This is Ira Glass of This American Life.

Each week on our show, we choose the theme, tell different stories on that theme.

All right, I'm just going to stop right there.

You're listening to an NPR podcast.

Chances are you know our show.

So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately.

Some big, epic emotional stories and some weird funny stuff too. Download us, this American

life. From NPR music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let

the Chisemes begin. And you know, Anna, before we get started with music, I think we need to say that

music does not exist in a vacuum.

And I think we need to take a couple of minutes to talk just a little bit about what's going on in the world.

It goes without saying that our community, Latinos at large, have been very much in the news lately.

Being seen in this country, understanding Latinos in this country, I think one of the

most effective ways to do that is to see our art, to hear our art, to hear the variety and the

diversity and the complexity of our expression and our experiences. It all lives in the music.

I'm really proud to say that Alt Latino has been doing this almost from the beginning.

Jasmine Garst and I, when she co-hosted the show, we did songs about immigration that told those stories.

So we have covered immigration and how it impacts the people that listen to the music, as well as the people that play the music.

I can say, Felix, I am really proud that we get to talk about all kinds of music from all

all across Latin America, the Spanish language world.

It's a really, really, really important moment, I think, to be doing that.

This week, we're going to take a look back at the last six months and pull out some of our

...