Home Podcasts Asia Rising
Asia Rising

Asia Rising

La Trobe Asia 384 Episodes Sep 4, 2026

Asia Rising is a podcast by La Trobe Asia that critically examines key issues facing Asia's states and societies. It features in-depth discussions and analysis on political, economic, and social developments across the region. The show aims to provide a nuanced understanding of Asia's complex dynamics.

Episodes

Event: Gender-Based Violence: A Global Security Issue
Event: Gender-Based Violence: A Global Security Issue Sep 4, 2026 3400 Security policy has traditionally been built around the state: its borders, its military capability, its ability to deter external threats. Gender-based violence rarely features, despite being one of the most persistent and predictable forms of harm in the world, in peacetime and exacerbated during conflict. Treating gender-based violence solely as a private, social, health or humanitarian issue w
Interview: China's Ageing Crisis and the Role of AI
Interview: China's Ageing Crisis and the Role of AI Aug 28, 2026 1746 China is ageing faster than almost any other country in history. Decades of the one-child policy, rising life expectancy, and rapid urbanisation have produced a demographic shift of enormous scale — and with it, a growing burden of age-related conditions that health systems were not designed to manage. Among the most significant is dementia, and its precursor, Mild Cognitive Impairment. Guest: Pr
Event: Pacific Climate Mobility: Pathways to new Partnerships
Event: Pacific Climate Mobility: Pathways to new Partnerships Aug 27, 2026 5161 For Pacific Island communities, climate change is not a future threat, but a present reality. Intensifying El Niño events, displacement, and compounding security challenges are reshaping the region, even as global attention has been diverted by energy crises and fossil fuel disruption. Climate mobility - the movement of people in response to climate impacts - is emerging as both a critical challe
Interview: Cyber Accountability in Southeast Asia
Interview: Cyber Accountability in Southeast Asia Aug 14, 2026 1692 Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing digital regions in the world, with an economy projected to exceed $300 billion in gross merchandise value and over 200 million internet users. But that digital growth is outpacing the legal frameworks, institutional capacity, and cybersecurity architecture needed to govern it. And with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence accelerating both the
Event: Australia's Submarine Cable Challenge
Event: Australia's Submarine Cable Challenge Aug 11, 2026 3146 "The seabed is becoming a battlefield," Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles warned at the Shangri-La Dialogue in May, and "we have been slow – collectively slow – to recognise [submarine cables] as the strategic targets they have become." Some 16 privately operated submarine cables carry around 99 per cent of Australia's international data – the financial transactions, gove
Event: Screening South Asia: Cultural Bridge, Critical Lens
Event: Screening South Asia: Cultural Bridge, Critical Lens Aug 11, 2026 3356 South Asian cinema shapes how millions of people around the world encounter the region’s cultures, languages, and identities. For many, film provides a gateway to South Asian languages and literature, and to cultural conversations that cross national, regional, and diasporic borders. But what does South Asian cinema say about the societies it represents? Beneath the spectacle, song, and romance,
Event: Creeping Censorship in Asian Media
Event: Creeping Censorship in Asian Media Aug 7, 2026 3501 From digital regulation and political pressure to economic influence and self-censorship, media freedom in Asia is being shaped by a range of subtle and evolving constraints. Rather than outright bans on reporting, many observers point to a process of "creeping censorship"—the gradual narrowing of space for independent journalism and public debate. How are these pressures playing out across Asia
Interview: Australia's Submarine Cable Security
Interview: Australia's Submarine Cable Security Jul 27, 2026 1396 Almost every email you send, every video you stream, and every financial transaction you make travels not through satellites, but through a vast network of cables lying on the ocean floor. Submarine cables are the invisible capillaries of the global internet — and increasingly, they are at the centre of great power competition in the Indo-Pacific. Guest: Dr Samuel Bashfield (Research Fellow at th
Event: The Real Costs of AUKUS
Event: The Real Costs of AUKUS Jul 21, 2026 3641 The AUKUS agreement between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom is set to reshape Australia's military and strategic future through the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. But the implications of AUKUS extend far beyond defence, with significant consequences for Australia's economy, diplomacy, industry, and foreign relations. As the project moves from ambition to impleme
Interview: US Engagement With Pacific Island Nations
Interview: US Engagement With Pacific Island Nations Jul 6, 2026 1212 The United States has, over recent years, significantly deepened its engagement with Pacific Island nations — reopening embassies, renewing funding compacts, and positioning itself as a committed partner in a region of growing strategic importance. Since the return of the Trump administration in January 2025, questions have been raised about the continuity of that commitment, and what a changed
Interview: The Continued Repression of Uyghurs
Interview: The Continued Repression of Uyghurs Jun 12, 2026 1159 An escalating crisis faces the Uyghur in China. The newly enacted Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress legalises forced assimilation, erases linguistic rights, and expands state surveillance. It provides a permanent legal framework for the ongoing campaign of mass re-education camps, long-term imprisonment, and cultural erasure of China's minorities. Guest: Yalkun Uluyol (China Researcher,
Interview: Pragmatic China and Multilateral Organisations
Interview: Pragmatic China and Multilateral Organisations May 30, 2026 1559 Over the past decade, China has launched a remarkable number of multilateral initiatives — from the Belt and Road to BRICS to a suite of so-called Global Initiatives covering development, security, and civilisation. Western analysts have tended to read these as evidence of a Chinese project to displace the existing international order. Guest: Dr Joel Ng (Senior Fellow and Head of the Centre for

Recommended