Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord

Hi Surviving El Chapo Fans! Take a listen to the trailer of our newest show, Chess Piece: The Elián González Story. 

About the show: At the turn of the millennium, a five-year-old boy from Cuba found off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving became the most talked about child in America. Elián González had left Cuba with his mom and a dozen other migrants, trying to make it to the U.S. but on the way, the boat capsized. Elián’s mother drowned. Before she did, she tied her child to an inner tube, saving his life.

Relatives in Miami — Cuban exiles — took the boy in. His father in Cuba wanted him back. The ensuing international custody battle over Elián González became its own mini Cold War, pitting Cuban exiles in Miami against supporters of Castro’s regime on an island just 90 miles away. 

The fight over Elián’s future came down to neighbor against neighbor, family against family. Now, 25 years later — we revisit his story through the voices of people who lived it firsthand.

Hi Surviving El Chapo fans! We want to share a new podcast that we think you'll love - Fallen Angels: A Story of California Corruption.

About the show: Fallen Angels is a journalistic thriller — Chinatown meets Spotlight — one that takes us into the shadows of sunny LA. Over 10 thirty-minute episodes, we go deeper and deeper into the intermingled world of power and privilege. L.A. Times investigative reporter Paul Pringle is our host – but he doesn’t simply narrate this story. Like a classic L.A. Noir, as Paul and his team of reporting colleagues, who joined forces in secret from their bosses,  investigate the story, they meet obstacles and stonewalling at every turn — from USC,  from the city, and more troubling still, from their own organization.

Charlie finds out what information the feds used to indict Val and Viv, how they tried to fight their charges and their reaction to being sentenced to prison. Former DEA agent Michael Ferrara who worked the El Chapo case gives his take on the wives’ prosecution and the broader impact the twins’ cooperation had on the war on drugs. 

With his wife now going to prison, Charlie poses the question to Jay: Has it all been worth it?

Charlie sits down with the children to get their perspective. Jay discusses adjusting to life on the outside. Within months of the twins being released, their wives, Val and Viv, are arrested on money laundering charges. 

COVID hits the prisons so the twins can’t see their families for months. Jay spends 56 days in hospital. Finally, after 12 years in prison, the twins are released on the November 5th, 2020.