On a very special episode of the Production Night. Podcast host Sara Rott collaborates with the host of the Spears Sports report Daniela Ramirez to bid farewell to Juan Daniel Avila.

Recapping back to the last week of the semester, Avila reflects on his time at the Daily Aztec and the content he produced.

“My favorite was my opinion piece in 2021 about DACA recipients because I don't usually do stuff like that,” Avila said. “But I feel like my opinion as a recipient, had to be told during that time and that was the most memorable.”

Rott and Ramirez end the podcast reflecting on the year and discussing what comes next for the podcasts.

An exciting year is ahead for both podcasts, stay tuned to hear the hosts bring you new and exciting content.

On a very special episode of Production Night, assistant sports editor Andrew Finley joins social media and podcast editor Sara Rott to say goodbye to The Daily Aztec. Finley, who's graduating this year, reflects back on his time working at the Daily Aztec.

First, Finley and Rott reminisce about their early days at their community college newspaper The Summit. It was at that newspaper that they met for the first time. As well as both got their first taste of a newsroom.

In Finley’s two years of working for The Daily Aztec, he reflected back on his favorite articles he ever wrote. Two of them being sports articles, “Aztecs win five-hour slugfest in walk-off fashion” and  “Column: Is Brigham Young football actually good?”. He also reflected on his latest article “Miles McPherson offers a ‘Third Option’,” written with managing editor Trinity Bland

Finley gave some advice to new staff writers and editors coming onto The Daily Aztec staff.

“Be a better leader than you are a worker,” he said. “When you're an editor you're in charge of a group of writers and a new wave of people, you can’t tell people what to do, you have to inspire them.”

The Spear Sports Report returns after a break from the men’s Mountain West Conference basketball tournament. Senior staff writer Juan Daniel Avila and staff writer Daniela Ramirez introduce one of the Daily Aztec sports writers Marco Perez.

In this episode, the three discuss what their experience covering the games in Las Vegas was like as well as explaining how the opportunity to watch college basketball in real-time was for each of them. Perez highlights the greats and tough moments the basketball team had during the conference.

The semester is coming to an end but sports are still in full swing at San Diego State. Speaking of swing, men’s baseball and women’s softball are both on different kinds of paths this year, and we’re both mentioned on this episode along with other spring sports finishing off the school year.

Perez, who is our Aztecs golf beat writer on staff, gave the listeners an update on the team and the achievements earned this spring.

Podcast host Sara Rott is back with photographer Jessica Parga and arts and culture staff writer Morgan Ray for the promised Part Two of “Production Night”’s special Oscars episode!

We pick up where we left off on the topic of best film and best actor. Parga finally saw Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake so our three cool cats get into a couple differences between the two film versions of the famed musical (besides the remediation of the older version’s use of brownface). Which side character got the reinvention they deserved?

The hosts tip their hat to Kristin Stewart in “Spencer” and give well deserved shout outs to Will Smith and the cast of “King Richard” as well as Denzel Washington’s powerful lead performance in “The Tragedy of Macbeth” (which exposes Ray's high school theater past).

As noted in Part One, there’s a staggering ten nominations for Best Picture this year…but how many of them actually deserved a spot and which films got robbed? Ray knows one Netflix film that deserved a lot more love from the Academy…and which film it should’ve replaced.

May the best film win!

On this special two-part episode of “Production Night”, host Sara Rott, staff writer Morgan Ray and photographer Jessica Parga gather around to discuss a few of the nominees for the 2022 Oscars!

Part one kicks off with the gang discussing the (many) nominees for Best Picture including “Don’t Look Up”, which they have some…thoughts about. The sci-fi desert epic “Dune” fairs better in our hosts’ eyes and “Drive My Car's" winning streak on the international film festival circuit gets a well-deserved shoutout! Could this be a sign of things to come or wishful thinking?

Likewise, some of the nominees for Best Animated Film (“Encanto”, “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”, “Flee”) which means yes, they WILL be talking about Bruno! How could they not when the aforementioned song is dominating the Internet and the charts…but not the Best Original Song category? One guest may have the answer to that!

Finally, the episode closes with a mini debate over “Being The Ricardos.” Sure the gang loves Lucy, but did they all love Aaron Sorkin’s biopic about the real Lucy and Desi?

Listen to this very special episode of “Production Night” to find out now!

On this episode of Spear Sports Report, senior sports reporter Juan Daniel Avila was joined by Daily Aztec sports reporter and East Village Times writer Austin Tarke.

For the first time on the podcast, Avila is able to take over the show as Daniela Ramirez prepares for the big week in Vegas.

Austin Tarke is a San Diego native and grew up watching the Aztecs’ men’s basketball team and still follows the Aztecs very closely.

Tarke is currently the  San Diego State men’s basketball beat writer for East Village Times and will be representing the publication in Las Vegas, Nevada this weekend starting with their first game on Thursday night.

The expert himself talks all about the Aztecs’ chances of winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament, upsets, and history.

Tarke also talks about his love for the sport and the daily meditation strategy he uses to stay focused and live in the present moment.