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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

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All Episodes

43:53

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/31

Episode #371: “I remain confident in the longer term, completely, actually, that this regime is losing,” says Sean Turnell, Australian economist and former advisor to Myanmar’s civilian government, as he analyzes the recent U.S. decision to lift sanctions on several junta-linked cronies, in what his fourth appearance on this platform. While acknowledging widespread concern, he offers a measured, optimistic assessment rooted in his deep knowledge of Myanmar’s economy and U.S. sanctions policy.Turnell

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01:59:14

Decolonize This

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/29

Episode #370: "Why are [Asian women] not allowed to dream that we can open our own thing and lead our own work?" This question by human rights lawyer Emilie Palamy Pradichit slices through the silence, exposing the systemic barriers that have historically muted and marginalized Asian women in leadership. Pradichit’s journey as a young Lao refugee navigating discrimination in a low-income Parisian suburb crowded with migrants cemented this perspective. In Paris, she witnessed firsthand the insidious

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34:51

Oslo’s Lost Accord

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/27

Episode #369: “I promised Aung San Suu Kyi and committed myself to work for democracy and human rights in the country as long as necessary. And still it is necessary!” So says Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway and a longtime supporter of Myanmar’s democratic struggle. In this conversation, he reflects on his decades of advocacy for Myanmar, from a surreptitious 1997 visit to Yangon where he first met Suu Kyi, to his post-retirement work at the Oslo Center, which he co-founded to

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01:12:40

More Than Words

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/25

Episode #368: The Adhikara podcast is an important, new voice in Burmese media, aiming to build not just a movement but a resilient community against oppression. Created by Maw Nwei and Morgen after the 2021 military coup, Adhikara provides a platform for expression and education, especially around human rights. The podcast allows the creators to connect with the Burmese people without the barriers of traditional in-person training, offering flexible and accessible content to circumvent the economic

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53:25

Degrees of Resistance

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/22

Episode #367: In this episode, we hear from two compelling voices grappling with the human and political costs of authoritarianism in Southeast Asia. Raoul Manuel, the youngest elected member of the Philippine Congress, describes how his work on education reform and youth rights intersects with a broader transnational resistance against repressive leadership. He draws on his experience in grassroots organizing and progressive legislation to explain how state violence, economic injustice, and

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57:54

Schooling the System

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/20

Episode #366: Sallo Polak, founder of the Philanthropy Connections Foundation (PCF), has spent decades building a grassroots approach to humanitarian aid in Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Motivated by a lifelong desire to address global inequality—first sparked by a formative journey to India at age 18—Polak established PCF in 2011 to serve under-resourced communities through trust, dignity, and local leadership. “I always wanted to do good, to help people,” he explains, a conviction that

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01:49:12

Awakenings and Uprisings

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/18

Episode #365: “The Buddha lives and teaches for the welfare of the world, for the happiness of the world,” says Bhikkhu Bodhi. “He does live for the welfare and happiness of human beings. And so now, when we look at contemporary conditions, the question arises as Buddhists following in the footsteps of the Buddha, how do we live for the welfare and happiness of other human beings?”Bhikkhu Bodhi, a renowned Buddhist scholar and advocate of Engaged Buddhism, has dedicated his life to making Buddhist

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01:01:19

The Ripple Effect

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/15

Episode #364: Ben’s simple words resonate strongly: “If I could do something small for one person, why would I not?”This episode brings together Ben and a Burmese student who goes by the moniker Little Activist. Together, they discuss the profound impact of individual gestures and transnational solidarity. Ben, who worked briefly in Myanmar with a UN agency, was moved by an episode that Insight Myanmar Podcast aired last year, in which Little Activist described how he was documenting military

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01:17:09

Bonus Episode: A Talk at New Bloom

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/13

New Bloom is an online magazine and community space covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in the wake of the Sunflower Movement. They welcomed the host of Insight Myanmar for a talk at their Taipei center.

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01:21:47

Crypto in the Time of Tyranny

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/11

Episode #363: In post-coup Myanmar, where conventional aid channels with humanitarian intentions risk getting diverted and empowering the military junta, Blockchain technology presents a nuanced alternative. An anonymous Blockchain researcher, 7k, highlights both the promise and the pitfalls of digital solutions. He explains that “Blockchain is a fundamental technology that enables cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to emerge or work,” offering a potential detour around junta-controlled centralized

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01:39:01

The Invisible Enemy

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/08

Episode #362: Myanmar has recorded the world’s worst casualties from landmines and explosive ordnance for the first time, with over 1,000 casualties in 2024 alone, 29% of whom are children. The inaugural episode in our “Navigating a Minefield” series kicks off with Bekim Shala, a humanitarian mine action expert whose journey in the field began in his native Kosovo, heavily contaminated by landmines during the breakup of Yugoslavia. Witnessing the human toll there, he recognized the importance of

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01:09:27

No Self, No Junta

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/06

Episode #361: “I am Burmese. I feel like it is my duty and responsibility to speak about it.” With these words, Myet opens a conversation that explores Myanmar’s past and present, weaving together personal history, political critique, and spiritual insight.Raised under military rule, Myet witnessed the silencing of dissent and the trauma that shaped her parents’ generation after the 1988 uprising. Her own awakening came through literature like Animal Farm, which helped her question the system around

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02:00:55

Crime and Disbursement

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/04

Episode #360: “To have my daughter summarily decide that I was complicit in genocide, I really had to think through again my logic for taking the position that we should stay. It sent me on a lot of soul searching,” confesses Ellen Goldstein, a former World Bank Country Director for Myanmar. This revelation, a central theme to her book “Damned If You Do”, encapsulates the dilemmas she faced during Myanmar's tumultuous democratic transition and the Rohingya crisis.Goldstein's decades-long career,

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02:02:59

No Neutral Ground

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/07/01

Episode #359: “The real motivating force is people, it is those human relations.” Duncan McArthur, a backpacker turned decades-long humanitarian leader, found his truth not in textbooks, but in the raw, unfiltered experiences along the Thai-Burma border. His journey began as an English teacher in a Karen refugee camp, where he was inspired by the resilience and humility of the communities he worked with in the face of unimaginable suffering.Motivated to stay on the border and continue working there,

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01:04:50

Rewriting History

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/06/27

Episode #358: The 4th International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies (ICBMS), hosted by Chiang Mai University in August 2024, brought together scholars, activists, and experts to discuss Myanmar's critical issues. The event focused on conflicts, peace processes, human rights, and the 2021 coup's impact, drawing an estimated 800 participants, making it one of the largest gatherings on Myanmar studies.Insight Myanmar Podcast had exclusive on-site access, recording a number of brief interviews with

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02:16:35

From Russia With Anxiety

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/06/24

Episode #357: When Wai Yan Phyo Naing, a civilian scholar in Myanmar vocal against the human rights atrocities of the junta, received a scholarship from a Russian university to pursue his Masters, he did not expect to receive a rare insight into the intricacies of Myanmar's military. Yet that is exactly what happened, as many soldiers were also studying at his university in Moscow. Surrounded by hundreds of uniformed students, he observed a prevalent insularity within their ranks. Yet, amid this

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01:56:43

When Silence Isn’t Noble

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/06/20

Episode #356: Jonathan Crowley shares his experiences as an Assistant Teacher within the Vipassana Meditation Organization of SN Goenka. He participated in a culture that heavily prioritized rules and regulations over open and meaningful discussion about the practice itself. This lack of space for open dialogue, especially about the Dhamma, led Jonathan to feel that the organization was stifling inquiry and critical discourse.He was particularly concerned about the Organization's reluctance to

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01:46:57

Can’t Knock the Hustle

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/06/17

Episode #355: “You need to pay attention to what the kids care about,” says Naomi Gingold. “It will inform so much about the place that you're trying to understand, be it politics, culture, all of it! And you do a disservice to the nature of what you're trying to understand when you don't.”In the late 1990s, amid Myanmar's strict military rule, Burmese hip hop began to emerge as a new form of cultural expression. Young people blended beats, slang, and self-assertion to create a movement that

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01:47:22

A Tamil Erasure

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/06/13

Episode #354: Saravanan, an advocate for Myanmar's alienated Tamil community, illuminates their rich, yet overlooked, history. He describes an ancient connection, starting around 300 BC, through trade between Tamil merchants and the Mon people. Those early Tamil migrants eventually assimilated completely, suggesting hidden Tamil ancestry in many Burmese today.The colonial era marked a huge turning point. From just 19 Indians living in Yangon in 1852, the rice boom led to a surge of cheap Indian

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02:00:42

Over the Borderline

Insight Myanmar ·

2025/06/10

Episode #353: Professor Lahra Smith, a political science professor specializing in East Africa at Georgetown University, argues that Myanmar’s current struggles must be seen within a global framework of colonial legacies, using Sudan as a comparative case. While acknowledging contextual differences, Smith shows how both countries were shaped by British colonial rule that hardened ethnic divisions, created infrastructure disparities, and entrenched political inequalities.Sudan lies within Africa’s

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