Never The Empty Nest

Jennifer Lucio Vargas, founder of 305 Communications and Events, a Global live and virtual events company, talks to the nest about working for U.S. presidents, and what it was like to start her company. She talks to Vanessa and Nicole about moving back home and taking care of her parents, about the storm that came with losing them and the strength they left in her that will never leave – their mark. If this episode were an emoji it would be an arm flex right next to a giant heart. 

Without the Jewish Deli, we’d be a nation without Pastrami on Rye and Matzo Ball Soup. But, it’s so much more than that. It’s the stories carried across generations and exile, which the Deli slices, pickles, and serves, that are so important. So what happens when the Deli, as an institution, starts to die? Author David Sax tells us what’s at stake in a book he wrote around 15 years ago, but which the nest is revisiting because of a project Vanessa has embarked on with her company, Abre Camino Collective.

Our nests are not just our immediate family, they are also our extended families. Our doctors, our friends, our priests and spiritual guides, our counselors, our aunts and uncles, our honorary aunts and uncles, our teachers, our mentors. On this episode of nest, we cast the nest’s net to faith and the community it catches, as a result. 

Emiliana was a high-powered, fast-paced woman on the rise in journalism. She’d reached one of the pinnacles of media coverage: she was covering the White House. When something shook her nest from the very roots, Emiliana had a kind of awakening. Today, she seeks truth, joy, and is trying to bring her awakening to the nest of journalism itself.

The nest welcomes one of country music’s rising stars, Orlando Mendez. Also known as The Cuban Cowboy, Orlando hails from Miami and talks to us about migrating his nest to Nashville, missing family, and staying true to his roots as he routes his way across America, guitar in hand, guajiro soul in tow! 

Life doesn’t always go as planned, and neither do episodes. Sometimes though, it’s even better. We end season 5 with a kind of hash brown platter. We think it’s crispy and yummy and reinvigorating — hope you do too! Our nest is filled with love, from our nest to yours. 

When her dad had a health scare, Andrea moved in with him. Her friends told her she was crazy, that she was wasting her life, even some of her family members thought she’d lost it, but Andrea has another point of view. These days with her dad have their ups and downs, some are magical, some much grittier and grumpier than others, but, overall, it just feels “right,” and enlightening. Andrea’s also asking herself whether we don’t have it all wrong when it comes to how we care for the elderly in our society. We explore the ins and outs of what it means to go back to the nest to care of papa bird. 

Vanessa’s business partner in her production company, Victoria Collado - aka: Vicky - is pushing 35 and she hasn’t found the right guy yet. Ideally, in her book, she finds the right guy and then has a baby with him, but what if the egg comes before the chicken? Vicky’s got a sense of humor about it, but in all seriousness, what she’s dealing with is something many successful women deal with. Our bodies have clocks, and we have to make decisions around them… So what to do? Vicky discusses with the nest. 

Jenny Torres Sanchez is a Young Adult and Children’s Book author. The Nest talks with Jenny about a few of her books, particularly her Young Adult story We Are Not From Here, which is about the escape of unaccompanied youth from Guatemala on a train called La Bestia. She talks about where the impetus for the story came from, the research she did, and why she wrote the book. She talks about the real life Bestia, that beast of a train that takes and saves so many; about border crossings, about dire straits and about hope. 

Niko’s at the point where the kids are in school now, and she’s been working and writing music, but not full time, and now she’s wondering who the heck she is, what she really wants, and really what she’s always reaaaallly wanted. Midlife crisis? Or is it: midlife experience? It’s funny because this season has been a lot about female authors and Vanessa argues that if 20th century’s lit was fueled by the male midlife crisis, then the 21st is really fueled by the female midlife experience. This is our mid-beat of the season, it’s all connected!