This week on the Wheelhouse.

Ringing in 2026 with the year in review of 2025.

For Connecticut Public, I'm Frankie Graziano.

This is the Wheelhouse, the show that connects politics to the people.

We got your weekly dose of politics in Connecticut and beyond right here.

It's the last day of 2025, so we're marking it with our best stuff from the year.

So we're going to hear from campus leaders at the University of Connecticut and how they're engaging in political discourse, other Gen Zers on how they're engaging or not with politics, and academics and journalists covering how music and politics go hand in hand with one another.

On the island of Puerto Rico.

Before we get to those conversations, I just want to highlight the great work our team did here, covering two legislative sessions, municipal elections, energy and housing crises in Connecticut, conducting interviews with officials including Governor Ned Lamont, and putting on not one but two Wheelhouse live shows up in Connecticut in 2025.

Fun was had by all.

Now to the kind of content you all know and love on the show, our panel conversations where we bring politics to the people.

The first discussion will feature came when the temperature of political discourse in America reached a boiling point.

Conservative advocate Charlie Kirk had recently been assassinated.

His murder and reactions from lawmakers sparked questions about political violence and the future of civil discourse.

How could Connecticut Public how could the Wheelhouse be useful to listeners in such a heavy, heavy time?

We wanted to hear from students, particularly at a time where they were fed up with the rhetoric from adults.

Ryan Rosario is the president of the UConn College Democrats.

He was joined at the table by Jeffrey Medeiros, who is president of the UConn College Republicans.

Medeiros reflected on how young members of the GOP can feel sometimes in the college classroom.

Now.

Even before this tragedy, they felt that they would be, left out because of their views.

Maybe they're not going to do as well in a class if they speak up, maybe they're going to not have as many friends because of their beliefs.

You're from the other side of the aisle at least, in terms of being a part of college Democrats.

Do you share that same kind of fear that you face, reprisal for some of your political beliefs?

There are students from the left that have been attacked for their political, you know, ideas on campus.

And I think that this is something that addresses all political communities.

I think that the attacks on free speech as a whole recently have been very scary from what's happened to conservatives, which I disavow entirely.

But also what's happened to, leftist protesters on campus being arrested for advocating, you know, for their policy in the Middle East are also being targeted by organizations like the Canary Project, which are doxing student protesters and, you know, throwing their information out online for expressing their freedom of speech.

What does free speech mean to you, Jeffrey, on the college campus?

I think a student shouldn't have to be afraid to say what they have to say, so long as they don't incite violence, no matter what their speeches.

They shouldn't be getting bad grades because of what they believe in.

Ryan, you've heard what Jeffrey had to say.

What are your thoughts about free speech and what it means to you on a college campus?

I think free speech is something that comes with very, very, very few exceptions.

I think when you have someone that's being, you know, actively advocating for violence or, you know, expressing like direct hate speech, I think that's a different situation.

But having controversial speakers come to campus is paramount to the college experience, right?

We are here to be challenged.

Our beliefs.

We're here to hear things that we may not agree with.

And I think that controversial speakers coming to any campus is something that should be protected and every regard, right where we look at free speech, I think it's something that we have to be very consistent about, and we can't play games where we'll have our controversial speaker.

You can't have yours, you know.

I think that we should defend people's rights to be able to bring about any type of expression that they believe in on campus, as long as they're not being, you know, directly violent, right.

I think that building free speech begins with building debate on campus.

Right.

And I think the better relationship that we have together, and being able to talk about the things that we disagree with, brings about a culture where people it's a lot safer for us to have these conversations on campus, because now people are prepared to be able to advocate for what they believe in, right.

And I think that the campus sometimes gets worried about counterprotesters, that kind of thing.

But those are just two different aisles of the same free speech argument.

And I think that if you're going to have a speaker come in to talk about something that's, you know, very controversial, you're going to have counterprotest or, you know, outside saying a few things.

I think both of those people need to be protected.

What are some of the most controversial topics among students on campus right now?

Is the heat sort of ratcheting up in terms of, political discourse?

I would say I would say, yes.

I think the most the single most divisive issue on college campuses right now is the war in Gaza.

And that's something that I think that, you know, students across the board are having, you know, trouble being able to digest and see the images that we see in the news every single day and see how we can, you know, even begin to process that.

And from my position, being in a quite a unique one, being president College Democrats of Connecticut, I'm stuck between two worlds where I have an active student body that is day in after day.

You know, seeing these images and asking, why is a party?

Aren't we doing more to quell some of the response to what's happening here?

Why aren't we addressing the major humanitarian crisis that we see day in and day out?

And oftentimes we are met with deaf ears by the party.

And I think that we see, particularly on our side of the aisle, a lot of political apathy right now, and people just seem like it's not very worth it to even engage in the process because they feel very, I would say, disheartened by what they're seeing.

Both in foreign policy and in terms of the party's response to it.

And so I wonder how we go about making our own movements and go about making change from the bottom to the top?

Jeffrey, is there that appetite for you to engage other students, even professors in debate?

Do you have that appetite right now?

You know what?

Why not?

It's definitely something that would be fun.

I haven't thought of it, but it's definitely something I'd be open to getting myself, in, in the debate, and maybe even some of my members as well.

Do you guys feel like you can have constructive debate in 2025?

Like what does constructive debate look like to both of you?

I guess I'll start with Ryan.

I think constructive debate is getting people in the room to start with.

I think in order to have a conversation, people have to come into expecting a conversation.

When we see a lot of the avenues where we think we see debate, oftentimes people on the street arguing or thinking or, you know, news interviews that are meant to be divisive, not this, but, you know, like Fox News instances or podcasts, that kind of thing.

Right?

I don't know if that's necessarily debate, but when me and Jeffrey get together, when we want to have a debate, which we're planning later on this year, these are going to be policy discussions.

These are going to be things you're going to be intentionally non divisive because that's the point.

The point is to discuss how we may believe about certain things in the economy using data, how we believe about certain facts about potential, you know, fiscal policies in the state of Connecticut or in the United States.

And I think that it's just about having, you know, kind of a scholarly discussion where we're going to go in with our sources, we're going to back it up, and we're going to make the best possible argument for what we believe in.

And ultimately, the baseline or the through line that makes debate possible is respect.

And I have a great deal of respect for Jeffrey and the Yukon Republicans, and I'm happy that we have such a great relationship.

And I think that's the foundation for our ability to be able to have positive debate on campus.

Look, so I think civil debate, as Ryan said, it should look like there's no personal attacks.

It's strictly policy.

We don't interrupt each other.

We speak on our issues in a respectful manner, and I think those kind of things are important in order to get your point across.

I think when you're attacking someone personally or interrupting, as we've seen, especially at the national political level, you don't really get the message to your viewers and you incite a type of behavior, in which people believe that stuff like that is okay, and it's not okay in order to have productive and productive and civil debate.

It's important that we take those measures in order to have, a good discussion.

So what's happening a lot online is this willingness to or at least this appetite to try to own the other person.

You guys have to debate each other.

You said you may debate each other later this year.

So you want to win the debate.

But there's also respect, right.

So do you think about dominating the other guy or trying to own the other person?

Is it constructive to do that?

Now my goal when debating is not to belittle the person across the aisle.

My goal is to explain my points, explain how my points may be better than theirs.

And also there's an audience involved, so I don't see the point in attacking or trying to take down my opponent when I'm also trying to express my views to the audience as well.

And I don't think it's very productive.

If you do something like that.

Can I ask you guys a big picture question here?

What do you think needs to change right now in American political discourse?

And I guess I asked that question with the backdrop of.

From the.

Both the perspective of what needs to change on college campuses, but also what needs to change among the adults in Washington, D.C.. I know you two are both adults or college students, but you have fantastic influences here in Washington, DC, I would imagine.

Well, this is something that me and Jeffrey were just talking about.

Actually, this is one of those instances where it seems silly, but I wish that the adults would take the example of the kids in the room in this instance, right?

We when we saw violence, when we met something terrible, we came together instantly and we disavowed and we put together a statement that show that in the state of Connecticut, in our community, this is never going to be tolerated.

I think when we look at political divisiveness, this is stuff that comes from the top down.

This is stuff that comes from, president and the Democratic leadership as well, to kind of getting into a 24 seven bickering argument, trying to own each other or be cute on social media.

While at the same time we have people who can't afford payments for their groceries.

At this point, we have people that are struggling in the United States, and I think that the response to it has been two sides trying to call each other.

Right.

That's not what we're interested in from a local level, but where we are interested in is the policies that impact people's day to day lives and that are important to us.

And I think this thing of like owning people is for social media.

It's for audiences, right?

We're here for constituents.

We're here for people that depend on real policy.

That was Ryan Rozario, president of the UConn College Democrats.

He was joined by Jeffrey Medeiros, president of the UConn College Republicans, to Gen Zers there, who seem to have a bright future ahead of them.

Coming up next in our 2025 Wheelhouse review, more young people will hear what happened when we brought the Wheelhouse into the wild, hitting the streets to get some perspective from Gen Zers on the current state of politics.

Got a question related to the show?

Maybe you want to pitch a show topic.

Email us.

Wheelhouse@CTpublic.org.

Stay tuned.

You're in the Wheelhouse right after a quick break.

Music This is the Wheelhouse from Connecticut Public Radio.

I'm Frankie Graziano.

This hour, we're taking a look back at some of our favorite shows from the past year.

You know something?

We all heard a lot about in the year 2025 is what does Gen Z think?

What do these young people think about politics?

How do they get their news?

How do they engage?

Well, we got some answers in what I like to call a Wheelhouse in the wild.

As we listened to a few Gen Z ers flipping through their feelings after we hit the street, we'll hear from Rachel Janfaza.

She's the founder of the Substack Up and Up.

Elena Moore from NPR's Washington desk.

And Christian Passe, a political correspondent with Vox.

Is Gen Z sold on our political system as it stands now?

We hit the streets to find out.

Here's Sasha St.

Germain of Torrington and Isaac Cuevas from New Britain.

It's just unfair.

And I feel like we're slowly going back into the 1800s.

And I'm not with it at all.

Is there one particular issue that you feel like we've gone really far back on?

Women's rights, including health rights.

Am I sold on our.

Current political system?

I would honestly say no.

I kind of don't like where our.

Our democracy is going.

And I think a lot of Gen Zers would agree, because I think politically, a lot of us are.

More often leaning left.

And right now, we're currently in.

A right wing majority.

Isaac says one particular issue he cares about the war in Gaza and us as support to Israel.

What about the question, Christian, that we asked Sasha and Isaac?

And what did you think about their responses?

Yeah, I think overall, it's easy to say that Gen Z just has been the trend among voters when they tend to be younger.

They tend to be a little less informed.

They tend to be a little less aware of how systems work, which naturally leads to some sense of distrust.

On top of that, there is an additional aspect of Gen Z pessimism that is kind of permeated around social media, that shows up in popular culture and shows up in a lot of our mainstream reporting on this generation, the most anxious generation, you know, you know, people with severe mental health crises and generation Z. The pandemic destroying abilities to create friendships or to develop social relationships with each other.

I do think it's important to divide though Gen Z up and think about it, along lines of social trust and along lines of, engagement with news.

Because one thing that I find pretty interesting is that, the idea of trust in institutions really depends on how just engaged these young people are.

A lot of higher information, better informed young voters, who tend to be college educated if they are strong partizans like if they believe in the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, they do trust institutions.

They do have a sense of, how the parties work, how government works.

This is why they're, you know, participating in electoral or activist politics.

If you have younger voters who are, not college educated or are not strong Partizans don't have strong ideological beliefs, which is a huge part of Gen Z. Then you do have a sense of distrust in institutions, mostly because they don't understand how they work.

And this is partially why, they don't necessarily vote.

And I think that's why last year was really interesting because usually the parties are trying to or really usually Democrats are trying to appeal to that first group because those are the people that they can count on to turn out to vote.

Those are the folks who, would probably be upset that the party isn't more to the left.

But they can make, you know, a compromise on that front.

And Republicans tend to just give up that demographic, of young voters in general.

And last year, what we saw was a pretty strong attempt by the party to reach that second category of voters who tend to not believe, not trust, not really understand how the system works.

And speak to a sense of, frustration, and an overriding sense among the electorate, but especially among Gen Z, because they don't seem to have that many strong political views, attachments to parties.

To kind of just, you know, throw up, you know, blow up the game completely and just, vote out whoever's in charge and shake up the status quo of the establishment.

And, Rachel, you heard there, Isaac, saying that he thinks that people in his generation tend to lean more left yet, the current system in the United States, the current federal government is controlled by the Republican Party, essentially.

So it leans right.

Are you hearing that among a lot of Gen Zers?

Is there actually a lot of, liberals among Gen Z, or is it starting to skew the other way?

I'm hearing an overall sense of dissatisfaction with both political parties.

And given what Christian just said, I would push back on that a little bit, too.

I'm hearing this even from some of the most politically engaged and involved young people on both sides of the aisle who feel like they, even if they are highly educated.

And I you know, I do think on the whole, this generation is very aware of current events and, and the news they have, they're watching all of these events take place in real time, with a constant string of breaking news notifications at any given point.

They're seeing so much, so many people whose lives are affected and a core value to Gen Z is empathy.

And I think part of this is because they have been able to watch other people's lives unfold, through their own personal experience and perspective.

And one of the most common phrases that I hear young people bring up, I even just heard in a listening session last night, they kept coming back to this idea of lived experience.

And so I think because young people are feel that they're in such close proximity to the lives of so many other people, even people who look like or think differently than them.

They feel they they feel that their pain is their pain.

And I think that that's a part of the ideology of Gen Z across the board, whether you're a conservative or a liberal.

But to get back to your original question, there is frustration across the board.

It is not isolated to one particular party.

And one of the biggest trends that I've been tracking, really, since I started covering young people in 2018 is this idea of political homelessness.

And I think that during the first Trump administration, we saw young people who felt just politically frustrated, politically homeless, and that perhaps shifted them more to the left.

And now, I think, given that there hasn't been since the 2024 election, a clear message from Democrats about where they're going from here that is leading a lot of young people who maybe did consider themselves a Democrat to say, I actually don't know really where the party stands right now.

And while they may not agree with what President Trump is doing, they don't necessarily see an alternative that they align with.

And so it leads them to have many questions about where they stand.

At the same time, I think there are a lot of young people who did feel frustrated, ahead of the 2024 election, maybe did vote for President Trump, but aren't set in stone.

Republican voters, they are not conservatives.

They might have felt attracted by the MAGA movement, but they might be frustrated by the rising costs, by the cost of housing, by the job market, by the possibility of what I is going to do to the job market.

And so overall, I think there is a lot of malleable beliefs.

Can you just help me understand really quickly?

I think you've written about this, that there's actually like a divide between gen Gen Z in terms of a 1.0 and 2.0 split.

Yes.

So when you think about the 15 year time frame of Gen Z, there's been so many different events and experiences that have really shaped two separate cohorts in this generation, because so much has happened so quickly, both with the pandemic and with the rise of social media during the adolescence of Gen Z. So the way that I frame Gen Z 1.0, Gen Z 2.0 is split by how old you were during the time of the pandemic.

And I believe that anyone who had graduated high school by the time that the pandemic started, they had a very different experience during and after the pandemic than anyone who was still in high school or younger at the time that Covid 19 started.

If you think about those who had been on the oldest cusp of Gen Z, like myself, we had already had a taste of independence in adolescence by the time that the pandemic hit, and that was really different than students who were in elementary school, middle school, high school during the time that the pandemic started.

Had never lived outside the home, were under 18 at the time.

And but it's not just about the educational experience.

It's also the social media platforms that shaped their time growing up.

I had a flip phone before I had an iPhone for members of Gen Z to point out they don't know what a flip phone was.

I mean, there has been a little bit of a resurgence with them recently, ironically, but when I was in high school and college, TikTok didn't exist.

It wasn't a thing.

Whereas for those who were in high school and middle school, even younger, during pandemic and beyond, TikTok has completely shaped their upbringing.

It is the cultural touchpoint.

It shapes what music they're listening to, what trends are popular, what clothes they're wearing, and also political views.

So I'm trying to understand this a little bit further.

I love this delineation of the pandemic.

I think that's very helpful.

Help us understand, Rachel, if this kind of shifts how somebody might vote once they are able to, maybe they got out of high school and then they're first eligible to vote during the Harris Trump candidacy of 2024.

How might this shape their political views?

How might what happened during the pandemic or what didn't happen for some folks maybe having to stay at home, during the pandemic, how might that shift their their vote?

Totally.

So during the pandemic, especially for the Gen Z two point hours who were in high school or middle school at the time, they were really the guinea pigs for a lot of the Covid restrictions and protocols that were in place.

And if you are a young person who felt like your life wasn't in your own hands and your ability to socialize with friends or play in sports games or have prom or graduation was kind of at the whim of this virus.

And then the authority who was in charge making these decisions about your ability to just do these very normal adolescent things.

There was a lot of resistance to that that developed and a lot of anti-authority sentiment.

And while the pandemic started when President Trump was in office for his first term, many of the protocols about masking and vaccine mandates and school reopenings and things like that happened during the start of the Biden administration.

And so young people who grew frustrated with these protocols looked at the person or the administration who was in charge at the time.

And in many of the liberal cities where these restrictions lingered on past, perhaps when young people thought they could ever should have, the people who were in charge in many cases were Democrats, and a lot of resistance to that started to brew and started to spread online as well.

And so there started to be a lot of anti-democratic sentiment that bubbled up and also just anti-authority sentiment.

Couple that with the fact that if you were shaping your political views during this time, young people are typically always in the counterculture.

And while Biden was in office, the counterculture was MAGA and the MAGA movement.

And I think this is in part why we've seen a shift to the right among some young people, particularly amongst young men, who may have been the most frustrated by the fact that, you know, they were confined to their home during these really formative years.

While the Wheelhouse was in the wild with Gen Zers, we also asked them where they turn for news and political information.

Here's Lena Basco from New Britain, Allen Kaysen from prospect, Lottie Richardson Tanaka of Stratford and Isaac Cuevas from New Britain.

I feel like my generation and me rely on social media heavily.

For the news these days, which social media.

Does a good job on, like spinning the news and, you know, not giving you the exact.

You know, truth.

About the.

News.

I get a lot of my news from TikTok, Instagram, even Snapchat ads and.

Some traditional media like NPR, but then also like a healthy mix of.

Like streamers even.

Honestly, I don't feel like I'm really, Connected that much.

I kind of separate myself from, like, politics like that.

Sounds like Lottie probably knows who you are.

Alana.

These responses, what are they shaped by?

Like the political moment we're in right now, would you say?

Or by everything just being really a finger swipe away?

Well, I think it goes back to what we've been talking about this whole time.

This is a generation that is very, distrustful of institutions of major forces of power.

And I think you have to be living under a rock to not see the internet as one of those in some ways.

And I, you know, we've seen that in the data, you know, at Tufts universities Circle Institute, they, they found that something like more than half of folks under 34, 18 to 34 have very little trust to know, trust at all in social media and technology companies.

And, you know, to say that these young folks are not informed, I think is a larger question, because I think what it means to be informed is kind of changing for this generation because, you know, people open their phones and in a matter of seconds to get what you were saying about swiping, you can see what's happening.

You know, it conflicts around the world.

You can see it on the ground reporting on it.

You can see on the ground testimonial on it from someone who may identify more as an internet personality or influencer.

You can follow, you know, the daily lives of of people who have completely different perspectives than you.

And that's not to say this is in substitution for, you know, non biased journalism, but it does expose a generation to something that really no generation, including millennials, had at such a young age.

And I think that has both given people a sense of distrust, because they know that the internet is so vast and wide and that people's algorithms can be so different.

So you could be seen such a different perspective than even your neighbor.

But at the same time, people are exposed to a lot of topics.

People are getting their information from so many different avenues, mediums, people, that there is not one single way to reach Gen Z as a politician.

And I think that part of the conversation ahead of the 2024 election and in the aftermath has been about the podcast ecosystem and the manosphere, and everyone wants to crack the code on how to reach young voters and young men in particular, by going through these sort of alternative modes of communication.

And that is super smart and strategic, and any politician should be doing that.

But at the same time, it's not the only way to reach young people.

And not everyone who is a young person under the age of 30 is listening to these podcasts.

Even if you look at young men and the the, the moral of the story is that Gen Z is not monolithic.

No generation is monolithic, no group of people is monolithic.

And so in part because of how many different creators and modes of communication there are, everyone's getting their information a little bit differently, which definitely makes it hard for politicians.

Perhaps harder than in the past when there was, you know, the nightly news that they could go on and deliver their message.

But there's also an opportunity because you can reach young people really anywhere.

And the other reality is that, you know, this is a very information hungry generation.

And part of their skepticism comes from a curiosity.

I think they are deeply eager to hear about the world around them.

And there so there's an opportunity there for politicians to tap into.

And, you know, I think one of the the takeaways that I've been honing in on since the election was really that what this generation is craving is authenticity.

And so the messengers need to utilize the modes of communication that are most authentic to them.

If you are a young woman politician who really is into your makeup and beauty, do a collab with an influencer who talks about beauty, makeup.

Get ready with me videos.

If your, congressman who really likes to fish, go on a fishing podcast.

If you like to cook, do a cooking podcast.

There's kind of a way to to use your personality, your hobbies, your strengths, and show your unique self through that, through the modes of communication.

Because every sort of niche internet community exists, and there's a way for politicians to utilize those to their advantage.

And this is very important because this is going to be a big thing in 2028 and maybe even in the midterms.

The question of authenticity and being real is more of a question that's being directed at Democrats over Republicans.

Is that correct?

Rachel.

I think so.

I think that for whatever reason, young people feel like because President Trump says what he wants is able to, you know, fly in the face of cancel culture.

He comes off as is very real.

He's charismatic.

And and people think that young people in particular think he's funny.

And they appreciate that even if they disagree with what he is saying.

Whereas there has been a lot of frustration that I've heard.

And this was true especially in the lead up to the 2024 election, around the sort of policing of language that they felt Democrats were doing, and the fact that Democrats oftentimes were coming off as sort of cringe and performative.

And whether or not, you know, that is a fair criticism, it's the way that it was perceived.

And politics is perception.

So it matters.

Hey, here's hoping that in 2026, more of these Gen Zers get their news from the Wheelhouse and Connecticut Public tweaking how you consume your news in 2026.

Send your news year resolutions to Wheelhouse@CTpublic.org to tell us what you want to hear about in 2026.

At The Wheelhouse, we bring the politics to the people, and after this break, we'll bring La Cultura to Lauren Day.

Stay tuned for more.

You're in the Wheelhouse after a quick break.

This is the Wheelhouse from Connecticut Public Radio.

I'm Frankie Graziano, and this is our year in review for 2025.

Oh, man.

We're about to end 2025 on the Wheelhouse.

Oh, a lot of hope for next year and a lot of excitement!

In just two months, in 2026, Bad Bunny will take the stage in the San Francisco Bay area - - go Niners -- for the Super Bowl halftime show.

He is the most streamed Latino artist on Spotify, including three years in a row where he was the world's number one streamed musician.

His criticism of politics on the island of Puerto Rico and beyond make his selection to perform at the Super Bowl controversial to some.

Back in June, on The Wheelhouse, we examined Bad Bunny's involvement in political discourse after it was announced that Yale professor Albert Laguna would offer a course called Bad Bunny Musical Esthetics and Politics.

Joining me now, Petra Rivera DeVoe, associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College.

Her new book, which she co-wrote with Vanessa Diaz, is titled P F K N R - How Bad Bunny became the global voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.

And that's going to come out in February of 2026.

Kind of some breaking news there, Petra.

Yes, yes.

I'm very excited.

Thanks for having me.

Also on logout, the multimedia artist and historian got the wonderful to have you on here.

For having me.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

We appreciate it very much.

Also joining us, Rachel Iacovone, Puerto Rican communities reporter for Connecticut Public.

Thank you so much for coming on the Wheelhouse.

Thanks for having.

Me.

You are fresh to Connecticut Public, and you were right on the show.

That's how talented you are.

Thank you so much for coming on.

I appreciate it.

And my good buddy, Charles Venator Santiago, associate professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and l'Institut.

Though the Institute for Latino Caribbean and Latin American Studies.

Charles, thank you for joining us today.

Sorry for not being there personally.

Petra, you're a trailblazer on trying to connect Bad Bunny to politics.

But of course, when we when we hear about, the music of the island of Puerto Rico and politics.

Bad Bunny is not the first musician to do this.

One of the things I try to do in my course that Wellesley is create this kind of historical background to show where a bad bunny comes from.

And I think one of the things that's pretty cool about Bad Bunny is that he does that frequently as well, both in this sampling, like Albert talking about him sampling the grand combo.

But also in his performances and his, there's like my favorite photo of Bad Bunny is this rolling Stone cover where he's holding all these replicas of reggaeton chains from the early 2000s to show everybody who came before him.

So he does that too.

But, yeah, I'm I'm really excited that Albert's teaching his class at Yale.

There's several bad Bunny classes now.

I know of some in Princeton, San Diego State, Barnard College.

They might be focusing on newer stuff, a lot of your coursework as.

Yeah, because it's you've done it for a couple of years now.

It works.

And it looks at some of his earlier work.

Can you help us with his evolution as an artist?

Yeah.

Yes.

So, yeah, I started teaching my course in the fall of 2022.

And since that time, he's released two other albums, the veteran Mas photos and then 1 in 2023 called Nadia Sevilla and Manana.

So Bad Bunny begins.

Like many young artists in 2016, as a rapper who's posting his songs on SoundCloud.

And he was singing Latin trap, which is a genre that is kind of adjacent to reggaeton that is known for being very explicit, particularly sexually explicit.

So it wasn't getting a lot of radio play.

And I think one of the things that Bad Bunny did early in his career was figured out how to merge The Sound of Latin trap with a few more radio friendly lyrics, sometimes to get his, his stuff out there.

And he has always had, I think.

And what we argue in the book, a political slant to his work.

So one example I can think of is his very first television appearance in the United States was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and he sang a song called Estamos Bian, which lyrically is a song about making a lot of money.

But in that song, he talks about things like driving through the potholes in Puerto Rico, or the impact of the hurricane slipped into those lyrics.

And when he goes on the Jimmy Fallon show, he starts by making a speech.

And at that time, his English was really not great.

Right?

So he gives this kind of slow but really important brief dialog about how it's been one year since the hurricane, and Donald Trump is still in denial.

And then he starts his performance.

Right.

So I think from his earliest, access to these larger public platforms, Bad Bunny has been speaking out about issues that pertain to Puerto Rico.

Which is Albert said many people in the United States aren't aware of.

Right.

And so I think that's always been a part of his, his M.O.. But what's different about David Ramos photos is the sort of explicit nature of the politics that he's doing in every song, with the blend of genres, when the topics he's talking about with his music videos.

Right.

It's very intentional.

And it's very interesting to me because as Bad Bunny has become, one of the things we talk about in our book is as Bad Bunny has become more famous.

He has leaned more into his political orientation, not less.

And one of the arguments we're making is that that has actually increased his popularity.

Whereas some people might think that to be an international pop star, you have to step back from something that might be perceived as controversial.

He seems to lean into it much more.

I'm so privileged to have got on the show here today.

I want to ask you, for a history lesson here.

In 1948, as I understand it, there was this gag law enacted in Puerto Rico to suppress an independence movement on the island.

It made it illegal to fly the Puerto Rican flag or sing patriotic songs.

Eventually repealed nearly a decade later on the grounds that it violated free speech.

This is not the first battle that Puerto Rico would have with free speech and reggaeton.

As a matter of fact, later on they would have that.

But what role do you think that historical context plays in the mind of an artist?

Like a bad bunny who is so outspoken today?

If I wasn't allowed to raise my flag on Panama, Panamanians and them for those who are listening and I'd be furious.

The moment that they would allow me, I would be obnoxious.

I'm always super happy.

Whenever I see Puerto Ricans raise their flag.

And so realize, though, because you have to you have to to take advantage of the fact that, you know, there is this freedom.

And to think of it as a freedom also is a conversation within and of itself.

The role that I play is, I think, a significant, I think probably, you know, like exemplifies in every way, shape or form, his pride, more importantly, his, his drive, to try to, you know, educate the, the, the larger masses in regards to the actual colonial state of Puerto Rico.

Charles.

Reggaeton is a musical genre rooted in resistance, as we talked about.

Can you tell us about its origins and why listeners find it to be so powerful, particularly, politically?

Well, that's a good question.

So, so part of the challenge is that I don't emerges as a, as a way in some ways to, to express, or amplify, if you will.

So there are popular real, politics, that affect, if you will, the average person in sometimes explicit ways.

The political dimension of that, of reggaeton and music in Puerto Rico are challenging in some ways because, and that's even though there's a dimension of protest that's present.

I'm not sure it's very effectual or influential in doing anything.

And it's mostly describing social inequalities, if you will.

But, the question becomes, well, what do you do to change it?

What's the project that it's proposed?

And sometimes it's not clear that there's a political project there other than a protest.

I got to bring this back to good old Connecticut.

Here, much of Bad Bunny's most recent album pays homage to New York, Connecticut's neighbor.

And that matters, right?

Connecticut has a sizable Puerto Rican population.

Boricua.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you talked about it for a second.

I'm.

I'm half Italian, half Puerto Rican.

So very New York family here and mixture.

And I knew that there was a huge Puerto Rican population.

Of course, you know, I grew up visiting the Bronx and Spanish Harlem with my family.

Did not realize how large of population we have here in Connecticut that about 50% of Latinos you run into a Puerto Rican, that people would assume I'm Puerto Rican more than anything else here.

And with that, I hear Bad Bunny on the streets.

I hear people's car cranked up, you know, on the side of the road passing me by.

That, like reggaeton is the basis here is really interesting.

I'm originally from South Florida and a very Mexican area, and it was much more like budget that I was hearing on the street from like a truck, you know, and here is like a very small car playing reggaeton.

So it's so cool.

And listening to the loud podcast that got to and the rest of the crew put together, they're at Spotify or with Spotify and Futuro Media to that Connecticut, not as much as New York, but Connecticut and and a little bit of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Some of those towns in Massachusetts did have, you know, some sway and reggaeton.

In even in, in Colombia and, on the island, too.

So, I mean, there is a, there definitely is a place for Connecticut in the reggaeton scene, but, but the, the yes, they face some barriers when it comes to having their say on what's going on politically, not just, not necessarily locally here, because with the diaspora here, but federal elections is what we're thinking about.

How much say, do they exactly have in those elections?

I mean, the saying is, of course we pay taxes, but we don't get the benefits of that.

And that's because we can vote in the primaries.

But, on the island, you don't get a say in who the president is, which is kind of the biggest thing, right?

You get to vote for the governor.

Not a president.

I want to make that clear.

That is a distinction that some do not make.

But, you get a say in your local representatives, but not how we're represented on the national level.

You know, we are part of the U.S., but are we more part of Latin America?

And that's kind of the the two worlds.

We live in one foot in one world at all times.

And so the diaspora does get a say.

And you see that in areas like here, Orlando, New York, those very large hubs of Puerto Rican populations are now using their voice and voting in ways that they couldn't when they were on the island.

Something that Bad Bunny gets a lot of praise for is trying to expand society's definition of masculinity.

But is that something you talk about in your course?

Oh yes.

Yes, this is like one of the student's most favorite topics.

You know, I think that's another thing when when we talk about politics and what political means, right.

Like Charles mentioned, you know, what kind of like political change is happening through this music.

That's one way to measure politics.

But I think another way to measure politics is to think about the role of popular culture in, spurring conversations and creating norms.

Right.

Or contesting norms.

And Bad Bunny has always, challenged ideas about masculinity in his presentation.

So, for example, when he first came out, this seems like something silly, but it's actually significant.

I think, he was known for wearing sort of flamboyant clothes, brightly colored clothes and short shorts.

And, you know, that's very different from your typical reggaeton artist who was wearing clothing like, Sean John or like, I don't know if anybody even remembers those brands, but, you know, the hip hop styles of 20 years ago.

And that little thing of wearing short shorts or eventually painting his fingernails was a huge moment in this culture that is so steeped in machismo.

Right.

And having this very hyper masculine represented.

And, he then moves on to sometimes wearing women's clothing.

Right.

He's a very famous cover of him on Harper's Bazaar wearing a skirt.

And like, high fashion in women's clothing and talking about how he's interested in whatever makes him feel good and how then eventually moving on to saying, you know, he's only publicly dated women, but maybe someday I'll date a man who knows.

So this kind of expression of fluidity, support of the queer community.

I also just want to mention another video that, again, on the surface, it's a song called Your Betrayal.

So it's about a woman who just wants to go to the club and dance by herself.

Right.

In that music video, he famously wears drag, right?

And so I think that's a form of politics, too, in terms of kind of pushing the envelope of, of masculinity and creating more acceptance of the queer community in a place that is rife with homophobia and transphobia.

So I would be simply doing a disservice by continuing the fawning.

I've had major critiques of Bad Bunny in Time magazine, in public in my op ed for a Missoula, because while he does a lot of things that are amazing, and I hop for him for that, there's a lot of things that he is learning in real time and isn't honest about, and especially with his connection with blackness.

And, you know, there's this conversation on his rise, let's all be for real.

There was a void in Latin music because of the betrayal of the supposed and the alleged murder of Kevin by Ozuna and by Bunny and his team intelligently saw this void, and he put on his Superman cape and said, I love the gay people.

And that's literally when he started to transform his branding in a very smart and intelligent way.

Am I, as a queer person who I feel for sure.

Is that all that that is?

I mean, maybe because it's very performative, not my words, the words of actual trans Saviano and piano.

So I'm concerned this is not just with Bad Bunny.

This is in, in general with the idea that music somehow has a political influence.

Because part of what we're seeing is the displacement of traditional leftist politics that are focused on a critique of capitalism, the economic conditions of capitalism that address the material conditions of people housing, cheap housing, higher wages, health care, etc.. And then we moved to the sort of protest celebration that focuses on norms and culture at the expense of actual politics, engaging institutions.

And I'm worried that when we celebrate or recall artists social critique, we elevate that, or I should say, a little better.

We treat that as a political messaging.

We're depoliticized what our traditional politics.

And by that I mean we have a civil rights movement that had protest but also had a political agenda to change legislation.

And now there are some artists that that are that stand behind legislation.

I'm not a swiftie, but Taylor Swift stands behind by the Violence Against Women Act, and she supports legislation.

She's pushing for some changes for women.

And that seems to me a little bit more concrete than simply.

You're saying, here's the perfect way to say it.

You're saying that Bad Bunny is says that he's against Ricardo Rossello, but he doesn't necessarily pick a successor or pick, or get behind, of movement and put himself out there as far as he could.

You're saying what?

I mean, he did support, the Alianza and Del Mundo, but but he's not offering an alternative.

Okay?

I mean, he gets involved in politics, we end up with a right wing candidate or a governor.

So, you know, I'm sorry, but.

Yeah.

Lucy and later Jennifer Gonzalez.

So his every time he's involved, we end up with this sort of right wing system of government that's even worse than the one before.

But the.

That's not his fault.

That's just part of the local culture in Puerto Rico.

No, my concern is that if you criticized, say, Luma in L.A., by going, what's the alternative that you're offering?

Worse, that's statement.

Where's that political, argument that you want to offer as an alternative?

If you're criticizing colonialism, what's the alternative that you're offering?

Is that independence?

And what does that look like?

And I'm also concerned with the basic focus on socioeconomic conditions of people.

There you have it, a record breaking artist using his platform to rap on the history of Puerto Rico migration inequities and struggles.

For more on the Bad Bunny course at Yale, check out Puerto Rican Communities reporter at Connecticut Public Rachel Iacovone latest profile on students taking the class.

We'll link it on our show page.

This show was produced by Chloe Wynn and edited by Patrick Scahill.

I thank them for their work along with our operations talk show and visuals department at Connecticut Public.

A banner year for the Wheelhouse in 2025.

That does it for us in 2025.

See you next Wednesday at 9 a.m.. We kick off 2026 for Connecticut Public.

I'm Frankie Graziano.

Happy New Year.