If there was an industry that benefited from the pandemic, it was the podcast. According to figures from Spotify, in 2020, the number of podcasts in Spanish and Portuguese grew by more than 400%.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the offer of this format is enriched with content that we previously only saw in books, movies or series. This is the case of Carrier, a podcast that tells the story of an aviator pilot who was recruited by some of the most powerful drug lords in the world, for whom he worked for three decades transporting cocaine.
It is a podcast that recounts real events compiled by Mexican journalists Diego Enrique Osorno and Meño Larios, who for a long time have dedicated themselves to migrating journalistic investigations to different entertainment formats, such as documentary series and now, podcasts.
“This is not a report: it is a movie.” That was the main instruction given to this pair of reporters when they began with the realization of Carrier, narrated by the actor Joaquín Cosío. Journalists at last, are used to the chaos of data and infinite notes. Doing a podcast, however, requires a different narrative than it takes to write a chronicle or report.
“It has been the entertainment platforms who have sought out journalists,” says Meño Larios, a reporter from Sonora who has collaborated for media such as Vice News, Expansion Y Political Animal. He was one of the researchers who made it possible 1994, the Netflix documentary series that chronicles that troubled year in which Mexico plunged into one of its deepest political, social and economic crises.
Talking about drug trafficking is not something entirely new, “but doing so is more than necessary,” says Larios. Because the reality of the 250,000 dead and the more than 60,000 missing is unavoidable. Carrier it is another way of approaching that reality. Only in a more intimate way, as stories know best: whispered.
“The closure (caused by the pandemic) made many people have the need to hear a voice, even from the phone or the computer. Our podcast has a particular structure, because we did it as if it were a phone call ”, shares Larios, who along with Osorno had already started this project before the health crisis.
With Carrier People will know the stories that a pilot records from his cell in the United States with a cell phone that was sent to him by means of drones. After listening to the first chapter, inevitable questions arise: how can you be immersed for so long in a business where life is such a volatile bargaining chip? How is it possible that the transfer of drugs is carried out with such skill but, at the same time, with such impudence?
“People are permanently interested in knowing stories that have to do with reality,” says Larios. “They are content that people are asking for. As journalists we are interested in telling those stories beyond personal or moral judgments. It is up to us to listen, understand and tell ”.
Carrier It was produced by Detective, a journalism and film company that projects reality stories on any type of platform. One of the company’s rules is rigor, especially when investigating the facts. Creativity comes later. And it is no less important for that. In the end, what is intended is to narrate complex events from formats that were born, fundamentally, to entertain.
“The challenge for journalists is to adapt to new platforms, new languages and new ways of consuming content,” says Larios, who has always been in favor of respecting the intelligence of audiences.
With Carrier, the public will have the opportunity to discover or rediscover secrets and anecdotes from one of the most controversial times of drug trafficking in Latin America. “It is a review of the last 30 years of the war against drugs.”
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