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PODCAST

The Colonial Department

Lost stories from 🇵🇭 history 🔊 Narrative nonfiction pod 📖 Book version published by @factionpress 📻 Written, produced, engineered by @liomangubat

history

All Episodes

00:04:55

Extra Credit: The “Cultural Fighters” of the Japanese...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/09/06

A brief look at the team of novelists, poets, painters, cameramen, filmmakers, and other creatives who invaded the Philippines as part of the Propaganda Corps. (Listen to S7E6 before listening to this one!)

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00:16:27

S7E6: Shisōsen—A Japanese Propagandist Confronts the...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/08/29

Beyond the bullets, the tanks, the planes, the bombs, the Japanese also brought other weapons to bear against the Filipinos: Typewriters. Radio waves. Movie theaters.Here is one story from the frontlines of shisōsen, or "the thought war."Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comReferences:Campoamor II, Gonzalo (2017). “Re-Examining Japanese Wartime Intellectuals: Kiyoshi Miki during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines.”

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00:04:37

Extra Credit: The socialites, spies, and convicts who...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/08/23

From the Panlilios of Pampanga to future gangster Jack Riley, Tom’s Dixie Kitchen pops up in the biographies of some unexpected people. (Listen to S7E5 before listening to this one!

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00:15:42

S7E5: Inside Tom’s Dixie Kitchen, Prewar Manila’s...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/08/16

Governors and gangsters, spies and socialites—it seemed that all of Manila dined out at the two-floor restaurant that rose above the bustle of Plaza Goiti. Inside, waiters handed you menus with more than three hundred dishes on offer, and, for special guests, directed you to special themed dining rooms upstairs. But there was enough entertainment on the first floor. There was a jazz band playing live music. There was a boxing promoter hamming it up at the next table. There was a steady stream of

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00:04:25

Extra Credit: “Epidemia maligna”—the devastating...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/08/09

“Peste general.” “Pestilencial epidemia.” “Epidemia maligna.” In the Philippine archipelago, Spanish chroniclers wrote of deadly epidemics that struck their new possession. (Listen to S7E4 before this one.)

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00:15:04

S7E4: The Plague Years

The Colonial Department ·

2025/08/02

Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases known to man—and not even the Philippines was immune to its virulent dangers! But how did the dreaded disease arrive on our shores? And what devastating effects did it have during the long centuries of our occupation?Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comThe thumbnail image, which dates from the 16th century, depicts Aztec victims of smallpox.References:Newson, Linda A. (2011). Conquest and

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00:04:50

Extra Credit: The complicated story of the 1800s...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/07/26

Crucial to the story of coffee in the Philippines is the industry’s boom years in Lipa during the late 1800s. What really happened then? (Listen to S7E3 before this one.)

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00:16:14

S7E3: A Short Philippine History of Beverages

The Colonial Department ·

2025/07/18

Coffee. Tea. Cocoa. The three have a surprisingly rich, complex, and layered history in the Philippines. How did they arrive here, and what effect did they have in the archipelago’s colonial period?Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comThanks to Beach Reads Book Club (based in The Beach House cafe in Kapitolyo) for hosting the live premiere of this episode last July 5. References:Acabado, Stephen (4 May 2025). “[Time Trowel] A drunk

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00:04:23

Extra Credit: More Ottoman links to the Philippine...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/07/12

This faraway empire shows up in unexpected pages of our history. (Listen to S7E2 before this one.)

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00:16:57

S7E2: An Ottoman Emissary in Mindanao

The Colonial Department ·

2025/07/04

As the United States moves to take over Mindanao, both the Americans and the Moros invoke the name of the Ottoman Empire—seat of the Caliph—to support their campaigns. But in 1914, an actual Ottoman emissary arrives in Zamboanga. How will the American occupiers react to his visit?Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comReferences:Dwight, H.D. (1915). Constantinople: Old and New. Charles Scribner’s Sons.Inanc, Yusuf Selman. “Abdulhamid

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00:04:26

Extra Credit: Pianos in 1800s Phillippines

The Colonial Department ·

2025/06/28

In the last decades of Spanish rule in the Philippines, pianos—both foreign and local—provided the tinkling music of the colony’s rising middle class. (Listen to S7E1 before this one.)

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00:15:40

S7E1: Foreign Piano Devils

The Colonial Department ·

2025/06/20

It’s the late 1800s, and all across the Pacific seaboard, in places like Singapore and Yokohama, Medan and Sengalor, the music of town bands drifts across the esplanades. Many of these groups proudly hail from one port of call: Manila. This is their story.Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comAudio of “Wiener Schwalben Marsch” is from the Discography of American Historical Recordings.References: Affan, Muhammad (2023). “From

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00:05:47

Extra Credit: The shipwrecks of the Galleon Trade, by...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/03/29

Lousy pilots? Fierce storms? Rampaging currents? Some of these galleons never stood a chance. (Listen to S6E13 before this one.)

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00:17:29

S6E13: If Not Shipwrecks, Scurvy

The Colonial Department ·

2025/03/21

The route of a Spanish galleon from Manila to Acapulco was littered with the wrecks of ships that sailed before—hit by storms, hammered by tides, preyed on by pirates. Meanwhile, on the filthy decks, hunger and disease stalked the ranks of the sailors, slaves, and passengers. Spanning thousands of kilometers, every voyage of the Galleon Trade was grueling and lethal… but for the investors who bet fortunes on the trade ships, the payoff was worth every dead body. In this episode, let’s sail aboard a

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00:05:00

Extra Credit: On Filipino studio photos from the 1900s

The Colonial Department ·

2025/03/16

Costumes, backdrops, dedications—in the 1900s, having your photo taken in a studio and sending prints to loved ones was the hot new thing in the Philippines! (Listen to S6E12 before this one.)

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00:15:36

S6E12: The Skull Photographers

The Colonial Department ·

2025/03/07

When the Americans arrive to take over the Philippines, amateur photographers take pictures of every possible inch of their new possession. Snapshots soon emerge from inside the cemeteries of towns and cities, showcasing an eerie and macabre trend. It seems that not even the most private places of the dead would be spared from the camera’s roving, ravenous, pinhole eye. Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comAdditional audio from

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00:05:05

Extra Credit: On William Dampier, privateer of the...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/03/01

Scourge, scientist… and slave owner! Discover the ties of one of England’s most famous mariners to Philippine history. (Listen to S6E11 before listening to this one!)

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00:16:54

S6E11: Robinson Crusoe Captures a Manila Galleon

The Colonial Department ·

2025/02/22

In 1719, a book appeared on London shelves—and became an instant bestseller. Its cover featured the now-iconic image of a man, trapped in a deserted island, dressed only in goat skins. Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, never confirmed nor denied that his massive hit was based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotsman marooned for years on a tropical island… but the parallels were undeniable.But before Selkirk made his way back to the Western world and became a celebrity, he was roped in by

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00:06:04

Extra Credit: On a prisoner’s life in...

The Colonial Department ·

2025/02/14

As he was brutally tortured by the Kempeitai, captured guerilla Gustavo Ingles was moved to different prisons and safehouses. What was his day-to-day life like behind bars? (Listen to S6E10 before listening to this one.)

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00:18:36

S6E10: A Guerilla’s Torment

The Colonial Department ·

2025/02/07

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, young military cadet Gustavo Ingles tried to hitch a ride with the upperclassmen to the front lines in Bataan. But officers told him to go home. Undeterred, he founded a guerilla group called the Hunters ROTC to continue the fight against the new occupiers. Then, in 1943, Ingles was caught by the secret police. Follow us on IG:@thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok:@thecolonialdeptEmail us:thecolonialdept@gmail.comMy voiceover partner-in-crime, Anya, is on

en-US

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