Insight Myanmar

Episode #386: Maw Htun, Deputy Minister for Electricity and Energy in Myanmar's National Unity Government (NUG), has navigated a path defined by personal tribulation and transformation since the 2021 coup. His journey began with joining the NUG to fulfill a lifelong dream of systemic change, but was soon overshadowed by a battle with cancer. With his critical illness and having to endure a series...

Episode #385: Minna Fredriksson, human rights advisor at the Swedish development organization Diakonia, describes her humanitarian work and critiques the humanitarian aid field based on her years of work in Southeast Asia. Fredriksson managed humanitarian efforts in refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border in 2013. This was at the start of the democratic transition, and when donor governments s...

Episode #384: “As a journalist, you always hope for consequences. I mean, otherwise our reporting is meaningless,” says Bjørn Nordahl, a Norwegian investigative reporter who led a two-year probe into Telenor’s withdrawal from Myanmar. The case was especially painful because the company, once praised for driving SIM card prices down and sparking a communication revolution in 2014, ended up entangle...

Episode #383: The 4th International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies (ICBMS) was hosted at hosted by Chiang Mai University. This major event brought together many scholars and experts to discuss Myanmar’s ongoing challenges, including the 2021 coup, conflicts, peace efforts, and human rights issues. Hosting over 800 participants over its three day event, it was one of the largest events dedicat...

Episode #382: Zack Tu Nan, a queer, ethnic Zaiwa activist and student living in the Netherlands, reflects on his journey through marginalization, faith, identity, and exile. Born in 1994 in—literally—a rice field in Kachin State while his parents fled military violence, Zack grew up in a remote village run by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), where he enjoyed a rich, traditional Zaiwa upbringing...

Episode #381: Vicky Bowman, the former UK Ambassador to Myanmar and past director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB), explains what sanctions are meant to do - prevent harm and promote reform, rather than punish - and how Myanmar’s “opaque information ecosystem” makes this challenging. She recalls that in the early 2000s, compiling sanctions lists was difficult, with EU diplomat...

Episode #380: “I started meditation at a fairly young age,” begins scholar and author, Daniel Stuart. At nineteen, he traveled to India, disillusioned by the world he grew up in and searching for an alternative. What he discovered was vipassanā meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka, and for him it was “a quite revolutionary experience!”  For Stuart, meditation was never confined to the cushion....

Episode #379: “It’s a different migration story,” reflects Amy Hardingson, speaking about her enduring connection to her Burmese heritage, a thread stretching across generations. Her great-grandmother, Hilda, embodied this love, embarking on the perilous Great Trek during World War II to India in 1941. A member of the Eurasian community in Burma, Hilda fled with her three-year-old daughter and sev...

Episode #378: Simon Billenness, director of Campaign for a New Myanmar, draws on thirty years of advocacy to explain the mechanics and challenges of U.S. policy toward Myanmar. He begins by discussing the recent removal of sanctions on junta-linked individuals, which he believes reflects corporate lobbying rather than signaling a coherent strategy or change in overall policy. In fact, he says, tha...

Episode #377: “Myanmar is a source of inspiration everywhere! This is me speaking directly to friends in Myanmar, that they should understand that they are the source of inspiration, and the source of ideas and reflections, to a level that they don't recognize, because there are a lot of reflections going on in the corners of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, that are not there on media.”  Tee is a Vi...

Episode #376: “I think it’s a big win. And also people may not like to hear this, it’s actually a win for sanctions,” says Erich Ferrari, founder of Ferrari & Associates and a leading U.S. sanctions attorney. In this episode, he explains the legal and procedural framework behind the U.S. Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list and responds to criticism over his firm’s role in recent delistin...

Episode #375: “Don’t fall for the junta's attempt to try to propagandize!” says Derek Mitchell, former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar. In this interview, he assesses U.S. strategy under the Trump administration, focusing on recent sanctions “de-listings” that have raised concern.  Regarding the de-listings, Mitchell believes that the they were a bureaucratic decision, not a strategic one. “It cou...

Episode #374: “Miraculously, amazingly, the mission has continued up until now in 2025.” These words from Dr. Zaw Moe Aung, Executive Director of The Leprosy Mission Myanmar (TLMM), encapsulates the resilience of an organization founded in 1898. While still focused on leprosy, TLMM has expanded its work to extend support to all people with disabilities in the country, including the growing number...

Episode #373: In this wide-ranging interview, journalist Lorcan Lovett returns to the podcast to discuss Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment, the fractured resistance, and Myanmar’s trajectory under military rule. He recounts his investigative work authenticating leaked prison logs from early 2024 that reveal Suu Kyi’s declining health, sparse diet, and isolation. Obtained from a group called People's...

Episode #372: “I focus on research that's mostly relevant for climate resilience, and I really look at Myanmar as the most interesting and important case.”  Kyungmee Kim, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, explores the intersection of climate justice, extractive industries, and conflict in Myanmar. Her early work focused on community resistance to hydropower...

Episode #371: “I remain confident in the longer term, completely, actually, that this regime is losing,” says Sean Turnell, Australian economist and former advisor to Myanmar’s civilian government, as he analyzes the recent U.S. decision to lift sanctions on several junta-linked cronies, in what his fourth appearance on this platform. While acknowledging widespread concern, he offers a measured, o...

Episode #370: "Why are [Asian women] not allowed to dream that we can open our own thing and lead our own work?" This question by human rights lawyer Emilie Palamy Pradichit slices through the silence, exposing the systemic barriers that have historically muted and marginalized Asian women in leadership. Pradichit’s journey as a young Lao refugee navigating discrimination in a low-income Parisian...

Episode #369: “I promised Aung San Suu Kyi and committed myself to work for democracy and human rights in the country as long as necessary. And still it is necessary!” So says Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway and a longtime supporter of Myanmar’s democratic struggle. In this conversation, he reflects on his decades of advocacy for Myanmar, from a surreptitious 1997 visit to Ya...

Episode #368: The Adhikara podcast is an important, new voice in Burmese media, aiming to build not just a movement but a resilient community against oppression. Created by Maw Nwei and Morgen after the 2021 military coup, Adhikara provides a platform for expression and education, especially around human rights. The podcast allows the creators to connect with the Burmese people without the barrier...

Episode #367: In this episode, we hear from two compelling voices grappling with the human and political costs of authoritarianism in Southeast Asia. Raoul Manuel, the youngest elected member of the Philippine Congress, describes how his work on education reform and youth rights intersects with a broader transnational resistance against repressive leadership. He draws on his experience in grassroo...

Episode #366: Sallo Polak, founder of the Philanthropy Connections Foundation (PCF), has spent decades building a grassroots approach to humanitarian aid in Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Motivated by a lifelong desire to address global inequality—first sparked by a formative journey to India at age 18—Polak established PCF in 2011 to serve under-resourced communities through trust, dignity, and...

Episode #365: “The Buddha lives and teaches for the welfare of the world, for the happiness of the world,” says Bhikkhu Bodhi. “He does live for the welfare and happiness of human beings. And so now, when we look at contemporary conditions, the question arises as Buddhists following in the footsteps of the Buddha, how do we live for the welfare and happiness of other human beings?”  Bhikkhu B...

Episode #364: Ben’s simple words resonate strongly: “If I could do something small for one person, why would I not?”  This episode brings together Ben and a Burmese student who goes by the moniker Little Activist. Together, they discuss the profound impact of individual gestures and transnational solidarity. Ben, who worked briefly in Myanmar with a UN agency, was moved by an episode that Ins...

New Bloom is an online magazine and community space covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in the wake of the Sunflower Movement. They welcomed the host of Insight Myanmar for a talk at their Taipei center.

Episode #363: In post-coup Myanmar, where conventional aid channels with humanitarian intentions risk getting diverted and empowering the military junta, Blockchain technology presents a nuanced alternative. An anonymous Blockchain researcher, 7k, highlights both the promise and the pitfalls of digital solutions. He explains that “Blockchain is a fundamental technology that enables cryptocurrencie...