PODKAS

As we end our fourth season, we tackle in our finale a very important yet contested topic about our society: our democracy. Moving to a new administration, how do we think about the ways to navigate the current landscape of our society to contribute to building our democratic institutions, remain hopeful, and find our voice in strengthening democratic practices? Ultimately, how do we work to be en...

A condominium obstructing the Rizal Monument's view. An expressway project over the Pasig River threatening to destroy heritage sites. Cultural heritage practices in danger of vanishing. Why is heritage so hard to protect in the country? We talked to Dr. Ivan Henares of the UP Diliman Asian Institute of Tourism to unpack the many heritage issues we face today. Visit our website www.podkas.org to w...

We have seen the future of our cities, and it is bleak. Urbanization comes with challenges in transport, infrastructure, security, health, and other essential social services. As it is, our cities have creaked and groaned; what more ten or fifty years from now? We talked with Ica Fernandez, a Ph. D. candidate from the University of Cambridge, to unravel the puzzle of urban governance in the Philip...

Is foreign debt a bad thing? How has debt impacted Philippine development in the 20th century? We talked with Dr. Leloy Claudio of the University of California, Berkeley, to see the Philippine experience on foreign debt and what it means in the current crisis context.  This episode was recorded before the results of the 2022 Presidential elections. Visit our website, www.podkas.org to watch o...

Ever wondered when we started calling OFWs “Bagong Bayani”? Or how did we ever become one of the biggest diaspora populations in the world? Join us in this episode as we break down the issues and concerns surrounding labor export and OFWs with Dr. Jean Encinas Franco of UP Diliman. Our full interview with Jean is available as a website exclusive, so visit www.podkas.org .

As we celebrate Labor Day on May 1, we sat down with senatorial candidate and former Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino president, Luke Espiritu, to tackle unemployment, poverty wages, and the Philippine labor situation. What can we do to revitalize the fight for labor rights in the country, and what does it mean to elect labor leaders in public office? Find out in this episode. For our full interv...

Our final episode for this mini-series isn't exactly a historical sub-discipline, but nonetheless very important and consequential to how we perceive and understand the Philippine past. Bro discusses some of the problems of history education in the country and relates potential strategies we can take to solve this. Visit our website, www.podkas.org, for more stuff on Philippine history, politics,...

In the Philippines, traditional media has faced attacks by the state and is being sidelined by the rise of social media. This episode, we talked to Ayee Macaraig, journalist and academic, on the dynamics of media and politics in the Philippines and how we can continue understanding the place of media in a democracy. Visit our website, www.podkas.org, for our full interview with Ayee and for more s...

For the penultimate episode of our #HistoryPrimer series, we talk about a field of history we practice through PODKAS: Public History. Join us in exploring the imperative of historical scholarship to take on a public face. Visit our website, www.podkas.org , for more stuff on Philippine history, politics, and society.

For decades, Philippine education has been plagued with numerous challenges that have seem to have been magnified by the ongoing pandemic. We unpack many of these challenges in this episode with the help of Dr. Lorina Calingasan, former principal of the UP Integrated School and professor at the UP College of Education. Listen to our full interview with Lorina by visiting our website, www.podkas.or...

What is Global History, and how is it different from the World History that we know and studied in high school? In this episode, our PODKAS team member Bro orients us about human interconnectivity and processes at a global scale that shaped the world as we know it today. If you want more of PODKAS, visit our website, www.podkas.org .

Religious block voting. Candidates seeking the endorsement of religious leaders. Religious leaders running for public office. And people on social media who post bible verses while hurling expletives and wishing people death—what makes for such a fascinating mix of religion and politics in the Philippines? We talked to Jayeel Cornelio of the Ateneo de Manila University to unpack this topic in this...

At its core, economic history investigates the economic aspects of the human experience. But it is a historical subdiscipline wrought with intellectual debates on theory and method. Find out about this and more in this episode of History Primer. Visit our website, www.podkas.org , for more stuff on Philippine history, politics, and society.

The military is ideally a non-politicized sector that is subservient to civil authority. But in the Philippines, the military has been politicized, and it is not uncommon for them to occupy cabinet seats or run for elective positions. What does this mean for our democracy? In this episode, we talked to Dr. Aries Arugay of the University of the Philippines Diliman to unravel the dynamics of the mil...

We present you our first Quarterly Catch Up! We talk about three of the biggest issues for the first quarter, January to March, 2022: the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the 2022 national elections. Join us as we wrap this quarter up before it ends!

From the social, we turn our attention to the cultural, as a cultural turn brought attention to cultural history and how ordinary peoples conceived and made meaning of the world they lived in through culture. Lee walks us through this brief introduction designed to pique the history major and enthusiast's mind, especially with what exemplar works in Philippine cultural history are available at pre...

Despite the 1987 Philippine Constitution expressly prohibiting political dynasties, political families have been so entrenched in Philippine politics that it seems as if a mark of our political identity. Dr. Patricio Abinales helps us historicize the phenomenon of dynastic politics and what can we do in this new episode of Hindi Na Bago ‘Yan. Visit our website for our full interview with Dr. Abina...

How did social history emerge as a counterpoint to political history, and why is it important to refocus our attention beyond the affairs of state? Listen as Aaron explains what social history is in this new episode of History Primer. Visit our website www.podkas.org for more stuff on Philippine history, politics, and society.

Artista-turned-politiko, celebrities endorsing politicians, and star-studded campaign sorties and rallies—is celebrity a factor in Philippine politics? And what does this say about our democracy and the Filipino electorate? To unpack this, we are joined by historian, DLSU assistant professorial lecturer, and one of the most visible historical resource person on TV, Xiao Chua. Listen to our full in...

In this episode, Vec walks us through another subdiscipline of history, intellectual history and the history of ideas.  Visit our website, www.podkas.org , for more stuff on Philippine history, politics, and society.

To understand how the Duterte administration stifles dissent and packages criticism as credible threats against the state through red-tagging, we must contextualize red-tagging as a decades-old practice in the Philippines and how it threatens peaceful activism today. We are joined by a medical doctor, mental health advocate, and Akbayan Party-List second nominee, RJ Naguit, to talk about this issu...

As we introduce branches of history in this special miniseries, we start with the OG: political history. How did it develop, and what are its limitations? Let's find out.

Since Duterte rose to power in 2016, he has been tagged a “populist” president. But what is populism? And how did Duterte and other Philippine leaders embody it? In this episode, we are joined by Cleve Arguelles, a political scientist from De La Salle University and a Ph. D. student from the Australian National University to understand what populism is and how previous presidents used it as a poli...

We made it through our first year! Join us in this conversation as we look back at our milestones for the year, and how our podcasting journey has gone, thus far. 

We end the year with several issues that rocked the country this month: the BDO scam, the removal of World War II heroes from the 1,000 peso banknote, the entry of the Omicron variant and the continuing COVID situation in the Philippines, Typhoon Odette that ravaged parts of Visayas and Mindanao, and the latest Pulse Asia survey on presidential preference. And it's just us, the PODKAS team, for th...