Li Yun's Library: Podcasts on Puerto Rico

Spend Your Summer With Puerto Rico:
​Podcast Recommendations (Part 3/3)

Welcome back! Today I share the third post in the Spend Your Summer with Puerto Rico series, featuring my newest addiction: podcasts!

In case you missed them, check out:

Part 1: Spend Your Summer with Puerto Rico: Book Recommendations
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Part 2: Spend You Summer with Picture Book Recommendations

I began listening to podcasts this year and now I'm kind of obsessed. I usually listen to episodes while pushing the kiddo around in a stroller to the park or swim class.

I mostly listen to writing related podcasts — more on those some other time — but for today I'm sharing some podcast episodes discussing Puerto Rico.

I've included both recent episodes discussing the current state of affairs on the island and a few from last fall discussing the immediate aftermath of Hurricane María. Under each link are excerpts from the show notes (in italics).

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NPR: All Songs Considered

One of the only good things to come out of Hurricane María was "Almost Like Praying," Lin-Manuel Miranda’s brilliant homage to Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda Explains How He Made His New Benefit Song for Puerto Rico
October 5, 2017

From the Show Notes: Composer and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda has written and recorded a new song to help raise money for hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. Sales of the track, "Almost Like Praying," will go to the Hispanic Federation's Hurricane Relief Fund. It features an all-star cast of Latinx artists, including Jenifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Fat Joe, Ruben Blades, Luis Fonsi, Rita Moreno and many others. In a conversation with NPR Music's Felix Contreras, Miranda explains why he chose to sing the song in Spanish, how he assembled the vast cast of contributors and why he borrowed the song's title and instantly recognizable hook from a line in the West Side Story classic, "Maria."

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Latino Rebels Radio

Latino Rebels Radio has done an excellent job covering Puerto Rico and Hurricane María and its aftermath. Here’s an episode recorded shortly after the Hurricane covering an on-the-ground account, and three more recent episodes discussing the death count in Puerto Rico:

The “New Normal” of Puerto Rico after Hurricane María 
October 8, 2017

From the Show Notes: This week, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela got to talk with his cousin Omar, who lives in Dorado, Puerto Rico, about life after Hurricane Maria.


Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on the Puerto Rico Hurricane María Death Toll
May 30, 2018

From the Show Notes: We did a quick recording with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on Wednesday morning to talk about the new Harvard study which said that the death count in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane María is more than 70 times the official government number of 64 deaths, which would result in a death count of over 4,600 lives.


The Death Count in Puerto Rico After Hurricane María: What's Really Missing
June 10, 2018

From the Show Notes: With news of a Harvard School of Public Health study estimating that there were close to 5,000 excess deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María, we wanted to talk with Alexis Santos Lozada, a Penn State assistant professor who was one of the first researchers to explore the death count last year, months before the Harvard study.


Roselló Says He Would Support Congressional Commission on Hurricane María Death Toll 
June 28, 2018

From the Show Notes: ASPEN, COLORADO — Talking with Latino Rebels Tuesday morning during the Aspen Ideas Festival, Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló said he was open to supporting any calls by Congress to establish an independent commission that would study how deaths were counted in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María.

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Puestos Pa’l Problema

If you understand Spanish — especially the rapid-fire Boricua flavor — you might appreciate this local podcast. 

In these two episodes, recorded in Puerto Rico just weeks after Hurricane María, the hosts discuss the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and María as they experienced them on the island. 

While there’s some political inside baseball that as a mainland Boricua I fully admit I can’t always follow (Puerto Rican island politics is its own beast), I appreciated these frank discussions.

Full Disclosure: NSFW. These guys have no problem using curses, PR slang, and other  “colorful” language, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea — you’ve been warned.

PPP 18: La díaspora y Puerto Rico tras el paso de María
October 13, 2018

From the Show Notes: Regresamos 22 días luego del paso de María y estamos vivos y perreando. Llegamos Puestos pa el problema y hablar de nuestros hermanos en la diáspora.

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PPP 19: Trump, Puerto Rico pos María y el famoso préstamo para Ricky
October 23, 2017

From the Show Notes: A un mes del paso de María, los descojones continúan y hablamos del préstamo para el gobierno de Ricardo Rosselló, explicamos mas o menos los términos. Tenemos que hablar de Trump y otros asuntos.

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NPR: Latino USA

A heartbreaking but useful overview of Puerto Rico’s ongoing debt crisis in two parts. 

Puerto Rico’s Financial Storm, Part One
June 26, 2018

From the Show Notes: Puerto Ricans are still rebuilding after Hurricane María devastated the island and its infrastructure last September. Since then, most of the focus has been on the effects of the Hurricane. Nonetheless, in some ways, the bigger story when it comes to Puerto Rico’s future is the island’s economic crisis.

In part one of a two-part series produced in collaboration with WNYC, business reporter Jane Sasseen looks at how Puerto Rico became mired in billions of dollars worth of debt, how it’s affecting Puerto Ricans today, and what the commonwealth is doing to try to dig itself out of a bankruptcy so big and so sprawling that it makes other historic bankruptcies, like Detroit’s, look small by comparison.


Puerto Rico’s Financial Storm, Part Two
June 29, 2018

From the Show Notes: While Puerto Ricans are still recovering from the destruction left by Hurricane María last September, a financial storm continues to take a toll on people on the island. An 11-year recession has led to austerity measures that threaten to slash budgets for resources like education, and to increase the cost of tuition for the public university.

In the second of a two-part series produced in collaboration with WNYC, Latino USAlooks at how the proposed budget cuts are already changing the lives of Puerto Ricans. We follow Gabriel Negrón, an 18-year-old economics student at the University of Puerto Rico while he fights back against the austerity measures, some of which could determine whether or not he stays in Puerto Rico, or like many others, decides to move to the mainland.

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Why is this Happening? with Chris Hayes

Shock doctrine meets Puerto Rico. Chris Hayes interviews Naomi Klein to discuss Puerto Rico and her most recent book: The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico takes on Disaster Capitalist.

Destruction in Puerto Rico with Naomi Klein
June 19, 2018
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​From the Show Notes: How did Hurricane Maria evolve from a natural disaster into a human catastrophe in Puerto Rico? While the official death count remains at 64, a Harvard study suggests thousands were killed. While the hurricane left its devastating mark on the island, there were already destructive forces at work long before the storm made landfall. Forces that made Puerto Rico uniquely vulnerable to the ravaging effects of the storm and its aftermath.

So when did the problems in Puerto Rico start? And how did they manifest in the lead up and aftermath of Hurricane Maria? Naomi Klein says that to understand what happened you need to go way back before the storm. She explains how Hurricane Maria acted as an accelerant to a process long underway and that could continue to get worse as Puerto Rico tries to pick up the pieces.

Also check out Naomi Klein’s excellent article in The Intercept:

“Puerto Ricans and the Ultrarich 'Puertopians' are locked in a Pitched Struggle Over How to Remake the Island”
March 20, 2018

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Before you go...

Read:

Hurricane Season is Here: Three Ways to Help Puerto Rico Today
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Part 1: Spend Your Summer in PR: Book Recommendations

​Part 2: Spend Your Summer in PR: Picture Books

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