin distribution of the award-winning Spanish-language podcast Radio Ambulante. Hosted by Peruvian-American novelist Daniel Alarcón, Radio Ambulante is a Spanish language podcast that uses long-form audio journalism to tell important but neglected and under-reported Latin American and Latino stories.

"Daniel Alarcon and the Radio Ambulante team are pioneers in audio storytelling in the Spanish language. Their ear for language, beguiling imagination and deep journalism are a rare combination," said NPR's Vice President of Programming, Anya Grundmann. "Radio Ambulante is such a natural partner for NPR and will help us connect with important stories and communities in new ways."

"There are more than 50 million Spanish speakers living in the US, and we too are part of the 'public' in 'public radio'," Daniel Alarcón, Executive Producer of Radio Ambulante. "It's exciting to be part of NPR, helping it sound a little bit more like America. NPR shares our journalistic values, our commitment to good storytelling, and our desire to innovate. We couldn't be happier, or prouder, to join forces."

Radio Ambulante stories range from humorous to political, to investigative reporting; many are narrated by correspondents in Latin America and deal with cultural idiosyncrasies, local customs and history. Listeners hear regional accents and idioms. Topics range from the very personal-a blind man who can identify hundreds of bird calls -- to Latin-American history -- two soldiers reunited decades after fighting in the Falklands war. The constant element is host Daniel Alarcón, who serves as the curious, smart friend guiding the listener through the story, commenting on the most outrageous situations and even asking the correspondent to translate local idioms that not all Spanish speakers would understand.

The first episode of this new season of Radio Ambulante will drop November 22. Listeners will travel across the Americas with Daniel in this season, to places that include: Bogota's Book Festival to hear about the mysterious disappearance of a valuable book; to Puerto Rico to learn about the island's economic crisis; to Florida in the aftermath of the Pulse shooting; to Peru to learn why you can never go home again.The podcast will be available in the NPR One app and wherever podcasts are available.