She Did It: The Podcaster
Silvia Viñas, executive producer and host of El Hilo podcast.
Silvia Viñas pulled a thread and co-founded an innovative podcast that dives deep into the “how” and “why” of news in Latin America. Today “El Hilo” resonates with Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. eager to understand what’s happening in their world
Editor’s Note: This is the first in the series “She Did It” -- profiles of Latina journalists on the leading edge of innovation and change, and whose work is raising the bar in the media.
Silvia Viñas is an investigative journalist who found, in mid-career, that her true passion is working with audio. She built a successful career after working as a freelancer and becoming an intern at the Radio Ambulante podcast 10 years ago. Since 2016, Radio Ambulante has been distributed weekly by National Public Radio. The show was a first for NPR: an all-Spanish podcast dedicated to long-form storytelling.
The success of Radio Ambulante pushed Viñas to realize a dream. She co-founded El Hilo, and became its co-host and executive producer. She knew that podcasting was the perfect vehicle for the kind of comprehensive storytelling she had wanted to do. And podcasting in Spanish gave her an opportunity to feel closer to home: She has lived in Chile, Uruguay and other Latin American countries. She’s also lived in the U.S. where she saw a need for deep dives, in Spanish, into what’s happening in Latin America.
The idea clicked. Her show, El Hilo -- The Thread -- brings to life what she describes as a long Twitter thread, with generous amounts of detail and color to illustrate an event or an issue for podcast listeners.
Viñas is currently based in the United Kingdom.
From intern to co-founder and co-host
From her home in England, Silvia Viñas shared with Andrea Arzaba for palabra her memories of what it was like to build an information bridge between the U.S. Latinos and important news events in Latin America, and of emerging as a role model for Latinas in independent media.
palabra: Tell us what it was like to start the podcast, El Hilo, from scratch.
Viñas: I had never started a whole new podcast. I actually joined Radio Ambulante as an intern, when it was already broadcasting. So I had never seen that side of the business. I learned that a podcast is so much more than what you hear when you click play. There are so many steps you need to take before that. And I was very lucky to be working with Carolina Guerrero, who had already had the experience of launching Radio Ambulante, and with Laura Rojas Aponte, who also had experience launching her own podcast. And so we came up with a list of like 50 things that we had to do before launching a podcast. Things like, you know, coming up with a name, getting a URL...all those little things, we put them on a list and with a deadline. That way we measured progress.
There was a lot of product development as well; we looked at the podcast as a product. We had to define our audience. And then there was the editorial side, defining how we wanted to sound. Also answering questions like: are we going to have one or two segments? Are we going to have one or two hosts? What are the dynamics of the hosts on air? We also piloted episodes because we wanted to see what it would be like to produce an episode in four or five days. So we tested our workflow. We piloted around 10 episodes. And from that, for example, we changed our editorial meetings from Fridays to Thursdays. We tweaked certain things. That was a very useful exercise.
palabra: Other than piloting episodes, was there anything else that helped you before you launched El Hilo?
Viñas: Yes! We asked our colleagues, and friends, to listen to those episodes and give us feedback. And then we had a session with them to get comments. That was super useful. We had a lot of help from them throughout the whole process, which was amazing.
palabra: And what would you say is your goal with each episode of El Hilo?
Viñas: So El Hilo is like a thread on Twitter. We are going on a dive deep. So what we want with each episode is to give you context of a story. We invite you to a deeper conversation or a deeper understanding about what's happening in Latin America. We want our listeners to come out every week having learned something new. A couple weeks ago, when we did this episode about the Russian vaccine, a listener told us he knew very little about the Sputnik vaccine, and now he considered himself “very informed”. I thought that was amazing. And that's our goal.
I felt very lucky to work with women that are very understanding of other women and that prop up women… . The fact that they put me as the executive producer and co-host of El Hilo is an example of that. I started as an intern. That is part of the culture… . It's very inspiring.
We consider ourselves bridge creators. For example, we create a bridge between the U.S. and Latin America every time our audience listens to our episodes. In the U.S., many of our listeners miss the region, and listening to our episodes makes them feel closer to their countries. You know, when you're in the U.S., you have friends from a lot of places in Latin America. So it's like you get to know your friend's countries better as well. The region is so varied and rich, but we have a lot of things in common, and that that's what makes a good story. A situation that, even though if it happened in Colombia, someone from Argentina or from Mexico is going to feel like they can connect to the person that's telling the story.
palabra: Can you talk more about your audience?
Viñas: We imagined our audience would be similar to us: educated, young professionals, interested in the news, in Latin America, and looking for a show that will do a deep dive into the news. So we came up with profiles of who we thought, you know, these people would be. Since we've only been on air a year, we haven't done surveys yet. We have some data like around 75% of our listeners are ages 18 to 34. We have a young audience and 59% that are women. The top four countries are the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Peru.
Screenshot of a meeting of the El Hilo podcast team: (Upper left to right) Mariana Zúñiga, Silvia Viñas, Daniela Cruzat, Desirée Yépez, Eliezer Budasoff, Daniel Alarcón, Inés Rénique, Carolina Guerrero.
palabra: What has been your experience as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry?
Viñas: I've been lucky to work in media organizations led by women who have been extremely supportive. Unfortunately, in a few instances, I've had to deal with male coworkers who have undermined my work. Also, as many female journalists, I've had to sit on panels at conferences where I'm the only woman or where men monopolize the conversation. Having female colleagues I trust that understand those situations has been key in getting over those uncomfortable moments.
palabra: Silvia, you are an outstanding professional and also a mother of two. How has your experience as a mother shaped your work as a journalist?
Viñas: This is kind of a funny story. When I joined Radio Ambulante, I was about to have my second child when they were looking for interns, but I thought, “I'm just going to apply.” And so they gave us some tests, to new potential hires. And for I think the second one, I told the manager “okay, I can hand it in, but next week because this week I have my scheduled c section to have my baby,” and she was like, What? I thought well if they can't hire me because I'm about to have a baby then, whatever. I'm just gonna try and see what happens. The managers were both moms, Camila and Carolina. They were very supportive. And they waited for me. It was an intern role so nothing very high up, but that was amazing.
palabra: That’s so important. How have you managed to have a work-life balance?
Viñas: So I went to this workshop at the Poynter Institute in the US, for women leaders in journalism and I heard something I will never forget. The speaker said that a “work-life” balance does not exist. Sometimes it's just impossible to keep a balance, it's always going to go one way or the other. Then she talked about chemistry, “life-work chemistry.” Seeing life like a chemical equation -- you know, you have a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and that it adds up to your life -- has helped: knowing what time is for work, what time is for family. Also having a very supportive family has been very helpful.
I've been able to work from home all the time, even before the pandemic. And that has been key. Because I've been able to move my schedule around, if I have to get up early or work late, it's not a problem. I tried to make the most out of the time that my kids were in school, and usually, you know, have a break when they get home to be with them, and make dinner and all that and then keep working. It's something that I take very seriously. I don't want to get burned out or have my colleagues in my team be burned out. So it's something that I'm open about as well with them. Especially now, I think with a pandemic, we have to be more open and willing to tell each other you know, what, I need a break.
Seeing life like a chemical equation -- you know, you have a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and that it adds up to your life -- has helped.
Hopefully one of the positive things that comes out of the pandemic is that we feel comfortable to be transparent at work. Because when we're burnt out, it's impossible to work properly.
palabra: Do you have any hobbies? What keeps you sane during the pandemic?
Viñas: I love running. I want to someday run a marathon. I was going to do that last year, but then the pandemic happened. And this year, I think it's already too late because my training was not the best during the last year, but I've kept doing it and it has helped me kind of to stay sane. You know, it's my time to be alone. I also love reading. And spending time with my family, always. It's been amazing to have more time with the kids to play more to do more things together. So I hope those are activities that remain as things start going back to normal or whatever the new normal is going to be.
palabra: What is your day-to-day like at El Hilo?
Viñas: Usually our busiest days are Mondays and Tuesdays. On Monday we're putting the episode together. And that means listening to the interviews again, cutting them, selecting the best tape, and writing the script. On Tuesday, we edit. So I'm responsible for making sure that the episode is in its best possible form before our edits. Because we want that edit to be the final one, before we pass it on to our sound designer. And then the other days, I am managing the editorial calendar, working on stories, seeing what my producers are working on. We're preparing other episodes, researching other episodes. And when I have time, I do things like improve our website, strategize about how to get more listeners or engage our own listeners.
palabra: Tell us a little bit more about your career. Where did you work previously?
Viñas: When I graduated from university, I started freelancing. I had a degree in Literature. And I wanted to be a journalist. So I freelanced for whoever would take me, anyone who would accept my pitches. That is when I found out about Global Voices. I saw that they were looking for volunteers to write about Chile. I have various connections to the country. I am married to a Chilean and I lived in Chile for many years. So they picked me and I started writing for them. And six months later they asked me if I was interested in being the Latin America editor. I applied and I got the job. And I was an editor until 2014. Later I applied to Radio Ambulante as an intern, since I had no audio experience. So I did both for about a year.
I loved working with audio because it gave me the chance to do more long-form journalism, which I wasn't able to do before. I think a lot of journalists dream of doing long-form pieces and being able to, you know, research something and report on it for months. That really appealed to me, I felt like I was ready to do something different. I was a big fan of This American Life. With Radio Ambulante I thought, finally someone is doing this in Spanish. I also kept writing freelance here and there for some things like the Columbia Journalism Review and the New York Times en español, when it existed.
And then we thought about creating a show like El Hilo. I got excited because I had, again, been an editor and producer for a while. I needed to challenge myself and do something different. And so we started crafting this “newsy podcast.”
palabra: You studied Spanish Literature for your BA, but what about your MA?
Viñas: I got a master's in investigative journalism. It was an area that I really, really liked. And actually, one of the ideas that we had at Radio Ambulante was for a more investigative podcast. And so I really wanted to get a Master’s that would teach me practical skills, because I had already been practicing journalism for years. And so I thought, you know, if I'm going to invest in this, it has to be something that will not reiterate what I'm doing. It was very useful. I learned a lot. So I'm glad I did it.
palabra: What are your plans for the future?
Viñas: My main focus right now is El Hilo. I haven't thought about what will happen after because we just started the project. So my goal now is to make sure that we're putting out quality content. We want to grow our audience and just be able to produce content that is engaging, that listeners want to go back to every week. And I want to be able to do more ambitious stories as well, as we become more and more comfortable with our workflow.
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Andrea Arzaba is a journalist based in Washington D.C. She holds a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University. She’s reported from throughout the United States and Latin America for Transparency International, Proceso, Animal Politico and 100Reporters.