The Bangkok Podcast

Greg interviews old friend of the podcast Rikker Dockum, Thai language expert extraordinaire about the Thai Royal Society, an organization dedicated to overseeing, promoting and regulating the Thai language. Rikker begins by explaining that he actually wrote his undergraduate thesis on the Society more than 20 years ago, so he's a longstanding follower of their work. He notes that it originally modeled itself after the French Acade...

Tech Fail Alert! The last 5 minutes of our discussion was cut off by dastardly internet Gremlins, but we said most of what we wanted to say anyway. 

In a follow-up to the recent Thai election, Greg and Ed do their best to make sense of the unexpected outcome. Greg defers to Ed's poli sci knowledge, and Ed struggles through it despite his expertise being American politics. Before the election, polls indicat...

In a followup to a recent episode, Greg and Ed walk through the entire 'Facts About Thailand' quiz that Ed gave his Thai Society students. It's a broad test of Thailand - geography, history, politics, government, demographics, and more, that's slightly harder than the average quiz you'd find online.

If you are an intrepid soul, you can take the quiz yourself before you listen in for the answers. Use the ...

Greg interviews Mario Butler of Dreamster.io, a platform that allows musicians to connect directly with their audience, and fans to own the music they buy, not just rent. Greg begins by asking about Mario's background and the core mission of Dreamster.io, prompting Mario to explain how the music industry has shifted from tangible ownership to a "rental" model through streaming. Mario responds by introducing Digital Mus...

Another classic recast! One of the craziest stories from recent Thai history.

Continuing our series on interesting episodes in Thai history, this episode focuses on the infamous Blue Diamond Affair, It all started when a Thai gardener named Kriangkrai Techamon, who was working in Saudi Arabia, decided to make off with $20 million worth of gems and jewelry belonging to a Saudi royal. Although the thief was caught shortly after his r...

Ed interviews Thanita 'Ninar' Wongprasert, an old student of his and former guest on the show in 2018. On the earlier show she came on to talk about gay rights and same sex marriage in Thailand, and the two begin the interview with a high five to celebrate the eventual passage of gay marriage laws in Thailand. Ninar then discusses her work with various international NGOs and agencies of the UN. She was able to work on ...

Greg and Ed discuss Ed's new class at his Thai university: "Contemporary Thai Society in the Modern World." The guys have a laugh at the thought of a white guy from Ohio teaching young Thais about their own country, but Ed notes that he has been living in Thailand as an adult for 25 years, whereas his students are only 18-20 years old. One point for Ed! Further, there's considerable value to getting an 'outsider' view ...

Greg and Ed interview Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, a Thai Member of Parliament known for his advocacy in liberalizing Thailand's craft beer industry. The conversation takes place shortly after the dissolution of the Thai government, a transition that finds Taopiphop technically unemployed but focused on the future of his party.

A central theme of the interview is Taopiphop's unconventional decision not to seek...

Greg and Ed discuss the long, strange and complex history between Thailand and Cambodia in an attempt to shed some light on the tragic current conflict. Greg begins with some early history. The majority of Southeast Asia was once part of the Khmer Empire based in Angkor. Eventually Thai kingdoms in Sukhothai and Ayutthaya achieved independence, but tension between the two powers was constant. In a complex maelstrom of ...

On this show, Greg and Ed discuss what Greg would do if he was the boss man in charge of Thailand, echoing a similar show with Ed's plans earlier in the year. (Check out Season 7, Episode 54 if you are curious.) Greg begins with an interesting but ambitious plan to establish bike lanes underneath the elevated portion of the BTS and MRT. Ed immediately welcomes the idea, but both recognize what a massive undertaking it ...

On this episode - a classic ReCast from season 3! - 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 have full mobility.

Khun Saba explains that he became aware of the difficulty of moving around Thai cities, especially Bangkok, after...

First off - if you're in town, join our meetup: Saturday, December 6 at The Warehouse on Charoen Krung Road. Check our Facebook page first before you come just to make sure there have been no last minute changes.

In Part 2 of Greg and Ed's interview with John Schachnovsky, the former head of the FBI in Thailand, the men continue discussing John's varied responsibilities in the Land of Smiles, this time foc...

In part 1 of a two-part episode, Greg and Ed interview John Schachnovsky about his upcoming book "Beyond the Badge," which recounts his experience as the head of the FBI in Thailand. John starts out explaining his early career with the FBI and his subsequent move to Bangkok. Greg and Ed ask about the exact role of the FBI oversees and John explains in detail. First, as a branch of the U.S. government, the FBI has no le...

Greg and Ed discuss an article on Ajarn.com by Dr. Jesse Sessions called "What Does the Future Hold" which discusses some of the bigger problems currently facing Thailand and how they might impact the country's prosperity, competitiveness and social longevity. The guys walk through the issues one by one and give their take on its significance,

The first issue is border security. Ed points out that Thailand...

There's a lot of great buildings and great history that has been bulldozed over in Bangkok, so it's nice when we see someone going the extra mile to actually preserve both an historic physical space as well as the stories and history behind it.

On this show Greg interviews Art and Irma, owners of Siri Sala Private Thai Villa, located off of Charan Sanitwong Road, not far from where Ed lives. The couple beg...

As Thailand starts got back to bid-ness after COVID, there were a whole lot of n00bs coming in to tour, work and live. Most who have been here for a while already remember what an overwhelming experience Bangkok was in the early days, and how helpful it was to make a network of friends that you could turn to for advice.

Of course, not all advice is great, especially when you're talking with random people about how your new foreign ...

This week Greg and Ed have a bit of fun revisiting an old blog post from Greg about what would be the best slogans for various malls around Bangkok. As most listeners know, Bangkok may very well be the capital city of malls and mall culture, and each mall seems to have its own identity. The guys walk through Greg's somewhat salty slogans from ten years ago to see if they are still valid. 

Here are some re...

We've all seen the incredible amount of drama that can go down if you don't run a tight ship in Thailand - everything from visa worries and bank problems to relationship blow-ups and trouble with the law. But it seems that a huge proportion of this drama is reserved for people relatively new to Thailand. Greg and Ed discuss why, as long-term expats, they seem to miss a lot of this drama. Is it something they did? Or di...