Award-Winning Journalist Reveals How To Get Anyone To Open Up | Erick Galindo

<p>At seven years old, <strong>Erick Galindo</strong> was translating for his parents at the bank, at the hospital, and in front of police and immigration officials. His Spanish wasn&#39;t great, so he had to take official language written for highly educated people and break it down into the simplest words he knew.</p><p>He&#39;s been doing some version of that ever since.</p><p>Erick has written for The New York Times, the LA Times and NPR, led L.A. Taco to a James Beard Award as its founding managing editor, and made Ídolo, a podcast that went to No. 1 in Mexico. Today he&#39;s the Community, Culture and Arts Editor at The LA Local, where reporters hold coffee hours in neighborhood shops and the newsroom&#39;s first question in a crisis is how to help the people living through it.</p><p>Pia and Kelly ask him how he earns trust so fast. His answer starts with going first. He once got a guarded celebrity to open up about the time she lived in her car by telling her he&#39;d lived in his car too.</p><p>This episode is about trust, plain language, and showing up for people before you need something from them. It applies whether you&#39;re running a newsroom, a corporate comms team, or a thousand-person warehouse floor.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><p>• What translating hospital bills and immigration paperwork as a kid taught him about plain language</p><p>• The vulnerability move that gets guarded people talking</p><p>• How his newsroom covered a toxic warehouse fire: moving beyond sensationalism by helping people first</p><p>• Why local news is still the most trusted source, and what&#39;s lost as it disappears</p><p>• Why &quot;community&quot; is the most overused word in comms right now</p><p>• Getting laid off in a room full of people, and the one-on-one call every layoff deserves</p><p>• What his dad told him at the kitchen table that became his superpower</p><p>• His advice for young communicators in the age of AI: take a beat</p><p><br></p><p>If you&#39;re an exec or communicator who wants people to actually trust what you say, this episode is for you.</p><p>You can support Erick&#39;s work at The LA Local and find him on Instagram under his name, Erick Galindo.</p><p>And make sure you subscribe to Well Said on all platforms to get new episodes every Wednesday.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>TIMESTAMPS</strong></p><p><strong>01:30</strong> Welcome Erick Galindo</p><p><strong>01:48</strong> Translating for his parents as a kid</p><p