Today we bring you a special podcast checking on the status of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Julio Ricardo Varela, co-host of our sister podcast In The Thick, is a native of Puerto Rico, and has been intensely reporting on the hurricane. So he wanted to dispel some myths about what’s happening on the island. We hear from the First Lady of Puerto Rico, Beatriz Rosselló, about her take on the devastation. And we get a sense of what Puerto Rico feels like now from Latino USA producer Andrés Caballero, who is on the ground reporting for an upcoming episode.

Featured image: A man walks past a house laying in flood water in Cataño, Puerto Rico, on September 21, 2017. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images)