Futuro Studios Announces the Return of Hit Podcast ‘La Brega’

AVAILABLE NOW WHEREVER YOU LISTEN AND WATCH PODCASTS

(New York, NY — February 3, 2026) La Brega, the critically acclaimed podcast from Futuro Studios, returns today with its third season, now available on all major podcast platforms. Hosted by journalist Alana Casanova-Burgess, the eight-episode season explores the lives of Puerto Rican champions and what it means to represent Puerto Rico on a global stage.

Since its launch in February 2021, La Brega has earned widespread praise from listeners and critics. Early seasons examined the historical and political forces that have shaped Puerto Rico in recent decades, resonating deeply with audiences in the archipelago, across the diaspora, and beyond. The show’s careful reporting and storytelling have also drawn in listeners with no personal connection to Puerto Rico, expanding its reach and impact. And its groundbreaking format – with each episode produced in English and in Spanish – has advanced the landscape of bilingual storytelling. 

La Brega has never shied away from the turmoil and heartbreak that mark Puerto Rico’s history, but the show’s lens also captures stories of joy, music and humor. Season three continues in that vein, traveling from ballparks and beauty pageants to the United Nations and the Olympic Games, and focusing on moments when individuals come to embody Puerto Rico and carry the weight of representation and identity.

Named an Apple Podcasts Essential and recognized by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic as one of the best podcasts, La Brega tells stories of the Puerto Rican experience in both English and Spanish. This season, the voices featured on La Brega include… 

• The champion boxer Alberto Mercado, who defied a US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to represent Puerto Rico
• Iris Morales, a former member of The Young Lords, who reflects on how young, radical Boricuas carried Puerto Rico in their heart even if they had never been there
• Mr. Puerto Rico, Danny Mejia, the reigning Mr. World, who rounds out the archipelago’s preeminence in beauty pageants
• Veteran MLB player Eduardo Pérez, who wants to help young baseball hopefuls reclaim Puerto Rico’s dominance in the sport 
• And many more.

“It’s always been important for La Brega to set our own agenda, and not to follow the typical media narratives and one-dimensional coverage of Puerto Rico,” says Casanova-Burgess. “It’s critical now more than ever for us to examine and highlight the arenas where Puerto Rico competes as its own country, and to dig into the richness of how our identity takes shape in those spaces.”

And for the first time, La Brega is also available on YouTube, making the show accessible to new audiences concurrently with its audio release. 

“We listened to our audience and brought La Brega back for a third season because, at Futuro, we have a long-term commitment to telling beautifully-produced stories about Puerto Rico,” says Marlon Bishop, co-CEO of Futuro Media and Executive Producer of La Brega. “The show keeps getting bigger and better, and we have some amazing surprises coming up in store for fans.”

Season three of La Brega is available now. Subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts, and watch on YouTube.

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About Futuro Studios

Futuro Studios is the podcast and original programming division of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Futuro Media Group, an independent nonprofit organization producing multimedia journalism that explores and gives a critical voice to the diversity of the American experience. Based in Harlem and founded in 2010 by award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, Futuro Media is committed to telling stories often overlooked by mainstream media. Since 2019, Futuro Studios has developed a slate of critically acclaimed podcast series, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Suave, Anything For Selena, LOUD: The History of Reggaeton with Spotify Studios, and Idolo: the Ballad of Chalino Sánchez with Sonoro. More at futurostudios.org.