Podcast: Dominic Faulder

Published on Apr 14, 2019 by Luke Hunt

Anand Panyarachun, a former prime minister of Thailand, has always preferred a quiet life, which contrasts sharply with his enormously successful career as a high profile diplomat and politician who helped shaped Thailand’s politics as well as its outlook on the world. He is now the subject of a biography – Anand Panyarachun and The Making of Modern Thailand – written by veteran correspondent Dominic Faulder. Luke Hunt spoke with Faulder at the Foreign Correspondents’  Club of Thailand. Listen here. .

Podcast: Philip Bowring

Published on Mar 25, 2019 by Luke Hunt

Long before there were the nation states of Southeast Asia, the region was dominated by a series of ancient empires. This legacy of the region, which lasted centuries and still manifests itself in some ways in contemporary Southeast Asia today, is often not fully appreciated amid the focus on the immediate and more recent postcolonial dynamics. Luke Hunt from The Diplomat speaks with author Philip Bowring about the ancient empires of Southeast Asia and how maritime trade helped shape a region long before the colonial era. Listen here. .

Podcast: Peter Starr

Published on Feb 3, 2019 by Luke Hunt

Heng Samrin played an outsized and often overlooked role in Cambodia’s history and politics. Arguably one of the twentieth century’s greatest guerrilla commanders, he defected from the Khmer Rouge and fled to Vietnam, where he plotted his return with Hanoi as part of a military force that ousted a genocidal regime led by Pol Pot. He then helped lay the foundation for Cambodia as we know it today. Listen to the podcast with Peter Starr, chief editor of Cambodia Reborn. .

A Podcast with Correspondent Liam Cochrane

Published on Jan 6, 2019 by Luke Hunt

In the summer of 2018, the world was gripped by an unfolding drama when members of a football team were trapped in a cave in Thailand.The incident at the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex in Thailand’s Chiang Rai Province continued on for weeks, and the 12 boys and their coach were eventually rescued in a dramatic rescue effort involving thousands of people.Among the journalists on the scene was Liam Cochrane, a reporter for the ABC television network at home in Australia.Listen to the podcast..

Cross Culture: Lestari Girls

Published on Mar 21, 2018 by Luke Hunt

The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt interviews the stars of Lestari Girls.When Ningsih Millane arrived in Australia as a young wife in 1987 from Indonesia she had left behind a life and an art-loving family that spanned the archipelago from Ambon in the west to Makassar in the far east.But she also brought with her an education in traditional dance, puppetry, and fluency in five Indonesian dialects. Two years later, with more than a touch of homesickness, she established Sanggar Lestari – a studio which enjoys a formidable reputation for dance and fusion.The stars of her program are the 13-strong Lestari Girls.They will shortly tour Indonesia where Lestari is establishing a name for itself with domestic audiences entranced by the idea of....