José Luis Sastre: “Journalism needs to ask itself if we have sensors well connected to reality”

When

Sastre y Maldonado

, the

video podcast

by journalist José Luis Sastre and comedian Miguel Maldonado, was born in November, it did so with the challenge of differentiating itself from the thousands of other

podcasts

that, like theirs, are two men talking.

Just over 10 broadcasts later, it has already exceeded one million views on YouTube and half a million audio downloads.

There must be something different from the other thousands of

podcasts

of men talking, but what is it?

“That's what I was asking, what could we offer differently.

And Miguel said: us, our personality,” explains José Luis Sastre (Alberic, Valencia, 40 years old).

Until a few months ago, Sastre and Maldonado did not know each other.

Now, Sastre remembers the first steps in their relationship: “They played me an audio of the section of him with Javier del Pino where he messed with me and made a bit of a caricature.

One day we met in the hallway and that's where it ended.

But when I started thinking about sections for the summer, which is the time to try new content on the radio, I thought about a section with him.

“I spoke with Del Pino or, as Miguel says, I asked for his hand, and we started trying,” the journalist said last Wednesday in a cafeteria near the Cadena SER headquarters in Madrid.

This is how El Refugio

was born

, the summer section where both chatted on

Hoy por hoy

.

About what?

About whatever arises, because in reality the objective was to create a climate, to accompany.

That spirit is what is behind

Sastre and Maldonado.

Every Tuesday at noon, journalist and comedian sit in the Cadena SER boardroom, in two chairs that they borrow from the CEO's office.

“Then we return them,” says Sastre.

They turn on their neon (they asked permission to hang it in this noble room), put their microphones on the table and record so that, that same midnight, this production by SER Podcast and LaCoproductora is available on YouTube and all audio platforms.

Another difference with the rest of

the podcasts

of two men talking is precisely in the image, with a careful, calm tone that invites you to stay.

“In the world in which everything lasts 10 seconds on the mobile phone and we are just a swipe away from people getting tired of you and moving on to the next

reel

, we wanted to explain just at a glance that it is a different proposal while taking care of the image. ”says the journalist.

The journalist José Luis Sastre, last Wednesday in Madrid.

Alvaro Garcia

Sastre is not able to specify why he and Maldonado have fit together so well.

“Miguel tolerates my pessimism very well and he doesn't let it infect him.

We have a very solid relationship of trust.

That chemistry perhaps arises from the fact that we have a similar way of understanding humor and current affairs, because he is a super-informed guy, possibly he knows more about current events than I do, and we share interests and a way of understanding humor.

We are more similar than he seems,” describes the

Hoy por hoy journalist.

In these weeks they have had time to create their own universe.

Your listeners will know that you refer to your microphones as Cánovas and Sagasta.

That, although Maldonado insists on calling Sastre a “nerd,” they are both almost equally so.

And that Alfonso Guerra and Óscar Puente are two of the most mentioned politicians.

“Many people ask me if we talked beforehand about what topics we are going to discuss, and no.

It's an unwritten rule: Miguel never knows what topics I'm going to bring up and I don't know what he's going to bring up.

And many of those who we think are going to come out are left in the dark because the conversation goes by itself.

Part of the success he may have is in that spontaneity,” says Sastre.

“At a time when society is so polarized, that this way of facing reality, which is overflowing, with a touch of irony, good humor, even detachment, with a minimum safety distance, has had such a good "The listeners' response may have to do with the fact that they have found an escape route here, that they also want to have that relationship with reality," he adds about the tone of the

video podcast

.

It is also common for José Luis Sastre to show his interest in using the language of Generation Z. Although in the

video podcast

he takes it to the extreme and into comedy, behind it there is a real concern.

“I am very concerned about being disconnected from realities in which I believe we have to have one foot.

I work with people twice my age, and I am very afraid of being the man who says 'oh, you don't know...', or when María Jiménez died, 'how can it be that you don't know who María Jiménez is' .

And it can't be that they don't know it, but at the same time it can't be that I ignore things about their reality that are part of my world as well.

I want to address as many people as possible.

I don't want to speak like a 20-year-old because he doesn't touch me, but to understand people, one of the keys is to understand their way of expressing themselves,” he argues.

“Journalism needs to ask itself if we have sensors well connected to reality.

As I have gotten older in this profession, I have learned that we have to look less at the GDP and more at the school parents' WhatsApp group to be attentive to many realities.

Journalism is being able to explain to people things that interest them and capture their attention.

That is impossible if I do not understand the concerns of my generation, the one ahead and those who come behind,” he continues.

That radar to connect with the reality of the street that he claims for journalism also applies to politicians.

“There is an air of transcendence and gravity that makes politics go through a sphere and the whole of society speaks a different language,” diagnoses Sastre.

“Two things can happen: that politics conditions this way of understanding and relating to each other among citizens, or that the distance becomes increasingly greater between the two spheres.

To the extent that political language lowers the decibels a little and matches the language with which most citizens speak, politics will do better and we will not have the feeling that it is a scene, a continuous showcase, which is one of the evils it suffers right now,” Sastre concludes.

You can follow EL PAÍS Television on

X

or sign up here to receive

our weekly newsletter

.