The SCMP presents the Post Books Podcast, with Literary Editor Charmaine Chan, in conversation with authors worldwide about their craft and their books.
In this episode Maxine Bedat, author of Unraveled, follows a pair of jeans from life to death, showing how our appetite for cheap clothing is expanding the fashion industry’s carbon footprint.

Maxine Bedat, author of 'Unraveled', talks fast-fashion and how it’s killing our planet.

SCMP's Kindergartens Festival: Future of Education hosted a virtual series moderated by Laura Westbrook, Senior Reporter at the Post. 

Audrey Tang, Acting Head of School at ESF Hillside International Kindergarten, and Katrina Rozga, Director of Therapy and Counseling at Jadis Blurton Family Development Center (BFDC) join in to share their insights on the challenges and concerns parents may have on the shift to remote learning due to pandemic.

Covid-19 and school closure: is your child's development falling behind?

John Carter, a senior editor with the political economy desk at the South China Morning Post and a founding editor of Market News International, passed away peacefully in the United States on Friday after a short illness. He was 66. 
John joined the SCMP on the newly created political economy desk in the summer of 2018 and was initially jointly in charge of a team of more than 10 reporters and production editors focusing on the world’s second-largest economy.
For many in the newsroom, his measured, conversational style went a long way toward explaining and analysing the news of the day, often accompanied by a hearty laugh. John Carter podcast/story archive: https://www.scmp.com/author/john-carter

In memory of the gentleman journalist John Carter

In this conversation hosted by the South China Morning Post during the 2021 International Schools Festival, Shaun Porter, Principal of Dalton School Hong Kong, spoke about the unique and child-centric philosophy his school practices.

ISF 2021 - Cultivating a Nurturing and Growth-Minded Environment for Children to Learn

This discussion with Richard Vanderpyl, Head Of School at the Christian Alliance International School, took place within the International Schools Festival put on by the South China Morning Post. Richard spoke about the school’s culture and shared some insight into the importance of personalizing education and creating a welcoming and lively environment.

ISF 2021 - Sparking Interest in Students

In this conversation at the International Schools Festival put on by the South China Morning Post, the principal of Chinese Academy, Rachel Humphreys, spoke about school culture and the importance of personalised education.

ISF 2021 - The Importance of School Culture

Trailer and highlights for the China Geopolitics podcast. Presenters: Chad Bray, Jarrod Watt. Contributing journalists: William Zheng, Finbarr Birmingham, Kinling Lo, Laura Zhou, Linda Lew, Owen Churchill, Rob Delaney, Zhou Xin, John Carter. Producers: Jarrod Watt and Jasmine Tse.

SCMP China Geopolitics podcast trailer and highlights

Draft China Geopolitics interview: Kim Bo-uen

In December 1978, a group of 52 people -  46 men and 6 women -  were selected to travel overseas and become the first Chinese citizens to study in the US since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.  

If you google Deng and Carter, 1979 you’ll get images of the two of them shaking hands, waving and embracing - and you’ll most probably see the famous image of Deng Xiaoping and his delegation wearing cowboy hats at a Texas rodeo. 

What you probably won’t see or read is that Carter had already agreed to quietly accept a group of leading scientists from China to study in the US with the hope that they would help rebuild China’s economy after a decade of turbulent cultural revolution.

This educational exchange would play a fundamental role in China’s technological transformation - and its relationship with the US.

Presented by Laurie Chen. Written and produced by Jarrod Watt. 
Originally published in 2019 at scmp.com/podcasts.

Scientists with borders - the history of the US-China Science Agreement

Scientists from the National Astronomical Observatories adapt the sound of the 47 Tucanae globular star cluster into music. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1940440/music-spheres-chinese-scientists-use-distant-pulse

47 Tucanae

Episode 1 of 'Eating Smoke', the memoir by Chris Thrall recounting his life in the 1990s when he left the Royal Marines to find his fortune in Hong Kong, but instead found himself homeless and hooked on crystal methamphetamine.   'Eating Smoke' is read by Nicholas Atkinson, abridged for radio by Alan Sargent, and directed and produced by Phil Whelan, Pete Spurrier, and Chris Thrall for RTHK Radio 3. Hear all the episodes here: http://buff.ly/2evYDWL

Eating Smoke by Chris Thrall - episode 1 from RTHK

This is an audio version of a South China Morning Post feature:
https://sc.mp/2qhe5MD

The Philippines as a holy destination is a complicated exercise in nation branding. The country nowadays most often makes headlines for President Rodrigo Duterte’s unapologetically bloody war on drugs.

Read by Danny Lee

Dear God, please send the Philippines some tourists

This is an audio version of this story sc.mp/2qfF0II

The Emirates was home to nomads and date farmers until it tapped its oil potential in the 1960s, and now leaders of the Gulf nation are intent to adapt yet again with a transition to sustainable energy.

Read by Brian Peach
Image: EPA
Music: Sunset Boulevard by Doxent Zsigmond

For the United Arab Emirates, are renewables the new oil?

This is an audio version of this story: https://sc.mp/2GFAhuO 

Plans to temporarily shut down the beach resort, and turn locals jobless for at least six months, come after a Macau company presented the Philippine president with a US$500 million casino proposal.

Read by Bryan Peach
Image: AFP
Music: Ianiscus by Javolenus

Is Duterte putting thousands out of work in Boracay to clean it up for Chinese gamblers?

In this episode: jockey Tommy Berry talks of his experiences riding Hong Kong racing's greats, the challenges of riding here, his picks for the upcoming weekend of racing, more on the Champions Mile and who we think are the horse of the year candidates. 
Host: Michael Cox
Co-host Andrew Hawkins
Guest: Tommy Berry

Hong Kong racing podcast episode 01

The battle for the burger! We drop in on the opening of America's own Shake Shack in Hong Kong, and chat to the man behind Impossible Foods, who's trying to change our tastes away from meat - by making the world's best meat substitute - and beloved local chef May Chow, who's using his products. We also sit down with the man behind more than 30 restaurants worldwide as well as the Mercato in Hong Kong, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Bon appetit!

Eat Drink Asia podcast: episode 1

South China Morning Post reports on the scene of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake upon the tenth anniversary of one of China's worst natural disasters.
See the full multimedia special: https://sc.mp/2wyzAPw
Presenter: Mimi Lau
Voices: Bong Miquibas, Naomi Ng, Alan Wong
Producers: Jarrod Watt, James Legge

Inside China: Sichuan earthquake 10 years on

This is the story of the commerce, culture, cuisine and cure-alls that fuel China's snake economy, from the snake-farming boom in an impoverished village in Zisiqiao to one of Hong Kong's oldest snake soup restaurants.
Original story by Mandy Zuo: https://sc.mp/2zm4jR6
Presenter: Ernest Kao
Recordings: Tom Wang & Jarrod Watt
Translations: Yuki Tsang & Scout Xu
Voiceovers: Bong Miquiabas, Yuki Tsang & John Elphinstone 
Script: James Legge
Production: Jarrod Watt

Inside China: farming snakes for medicine, meals and money

The story of dumplings is the story of the globalisation of Chinese cuisine - take the journey from Beijing to Shanghai, Hong Kong and down the ancient Silk Road to discover who invented them - and how a traditional Chinese medicine cure evolved into a meal enjoyed around the world.

Featured interviewees:
Lu Hongbin; Du Yichu restaurant, Beijing 
Hu Wei-I; Wan Shou Zai restaurant, Shanghai
Wang Hong Chun; Ah Cun Shandong Dumpling, Prince Edward
Dr Dai Zhaoyu, senior lecturer, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University
Meenu Tangilama Gurung; Annapurna Restaurant, Sheung Wan
Jin Lin Liu; Black Sesame Kitchen, Beijing; author of The Noodle Road
Olena Smith; Dacha Restaurant, Central Hong Kong
Ringo Wong; Cuisine Cuisine, Mira Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui 

Presented by Bernice Chan 
Interviews recorded by Rachael Cheung, Elaine Lau & Jarrod Watt
Voiceovers by Bong Miquiabas, Brian Peach, Phila Siu, Adam White
& Dayou Zhang

Translations by Caroline Kwong, Elaine Lau, Rachel Cheung & Dorothy Ma
Written and produced by Jarrod Watt

Inside China: the story of dumplings

Zhuangchen 'JJ' Zhou is the first cyclist to ever successfully 'Everest Mount Everest' - meaning he amassed on his bike 8,848 metres of vertical gain – the equivalent of the height of Mount Everest. Listen in as he and his manager, organiser and previous 'Everester' Shannon Bufton tell Mary Hui about what it takes to spend 40 hours and 40 minutes with no sleep, riding a total of 354km, up and down the highway to Mt Everest base camp.

The Adventure Trail #6: Zhuangchen 'JJ' Zhou and Shannon Bufton on cycling Mt Everest

A Malaysian professor was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his wife and daughter using a gas-filled yoga ball as his murder weapon in a “premeditated and calculated” plot to get his hands on properties the couple jointly owned.
Online feature: https://sc.mp/2xyeQo7
Story by Chris Lau
Read by Bong Miquiabas
Script by James Legge
Produced by Jarrod Watt

Inside the yoga ball murders: how police solved one of Hong Kong’s most calculated crimes

Bong Miquiabas speaks with Zhou Xin, SCMP political economy editor, about Louis Cha. How he grew up in the village that was the setting for Cha's first novel, the importance of wuxia fiction in Chinese culture, the massive cross-generational popularity of his books in China and how it's wrong to consider Cha as 'the Chinese Tolkien'. He also talks about Cha's career as a journalist, and the important milestones in his career as editor of Ming Pao, such as his coverage of the flood of migrants to Hong Kong from mainland China and his famous front-page editorial opposing nuclear weapons. Zhou Xin also reflects Cha reconciling his relationship with China, after his father was executed during the Cultural Revolution, and his relationship with Deng Xiaoping.

The life and legacy of Louis Cha 'Jin Yong': novelist, journalist, editor

An in-depth chat with career bartender (and 2017 American Bartender of the Year) Jeff Bell from the famous PDT bar in New York, upon opening the Hong Kong edition of PDT at the Mandarin Oriental; and Singaporean-born Swiss chef Gray Kunz, who has been cooking and operating restaurants in Hong Kong since the 1980s, talks about telling the story of Singapore and Asia through his food at Cafe Gray Deluxe in the Upper House in Hong Kong.

Eat Drink Asia podcast #7: bartending with PDT's Jeff Bell; chef Gray Kunz from Cafe Gray Deluxe

Welcome to our brand new weekly podcast about the US China trade war.
 
In this episode, editors John Carter and Zhou Xin analyse how US President Donald Trump’s tweets about China’s President Xi Jinping are resonating in business and political circles in China, as well as discussing what important announcements are to come in the next week which will indicate how China will make its next moves in negototiations. 

Field reporter Cissy Zhou has just returned from a trip to the manufacturing hub of Suzhou, in Jiangsu province in eastern China, and gives a firsthand account of what how the trade war is impacting the American, Sinagporean and Chinese companies based there.

US-China Trade War update: tariffs, tweets and a telephone call between trade rivals

Last week the Post political economy team looked at the Chinese officials about to embark on a tour across the heartland farming states of Montana and Nebraska, with the promise of renewed purchases of soybeans and pork as a pre-trade talks gesture of good will from China in the states that helped Donald Trump to his electoral victory in 2016.

This week Finbarr Bermingham, Zhou Xi and John Carter look at how the sudden cancelling of the trip lead to a plunge on the Dow Jones, and a very awkward moment and public scolding of US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin by US President Donald Trump. 

Zhou Xin looks at was going on behind the scenes, how the senior Chinese officials responded to the events in the Chinese media and what can be construed by what they said. With the talks now predicted to occur in Washington in the second week of October, they pick apart Donald Trump’s bellicose speech at the U.N General Assembly and his renewed attacks on China’s policy on trade as another major date looms: this year October 1 marks both China’s national day as well as the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Behind China's cancelled midwest farm trip and Trump's UN trade tirade

This week’s podcast comes out at Halloween and may feature one or two shockingly dreadful puns. But these are moments of levity amid some serious news for the resolution of the trade war, with protest-hit Chile announcing a cancellation of the APEC summit, in which Donald Trump and Xi Jinping were to meet and sign off on ‘phase one’ of a trade deal.

Zhou Xin unpacks what his sources in Beijing are saying about the surprise cancellation of the summit, the wild speculation about Macau being a potential new location, and the Trump-shaped elephant in the room at this week's Fourth Plenum planning meeting for China's Communist Party in Beijing.

John Carter parses the latest economic data, analysing the new outlook for China's manufacturers, with the purchasing managers' index now falling for six months in a row, showing the full full impact of 16 months of tariffs.

Rob Delaney reports on the vibe he's picking up from the Washington policy making and business communities. As it became clear that a 'phase one' deal between the US and China was growing close, "everybody just kind of shrugged".

Have American manufacturers simply moved on? Are they still interested in trying to do business in China? There's another factor increasingly fuelling the sentiment of US attitudes towards China, too: the coming election season.

A cancelled APEC meeting, a souring mood in Washington and worsening data for China

Bubble tea, which has its roots in 1980s Taiwan, has become something of a global sensation. It has become an international smash hit, spreading through China, Asia, the USA and all across Instagram, with stores popping up and developing as fast as people can queue for them.
So we ask ourselves- What's special about bubble tea? Who invented it? How did it become a global phenomenon? And why is it accepted by the mainstream so much faster than dishes such as General Tso's chicken or chop suey? Listen in to find out. 

Music credit: Make It Tasty by Fung Bros
Produced and Edited by Yang Yang

The bubble tea success story

Nico Atkin, Ashleigh Martin and Chris Edwards-Bailey analyse the Zhang Weili versus Joanna Jedrzejczyk bout, what it means, as well as how the disappointing men's bouts shine the light on pay inequality for women MMA fighters; they review Israel Adesanya vs Yoel Romero, Neil Magny vs Li ‘the Leech’ Jingliang, Beneil Dariush vs Drakkar Klose and talk about the K-pop star who just learned the perils of being a UFC manager; also hear how the One Championship is dealing with coronavirus and how it's changing people's habits in local gyms.

Zhang & Jedrzejczyk make history for women's MMA; how coronavirus is changing Asian MMA

This is a podcast published on April 19, 2005, presented by Michael Logan. Hear how the new concept of 'podcasting' is being discussed, how technology has democratised the power of radio and broadcasting, and how Hong Kong is embracing podcasting and what the future might hold for podcasting and advertising. It's a bold assertion... but we think this was the very first podcast by a commercial news organisation.

SCMP podcast, April 19 2005

Mimi Lau explains the workings of China's two annual political meetings that include the world's largest parliamentary gathering. Beijing-based reporter Mai Jun looks at the combined forces of history and future plans influencing, from the announcement of the 5 year plan and 2035 vision as well as the centenary of China's Communist Party, and the role of China's President Xi Jinping.

China's historic 2021 Two Sessions: what will happen

Selected audio content from SCMP.com, the website of Hong Kong's premier English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post.


Popular tracks by South China Morning Post