Is Puerto Rico the most important place in the world? Jorell Meléndez-Badillo thinks there’s a case to be made. On March 17, the CLS affiliate faculty member shared his thoughts about the archipelago’s influence on global popular culture with Carlos Dávalos, guest host of “A Public Affair” on community radio station WORT. He noted that, as scholar Laura Briggs has suggested, Puerto Rico’s importance derives from its status as a global crossroads, bringing the Atlantic, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States together. He also described the richness of Puerto Rico’s musical culture, reflected on his own recent collaborations with the international Reggaetón star Bad Bunny, and discussed the future of Puerto Rican studies and what the field can tell us about colonialism more broadly. Jorell Meléndez-Badillo is an associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at the University, and the co-director of the Puerto Rican Studies Hub at UW-Madison.