When Alana Casanova-Burgess set out to make a podcast series about Puerto Rico, she struggled with what to call it. Until one word came to mind, a word that captures a certain essence of life in Puerto Rico, but eludes easy translation into English. We talk to Alana about her series, and that particular word, then turn to an old story about treating words as signals of something happening just beneath the surface.
Agatha Christie's clever detective novels may reveal more about the inner workings of the human mind than she intended. According to Dr. Ian Lancashire at the University of Toronto, the Queen of Crime left behind hidden clues to the real-life mysteries of human aging in her writing. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelvin Lim and Dr. Serguei Pakhomov from the University of Minnesota add to the intrigue with the story of an unexpected find in a convent archive that could someday help pinpoint very early warning signs for Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Sister Alberta Sheridan, a 94-year-old Nun Study participant, reads an essay she wrote more than 70 years ago.
La Brega update was produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez
Duration
24m
Broadcast on
17 Dec 2021
Audio Format
other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
When Alana Casanova-Burgess set out to make a podcast series about Puerto Rico, she struggled with what to call it. Until one word came to mind, a word that captures a certain essence of life in Puerto Rico, but eludes easy translation into English. We talk to Alana about her series, and that particular word, then turn to an old story about treating words as signals of something happening just beneath the surface.
Agatha Christie's clever detective novels may reveal more about the inner workings of the human mind than she intended. According to Dr. Ian Lancashire at the University of Toronto, the Queen of Crime left behind hidden clues to the real-life mysteries of human aging in her writing. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelvin Lim and Dr. Serguei Pakhomov from the University of Minnesota add to the intrigue with the story of an unexpected find in a convent archive that could someday help pinpoint very early warning signs for Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Sister Alberta Sheridan, a 94-year-old Nun Study participant, reads an essay she wrote more than 70 years ago.
La Brega update was produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
RIDILEB is supported by AT&T. We all love to connect via video calls or texts. Right now, at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone trade-in. Any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Learn how you can trade in your iPhone for the new iPhone 18 Pro requires trade-in of iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E, an eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply, subject to change, visit an AT&T store for details. Hey, I'm Lulu Miller. This is RadioLab, and before we get to the show, I want to introduce you to someone. As I'm now obsessed with your work. Oh, goodness. This is Alana Casanova Burgess. She's another reporter here at WNYC, and earlier this year, she released a new show. Yeah, a history podcast about Puerto Rican life, wherever that takes place. And the reason she's here is because, well, honestly, I just wanted you to know about the show. I have a hunch you like podcasts, and this one is beautifully sound designed. It is full of stories with all kinds of plot twists and really interesting people. But I also wanted to take just a couple of minutes to talk to her about this very interesting and kind of maddening choice she made, which is what she named the show. Okay, so before you say what it is, were there any runner-up names? I think the worst one is this Puerto Rican life. Super bad, man. It's pretty bad. And here's another, desalogo, which means relief or venting, because "algad" means to drown. And so when you say to your friend, like, "Oh, can I just have a desalogo?" Or, like, "Can I just vent really quick?" It means, like, undrowning. Oh, that's good. Turns out they had a long list. Territorial or territorial? Ala de riva. A drift. In Sulad. Like having to do with an island. Dostón. They're delicious, plantain. That's the sweet one, right? I think you're thinking of Maduros. Really clever name, Adias. Aki. Like we are here. homeland. La Isla. And what they finally settled on was labrega. Now, I can't tell you what that means, because there's no perfect English translation for this word that Puerto Ricans use all the time.
Transcription truncated.
When Alana Casanova-Burgess set out to make a podcast series about Puerto Rico, she struggled with what to call it. Until one word came to mind, a word that captures a certain essence of life in Puerto Rico, but eludes easy translation into English. We talk to Alana about her series, and that particular word, then turn to an old story about treating words as signals of something happening just beneath the surface.
Agatha Christie's clever detective novels may reveal more about the inner workings of the human mind than she intended. According to Dr. Ian Lancashire at the University of Toronto, the Queen of Crime left behind hidden clues to the real-life mysteries of human aging in her writing. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelvin Lim and Dr. Serguei Pakhomov from the University of Minnesota add to the intrigue with the story of an unexpected find in a convent archive that could someday help pinpoint very early warning signs for Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Sister Alberta Sheridan, a 94-year-old Nun Study participant, reads an essay she wrote more than 70 years ago.
La Brega update was produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez
