Suave

Oct 15 2024 13 ep. 28 mins 3.5k

Suave Podcast artwork

Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting

The U.S is the only country in the world that allows minors to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Approximately 2,500 juveniles have been effectively sentenced to die in prison—considered “irredeemable” by the state for crimes committed when they were just teenagers. One of them was David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez, who entered prison at 17 expecting to leave in a coffin. Suave tells the story of what happens when your whole world is a prison cell, and you suddenly get a second chance at life. It’s the story of one man’s incarceration and redemption and an unusual relationship between a journalist and a source.

Society & Culture

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Introducing: Chess Piece: The Elián González Story

Oct 15 2024 32 mins

Here's a new series that we think you'll love: "Chess Piece: The Elián González Story," from Futuro Studios, in collaboration with iHeartRadio's My Cultura Podcast Network. In 1999, two Florida fishermen found a cherub of a boy named Elián González in the sea on Thanksgiving. The boy had floated alone for days. His mother managed to save her son’s life by strapping him to an

Suave Presents: Stars and Stars with Isa

Aug 22 2024 19 mins

Futuro Studios presents Stars and Stars with Isa in collaboration with Stitcher Studios. Each week our host and astrologer, Isa Nakazawa, sits down with some of the most talented stars and thinkers of our time, to find what their birth chart reveals about them and their purpose. You’ll laugh, you might cry, and you’ll definitely connect with your favorites. And who knows, maybe

Introducing: My Divo

Jul 01 2024 27 mins

Introducing "My Divo" For host Maria Garcia, Mexican megastar Juan Gabriel has always held a singular allure. He was a prolific composer and one of the world’s greatest showmen. There was a lightness and a bigness to him—a big queer exuberance. And now, as the first openly gay woman in her family line, Maria looks to Juan Gabriel as a key to reconcile her queerness with her Me

Suave Is Going On Tour

We're deep in production of season 2 of Suave, dropping on the feed this fall! We can't wait for you to listen. In the meantime, Suave is taking his story on the road. He is producing his own live show, "The Never Give Up Tour" and traveling the country. Join him for a night of storytelling, music, and special guests in a city near you this Summer. Click the link for tickets: https

Suave Presents: La Brega 2 — The Puerto Rican Experience in 8 Songs

Feb 02 2023 29 mins

Known as the island donde hasta la piedras cantan – “where even the rocks sing” – Puerto Rico is home to a dizzying breadth of musical expression. From the lyrical boleristas of the 1930s, to the electric salseros of the ’70s, to the reggaetoneros of today who have taken music from the margins and made it a global sensation, this season takes listeners on an exciting, ric

8. Suave Wins the Pulitzer!

May 11 2022 7 mins

It's been a year since we released Suave into the world, and so much has happened. Including some really, really big news: this week our podcast won the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting. We bring you a special recording of Maria Hinojosa and Luis "Suave" Gonzalez reflecting on what this means for them, and for criminal justice reform.

7. The Reckoning

Mar 15 2021 29 mins

“There's no winners in this. You’re a victim so you victimize other people because you’re hurt. It's a circle and it goes on and on.” Suave reckons with the last three decades of his life and begins to deal with the traumas of his childhood and incarceration that he’s long buried. Maria and Maggie discuss how the Supreme Court decision has played out differently across

6. The Corner

Mar 08 2021 35 mins

“That little place right here changed my whole life. December 6, 1986. 15 seconds. 15 seconds changed my whole life.” Suave has been cleared from all accusations and is free once again. He returns with Maria to the corner of 8th and Somerset in the Badlands—the place where his victim’s young life ended and the place that changed the course of Suave’s life. And Suave rev

5. The Doubts

Mar 01 2021 36 mins

“Doesn’t matter if you doing good, if you got a job, it doesn't matter—it could be snatched up in a heartbeat and there's nothing you could do about it.” Suave returns to prison and goes silent for weeks. Maria tries to figure out why and finds herself torn between her faith in Suave’s innocence and her responsibility to believe his accuser. Suave finds it impossible to

4. The Release

Feb 22 2021 43 mins

“I never dreamed that it would be this good. Even the worst day that I have is good. I'm going up… and I know everything that goes up must come down.” Suave kicks off his first day of freedom by checking things off his bucket list, including a long overdue conversation with his brother and an apology to students at a school in his old neighborhood in the Badlands. We follow