When Tango Becomes a Story: conversation with Juan Venegas

Sometimes tango gives you a tanda… and sometimes it gives you a book that feels like a milonga: funny, tender, a little awkward, and quietly brutal in the most human way.

In this episode, I sit down with Juan Venegas, author of The Infinite Walk — a tango novel that made me laugh out loud and pause in that “wait… that’s actually true” way. We talk about what it means to write tango without turning it into cliché, why tango stories work better when they’re emotional (not instructional), and how you translate a world full of codes, desire, and community into something readable for dancers and non-dancers.

We also get into:

• why tango doesn’t work in “utopia” (and why humor matters)

• how you explain tango to outsiders without losing the insiders

• tango as a social ecosystem: who we notice, who we avoid, and what we misread

• the title story behind The Infinite Walk (it’s peak tango-community magic)

If you like tango conversations that feel like they happened at a milonga table - a little poetic, a little nerdy, and very real - you’ll love this one.

LINKS + EXTRAS (in the show notes):

• 🎧 Playlist: Songs featured The Infinite Walk - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WSTVg76I45U7zoUlYgOOP?si=c4abcdbc465841ab

• 🎬 Book trailer (YouTube) - https://juan-venegas.com/the-infinite-walk/

• 📚 Get the book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G673YPT6

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Music courtesy of La Santa Calavera Orchestra.

Thumbnail picture courtesy of Constantinos Papachristidis.