Ronald Acuña Jr.'s La Bestia Podcast Is About More Than Baseball

Ronald Acuña Jr. is hitting .339 with five home runs and a 1.025 OPS over his last 15 games, and the Atlanta Braves are pushing toward October. His response to the stretch run was to start a podcast. This week Acuña officially launched the La Bestia podcast, "La Bestia with Ronald Acuña Jr.," a culture-first show distributed by iHeartMedia's My Cultura Podcast Network and built with Rimas Sports, the agency co-founded by Bad Bunny that also represents Acuña.

The title means "the beast," a nickname Acuña has carried for years, but the show is not a baseball podcast in the usual sense. iHeart describes it as a series about the heart of Latino identity: familia, hustle, music, pressure, pride, and the mindset it takes to become "La Bestia" in your own life. So if you are waiting for pitch-by-pitch breakdowns, keep waiting. This one is about where Acuña comes from and the people who made him.

The guest list tells you everything about the show

The 61-minute first episode is a conversation with Acuña's father, Ronald Acuña Sr. iHeart's episode description says his dad brings the laughs, the untold stories, and some tears: his own journey, the family's beginnings in Venezuela, and the sacrifices behind his son's rise. It is a real get for a new show. Acuña's dad helped raise one of baseball's most exciting players, and he has never had a platform to tell that story at length.

Episode two features Kansas City Royals infielder Maikel Garcia for 56 minutes. They talk about his childhood, his deepest fears, his dreams, and how becoming a father changed everything. Garcia and Acuña were teammates on the Venezuelan squad that won the World Baseball Classic, and the episode promises never-before-told behind-the-scenes stories from that tournament. The announced guest list keeps going in the same direction: rapper and singer Guaynaa, Luisangel Acuña, Gleyber Torres, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., internet personality Marko Terzo, and mentalist Michel Gallero, according to iHeartMedia's announcement.

New episodes of the La Bestia podcast come out every Wednesday. The first one went live on September 16, 2026, and the show is available on the iHeartRadio app and wherever podcasts are heard, with full video episodes on iHeart and YouTube. This is not a vanity project recorded in a closet. There is serious distribution behind it.

This is the new athlete media playbook

Acuña's timing fits a pattern. The locker room press scrum gives athletes about 90 seconds of canned quotes. A podcast gives them an hour of their own narrative. They pick the guests, they pick the topics, and the clip people share is the one they recorded themselves. For a player who has always worn his Venezuelan pride openly, that kind of control matters. His Instagram announcement put it simply: "Here we come to tell the full story, as far as it gets personal. The Beast is now available. Listen and subscribe."

The business setup is specific, and it tells its own story. Rimas Sports launched in 2023 out of Puerto Rico to sit at the intersection of sports, music, and Latino culture. It now represents more than 60 elite athletes, including Fernando Tatis Jr., padel world No. 1 Agustín Tapia, and 2025 WBO champion Xander Zayas. Pairing that agency with My Cultura, which launched in May 2021 and now houses more than 60 shows from Lele Pons, Ana Navarro, Wilmer Valderrama, and Eva Longoria, gives La Bestia an instant cultural lane. A generic sports show would not have that.

The launch date was clearly deliberate. Acuña announced the show on Instagram during an off day before the Braves traveled to face the Houston Astros, in the middle of a surge that had him posting a 1.025 OPS across 15 games after missing chunks of the season with lower body issues. When you are hitting like that and October is coming, everything you touch turns into a headline. Starting the podcast now lets the show ride the playoff buzz instead of fighting for attention in November.

Why it might actually be good

Most athlete podcasts are unlistenable. Either they are brand exercises with a microphone, or they are two friends rambling with no structure. La Bestia has a few things the others usually lack. The theme is specific. Shows about "life and sports" tend to drift and die, and this one has a thesis: what it takes, personally and culturally, to carry the name La Bestia. Every announced guest maps onto it. The guest list is not just other ballplayers either. A reggaeton singer, a mentalist, an internet personality. That suggests producers who are thinking about the audience, not just the athlete's phone contacts. And episode one leads with the dad, not the highlight reel. That takes confidence, and it says the show believes Acuña's story is interesting before the baseball ever enters the room.

The launch was announced by iHeartMedia, which laid out the My Cultura Podcast Network and Rimas Sports partnership plus the first season's guest lineup. Athlon Sports reported the launch on September 17, noting Acuña's hot streak at the plate and quoting his Instagram announcement about telling the full story. Episode details, including the Wednesday release schedule and the show's focus on Latino identity, come from La Bestia's official iHeart page. For more on where podcasting is headed right now, GenZNewZ recently covered the Giggly Squad's $140M SiriusXM deal and Spotify expanding its podcast partner program to 35 markets, and if you want the rest of baseball's October picture, there's Aaron Judge's calf strain threatening the Yankees' postseason.