🎙️ Episode Description – “The Legend of Dude: Violence, Puerto Rico, Cheap Flights & Breaking the Cycle”

In this episode, we sit down with one of the most quietly iconic people at ESPN: Jose — better known simply as Dude.

What starts as a long-form hang with an old coworker becomes a sweeping life story about survival, family, identity, grief, and the strange ways we become who we are.

Dude grew up between Puerto Rico, Coney Island, and the Bellevue Square projects, navigating poverty, violence at home, chaotic family dynamics, and the kind of teenage hustles that could have easily led to prison.

Somehow, he didn’t just survive — he built a life, raised kids, became a grandfather, and turned himself into a workplace legend everyone knows by one name.

The conversation mixes comedy and heaviness the way only Dude can.

One minute he’s ranting about cursed cheap flights, banging on the glass at the tiny New Haven Avelo terminal, or reliving the moment he screamed “THIS IS IT!” during turbulence.

The next minute he’s talking about taking his mom’s ashes back to Puerto Rico and feeling that “happy-sad” nostalgia of confronting his own history.

We get into how he formed his identity, why “Dude” stuck, and how that nickname became his entire work persona.

We talk about what it means to spend 15+ years at ESPN, approach retirement, and wonder what people will remember when you’re gone.

There’s humor, but also real tenderness — like the moment he realizes my cat is literally named after him.

Beneath it all is a powerful arc about breaking generational cycles.

Dude grew up watching men beat his mother and grew up being beaten himself.

He talks openly about the vow he made to never become that man — and how close he came at times.

He’s reflective about his flaws: his temper, the yelling, the years he stayed in a marriage that was hurting him.

His story isn’t about perfection.

It’s about making one crucial decision: the cycle stops with me.

He shares stories of the projects, stealing sneakers from train cars, nights of drinking Wild Turkey, and the strange comfort of being known in a dangerous neighborhood.

We hear about his grandfather — a fisherman, a provider, a machete-wielding force of nature — and the tightrope of fear and love that shaped him.

We dig into parenting: raising kids who were scared of his voice, helping his daughter choose where to live, adopting his wife’s son and giving him his name, and becoming a grandfather who finds peace in a quieter life.

And inevitably, we talk mortality.

Dude casually mentions cancer, reflects on working since he was 13, and wonders whether his best years are behind him or still ahead.

Yet he describes his current life — work, kids, grandkids, routine — with genuine love.

This episode is ultimately about:

• How a kid surrounded by chaos built a calmer life • Humor as a survival mechanism • The power of one adult’s guidance • How “cheap shortcuts” cost more • What legacy really means when you’re not chasing titles • How to honor your past without letting it own you

It’s funny, raw, and deeply human — the purest version of Dude you’ll ever hear.

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