Futuro Studios’ Pulitzer Prize-Winning Podcast ‘Suave’ Returns for a Gripping Season Two
April 15, 2025 /
Futuro Studios’ Pulitzer Prize-Winning Podcast ‘Suave’ Returns for a Gripping Season Two
New Season Explores the Hidden Struggles of Life After Incarceration
NEW YORK, NY – April 15, 2025 – Suave, the groundbreaking podcast from Futuro Studios that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting, is returning for a highly anticipated second season on April 15. Episodes will roll out weekly on Tuesdays. The award-winning series continues its deeply personal and unflinching look at the complexities of the criminal justice system—this time, through the lens of life after incarceration.
Seven years after his release from prison, former juvenile lifer David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez seems to be thriving. His career has taken off, he’s in a committed relationship, and he’s received public recognition after telling his story on the podcast. Suave always thought once he was out of prison and found stability in his new life, he would finally feel truly free. But freedom, it turns out, is more complicated than it seems.
In Suave: Season 2, we experience the long shadow of prison as Suave struggles with the challenges of life on the outside. Suave must learn how relationships work outside of prison. He is often torn between his desire to move on from incarceration and being there for his prison buddies left behind. He must battle feeling trapped by the constrictions of lifetime parole. Then, when an unexpected event triggers old wounds, Suave finds himself at a crossroads—facing the risk of losing everything he’s built.
“For me, this season is a journey into the heart of societal failure that perpetuates cycles of poverty, incarceration, and hopelessness. It’s about navigating the complexities of trauma, PTSD, and the agonizing slow process of rebuilding a life after incarceration,” said Suave, who is both subject and co-executive producer of the podcast
“Suave: Season 2 is an emotional roller coaster. After I listened to it I called Suave and simply said thank you for your honesty. This is an emotional exercise in radical transparency and intimate vulnerability. We break the myth that being free means being happy while Suave and I come to terms with the outside world seeing us as friends when the truth is much more complicated,” said Maria Hinojosa, executive producer.
April marks National Second Chance Month, a time to confront the barriers faced by formerly incarcerated individuals and the ongoing fight for their reintegration. At this critical moment, Suave: Season 2 offers an unfiltered look at life after prison, the weight of lifelong parole, and the struggle for freedom.
“We hear a lot of stories about second chances. But often less about what happens in the years after—when the excitement of release starts to wear off and the reality of having to start life over sets in. This season of Suave is complicated, but it’s honest. It’s a raw, unfiltered look at the complexities of freedom and being human,” said Julieta Martinelli, host of Suave: Season 2.
The return of Suave builds on Futuro Studios’ legacy of powerful, people-centered storytelling. Season 1, acclaimed for its raw, first-person perspective on the prison system, explored incarceration, redemption, and the complex relationship between a journalist and a source—ultimately earning the prestigious 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting.
Suave: Season 2 premieres is available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, and FuturoStudios.org.
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About Futuro Media
Futuro Media is an independent, non-profit news media organization and podcast studio founded in 2010 by Pulitzer Prize winner Maria Hinojosa. Based in Harlem, NYC, Futuro Media produces the Peabody Award-winning Latino USA, the longest-running public radio Latino news and cultural program, which celebrated 30 years on the air in 2023, Futuro Studios, focused on original podcasts and programming including Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave, and acclaimed podcasts La Brega, Anything for Selena, and The Sum of Us, In The Thick, a podcast about politics, unfiltered, and our IRE and Murrow award-winning Futuro Investigates, our investigative journalism arm that produced the USA v. García Luna podcast, the After Uvalde: Guns, Grief & Texas Politics documentary.
About Futuro Studios
Futuro Studios is a Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast studio from Futuro Media, committed to uplifting voices, stories and perspectives that have been historically overlooked in the world of audio. They partner with some of the world’s top media companies to produce beautiful storytelling that centers Latinx, Black, Indigenous and immigrant experiences.
Futuro has been at the helm of have of critically-acclaimed projects such as Anything For Selena (WBUR), La Brega (WNYC), LOUD: The History of Reggaeton (Spotify), The Last Cup (NPR), and The Sum of Us (Higher Ground), among others. Our podcast Ídolo: The Ballad of Chalino Sánchez (Sonoro) won two 2023 Ambie Awards, and Suave (PRX) was the recipient of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting.
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