Podcasts about Burmese

Episode #459: This is the third episode in a three-part series that emerged from a three-day Digital Storytelling Workshop hosted by Insight Myanmar Podcast, with support from ANU and IDRC. What began as a room of strangers slowly became a community through the simple act of sharing stories. We were reminded that communication is not just the exchange of information, but the creation of a shared emotional world, built through attention and care. “Tell me more” became our refrain, and this episode is an invitation to step into that circle. On this episode, you'll hear the result of those few transformative days: honest voices, emerging perspectives, and storytellers beginning to find their footing. First up is Chit Tun, a teacher and marketing manager before the coup, who now lives as a refugee in Thailand with his family. The 2021 coup transformed his life. With his wife pregnant, he refused to let his child grow up under dictatorship. He supported her CDM participation, and became a protest leader before joining the armed resistance. However, he became disillusioned with some resistance groups, and eventually fled to Thailand. To make ends meet, he aids fellow refugees, teaches Burmese, and produces a podcast amplifying revolutionary voices. Zue, a Burmese language teacher and artist, roots her work in the beauty of her rural childhood, where weaving looms, bullock carts, and open fields shaped her creative and educational passions. After years of volunteer teaching and curriculum work, she founded the online Akkhaya Burmese Language Institute during COVID-19. Her YouTube and podcast projects also advance cultural preservation and pride. She was Myanmar's sole recipient of the selective Global Ambassador Fellow granted by the International Council on Human Rights, Peace and Politics (ICHRPP). Zue hopes to continue her teaching and art work to better serve communities. August describes a shift from engineering to the study of religion and philosophy after becoming disillusioned with Myanmar's education system. His academic path grows out of his work as a gender and LGBTQ rights trainer, where he has seen religion repeatedly misused to justify discrimination. He argues that Buddhist teachings emphasize compassion, morality, and nonviolence, not stereotyping or exclusion, and he wants to ground this claim in textual and scholarly evidence. Drawing on experiences with LGBTQ individuals from religious communities, he highlights the heavy social pressure they face. August hopes education can challenge conservative mindsets and support social change.

In the coming hours, the people of Myanmar will get their first opportunity to vote in an election since the military seized power in a coup in 2021. The poll has been delayed several times by the ruling junta and many consider that a change is unlikely. We hear about the circumstances surrounding these elections in Myanmar and from a member of the Burmese resitance in exile. Also in the programme: President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is in Canada ahead of his meeting with Donald Trump on Sunday; China's first documented case of a tiger having quintuplets in the wild; and a tribute to Perry Bamonte, guitarist and keyboardist of The Cure who has died aged 65.(PHOTO: People walk past an election banner ahead of a general election in Thingangyun Township, Yangon, Myanmar, December 27, 2025. CREDIT: REUTERS/Stringer)

Episode #456: “We will not leave them behind,” says Simon Billenness, director of the Campaign for a New Myanmar and a Burma policy advocate with more than three decades of experience lobbying the United States Congress on sanctions policy, congressional appropriations, and accountability for Myanmar's military. In his second appearance on the podcast, Billenness focuses on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Burmese nationals, which he views as both a humanitarian crisis and a sharp rupture in longstanding U.S. policy. Billenness explains that TPS had allowed nearly 4,000 Burmese nationals to remain legally in the United States because conditions at home made safe return impossible. With DHS giving recipients just sixty days before protections expire, he describes the consequences as stark. Many TPS holders, he notes, have been told by immigration attorneys that no realistic legal pathways remain for them to stay, leaving forced return to a conflict as a terrifying prospect. He emphasizes that those affected are not abstractions or mere statistics. Many arrived as students or professionals before or shortly after the 2021 coup and remained because returning home would expose them to grave danger. Some support the Civil Disobedience Movement from abroad; others belong to ethnic or religious minorities targeted by the military. Young men face forced conscription, while all confront a country still engulfed in instability, indiscriminate military violence, and overall repression. From Billenness's perspective, ending TPS misrepresents both American interests and values. He argues that TPS recipients are among the United States' strongest allies within Myanmar society and that their presence strengthens American communities. DHS's justification—citing ceasefires, elections, and stability—he dismisses as false and misleading and moreover, contradicting the State Department's analysis. The elections, he says, are sham exercises under military rule, while airstrikes on civilian populations continue despite so-called ceasefires. While legal challenges and congressional efforts to restore TPS move forward, Billenness stresses that sustained constituent advocacy remains the most effective tool. Even amid an unpredictable moment for U.S. foreign policy, he insists on endurance and resolve, concluding, “We will fight back. We will not abandon the Burmese people.”

Send us a textReady for a fitness reset that's real, local, and doable? Kayla Kavoukas with Montgomery County's Department of Recreation dives into how Montgomery County residents can use free Rec Fit Pass access for gyms, open courts, and family-friendly spaces across 21+ recreation centers—plus rotating free offerings like indoor cycling and urban line dancing. We explore movement that matters with Bando chief instructor Lon Walls, a sixth-degree black belt who translates a centuries-old Burmese martial art into modern fitness and self-defense. Then we map a sustainable path with Soldier Fit founder and Army veteran Danny Farrar. His Core Four—workout, meal plan, accountability, and education—cuts through the noise and gives you a simple formula to win long term. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and tell us the one small habit you'll commit to this week.

Episode #455: Mon Zin, a Myanmar-born pro-democracy activist based in Sydney, is a founding member of the Global Myanmar Spring Revolution, a network that coordinates Burmese diaspora communities around the globe. GMSR's advocacy targets sanctions, diplomatic recognition, and the financial lifelines of the junta, particularly revenues from oil and gas. In this conversation, Mon Zin analyzes the upcoming military-led elections, which she emphasizes are fraudulent and dangerous. She argues that the junta's phased election is not intended to reflect popular will but to test whether the appearance of an election can secure international acceptance. She contends Min Aung Hlaing seeks to rebrand himself from war criminal to electedhead of state, thereby legitimizing continued violence. She believes this will only spur increased, armed resistance, intensifying the country's downward spiral. Mon Zin cites reporting by the Asian Network for Free Elections that argues the system is structurally rigged in favor of the military-aligned USDP. Rather than relying on crude ballot-stuffing, she says the military's election mechanisms are cleverly designed to seem legitimate: an apparently contested election at the local level that also feeds into proportional representation. However, with opposition parties banned, criminalized, or tightly constrained—along with rampant fear, surveillance, electronic voting machines without independent audits, and manipulated diaspora voting—local election outcomes are all but predetermined. Moreover, while proportional representation is normally used to give parties with smaller vote shares locally some level of representation at the regional and/or national level, the military has distorted the design to amplify the majority votes of the (predetermined, military-backed) local winners, thus giving the junta a complete stranglehold on local, regional and national governance in the guise of fair elections. The results will then be certified as legitimate by junta-aligned and other authoritarian nations, such as Russia and China. She warns the election will intensify violence, deepen sanctions, and worsen economic hardship, while enriching military affiliates. Still, she urges diaspora communities to refuse legitimacy, support resistance efforts, speak openly, and hold emerging political movements accountable, insisting that long-term freedom depends on building a genuinely democratic system.

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 the adaptation of Burmese meditation traditions to contemporary contexts. Following earlier discussions that explored his formative years and monastic journey, this conversation delves into the figures, methodologies, and insights that have shaped his path. U Jāgara's experiences with prominent teachers like Pa-Auk Sayadaw highlight the intricacies of meditation practices. Pa-Auk's teachings, rooted in the Visuddhimagga, emphasize samathā (concentration) as a precursor to vipassana (insight), offering practitioners a detailed analysis of experiential reality through the four elements. However, the demanding nature of these practices has often limited progress to a small percentage of practitioners. U Jāgara observes the initial mixed reception of Pa-Auk's application of samathā, noting both its transformative potential and its challenges within the broader context of Burmese meditation history. As Pa-Auk's methods gained international recognition, U Jāgara worked to adapt these teachings for Western audiences. Tailored guidance became central to U Jāgara's teaching methodology as he addressed the frustrations of students struggling with its rigor, demonstrating how adjustments could unlock their transformative potential. But his flexibility provoked tensions in some practitioners from different traditions, including Goenka's students who expressed concerns about any changes to established techniques. He also touches upon the delicate balance between preserving tradition and fostering accessibility. Ultimately, U Jāgara has chosen to take an independent path, and advocates for adaptable practices that remain faithful to the Dhamma's core principles. "Truth is universal,” he says. “Truth also is beyond any kind of cultural values. Having understood [the Dhamma] in the ways that a culture has maintained it, it enables you to shape it into another culture or in a frame that is going to be slightly different than the original one, but still with the same roots, with the same kind of material content, but not necessarily with the same language and expressions and social kind of conventions."

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 political life. Drawing on decades of research across Myanmar and Thailand, she also reflects on Norway's complex engagement with Myanmar—from early solidarity movements and reform-era optimism to today's challenges of diplomacy, reversals, and rebuilding. Norway's involvement began in the wake of the 1988 uprising and Suu Kyi's 1991 Nobel Prize, when exiles and NGOs forged ties across the Thai border. The devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008 highlighted the capacity of local civil society, prompting Oslo to expand support in that direction. Then when President Thein Sein launched reforms in 2011 and Suu Kyi contested the 2012 by-elections, Norway began engaging state institutions more directly again. Suu Kyi's NLD triumphed in 2015 and 2020, though ethnic groups criticized her Bamar-centric focus, and her stance the Rohingya crisis posed a very serious dilemma for Western nations otherwise wanting to support the country's democratization process. The 2021 coup, of course, ended the reform era. Nilsen stresses that Myanmar's current junta bears no resemblance to the military of 2010, back when foreign nations were willing to deal with the junta. Today, it is widely seen as a desperate, illegitimate regime that is waging war on its people. She rejects any notion that the 2025 elections could be free or fair. In the end, Nilsen insists that while outside solidarity and support matter, “the changes on the ground, it comes from the Burmese people.”

Episode #450: Over three days, Insight Myanmar led a Digital Storytelling Workshop with academics and activists, where we explored how presence, curiosity, and the simple invitation “tell me more” can open real dialogue in a polarized Myanmar. What they created was tender, courageous, and deeply human — conversations that welcome not only each other, but also the unseen listener they hope to reach. This is the second of three episodes in this series. Sarah, a former international relations student, describes how the coup abruptly ended her studies and forced her from academic ambition into survival mode. Realizing she might never return to university, she fled Myanmar for Thailand, where initial safety gave way to fear once she became undocumented. Repeated police harassment and bribery threats left her anxious and isolated, struggling with unstable finances and the emotional strain of living alone. She relies on counseling to cope, yet continues supporting Myanmar's revolution however she can. Despite everything, she hopes to someday return home, resume her studies, and urges exiles to show kindness to one another. Alex, an academic advisor with the online Parami University, traces her path into humanitarian and transcultural education through formative experiences in multicultural and miultilingualsettings. Working with children in India and later in a refugee camp in Athens showed her how education can create trust and stability, even in crisis. She now advises Burmese students in Chiang Mai, many of whom face displacement and legal insecurity, and has also visited Kenya's Kakuma camp. Her long-term commitment is centered in her students: their determination, cultural pride, and efforts to build community. Elsa, a student from Yangon now living in Thailand after fleeing the coup, reflects on the foods she grew up loving—especially sweet and spicy Burmese dishes and the many regional versions of mohinga she cannot easily find in Thailand. She notes the overlap between Thai and Burmese flavors and imagines creative blends using coconut cream. Her long-held dream is to open a Burmese tea shop that recreates Myanmar's communal, welcoming atmosphere with simple wooden furniture, shared spaces, and small acts of hospitality. Although she anticipates challenges with Thai regulations and staffing, she remains committed to building a place that shares culture and kindness through food.

In this episode of the HuntFishTravel Podcast, I sit down with Amy Siewe, better known as The Python Huntress. Amy is a professional python hunter working on the front lines of conservation in Florida, helping remove one of the most destructive invasive species in North America. We talk about how she went from real estate broker to full-time python hunter, what it's actually like to hunt massive snakes in the wild, and why this work is so critical to protecting native wildlife in the Everglades. We dive deep into how Burmese pythons ended up in Florida in the first place, the impact they've had on native mammals and ecosystems, what a real python hunt looks like, from spotlighting roads at night to catching snakes by hand, the largest python Amy has ever caught and a wild story to go with it, and how python hunting ties directly into scientific research and conservation. This episode is fascinating, intense, occasionally jaw-dropping (I probably said "bananas" way too many times to count), and deeply rooted in responsible conservation. Amy's respect for wildlife and the Everglades comes through loud and clear and I walked away with a whole new understanding of just how serious the python problem really is. Whether you're a hunter, angler, conservationist, or just someone who loves wild stories from the field, this is an episode you don't want to miss. Learn more or book a hunt: pythonhuntress.com Follow Amy's adventures: @thepythonhuntress on Instagram and @pythonhuntress on Facebook. Timestamps: 00:00 – 01:24 – Opening intro & setting the Everglades scene 01:24 – 02:37 – Meet Amy Siewe, The Python Huntress 02:37 – 04:05 – How Amy became a professional python hunter 04:05 – 05:48 – From thrill-seeking to conservation mission 05:48 – 07:16 – How Burmese pythons invaded Florida 07:16 – 08:47 – Population explosion & lack of predators 08:47 – 10:22 – How big pythons get (and how dangerous they could be) 10:22 – 12:18 – What pythons eat & ecosystem collapse 12:18 – 14:17 – Why the Everglades are the perfect python habitat 14:17 – 15:55 – How python hunts actually work 15:55 – 16:18 – Catching pythons by hand 16:18 – 17:30 – Spotting snakes at night 17:30 – 24:46 – The 17-foot, 110-pound python story 24:46 – 26:39 – Why live capture is necessary 26:39 – 29:07 – Research, data, and working with biologists 29:07 – 30:44 – Hair-raising moments in the field 30:44 – 31:39 – Licensing, legality, and invasive species rules 31:39 – 33:29 – Ethics, conservation, and respecting wildlife 33:29 – 35:25 – Booking a hunt & following Amy online 35:25 – 36:03 – Final thoughts & wrap-up  

Episode #449: The first episode in a five-part series, these discussions were recorded at the 16th International Burma Studies Conference at Northern Illinois University, where scholars, students, researchers, and practitioners gathered for presentations, forums, roundtables, and cultural exhibitions exploring the theme “Dealing with Legacies in Burma.” Amid political turmoil and humanitarian crisis, this represented a rare space for open dialogue, and one in which Insight Myanmar was invited to record interviews with diverse attendees, produced in collaboration with NIU's Center for Southeast Asian Studies. We hope that these episodes bring listeners into the atmosphere of the conference and into conversation with those shaping the field today. The first guest, Ko A, is an academic from Rakhine State pursuing a PhD in the United States, and he reflects on Myanmar's political trajectory and the forces shaping its conflicts. Ko A turned to political science following the 2021 coup, realizing that Myanmar's crises are structural, rooted in institutions, militarized power, and historical patterns. He argues that early twentieth-century Burman ethnonationalism distorted the country's political development, and the military's alliance with Japan in World War II embedded in authoritarian tendencies. He explains that political institutions tend to retain their initial character and reinforce themselves over time. Despite the complexity and conflict, he remains optimistic, trusting that an informed younger generation and honest engagement with historical truths can guide Myanmar toward a better future. Next, Chit Wit Yi Oo discusses her work studying water and air quality, in order to understand how environmental change is affecting public health. She launched a study on groundwater that spanned Yangon to Mandalay and the southern coast, and learned that deep wells in downtown Yangon remain relatively safe, but nearby shallow wells show severe saltwater intrusion, forcing residents to rely on rainwater for drinking while using contaminated sources for daily chores. In Mandalay, meanwhile, heavy-metal contamination from textile-dye factories has polluted wells, but families continue using this water because purified alternatives are unaffordable, with doctors reporting widespread kidney disease consistent with the findings. She also warns that many of Myanmar's rivers, once safe to drink, are now polluted by mining, though rural families still depend on them out of necessity. Additionally, her research documents dramatic declines in Yangon's air quality, with PM2.5 levels far above WHO guidelines since 2016 due to rapid urbanization, post-Cyclone Nargis loss of green space, traffic, dry-season burning, and pesticide-laden crop fires. Despite systemic obstacles she faced in her own education, such as not being from an elite or military family, she sees hope in the growing Burmese diaspora of researchers and experts. She ends with a plea: “We need your support. And then please help our people, and then please listen our voices and our people.” Finally we hear from Lugyi No, a PhD student who describes how displacement, violence, and the collapse of schooling shape children's lives in today's Myanmar. “It is what it is,” he sharessadly. “You have to learn how you're going to survive out of those adverse situations.” Lugyi No sees many children exhibiting deep trauma— trembling and even fainting at loud sounds— yet also remarkable resilience, supported by...

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 exploration into the country's spirituality, culture, and politics, while also sharing what he learned from prolonged and intimate contact with some of the greatest meditation teachers and civil leaders of the day. Steve went to Seikhun, Mahasi Sayadaw's village, and started his practice there. He practiced with local villagers, as well as senior government ministers, future democratic leaders, business magnates, and others with elite social standing. Between meditation sessions, Steve remembers long conversations that meandered between politics and practice. His fascinating, first-handaccount of the role that meditation practice played in the upper echelons of the democracy movement is one that perhaps has never been examined thoroughly by any past scholar or historian. When Steve traveled or return back home to Hawaii, he often found himself disappointed that Buddhist and mindfulness communities elsewhere weren't able—or even interested in trying—to integrate meditation with social engagement. He was convinced that in Myanmar, the Dhamma was a seamless aspect of people's everyday lives, that “the same generative and ancient teachings of the Buddha [were being] applied in their deepest personal, psychological, emotional, spiritual lives, as well as how it influenced their social, and government and business lives as well...” He learned much from his monastic teachers about how to respond effectively to tyranny, in particular, Sayadaw U Pandita. This great teacher never engaged in acts of overt defiance or explicit advocacy, yet unmistakably signaled his displeasure in subtle ways. To Steve, this was the Burmese Saṅgha in its very best form: a calm nobility in standing up for righteousness, creating a ripple effect that impacted all of lay society. Steve feels tremendous gratitude for the instructions he received so generously as a lay meditator and monk in Burma, the result of painstakingly care in assuring the transmission of the teachings from one generation to the next… and ultimately to foreign seekers. In return, he has given back in different ways over the years, from supporting health and education projects throughout the Sagaing Hills, to fundraising for nuns, to organizing annual acupuncture treatment for villagers. He also lent a hand when his Burmese friends found themselves in the crosshairs of the regime.

Abbiamo un'idea del buddismo come di una religione basata sulla non violenza, elemento decisamente rilevante, e fatichiamo a comprendere certe pieghe che il buddismo ha preso in Asia. Ma in paesi come lo Sri Lanka e il Myanmar i monaci buddisti sono stati invece figure centrali in movimenti che promuovono l'odio settario, abbandonando gli insegnamenti del Buddha in favore di un obiettivo più comune e terreno: il potere politico.  Le fonti audio della puntata sono tratte da: Aluthgama: BBS' Galagoda Atte Gnanasara's inciteful and fear mongering speech, Colombo Telegraph, 9 giugno 2014; Aluthgama Muslim Attack, canale Youtube Keppetipola Disawe, 19 luglio 2014; Myanmar's Anti-Muslim monk Ashin Wirathu joins hands with a Sri Lankan group, Ap Archive, 3 agosto 2015; The Burmese monk who preaches hate toward Muslims, canale Youtube Quartz, 6 novembre 2016; Sitagu SayaDaw kyi Dhamma Talk, canale Youtube Sun tiri, 23 maggio 2017; Wirathu: Myanmar military releases firebrand Buddhist monk, canale Youtube News of the world, 7 settembre 2021; Gnanasara Thero sentenced to 6 months , canale Youtube Ada Derana, 14 giugno 2018  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 commitment to poetry as witness and connection. Maw Shein Win turned to poetry while in college. She also immersed herself in the punk and experimental music scene of 1980s Los Angeles. This affected the arc of her career, as collaboration across disciplines— music, performance, and visual art— became central to her practice, and is a hallmark of her work. Her published collections include Invisible Gifts (2018), Storage Unit for the Spirit House (2020), as well as smaller works like Tales of a Lonely Meat Eater and Scorned Bone. Storage Unit for the Spirit House emerged from time spent in storage spaces during a personal transition, merging that imagery with Burmese “spirit houses.” She says a major theme in her work is “containers”— whether memory, the body, or physical spaces— along with impermanence, healing, and family. Deeply connected to Myanmar, she collaborates with Burmese writers to raise awareness and funds, emphasizing poetry's role as witness. She stresses the importance of keeping the country's struggles visible, given the decline in international media coverage. “Even if a reader has never been to Myanmar or knows nothing about it, a poem can be an entry point into understanding,”she explains. To emerging poets, she advises “find your communities,” since no single circle can sustain a writer. For Maw Shein Win, poetry bridges cultures and art forms, opening doors for connection, empathy, and new ways of seeing.

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 Podcast, with support from ANU and IDRC. Over those days, emerging storytellers came together to practice something both ancient and profoundly human: telling stories. In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, the workshop served as a reminder that genuine connection — the kind built through care, honesty, and the courage to speak and listen — can never be automated. Guided by Caleb Gattegno'sinsight that “speaking is easy, communication is a miracle,” and grounded in the simple phrase we kept returning to, “tell me more,” this episode invites you to pull up a metaphorical third chair. You'll hear participants discovering their voices in real time, offering stories that create presence, intimacy, and shared understanding through one of humanity's oldest rituals: someone speaking, and someone listening. The first discussion features Mora, a social worker from central Myanmar, who contrasts a peaceful childhood with the subtle discrimination he faced because of his family's pro-democracy leanings. Disillusioned with the university system, he studied at the British Council in Mandalay, inspiring a return to his rural hometown to expand educational access there. After training at a monastic college, he introduced child-centered teaching, built a library, created safe play spaces, and partnered with INGOs on community projects. After the coup, he remained in in the country despite threats to his family to continues humanitarian work for displaced children, believing that helping even one life remains meaningful. Nan Gyi Thoke, a Chinese visual anthropology researcher and filmmaker in Thailand, reflects on her background, her creative path and her research into migrant Myanmar filmmakers working along the Thai–Myanmar border. Her own difficulties abroad—language, culture, legal barriers and limited resources—inspired her to study how Myanmar artists persist and support one anotheramid challenging conditions and restraints. She also co-runs a volunteer Chinese-language platform that shares everyday stories from Southeast Asia to counter stereotypes. Her upbringing in a borderland minority community shapes her commitment to cultural preservation, documentary work and building meaningful connections between Chinese and Burmese communities. Eugene is a young Shan journalist from Taunggyi who creates safety content for Shan communities and translates Burmese news for international readers. Reporting and translation have shown him how conflict, displacement, exploitation, and landmine contamination affect civilians across Shan State, which led him to develop public-education materials on landmines mines and explosive ordnance for Shan communities. He hopes to expand into original reporting, long-form and visual storytelling, and mentoring younger Shan creators. Jeremy describes traveling widely across Myanmar and later throughout Asia. He stresses preparing for weather, food, and transportation before traveling. His work in digital policy gives him opportunities to attend conferences abroad. Japan is his favorite country for its food, culture, politeness, and cool weather. Regarding study opportunities, he encourages young Burmese to pursue scholarships, and to build skills through reading, volunteering, and gaining experience.

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 the tension between his artistic passions and the restrictions of a conservative religious environment. When he began to draw, his relatives told him it was forbidden by faith. School brought little relief—there, Buddhist classmates bullied him with the slur “kalar,” while only a few offered friendship. Books and music became his refuge from isolation. In 2004, Shakeel began his career as a translator and editor at a sports journal. Despite his talent, he faced persistent discrimination from Buddhist colleagues who asked insulting questions about his faith. Feeling alienated, he resigned after a year. Later, at The Voice newspaper, prejudice again forced him out. “I decided I will never apply for a permanent job at a Burmese organization,” he recalls. Instead, he chose the independence of freelance journalism. Photography became his calling—a continuation of his early love for images. But soon after he turned to photojournalism full-time, Myanmar's 2021 coup changed everything. While documenting protests, Shakeel was arrested and tortured; his Muslim identity only made the physical abuse he suffered even harsher. Fleeing arrest, he escaped to Mae Sot, Thailand, where he continues his work documenting the conflict. Shakeel has witnessed harrowing scenes: airstrikes on civilians in Karenni State, families torn apart, children killed. Haunted by what he saw, he photographs the dead with reverence. “I always apologize to their souls,” he says, “and promise I will use these photos for justice.” Despite lingering prejudice, Shakeel finds hope in the unity of Myanmar's revolution. “All minorities sacrifice their lives for the country,” he says. “After the revolution, I hope we will live in a place with no discrimination, where everyone has the same opportunity.”

The fighting in Burma during the Second World War was among the most demanding of the entire conflict. Soldiers faced dense jungle, monsoon rains, disease, and a determined enemy — conditions that made the campaign both brutal and complex. Yet for decades, Burma remained one of the least remembered theatres of the war. The men who fought there — British, Indian, African, and Burmese — became known as the "Forgotten Armies." A new exhibition at the National Army Museum in London, Beyond Burma: Forgotten Armies, seeks to change that. It explores not only the campaign itself but also the wider human and political stories that emerged from the fighting in Southeast Asia. In this episode of the WW2 Podcast, I visit the museum to speak with Dr Alan Jeffreys, Head of Equipment and lead curator of Beyond Burma. We discuss the exhibition, its themes, and the challenge of bringing this complex history to life.   patreon.com/ww2podcast  

Episode #441: “I just thought, ‘Someone has to stay and bear witness,'” says Paul Greening, a veteran humanitarian with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). For decades he moved between crises—Afghanistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, East Timor—but Myanmar, and the Rohingya tragedy in particular, define his moral world. He first encountered the Rohingya in 2008 while in Aceh, when boats of desperate families arrived on Indonesian shores. Unprepared officials and global indifference convinced him to keep their story alive within humanitarian networks, a concern that eventually drew him to Myanmar itself. He arrived in August 2017, and felt strongly that a catastrophe was about to unfold. Weeks later, the campaign began. When his IOM contract ended, Greening stayed on in Rakhine, linking aid agencies with local civil society and supporting the 2019 White Rose campaign of interfaith solidarity. Trapped in Bangkok by COVID, he later moved to Mae Sot, where he now supports exiled youth and the wounded. “They're inspiring,” he says. “They're not giving up!” Greening finds particular inspiration in both the leading role taken in the resistance by Burmese youth, and by Myanmar's emerging cross-ethnic unity: “That's the real revolution,” he says, “ethnic cooperation.” At the same time, he has reasons for concern, such as the lack of full acceptance of women and LGBTQ youth in the movement, as well as in a future, post-conflict Myanmar. He also wants to ensure that the movement is not co-opted by career politicians who have fled the area for their own safety but intend to regain power in a post-conflict Myanmar. Greening is unsentimental about how many revolutions turn out, and the effects of trauma across generations, yet still has hope. “If [the people] can be more united,” he says, “then we move the revolution forward again.”

Maung Zarni, UK-exiled Burmese dissident, scholar, rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, discusses his role within the Jury in the Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Sri Lanka, observing the similarities between the use of starvation perpetrated in Sri Lanka against the Tamil minority and the exercise of starvation used against Palestinians in Gaza. Zarni also discusses his participation in two separate delegations to Gaza and the West Bank (August 2024 and January 2025) witnessing first-hand Israel's ongoing genocide in Palestine, as he elaborates the freedom he and other members of the delegation had to roam and to discover—unscheduled and unchoregraphed visits—the reality of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza and of Israelis living in Israel. Zarni describes the myriad human rights violations, starvation, and conditions of genocide in Gaza, in addition to attesting to the violent attacks by settlers and the threat of genocide already in vigour in the West Bank. Interrogating a vast system of colonial occupation and repression exercised by the state of Israel against Palestinians for the past 78 years, Zarni notes how this is a “collective genocide” whereby many countries and their politicians are “directly participating in Israel's genocide” through political, military, and economic contributions. Zarni discusses how people need to be educated about genocide, especially “when it is done by our own country, in our own name,” as he connects his work in educating the Cambodians about the “Killing Fields” and their own history of genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. Maintaining that this genocide is “far worse than what was happening in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe,” Zarni remarks how “the entire ecosystem of corporate and public legacy media is performing” what the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels did to create the political ethos to destroy European Jewry. Get full access to Savage Minds at savageminds.substack.com/subscribe

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Lya Badgley, author of the book The Thirty-Fifth Page. Lya Badgley was born in Yangon, Myanmar, to Montana parents—a political scientist and an artist—who sparked her lifelong love of creativity and critical thought. After moving to the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s, she became part of Seattle's arts and music scene. In the 1990s, she returned to Southeast Asia as a videographer documenting interviews with Burmese insurgents, then went on to lead Cornell University's Archival Project at Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Museum, preserving evidence used to prosecute war crimes. She later opened the 50th Street Bar & Grill in Yangon—one of the first foreign-owned businesses of its kind at the time.   Lya writes internationally set fiction that blends suspense with cultural nuance, exploring women's journeys through landscapes shaped by historical legacy, grief, and transformation.   Her debut novel, The Foreigner's Confession (2022), set in Cambodia, was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Award for Best Fiction. Her second, The Worth of a Ruby (2023), set in Myanmar, was also honored as a finalist for multiple international awards. She now lives outside Seattle, Washington in the United States, and is excited to release her third novel, The Thirty-Fifth Page—a gothic-tinged literary suspense set in Bosnia.   In my book review, I stated The Thirty Fifth Page is a literary suspense laden with magical realism and a dash of historical fiction. Miri is a researcher whose specialty is medieval manuscripts. She flies to Bosnia to study the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illustrated Jewish text of the Passover Seder housed at the National Museum. Unfortunately, Sarajevo is on the brink of war, so Miri has to work quickly.   As she works, she believes the Haggadah has strange powers. Before she can figure it out, war breaks out, and the Haggadah is lost. But when it finally returns to its place of honor at the museum, it has a new page. And she is called back to find out why. This thirty-fifth page merges history and folklore, putting Miri and those she cares deeply about into the middle of an ancient curse.   I loved going on this adventure with Miri as she tries to figure out who she is and what she wants in the world. I also loved seeing how the past directly affects our present and future - and how we pass that on from generation to generation.   You are definitely going to love this new novel by Lya Badgley!   Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1   Join the Novels N Latte Book Club community to discuss this and other books with like-minded readers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3576519880426290   You can follow Author Lya Badgley Website: https://lyabadgley.com/ FB: @lyabadgleyauthor IG: @lyabadgleyauthor   Purchase The Thirty-Fifth Page on Amazon: Paperback: https://amzn.to/3JBzcpP Ebook: https://amzn.to/4q5ai1W   Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor IG: @terimbrown_author X: @terimbrown1   Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors   #lyabadgley #thethirtyfifthpage #suspense #historicalfiction #terimbrownauthor #authorpodcast #onlineforauthors #characterdriven #researchjunkie #awardwinningauthor #podcasthost #podcast #readerpodcast #bookpodcast #writerpodcast #author #books #goodreads #bookclub #fiction #writer #bookreview *As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

"SBS မြန်မာ ၂၀၂၅ နိုဝင်ဘာ ၁၉ ရက် လျှပ်တစ်ပြက် သတင်းများ"

U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations. He assumed the role following the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash in the Congo in 1961, and soon became one of the most consequential players in international affairs for over a decade. Thant's contributions to some of the key global challenges of the era were widely celebrated at the time but have since been overlooked—until now. A brilliant new biography, Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World, places the former Secretary-General at the heart of several crucial moments of the 1960s, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, post-colonial struggles in the Congo, and much more. The book is written by Thant Myint-U, a historian who has worked at the United Nations—and who also happens to be U Thant's grandson. In our conversation, Thant describes how his grandfather went from being a schoolteacher in rural Burma to, just 15 years later, playing a key role in mediating the Cuban Missile Crisis as UN Secretary-General. We also discuss Thant's efforts to end the Vietnam War before it escalated, and his work confronting a fascist regime in a breakaway region of the Congo. More broadly, we explore the lessons that the current UN system and its Secretary-General can draw from U Thant's remarkable tenure. Thant Myint-U is the author of Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World.

Episode #432: Myanmar researcher Lin Jin Fu investigates the rise of scam compounds that blend human trafficking, digital fraud, and organized crime. His study, Scam haven: Responding to surging cyber crime and human trafficking in Myanmar, traces their expansion from Chinese “scam houses” into a transnational industry stretching across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Originally rooted in China's underground economies, these groups migrated outward as Beijing cracked down and the pandemic restricted domestic activity. They flourished in lawless borderlands such as the Golden Triangle and northern Shan State, where weak governance allowed them to create fortified compounds that combine physical captivity with online deception. Scam centers now anchor wider illicit economies— drugs, gambling, black-market banking, and prostitution— worth at least $37 billion a year. In 2023, the Three Brotherhood Alliance, with apparent Chinese backing, attacked major compounds in Laukkai during Operation 1027, rescuing trafficked Chinese nationals and handing over several ringleaders who were later sentenced to death. At the same time, Beijing launched a domestic campaign, flooding WeChat and Weibo daily with anti-fraud messages. Yet the system persists. Frightened operators briefly suspended work elsewhere, then reopened on the condition that they avoid targeting Chinese citizens. Every compound, Lin Jin Fu explains, survives by securing protection from an armed host—usually the junta or allied Border Guard Forces— while some ethnic armies tolerate or tax them. These networks adapt easily. Big bosses flee by helicopter; smaller scams need only laptops, generators, and internet. The old “pig-butchering” crypto fraud now employees sophisticated AItools, and online-gambling scams targeting countries across South America dominate Tachileik. Sadly, for many impoverished young Burmese, scam centers are the only escape from conscription and joblessness. Meanwhile, inside the compounds, workers endure coercion, sexual abuse, and debt bondage. Surrounding towns boom briefly, then collapse into ghost cities once crackdowns hit. Lin Jin Fu warns that for scam centers to fully cease operations across Myanmar, the military junta has to go. Beyond that, he emphasizes that absent legal migration routes and alternative employment, the industry will continue to endure. “For drugs, people had an alternative— grow coffee instead of poppy,” he says. “For scams, what is the alternative?”

Europol takes down servers behind three malware operations, the US sanctions another Burmese military group linked to scam compounds, Google backs down from mandatory Android developer registration, and Checkout-dot-com donates its ransom to cybercrime researchers instead of paying hackers. Show notes Risky Bulletin: Europol takes down Elysium, VenomRAT, and Rhadamanthys infrastructure

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 economy. In this episode, she speaks about the struggles of Burmese migrant workers and the crucial role of remittances in Myanmar's economy, shaping the vision she has for her country's future. She explains that Myanmar remains largely resourcebased, dependent on extractive industries and agriculture. The State Administration Council (SAC) controls the formal sector, while a significant informal sphere involves both state and nonstate actors. Weak infrastructure—roads, transport, and telecommunications—continues to weigh heavily on national development. Migration, she stresses, is “in [her] heart,” a personal commitment rooted in family background and her belief that migrant workers are the “unsung heroes of Myanmar.” Before her PhD, Ngu Wah studied returnees to learn how families managed remittances and supported rural agriculture. Later, while conducting research in Thailand, she uncovered evidence of a gender wage gap: women earned less but remitted more. She attributes this to side income, skillssharing, digital networks, and community living that help women stretch their resources. Yet, women also face greater obstacles than men in finding jobs when contracts expire and in reintegrating once they return to Myanmar. Many hope to start small businesses, making remittances essential as savings and seed capital. Documentation remains another critical burden. Although official fees are low, bureaucratic hurdles and language barriers push workers to use costly agents. Some fall into debt, while others risk working without papers. Yet documentation is vital for protection, services, and bank access. “We need to be very practical to solve that issue,” she says. “We need to think for the migrant workers.” Remittances accounted for about 4% of Myanmar's GDP in 2018 and have only grown since the coup. But scams and tightening controls make safe transfers harder. She calls for flexible, secure mechanisms that also consider migrants' habits. While many describe the Burmese as resilient, she cautions against romanticizing hardship. Survival, she insists, comes at a cost. Still, after recounting these struggles, she closes with her most powerful reminder: “[the Burmese] always find a way to survive.”

Meet Saw and Brittany Naing, the husband-and-wife team powering Ojai's rock-and-roll barbecue joint Joplin's — and the culinary force many locals already know from The Dutchess. Saw grew up in Myanmar under military rule, fronting a heavy-metal band whose politically charged lyrics earned him unwelcome attention from the junta before he emigrated to Los Angeles in 2007.Los Angeles Times+1 In California kitchens he traded guitar amps for grill grates, cooking everywhere from Bouchon and Café Pinot to Tallula's in Santa Monica before finally landing in Ojai as chef-partner at The Dutchess, where he cooks a deeply personal Burmese-Indian-meets-California menu.Ojai Food and Wine+1Brittany came up through the music world too, running an online music publication, De La Vie TV, before moving into restaurants, eventually becoming beverage director at The Dutchess and creating Namari, a cult-favorite non-alcoholic amaro.Namari+3Joplin's+3Podbay+3 Together they dreamed up Joplin's — named for the dog who adopted them during the pandemic — a “food, drinks, rock & roll” roadhouse on East Ojai Avenue where Texas-style barbecue picks up Burmese and Indian accents, local meat and produce, and a seriously dialed-in playlist.Eater LA+4Joplin's+4Los Angeles Times+4In this episode we talk about Saw's journey from Rangoon stages to Ojai smokers, Brittany's path from showrunner to beverage innovator, the near-miss rock-and-roll pop-up that Covid canceled, and how they've poured every second act of their lives into Joplin's and The Dutchess. It's a conversation about risk, reinvention, and what happens when you take “low and slow” as a life philosophy, not just a way to cook ribs.We did not talk about whether Limp Bizkit is actually nu-metal, cloning polo ponies or the consequences of the Foreign Plot on the French Revolution. To learn more about Saw & Brittany, check ot https://www.joplinsojai.com

SBS မြန်မာ ၂၀၂၅ ခုနှစ် နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၁၂ ရက် နေ့အတွက် News Flash သတင်းများ။

Greg and Ed discuss an article on Ajarn.com by Dr. Jesse Sessions called "What Does the Future Hold" which discusses some of the bigger problems currently facing Thailand and how they might impact the country's prosperity, competitiveness and social longevity. The guys walk through the issues one by one and give their take on its significance, The first issue is border security. Ed points out that Thailand actually has major security issues on the Burmese, Malaysian, and Cambodian borders, something that is easy to forget from the security of Bangkok. In fact several of the later issues tie in to this problem, including the major problems of government corruption and of scam centers in Cambodia and Burma, that implicate Thailand in international crime networks. Greg points out that these 'scam cities' are sometimes connected to the Thai power grid or Internet service and may also be trafficking victims through Bangkok. As a 'rule of law' guy, Ed emphasizes the importance of cleaning up these issues and ridding Southeast Asia of its Wild West image.  Another cluster of issues centers around the economy, such as the slower the expected recovery of the tourism sector after COVID and Thailand's perennial fixture in the 'middle income trap,' clearly surpassing Cambodia but somehow also managing to be miles away from South Korea and Japan. Check in for discussion of a bunch of other topics, including demographics, AI adoption, and environmental problems, and make sure to read the full article for a more thorough breakdown of each issue.  

SBS မြန်မာ ၂၀၂၅ ခုနှစ် နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၁၀ ရက် နေ့အတွက် News Flash သတင်းများ။

Episode #427: Daniel M. Stuart describes his newest work, Insight in Perspective, as the product of decades of scholarship and meditative practice, aimed at practitioners and academics alike. The book, a follow-up to his earlier Emissary of Insight, examines the historical and cultural formation of the S. N. Goenka Vipassana lineage. He says it began as a short academic critique, but grew into a comprehensive study seeking to bridge lived religious experience and historical analysis. Stuart situates his work partly in dialogue with Eric Braun's The Birth of Insight, which links modern Vipassana to “Buddhist modernism,” a rationalized response to colonialism and ongoing Western influence. While acknowledging the general acceptance of Braun's influence, Stuart contends that this model is too narrow, overlooking the hybrid, lay-based traditions that complicate the monastic-centered story. Figures such as U Ba Khin and Goenka, he argues, cannot be reduced to the rational and secular; their teachings blend the scientific, the mystical, and the cosmological. Stuart identifies a central tension between scholarly critique and devotional participation, describing the scholar-practitioner's task as being willing “to complicate things” with remaining loyal to the tradition. But it's not easy uncovering all the threads of this complex story. For example, he notes that many witnesses to early Goenka history have remained silent, while other informants, such as Friedgard Lottermoser, only shared guardedly, out of a wish to protect what they saw as esoteric knowledge. Stuart challenges Western scholars like Braun for “thinning out” the richness of Burmese Buddhism by forcing it into modernist categories, which also results in erasure. He emphasizes that elements like spirit consultation, protective rituals, and supernormal powers are not anomalies but continuations of Burmese cosmology, and still exist today in many “modern” mindfulness traditions. While Goenka's public-facing dialog emphasizes the rational and secular nature of the practice, meditation hall arrangements, and the playing of protective chants such as the Patthāna, at Goenka centers, reveal a much more rich and complex reality. For Stuart, modernization in this context means reorganization, not disenchantment. The global Vipassana movement, he concludes, was not born of one or two events, but emerged through an evolving genealogy, one that joins textual scholarship, colonial encounters, lay experimentation, and enduring cosmological belief into a single, multifaceted birth of insight.

SBS မြန်မာ ၂၀၂၅ ခုနှစ် နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၅ ရက် နေ့အတွက် News Flash သတင်းများ။

One of the most pivotal moments in the history of Thailand was the Battle of Nong Sarai in 1593. This confrontation between the Burmese Tuangoo Dynasty and the proto-Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya is remembered as the setting for an epic elephant duel. King Naresuan of Ayutthaya was said to have challenged the Burmese crown prince to single combat on elephant back. His victory that day become symbolic of Thailand's independent spirit. However, there are at least ten different accounts of what actually went down at Nong Sarai in 1593. Each of those sources paint a very different picture of how this confrontation played out. Which sources should we trust? Was this duel actually an elephant sized historical myth? Tune-in and find out how horny elephants, dishonorable gunplay, and damaged hats all play a role in the story. Join us in Greece in 2026! Check out the itinerary and book HERE!Check out the merch at out T-Public store HERE!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 attached to the peoples of Myanmar,” she says, summing up a lifetime of scholarship and advocacy that spans from the archives of colonial Burma to the war-torn Thai-Myanmar border. “I just want to talk to everybody.” Trained at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Lalita's research explored how British rule relied on racial hierarchies to govern Burma. “The British were pretty paranoid and suspicious of the Burmese… the specific race that they found the most difficult to rule and police was actually the Bamar,” she explains. “Their solution was pretty simple: let's bring somebody to scare the Burmese—hence the presence of the Gurkhas, the Sikhs and so on.” These studies taught her how old systems of mistrust shaped modern Myanmar. Her work later shifted from archives to activism. Returning to Thailand, she began advising parliament and the army on border affairs, refugee policy, and Myanmar relations. “There are some really good-hearted [Thai] soldiers who mean well, who want to help Myanmar as well,” she says. Mae Sot, the border town she calls her second home, has become central to her life: “Mae Sot is a really fascinating place. There's no place like Mae Sot… Thailand has been the hub of resistance from Myanmar for generations.” Lalita argues that Thailand must take a more active role as mediator and humanitarian partner. “Thailand could do a lot more,” she says. “The border is a gray zone… we cannot use the urban mindset to get the border fixed however we like it.” She rejects isolation of the junta—“you need somebody who can still negotiate and get access to Naypyidaw”—and believes dialogue is the only way forward. “War is never good for anybody except war business people.”

နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၃ ရက် တနင်္လာနေ့ SBS Burmese News Flash သတင်းများ။

What does it mean to truly awaken—and how do we live with full awareness in every moment, even in the face of impermanence? Eugene Cash's warm, playful, and deeply sincere style invites us into a rich exploration of mindfulness, death, and the immediacy of life. Drawing from the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Eugene emphasizes the experiential nature of awareness, encouraging us to feel our bodies, notice our breath, and recognize the fleeting nature of each moment. He shares personal stories, including a near-death experience and the dissolution of San Francisco Insight to illustrate how impermanence can be a gateway to freedom.Eugene's teaching is grounded in both classical Buddhist texts and lived experience. He references the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10), Zen master Dogen, Longchenpa of the Dzogchen tradition, and Shantideva, offering poetic and powerful quotes that illuminate the path to awakening, focusing on:Mindfulness of posture, breath, and bodily elements (earth, air, fire, water)Awareness in all activities—“no one at Safeway has to know you're meditating”The normality of death and the intoxications of youth, health, and lifeAwakening as “springing into being” and “the freshness of reality”The insight that freedom arises when we stop clinging to anythingHe offers us a gentle nudge to wake up to the miracle of being here, now.______________Eugene Cash is the founding teacher of the San Francisco Insight Meditation Community of San Francisco which ended in October 2025 after more than 30 years. He now teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and leads intensive meditation retreats internationally. His teaching is influenced by both Burmese and Thai streams of the Theravada tradition as well as Zen and Tibetan Buddhist practice. He is also a teacher of the Diamond Approach, a school of spiritual investigation and self-realization developed by A. H. Almaas. Learn more at https://www.insightdharmacenter.org/ ______________ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

ALC: ၂၀၂၅ ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၉ ရက်, SBS Burmese News Flash သတင်းများ။

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 Yangon, into entertainment, and then—after the 2021 coup—into public dissent, displacement, and ongoing advocacy. He grew up on Mogok's west side. Money was tight; his father died from alcohol; his mother remarried and left; with no siblings, he lived among relatives and kept one house rule: don't drink, don't smoke. Before leaving he told a friend he would not return unless he had become an artist. In Yangon Khar Ra studied English at Dagon University while translating, working restaurant shifts, and taking shortterm jobs. A friend urged him into a modeling contest; he arrived in borrowed clothes, learned fast, and in 2014 was named Mr. Asia Myanmar, then placed second runnerup at the regional Mr. Asia pageant. Work followed across modeling, music, and film. He notes the limits of precoup censorship—no profanity even in gangster scripts, intimacy restricted. On January 31, 2021, Khar Ra was planning his next series of films; by morning the coup began. Within days he joined rallies with '88 Generation figures, raised the threefinger salute, shared inthe 8 p.m. potandpan protests, and posted blunt messages against the regime. He also redirected his platforms to verified needs— medicine, rent, transport— adding, “We must carry on what we are doing. We can't waste their sacrifice… We're in this together, and we will fight until the end. We can make it happen.” After a fellow celebrity's detention, his own name appeared under Section 505(a). Khar Ra hid with relatives, then left Yangon in a longyi and glasses, passing seven checkpoints. He moved toward the Thai–Myanmar border and into ethniccontrolled areas, met displaced families, and says the shift was clear: “I am on a path of revolution… It is happening.” The next phase took him to the United States. He joined fundraisers (including a San Francisco night he says raised over US$90,000), acted in a UCLA student short—his first screen role in nearly five years—and assembled a small documentary from an elevenday Karen trip. Exile, he says, cost him identity and purpose, yet his pledge stands: “I will keep supporting the movement.I'll fight until the end.”

SBS မြန်မာ ၂၀၂၅ ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၇ ရက် နေ့အတွက် News Flash သတင်းများ။

Today's Adventure: Two OSS agents have to carry forged orders for a Japanese camp commander through a Burmese jungle.Original Radio Broadcast: September 1, 1950Originating from New YorkStarring: Chuck Webster; Ralph Bell; Raymond Edward Johnson; Eric Dressler; Karl Weber; Jerry Jarrett; Joan Alison; Maurice Tarplin; Guy ReppTo subscribe to this podcast and, go to https://greatadventures.info/Become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.netSupport the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.netGive us a call at 208-991-4783Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectivesFollow us on Twitter @radiodetectives

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 comfort, Dr. Myay Latt went to the Naga Self-Administered Zone — a place with no roads or electricity, where he was often the first doctor anyone had seen. He built bamboo clinics, trained villagers, and survived falls off cliffs while fighting malaria and tuberculosis. “They think I'm a strange person,” he says, laughing, “but they thank me.”His work took him across Myanmar's forgotten corners — from Chin to Rakhine, where he ignored warnings and treated patients in areas marked No Entry for Rohingya. “I just want to heal people,” he says. “Not take sides.” In Putao, near the Kachin mountains, he reached villages by boat and foot, sleeping in leech-infested huts and learning the depth of his country's suffering.When the coup came in 2021, he and friends spent the night awake in Yangon, drinking whiskey and waiting. “It's like slapping our face,” he says. Out of that shock came an idea, inspired so many decades ago by Gandhi's nonviolent crusade against the British: What if we stop their machine? He and other doctors decided then and there, to refuse to work under the junta. By morning, the Civil Disobedience Movement was born. Within days, hospitals, banks, and ministries stood still.The regime answered with bullets and airstrikes. “They're so inhumane,” he says. “Hospitals, schools — they don't care who's inside.” He calls the attacks a clear breach of international law and urges only one thing: stop bombing civilians.Today, Myay Latt leads Heartland Union, bringing medical aid to Myanmar's war zones. Many of his colleagues are gone. Still, he meditates and carries on. “Sometimes I cry at night, just hearing a Burmese traditional song,” he says softly. “But I will do whatever I can to win this revolution.”

ALC: ၂၀၂၅ ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၂ ရက်, SBS Burmese News Flash သတင်းများ။

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 ignorance of the country developed into curiosity, empathy, and visual storytelling. As a photojournalist, Dunlop has spent years documenting the “invisible dictatorship” of Myanmar's military regime, focusing on the mechanisms of social control, forced labor, and repression. His 2013 book, Brave New Burma, aimed to educate Western audiences about the complex realities behind simplistic narratives. Rather than reinforcing the myth of Aung San Suu Kyi as a saintly figure, he presents her as a tough leader shaped by privilege, critiquing her understanding of marginalized communities alongside a limited understanding of the country's peripheral conflicts. He also challenges the Western romanticization of both Suu Kyi and Myanmar, arguing that it led to performative policies and a blindness to the structural conditions that enabled the 2021 coup. Dunlop documents not just brutality, but structure—capturing how indoctrination, poverty, and coercion shape Myanmar's military conscripts. From refugee camps to prison quarries, his work illustrates repression both subtle and overt. His photographs, including one of Suu Kyi herself, offer visual testimony to the country's contradictions. In the end, he emphasizes humility as essential to understanding Myanmar: “The more I learn about Burma, the less I know.”

SBS မြန်မာ ၂၀၂၅ ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၀ ရက် နေ့အတွက် News Flash သတင်းများ။

Episode #415: U Jāgara's spiritual journey is a fascinating exploration of monastic life, creativity, and the transformative power of the Dhamma. Born in Quebec, his introduction to meditation set him on a path that would span traditions and continents. His spiritual journey was initially shaped by his time in the Goenka tradition, where he valued the rigor and structure of its method. He later practiced Mahasi Sayadaw's teachings in Yangon, which introduced him to the nuanced and adaptive approaches of Burmese monastic practice. Then in Sri Lanka, he immersed himself in rich Theravādatraditions of scholarship and meditation that expanded his understanding of the Dhamma, affording him both intellectual depth and the opportunity to live a solitary monastic life for a time. Appointed as a teacher within the Goenka tradition, U Jāgara eventually grappled with the organization's growing rigidity. For example, he felt that the pre-recorded discourses limited the opportunity for creative and responsive teaching. He also noted how the exclusion of alternative meditation techniques narrowed practitioners' understanding of the Dhamma's diversity. In addition, he strongly believed that the discouragement of interaction with monks and traditional Buddhist rituals created a sense of separation from the broader, Buddhist spiritual community. Though valuing its teachings, he transitioned away from the Goenka organization, seeking a more integrative approach to the Dhamma,. A transformative chapter unfolded for U Jāgara when he left monastic life temporarily to explore lay life in France. Balancing personal aspirations with the needs of others, he gained insights into the richness of human relationships, responsibilities, and shared growth. Yet, the call to monastic life drew him back to Myanmar, where Pa Auk Sayadaw's individualized and methodical guidance reshaped his meditation practice. Under this mentorship, U Jāgara refined his focus on jhāna meditation, achieving profound clarity and insights.“We have to remind ourselves that the monastic life is not for everybody, and it's a question of choice. It's much better if you if you are able to be monastic, and it's cool because you don't have responsibilities, and you just devote yourself to the Dhamma! But it does not, by itself, integrate the lay life, and lay life can be very rich.”

In this reflective episode, Jim Tew takes listeners on a journey through his years as a traveling beekeeper, visiting apiaries and researchers around the world. From the early days of Africanized “killer” bees in Venezuela to disciplined Burmese military trainees in Myanmar, Jim recounts how these experiences shaped his understanding of honey bees and the people who care for them. Jim describes the sobering reality of working with hyper-defensive bees in Venezuela and the evolution of those colonies over time, before shifting to stories of beekeepers in China, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. Through it all, he highlights the universal spirit of beekeeping—a shared language spoken through the hum of the hive, no matter the country or culture. Jim closes with a gentle reminder that every beekeeper, from backyard hobbyists to world travelers, shares the same curiosity and respect for the bees. His tales from the road remind us that while techniques and environments differ, the heart of beekeeping remains constant worldwide. ______________________ Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com ______________________ Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music; Christmas Avenue by Immersive Music; original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott Cartoons by: John Martin (Beezwax Comics) Copyright © 2025 by Growing Planet Media, LLC

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. Their ambition is recognition as a state, linking their territories along the Chinese and Thai borders. If the regime collapses, Davis argues, the Wa will act swiftly to unite and consolidate. He calls them “a critical player in the overall struggle for Myanmar.”The Wa's influence now extends west of the Salween, through ties with the Ta'ang, leverage over the Shan State Progress Party, and neutralization of rivals like the Restoration Council of Shan State. This, Davis notes, is ascendancy rather than reckless conquest—a quiet dominance shaping the conflict's direction.Davis also identifies drones as a decisive factor. Initially dismissed, they became central to resistance victories in late 2023. The junta responded by creating a drone directorate, importing Chinese systems, and applying Russian expertise from Ukraine. By 2025, drones, artillery, air power, and conscripts are integrated into an operating machine. “It's an army in the way the resistance, by definition, is not,” Davis observes.Resistance morale remains high, but Davis stresses that spirit alone cannot sustain the fight. “They have got plenty of morale. They're not short of guns. But if you don't have enough ammunition, then you're in trouble.”Elections, he says, “will happen come hell or high water,” yet will not bring peace. China's backing of the junta complicates everything, while the Arakan Army's rise in Rakhine could change the board entirely. Davis closes with a warning: “The bottom line is, you can have a ceasefire today, but [the Burmese military is] going to come back, they're going to rebuild, they're going to re-equip, and they're going to come back at you.”

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 Sayadaw's monastery and began to practice. Tempel describes U Pandita's style as a “ruthless investigation” which was uncommon among Western teachers, and which ultimately led to a deeper understanding of the second foundation of mindfulness.After some time, Tempel became concerned about the intensity of the practice, and when he heard about the newly established Pa Auk Monastery, he decided to try it out, as he was especially keen to practice mettā intensively through jhāna meditation.At Pa Auk, he would find a very different style of monastery. The monastics and lay meditators were more relaxed, and openly discussed scripture and practice between meditation sittings. Tempel also found the actual practice to be quite different, particularly the absorptive states that Pa Auk taught. As he progressed in samathā, he began to see lights, considered a positive sign that one's practice is going well,. He even began to develop psychic powers, such as predicting the future. This, in particular, shook him to his core, and caused him to question Western notions of “the real world.”This paradigm shift of reality began to affect his faith as well. “I was feeling that devotion to the Buddha, his teachings, the centuries of people practicing it, people rediscovering it at different times and re-encouraging that level of practice,” he says. “And then to see that it wasn't mythology, that it actually could be possibly more true than you might have imagined.”In the next segment, we explore how he took these teachings from Myanmar back home to the US with him.

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 accent and ethnicity led to discrimination, mirroring the systemic exclusion ethnic minorities face in Myanmar. This caused her to reflecting on her own Bamar privilege, which exposed her past biases, especially toward groups like the Rohingyas and Indian-Burmese. She committed herself to building inclusive, respectful spaces.Jue Jue's Safe Space, launched in 2019, evolved from a Facebook page into a critical mental health platform for Burmese communities. Inspired by personal struggles and intergenerational trauma, the initiative counters stigma by offering culturally grounded, clinically sound services. Jue Jue emphasizes that mental health suffering often stems from systemic injustice, not individual weakness.She challenges her country's romanticized patriarchy and calls out its political misuse, while urging a return to Buddhist principles of compassion. Despite operating without steady funding, her initiative has supported many during Myanmar's cascading crises—pandemic, coup, earthquake—while promoting agency and emotional resilience.Though not yet ready to treat oppressors (those who are currently in the military perpetuating abuses), she hopes for a future where reconciliation is possible. “We're going to shine again,” she affirms, envisioning a Myanmar rebuilt through inner peace, inclusion, and empowered healing.

President Trump has declared that peace in the Middle East is "beyond very close" as he presented a new plan alongside the Israeli prime minister, with both men saying Hamas must agree to it or Israel will finish its offensive in Gaza. The Palestinian group is studying the 20 point proposal. Afghanistan is hit by an internet blackout, as the Taliban enforces what it sees as a "morality" crackdown. A federal budget stand-off is threatening to shut down the US government for the first time in almost 7 years. A trade deal that's been the cornerstone of US-Africa economic relations for 25 years expires later today. UN investigators say they've found clear evidence that the Burmese army has replaced the Rohingya villages and homes it destroyed inside Myanmar with military infrastructure. Ukraine and Russia increasingly turn to convicts, as they struggle to recruit more soliders for the war in Ukraine. A convoy including Ecuador's president Daniel Noboa is attacked by protestors angry over a cut in fuel subsidies. Plus, the so-called Bitcoin Queen, accused of stealing more than five billion dollars worth of the cryptocurrency from investors, pleads guilty to charges in London.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

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Buried on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, Shwe Kokko is a shimmering city of skyscrapers, casinos and fresh-laid highways. But peek a little closer and you'll see why it has become one of the world's criminal capitals — from razor-wire fences to keep in thousands of enslaved scammers, to armed rebel guards and a theme park where Chinese high-rollers can shoot military-grade weapons.Shwe Kokko is a gangster's paradise. But not any gangster: the brainchild of a Burmese warlord and his Triad kinpin partner, it is an emblem of Golden Triangle lawlessness — where drugs, scams and slaves are bartered like chickens, and where billions of dollars disappear into a gigantic dark market. And this year, it has even helped start an international conflict. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices