Offering a fresh perspective on current events, arts, and social issues through interviews with the people making the news or should be.
Latest episodes
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1 h 03
'A Home for Myself'
Widya Boerma retraces some of her earliest memories in Indonesia as she searches for her biological mother. Widya was adopted with forged documents, one of the thousands of Indones…
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1 h 33
Pride
Coming out stories are the unifying thread for LGBT people everywhere. On the anniversary of Stonewall, LGBT Indonesians share their moments of self-realization and their struggle…
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26 min
Saving Bandung's Zoo: Part 3 - A Shelter From Storm
Jeff visits an NGO and animal shelter called Jakarta Animal Aid Network, otherwise known as JAAN on the outskirts of Bogor. Talking with JAAN's founder Karin Franken and Dr. Merry.…
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30 min
Saving Bandung's Zoo: Part 2 - Moving Day
When Melin and Tera are ready to move into their new enclosure a staff misstep spooks the lions and delays the process for days. The incident illustrates challenges that come with…
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37 min
Saving Bandung's Zoo: Part 1 - A New Mentality
The Dutch colonial era Bandung Zoological Garden made international headlines last year for all the wrong reasons. With its doors shut because of the pandemic, officials said it ma…
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47 min
Regional Elections
Kevin O’Rourke of Reformasi Weekly returns to help sort through the country’s regional elections that are taking place against the backdrop of Covid-19 and the return of hardline c…
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36 min
Jokowi's Contradictions
Joko Widodo: a reformer who allies himself with Suharto era generals, an entrepreneur who expanded the state-owned sector. Ben Bland joins the pod to discuss the bundle of contradi…
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35 min
America's Trust Deficit
Trump cabinet officials were no strangers to the region but their boss undermined them and gutted US credibility with his tantrums, trade tiffs and by flouncing out of the Trans Pa…
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28 min
The Two Kings
As Thailand’s king seeks to expand his authority, Malaysia sidesteps a parliamentary tussle for power. Erin Cook of 'Dari Mulut ke Mulut' returns for a look at Southeast Asia polit…
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18 min
Shackling The Mentally Ill
Tens of thousands of people around the world with real and perceived mental illnesses are unwillingly caged or chained in confined spaces sometimes for years. Covid 19 is making ma…
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36 min
Chatib Basri
Indonesia's former finance minister Chatib Basri weighs in on the country's controversial labour law reforms, the challenges he faced wooing investors and the scourge of underemplo…
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33 min
Indonesia's Preman & COVID-19
Indonesian police are deputising hardline groups like the Betawi Rempug Front (FBR) to enforce social distancing rules amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. The move has sparked controve…
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51 min
Escape From China
The pod talks with Kevin O'Rourke from Reformasi Weekly about the surge in coronavirus cases and then heads to Sydney to talk with Australian Financial Review's Mike Smith about hi…
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56 min
Indonesia's Preman
Indonesia's street thugs, known as preman, have a long and colourful history of doing the dirty work of police and the military during the time of the New Order. The arrest in June…
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36 min
Saudi Money and Religious Conservatism
Journalist Krithika Varagur, author of "The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project" discusses how Saudi money helped conservative Islam take root in Indonesia, Nigeria and…
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26 min
A Tale of Two Flags
As Indonesia marks its 75th birthday, Papua remains a sore point. This week Steven Handoko takes the mic to tell us a story of two flags: one sacred one profane and how they distra…
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34 min
Surviving Long Xing 629
Rizky Fauzan recounts his ordeal while aboard the Chinese fishing vessel Long Xing 629 where four Indonesians lost their lives from mysterious illnesses allegedly owing to harsh wo…
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58 min
The New Boogeymen
Hendri Yulius Wijaya talks on how LGBT becomes a four letter word in Indonesia after the 2015 landmark US Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage. And Kevin O’Rourke of Reformasi…
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34 min
Novel Baswedan
Novel Baswedan joins On The Level to discuss how police handling of the 2017 acid attack that left him partially blind shows that the government of President Joko Widodo has lost i…
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51 min
Urban Planning After COVID-19
Eventually the pandemic will end, but city living will change forever as monolith office districts break up and maybe - just maybe - consumers discover they can live without so muc…