The Bangkok Podcast

This is Part Two of Greg and Ed's interview with Paul and Yuangrat Wedel, returning guests to the show who previously talked about their book "Radical Thought, Thai Mind." This time around the fascinating couple discuss their two novels, "Beads On A String" and "Dark Karma," each historical fiction based in Southern Thailand. In this part of the interview, the couple focus on the historical charac...

Greg and Ed interview Paul and Yuangrat Wedel, returning guests to the show who previously talked about their book "Radical Thought, Thai Mind." This time around the fascinating couple discuss their two novels, "Beads On A String" and "Dark Karma," each historical fiction based in Southern Thailand. The two begin with a discussion of the origin of the novels. In short, Yuangrat grew up in the deep...

Continuing our regional focus of late, Greg and Ed discuss Ed's recent trip to Hong Kong and how it compares to big, bad Bangkok. Ed begins with a big caveat: he's not really much of a traveler, and he spent only 2 ½ days in Hong Kong, so his take is that of a true noob. That being said, Ed begins on the positive side, noting how geographically beautiful the city is, being situated on mountainous...

Wrapping up our short series on our regional podcast peers, Greg interviews Joah McGee from the Insight Myanmar Podcast . Joah begins by explaining his early life in Myanmar and how he initially went to the country to study meditation and later secured a proper job doing training for an American Embassy-related organization. He managed to juggle professional life dealing with politics, with a pers...

In a possible new series, Greg and Ed discuss things that have become less important or meaningful since they began living in Thailand. In short, stuff that we used to value a lot that just seems not to matter as much anymore. Ed begins with the somewhat obvious: clothes in general just matter a lot less. Never a fashion guy, Bangkok's 'uni-season' is perfect for him since he can basically wear th...

Greg interviews Mike Tatarski of the Vietnam Weekly podcast . Mike begins by explaining the podcast originated out of his Substack newsletter of the same name. After taking a course in 'entrepreneurial journalism,' he got motivated to fire up the podcast, and the rest is history. He manages to produce a show per week as a one man band operation but has reached a substantial audience.  Greg and Mik...

Greg and Ed revisit the 2006 coup in Thailand and reminisce about the oddness but also impactfulness of the experience. Ed begins with a quick recap of the career of Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire business tycoon who swept to power (democratically) in 2000 on a promise to fix the Thai economy which was still reeling from the 1997 financial crisis. He did in fact manage to stabilize the econom...

Greg interviews Clif from BangkokBeerGuide.com about the ever evolving craft beer scene in Thailand. Cliff begins with the basic premise for the website and related social media: to act as a guide for locals and visitors to all the beer drinking opportunities in Bangkok, especially craft beers made by locals. The guys then review the famously restrictive Thai laws governing beer and alcohol in gen...

Greg and Ed try a new type of show in which they troll their memories for extreme experiences, something that expats in Thailand seem to have a lot of. Greg begins with his scariest experience in Thailand. As a relative noobie, he engaged the services of a shady visa firm and was later called out on it by the Canadian Embassy. At the time, he didn't know if a heavy fine, deportation, or even jail...

Greg interviews Dr. Soraj Hongladarom on the intersection of AI, ethics, and Buddhism. Dr. Soraj begins by discussing his background in the study of philosophy in the U.S., in particular early modern Western philosophy. After returning to Thailand, he transitioned to the study of the philosophy of technology and science, which today of course, means AI. Dr. Soraj explains that different cultures c...

If math can be used to solve everything from the orbits of galaxies to the swirl in a snail's shell, then surely it can be applied to Bangkok to shed some light on the chaos? In a fun show, Greg presents certain semi-mathematical 'equations' to help us all understand Bangkok a bit better. While not scientific in the strictest, these rules of thumb may help you navigate the chaos of the Big Mango w...

This is Part 2 of our interview with Stuart MacDonald, Asian tourism expert and founder of TravelFish.org , arguably the best single resource for traveling in Southeast Asia. In this half of the interview, Greg, Ed and Stu revisit the tricky topic of 'overtourism,' an issue which attempts to find a balance between economic revenue from tourism, which in theory is good for local economies, and dama...

Greg and Ed interview their old friend Stuart of Travelfish , master of all things travel and tourism in Southeast Asia. Greg begins by reading a quote from an article on the weird duality of tourism: by sacralizing a location, tourism results in its 'desecration by footprints.' Stuart gives his take and undoubtedly agrees that this is generally true, hence his take on 'environmental tourism,' or...

In a twist on our history episodes, Greg and Ed revisit the devastating tsunami of 2004. Greg begins with a thorough summary of the event, which begins with an absolutely massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra that caused a rift and shift on the ocean, creating immense waves that would affect multiple continents. Reverberations were felt as far away as the state of Oklahoma. The devastating r...

This is Part 2 of Greg and Ed's interview with Ron Weaver, otherwise known as 'AmericanThaiGuy' on social media. Ron begins Part 2 by directly addressing his experience as a black man in Thailand. He carefully explains his preference for living in Thailand over living in the U.S., explaining that although Thai people typically don't prefer darker skin, their approach to the preference is indirect...

Greg and Ed interview Ron Weaver, aka 'AmericanThaiGuy ,' on his life as an expat in Thailand as well as his excellent Thai language skills. Ron begins by waxing rhapsodically about his first visits to Thailand, when he fell in love with the weather, the food, the nice people, and shockingly, the women. Although he loved the country, communication was so frustrating that he vowed to learn the lang...

Greg and Ed discuss the Thai temperament and what exactly causes Thais to occasionally blow their collective lids. Greg uses the recent example of a Swiss expat who kicked a Thai woman in the back, allegedly because she was inappropriately sitting on the steps of his condo and blocking his path. Somewhat surprisingly, the incident went viral, much to the Swiss man's detriment. The guys speculate a...

Ed interviews his former student Mookie about her experience studying in the U.K. and her later choice to move her family back from the U.K. to Thailand. The two old friends begin reminiscing about Ed's university program and how Mookie really was an unusual student. Most young Thai women tend to be very shy in class and rarely express their own opinions. But Mookie was different, showing up on th...

Getting a bit nostalgic after listening to Tay-Tay's latest album, Greg and Ed reminisce about their respective first year's in Bangkok by recounting their most vivid early memories, something that's unique for everyone but plays a big role in setting the tone for your time here.  Ed explains that he came here a little bit older than many expats, and relatively speaking, had his 'shit together' so...

This is Part 2 of Ed's interview with friend and expat extraordinaire David Cluck. The guys pick up where they left off, discussing the holy grail: living in Thailand but making a Western salary. David explains how he began to get work in Thailand and for a while balanced a life in L.A. with one in Bangkok. He shares numerous anecdotes from his work on the Hua Hin Film Festival, which eventually l...

Ed interviews David Cluck, a Bangkok-based filmmaker, friend of the podcast and bona-fide "interesting expat". The guys begin talking about their mutual love of Thailand, but then go back to the beginning to hear about David's early life as a musician in Southern California and how he transitioned into working at a local TV station. That led to some work on commercials and short films and then slo...

We're getting a bit personal on this episode as Ed talks about his marriage and eventual divorce in Thailand. Although it's a difficult topic, enough time has elapsed that Ed is ready to discuss whether or not his experience provides any lessons for expats in the Land of Smiles (and sometimes frowns).  First, Greg asks Ed about the actual legal procedure of getting a divorce and whether it involve...

Ahh, Thailand. Beaches, sunsets, late-night parties, serene temples, and…space technology design and future satellite launch site?  Greg interviews Dr. Natthawat Hongkarnjanakul of the Thai Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, essentially Thailand's version of NASA. Dr. Natthawat begins with his background studying aerospace engineering in Thailand and later in France on a scho...

Greg and Ed discuss situations - whether they come from luck or strategy - that can seriously improve your quality of life in Bangkok. The guys try to avoid the super obvious things - getting a better job, meeting the person of your dreams - to focus on factors that are more advantageous than one might expect in Thailand.  Ed begins by emphasizing the importance of living close to where you work a...

Greg interviews well known Bangkok-based photographer Tim Russell about his book 'Bangkok Station ,' which focuses (literally) on the iconic and now mostly defunct Hualamphong Train Station. Tim begins by explaining his early days twenty years ago as a traveller in Vietnam and how he picked up photography as a way to document his travels. Eventually he made his way to Thailand and managed to pass...