Hello, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

I called up Maria Hinajosa last week, just a few days after she and her team at Futrudo Media had won one of the top journalism prizes in the world for a podcast series called Suave.

It's about a man named David Luis Gonzalez, who goes by Suave, who Maria first met more than 25 years ago.

Suave was incarcerated at 17 with a life sentence, and the series tells the story of how he got there, what happened when he got out in his 50s, and how Maria and Suave's relationship evolved over the years.

Maria was shocked by the Pulitzer.

Dude, I kind of love the fact that I didn't even know that the team had submitted for a Pulitzer.

So here I am in the middle of a meeting, actually, as per usual, trying to raise

money to do what we do. And I just, my phone starts blowing up. And I don't, I don't understand what's

going on. You know, I said to the person in the meeting, I said, please give me one moment. Something

is happening. And I don't know what.

I need to look at my phone.

And that's when, yeah, that's when I realized, and I just started screaming out of my mind.

I ran into my husband, he's like, what, what happened?

And I'm like, we want to apologize.

And it is the first time that a Latina-run media company is recognized by the Pulitzer's. I mean, by the way, I'm like in my Harlem neighborhood, people are stopping. They're like, congratulations. They're rolling down their car windows. They're like, we love you, money. I mean, it's just so beautiful. It's like a community win.

It's like this is a win for us.

And in celebration of this community win,

we're going to share our episode with Maria from 2020 with you again.

I've thought about this conversation so much in the two years since she and I spoke. A lot of what she talks about resonated, about loving your work fiercely, and how that can collide with nurturing the relationships in your life.

I think you'll find it a comforting and inspiring listen. Also, I do want to let you know that this episode includes a description of a rape.

It comes up at the start of the second half, if you want to skip.

I don't think you can be practicing self-love and being angry at everybody else.

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