Fluent AF

What if Artificial Intelligence doesn't destroy humanity, what if it reveals us?

Our brilliance. Our laziness. Our tenderness. Our greed. And our willingness to hand over the very things that make us human.

In this 10 minute episode, I follow a thread from fire to WALL-E, from Yuval Noah Harari to linguist Emily H. Bender, and from personalized AI tutors to nuclear war.

As an educator, translator, writer and someone who isn't opposed to those using AI to organize their brains, I'm not interested in fighting the bots. I'm interested in figuring out what humans should never hand over.

Can a machine produce language without understanding it? Can it imitate intimacy? Could AI transform medicine, education, farming, and disaster response-or are we teaching something how to live without us?

This isn't an argument for AI. And it isn't an argument against it.

It's an argument for paying attention.

I'm not asking for consensus. I'm asking for conversation.

Are we becoming one with the bots? And if we are, what part of us should never become machines?

Listen before the future answers for us.

What happens when something interrupts everything we think divides us?

We spend so much time hearing about how divided we are; politically, culturally, religiously, linguistically. Then the ground moves. Someone needs help. And suddenly. nobody cares who you voted for or what language you speak.

After witnessing the aftermath of the Colombia earthquake that happened on August 12, 2026, I came home thinking less about the earthquake itself and more about what happened around it: People checking on each other, strangers connecting, laughter returning, and life carrying on.

In Episode 39 of Fluent AF, we're talking about joy, solidarity, fear, language, and the quiet ways humanity continues to show its face-even when the world feels determined to convince us otherwise.

Because maybe compassion is a language. Maybe humor is. Maybe grief is. Maybe reaching for another person is.

Division is loud. Humanity is usually quieter. But it's still there. And maybe the most important language we speak is one nobody ever had to teach us.

How much of being human actually needs translation?

Before the world taught us how to behave, love, communicate, spend money, argue, celebrate, grieve or even what “normal” was, our families did.

In this episode of Fluent AF, we’re talking about the culture before culture: home.

From immigrant-family chaos and showing love through errands, food, and acts of service, to the things we thought every family did until we grew up and realized… oh. Apparently not. 

Because your first language isn’t just the one you speak. It’s also the way you learned to love, survive, communicate, and understand the world.

And then adulthood happens, and you get to decide what you keep, what you question, and what you unlearn.

Your first school was home. What did yours teach you?

Episode 38: Our First School Is Our Home

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What if life is less about CASUAlidades and more about CAUSAlidades.

Years before Tony and I ever spoke, we found ourselves in the same room at a roller derby party in Bogotá. Same night. Same place. Different lives. We never met. Years later, we got married.

In this episode of Fluent AF, we explore the difference between casualidad (coincidence) and causalidad (cause and effect), why language shapes the way we recognize people, and how the smallest, most ordinary moments often become the biggest turning points in hindsight.

Because maybe the people who will change your life are already closer than you think.

Maybe you’ve already shared a room with them.

You just haven’t met… yet.

Available wherever you listen

Before anyone speaks, a room has already said something.

Every color carries meaning. Every space influences behavior. Every building tells a story.

From hospitals and classrooms to luxury boutiques, fast-food restaurants, and the homes we return to every day, design quietly shapes how we think, feel, and connect.

In this episode, we explore the hidden language of color psychology, environmental design, and the messages embedded in the spaces we inhabit. Along the way, we ask a bigger question:

If language shapes reality...

what happens when language isn't spoken at all?

Because maybe communication doesn't begin with words.

Maybe it begins the moment we walk through the door.

In Episode 35 of Fluent AF, we ask a question almost everyone has asked after hearing a voice note, video, or recording:

Why do I hate the sound of my own voice?

From bone conduction and brain science to identity, storytelling, folklore, and the strange power of hearing ourselves from the outside, this episode explores why our own voice can feel so unfamiliar.

Because maybe the voice in your head was never the voice the world heard.

Episode 35 out now.

Spotify • Apple • YouTube

#language #voice# #folklore #sound #FluentAFPodcast

Can you become multilingual without moving abroad?

Most people think language learning requires talent, perfect grammar, or years of living overseas.

It doesn’t.

In this episode of Fluent AF, language educator and polyglot Magui Jiménez joins Priscilla Tovar to unpack some of the biggest myths about becoming multilingual and why discipline matters far more than talent.

Together, we explore:

Why some people succeed at language learning and others quit.

Whether multilingual people are actually smarter.

How language creates access to friendships, careers, travel, and opportunities.

What fluency really looks like in the real world.

Because becoming multilingual isn’t about sounding perfect. It’s about showing up consistently.

Listen now.

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#language #learning #Polyglot #Spanish # #Culture #Travel #FluentAFPodcast

Why do humans give power to objects?

Form evil eye bracelets and Italian horns to rabbit's feet, rosaries, lucky socks, and candles lit in complete silence, every culture has created objects that mean far more than the object itself.

In this episode of Fluent AF, we explore the strange, beautiful ways human attach meanings to things. Why do we keep lucky charms? Why do certain objects instantly transport us back to childhood, home, and the people who raised us?

On top of that, we dive into inherited rituals from listeners around the world, from throwing baby teeth onto rooftops for prosperity to egg cleanses for the evil eye, Virgen de Guadalupe candles, and traditions that turn ordinary objects into symbols of protection, hope, and belonging.

Because maybe objects aren't just things.

Maybe they're memory.

Maybe they're identity.

Maybe they're one of humanity's oldest languages.

Welcome to Fluent AF.

Episode 33 out now.

Before language became content, it was survival. Literally!

Episode 32 of Fluent goes back to the source: firelight, foraging, naming, memory, and the first sounds humans used to make sense of the world around them.

Form ancient plant knowledge to the hidden power of grammar, this episode explores how language didn't just help us communicate, it helped us survive, connect, and become human.

Because maybe the first word wasn't about power. Maybe it was about care.

Today on Fluent AF, I'm joined by writer, storyteller, artist, and the creator behind Florida Folk History, Aubrey Brown, for our longest conversation to date.

We talk about seven generations of Florida, The Keys, Homestead, and the stories that survive us long after we're gone.

From Seminole sympathizers and "El Farito" lighthouse keeper, to generational memory, forgotten histories, and the reality that most people are forgotten within two generations, this episode explores what it means to belong to a place and what happens when its stories disappear.

This isn't just a conversation about Florida

it's a conversation about memory itself.