We’re discussing the Oscar nominations this week with our good friend Wilson Morales from Blackfilm.com. We will get to the deeper meaning of how these nominations are influencing our society, and of course, do some predictions on who will win.

Also, the New York Times wrote an article this week called “After #OscarsSoWhite, Hispanics Seek Their Hollywood Moment”. It makes the point that Hispanic actors are in dire need for some needed on-screen inclusion in Hollywood. I talk Brooks Barnes, the media and entertainment reporter who wrote the article about what led him to write the piece and what solutions he can impart after one year of working on it. 

And finally, the 60th Annual Grammy Awards are Sunday the 28th and Matt Fish, a hip-hop connoisseur will help me make sense of how hip hop and Latino music owned 2017, and what it will it mean for the mainstream music industry if the mostly Spanish-language song DESPACITO wins Record or Song of the Year?

That plus music suggestions for your playlist and the latest news and in US Latino and mainstream pop culture. Keep your headphones on, this is the Highly Relevant podcast!

EPISODE SUMMARY

Wilson Morales on Oscar nominations and diversity impact - 1:34

JackedIN (recap of pop culture stories) - 15:29

Brooks Barnes of the New York Times discusses his article “After #OscarsSoWhite, Hispanics Seek Their Hollywood Moment” - 17:23

Weekend playlist: 34:58

Dont’ Make Me Wait - Sting (feat. Shaggy)

Imagem - Mahmundi 

Sunshine - Kyle (feat. Miguel)

Matt Fish from The Hip-Hop Classics Podcast - 46:27

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We’re starting 2018 off on the right foot with perhaps the most influential people in animation with Pixar's COCO director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson who join us straight from their Golden Globe win and the first Golden Globe award for a Latino-themed animated film. We discuss why it took so long for Pixar to make a Latino film and if its financial and award acclaim will spawn off more multicultural animated films. Also, we’re in the thick of awards season and who better to talk to about movie awards than Clayton Davis from AwardsCircuit.com, arguably the most tapped in film journalist in the business right now. He was just at the Critics Choice Awards and I’ll ask him how these wins will shape the Best Picture of the Year race at the Oscars. And I stopped by the TODAY show with Hoda and Kathie Lee to give you a taste of 2018’s Best Movies and TV shows to watch out for this year that aren’t Black Panther or Avengers Infiniti War.

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This is our last episode of 2017. We want to thank you for listening throughout the year and we're looking forward to another great run in 2018. On this final show, we talk to Vanessa Vazquez from Hulu's "East Los High". She discusses saying good bye to a show she was a part of for 5 seasons, why it never made it to cable or broadcast, and what Latinos need to do to get more US Latino shows on the air. Hint... just do it!

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Two huge stories that are the talk of the nation this week. First is Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We talk to Adam Garcia (3:45), producer for Yahoo! Entertainment who lives and breathes Star Wars. Then we’ll get to our movie segment FIRST REACTION where we give you our first reaction of the movie, inside the theater with the credits rolling, with film critic Mike Sargent (17:00) from WBAI radio and seen on FOX News. 

Then we tackle Giancarlo Stanton (25:09), baseball's freshly minted NL MVP, being traded to the Yankees to create a potential World Series dynasty for the foreseeable future next to Aaron Judge. We talk to ESPN's Cristian Moreno from Miami about the Latin city's perspective on the deal.

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Crooner Luis Miguel has a new album out titled "!Mexico! Por Siempre" and we get a sneak peak at what it sounds like. Also, the Golden Globe Award nominations are coming up this Monday, Dec 11th on NBC. Our host Jack Rico will be on Megyn Kelly Today on Monday at 9am to discuss the surprises and snubs, but in this episode, we're honored to have as guest, an institution in the world of film criticism, Jeffrey Lyons, who breaks down what movies he thinks have a show at Best Picture and some under the radar films which you should see anyway. 

And we had a chance to go to Broadway this week and caught SpongeBob SquarePants the musical. We know you’re not going to believe this, but we think SpongeBob SquarePants is the best new musical on Broadway. It’s a bit genius. Stick around and we’ll explain in detail why we think it's so good.

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We get to the nitty gritty of how the firing of Matt Lauer will affect the TODAY show moving forward. Who will replace him? Will it be a woman, a person of color? Al Tompkins (5:44) a senior faculty and journalist at the Poynter Institute of Journalism, who’s been in the business for close to 45 years, comes on the show and gives us his choice to replace Matt Lauer. Then… the new Avengers Infiniti War trailer premiered this week and Adam Garcia (19:18), producer over at Yahoo Entertainment! and a good friend of mine, joins me to breakdown why this new movie will be the epic of epics and why DC is on the verge of collapse. And as usual, our recap of the most highly relevant stories of the week (17:30) and our music recommendations for your weekend playlist (40:16) (Si Alguien La Ve - GioBulla // Baby, You Make Me Crazy - Sam Smith // Ella - Alan Rosales, Chel Maya)

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Happy Thanksgiving! On this episode, we chat with Adrian Molina (2:34), he is the first Latino director of a Pixar and is the co-director of Pixar’s new movie Coco that is currently in theaters right now. We discuss why Coco is not a Mexican film for Mexicans and why it really is a film for everyone.

Also we chat with Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Arriaga (18:13), he is known for writing some of the best Latino movies this century such as Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel. Well, he’s now sharing all his knowledge on screenwriting and directing in a new seminar in Los Angeles. He’ll tell us what you can expect from this immersive workshop. 

And finally we chat with Aimee Garcia (34:47), known for her role as Ella Lopez in FOX’s Lucifer. She discusses with me Season 3 of the show, plus reveals the time she got mugged as well as hanging out with Eva Longoria, Gina Rodriguez and others Latin actresses who are also affectionately called - the "Latina Mafia".

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We talk Latin Grammy Awards with music journalist Isabela Raygoza from Rolling Stone Magazine. We break down the top categories, the possible upsets, what to expect from the telecast and why some of your favorite stars weren’t nominated.

Also, I review one of the most anticipated movies of the year, DC’s Justice League, with two film critic friends of mine - Julian Roman from MovieWeb.com and Emerson Unger from NY’s K104.7 - as we give our FIRST REACTION as we leave a private advanced screening in NY’s WB screening room. You won’t want to miss that…

And speaking of film critics, Gil Robertson, President of the African-American Film Critics Association joins the show to discuss the future of multicultural film and tv criticism with a new venture his launching called Kaleidoscope Reviews, where he looks to raise awareness of the importance of having African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian and Native American film critics in Hollywood.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Isabela Raygoza on the Latin artists you need to know about at the Latin Grammys - 1:27

JackedIN (recap of pop culture stories) - 33:55

Justice League movie review with film critics Julian Roman and Emerson Unger - 36:52

Weekend playlist: 45:20

Palabras Manuales - Danay Suarez 

High - Rawayana (feat. Apache)

743 - Miranda

Gil Robertson, President of the African-American Film Critics Association discusses Kaleidoscope Reviews - 46:27

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The new Vanity Fair December issue is out and two Latinos are on the cover - Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, also now known as J-ROD. I talk to the Bethany Mclean, the writer who spent several days with them to do the cover story and we discussed everything from why Latinos are rarely on the cover of Vanity Fair, the how to of her writing process and how she discovered the trait that bonds them together. 

And if you’re ever in Los Angeles, South Gate to be exact, and you’re looking to eat healthy food, you might wanna give Eatgud a shot. It’s the vision of a Latino couple, Walter Perez and his wife Briggitte (19:19), him a Hollywood actor from The Avengers and her a business woman, who recently had a child, and at the cost of their life savings they wanted to improve the health of their Latino community and make-a-go of it as small business entrepreneurs.

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On this week’s episode, we talk to Hispanic actress Stephanie Beatriz (3:00) from FOX’s Brooklyn-Nine-Nine who has a new movie out titled Light of the Moon, where she plays the victim of sexual assault. We get down to the nitty gritty of her thoughts of rape on film and her take on Hollywood’s sexual assault culture… also, we discuss in-depth the Eduardo Yanez and Paco Fuentes debacle… Arthur Kade (19:00), the pre-eminent red carpet reporter in Hollywood hops on the show to discuss his perspective on the culture of red carpet reporting today, how to conduct interview with celebrities when they become news headlines, and that awkward Jim Carrey red carpet interview that everyone is still talking about. Did the reporter handle it right? Plus I review George Clooney's new film Suburbicon starring Matt Damon with friends Neil Rosen, Bill McCuddy and Bill Bregoli on their podcast Sitting Around Talking Pictures.

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