Following the launch of its Black Effect Podcast Network last year, iHeartMedia is now expanding efforts to reach the Hispanic community. The company is launching a new, standalone podcast venture called My Cultura that will be dedicated to elevating Latinx voices and creators and sharing the Latinx experience with millions of listeners.
My Cultura is being created in partnership with Enrique Santos, President and Chief Creative Officer of iHeartLatino and host of a nationally-syndicated Spanish-language morning show and the weekly English-language “On The Move with Enrique Santos.”
“Latinx creators drive our culture. And yet, even though almost 20% of the U.S. population is Latinx, this community of creators is still strikingly, consistently underrepresented across media,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of the iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. “As the biggest podcast network in the world, we at iHeart have a chance to course correct this incredible, exploding medium so that these voices are better represented and amplified,” he said in the announcement.
My Cultura will roll out six new shows at launch this summer and iHeart says it will release 30 podcasts during its first year. Content will span a variety of genres including pop culture, music, comedy, mental health, finance, and news and feature a mix of well-known and new voices, including Eva Longoria, Wilmer Valderrama, Rosario Dawson, stars of Red Table Talk: The Estefans – Gloria, Lili and Emily Estefan, Cobra Kai stars Xolo Maridueña and Jacob Bertrand, Amara La Negra, Chiquis, and Daniel Habif, among others.
“We could not be more excited for this launch and the entire company is behind it,” said Byrne. “This will be some of the strongest content we launch this year, period.”
The first My Cultura podcast will be a series hosted by actors Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eva Longoria called In the Heights: El Sueñito, which is described as “a celebration” of the film “In The Heights.” The limited-run podcast will launch June 2 with an in-depth conversation about the inspiration for the musical and how it went from the stage to the screen.
My Cultura will also include a slate of podcasts from Exile, a content studio that already produces content in both Spanish and English for television, film and audio. The first will be a podcast called El Flow that will take a historical look at the rise of Reggaeton.
In addition, the new network will kick off with season two of Santos’ own popular podcast Hola, My Name Is, which debuted last year and has featured conversations with guests including Gloria Estefan, J. Balvin and Dr. Anthony Fauci, in early 2021.
“iHeartMedia’s commitment to serving the needs of the Latin community throughout the nation is unparalleled and I’m honored by their continued commitment to our community,” said Santos in a statement. “This is why iHeartMedia and I are collaborating to build upon the current programming and to create the largest Latin focused podcast network that celebrates our culture, people and community.” Santos inked a new five-year contract with iHeartMedia last month.
All shows on the My Cultura podcast network will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network. State Farm has signed on as an inaugural sponsor of My Cultura.
Last year iHeartMedia teamed up with radio personality Charlamagne Tha God to create The Black Effect Podcast Network. It features an array of Black voices with content across a variety of genres and averages more than 20 million downloads per month to 27 podcasts. Now attention is turning to Hispanics.
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