A Teen Musician Is Ready For His Solo. His Mom Is Not.

Death, Sex & Money

Slate Podcasts

Business, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Careers, Relationships, Sexuality

4.6 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Miguel Llapa's mother was told her son wouldn't live past age 2 because of a health condition. Now, he's going to college — and yearns for independence on his own terms.

Support Death, Sex & Money today at deathsexmoney.org/donate.

Check out our Game Changer series conversation with BMX rider Chelsea Wolfe here.

If you're new here, check out our starter kit of some of our favorite episodes. And subscribe to our weekly email newsletter! Every Wednesday we send out podcast listening recommendations, fascinating letters from our inbox and updates from the show. Sign up at deathsexmoney.org.

Follow the show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Got a story to share? Email us any time at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I will have to figure this out for myself.
0:02.6	And either if I hurt myself, I don't hurt myself.
0:06.0	It's up to me to really figure out.
0:08.6	Because I feel like I'm at the age where I just want to
0:12.0	explore things, you know, just check out how far I can really go, you know?
0:20.0	This is Death, Sex, and Money.
0:24.0	The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot.
0:29.0	And need to talk about more.
0:32.0	I'm Anna Cere.
0:41.0	Miguel Yapa is 18 and just finished his senior year at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts,
0:47.0	a public high school in Queens, New York.
0:49.0	But Miguel was not in that building much in the last year because of the pandemic.
0:54.0	He spent most of his time in his bedroom in Harlem, where I reached him over Zoom.
0:58.0	And behind me, I have my drum set, my snare drum, along with my practice pad,
1:04.0	and then some timballas over to my left with my dirty clothes.
1:10.0	And, oh, and then my Marimba is downstairs.
1:19.0	Miguel is a percussionist and the Marimba is his favorite.
1:22.0	This is him playing at a recent recital.
1:24.0	He says he loves the warm sound.
1:27.0	The Marimba is a six and a half foot wide instrument,
1:30.0	kind of like a giant xylophone with resonator pipes underneath,
1:34.0	that he plays with four mallets.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.