Alana Casanova-Burgess is the co-creator, host and producer of WNYC Studios’ La Brega: Stories of the Puerto Rican Experience, hailed as one of the “Best Podcasts of 2021” by The New Yorker and The New York Times.
Previously, Casanova-Burgess was a reporter and producer for WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show and the Peabody award-winning national public radio show and podcast On the Media. In 2018, her extensive reporting from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria led to her being named a Livingston Awards finalist for the On the Media special “After the Storm,” which looked at recovery and media coverage. .
In 2021, she received an Exceptional Journalism Award from the Women’s Media Center for her work on La Brega. She was also part of a team that won the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for Blindspot: Tulsa Burning, a six-part podcast co-produced with The HISTORY Channel about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and history of racial violence in America.
Casanova-Burgess’ audio journalism work has been featured in The Guardian, 99% Invisible, Throughline, The New Yorker Radio Hour, and Latino USA, among other radio shows and podcasts. She is an alumna of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she now serves as an adjunct. She has roots in the Caribbean and Brooklyn.
Shows:
Alana Casanova-Burgess appears in the following:
Hawaii, Puerto Rico and "Disaster Capitalism"
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Bonus Track — Songs for the Future of Puerto Rico
Thursday, April 13, 2023
'La Brega: El Álbum'
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
8. “Olas y Arenas” — The Beaches Belong to the People
Thursday, March 23, 2023
8. “Olas y arenas” — las playas son del pueblo
Thursday, March 23, 2023
7. "Vamos Pa’ Plaza" — The Center of Everything
Thursday, March 16, 2023
7. "Vamos pa’ Plaza" — el centro de todo
Thursday, March 16, 2023
6. “Boricua en la Luna” — The Moon’s Distance
Thursday, March 09, 2023
6. “Boricua en la luna” — la distancia de la luna
Thursday, March 09, 2023
5. “Las Caras Lindas (De Mi Gente Negra)” — An Ode to Blackness
Thursday, March 02, 2023
5. “Las caras lindas (de mi gente negra)” — una oda a la negrura
Thursday, March 02, 2023
Introducing La Brega Season 2, the Puerto Rican Experience in Eight Songs
Monday, February 27, 2023
4. "I Wonder if I Take You Home" — Freedom in Freestyle
Thursday, February 16, 2023
3. “Suavemente” — The Merengue War
Thursday, February 09, 2023
3. “Suavemente” — La guerra del merengue
Thursday, February 09, 2023
2. “El Gran Varón” — Who Was Simón?
Thursday, February 02, 2023
2. “El gran varón” — ¿Quién era Simón?
Thursday, February 02, 2023
Introducing La Brega: Season Two
Friday, January 27, 2023
1. "Preciosa" — The Other Anthem
Thursday, January 26, 2023
