A Year in the Dark

Love it or hate it, one buzzing horn changed the sound of the World Cup forever. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by ... Show More

In 1861, one man and a “gas bag” filled with hydrogen sparked America's obsession with going higher, farther, into the unknown. In this episode, Roman and journalist Jack Hitt tell the story of Thaddeus Lowe — showman, scientist, and dreamer — whose balloon flight from Cincinnati ... Show More

Behind every cheesy karaoke track was a surprisingly ambitious filmmaking experiment. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Host ... Show More

Hurricane Maria touched down in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. It knocked out power for months and killed nearly 3,000. Years later, the island still bears the storm’s scars. Laura Marrero, a college student in San Juan, vlogged the storm and its aftermath.Source Material is ... Show More

Samira Hussain takes you to Puerto Rico. Back to back hurricanes 5 years ago shattered the island's electricity grid, leading to the longest blackout in American history. Residents are still trying to claw their way out of the darkness. But one Puerto Rican town, in the island's ... Show More

Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 and for much of the next fifty years Puerto Ricans fought fiercely about this status. Should they struggle for independence, or to be a U.S. state, or something in between? In this episode, we look at Puerto Rico's relationship with the ... Show More

After Hurricane Maria knocked out power on Puerto Rico for months, Ada Ramona Miranda Alvarado worked to protect communities on the island against future outages, using solar power. A transcript of this episode is available at https://bit.ly/3OjofW2. 

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 ... Show More

<p>As the sun came up over Florida yesterday, a fuller picture began to emerge of the destruction that Hurricane Ian had inflicted on the state and its residents.</p><p>The Category 4 storm washed away roads, bridges, cars, boats and homes. The damage is so extensive that, accord ... Show More

<p>After Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans, leaving destruction in its wake, comparisons with Hurricane Katrina were made.</p><p>There are, however, big differences between the two disasters — namely that the city, in the 16 years since Katrina, has heavily invested in flood defenses ... Show More

<p>Hurricane Otis, which killed more than two dozen people in southern Mexico this week, exemplified a phenomenon that meteorologists fear will become more and more common: a severe hurricane that arrives with little warning or time to prepare.</p><p>Judson Jones, who covers natu ... Show More