Insight Myanmar

Episode #167: Steve Smith’s first meditation teacher was Mahasi Sayadaw. He visited the Sayadaw’s rural Seikkhun monastery back in 1977. Steve was moved by how the great teacher embodied centuries of…

Episode #166: Han Gyi, a coordinator at the Network for Human Rights Documentation, also known as ND-Burma, joins us today to talk about the organization’s work, which focuses on human rights documen…

Episode #165: Toe Zaw Latt, a journalist currently with Mizzima talks with us about access to communications in Myanmar.

Before the arrival of mobile phones and internet in the country, one of the few…

Episode #164: Yunanda Wilson has warm memories not only of the scrumptious fish noodle dish—known as mohinga—that her grandmother was famous for, but also its place in her family history. Her grandmo…

Episode #163: Jack Jenkins Hill, a PhD student at the University College London, joins the show to discuss the state of capitalism and the deteriorating environment in Myanmar. Hill has spent the las…

Episode #162: Pardis Mahdavi, Provost and Executive Vice-President as well as professor of anthropology at the University of Montana, joins the conversation to talk about the growing discontent and p…

Episode #161: Dan Sullivan, the Director of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East at Refugees International, joins this episode to discuss the challenges facing the Rohingya community. Most of the world …

Episode #160: U Gambira was a 29-year old monk in 2007 when he helped foment the initial protests that grew into what came to be known as the Saffron Revolution.

After running away from home because …

Episode #159: “As soon as the coup started, the first thing in my mind was how we, the people of Myanmar, had lost our future, and are going back to old times, which weren't good.”

This was David Lai’…

Episode #158: Following a family tragedy when she was just a teenager, Ayya Yeshe set off on a spiritual journey, becoming a nun in a Tibetan lineage at just 23. However, she soon learned that female…

Episode #157: In 1995, Burmese assaults into Karen territory created thousands of refugees who fled to Thai refugee camps, including Eh Nay Thaw’s family. He spent the next ten years in a refugee cam…

Episode #156: Even two years after the coup, the Tatmadaw continues its campaign of terror, disrupting communities, causing a massive refugee problem and destroying the country’s infrastructure. And …

Episode #155: What is a “home?” It is more than just the physical structure we live in; “home” has overlapping dimensions. We say that the town or city we live in is our home, as is our country, and …

Episode #154: When Kory Goldberg was just nineteen, he spent a year studying in India. After the program ended, he traveled around and kept “seeking out whatever I was seeking out,” he recalls.

He att…

Episode #153: Rahel and Damon Lam founded A Cup of Color in 2014. It is an organization with the goal of “bringing art to places where there is brokenness.” They have created art in public spaces in …

Episode #152: Kristina Simion’s book, Rule of Law Intermediaries, looks at the complex transition period of the 2010s in Myanmar, when dramatic changes were sweeping across the country. Simion notes …

Episode #151: Tomas Martin is a prison researcher who presently works with DIGNITY, the Danish Institute Against Torture. His interest in prison research was first piqued when he heard about ten-day …

Episode #150: Joining the podcast over a year after her previous interview, Thiri returns to update listeners on her own personal story, as well as to discuss the state of the resistance and the demo…

Episode #149: Nandar Min Swe is a fundraiser for the government in exile. She helped sell NUG bonds, as well as facilitating the sale of subdivided plots of land owned by Min Aung Hlaing and other th…

Episode #148: Melody Mociulski’s first trip to Burma was in 1974, during a round-the-world backpacking trip on the so-called “hippie trail.” A fellow traveler at one point convinced her to see Burma.…