The Bangkok Podcast

Director/producer Tom Waller has made a lot of films, but his latest movie might be his most important yet. The Cave tells the story of the rescue of the Wild Boars football team from a flooded cave in northern Thailand.  On a special extended show, Greg and Ed are happy to have Tom on the show, as well as two special guests, diver/actor Jim Warny, who helped rescue the boys and starred as himself...

A bit of news first - the Bangkok Podcast has LINE stickers! Go here to check them out and increase your expressiveness. Sadly, Thai-based users only. On this show, Greg introduces a fascinating question for expats: to what extent should they see themselves as 'ambassadors' who represent the country they come from - or indeed, expats in general? Ed opens a bit contrarian, arguing that expats only...

This episode is the second half of our interview with Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, beer advocate and member of Thai Parliament from the Future Forward Party. Ed asks Tao about his decision to run for parliament and how his life has changed since taking his seat. Turns out that once Tao decided to run, he chose Bangkok Yai, a district in Bangkok that is traditionally a stronghold for the Democratic Par...

Greg and Ed are very happy to welcome to the podcast Taopiphop Limjitrikorn, a beer entrepreneur and current member of Thai parliament from the Future Forward Party.  In this first of a two-part interview, Greg and Tao discuss Tao's background as a lawyer and how he transitioned from that into brewing his own beer, which - believe it or not, he got arrested for! Greg explains, with Tao's help, tha...

Greg and Ed discuss the absolutely EPIC beginning of season 4 of the Bangkok Podcast. Why start a new season? Well, it turns out that seasons 1 and 2 were in the 70ish episode range and 80 seemed a good round number. Plus, the guys were just ready for some changes! But first - a book giveaway! Listen in to learn how you can win a copy of Working in Thailand by our buddy Karsten, who co-authored. S...

Big News: This show will be the final episode of Season 3! We figure 80 episodes is the right number given the length of previous seasons, so the Bangkok Podcast will be taking a week off next week before commencing Season 4, which will include a few interesting changes to the show. (Spoiler Alert: Ed is coming back, woo hoo!)  And a quick note - if you want to read the esoteric-yet-fascinating Ha...

Greg interviews Rex de Koening and Johanna de Koening Schaaij from New Counseling Service , who have been working as therapists in Thailand since 2001. Rex and Johanna begin by explaining that traditionally in Thailand there was no concept of mental health other than the idea that a person is either fine or crazy - nothing in between. Slowly this idea has been changing, however, sparked significan...

Greg and Ed dive into the flooding crisis in Thailand. (Get it?) Ed begins with some sobering statistics on the recent spate of floods that have affected 34 provinces, including Bangkok, which kicks off some not-so-nostalgic discussions about previous Bangkok flood stories, from wading down the soi in flip flops or simply being trapped at home on an 'island' until the water subsides. Granted, cons...

Greg interviews Palm, a professional translator of English to Thai, but in a very specific context: subtitles for film and television. Palm begins by explaining that she literally learned English by being a couch potato and watching a lot of Western TV shows and movies, surviving by figuring out the subtitles word by word. This led naturally to an interest in doing it for a living, and lo and beho...

Greg and Ed discuss one of their old stomping grounds - Sukhumvit Soi 11, perhaps the most famous destination on Sukhumvit that doesn't involve a red light district! Beginning with stories of their early days on the soi, when it was primarily known as home to swanky Q Bar and Bed Supperclub, it's gone through several iterations since then. Indeed, Greg notes that it always seems to be going throug...

Readers of the Bangkok Post will need no introduction to this week's guest. Roger Crutchley - or Old Crutch, as he's known - arrived in Bangkok in 1969 by accident, never intending to stay. Yet here we are, 50 years later, and after a multi-decade career at the Bangkok Post and adventures too numerous to count, he sits down to riff on the past 5 decades in Thailand. From bullet-riddled visa runs t...

Sooner or later, we all spend some time in the hospital, so Greg and Ed riff on their myriad experiences in Bangkok hospitals over the years. But before we get into that, we should note - due to Thailand's strict defamation laws, some of the places we talk about will remain nameless.  But with that out of the way, we can say that Thailand in general has pretty good medical care, and it is standard...

Greg talks to Hassan Ghiassi, the creator and organizer of Aristotle's Cafe , a Bangkok group that focuses on meetups that involve discussions and debates on questions voted on by the participants themselves.  Firstly, Aristotle's Cafe is a format, and the location is not fixed. At the beginning of each meetup, the attendees submit questions and then vote on what to discuss. But does the same form...

First up - apologies for Greg's bad audio on this episode! Small technical problem, and it sounds like he's talking on a phone from Peru. Luckily, Ed does most of the talking! Speaking of Ed, he recently returned from 4 days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, his first-ever visit. The city's going through somewhat of a renaissance of late, with plenty of discussion online about PP vs BKK. So what's Ed's ver...

With the iminent opening of the MRT Blue Line extension, we sit down with Don Siridhara, a lecturer and transportation planning engineer, to geek out over Bangkok's expanding rail network. But first - you might want to consult this handy Google Map that Greg made as you listen that shows all future rail lines. It's our first interactive show! Don discusses why Bangkok's first train line only opene...

Greg and Ed address an important but tricky question: Why do expats leave Thailand? How do you know when the right time to leave is? The boys ponder the various reasons why to find out what's more common - work or family issues, personal problems with fitting in, or more Thai-centric problems such as just plain growing tired of Bangkok, Thai culture, or the confusing politics. Greg recounts severa...

First - don't forget our meetup on 27 July at Smalls. Get more info here . And also don't forget that both Greg AND Ed will be speaking at Bombyx on 26 July. Get more info here . Okay, on this episode Greg interviews Khun Saba, a disabled rights activist in Bangkok. It's a topic near and dear to the Bangkok Podcast, because we want everyone to enjoy Bangkok, which is very hard to do if you don't h...

Dengue infections are off the chart this year, and it pays to know the dangers. Do you? ARE YOU SURE? Greg interviews Dr. Vorapot, an expert in travel medicine and in particular tropical diseases such as dengue fever. Greg and Dr. V review the scary data on the increases in dengue cases in Thailand, noting that different types of mosquitoes breed in different environments. Luckily, the type that c...

A bit of self-promotion first - we're happy to see that the Bangkok Podcast was chosen as one of 2019's top 25 expat podcasts over at Feedspot . A great honor! Now to the show... Greg and Ed are psyched to sit down with Pailin Wedel, a Thai-American journalist and filmmaker based in Bangkok, about her new film "Hope Frozen." Pailin talks a bit about her background as a journalist making short docu...

Continuing our series on interesting events in Thai history, Greg introduces the Thai-Cambodian 'crisis' of 2003. It started when rumors began spreading that a Thai soap opera actress, Suvanant Kongying, had said Cambodia had 'stolen' Angkor Wat from Thailand. After the Cambodian Prime Minister repeated the allegations and banned Thai radio programs and TV shows, anti-Thai mobs began to form in Ph...

Part 2 of a panel discussion with four guests! Why four? Well, everyone knows that cliche about Bangkok being a heaven for expat men, but we didn't know much about what it's like for expat women. It stands to reason that one woman can't speak for all women, so we upped the game a bit. We discuss a myriad of stories that show how complex, nuanced, and (depending on the person) important the issue i...

It's a very unique episode of the Bangkok Podcast! Greg and Ed do a first for the the show, with a panel discussion with four guests! Why four? Well, everyone knows that cliche about Bangkok being a heaven for expat men, but we didn't know much about expat women. It stands to reason that one woman can't speak for all women, so we upped the game a bit. After some introductions, we get into the meat...

When you've been an expat for a long time and don't visit home regularly, what's it like going back?  Is reverse culture shock even real? Greg and Ed discuss Ed's first trip back to the States in 4 years to see how ed digested it all. Usually one to enjoy his trips back, Ed notes two major things that struck him: first, without the language and cultural barriers, things unexpectedly just work, and...

With Ed still on vacation, Greg is joined by special co-host Scott Coates to discuss a question of the ages - when driving in Bangkok, what's the best way to do it - car, or motorbike? Despite neither of the guys having their own transportation for their first 15 or so years in town, both now drive regularly - Greg in a car, and Scott on a motorbike. So which one is best? They discuss the ups and...

It's been a while, but one of our favorite semi-regular guests is back! Bangkok Podcast's official Buddhist correspondent, Phra Pandit, welcomed Greg at his temple to talk about amulets, talismans, and Buddhist relics - and what ties them all together. The burning question Greg had was - if seemingly every third temple claims to have a piece of Buddha's body - what exactly happened to the poor guy...