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The recent history of sterilization programs, both voluntary and involuntary, has seen certain countries, demographics, and skin colors specifically targeted for depopulation. Sometimes the process is slow, through drugs, vaccines, famine, and low fertility. Other times the process is accelerated through wars, economic collapse, and sterilization programs.The United States embarked on an official policy of depopulation through sterilization after the submission of the National Security Study Memorandum 200 (aka The Kissinger Report) in late 1974. With $140M in funding the following year to implement the program across 13 countries, that had been slated for destruction under the Malthusian leadership of Heinz Kissinger, NGOs such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF went to work thinning the herd in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.—Video ChannelsWatch the video version of Macroaggressions:Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/Macroaggressions YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MacroaggressionsPodcastBrighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/macroaggressions/—MACRO & Charlie Robinson LinksHypocrazy Audiobook: https://amzn.to/4aogwmsThe Octopus of Global Control Audiobook: https://amzn.to/3xu0rMmWebsite: www.Macroaggressions.ioMerch Store: https://macroaggressions.dashery.com/ Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/macroaggressionspodcast—Activist Post FamilySign up for the Activist Post Newsletter: https://activistpost.kit.com/emailsActivist Post: www.ActivistPost.comNatural Blaze: www.NaturalBlaze.com —Support Our SponsorsGround Luxe Grounding Mats: https://GroundLuxe.com/MACROReplace Your Mortgage: www.WipeOutYourMortgageNow.comC60 Power: https://go.ShopC60.com/PBGRT/KMKS9/ | Promo Code: MACROChemical Free Body: https://ChemicalFreeBody.com/macro/ | Promo Code: MACROWise Wolf Gold & Silver: https://Macroaggressions.Gold/ | (800) 426-1836LegalShield: www.DontGetPushedAround.comEMP Shield: www.EMPShield.com | Promo Code: MACROChristian Yordanov's Health Program: www.LiveLongerFormula.com/macroAbove Phone: https://AbovePhone.com/macro/Van Man: https://VanMan.shop/?ref=MACRO | Promo Code: MACROThe Dollar Vigilante: https://DollarVigilante.spiffy.co/a/O3wCWenlXN/4471Nesa's Hemp: www.NesasHemp.com | Promo Code: MACROAugason Farms: https://AugasonFarms.com/MACRO—
Studies of forms of media have focused on either political or cultural histories of media. Political histories study media growth and literacy, and the emergence of liberal democratic institutions in Western and postcolonial societies. Cultural histories study the multiple origins of media technologies, seek lost or marginalised cultural objects, and examine how artefacts are connected to earlier modes of production and consumption. What is lost in both is the idea that media and technologies have an independent existence, with their own lives, histories, and afterlives. Inhabiting Technologies/Modernities: Media and Cultural Practices in South Asia (Orient BlackSwan, 2025) fills this gap, showing how media and technologies create the human condition even as they are created by it. The authors highlight this through everyday artefacts like the book, newspaper, radio, photograph, film, television and activism on digital media. P. Thirumal is Professor of Communication Studies at the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad. Carmel Christy K. J. is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Syracuse University and is affiliated with the South Asian Studies program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Iran continues to retaliate against attacks with ferocity. Though many of its ballistic missile facilities have been razed, its vast drone armoury is powerful and destructive. Who will benefit from India's boom in data centres? And why giant board games are not child's play. Guests and host:Shashank Joshi, defence editorGavin Jackson, South Asia business and finance correspondentRosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”Jason Palmer, co-host of “The intelligence”Topics covered: Iran, America, Shahed drones, Geran, Ukraine, ZelenksyIndia, data centres, Amazon, Meta, Google, NvidiaMonopoly, board games, toys, kidultsListen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Iran continues to retaliate against attacks with ferocity. Though many of its ballistic missile facilities have been razed, its vast drone armoury is powerful and destructive. Who will benefit from India's boom in data centres? And why giant board games are not child's play. Guests and host:Shashank Joshi, defence editorGavin Jackson, South Asia business and finance correspondentRosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”Jason Palmer, co-host of “The intelligence”Topics covered: Iran, America, Shahed drones, Geran, Ukraine, ZelenksyIndia, data centres, Amazon, Meta, Google, NvidiaMonopoly, board games, toys, kidultsListen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On Call with Insignia Ventures with Yinglan Tan and Paulo Joquino
Luke Boland shares insights from his journey spanning over 15 years in banking, from managing merchant relationships during the early days of contactless payments in Australia to building Standard Chartered's FinTech client coverage across Asia. In this conversation, he discusses the evolution of bank-fintech relationships, the bank's approach to supporting both global players and homegrown innovators like StraitsX and Finmo, the role of stablecoins in bridging traditional finance and digital innovation, and practical advice for FinTech founders on building strong partnerships with financial institutions.About our GuestLuke Boland is the Executive Director and Head of Fintech for ASEAN, South Asia, and GCNA (Greater China and North Asia) at Standard Chartered Bank, based in Singapore. In this role, he leads the Corporate & Investment Banking initiatives within Banks & Broker Dealers, focusing on expanding Standard Chartered's FinTech client coverage across Asia and the bank's global network.Boland joined Standard Chartered in March 2020 as Director of FinTech, and was promoted to his current executive director role in January 2024. His career spans over 15 years in banking, with a strong focus on transactional banking, cash management, and payments. Prior to Standard Chartered, he spent over a decade at National Australia Bank (NAB), where he held various leadership positions across Singapore and Melbourne, including Director of Transactional and Trade Asia and Associate Director of Transactional Banking Asia.Boland's early career included a role as Business Relations Manager at Merchantlink, a merchant acquiring business, where he developed deep expertise in card acceptance and payments infrastructure. He holds a Bachelor of Business in International Business (Applied) from RMIT University in Melbourne.Throughout his tenure at Standard Chartered, Boland has been instrumental in fostering partnerships with leading fintechs in the region, including Xfers (now StraitsX), Finmo, and Atome. He has been at the forefront of the bank's digital asset strategy, supporting the integration of stablecoin infrastructure and blockchain technology into traditional banking services. Under his leadership, Standard Chartered has positioned itself as an active participant in Asia's evolving FinTech ecosystem, supporting both global players and homegrown innovators.Directed by Paulo JoquiñoProduced by Paulo JoquiñoFollow us on LinkedIn for more updatesThe content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund. Any and all opinions shared in this episode are solely personal thoughts and reflections of the guest and the host.
Just weeks ago, India hosted the 2026 AI Impact Summit, the latest chapter in a global process that began in 2023 in the UK. For India, the stakes could not be higher: it's a country with immense technical talent and a data-rich digital ecosystem, but also a services-led growth model that AI could either boost or seriously disrupt. For the Modi government, the summit was part diplomatic showcase, part investment pitch, and part declaration of ambition. To talk more about the summit and its key takeaways, Milan is joined on the show this week by Anirudh Suri. Anirudh is a nonresident scholar with Carnegie India. His interests lie at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, climate, and strategic affairs. He is also a managing partner at India Internet Fund, a technology-focused venture capital fund based in India and the United States. He's the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, published in 2022. And he's also the host of a podcast by the same name, “The Great Tech Game,” which focuses on technology, business and geopolitics. Milan and Anirudh discuss the evolution of global AI summitry, the debate over India's elusive “DeepSeek moment,” and the country's indigenous large language models (LLMs). Plus, the two discuss the effects of AI on India's services industry and India's quest to marshal its domestic scientific talent. Episode notes: 1. Anirudh Suri, “Learning from DeepSeek, honing India's AI strategy,” Hindustan Times, March 2, 2025. 2. Anirudh Suri, “The Missing Pieces in India's AI Puzzle: Talent, Data, and R&D,” Carnegie India, February 24, 2025. 3. Anirudh Suri, “Winning the AI race with research talent,” Hindustan Times, November 3, 2024. 4. “Governing India's Digital Revolution (with Rahul Matthan),” Grand Tamasha, January 23, 2024.
In this episode, I sit down with Jay Truesdale, a geopolitical risk adviser and former U.S. diplomat and Navy Reserve officer whose career spans diplomacy, military service, and private sector leadership.Jay traces his sense of duty back to childhood, inspired by family stories of wartime service. That early call led him into diplomacy and the Navy Reserve, with formative experiences across Russia, Ukraine, and South Asia.We talk about the craft of diplomacy in the real world: building trust with local leaders, listening far from Washington, and learning how countries actually work beneath the surface.Jay also reflects on his transition to the private sector, first helping bring political risk into the traditional business risk approach, and later leading two geopolitical risk consultancies. Drawing on frontline experience, he shares the frameworks he uses to help leaders think clearly about risk in a world where the old rules are rapidly breaking down.The book Jay mentions is The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz, published in 1953.Recorded on 6 March 2026.Connect with Jay on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrtruesdale/.Instagram: @at.the.coalfaceAnd don't forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks.Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude!Support the show
In this powerful podcast episode, Rabi Raj Thapa, founding member of Nepal Narcotics Bureau, shares untold insights into Nepal's drug history, narcotics control, and the evolution of drug law in Nepal. From the Hippie era Nepal experienced in the 1960s and 70s to the rising drug crime in 90s Nepal, this conversation explores how hashish in Nepal was once socially accepted and how the UN narcotics ban influenced Nepal drug policy and enforcement strategies. We discuss how Nepal established the Narcotics Bureau, the challenges of drug trafficking in Nepal, and how narcotics control Nepal evolved under international pressure. Rabi Raj Thapa explains how drug crime in Nepal became more complex over time, why the morality aspect around cannabis history Nepal shifted, and how law enforcement adapted to emerging threats in the South Asia drug trade. This episode also dives into Nepal police history, crime during the hippie era, and the connection between clean money and hidden narcotics networks. If you're interested in Nepal law enforcement podcast content, drug awareness Nepal, or understanding the roots of Nepal drug laws, this in-depth discussion provides rare firsthand insight from a founding member of the Narcotics Bureau of Nepal. Watch till the end to understand how Nepal fought drug crime and what the future holds for narcotics control in Nepal. GET CONNECTED WITH Rabi Raj Thapa: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thapa.rabiraj LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabi-raj-thapa-76387245/ Twitter - https://x.com/ThapaRabi
On this week's episode of the podcast, Mohammed Soliman of the Middle East Institute joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East. In the book, Soliman argues that it is time for the United States to move decisively away from nation-building and get back to the business of order-building. To do so will require zooming out, in both geographical and historical terms, to build a new regional order across 'West Asia' – from the Middle East to South Asia, connecting Europe to the Indo-Pacific via the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com. POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.
What is the “School of Love” in Sufism? In this video, we explore Madhhab-e Ishq — the Sufi path centered on divine love (ishq) as the highest way to know God. From the poetry of Rumi to the teachings of Ahmad Ghazali, discover how love became a spiritual methodology, a theology, and a transformative path within Islamic mysticism.Find me and my music here:https://linktr.ee/filipholmSupport Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion Or through a one-time donation: https://paypal.me/talkreligiondonateSources/Recommended Reading:Caner Dagli (translated by) (2004). Ibn 'Arabi - "The Ringstones of Wisdom (Fusus al-Hikam)". Great Books of the Islamic World. Kazi Pubns Inc.Chittick, William & Peter Lamborn Wilson (translated by) (1982) "Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes". Classics of Western Spirituality Series. Paulist Press.Ernst, Carl W. & Bruce B. Lawrence (2003). "Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and beyond". Palgrave Macmillan.Ernst, Carl W (translated by) (2018). "Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr". Northwestern University Press.Inayat Khan, Pir Zia (ed.) (2001). "A Pearl in Wine: Essays on the Life, Music & Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan". Omega Publications.Knysh, Alexander (2000). "Islamic Mysticism: A Short History". Brill.Lewis, Franklin D. (2000). "Rumi: Past and Present, East and West". Oneworld publications.Lumbard, Joseph E.B. (2016). "Ahmad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love". SUNY Press.Pourjavady, Nasrollah (translated by) (2015). "Sawanih: Inspirations from the World of Pure Spirits". Routledge.Rustom, Muhammed (translated and edited by) (2022). "The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical Sufism". New York University Press.Rustom, Muhammed (2024). "Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of Ayn al-Qudat". State University of New York Press.Safi, Omid (2019). "Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition". Yale University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Is Imam Ali a source of division or the grounds for friendship among Muslims?How did a man who asked that his killer's ropes be loosened in his dying moments become the most contested figure in Islamic history?In this episode of Thinking Islam, we explore Dr Hassan Abbas's acclaimed book, "The Prophet's Heir" through the lens of a policy maker and conflict resolution scholar. Drawing from both Shi'a and Sunni sources, Dr Abbas tells the story of Imam Ali not as a sectarian narrative but as a bridge between traditions. We examine the political dynamics of Saqifa, Ali's radical economic justice, the bias in Western scholarship of Islam, and the paradox of a warrior whose defining qualities were dialogue, selflessness, and forgiveness. In his final moments, struck by a poisoned sword, Ali asked that his killer be treated well, a measure of the justice and forgiveness that Dr Abbas argues makes Ali's legacy not a source of division but a possibility for renewal and unity.Dr Hassan Abbas is Distinguished Professor of International Relations at the National Defence University in Washington, D.C. and a senior adviser at Harvard University's Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs. His research focuses on countering political and religious extremism, rule-of-law reforms, and the intersections of security, politics, and faith in South Asia and the Middle East. "The Prophet's Heir: The Life of Ali ibn Abi Talib," published by Yale University Press, has been widely praised across traditions.Audio Chapters: 0:00 – Highlights 01:32 – Writing a Book on Imam Ali 8:04 – Using Both Shi'a and Sunni Sources 17:23 – The Bias in Western Scholarship 25:35 – An Uncritical Version of Imam Ali? 32:00 – Saqifa Through the Lens of a Policy Maker 43:47 – Did the Companions Fail the Test? 51:28 – Imam Ali as a Diplomat 56:45 – Imam Ali & Economic Justice 1:07:15 – Imam Ali, Dialogue & Egalitarianism 1:16:02 – Imam Ali's Legacy 1:21:05 – Thinking Islam Question
This International Women's Day, Clayton chats to a very special guest, Kate, who works for Dignity Freedom Network (DFN). DFN raises awareness and support for women's ministry in South Asia. Kate is always seeking opportunities to ‘be a voice for those who have no voice’ and share how these exploited and impoverished women are finding freedom and hope. Kate says it is a privilege to represent these precious women and invites listeners to consider partnering with DFN's International Women’s Day campaign, so more at-risk girls are saved from a life of abusive sexual servitude, and more abused women can recover their God-given dignity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Can money help end wars?Most investors never ask that question.Marcel Smits has spent 25+ years working in conflict zones across Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. After years on the ground, he noticed a major problem:Peacebuilders create stability.Then investment arrives.But without the right safeguards, money can sometimes undo the peace that was just built.So Marcel is building something new.Peace Finance.In this episode we talk about:• The rise of PeaceFinance.org• What peace-positive investing actually means• Why the market for peace finance could reach $40B+• Why finance and peacebuilding rarely talk to each other• New funds and financial instruments designed to stabilize fragile regions• How PeaceTech startups and global development finance could work togetherWe also debate a hard question:Can technology truly be “peaceful”… or is every technology dual-use?If you care about venture capital, global stability, investing, or PeaceTech, this conversation will challenge how you think about money and conflict.Learn more: PeaceFinance.orgPodcast Timestamps00:00 Intro: Why peace finance matters00:21 Marcel's background working in conflict zones01:40 The frustration that led Marcel to create Peace Finance02:55 The core idea: What if finance could contribute to peace?03:40 What PeaceFinance.org is building05:15 What “peace-positive investing” actually means06:35 Finance for Peace vs PeaceFinance.org explained09:15 Why the peace ecosystem is fragmented today10:05 Shane's vision: PeaceTech as a $100B industry11:55 Marcel on the potential of PeaceTech12:50 Why safeguards matter when building peace technology15:00 The big debate: Can technology ever be neutral?17:00 Governance vs technology in conflict environments19:10 Will regulation slow down PeaceTech innovation?20:20 Marcel's view: Standards should guide, not stop innovation22:00 Examples of Peace Finance standards23:50 How inclusiveness and trust shape peace technologyOpportunity Section (Investors / Market)25:45 Major institutions adopting peace finance26:00 African Development Bank applying a peace lens to investments27:50 New peace funds being created28:10 $50M humanitarian development peace fund in Somalia28:40 New financial instruments: Orange Peace Bonds29:40 Growing interest from impact investors31:10 Market size: $30B–$40B peace finance opportunity33:20 How Marcel will know the market is workingEcosystem Opportunity (Important for Your Audience)35:10 How PeaceTech and Peace Finance could work together37:10 The bridge between startups and large funds38:30 Why peace tech startups and development funds need each otherClosing40:05 Where to find Marcel and PeaceFinance.org41:00 Final thoughts: why most people want peace
In this powerful geopolitical podcast, Jason Vaidya, a leading geopolitical analyst and commentator, breaks down the Iran war analysis and the broader Israel Iran conflict shaping today's Middle East crisis. We explore the key events that led to the current Iran war, the strategic implications of high-profile assassinations, and whether there is a realistic chance of the war ending. The conversation expands into global power dynamics, including the role of the USA in the Middle East, the impact of USA leaving Ukraine, and how shifting US foreign policy is influencing global geopolitics. Jason also examines India's foreign policy, India Israel Iron Dome cooperation, and India's evolving defense strategy amid rising regional instability. We dive deep into the Pakistan Afghanistan war, Afghanistan Pakistan tensions, and their connection to South Asia security and the wider Iran Israel latest news cycle. From Israel's defense system to India's national security calculus, this episode unpacks how the Middle East war explained today could reshape global power balances in 2026 and beyond. If you're interested in geopolitical podcast discussions, Middle East crisis analysis, Ukraine war impact, and strategic global affairs, this episode delivers expert insight you won't want to miss. GET CONNECTED WITH Jason Vaidya: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jason.baidya.5/ Twitter - https://x.com/JasonDBaidya Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@GeoPoliticalCrossroad
The Supreme Refuge: Durgā's Transformation Into the Hindu Great Goddess (SUNY Press, 2025) provides the first comprehensive examination of the Hindu Great Goddess Durgā, one of the most significant deities in the Hindu pantheon, who is celebrated annually during the Navarātra festival, a widely observed event across the Hindu world. Drawing on textual, inscriptional, and iconographic evidence, the study traces Durgā's evolution from a minor goddess to her identification as the Mahādevī, or Great Goddess. It presents an alternative chronology for hymnic materials, aligning them more closely with early iconographic depictions and offering new insights into misidentified attributes of the goddess. The work incorporates evidence from beyond South Asia to contextualize external influences on Durgā's persona and her central myths, particularly her defeat of the buffalo demon Mahiṣa. A detailed analysis of the myths in the influential Devī Māhātmya against earlier Purāṇic accounts highlights the text's sophisticated theological approach. Its strategy places Durgā in a transcendent role while asserting her as the supreme deity and ultimate refuge, accessible to both kings and commoners in dire need of her support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
The Supreme Refuge: Durgā's Transformation Into the Hindu Great Goddess (SUNY Press, 2025) provides the first comprehensive examination of the Hindu Great Goddess Durgā, one of the most significant deities in the Hindu pantheon, who is celebrated annually during the Navarātra festival, a widely observed event across the Hindu world. Drawing on textual, inscriptional, and iconographic evidence, the study traces Durgā's evolution from a minor goddess to her identification as the Mahādevī, or Great Goddess. It presents an alternative chronology for hymnic materials, aligning them more closely with early iconographic depictions and offering new insights into misidentified attributes of the goddess. The work incorporates evidence from beyond South Asia to contextualize external influences on Durgā's persona and her central myths, particularly her defeat of the buffalo demon Mahiṣa. A detailed analysis of the myths in the influential Devī Māhātmya against earlier Purāṇic accounts highlights the text's sophisticated theological approach. Its strategy places Durgā in a transcendent role while asserting her as the supreme deity and ultimate refuge, accessible to both kings and commoners in dire need of her support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies
The Supreme Refuge: Durgā's Transformation Into the Hindu Great Goddess (SUNY Press, 2025) provides the first comprehensive examination of the Hindu Great Goddess Durgā, one of the most significant deities in the Hindu pantheon, who is celebrated annually during the Navarātra festival, a widely observed event across the Hindu world. Drawing on textual, inscriptional, and iconographic evidence, the study traces Durgā's evolution from a minor goddess to her identification as the Mahādevī, or Great Goddess. It presents an alternative chronology for hymnic materials, aligning them more closely with early iconographic depictions and offering new insights into misidentified attributes of the goddess. The work incorporates evidence from beyond South Asia to contextualize external influences on Durgā's persona and her central myths, particularly her defeat of the buffalo demon Mahiṣa. A detailed analysis of the myths in the influential Devī Māhātmya against earlier Purāṇic accounts highlights the text's sophisticated theological approach. Its strategy places Durgā in a transcendent role while asserting her as the supreme deity and ultimate refuge, accessible to both kings and commoners in dire need of her support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
The Supreme Refuge: Durgā's Transformation Into the Hindu Great Goddess (SUNY Press, 2025) provides the first comprehensive examination of the Hindu Great Goddess Durgā, one of the most significant deities in the Hindu pantheon, who is celebrated annually during the Navarātra festival, a widely observed event across the Hindu world. Drawing on textual, inscriptional, and iconographic evidence, the study traces Durgā's evolution from a minor goddess to her identification as the Mahādevī, or Great Goddess. It presents an alternative chronology for hymnic materials, aligning them more closely with early iconographic depictions and offering new insights into misidentified attributes of the goddess. The work incorporates evidence from beyond South Asia to contextualize external influences on Durgā's persona and her central myths, particularly her defeat of the buffalo demon Mahiṣa. A detailed analysis of the myths in the influential Devī Māhātmya against earlier Purāṇic accounts highlights the text's sophisticated theological approach. Its strategy places Durgā in a transcendent role while asserting her as the supreme deity and ultimate refuge, accessible to both kings and commoners in dire need of her support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion
Events are moving rapidly in the Middle East, so we wanted to provide our loyal podcast listeners with some context to help digest everything that's happened so far. We hope to provide a longer view of the what, where, who, how and why and offer some perspective on this military action's broader historical, political, and legal implications.Ted Postol is Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. His expertise is in nuclear weapon systems, including submarine warfare, applications of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and ballistic missiles more generally. He previously worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment and as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations. In 2016, he received the Garwin Prize from the Federation of American Scientists for his work in assessing and critiquing the government's claims about missile defenses.Ambassador Chas Freeman is a retired career diplomat who has negotiated on behalf of the United States with over 100 foreign governments in East and South Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and both Western and Eastern Europe. Ambassador Freeman was previously a Senior Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'Affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok and Beijing. He was Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981. He was the principal American interpreter during the late President Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972. In addition to Chinese, Ambassador Freeman speaks French and Spanish at the professional level and can converse in Arabic and several other languages.Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.Ralph Nader Radio Hour is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thanks for reading Ralph Nader Radio Hour! This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
Sam Faddis, Retired CIA Operative, Served in Near East and South Asia, Author, Commentator, Senior editorFollow Debbie Georgatos, America Can We Talk Show HostWebsite: http://americacanwetalk.orgTwitter: @DebbieCanWeTalkTruth: https://truthsocial.com/@AmericaCanWeTalkInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbiecanwetalkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericaCanWeTalkRumble: https://rumble.com/user/AmericaCanWeTalkOBBM: https://www.obbmnetwork.tv/series/america-can-we-talk-207873America Can We Talk is a show with a mission — to speak up for the extraordinary and unique greatness of America. I talk about the top issues of the day facing America, often with insightful guests, always from the perspective of furthering that mission, and with the goal to inspire listeners to celebrate and embrace the liberty on which America was founded. #BecauseAmericaMatters #AmericaCanWeTalk #DebbieGeorgatos #Truth #Freedom
On this day, 3 March 1921, a workers' uprising began in Labin, Croatia, by a multinational group of around 2,000 miners. The miners were a mixture of Croatians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Poles, Czechs, Italians, Germans and Slovenians. On March 1, Italian fascists attacked and badly beat Giovanni Pipano, a miners' union leader. When his colleagues found out they were furious, and called a meeting for March 3. They decided to occupy their mine, declaring: “Kova je naša” ("the mine is ours"). Peasants came to support them, and the rebels organised armed detachments of Red Guards to maintain order. On March 7, the workers declared a Republic, raised a red hammer and sickle flag, and made decisions through mass assemblies, with every nationality represented. They drew up a list of demands to present to their employer, Societa Arsia, including a demand of a pay increase. When bosses refused, on March 21 the workers restarted production under their own control. On April 8, around 1000 troops and police officers attacked the mine, and while the miners put up a spirited defence, with their lack of arms and training they were eventually forced to surrender. Two miners, Massimiliano Ortar and Adalbert Sykora, were killed and dozens arrested. 52 workers were later put on trial for charges including establishment of a soviet regime, possession of explosives and more. But because the miners refused to testify against one another, and because of their support from the local population, none were convicted.This uprising is commemorated by our March T-Shirt of the Month, made under workers' control by a cooperative, supporting grassroots unions in South Asia. Available here with global shipping: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/t-shirt-of-the-month-the-mine-is-oursOur work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon. If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory.See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/todayBrowse all Stories by Date here on the Date index: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/dateCheck out our Map of historical Stories: https://map.workingclasshistory.comCheck out books, posters, clothing and more in our online store, here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.comIf you enjoy this podcast, make sure to check out our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History
A new cookbook offers advice for South Asian cooking techniques including how to build a Masala Dabba, how to make ordinary ingredients sing, and best practices for cooking with spices. Diaspora Spice. Co. founder Sana Javeri Kadri and recipe developer Asha Loupy discuss some of the recipes from their debut cookbook, The Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook: Seasonal Home Cooking from South Asia's Best Spice Farms, which releases March 3rd. Cover art courtesy of Harvest
Tune in here to this Friday edition of the Brett Winterble Show! Brett kicks off the show with Pete Kaliner for this week’s Friday Hangover; they discuss the spectacle surrounding closed-door testimony from figures like Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, and whether anything meaningful ever comes from these political dramas. The conversation quickly turns into a broader commentary on the “clown show” nature of congressional hearings, with both hosts questioning why serious proceedings so often feature headline-chasing lawmakers. Later Brett is joined by Don Brown from Iredell County to discuss the latest developments in his Senate campaign and the major issues shaping the political landscape. Don Brown shares his reaction to recent events in Washington, criticizing what he views as partisan behavior from Democrats while noting that John Fetterman stood out for showing independence and composure. Brown outlines a four-part test he believes should guide any presidential decision on military action, particularly regarding rising tensions with Iran, emphasizing both national security and measured restraint. On the economy, he argues conditions have improved but says healthcare costs, grocery prices, and federal regulations continue to burden families. Also joined by Bill Roggio from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies to discuss rising tensions in the Middle East and South Asia, Bill Roggio offers a sobering assessment of Iran and the broader regional landscape. He explains that Tehran is likely to stall in nuclear negotiations, drawing parallels to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action crafted under the Obama administration, and cautions that Iran has a history of stretching talks while advancing its interests. Listen here for all of this and more on The Brett Winterble Show! For more from Brett Winterble check out his YouTub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes (Columbia UP, 2025) presents a set of keywords and concepts embedded in the languages of South Asia and its vast cultural landscape. It reiterates specific attitudes, ways of seeing and methods of doing, which are embedded in the historical and contemporary experiences in the region. The words, concepts, ideas and attitudes in the volume explore the contexts of their production and how their meanings might have changed at different historical moments. The volume also attempts to work out if these words and concepts can infuse a certain intellectual rigor to reinvent social sciences and humanities in the region and beyond. Individual essays, which are creative, imaginative, ethnographic and historical, explore the possibility of South Asian intellectual worlds and words to create a broader crossregional and global social science and humanities. The volume argues that it is important to move away from the intellectual shackles inherited from colonial and neo-colonial experiences while also not succumbing to the traps of local reductionist nativisms and cultural nationalisms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes (Columbia UP, 2025) presents a set of keywords and concepts embedded in the languages of South Asia and its vast cultural landscape. It reiterates specific attitudes, ways of seeing and methods of doing, which are embedded in the historical and contemporary experiences in the region. The words, concepts, ideas and attitudes in the volume explore the contexts of their production and how their meanings might have changed at different historical moments. The volume also attempts to work out if these words and concepts can infuse a certain intellectual rigor to reinvent social sciences and humanities in the region and beyond. Individual essays, which are creative, imaginative, ethnographic and historical, explore the possibility of South Asian intellectual worlds and words to create a broader crossregional and global social science and humanities. The volume argues that it is important to move away from the intellectual shackles inherited from colonial and neo-colonial experiences while also not succumbing to the traps of local reductionist nativisms and cultural nationalisms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies
Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes (Columbia UP, 2025) presents a set of keywords and concepts embedded in the languages of South Asia and its vast cultural landscape. It reiterates specific attitudes, ways of seeing and methods of doing, which are embedded in the historical and contemporary experiences in the region. The words, concepts, ideas and attitudes in the volume explore the contexts of their production and how their meanings might have changed at different historical moments. The volume also attempts to work out if these words and concepts can infuse a certain intellectual rigor to reinvent social sciences and humanities in the region and beyond. Individual essays, which are creative, imaginative, ethnographic and historical, explore the possibility of South Asian intellectual worlds and words to create a broader crossregional and global social science and humanities. The volume argues that it is important to move away from the intellectual shackles inherited from colonial and neo-colonial experiences while also not succumbing to the traps of local reductionist nativisms and cultural nationalisms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/language
Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes (Columbia UP, 2025) presents a set of keywords and concepts embedded in the languages of South Asia and its vast cultural landscape. It reiterates specific attitudes, ways of seeing and methods of doing, which are embedded in the historical and contemporary experiences in the region. The words, concepts, ideas and attitudes in the volume explore the contexts of their production and how their meanings might have changed at different historical moments. The volume also attempts to work out if these words and concepts can infuse a certain intellectual rigor to reinvent social sciences and humanities in the region and beyond. Individual essays, which are creative, imaginative, ethnographic and historical, explore the possibility of South Asian intellectual worlds and words to create a broader crossregional and global social science and humanities. The volume argues that it is important to move away from the intellectual shackles inherited from colonial and neo-colonial experiences while also not succumbing to the traps of local reductionist nativisms and cultural nationalisms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes (Columbia UP, 2025) presents a set of keywords and concepts embedded in the languages of South Asia and its vast cultural landscape. It reiterates specific attitudes, ways of seeing and methods of doing, which are embedded in the historical and contemporary experiences in the region. The words, concepts, ideas and attitudes in the volume explore the contexts of their production and how their meanings might have changed at different historical moments. The volume also attempts to work out if these words and concepts can infuse a certain intellectual rigor to reinvent social sciences and humanities in the region and beyond. Individual essays, which are creative, imaginative, ethnographic and historical, explore the possibility of South Asian intellectual worlds and words to create a broader crossregional and global social science and humanities. The volume argues that it is important to move away from the intellectual shackles inherited from colonial and neo-colonial experiences while also not succumbing to the traps of local reductionist nativisms and cultural nationalisms.
Booming arrivals, stubborn humidity – but dull and overpriced? Synopsis: On Wednesdays, The Straits Times takes a hard look at Singapore's social issues of the day with guests. Singapore’s tourism pitch is not just about selling its picture-perfect skyline; it’s also about showcasing its rich multiculturalism, leaning into its talent in hosting world-class events, and taking visitors on a journey to discover how a young nation is defining its own identity. In this episode, senior columnist Tan Dawn Wei speaks with Ms Jean Ng, assistant chief executive of Experience Development at the Singapore Tourism Board, and Mr Matin Mohdari, head of Public Policy for Southeast and South Asia at online travel company Expedia Group about Chinese traveller sentiment, events as demand drivers, cooling the city, and how AI could reshape tourism by 2040. They unpack Singapore's 2025 performance, why “hot, boring, expensive” perceptions among some Chinese travellers matter, and how STB is adjusting for younger, social-media-led free-and-easy visitors through partnerships, IP, and precinct storytelling. The conversation also looks at practical ways to soften the tropical heat, what Singapore offers versus rival Asian cities, and the balance between premium experiences and everyday affordability. Finally, they explore Tourism 2040 – the roadmap to hitting between $47 and $50 billion in tourism receipts by then – and how AI can boost productivity behind the scenes, while keeping the human stories that make a place emotionally resonant. Highlights (click/tap above): 2:54 “Too hot, too boring, too expensive” 13:14 Singapore can’t change its climate, but it can make the outdoor experience more enjoyable 16:54 Singapore’s edge over other Asian cities 24:48 Going after “quality tourism” in Singapore’s Tourism 2040 roadmap 38:10 What Singapore needs to loosen control over, to be emotionally resonant Read more: https://str.sg/okfhy Read ST’s Opinion section: https://str.sg/w7sH Read Dawn's columns: https://str.sg/3xR7 Host: Tan Dawn Wei (dawntan@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Hadyu Rahim Executive producers: Ernest Luis & Lynda Hong Follow In Your Opinion Podcast here and get notified for new episode drops: Channel: https://str.sg/w7Qt Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/wukb Spotify: https://str.sg/w7sV Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 Get more updates: http://str.sg/stpodcasts The Usual Place Podcast YouTube: https://str.sg/theusualplacepodcast --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #inyouropinionSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry's Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Amba Kak, a tech policy expert and researcher, and Alex Travelli, the South Asia business correspondent for The New York Times.Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters.Produced by Ashish Anand & Amit Pandey. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
According to the World Bank, the real AI revolution in developing countries isn't coming from flashy mega‑models, but from small, low‑cost tools that solve local problems.Mahesh Uttamchandani, the organisation's Regional Practice Director for Digital and AI inEast Asia and Pacific and South Asia, sat down with Anshu Sharma from UN News during the India AI Impact Summit, and explained that these systems are cheaper to run, easier to adapt, and already delivering outsized impact.
On April 22, 2010, a 23-year old American hiker, Aubrey Sacco, was last seen on a narrow mountain trail in northern Nepal's Langtang National Park, a landscape of silent peaks, rushing rivers, and ancient forests.She was experienced, prepared, and confident - a traveler who had already spent months exploring South Asia, teaching yoga, walking markets and monasteries, making plans to return home with stories of the world's beauty. But on that late-spring afternoon, she didn't arrive at her next stop, just a couple hours down the trail from where she was last seen.There was no body, no sign of a fall, no gear left behind, no distress call. Nothing. She shouldn't have vanished.Over the years, arrests were even made - then released. Leads appeared… then evaporated. An earthquake in 2015 would forever alter the very valley she disappeared in, burying landscape and possibility alike. So what really happened to Aubrey Sacco - a woman on a walk through the woods, with everything to live for and so much life left unwritten?Listen as we dive into Nepal, the case of Aubrey Sacco, and how to stay alive on vacation.Do you have a story to share? Send your email to lasttrippodcast@gmail.comWe're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcastFollow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcastTheme Music by Roger Allen DexterSources:https://www.aubreysacco.com/https://www.facebook.com/groups/AubreySaccoMissinghttps://www.backpacker.com/trips/gone-girl-aubrey-saccos-disappearance-hiking-in-nepal/https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/aubrey-sacco-disappearance-remains-a-mystery/73-284993426https://www.jungleredwriters.com/2010/11/into-thin-air-aubrey-sacco-age-23is.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/09/colorado.missing.hiker.nepal/index.htmlhttps://websleuths.com/threads/nepal-aubrey-sacco-23-langtang-20-april-2010-arrest.104371/page-8https://www.summitdaily.com/news/dad-of-missing-nepal-hiker-finds-daughters-laptop/https://www.ibtimes.com/aubrey-sacco-update-2-suspects-arrested-2010-disappearance-missing-colorado-hiker-nepal-police-sayhttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/aubrey-sacco-missing_n_1347938https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/parents-of-missing-greeley-woman-react-after-3-arrested-in-nepal/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-joins-search-for-colo-hiker-in-nepal/https://www.dailycamera.com/2013/08/03/family-of-missing-cu-boulder-grad-aubrey-sacco-recent-arrests-not-linked-to-murder/
Gardiner Harris is an award-winning investigative journalist whose reporting has reshaped public health policy, exposed corporate misconduct, and held some of the world's most influential institutions to account. Gardiner spent years at The New York Times as a public health and pharmaceutical reporter and served as a White House, South Asia, and international diplomacy correspondent. Before that, his reporting at The Wall Street Journal helped trigger what was then the largest SEC fine in history, and his investigations into mining conditions earned him the Worth Bingham Prize and the George Polk Award. He has been a Pulitzer finalist, the author of the novel Hazard, and now the author of No More Tears, a landmark exposé of Johnson & Johnson's decades-long pattern of deception. Thank you to the sponsors of The Elevate Podcast Shopify: shopify.com/elevate Masterclass: masterclass.com/elevate Framer: framer.com/elevate Northwest Registered Agent: northwestregisteredagent.com/elevatefree Indeed: indeed.com/elevate Vanguard: vanguard.com/audio Gardiner joined host Robert Glazer on The Elevate Podcast to discuss Johnson & Johnson's history, its scandals, and why companies fail to meet the promise of their values. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time - "Fat Tuesday" Optional Memorial of the Seven Founders of the Servite Order; they founded this order in 1240, striving for personal sanctification, world evangelism, and an increase in Marian devotion; the Servite Order grew quickly, to Europe, South Asia, and North America; their devotions include The Rosary of the Seven Dolours and the Via Matris Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 2/17/26 Gospel: Mark 8:14-21
For years, Sarah Adams has worked where threat warnings begin, not where they end. She is a targeting officer and global threat advisor with deep expertise in counterterrorism, threat network analysis, and overseas intelligence operations. Sarah served in the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorism Center, as well as in the Near East and Iran Operations Divisions, working complex operations against both state and non-state adversaries. Her deployed field work spans Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Across those theaters, her focus has remained consistent: identifying, assessing, and disrupting terrorist networks, hostile state activity, and emerging threats to United States and allied interests. After leaving the CIA, Sarah served as a Senior Advisor to the United States House of Representatives following an executive appointment from the Agency, applying operational experience directly to national security policy, oversight, and accountability. She later led research and development initiatives for the Department of Defense, advancing innovation, tradecraft modernization, and intelligence capabilities with enterprise-level impact. She was deployed to Libya in 2012 and is the co-author of Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy, a cold-case, open-source investigation that identified the al-Qaeda operatives responsible for the attack on the U.S. Mission Compound and CIA Annex in Benghazi. Today, Sarah is the host of The Watch Floor at Vigilance Elite, a podcast focused on emerging threats, global affairs, and homeland security risks for everyday audiences. The Watch Floor delivers need-to-know insights, explaining what matters, why it matters, and what comes next. Shawn and Sarah answer the question - Will Khamenei be ousted as Supreme Leader of Iran by March 31? Follow the market here - https://polymarket.com/event/khamenei-out-as-supreme-leader-of-iran-by-march-31 Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Go right now to https://sundaysfordogs.com/SRS50 and get 50% off your first order. Join thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family—apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.com/SHAWN Get firearm security redesigned and save 10% off at StopBoxUSA with code SRS at https://www.stopboxusa.com/SRS #stopboxpod Head to https://factormeals.com/srs50off and use code srs50off to get 50% off your first Factor box plus free breakfast for 1 year (new customers only, with qualifying subscription purchase). Head to https://Superpower.com and use code SRS at checkout for $20 off your membership. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod https://drinkmindfulbev.com Sarah Adams Links: YT - https://www.youtube.com/@thewatchfloor IG - https://www.instagram.com/thewatchfloor X - https://x.com/The_Watch_Floor FB - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Watch-Floor/61586054787023 TT - https://www.tiktok.com/@thewatchfloor Rumble - https://rumble.com/user/thewatchfloor Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/VigilanceElite Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5how8FZvVZvlhnv58antdG LinkTree - https://tr.ee/qFdF2gcFD_ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Further reading: Parallels for cetacean trap feeding and tread-water feeding in the historical record across two millennia Haggling over the Hafgufa Many renditions of the hafgufa/aspidochelone: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I'm your host, Kate Shaw. Back in the olden days, as much as 1700 years ago and probably more, up through the 14th century or so, various manuscripts about the natural world talked about a sea monster most people today have never heard of. In ancient Greek it was called aspidochelone, contracted to aspido in some translations, while in Old Norse it was called the hafgufa. But it seemed to be the same type of monster no matter who was writing about it. The animal was a fish, but it was enormous, big enough that it was sometimes mistaken for an island. When its jaws were open they were said to be as wide as the entrance to a fjord. A fjord is an inlet from the sea originally formed by glaciers scraping away at rocks, and then when the glaciers melted the sea filled the bottom of what was then a steep valley. I'm pretty sure the old stories were exaggerating about the sea monster's mouth size. The sea monster ate little fish, but it caught them in a strange way. It would open its mouth very wide at the surface of the water and exude a smell that attracted fish, or in one account it would regurgitate a little food to attract the fish. Once there were lots of little fish within its huge mouth, it would close it jaws quickly and swallow them all. Generally, any sea monster that's said to be mistaken for an island was inspired by whales, or sometimes by sea turtles. The hafgufa is actually included in an Old Norse poem that lists types of whales, and the aspidochelone was considered to be a type of whale even though the second part of its name refers to a sea turtle. So whatever this sea monster was, we can safely agree that it wasn't a fish, it was a whale. Up until just a few centuries ago people thought whales were fish because of their shape, but we know now that they're mammals adapted to marine life. But the hafgufa's behavior is really weird and doesn't seem like something a whale would do. We've talked about skim feeding before, where a baleen whale cruises along at the surface with its mouth held open, until it's gathered enough food in its mouth and can swallow it all at once. But whales aren't known to hold their mouths open at the surface of the water and just sit there while fish swim in. At least, they weren't known to do this until 2011. In 2011, marine biologists studying humpback whales off Canada's Vancouver Island in North America observed some of the whales catching herring and other small fish in an unusual way. The whales would remain stationary in the water, tails straight down with the head sticking up partly out of the water. A whale opened its mouth very wide and didn't move until there were a lot of fish in its mouth, which it then swallowed. Soon after, another team of marine biologists studying Bryde's whales in the Gulf of Thailand in South Asia observed the same activity when the whales were feeding on anchovies at the surface of the water. The term for this activity is called trap feeding or tread-water feeding, and at first the scientists thought it was a response to polluted water that had caused the fish to stay closer to the surface. But once the two teams of scientists compared notes, they realized that it didn't appear to have anything to do with pollution. Instead, it's probably a way to gather food in a low-energy way, especially when there isn't a big concentration of fish in any particular spot, and when researchers remembered the story of the hafgufa, they realized they'd found the solution to that mystery sea monster. The only question was whether the accounts were accurate that the hafgufa emitted a smell or regurgitated food to attract fish. Further observation answered that question too, and it turns out that yes, the old stories were at least partially right. The smell has been compared to rotten cabbage, but it isn't emitted by the whale on purpose. It's a smell released when phytoplankton is eaten in large numbers, whether by fish or whales or something else, and it does attract other animals. As for the regurgitation, this is always something that happens to some degree when a baleen whale feeds. The whale fills its mouth with water that contains the fish and other small animals it eats, and it presses its huge tongue upwards to force the water through its baleen, which acts as a sieve. Whatever's left in its mouth after the water is expelled, it swallows. But baleen is tough and fish are small and delicate in comparison. Often, fish and other small animals get squished to death against the baleen, and parts of them are expelled with the water. This creates a sort of yucky slurry that could be interpreted as a whale regurgitating food to attract more fish. The scientists think that fish are mainly attracted not to any smell or potential food in the water, but to the supposed shelter offered by the whale's giant mouth. It appears that trap feeding is a fairly rare behavior in whales, but one that's been around a lot longer than the last few years. It's also possible that because whaling drove many species nearly to extinction and whale numbers are only just starting to recover, until recently whales didn't need to use this feeding strategy. It seems to be used when a preferred food is widely scattered so that chasing after the fish isn't worth the energy cost, and that's more likely to happen when there are a lot of whales around. It's amazing that this type of feeding strategy has been identified in two different species of whale, and it's even more amazing that it matches up so well with ancient accounts. It's easy to assume that in the olden days, people were kind of stupid, but people back then were just as intelligent as people now. They just didn't have our technology and modern knowledge. They were often extremely observant, though, and luckily for us, sometimes they were able to write their observations down in books that we can still read. Thanks for your support, and thanks for listening!
ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult
This episode offers a critical examination of the question of “the most ancient forms of magic” by interrogating the category of magic itself as a historically contingent and analytically unstable concept. Rather than assuming magic as a universal or transhistorical phenomenon, the discussion situates ritual practices within their specific social, cosmological, and epistemic contexts, beginning with evidence for symbolic and ritual behaviour in deep prehistory and moving through animistic and shamanic worldviews, Neolithic monumental ritual landscapes, and the first literate traditions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, South Asia, and early China.Engaging with archaeological data, comparative anthropology, and the history of religions, the episode explores how practices often labelled as magical functioned as socially embedded techniques for negotiating uncertainty, misfortune, and relational disruption in worlds understood to be animate and morally responsive. Particular attention is given to the role of materiality, speech, and ritual expertise, as well as to the gradual processes of textualisation and institutionalisation that reshape ritual efficacy in early complex societies. Rather than identifying a single origin or essence of magic, the episode argues for understanding ancient magic as a set of historically situated practices through which humans acted effectively within precarious and relational cosmologies.CONNECT & SUPPORT
In this 61st edition of The World According to Irina Tsukerman, the bi-weekly geopolitical series on The KAJ Masterclass LIVE, host Khudania Ajay (KAJ) examines how shifting trade alignments, regional security recalibrations, and diplomatic repositioning are reshaping strategic priorities across South Asia and the Middle East. Joined by national security and human rights lawyer, top global geopolitical analyst, and Washington Outsider Editor-in-Chief Irina Tsukerman, the discussion explores the India–US trade deal, Middle East realignments, evolving Iran diplomacy, and Pakistan's security posture — offering leaders a grounded strategic perspective on a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape.About the guestIrina Tsukerman is a human rights and national security lawyer, geopolitical analyst, editor of The Washington Outsider, and president of Scarab Rising, Inc., a media and security and strategic advisory. Her writings and commentary have appeared in diverse US and international media and have been translated into over a dozen languages.Connect with Irina here:https://www.thewashingtonoutsider.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/irina-tsukerman-4b04595/In The World According to Irina Tsukerman, we embark on a fortnightly journey into the heart of global politics. Join us as we explore the complex geopolitical landscape, delve into pressing international issues, and gain invaluable insights from Irina's expert perspective. Together, we'll empower you with the knowledge needed to navigate the intricate world of global politics. Tune in, subscribe, and embark on this enlightening journey with us.Catch up on earlier episodes in the playlist here:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt7IEKOM1t1tKItNEVaStzsqSChTCGmp6Watch all our global politics content here:https://rumble.com/c/kajmasterclasshttps://www.youtube.com/@kajmasterclassPolitics =========================================*Host: Khudania Ajay (KAJ)*Founder & Host, KAJ Masterclass | 2,500+ live conversations | 20+ years in journalism, media & storytellingConnect:Website → https://www.khudaniaajay.comLinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaykhudania/
In 2024, there were more than 300 million migrants across the world—double the number there were in 1990. Many of those had been displaced by conflict or climate change; many were simply looking for jobs and a better life. But the national and multilateral systems designed to manage these flows have proved grossly inadequate, helping set off political convulsions not just in the United States and Europe but in countries around the world, including in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. In democracies, migration has perhaps become today's most fraught and divisive political issue. To Amy Pope, the director general of the International Organization for Migration, these “unprecedented levels” of migration and the crackdowns that have come in reaction make abundantly clear that the current global immigration system is failing. It is, she wrote in Foreign Affairs last year, “incapable of contending with today's humanitarian needs, demographic trends, or labor-market demands.” Pope argues that a challenge of this scale demands a complete system overhaul—a rebuilding of global migration policy that prioritizes order and dignity. Without such a restructuring, Pope warns, the risks of “more social unrest, more inequality,” and, ultimately, “more abuse and exploitation” of the world's most vulnerable people will only grow. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
Over the past few years, South Asia has witnessed a striking wave of mass protests toppling governments and upending long-standing political arrangements in countries ranging from Bangladesh to Nepal and Sri Lanka. These upheavals are often explained in terms of domestic factors—such as corruption, economic mismanagement, and democratic backsliding. But in a recent Foreign Affairs essay titled “The Folly of India's Illiberal Hegemony,” the scholar Muhib Rahman argues that there is a larger regional story at play—one that implicates not just local leaders, but also India and the United States. The essay challenges the assumption that India's regional leadership has been a stabilizing force and asks whether New Delhi's choices have instead helped create openings for China across South Asia.To talk more about the essay, Muhib joins Milan on the show this week. Muhib is a Perry World House Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. His research sits at the intersection of international security, emerging technologies, and the politics of the Global South. He has served as a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University and holds a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas-Austin.Muhib and Milan discuss India's illiberal hegemony in its neighborhood, the downturn in Bangladesh-India ties, and the enabling role of the United States. Plus, the two discuss the drivers of the “India Out” phenomenon in countries ranging from Nepal to the Maldives and how China is positioning itself to take advantage.Episode notes:1. Muhib Rahman, “Bangladesh's Quiet Pivot to China,” The National Interest, October 27, 2025.2. Muhib Rahman, “Explaining Trump's Surprising Turn to Pakistan,” War on the Rocks, October 1, 2025.3. “Why Washington Is Wooing Pakistan (with Uzair Younus),” Grand Tamasha, October 1, 2025.4. “Sri Lanka's Peaceful Revolution (with Neil DeVotta),” Grand Tamasha, January 29, 2025.
In this thought‑provoking episode, Dr. Dipak Gyawali, Geopolitical expert, Political Economist, joins us to unpack some of the most pressing issues shaping today's world. From the controversial Epstein files explained to the complex dynamics of Nepal elections 2026, this podcast dives deep into the realities of South Asia geopolitics and beyond. We explore how China's media in Nepal, including Dragon Media, reflects shifting power balances, while India‑Nepal relations** remain tense. Dr. Gyawali also provides insights into Iran as a country, the Iran nuclear program, and the growing possibility of Iran vs Israel conflict. His analysis of Shia vs Sunni explained offers clarity on religious divides that continue to influence Middle East tensions. The conversation highlights the turbulence of global conflicts 2026, the risk of election postponement in Nepal, and the broader implications of international relations podcast discussions. Whether you're interested in geopolitical turbulence, future of global power shifts, or the role of Nepal politics podcast in shaping narratives, this episode delivers sharp insights. Tune in for a comprehensive look at **business, politics, and geopolitics, as Dr. Gyawali connects the dots between local elections, regional conflicts, and global power struggles. GET CONNECTED WITH Dipak Gyawal: Twitter - https://x.com/dipak_gyawali?lang=en
Under what circumstances might climate change lead to negative security outcomes? Over the past fifteen years, a rapidly growing applied field and research community on climate security has emerged. While much progress has been made, we still don’t have a clear understanding of why climate change might lead to violent conflict or humanitarian emergencies in some places and not others. Busby develops a novel argument – based on the combination of state capacity, political exclusion, and international assistance – to explain why climate leads to especially bad security outcomes in some places but not others. This argument is then demonstrated through application to case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. This book will provide an informative resource for students and scholars of international relations and environmental studies, especially those working on security, conflict and climate change, on the emergent practice and study of this topic, and identifies where policy and research should be headed. [ dur: 38mins. ] Joshua Busby is a Professor of Public Affairs and a Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. He is the author of State and Nature the effects of climate change on security and many other publications. With protests rocking Iran, how much are these protests historically consistent with the long history of protests in Iran. We explore this history in light of the new round of protests How much more violent has the Iran state been against protesters? [ dur: 20mins. ] Ervand Abrahamian is Professor Emeritus at City University of New York. He is the author of A History of Modern Iran and Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth About North Korea, Iran and Syria. This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre. Climate Change, Human Rights, War / Weapons, Refugees, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Security
In 1922, archeologist Howard Carter stunned the world by discovering King Tut's tomb in Egypt. Two years later, his contemporary John Marshall published the results of his excavations of the Indus Valley. Marshall's findings reconstructed the timeline of urban civilization in South Asia, revealing cities with overlapping, sophisticated planning and sanitation systems. Although it lacked golden artifacts, the discovery demonstrated that ancient South Asia was as advanced and complex as Egypt. Learn more about the rise and fall of the Indus Valley civilizations on Everything, Everywhere, Daily. Sponsors Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! Mint Mobile Get your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed Subscribe to the podcast! https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why Muslims in South India observe hierarchical intra-communal relationships despite the egalitarianism of their religionIn Seeking Allah's Hierarchy: Caste, Labor, and Islam in India (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025), P. C. Saidalavi provides an ethnographic study of a Muslim barber community in South India, unraveling how these barbers negotiated concepts of hierarchy through Islamic values of piety, genealogy, morality, and wealth. Through this close-drawn study, Saidalavi argues that Muslim hierarchy exists and it works on its own terms. It both draws upon Islamic jurisprudential and moral discourses and is shaped by the larger economic, cultural, and political environment, including that of Hinduism. Yet ultimately, Muslim hierarchy is neither a replica nor a watered-down version of caste in Hinduism.Seeking Allah's Hierarchy contends that the Islamization process in South Asia cannot be reduced to conceptual schemas or patterns dictating religious practice. Instead, this process works within a “lived tradition,” in which Muslims attempt to infuse and rationalize their practices using their interpretations of Islamic values, meanings, and purpose. In this case, barbers challenged other Muslims' perception of them as hierarchically inferior by emphasizing their religious piety. Yet those same Muslims also drew on Islam to provide a rationale for categorizing barbers' work as morally obligatory but undignified, thus rendering the barbers “lower.”P. C. Saidalavi is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR. Khadeeja Amenda is a doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Why Muslims in South India observe hierarchical intra-communal relationships despite the egalitarianism of their religionIn Seeking Allah's Hierarchy: Caste, Labor, and Islam in India (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025), P. C. Saidalavi provides an ethnographic study of a Muslim barber community in South India, unraveling how these barbers negotiated concepts of hierarchy through Islamic values of piety, genealogy, morality, and wealth. Through this close-drawn study, Saidalavi argues that Muslim hierarchy exists and it works on its own terms. It both draws upon Islamic jurisprudential and moral discourses and is shaped by the larger economic, cultural, and political environment, including that of Hinduism. Yet ultimately, Muslim hierarchy is neither a replica nor a watered-down version of caste in Hinduism.Seeking Allah's Hierarchy contends that the Islamization process in South Asia cannot be reduced to conceptual schemas or patterns dictating religious practice. Instead, this process works within a “lived tradition,” in which Muslims attempt to infuse and rationalize their practices using their interpretations of Islamic values, meanings, and purpose. In this case, barbers challenged other Muslims' perception of them as hierarchically inferior by emphasizing their religious piety. Yet those same Muslims also drew on Islam to provide a rationale for categorizing barbers' work as morally obligatory but undignified, thus rendering the barbers “lower.”P. C. Saidalavi is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR. Khadeeja Amenda is a doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies
Abhay chats with Mayur Chaudhuri, NFL assistant linebackers coach for the Carolina Panthers, about the emotional journey of coaching, the importance of mental health for all, and the impact of his Indian American cultural identity on coaching. They discuss the significance of routines, the role of data and analytics in coaching, and how success is measured beyond just wins and losses. Mayur shares personal insights and experiences that highlight the importance of building relationships with players and the challenges faced in the high-pressure environment of professional football. Chapters00:00 Introduction 03:01 The Emotional Journey of a Football Season05:34 Mental Health and Self-Care in Coaching08:28 Communication Styles, the Appeal of Defense and Special Teams13:55 Sponsor Break - Travelopod 14:29 Signature Moments in Coaching Career16:53 Cultural Identity and Coaching Dynamics21:49 Leadership and Coaching Philosophy24:32 Navigating Ambition and Expectations34:46 Sponsor Break - Timberdog35:16 Grounding in Identity and Inner Voice34:43 Influential Coaches and Personal Heroes40:27 Quirks of Coaching and Referee Relationships43:23 The Role of Data and Analytics in Coaching46:34 Measuring Success and ConclusionsA huge shout out to one of the first Ram fans I ever knew in Deepa Macpherson who along with her husband Bob helps make and deliver free custom homemade birthday cakes to at-risk and underserved youth. This is through cake4kids and you can go to cake4kids.org to learn more and get involved!TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING is brought to you by TRAVELOPOD, with personalized travel support to help you explore the wonders of the world. Start your next journey at vacation.travelopod.comThis episode is also sponsored by RuffRest® , the only dog bed you'll ever need. Go to www.timberdog.com to learn more
On today’s “Closer Look with Rose Scott,” we focus on immigration from a policy perspective. First, we speak to U.S. Corporate Immigration Attorney Giselle Carson. She discusses President Trump’s sudden immigration ban on 75 countries, consisting of applicants from Latin America and the Caribbean, the Balkans, and several countries in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Attorney Carson also provides her perspective on a recently filed lawsuit against the immigration ban. The conversation continues with Adriana Heffley, the Director of Legal Services for the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network. Heffley highlights how some of the asylum seekers she works with have been detained by Immigration agents. She also mentions how actions by ICE have scared some immigrants into hiding and not seeking help for issues such as domestic violence. We learn what GAIN is attempting to do to protect immigrants and those seeking asylum in Georgia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Lalita du Perron talks to Afghan historian Mejgan Massoumi (PhD, Stanford, now at Carnegie Mellon University) and South Asia bibliographer Ryan Perkins about the incredible Ustad Mahwash archive, recently acquired by Stanford Libraries. They discuss the ongoing relevance of Ustad Mahwash's legacy, some gems that are in the collection and worth checking out, and the importance of archives in keeping traditions alive. Episode notes and resources:Ustad Mahwash's main online exhibit page. Ustad Sarahang's letterBrief biographical sketch of Ustad MahwashNotes about the music files in the episode1) Beshnaw az Nai (Listen to the Reed) The poetry is from Mawlana's (Rumi's) opening lines to his Mastnavi. This is one of Ustad Mahwash's masterpieces from the Kharabati/Classical Afghan Music tradition. (Featured in the podcast Intro- 00:00-01:30 min).2) Houri, Houri, Houri (Houri/Noori is the name of a girl, and Noori comes from the Arabic Noor meaning Light, as in light of God, light of beauty, etc.) This is a signature Ustad Mahwash "pop" song and many attach it to her repertoire. (Part of this song is featured at 20:52-21:47 min in the podcast). 3) Guleh Seybem (My Apple Blossom, i.e. another way of saying my Beloved or My Sweetheart, etc) This is also a signature Ustad Mahwash "pop" song and it is wildly popular because the more contemporary female Afghan superstar, Aryana Sayeed, made one of her debut concerts in Afghanistan in the early 2000s with this song. Ironically most people associate this song with Aryana Sayeed, because they do not know or realize it's original performance was from Ustad Mahwash. (Part of this song is featured at the outro of the podcast starting at 26:23 mins- end).
A key insight social anthropologist Mukulika Banerjee had while observing electoral behavior in a Bengali village was that -- at least in the India of that moment -- elections were sacred. This was not a religious epiphany but a cultural one; at the center was not a figure, religious or political, but an ideal - democracy. Banerjee has explored her insights in the years since in a variety or formats, but academic and popular, ranging from her written work like 2021's Cultivating Democracy: Politics and citizenship in agrarian India or 2014's Why India Votes? to a 2009 radio documentary for the BBC specifically titled "Sacred Elections." In this Social Science Bites podcast, the professor at the London School of Economics reviews much of the underlying scholarship behind those works, then explores with host David Edmonds the de-sanctification of democracy in both India and the Global North in the years since. "I think what has happened ... in the US and in the UK," she explains, "is a complacency that regardless of whether you do your little bit, whether it is literally just turning up to vote or learning to organize and be informed politically, is going to happen regardless of whether you do it or not. And because of this complacency, is precisely why these degenerations of democracy have happened." Banerjee is the founding series editor of Routledge's Exploring the Political in South Asia and is also working on a grant from the Indo-European Networking Programme in the Social Sciences on Explanations of Electoral Change in Urban and Rural India. This year, courtesy of a British Academy-Leverhulme Senior Fellowship, she is on a research sabbatical studying the nexus of democracy and taxation.
Keith challenges the usual "overpopulated vs. underpopulated" debate and shows why that's the wrong way to think about demographics—especially if you're a real estate investor. Listeners will hear about surprising global population comparisons that flip common assumptions. Why raw population numbers don't actually explain housing shortages or rent strength. How household formation, aging, and migration really drive demand for rentals. Which kinds of markets tend to see persistent housing pressure—and why the US has a long‑term demographic edge. You'll come away seeing population headlines very differently, and with a clearer lens for spotting where future housing demand is most likely to show up. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/590 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments. For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text 1-937-795-8989 to speak with a freedom coach Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review" For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Keith Weinhold 0:01 Keith, welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, is the world overpopulated or underpopulated? Also is the United States over or underpopulated? These are not just rhetorical questions, because I'm going to answer them both. Just one of Africa's 54 nations has more births than all of Europe and Russia combined. One US state has seen their population decline for decades. This is all central to housing demand today. On get rich education Keith Weinhold 0:36 since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors, and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki. Get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com Speaker 1 1:21 You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education. Keith Weinhold 1:31 Welcome to GRE from Norfolk Virginia to Norfolk, Nebraska and across 188 nations worldwide, you are inside. Get rich education. I am the GRE founder, Best Selling Author, longtime real estate investor. You can see my written work in Forbes and the USA Today, but I'm best known as the host of this incomprehensibly slack John operation that you're listening to right now. My name is Keith Weinhold. You probably know that already, one reason that we're talking about underpopulated versus overpopulated today is that also one of my degrees is in geography and demography, essentially, is human geography, and that's why this topic is in my wheelhouse. It's just a humble bachelor's degree, by the way, if a population is not staying stable or growing, then demand for housing just must atrophy away. That's what people think, but that is not true. That's oversimplified. In some cases. It might even be totally false. You're going to see why. Now, Earth's population is at an all time high of about 8.2 billion people, and it keeps growing, and it's going to continue to keep growing, but the rate of growth is slowing now. Where could all of the people on earth fit? This is just a bit of a ridiculous abstraction in a sense, but I think it helps you visualize things. Just take this scenario, if all the humans were packed together tightly, but in a somewhat realistic way, in a standing room only way, if every person on earth stood shoulder to shoulder, that would allow about 2.7 square feet per person, they would sort of be packed like a subway car. Well, they could fit in a square, about 27 kilometers on one side, about 17 miles on each side of that square. Now, what does that mean in real places that is smaller than New York City, about half the size of Los Angeles County and roughly the footprint of Lake Tahoe? So yes, every human alive today could physically fit inside one midsize us metro area. This alone tells you something important. The world's problem is certainly not a lack of space. Rather, it's where people live and not how many there are. So that was all of Earth's inhabitants. Now, where could all Americans fit us residents using the same shoulder to shoulder assumption, and the US population by mid year this year is supposed to be about 350,000,00349 that's a square about five and a half kilometers, or 3.4 miles on each side. And some real world comparisons there are. That's about half of Manhattan, smaller than San Francisco and roughly the size of Disney World, so every American could fit into a single small city footprint. And if you're beginning to form an early clue that we are not overpopulated globally, yes, that's the sense that you Should be getting. Keith Weinhold 5:01 now, if you're in Bangladesh, it feels overpopulated there. They've got 175 million people, and that nation is only the size of Iowa. In area, Bangladesh is low lying and typhoon prone. They get a lot of flooding, which complicates their already bad sanitation problems and a dense population like that, and that creates waterborne diseases, and it's really more of an infrastructure problem in a place like Bangladesh than it is a population problem. Then Oppositely, you've got Australia as much land as the 48 contiguous states, yet just 27 million people in Australia, and only 1/400 as many people as Bangladesh in density. Now we talk about differential population. About 80% of Americans live in the eastern half of the US. But yet, the East is not overpopulated because we have sufficient infrastructure, and I've got some more mind blowing population stats for you later, both world and us. Now, as far as is the world overpopulated or underpopulated, which is our central question, depending on who you ask and where they live, you're going to hear completely different answers. Some people are convinced that the planet is bursting at the seams. Others warn that we're headed for a population collapse. But here's the problem, that question overpopulated or underpopulated, it's the wrong question. It's the wrong framing, especially if you're into real estate, because housing demand doesn't respond to total headcount or global averages or scary demographic headlines. Housing demand responds to where people live, how old they are, and how they form households. And once you understand this, a lot of things suddenly begin to make sense, like why housing shortages persist, why rents stay high, even when affordability feels stretched, why some states struggle while others boom, and why population headlines often mislead investors. Keith Weinhold 7:20 So today I want to reframe how you think about population and connect it directly to housing demand, both globally and right here in the United States. And let's start with the US, because that's probably where you invest. Keith Weinhold 7:33 Here's a simple fact that should confuse people, but usually doesn't, the United States has below replacement fertility. I'll talk about fertility rates a little later. They're similar to birth rates, meaning that Americans are not having enough children to replace the population naturally and without immigration, the US population would eventually shrink, and yet in the US, we have a housing shortage, rising rents, tight vacancy and a lot of metros and persistent demand for rental housing, which could all seem contradictory. Now, if population alone determine housing demand, well, then the US really shouldn't have any housing shortage at all, but it does so clearly, population alone is not the main driver, and really that contradiction is like your first clue that most demographic conversations are just missing the point. Aging does not reduce housing demand. The way that people think a misconception really is that an aging population automatically reduces housing demand. It does not, in fact, just the opposite. If a population is too young, well, that tends to kill housing demand, and that's because five year old kids and 10 year old kids do not form their own household. Instead, what an aging population often does is change the type of housing that's demanded, like seniors aging in place, some of them downsizing. Seniors living alone. Sometimes after a spouse passes away, others relocating closer to health care or to family. So aging can increase unit demand even if population growth slows. So already, we've broken two myths here. Slower population doesn't mean weaker housing demand, and aging doesn't mean fewer housing units are needed. Now let's explain why. Really, the core idea that unlocks everything is that people don't live inside, what are called Population units. They live in households. You are one person. That does not mean that your dwelling is then one population unit. That's not how that works. You are part of a household, whether that's a house a Household of one person or five or 11 people, housing demand is driven by the number of households, the type of households and where those households are forming, not by raw population totals. So the same population can have wildly different demand. Just think about how five people living together in one home, that's one housing unit, those same five people living separately, that is five housing units, same population, five times the housing demand. And this is why population statistics alone are almost useless for real estate investors, you need to know how people are living, not just how many there are. The biggest surge in housing demand happens when people leave their parents' homes or when they finish school or when they start working, or you got big surges in housing demand when people marry or when they separate or divorce. So in other words, adults create housing demand and children don't. And this is why a country with a youngish, working age population, oh, then they can have exploding housing demand. A country with high birth rates, but low household formation can have overcrowding without profitable housing growth. So it's not about babies, it's about independent adults, and what quietly boosts housing demand, then is housing fragmentation. Yeah, fragmentation. That's a trend that really doesn't get enough attention, and that is the trend, households are fragmenting, meaning more single adults later marriage, like I was talking about in a previous episode. Recently, higher divorce rates, more people living alone and older adults living independently, longer. Each one of those trends increases housing demand without adding any population whatsoever. When two people split up, they often need two housing units instead of one, and if you've got one adult living alone, that is full unit demand right there. So that's why housing demand can rise even when population growth slows or stalls for housing demand. What matters more than births is migration. And another key distinction is that, yes, births matter, but they're on somewhat of this 20 year delay and migration matters immediately, right now. So see, when a working age adult moves, they need housing right away. They typically rent first. They cluster near jobs, and they don't bring housing supply along with them. They've got to get it from someone else. Hopefully you in your rental unit. Keith Weinhold 12:57 This is why migration is such a powerful force in rental markets, and you see me talk about migration on the show, and you see me send you migration maps in our newsletter. It's also why housing pressure shows up unevenly. It gets concentrated around opportunity. If you want to know the future, look at renters. Renters are the leading indicator, not homeowners and not birth rates. See renters create housing demand faster than homeowners, because renters form households earlier. They can do it quickly because they don't need down payments. Renters move more frequently and immigration overwhelmingly starts in rentals, fresh immigrants rarely become homeowners, so even when mortgage rates rise or home purchases slow or affordability headlines get scary, rental demand can stay strong. It's not a mystery, it's demographics. So births surely matter, but only over the long term. It's like how I've shared with you in a previous episode that the US had a lot of births between 1990 and 2010 those two decades, a surge of births more than 4 million every single one of those years during those two decades, with that peak birth year at 2007 but see a bunch of babies being born in 2007 Well, that didn't make housing demand surge, since infants don't buy homes. But if you add, say, 20 years to 2007 when those people start renting, oh, well, that rental demand peaks in 2027 or maybe a little after that, and since the first time, homebuyer age is now 40. If that stays constant, well, then native born homebuyer demand won't peak until 2047 so when it comes to housing demand, the important thing to remember is migration has an immediate effect and births have a delayed effect. Keith Weinhold 15:02 and I'm going to talk more about other nations shortly, but the US has two major migration forces working simultaneously, domestic and international migration. I mean, Americans move a lot, although not as much as they used to, and people move for jobs, for taxes, for weather, for cost of living and for lifestyle. So this creates state level winners and losers, and Metro level housing pressure and rent growth in those destination markets and national population averages totally hide this. So that's domestic migration. And then on the international migration. The US has a long history, hundreds of years now on, just continually attracting working age adults from around the world. This matters immensely, because they arrive ready to work, and they form households quickly. They overwhelmingly rent first. They concentrate in metros, and this props up rental demand before it ever shows up in home prices. And this is why investors often feel the rent pressure first those rising rents. Keith Weinhold 16:17 I've got more straight ahead, including Nigeria versus Europe, and what about the overpopulation straining the environment? If you like, episodes that explain why housing behaves the way it does, rather than just reacting to the headlines. You'll want to be on my free weekly newsletter. I break down demographics, housing, demand, inflation, investor trends and real estate strategy in plain English, often complemented with maps. You can join free at greletter.com that's gre letter.com Keith Weinhold 16:53 mid south homebuyers with over two decades as the nation's highest rated turnkey provider, their empathetic property managers use your return on investment as their North Star. It's no wonder smart investors line up to get their completely renovated income properties like it's the newest iPhone headquartered in Memphis, with their globally attractive cash flows, mid south has an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and 4000 houses renovated. There is zero markup on maintenance. Let that sink in, and they average a 98.9% occupancy rate with an industry leading three and a half year average renter term. Every home they offer you will have brand new components, a bumper to bumper, one year warranty, new 30 year roofs. And wait for it, a high quality renter in an astounding price range, 100 to 150k GET TO KNOW mid south enjoy cash flow from day one at mid southhomebuyers.com that's midsouthhomebuyers.com Keith Weinhold 17:54 you know, most people think they're playing it safe with their liquid money, but they're actually losing savings accounts and bonds don't keep up when true inflation eats six or 7% of your wealth. Every single year, I invest my liquidity with FFI freedom family investments in their flagship program. Why fixed 10 to 12% returns have been predictable and paid quarterly. There's real world security backed by needs based real estate like affordable housing, Senior Living and health care. Ask about the freedom flagship program when you speak to a freedom coach there, and that's just one part of their family of products, they've got workshops, webinars and seminars designed to educate you before you invest. Start with as little as 25k and finally, get your money working as hard as you do. Get started at Freedom, family investments.com/gre, or send a text. Now it's 1-937-795-8989Yep. Text their freedom coach directly again. 1937795, 1-937-795-8989, Keith Weinhold 19:05 the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President chailey Ridge personally while it's on your mind, start at Ridge lending group.com that's Ridge lending group.com Chris Martenson 19:37 this is peak prosperity. Is Chris Martinson. Listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your Daydream. Keith Weinhold 19:53 Welcome back to get rich Education. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, and this is episode 590 yes, we're in my Geography wheelhouse today, as I'm talking human geography and demographics with how it relates to housing, while answering our central question today is the world and the US overpopulated or underpopulated? And now that we understand some mechanics here, let's go global. Here's one of the most mind bending stats in all of demographics. Are you ready for this? When you hear this, it's going to have you hitting up chat, GPT, looking it up. It's going to be so astonishing. So jaw dropping. Every year, Nigeria has more births than all of Europe plus all of Russia combined. Would you talk about Willis? Keith Weinhold 20:47 Yeah, yes, you heard that, right? Willis, that's what I'm talking about. Willis. The source of that data is, in fact, from the United Nations. Yes, Nigeria has seven and a half million births every year. Compare that to all of Europe plus Russia combined, they only have about 6.3 million births per year. So you're telling me that today, just one West African nation, and there are 54 nations in Africa. Just one West African nation produces more babies than the entire continent of Europe, with all of its nations plus all of Russia, the largest world nation by area. Yes, that is correct. One country in Africa produces more babies every year than France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, all of Europe, including all the Eastern European nations, and all of Russia combined. This is a demographic reality, and now you probably already know that less developed nations, like Nigeria have higher birth rates than wealthier, more developed ones like France or Switzerland. I mean, that's almost common knowledge, but something that people think about less is that poorer nations also have a larger household size, which sort of makes sense when you think about it. In fact, Nigeria has five persons per household. Spain has two and a half, and the US also has that same level two and a half. That one difference alone explains why population growth and housing demand are completely different stories now, the US had 3.3 people per household in 1950 and it's down to that two and a half today. That means that even if the population stayed the same, the housing demand would rise. And this is evidence of what I talked about before the break, that households are fragmenting within the US. You can probably guess which state has the largest household size due to their Mormon population. It's Utah at 3.1 the smallest is Maine at 2.3 they have an older population. In fact, Maine has America's oldest population. And as you can infer with what you've learned now, the fact that they have just 2.3 people per household means that if their populations were the same. Maine would need more housing units than Utah. By the way, if you're listening closely at times, I have referred to the United States as simply America. Yes, I am American. You are going to run into some people out there that don't like it. When US residents call themselves Americans, they say something like, Hey, you need a geography lesson. America runs from Nunavut all the way down to Argentina. Here's what to tell them. No, look, there are about 200 world nations. There is only one that has the word America in it, that is the United States of America that usually makes them lighten up. That is why I am an American, not a Peruvian or Bolivian, and there's no xenophobic connotation whatsoever. There are more productive things to think about moving on. Why births matter is because births today become future workers, renters, consumers and even migrants. But not evenly. Young populations move toward a few things. They're attracted to capital. They move towards stability. They're attracted to opportunity, and young populations move toward infrastructure. That's not ideology, that's the gravity and the US remains one of the strongest gravity wells on Earth, a big magnet, a big attractant. Now it's sort of interesting. I know a few a People that believe that the world is indeed overpopulated, they often tend to be environmental enthusiasts, and the environment is a concern, for sure, but how big of a concern is it? That's the debatable part. And you know, it's funny, I've run into the same people that think that the world is overpopulated, they seem to lament at school closures. You see more school closures because just there weren't as many children that were born after the global financial crisis. And these people that are afraid we have an overpopulation problem call school closures a sad phenomenon. They think it's sad. Well, if you want a shrinking population, then you're going to see a lot more than just schools close so many with environmental concerns, though. The thing is, is that they seem to discount the fact that humans innovate. More than 200 years ago, Thomas Malthus, he famously failed. He wrote a book, thinking that the global population would exceed what he called his carrying capacity, meaning that we wouldn't be able to feed everybody. He posited that, look, this is a problem. Populations grow exponentially, but food production only grows linearly. But he was wrong, because, due to agricultural innovation, we have got too many calories in most places. Few people thought this many humans could live in the United States, Sonoran and Mojave deserts, that's Phoenix in Las Vegas, respectively. But our ability to recycle and purify water allows millions of people to live there. So my point about running out of resources is that history shows us that humans are a resource ourselves, and we keep finding ways to innovate, or keep finding ways to actually not need that rare earth element or whatever it is now, if the earth warms too much from human related activity, can we cool it off again? And how much of a problem is this? I am not sure, and that goes beyond the scope of our show. But the broader point here is that history shows us that humans keep figuring things out, and that is somewhat of an answer to those questions. The world is not overpopulated, it is unevenly populated. Some regions are young, others are growing, others are capital constrained, and then other regions are aging, shrinking and capital rich. And that very imbalance right there is what fuels migration and fuels labor flows and fuels housing demand in destination countries and the US benefits from this imbalance. Unlike almost anywhere else in the world, it's a demographic magnet. Yes, you do have some smaller ones out there, like Dubai, for example. Keith Weinhold 28:04 But why? Why do we keep attracting immigrants? Well, we've got strong labor markets, capital availability, property rights, economic mobility, and US has existing housing stock. Countries today don't just compete for capital, they're competing for people. In the US keeps attracting working age adults, and that is exactly the demographic that creates housing demand, and this is why long term housing demand in the US is more resilient than a lot of people think. In fact, the US population of about 350 million. This year, it's projected to peak at about 370 million, near 2080 and of course, the big factor that makes that pivot is that level of immigration. So that's why the population projections vary now. The last presidential administration allowed for a lot of immigrants. The current one few immigrants, and the next one, nobody knows. You've got a group called the falconist party that calls for increased legal immigration into the US. Yeah, they want to allow more migrants into the country, but yet they want to enforce illegal immigration. That sounds just like it's spelled, F, A, L, C, O, N, i, s, t, the falconist Party, but the us's magnetic effect to keep driving population growth through immigration is key, because you might already know that 2.1 is the magic number you need a fertility rate of at least 2.1 to maintain a population fertility rate that is the average number of children that a woman is expected to have over her lifetime. And be sure you don't confuse these numbers with the earlier numbers of people per. Per household, like I discussed earlier, although higher fertility rates are usually going to lead to more people per household, India's fertility rate is already down to 2.0 Yes, it is the most populated nation in the world, but since women, on average, only have two children, India is already below replacement fertility. The US and Australia are each at 1.6 Japan is just 1.2 China's is down to 1.0 South Korea's is at an incredibly low seven tenths of one, so 0.7 in South Korea, and then Nigeria's is still more than four. So among all those that I mentioned, only Nigeria is above the replacement rate of 2.1 and most of the nations above that rate are in Africa. Israel is a big outlier at 2.9 you've got others in the Middle East and South Asia that are above replacement rate as well. And when I say things like it's still up there, that whole still thing refers to the fact that there is this tendency worldwide for society to urbanize and have fewer children. For those fertility rates to keep falling. And that's why the future population growth is about which nations attract immigrants, and that is the US. Is huge advantage. Now there's a great way to look at where future births are going to come from. A way to do this is consider your chance of being born on each continent in the year 2100 This is interesting. In the year 2100 a person has a 48% chance of being born in Africa, 38% in South Asia, in the Middle East, 5% South America, 5% in Europe or Russia, 4% in North America, and less than 1% in Australia. Those are the chances of you being born on each of those continents in the year 2100 and that sourced by the UN. Keith Weinhold 32:09 the world population is, as I said earlier, about 8.2 billion, and it's actually expected to peak around the same time that the US population is in the 2080s and that'll be near 10 point 3 billion. All right, so both the world and the US population should rise for another 50 to 60 years. Let's talk about population winners and losers inside the US. I mean, this is where population conversations really become useful for investors, because population doesn't matter nationally that much. It really matters locally, unevenly and sometimes it almost feels unfairly. So let me give you some perspective shifting stats. I think I shared with you when I discussed new New York City Mayor Zoran Manami here on the show a month or two ago, that the New York City Metro Area has over 20 million people, nearly double the combined population of Arizona and Nevada together, yes, just one metro area, the same as Two entire sparsely populated states. So when someone says people are leaving New York I mean that tells you almost nothing, unless you know where they're going. How many are still arriving in New York City to replace those leaving, and how many households are still forming inside that Metro? The household formation so scale matters, however, net, people are not leaving New York. New York City recently had more in migration than any other US Metro. Some states are practically empty. Alaska or take Wyoming. Wyoming has fewer than 600,000 people in the entire state. That's fewer people than a lot of single US cities. That's only about six people per square mile. In Wyoming, that's about the population of one midsize Metro suburb. Now, when someone says the US has plenty of land in a lot of cases, they're right. I mean, just look out the window when you fly over Wyoming or the Dakotas. But people don't really live where land is cheap. They actually don't want to. Most of the time. They live where jobs, incomes and their networks already exist. You know, the wealthy guy that retires to Wyoming and it has a 200 acre ranch is an outlier. There's a reason he can sprawl out and make it 200 acres. There's virtually nobody there. Let's understand too that population loss, that doesn't mean that demand is gone, but it does change the rules, especially when you think about a place like West Virginia. They have lost population in most decades since the 1950s and incredibly, their population is lower today than it was in 1930 we're talking about West Virginia statewide. They have an aging population. West Virginia has an outmigration of young adults. So this doesn't mean that no real estate works in West Virginia, but it means that appreciation stories are fragile. Income matters more than equity. Growth and demographics are a headwind, not a tailwind. That's a very different investment posture than where you usually want to be. It's important to understand that a handful of metros, just a handful, are absorbing massive national growth. And here's something that a lot of investors underestimate. About half of all US, population growth flows into fewer than 15 metro areas, and it's not just New York City, Houston, Miami, but smaller places like Jacksonville, Austin and Raleigh, and that really helps pump their real estate market. So that means demand concentrates, housing pressure intensifies, and rent growth becomes pretty sticky, unless you wildly overbuild for a short period of time like Austin did, and this is why some metros just feel perpetually tight over the long term, and others feel permanently sluggish. Population does not spread evenly. It piles up. In fact, Texas is a great case in point here. Understand that Texas is adding people faster than some entire nations do. Texas alone adds hundreds of 1000s of residents per year in strong cycles. Some years, they do add more people than entire small countries, more than several Midwest states combined. And of course, they don't spread evenly across Texas. They cluster in DFW, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, so pretty much the Texas triangle, and that clustering fact is everything for housing demand, yet at the same time, there are fully 75 Texas counties that are losing population, typically out in West Texas. Then there's Florida. Florida isn't just growing. It's replacing people. Florida's growth. It's not just net positive, it's replacement migration, and it's across all different types and ages. You've got retirees arriving, you've got young workers arriving, you've got young households forming, and you've got seniors aging in place. So this way, among a whole spectrum of ages, you've got demand for rentals, workforce housing, age specific, housing and multifamily all in Florida, and this is why Florida housing demand over the long term is not going to cool off the way that a few skeptics expect. Now, of course, some areas did temporarily overbuild in Florida in the years following the pandemic. Yes, that's led to some temporary Florida home price attrition, but that is going to be absorbed. California did not empty out. It reshuffled now. There were some recent years where California lost net population, but here's what that hides. Some metros lost residents. Others stayed flat. You had some income brackets that left California and others arrived. In fact, California has slight population growth today overall, so housing demand definitely did not vanish. It shifted within the state and then outward to nearby states, and that's how Arizona, Nevada and Texas benefited. But overall, California's population count, really, it's just pretty steady, not declining. Keith Weinhold 39:05 population density. It's that density that predicts rent pressure better than growth rates. Do something really important for real estate investors. Dense metros absorb shocks better. They have less elastic housing supply, and they see faster rent rebounds. Sparse areas have cheaper land and easier supply expansion and weaker rent resilience. So that's why rents snap back faster in dense metros, and oversupply hurts more in spread out to regions. Density matters more than raw growth does. Shrinking states can still have tight housing I mean, some states lose population overall, but yet they still have housing shortages in certain metros, and you'll have tight rental markets near job centers, and you've got strong demand In limited sub markets, even if the state is shrinking. And I think you know this is why the slower growing Northeast and Midwest, they've had the highest home price appreciation in the past two years. There's not enough building there. If your population falls 1% but the available housing falls 2% well, you can totally get into a housing shortage situation, and that bids up real estate prices. And when people look at population charts on the state level, a lot of times, they still get misled. When you buy an investment property, you don't buy a state, you buy a specific market within it, so the United States is not full it is lopsided. The US is not overpopulated. It is heavily clustered. It's unevenly dense, and it's really driven by migration. And perhaps a better way to say it is that the US population is really opportunity concentrated housing demand follows jobs, networks, wages and migration flows. It sure does not follow empty land. And really the investor takeaway is, is that when you hear population stats, don't put too much weight on the question, is the population rising or falling? Although that's something you certainly want to know. Some better questions to ask are, where are households forming? Where are adults moving? Where is supply constrained? And where does income support, rent like those are, what four big questions there, because population alone does not create housing demand. It's households under constraint that do so. Our big arching overall question is the world overpopulated or underpopulated? The answer is neither. The world is unevenly populated. It's unevenly aged, and it's unevenly governed. And for real estate investors, the lesson is simple. You don't invest in population counts, you invest in household formation, age structure, migration and supply constraints. Really, that's a big learning summary for you, that's why housing demand can stay strong even when population growth slows. And once you understand that demographic headlines that seem scary aren't as scary, and they start to be more useful. Why I've wanted to do this overpopulated versus underpopulated episode for you for years. I've really thought about it for years. I really hope that you got something useful out of it. Let's be mindful of the context too. When it comes to the classic Adam Smith economics of supply demand, I've only discussed one side today, largely just the demand side and not the supply side so much that would involve a discussion about building and some more things that supply side. Now that I've helped you ask a better question about population and the future of housing demand, you might wonder where you can get better answers. Well, like I mentioned earlier, I provide a lot of that and help you make sense of it, both right here on this show and with my newsletter, geography is something that's more conducive and meaningful to you visually, that's often done with a map, and that's why my letter at greletter.com will help you more if you enjoy learning through maps, just like we've done every year since 2014 I've got 52 great episodes coming to you this year. If you haven't consider subscribing to the show until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream. Speaker 2 43:57 Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice, please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively you Keith Weinhold 44:25 The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, get richeducation.com