The Team
Martina Castro
Founder & CEO
Los Angeles, USA
Martina Castro
Founder & CEO • Los Angeles, USA
Over the past fifteen years, Martina has produced and edited award-winning audio content in both the U.S. and Latin America. Before launching Adonde Media in 2017, she worked at NPR, KALW-FM in San Francisco, CA, and NPR’s Radio Ambulante, a Spanish-language narrative journalism podcast she co-founded in 2011. She has given numerous workshops and talks on the art of narrative radio storytelling and emerging podcast markets with organizations such as the Third Coast International Audio Festival, the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, UnionDocs, Prix Italia, Podcast Movement, and more. She also taught a university course on audio storytelling through a 2015 Fulbright grant in her family’s native Uruguay.
Martina launched Adonde Media at Start-Up Chile’s S Factory program, a pre-seed accelerator for female founders in Santiago, Chile. Since then, she has led multilingual and multinational production teams as Executive Producer on all of Adonde’s projects. Martina is now based in Los Angeles, California and proudly serves on the advisory boards of the Werk It Women’s Podcasting conference, Lantigua Williams & Co, and the Jordan-based Arabic podcast production company, Sowt. She is also a mentor in the Google/PRX Creator program.
Gonzalo Castro
COO
Los Angeles, USA
Gonzalo Castro
COO • Los Angeles, USA
Gonzalo has a broad range of experience in marketing, sales operations, business management and client management roles in startup environments across a variety of industries.
Based in Los Angeles, CA, he was most recently the Director, Account Management and Sales Operations for a startup analytics company that was acquired by a Goldman Sachs owned e-commerce company. Previously, Gonzalo was the most senior member of the Artist Services team at the music tech company Songkick, which was acquired by Warner Media.
David Alandete
Managing Editor
Washington DC, USA
David Alandete
Managing Editor • Washington DC, USA
David Alandete is a Spanish journalist who graduated in International Policy from The George Washington University with a Fulbright Grant and who has worked and contributed for some of the most relevant Spanish language media in the world. He has been a correspondent in the United States and the Middle East and a special envoy to conflicts in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan and the detention camp in the Guantanamo Navy base. He was the El País managing editor from 2014 to 2018 and White House correspondent for Diario ABC afterward.
Luis Gil
Head of Operations
Brooklyn, USA
Luis Gil
Head of Operations • Brooklyn, USA
Originally from Venezuela, Luis has been using sound to tell stories on stage, off stage and online for over 15 years. He started his career as a session musician and eventually ended up in New York City through producing, scoring and engineering all kinds of projects, picking up a couple languages and a meditation practice along the way. He currently splits his time between managing and producing digital media projects from his home in Brooklyn and teaching mindfulness-based leadership programs throughout Latin America and the US.
Martín Cruz
Sound Supervisor
Santiago, Chile
Martin Cruz
Supervising Mastering Engineer • Santiago, Chile
Martín Cruz is a sound engineer, sound designer, musician and aerial cinematographer from Santiago, Chile. He is the co-creator and sound designer behind Las Raras, a Spanish-language storytelling podcast that uses soundscapes and original music to create immersive experiences. He is also the sound designer behind the Duolingo Spanish Podcast and Vice Media’s El Chapo, el Jefe y su Juicio.
Laura Isensee
Senior Editor – Duolingo
Houston, Texas
Laura Isensee
Senior Editor – Duolingo
Laura is a journalist based in Houston, Texas. She’s covered education, politics and communities from Los Angeles to Miami. Her work has been published by NPR, Reveal, LWC Studios, Marketplace, Clarín and the Miami Herald, among others. She was previously an editor and reporter for Houston Public Media, the NPR station for Greater Houston. Currently, she is a senior editor at Adonde Media, where she works on the Duolingo podcasts.
She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and earned her masters in journalism from Columbia University. She’s a proud mentor with NPR’s Next Generation Radio.
Lorena Galliot
Producer
Brooklyn, USA
Lorena Galliot
Producer • Brooklyn, USA
Lorena Galliot comes to Adonde Media with a background in documentary production and a passion for podcasts. A natively trilingual French-Venezuelan-American journalist and producer based in New York, she has worked on projects for Netflix, National Geographic, CNN Films, ABC and more. When she’s not writing or reporting, Lorena can usually be found salsa dancing with her husband or munching on something chocolate. Deep down, everyday people’s lives and stories are what she cares about the most.
Martine Chaussard
Producer & Sound Mixer
Atlanta, USA
Martine Chaussard
Producer & Sound Mixer • Atlanta, USA
Martine is a trilingual audio producer originally from Montréal, Canada. She enjoys producing pieces where the emotional truth of a story takes center stage. After receiving her B.A. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Health, she landed in Atlanta where she worked on global health and policy initiatives. After 10 years in the field, she followed her insatiable love for audio stories and attended the Transom Story Workshop in Woods Hole, MA. Her work has aired on WHYY’s The Pulse, WCAI and WAMC. She is the co-creator and producer of Small Power, a storytelling podcast about Georgia politics launching in early 2020.
Laura Ubaté
Producer
Bogotá, Colombia
Laura Ubaté
Producer • Bogotá, Colombia
Giovana Romano Sanchez
Producer
Los Angeles, USA
Giovana Romano Sanchez
Producer • Los Angeles, USA
Giovana is a Brazilian journalist and audio producer based in Los Angeles. Before coming to the US, she worked for eight years at Globo, in São Paulo, covering social justice and humanitarian issues around Latin America and Africa. She has a Masters in Latin American Studies from The University of Texas at Austin and is a proud graduate of the Transom Story Workshop.
Román Frontini
Production Operations Manager
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Román Frontini
Production Operations Manager • Buenos Aires, Argentina
Román comes to Adonde Media from Argentina where he is one of the senior producers at Lunfa.fm, one of the first podcast production companies in the country. With a focus on production management and 10 years of experience in management and planning in other business areas working with big and small teams, he now oversees the production in both the Duolingo Spanish Podcast and Duolingo French Podcast. Perpetually in love with audio storytelling, he has also worked in a mix of roles on narrative podcasts for companies like Penguin Random House and also in independent projects. A zen buddhist, former circus clown, baker and bartender, Román is always on the move whenever he’s not doing podcasts.
Isabel Vázquez
Podcast & Business Operations Manager
Chicago, Illinois
Isabel Vázquez
Podcast & Business Operations Manager • Chicago, Illinois
Isabel Vázquez (@ifvazquez) works on Adonde Media’s Operations Team, where she tries to make everyone’s work go a little more smoothly every day.
Before joining Adonde Media, Isa was the Senior Producer at Third Coast International Audio Festival, where she helped evolve the organization into a space for community-building and equity-focused conversations. She has also interned for StoryCorps, done freelance audio production (including mixing for the second season of the Duolingo Spanish Podcast!), and taught English in Indonesia. She’s proud to represent Chicago on the world stage as a member of the All-Star team Windy City Rollers. Outside of work and roller derby, her favorite past-times are spending time with her dog Rosalía and attempting karaoke in various languages.
Fernando Montes de Oca
Social Media Manager
Mexico City, Mexico
Fernando Montes de Oca
Social Media Manager • Mexico City, Mexico
Communication Specialist with experience in digital content, podcast and trends. He has 4 years of experience as an Operational Coordinator of entertainment radio stations. Fernando worked for 4 years in the hard news portal Animal Político as Community Manager and Audience Editor. He was the host of the videos created to fight against fake news in social media, in collaboration with Facebook. He has a podcast called ‘Nadie Nos Dijo’, available on all platforms.
Natali Villalona
Executive Assistant & Office Manager
Silver Spring, MD
Natali Villalona
Executive Assistant & Office Manager • Silver Spring, MD
Natali Villalona is a runaway hospitality professional who fell in love with the podcast industry. Prior to joining Adonde Media, Natali served as the Director of Sales at a corporate event space facility in New York City where her main focus was on building and nurturing strong business relationships with the event planning community and increasing company revenue. When Natali is not working, she enjoys writing, singing and spending time with her family.
Collaborators
Samia Bouzid
Producer & Sound Mixer
Philadelphia, USA
Samia Bouzid
Producer & Sound Mixer • Philadelphia, USA
Samia Bouzid is a writer, editor, and sound designer based in Philadelphia. She currently edits scripts for the YouTube channel SciShow. In the past, she worked as a researcher and production assistant at the Richard Lewis Media Group, where she played a mix of roles in creating media for museums. Samia has also worked at NOVA | PBS, making videos for the YouTube channel What the Physics?! She holds an M.A. in journalism from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. When she’s not telling stories, Samia is often either salsa dancing or playing the viola.
Juan Pablo Culasso
Sound Designer
Montevideo, Uruguay
Juan Pablo Culasso
Sound Designer & Producer
Montevideo, Uruguay
Juan Pablo Culasso was born in Uruguay and has been recording nature sounds for more than 20 years. He is passionate about birds, the conservation of the natural sound heritage, and has a great sensitivity to sound. His perfect pitch has also allowed him to develop as a restoration sound and work with sound edition at a professional level, using the most advanced technology to obtain the best results. He’s won awards from National Geographic for his ability to identify birds by their songs and has published more than 15 works with the sounds of the most emblematic soundscapes and birds of the American continent. He has participated in numerous projects as a nature sound recordist in several Latin American countries supported by WWF, USAID, among others. Currently, he is a contributor to the sound collection of the Macaulay Library, the most important library of nature sounds in the world and a lecturer and consultant on soundscapes, bird sounds, as well as accessibility, accessible technologies, and nature tourism, in Spanish, Portuguese and English. You can find his work published in the BBC, CGTN, AFP, among others.
Diana Gameros
Host, Relatos en inglés
San Francisco, USA
Diana Gameros
Host, Relatos en inglés • San Francisco, USA
Diana Gameros is a singer, songwriter, and music instructor based in San Francisco, California. She was born and raised in Ciudad Juárez, México and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. Over the last decade in the Bay Area she has released two albums of original songs written in Spanish and English, and Mexican classic songs. Diana has been highlighted often by NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert contest series, and a documentary film about her was released by KQED earlier this year. Her music often tells stories of family, migration, identity, and home, and has led her to perform with other prominent performers such as Joan Baez, Natalia Lafourcade, and the San Francisco Symphony. Diana’s voice and music have appeared on numerous films, documentaries and, most recently, on the television series Mayans MC soundtrack. Her songs and story have been featured on Billboard, Mother Jones, NPR’s Weekend Edition, and PRI’s The World, to name a few.
Tali Goldman
Producer
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tali Goldman
Producer • Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tali Goldman is a graduate of the National College of Buenos Aires (CNBA), a graduate in Political Science (UBA) and a Master in Creative Writing (UNTREF). She has been a journalist for more than ten years. She has worked at Magazine Twenty-three, El Argentino, and Radio Nacional, among others. She published her first book “The Trade Union Tide; women and unions in the new feminist era” that is going through its second edition and was declared of interest in the Buenos Aires Legislature and the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation. She currently writes chronicles in Amphibious, Our Voices, LATFEM and is a columnist for the radio program Check in White that is broadcast by FM Futurock. She has just won the 2019 edition of the Young Biennial for a story that will be published in an anthology of the Mar Dulce publishing house.
Justine Hagard
Producer – Duolingo French
Paris, France
Justine Hagard
Producer – Duolingo French
Justine Hagard is a journalist and podcast producer based in Paris, France. She holds a Master’s in Journalism from the Celsa Sorbonne University in Paris. She has worked as a local reporter and news anchor for Radio France, the French public service radio. Her work is currently featured on France 24, Radio France International, Radio Monte-Carlo and elsewhere. As a producer at Adonde Media, she works on the Duolingo French Podcast. Justine spends most of her free time listening to music.
Catalina May
Senior Editor
Santiago, Chile
Catalina May
Senior Editor • Santiago, Chile
Catalina May is a Chilean journalist based in Santiago. She has worked in written journalism and education for more than a decade before co-creating the Las Raras podcast, which tells non-fiction stories about people who challenge norms and the status quo. She currently serves as the Senior Editor of the Duolingo Spanish Podcast and is the Senior Editor of Adonde Media.
Ngofeen Mputubwele
Host, Duolingo French Podcast
Brooklyn, USA
Ngofeen Mputubwele
Host, Duolingo French Podcast • Brooklyn, USA
Ngofeen Mputubwele is a journalist, lawyer, and podcast producer based in New York City. Ngofeen grew up learning French from his Congolese parents, took up studying the language in college, and interpreted French insurance contracts as an attorney. He’s since moved on to a life of audio editing and reporting on issues of culture, language, and food, with an emphasis on international issues and the black diaspora. Ngofeen’s work has been featured on NewYorker.com, NPR’s Code Switch, Rough Translation, as well as Gimlet Media’s The Nod, Every Little Thing, We Came to Win, and more. A true language nerd, he lives in Brooklyn with the 2.3 million yeast in his sourdough starter.
Caro Rolando
Producer
Toronto, Canada
Caro Rolando
Producer • Toronto, Canada
Raised between Caracas and Vancouver, Caro grew up listening to as much salsa as she did the CBC news. Her work has been featured on NPR’s Radio Ambulante, CBC Radio, Pacifica Radio, Kenya’s Daily Nation and IFEX.org.
Antonio Romero
Mastering Engineer & Sound Designer
Austin, USA
Antonio Romero
Mastering Engineer & Sound Designer • Austin, USA
Antonio Romero is a multi-instrumentalist musician and audio artist who has developed his career mainly as a composer and sound designer. He has written scores for feature films, shorts, and documentaries. His work has been featured on HBO, NETFLIX, Amazon Prime, and numerous TV commercial ads for world-recognized brands like American Express, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Citibank, among many others.
Mariana Vaccaro
Project Manager & Editor – Podcaster@s
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mariana Vaccaro
Project Manager and Newsletter Editor of Podcaster@s • Buenos Aires, Argentina
A journalist with a degree in Communication Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires with a postgraduate degree in Communication, Gender and Sexualities, Mariana has a Masters in Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UBA. She collaborate with a number of independent journalist publications. She developed ‘Mujeres Urbanas’, an online publication with a feminist perspective and is editor of La Cafeteguía, the guide to coffee shops in Buenos Aires. She has produced the podcasts “Empoderadas: narraciones personales, historias colectivas” and “¡Vivas! y Haciendo Historia”. She has participated in the sound experience “Vivas nos queremos”.
Advisors
Doug Mitchell
Advisor
Doug Mitchell
Advisor
Doug Mitchell is Founder and Director of NPR’s Next Generation Radio training program. He spent five years co-leading a Ford Foundation program designed to help journalists of color create and grow their own media companies. He also serves on the board of the Latino Public Radio Consortium.
Jenna Weiss-Berman
Advisor
Jenna Weiss-Berman
Advisor
Jenna is co-founder of Pineapple Street Media, a podcast production company based in New York that has produced shows for partners including The New York Times, Hillary Clinton, Preet Bharara, Lena Dunham, Morgan Stanley and Wieden+Kennedy.
PODCASTER@S
Podcaster@s es una comunidad para cronistas, documentalistas, diseñadores e ingenieros de sonido, productores, periodistas, oyentes y muchos otros que se unen en el mundo del podcast.