Joaquín Barañao Díaz (Santiago, Chile, January 6, 1982) is a Chilean writer and

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

, who specialized in books and podcasts about history. Specifically on freak fun facts about different topics.

Biography

Barañao attended to Colegio San Ignacio El Bosque (1987–1999) and then

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC Chile; ) is a traditional private university based in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the thirteen Catholic universities existing in Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical unive ...

(2000-2006), where he got a degree in

hydraulic engineering Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the move ...

Career

His first job was as an advisor to

Andrés Allamand Andrés Allamand Zavala (born February 7, 1956), a Chilean politician, is the founder and one of the past leaders of Renovación Nacional. He is of French, and Basque descent. On January 14, 2011 he was named Minister of Defense by president Se ...

, then senator of the XVI district (2006–2010). Then worked in the government of

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (; 1 December 1949 – 6 February 2024) was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as President of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic Party (C ...

, first in the President's cabinet and later in the cabinet of the undersecretary of the interior, Rodrigo Ubilla, coordinating the reform of the migratory legislation (2011–2014). He has provided advice on matters related to the Chile/Argentina 2030 Strategic Forum project.

Writer

His first book started to take form in 2003, when he began compiling anecdotes and curious facts in a website. Only eleven years later, in December 2014, he published his first book on

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...

''Historia universal freak'' (A Freak World History), which a year later was released in paperback by

Planeta Group Planeta Corporación, S.R.L., doing business as Grupo Planeta (), is a Spanish mass media conglomerate operating in Spain, Portugal, France and Latin America. It is headquartered in Madrid. Editorial Planeta, founded in 1949, was the seed of Gru ...

. The book narrates the history from the

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

to the present, through curious facts. The first volume remained 20 weeks in the ''

El Mercurio (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. is owned by El Mercurio S.A.P. (''Sociedad Anónima Periodística'' 'joint stock news company'), which operates a network of ...

'' non fiction bestselling list . A second volume of the work, was published in December 2016 and remained in the aforementioned list for seven weeks. ''Historia freak del fútbol'' (A Freak History of

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

) was released in May 2016, and appeared three weeks in the same ranking. In June 2017, that book was rewarded by the Instituto de Historia y Estadística del Fútbol Chileno as the best soccer book of the year. In July 2017 was released ''Historia freak de la música'' (A Freak History of Music), point at which Barañao declared that his next projects were a book about the history of film for 2018, and then another one about the

history of Chile The territory of Chile has been populated since at least 3000 BC. By the 16th century, Spanish invaders began to raid the region of present-day Chile, and the territory was a colony from 1540 to 1818, when it gained Chilean War of Independence, i ...

. ''Historia Freak de la Música'' was in the bestselling list for two weeks.

Style

Barañao concentrates long periods of time in middle-sized books, originating text of very high density of information and numerous curiosities, each of which is contains a bibliographic reference. The general tone is playful, ironic and irreverent, with continuous references to humour and sarcasm Barañao acknowledges in his work the influence of the writer

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson ( ; born 8 December 1951) is an American-British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has be ...

Bibliography

* ''Historia universal freak'', volume 1,

, 2015; * ''Historia universal freak'', volume 2, Planeta, 2016; * ''Historia freak del fútbol'', Planeta, 2016; * ''Historia freak de la música'', Planeta, 2017; * ''Historia freak del cine'', volume 1, Planeta, 2018; * ''Historia freak del cine'', volume 2, Planeta, 2018; * ''Historia freak de Chile'', volume 1, Planeta, 2019; * ''Historia freak de Chile'', volume 2, Planeta, 2020; *''¿Qué nos pasó Chile?''; Ed. Trayecto, 2020 *''Dinología Freak''; Planeta, 2021;

References

External links

Chat and coffee with Joaquín Barañao at "Hoy nos toca", Buenos Aires City Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barañao, Joaquín Writers from Santiago, Chile Chilean male writers Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni 1982 births Living people