WILD Spring Fling
Love is in the air at LAist Studios! We’re celebrating the Grand Romantic Gesture™ with Erick Galindo (he/him) and Megan Tan (she/her), co-hosts of season two of our WILD podcast. We’ll have special guests sharing their wildest stories of what they did for love, games, music, and more! And of course, we want to hear from you about the most embarrassing, amazing, or shocking thing you did to win over your special someone. If it’s just too cringe to share in public, step into our confidential confessional booth inside the Mohn Broadcast Center to divulge your deepest secrets.
Jia Kai, aka our very own producer Kyle Chang, will set the mood with romantic jams before and after the show.
SPECIAL GUESTS
- Gabrielle Ruiz, actor, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
- Sam Sanders, host of Vulture’s Into It podcast and Stitcher’s Vibe Check podcast
….and more to come!
Check out the audio trailer for WILD season 2 here. New season premieres April 18.
ABOUT ERICK GALINDO
Erick Galindo is a five-time Telly Award-winning writer, director and producer known for The Mexican Beverly Hills; A Laker Life; On Life As A Freckle-Faced, Redheaded, Mexican American From Southeast Los Angeles; and Mis Angeles. Erick regularly writes about culture for LAist, NPR station LAist 89.3 (formerly KPCC) and The New York Times, and was the first managing editor of L.A. Taco, where his work won a James Beard Foundation award. His narrative directorial debut The Bubble Machine premiered at the Golden State Film Festival and was a semifinalist for the jellyFest award. His co-written pilot Hot in Carson was a finalist for the Black List's inaugural Latinx TV List and his audio documentary Early was a finalist for KCRW's Radio Race. In 2020, his dark comedy script Legends was selected for the NHMC Latinx Screenwriters Showcase.
ABOUT MEGAN TAN
Out of over 48 million podcast episodes, Megan Tan’s episode “WILD: How Do I Love Someone” was named “Best Podcast Episode of 2021” by Apple Podcasts. Alongside writer Erick Galindo, Megan co-created WILD, named “Best Podcast of 2021” by Spotify and The Atlantic, and served as its senior producer. In 2020, Adweek named Megan Tan “Producer of the Year” for her work on California Love. With a background in photojournalism and documentary film, she started her own audible-visual style while hosting, producing, and managing Radiotopia’s Millennial, which made The Atlantic’s “50 Best Podcast” list for three consecutive years. She has also produced shows and episodes for Gimlet Media’s The Habitat, Pineapple Street Media, TED, WNYC’s Radiolab, NPR’s Planet Money, NPR’s All Things Considered, and KALW’s The Stoop. For her fifth career, Megan wants to be a park ranger and a ceramicist.
ABOUT GABRIELLE RUIZ
Gabrielle Ruiz is an American actress, philanthropist, producer, activist and champion for the arts. She is known for The CW’s critically acclaimed comedy, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, where she received rave reviews as Valencia Perez. Her most recent project is What Are Friends For podcast, where she produces and co-hosts.
You can also catch her on Star Trek: Lower Decks, Modern Family, Better Things, Alone Together, Orange Is The New Black, Sesame Street, Law & Order: SVU, and The Filth. She performed on Broadway in If/Then with Idina Menzel, Evita with Ricky Martin, In The Heights with Lin-Manuel Miranda and in the 1st National Tour of A Chorus Line, as Diana Morales.
Gabrielle hails from Edinburg, Texas, known locally as the Rio Grande Valley, where she produces many musical theatre projects and workshops for the public school educational systems. She continues to mentor and choreograph in New York and Los Angeles in addition to producing two podcasts: Glendale Post Sermon and What Are Friends For.
ABOUT SAM SANDERS
Sam Sanders is the host of Into It, the flagship culture podcast from Vulture which breaks down the culture and entertainment stories we can’t stop thinking about. He also hosts the podcast Vibe Check from Stitcher.
Sanders joined Vulture from NPR, where he was a correspondent and the host of the award-winning radio program and podcast, It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders. Prior to It’s Been a Minute, Sanders was a member of NPR’s election unit, where he covered the intersection of culture, pop culture, and politics in the 2016 election, and embedded with the Bernie Sanders campaign for several months. He was also one of the original co-hosts of NPR’s Politics Podcast, which launched in 2015. Sanders joined NPR in 2009 as a Kroc Fellow, and held many roles within the organization including as a field producer and breaking news reporter.
In 2022, Sanders was named “Best Podcast Host” by The Ambies, and received the NLGJA Excellence in Journalism Award for “Excellence in Radio,” the iHeart Award for “Best Overall Host (male),” and the Los Angeles Press Club National A&E Journalism award for “Best Anchor / Host” in the radio and podcasts category.
Sanders graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2009 with a master’s degree in public policy, with a focus on media and politics, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, with a double major in political science and music.
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