Radio Atlantic

What Puerto Rico Needs Most

Can an island that keeps getting pummeled by hurricanes ever be free?
Executive Producer Claudine Ebeid speaks with Atlantic contributors Jaquira Díaz and Robinson Meyer about what the island's status as a commonwealth means for recovery and modernizing its power grid.

Background Reading

Why Jaquira Díaz believes “Puerto Rico Needs Independence, Not Statehood.”


Imani Perry on natural disasters and colonialism


Why Puerto Rico's problems go beyond its debt crisis



This episode was hosted by Claudine Ebeid, and produced by A.C. Valdez with help from Kevin Townsend. Fact check by Isabel Cristo. The managing editor is Andrea Valdez and the executive editor for The Atlantic is Adrienne LaFrance
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The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about certain ideas.
The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.