Podcast Summary: Hoy por Hoy – “El Rincón y la Esquina | Las Preocupaciones”

Host: SER Podcast | Date: December 3, 2025
Participants: Marta Sanz, Manuel Delgado, Reina, with listener calls

Episode Overview

This episode, hosted by Marta Sanz and Manuel Delgado, delves into the theme of preoccupations: what worries us, why we worry, the origins and types of worries, and the cultural, familial, and even political structures that organize our collective anxieties. The tone is reflective, conversational, sometimes humorous, balancing cultural references and listener engagement.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origin and Nature of Preoccupations

• Personal Anecdote Spark:
  The episode topic originates from an incident involving Severino Donate, the team’s scriptwriter who failed to send the usual script on time, causing Marta and Manuel to leap to catastrophic assumptions, demonstrating how preoccupations are fueled by past experiences and overactive imagination.

  • [01:33] Reina: “Yo creo que nuestras preocupaciones, y de ahí surgió todo el tema, nacen un poco de nuestra capacidad para anticipar los problemas...”

• Imagination and Worry:
  Fantasists or creative people often foresee more potential scenarios (“peliculeras”), amplifying their worry but also often being creative in finding solutions.

  • [04:01] Reina: “La fantasía y las preocupaciones yo creo que tienen mucho que ver.”

2. Somatization and Everyday Worry

• Physical Impact:
  Worry manifests physically—distractedness, tension, somatic “face of worry." The discussion notes that preoccupation is, linguistically, what comes before actual occupation or action.

  • [04:33] Manuel Delgado: "…es una cuestión somática, Lo somatizas, la preocupación. Se te ve cara de estar más distraído, de tener la cabeza en otro sitio..."

• Imagination vs. Reality:
  Often, reality is less dire than our imaginings. Anticipatory anxiety sometimes serves to cushion disappointment, though often it is excessive.

3. Varieties and Hierarchies of Worry

• From the Existential to the Mundane:
  Worries range from cosmic existential concerns (“¿De dónde venimos? ¿A dónde vamos?”) to health anxieties or everyday family matters.

  • [13:03] Manuel Delgado: “Hay el tema de la preocupación cósmica, ya sabes, de dónde venimos, a donde vamos...”

• Cultural Differences:
  The hosts contrast the stereotypically “Mediterranean” coping style (expressive, hands-on, familial) with Anglo-Saxon approaches (stoic, efficient), and touch on how globalization blends these.

  • [09:46] Reina: “En mi casa tenemos una naturaleza bastante mediterránea … quiero creer que funcionamos con otra escala de valores.”

• Perspective on Eastern Philosophy:
  Host Marta resists Eastern stoic or Buddhist approaches, favoring conflict and tension as sources of thought and pleasure:

  • [15:08] Reina: “...si hay algo que decididamente no soy desde un punto de vista espiritual, es oriental... vivir es tener pasiones... el pensamiento y el placer también surgen del conflicto, de la tensión, de la dialéctica.”

4. Collective and Induced Preoccupations

• Social and Political Manipulation:
  Certain worries are “agendadas”—placed on the collective agenda by media, governments, or societal norms, often to render us passive or controllable.

  • [17:52] Manuel Delgado: “Hay pandemias de miedo, de temor, de inquietud, pero muchas de ellas son inducidas por parte de gobiernos y de estados…”
  • [19:13] Marta Sanz: “Nos agendan las preocupaciones.”

• Inequality of Worries:
  Worries differ by social class, gender, and circumstance; the concerns of a privileged host may not match those of, for example, a woman in a marginalized neighborhood. Emphasis on empathy and solidarity in worry.

  • [19:20] Reina: “...es muy probable que una señora de la Cañada Real no tenga las mismas preocupaciones que yo...”

5. The Parental Dimension and Generational Worry

• Overworry in Families:
  A caller and hosts discuss how parents’ worries shape (and sometimes manipulate) children’s lives, and the struggle to let go as children become independent.
  • [30:20] Caller (Rosario): “Yo siempre he sido una madre ansiosa, que me preocupaba por todo, y eso te hace manipuladora, aunque no lo queramos reconocer.”
  • [31:40] Reina: “La preocupación es una cosa muy de padres y de madres. Yo supongo que la preocupación de madres y padres se coloca en un nivel superior...”

6. From Obsession to Acceptance: Personal and Collective Coping

• Perspective & Acceptance:
  Another listener emphasizes the need to put problems in perspective; only death is final, everything else can be managed, echoing a less anxious philosophy but with a call to action and acceptance rather than resignation.
  • [35:04] Caller (Arantxa): “Yo creo que cuando tú aceptas lo que está sucediendo no te resignas y estás activo para buscar soluciones... lo único que no tiene solución es la muerte.”

7. Media, Culture, and Irony

• Critique of Easy Optimism:
  The hosts poke fun at the banality of advice like "Don’t worry, be happy," critiquing songs and slogans that offer simplistic solace while masking underlying manipulation.

  • [25:28] Reina: “...hay que vivir pese a la preocupación y las preocupaciones hay que vivir sin cerrar los ojos, hay que mantener la alegría pero. Pero sin caer tampoco en el gilipollismo...”
  • [25:57] Reina: “Don’t worry, be happy que a mí es una canción que lejos de transmitirme buen rollo lo que me producía era una mala leche increíble...”

• Use of Films and Cultural References:
  Quotes and scenes from La octava mujer de Barbazul, Avanti, Senderos de gloria, Buscando a Nemo and Armagedón enliven the discussion, bringing relatable moments of cinematic anxiety and broader philosophical reflection.

8. Philosophical and Theological Playfulness

• “Does God Worry About Us?”
  Imagining the divine as caregiver, the hosts humorously debate whether God is as exasperated by our ceaseless petitions as any parent, referencing biblical stories of catastrophe and salvation.
  • [21:16] Marta Sanz: “¿A Dios le preocupan nuestras preocupaciones?”
  • [23:32] Manuel Delgado: “Yo soy Dios. Le digo, oye, déjame en paz.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Anticipatory Worry:

  "Yo creo que nuestras preocupaciones nacen de nuestra capacidad para anticipar los problemas. Pero para anticipar estos problemas tenemos que partir de una experiencia previa que puede ser más o menos catastrófica."
  -- Reina, [03:02]

• On the Somatization of Worry:

  “…es que además se nos nota que estamos preocupados… El extremo es la obsesión, que es una forma radical de preocupación.”
  -- Manuel Delgado, [04:33]

• On Existential Angst:

  "¿La vida es lo bastante bella como para que encima le queramos pedir que tenga un sentido?"
  -- Manuel Delgado, [13:00]

• On Coping Strategies:

  “A mí todo aquello… me ayudó a poner, pues eso, que antes me preocupaba muchísimo por decir, bueno, a ver que en esta vida lo único que no tiene solución es la muerte.”
  -- Caller (Arantxa), [36:04]

• Critique of Platitudes:

  "No te preocupes, be happy, a mí es una canción que lejos de transmitirme buen rollo lo que me producía era una mala leche increíble."
  -- Reina, [25:57]

Important Timestamps

• [01:33] – Origin of the episode's worry theme, anecdote about Severino Donate
• [04:33] – Discussion on how worry manifests physically and psychologically
• [09:46-11:23] – Consideration of cultural styles in worrying (Mediterranean vs. Anglo-Saxon)
• [13:03] – Existential/cosmic worries vs. practical concerns
• [15:08] – Marta's personal antipathy toward Eastern philosophy of detachment
• [17:52] – Political and social engineering of collective anxieties
• [19:20-21:16] – Hierarchy and agenda of worries, women's worries, and their undervaluing
• [30:20] – Caller Rosario on the manipulative side of parental worry
• [34:55] – Caller Arantxa on accepting what can't be changed after personal loss
• [36:51] – Manuel: “Qué horror. Qué tremendo debe ser que en nadie se preocupe por ti nunca. Yo quiero que alguien se preocupe por mí.”

Key Listener Contributions

• Rosario (Málaga):
  Points out the tendency of parents to worry excessively, sometimes manipulatively, and the need to step back as children grow up.

  • [30:20] “...te hace manipuladora, aunque no lo queramos reconocer... entonces ¿Sabe qué le digo yo? Si yo no lo puedo solucionar, no me lo cuente.”

• Arantxa (Madrid):
  Emphasizes accepting what can’t be changed, keeping problems in perspective after experiencing severe personal losses.

  • [35:04] “...lo único que no tiene solución es la muerte.”

Tone and Concluding Message

Consistently candid, witty, and self-deprecating, the episode treats worry as an unavoidable part of life—something to be acknowledged, sometimes even embraced for its creative or connective potential, but not surrendered to blindly. The hosts remind us to live with eyes open and not to fall for simplistic advice or cultural palliatives (“gilipollismo”), but rather to seek perspective, solidarity, and, above all, a sense of humor in the face of life’s many anxieties.