Shows / Insight Myanmar
Insight Myanmar
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…
Episodes
- Insight Myanmar
Into The Mystic
Episode #454: In our third episode with U Jāgara, a Canadian monk, he reflects on his journey through decades of meditation practice and teaching, focusing on…
- Insight Myanmar
Facing a Fraying World
Episode #453: Patrick Phongsathorn is a human rights advocate and Fortify Rights advocacy specialist working on Myanmar. Raised near London by a…
- Insight Myanmar
Fever Pitch
Episode #452: “We still had a lot of ideals… but we had some illusions, so to speak.” François Nosten has spent decades on the Thai-Myanmar border, where war…
- Insight Myanmar
Paved By Good Intentions
Episode #451: Marte Nilsen, senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, joins the podcast to explore Aung San Suu Kyi’s central role in Myanmar’s…
- Insight Myanmar
Learning To Fly
Episode #450: Over three days, Insight Myanmar led a Digital Storytelling Workshop with academics and activists, where we explored how presence, curiosity, and…
- Insight Myanmar
Something in the Air
Episode #449: The first episode in a five-part series, these discussions were recorded at the 16th International Burma Studies Conference at Northern Illinois…
- Insight Myanmar
The Practice of Freedom
Episode #448: In the second of our three-part series with Steve Smith, a teacher in the Mahasi tradition, he continues reflecting on his half-century…
- Insight Myanmar
Poetic Justice
Episode #447: Maw Shein Win, a Burmese-American poet, teacher, and literary organizer based in the Bay Area, reflects on her creative path, heritage, and…
- Insight Myanmar
Between Here and Home
Episode #446: This episode marks the beginning of a three-part series created during a three-day Digital Storytelling Workshop hosted by the Insight Myanmar…
- Insight Myanmar
Framing the Dead
Episode #445: Born in Yangon in 1984 and raised in the small town of Ye, Shakeel grew up as a Muslim in a deeply divided Myanmar. His childhood was shaped by…
- Insight Myanmar
When Spiders Unite
Episode #444: After more than 40 years of Burma advocacy, Larry Dohrs sheds light on the strategies that have exposed corporate and military abuses in the…
- Insight Myanmar
Children of the Revolution
Episode #443: Ei, a former member of the People’s Defense Force (PDF), shifted from armed resistance to humanitarian work, and now focuses on child soldiers…
- Insight Myanmar
A Scanner Darkly
Episode #442: Yin Maung, a Myanmar-born digital-rights researcher with Aung Media, examines how non-consensual intimate images have become a political weapon…
- Insight Myanmar
Against Injustice
Episode #441: “I just thought, ‘Someone has to stay and bear witness,’” says Paul Greening, a veteran humanitarian with the International Organization for…
- Insight Myanmar
No Space for Dictators
Episode #440: Rick Hanson and Brang Nan engage in a moving conversation on Myanmar's ongoing struggle for democracy, focusing on psychological resilience…
- Insight Myanmar
Far From Home
Episode #439: “The key human rights issue within Thailand and more broadly within the region is migration related,” says Ben Harkins, a veteran labor rights…
- Insight Myanmar
Leaving the Tradition
Episode #438: Jonathan Crowley shares his journey as a practitioner and teacher in the Goenka Vipassana tradition, highlighting the conflicts that eventually…
- Insight Myanmar
Ghosts in the Machine
Episode #437: Researchers Myat Su Thwe, a human-rights scholar, and Kyaw Lwin, a socio-legal specialist, examine how Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG)…
- Insight Myanmar
A Doctor Without Borders
Episode #436: “We feel like we are not a useless person. You know, even [if] we have to flee our country and come to other country, we are still a valued…
- Insight Myanmar
Inside the Digital Siege
Episode #435: “There is a person behind every piece of policy,” says Nandar, a senior digital security expert at DigiSec Lab, reflecting on Myanmar’s…
- Insight Myanmar
The Long Stalemate
Episode #434: “I don't see how there could be a new social contract for a post-war, post-conflict Myanmar.” With this stark observation, Henning Glaser sets…
- Insight Myanmar
Across the Universe
Episode #433: Raul Saldana's journey began in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he grew up in a Catholic household. As a teenager, he questioned the rigidity of…
- Insight Myanmar
Scamland
Episode #432: Myanmar researcher Lin Jin Fu investigates the rise of scam compounds that blend human trafficking, digital fraud, and organized crime. His…
- Insight Myanmar
Hit ’Em Up
Episode #431: “I’m a sniper,” says Maui, deputy commander of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF). He and four top commanders describe being pushed…
- Insight Myanmar
The Long Baht Home
Episode #430: Ngu Wah is a Research Fellow at Knowledge Circle Foundation and a PhD candidate at Chiang Mai University focusing on migration and political…
- Insight Myanmar
From Rio to Rangoon
Episode #429: Emmanuel Flores' journey into meditation began at the age of nine in Rio de Janeiro, seated before a candle. His formative years were marked by a…
- Insight Myanmar
Trajectories in Flux
Episode #428: This panel gathers five voices from Myanmar’s unraveling present—specialists in food, economy, energy, education, and digital life—who together…
- Insight Myanmar
Meditating on History
Episode #427: Daniel M. Stuart describes his newest work, Insight in Perspective, as the product of decades of scholarship and meditative practice, aimed at…
- Insight Myanmar
Reclaiming Ground
Episode #426: The Karenni Interim Executive Council was formed in 2023 to provide services to people in dire need, with an estimated 80% of the civilian…
- Insight Myanmar
A Borderline Personality
Episode #425: Dr. Lalita Hanwong, a Thai historian and analyst, has dedicated her career to understanding Myanmar and its ties to Thailand. “I’m morally…
- Insight Myanmar
Through Other Eyes
Episode #424: This episode opens the first of a three-part Insight Myanmar Podcast series recorded at the Decolonizing Southeast Asian Studies Conference at…
- Insight Myanmar
Snap Judgments
Episode #423: Ian Taylor is a Canadian photographer whose life shifted from the film industry to decades of work and travel across Southeast Asia. His first…
- Insight Myanmar
At The Edge of Self
Episode #422: “There is beauty in owning one's racial identity. There's beauty in owning, valuing, and respecting one's heritage, ancestors, sexual identity…
- Insight Myanmar
You’ve Got Harm
Episode #421: Saijai Liangpunsakul, whose first name means “the link between two hearts,” speaks of her journey through the turbulent conflict of Myanmar, and…
- Insight Myanmar
Going Off Script
Episode #420: “This is this shit is real. This is not a dream. This is real.” Burmese actor and public figure Khar Ra recounts a path that runs from Mogok to…
- Insight Myanmar
A Movement Begins
Episode #419: “I’m just doing what is right, what is wrong, what’s the matter? What should I do as a human being?” After medical school, instead of choosing…
- Insight Myanmar
Super Rabbit Person
Episode #418: Lorraine Pan is a 21-year-old queer, autistic, immigrant from China who now studies Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto (note…
- Insight Myanmar
Bonus Episode: Meditation Across Borders
This bonus episode features the recording of a special online meditation fundraiser hosted by Better Burma in partnership with Vipassana Hawaii. The event…
- Insight Myanmar
The Military Monastic Complex
Episode #417: “There has been a massive lay critique of leading Buddhist monks that have been seen as pro-military… but to conclude that monks are either…
- Insight Myanmar
The Doors of Repression
Episode #416: In the early 1990s, a chance encounter with Burmese student exiles in Bangkok sparked Nic Dunlop’s enduring interest in the country. His initial…
- Insight Myanmar
Roots of the Dhamma
Episode #415: U Jāgara's spiritual journey is a fascinating exploration of monastic life, creativity, and the transformative power of the Dhamma. Born in…
- Insight Myanmar
Hamburger Hill
Episode #414: “They just didn't believe me at first. So I had to prove to them.” With these words, Xiao Yar Yar captures his struggle for recognition— a…
- Insight Myanmar
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Episode #413: “No one's liberated without everyone being liberated, right?” Those words belong to Nitchakarn “Memee” Rakwongrit, a Thai youth activist whose…
- Insight Myanmar
At The Breaking Point
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…
- Insight Myanmar
Stairway to Jhāna
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…
- Insight Myanmar
Everything Will Be Okay
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…
- Insight Myanmar
Mined and Forgotten
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…
- Insight Myanmar
A Narco State of Mind
Episode #408: “There is no way to tell the story of Myanmar and where it’s headed if you are leaving out the Wa,” says Patrick Winn, a veteran Southeast Asia…
- Insight Myanmar
Delusions of Grandeur
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…
- Insight Myanmar
A Moral Reckoning
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…
- Insight Myanmar
The Silence of the Valkyries
Episode #405: “Myanmar deserves better,” reflects Olle Thorell, a Swedish Member of Parliament whose nearly two-decade commitment to the nation is both…
- Insight Myanmar
In The Crosshairs
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…
- Insight Myanmar
A Deeper Renunciation
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…
- Insight Myanmar
Apocalypse Now Redux
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…
- Insight Myanmar
From Ashes to Sunshine
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…
- Insight Myanmar
Between Guns and Ghosts
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…
- Insight Myanmar
Protected by the Dhamma
Episode #399: Insight Myanmar was very fortunate to conduct a series of interviews with Friedgard Lottermoser between 2023 and 2024, amounting to more than…
- Insight Myanmar
Blood on the Wires
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…
- Insight Myanmar
Songs of Fire and Silence
Episode #397: In this episode of the Insight Myanmar Podcast, two compelling voices—Thinzar Shunlei Yi and Wongpun Amarinthewa—illuminate the stakes of…
- Insight Myanmar
This Land Is My Land
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…