x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Insight Myanmar

Insight Myanmar Podcast

Insight Myanmar is a beacon for those seeking to understand the intricate dynamics of Myanmar. With a commitment to uncovering truth and fostering understanding, the podcast brings together activists, artists, leaders, monastics, and authors to share their first-hand experiences and insights. Each episode delves deep into the struggles, hopes, and resilience of the Burmese people, offering listeners a comprehensive, on-the-ground perspective of the nation"s quest for democracy and freedom. And

news news commentary

All Episodes

02:22:21

Roots of the Dhamma

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/17

Episode #415: UJāgara'sspiritual journey is afascinatingexploration of monastic life, creativity, and the transformative power of the Dhamma. Born in Quebec, his introduction to meditation set him ona path that would span traditionsand continents.Hisspiritual journey wasinitiallyshaped by his time in the Goenka tradition, where he valued the rigor and structure of its method.He later practicedMahasiSayadaw’s teachingsin Yangon, whichintroduced him to the nuanced and adaptive approaches of Burmese

en

01:13:33

Hamburger Hill

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/16

Episode #414: “They justdidn'tbelieve me at first.SoI had to prove to them.” With these words, Xiao YarYarcaptures his struggle for recognition—a struggle that has defined both his personal life and his role in Myanmar’s revolution.When the military staged its coup and dismissed the election as fraudulent, Xiao YarYarknew the generals were lying. He had collected votes and seen the results himself. Watching peaceful protestors shot down shattered any remaining illusions. A student training to be a

en

01:52:17

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/14

Episode #413: “No one's liberated without everyone being liberated, right?” Those words belong to Nitchakarn “Memee” Rakwongrit, a Thai youth activist whose journey from a rural upbringing to the center of Bangkok’s protests has made her one of the country’s most visible young voices for democracy and feminist struggle.Born in Mahasarakham province in Thailand’s Isaan region, a place long tied to grassroots democracy but often dismissed by elites, Memee grew up in a politicized household, as her

en

01:10:56

At The Breaking Point

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/13

Episode #412: “We are in Myanmar, and nothing is clear cut.”Anthony Davis offers a stark assessment of Myanmar’s war, drawing on decades of experience studying insurgencies. He begins with the United Wa State Army, a thirty-thousand-strong force running a state the size of Belgium. “It would be entirely wrong to see the Wa as simply Chinese puppets or Chinese proxies,” Davis insists. The Wa have scaled back arms transfers under Chinese pressure, but they remain determined to expand their autonomy

en

01:02:46

Stairway to Jhāna

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/10

Episode #411: This is the second part of our interview with the meditation teacher, Tempel Smith, and it starts off with his decision “to commit to deep intensive Burmese-style meditation, break through some of these habits, and then find a more integrated lifestyle.” With this in mind, he boarded a flight to Myanmar with his friend Diana Winston, and ordained under Sayadaw U Pandita.Although U Pandita’s reputation as a stern and very demanding teacher caused him some concern, he went to the

en

01:25:07

Everything Will Be Okay

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/09

Episode #410: “We’ve got to find a way from surviving to thriving again.” With this vision, Jue Jue, a social worker and founder of Jue Jue’s Safe Space, seeks to transform Myanmar’s mental health landscape. Raised in a politically engaged family—her father an 88 Generation activist and her mother a frontline social worker—Jue Jue’s early exposure to trauma and resilience shaped her lifelong dedication to social justice.Her understanding of inequality deepened upon moving to the U.S., where her

en

01:43:00

Mined and Forgotten

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/07

Episode #409: His military experience enabled a rapport with Myanmar’s armed actors, says Rory McCann, who recently served almost two years as the country Weapons Contamination Specialist for the ICRC. A challenge at the beginning of the job was to build trust with different conflict parties, in part to convince them that the ICRC was teaching weapons safety regarding landmines and other explosive ordnance, not weapons handling.As a 25-year veteran of the Irish Army, McCann was deployed in Chad,

en

02:15:35

A Narco State of Mind

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/06

Episode #408: “There is no way to tell the story of Myanmar and where it’s headed if you are leaving out theWa,” says Patrick Winn, a veteran Southeast Asia reporter and author ofNarcotopia. His book traces the wild story howWaState, a mountainous enclave on the Chinese border, became defined by narcotics, and how it has become one of the key powers in the countrytoday.A pivotal figure isSaw Lu, born in the mid-1940s, raised among Baptist missionaries, and convinced that literacy and Christianity

en

01:43:45

Delusions of Grandeur

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/03

Episode #407: One month after the coup, Captain Kyaw Kyaw defected from his post as a military pediatrician. After years of seeing the military brutalize the civilians they were supposed to protect, committing systematic war crimes in conflicts with ethnic armed organizations, he had still felt loyalty to the soldiers in the lower ranks who he viewed also as victims. The carnage that met protests against the coup, however, was the final straw leading him to join the ranks of defectors.In his account

en

02:12:55

A Moral Reckoning

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/10/02

Episode #406: “I didn’t come to study this subject deliberately with a focus on Buddhism,” says Justine Chambers, author of Pursuing Morality, a book that explores Buddhist moral life among the Plong community in southeast Myanmar—known to outsiders as Pwo Karen—particularly in and around the town of Hpaan. Her work, the product of many years of immersive fieldwork, traces not only Buddhist ethical practices in everyday life but also the entanglements of those practices with political transitions,

en

01:07:19

The Silence of the Valkyries

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/30

Episode #405: “Myanmar deserves better,” reflects Olle Thorell, a Swedish Member of Parliament whose nearly two-decade commitment to the nation is both political and personal.Elected to the Riksdag in 2006, Thorell's focus on Asian affairs quickly centered on Myanmar. He learned from dedicated activists and, in 2011, had a clandestine meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, a moment he recalls as “fantastic;” albeit, goes on to acknowledge that this occurred before what her later fall from grace in

en

01:17:49

In The Crosshairs

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/29

Episode #404: Before the coup, Pandora was a tour guide with little interest in politics. That changed in 2021, when the generals seized power and she found herself leading protests in her hometown of Bago. Arrests of friends and pressure from her family to stop pushed her into the jungle, where she joined the People’s Defense Forces. Life there meant leaking tents, beans and noodles for every meal, and complete separation from her family, whom she has not seen since.In September 2021 she entered

en

02:31:24

A Deeper Renunciation

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/26

Episode #403: Annai had always been attracted to spirituality. Growing up in a devout Catholic family in Barcelona, she preferred spending time in church while her friends only wanted to watch TV, and even began asking how she could one day become a Catholic nun. Eventually she found her way to Dhamma Neru, a vipassana meditation center in Spain the tradition of S.N. Goenka. She found the course extremely difficult and cried every day. However, in the end, she realized this was a path she wanted to

en

02:00:45

Apocalypse Now Redux

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/25

Episode #402: “In stable times, sustainability may be seen as a long term aspiration,” says Tin Shine Aung, a Burmese scholar and sustainability expert whose work bridges research, policy, and on-the-ground crisis response. “But in our context, in the context of a polycrisis, it’s become like a strategy for survival and reconstruction.”Arguing that Myanmar is living through a true polycrisis— multiple shocks that collide and amplify each other rather than simply add up— Tin Shine Aung points out

en

02:06:54

From Ashes to Sunshine

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/23

Episode #401: “Look at my eye. Trust me! You can do this!” With steady assurance, Nay Chi Linn describes her work at the Sunshine Care Center (SCC), a border-based facility she founded to care for Myanmar’s war-injured. Located on the Thai side of the border, the SCC provides daily care, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, and emotional support.Nay Chi Linn was raised in Yangon and studied law before moving to Chiang Mai for further study. There, she met an ethnic Karen man and got married; the couple

en

01:13:27

Between Guns and Ghosts

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/22

Episode #400: James Rodehaver, head of the UN Human Rights Office on Myanmar, offers a sobering account of the country’s accelerating crisis and the limits of the international community’s response. Drawing on decades of experience in conflict zones, he describes Myanmar as uniquely complex and heartbreakingly violent—particularly since the 2021 coup. His office, which operates from outside the country due to lack of access, monitors rights violations, advises UN agencies, and supports civil society

en

01:51:38

Protected by the Dhamma

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/19

Episode #399: Insight Myanmar was very fortunate to conduct a series of interviews with Friedgard Lottermoser between 2023 and 2024, amounting to more than forty hours before she sadly passed away last year. Friedgard was one of the few non-Burmese who could speak about the experience of meditating extensively with Sayagyi U Ba Khin, life at the International Meditation Center (IMC), and what it was like to live in Burma at a crucial period of its modern history.In this episode, she explains how she

en

01:19:00

Blood on the Wires

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/18

Episode #398: The Telenor scandal has emerged as one of the most serious blows to Norway’s reputation as a champion of peace and human rights. Nicolai Prydz, author and long-time observer of Myanmar, calls it “the largest scandal in Norway, but it’s under the carpet. Nobody wants to tell it.”When Telenor entered Myanmar in 2014, only 7% of the population owned a mobile phone. Backed by Norway’s decision to lift sanctions and forgive $3 billion in debt, the company quickly expanded to more than 20

en

58:54

Songs of Fire and Silence

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/16

Episode #397: In this episode of the Insight Myanmar Podcast, two compelling voices—Thinzar Shunlei Yi and Wongpun Amarinthewa—illuminate the stakes of Myanmar’s political crisis from the frontlines of resistance and reporting.Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a prominent Burmese activist and deputy director of the Anti-Sham Election Campaign Committee, lays out a forceful case against the junta’s proposed elections. Far from representing democratic progress, she sees them as a calculated maneuver to legitimize

en

01:51:28

This Land Is My Land

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/09/15

Episode #396: “There is no other issue in Thailand that has this long of a history of civil society engagement like Myanmar.” With these words, Thai humanitarian worker and activist, Mic Chawaratt, discusses the decades-long relationship between Thailand and Myanmar regarding displacement, refugee management, and civil society aid.He traces Thailand’s security-driven approach to Myanmar refugees from the 1980s to today. Despite not signing the 1951 Refugee Convention, Thailand has hosted large

en

449 results

Similar Podcasts

Expres Ráno

Expres FM

PBS News Hour - Full Show

PBS News

CD Voice

China Daily

Israel Today: Ongoing War Report

Noa Levi

Jeffrey Epstein: The Coverup Chronicles

Bobby Capucci