James Mao (毛加恩) is a former basketball player on Taiwan’s national team. Today, he's general manager of the New Taipei Kings. His roster includes Joseph Lin (brother of Jeremy Lin) and Quincy Davis, a L.A. native who’s now a Taiwanese citizen. For the last 20 years, a fully professional basketball league simply didn’t exist in Taiwan. And as of 2022, there are now two professional leagues at play: The P. League+ (6 teams) and the T-1 League (6 teams). “There's no reason why Taiwan basketball can...
Dec 24, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Yu-Jie CHEN (陳玉潔) is a key legal expert on international law and diplomacy in the context of China-Taiwan relations. As democratic support for Taiwan increases, so has Beijing’s message to the world about its “One China principle” and the myth of a global consensus regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan. The truth is, every country - including Taiwan - has its own “One China policy”. And that policy (according to each country) is not the same as the principle (according to the PRC). It can be confu...
Oct 07, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Steve Chen was born in Taiwan in 1978 and moved to the U.S. at age eight. After working at PayPal, he co-founded YouTube in 2005 and sold it to Google next year. Steve moved back to Taiwan in 2019 and lives here now with his wife and two sons. Today’s conversation was a part of the 2022 Taiwanese American Scholarship Fund (TASF) ceremony, a scholarship fund for Taiwanese American students from low-income families. If you are a student in need, please apply: https://tascholarshipfund.org/ Steve C...
Aug 02, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Alice and Catherine are two anthropologists whose “jobs” is to write about other people-types… but they can’t stop obsessing over their own sociocultural categories - working-class or elite, Chinese American or Taiwanese American - and whether or not you can hear it in the way(s) they talk. Alice was an intern on The Taiwan Take and Metalhead Politics. This episode was originally aired as a part of “In Training 小鬼登島” - our program for and by emerging creators / interns: https://ghostisland.media...
Feb 02, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 22
PTT is one of the most open social media platforms in the Chinese language. Though it’s not more populous than Facebook, it’s arguably more impactful than Facebook here in Taiwan. It’s a reflection of Taiwan's spirited democracy, and it’s used heavily as a source for local journalists. We speak with two INDSR researchers on a year-long project, “A Pilot Study on PTT in the Context of Influence Operations” (批踢踢影響力作戰前導研究）which attempts to identify CCP state actors on the platfor. The researchers a...
Jun 21, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Today’s guest is Dr. Puma Shen (沈伯洋), chairman of Doublethink Lab (台灣民主實驗室) and an assistant professor at National Taipei University. “Democracy is a failure” - that’s the narrative the Chinese Communist Party has been trying to plant over the past year and hopes to take root in international discourse and in the minds of its 1.4 billion citizens. This disinformation has heavy implications for democracy in Taiwan, and it’s never been as serious as it is now. CCP disinformation methods are detail...
Jun 08, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Taiwan’s next referendum will soon vote on activating the nation’s fourth nuclear plant, as well as constructing a natural gas plant on an algal reef that's critical for Taiwan’s biodiversity. These decisions come as governments around the world are scrambling to meet the demands of the Paris Agreement, and as environmental activists fight for a more sustainable planet. Green Parties propose an alternative voice in politics to tackle our environmental ruin. All over the world, there are 91 Green...
Jun 02, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 19
The state of cannabis in Taiwan with the country’s only lawyer who only takes on cannabis-related cases. In 2020, Zoe LEE (李菁琪) ran for a seat in the parliament on the platform of legalizing medical marijuana. She’s currently deputy secretary general of the Green Party in Taiwan. In March 2021, Ms. LEE won “Best Show Host” at the inaugural KKBOX Podcasts Awards for her podcast on cannabis, “In The Weeds with Lawyer Zoe Lee #大麻煩不煩,” produced by Ghost Island Media. Marijuana remains a taboo in Tai...
Apr 22, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 18
(This interview was recorded in November 2020.) In 2019, according to the Pentagon, China launched more ballistic missiles for testing and training than the rest of the world combined. It did it through its newly minted rocket force, the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force - acronym P-L-A-R-F. PLARF is a critical component of China's nuclear deterrence strategy to deter and counter third-party intervention in regional conflicts. China's current defense minister, General Wei Fenghe, knows missi...
Mar 15, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Digital Minister and self-taught coding whiz Audrey Tang (唐鳳) shares her unconventional life story – from gender identity to hacktivism, why she chose the name “Audrey” and what conservative anarchism means to her. Having come of age together with Taiwanese democracy and the Internet, Tang relates how she took her education online after dropping out of junior high. Since then, Tang has striven to make knowledge as accessible, transparent, and collaborative as possible. She explains how open data...
Mar 02, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 16
The first Taiwanese to receive a Michelin star, Chef Andre (江振誠) closed his 2-star restaurant in Singapore in 2018 to come home. He is the subject of the documentary “Andre and His Olive Tree” on his art, life, and what he calls “original intention”. Chef Andre left Taiwan to learn culinary arts at age 13. A citizen of the world, he was inspired while in Japan, trained in France, and made a name for himself in Singapore. Today, he talks to us about finding perfection and letting go; how he stays...
Dec 23, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Documentary “Help Is On The Way” (助守在異鄉) won Best Feature at the 39th Indonesian Film Festival (FFI). It premiered in Taiwan on Public Television Service in 2020. Nearly 40% of the 700,000 migrant workers in Taiwan are from Indonesia. We speak to Nick Calpakdjian, producer of the feature-length documentary from Indonesia that explores the nuances of being domestic caregivers workers in Taiwan. Stories of these migrant workers begin at a nanny school in West Java. International labor migration is...
Nov 09, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 14
We talk to PhD candidate Lev Nachman about the world of Taiwan Studies in academia. He discusses his entry into the field and provides practical advice for students around the world who are interested in studying Taiwan. Lev Nachman is a PhD candidate in the political science department at UC-Irvine studying social movements and political parties in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He is also a Fulbright scholar and is currently based in Taiwan. He tweets (a lot!) at https://twitter.com/lnachman32 Today’s ...
Oct 16, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Gwhyneth Chen (陳毓襄) is a world-renowned classical pianist who's set to open the 2020/21 season for the NTSO (National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra) on August 29 and 30. Born in Taiwan and trained in the U.S., Ms. Chen is a Pride of Taiwan 台灣之光. Ms. Chen recounts performing for the late President Lee Teng-Hui and chats about the value of music, the importance of practice and staying humble, and what she calls “piano kungfu”. Ms. Chen's album - a recording of a 75-minute mission-impossible of “ Etude...
Aug 20, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Metalhead Politics is a new show from Ghost Island Media that’s on music, politics, and Taiwan. Co-hosted by GIM’s own Emily Y. Wu and Freddy Lim, the most famous rockstar politician in Asia. He’s lead vocalist of the metal band CHTHONIC and a member of the parliament in Taiwan. Check out Metalhead Politics now wherever you get your podcasts. 🔌 Apple： bit.ly/metalhead-politics-apple 🔌 Spotify： bit.ly/metalhead-politics-spot 🔌 Google： bit.ly/metalhead-politics-goog 🔌 Links to more apps： https...
Jul 11, 2020•49 min
May 24th marked one-year since Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. We talk to life-long LGBT activist, Jennifer Lu, about the development of the LGBT rights movement over the last 30 years in Taiwan. Jennifer is the chief coordinator of Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan, and has been championing LGBT rights both in Taiwan and internationally for over 15 years. This interview was recorded in the beginning of January, 2020. Today’s episode is hosted by William Y...
Jun 02, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 11
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is seriously reshaping security considerations for governments around the world. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Che-chuan Lee (李哲全) and Dr. Yi-suo Tzeng (曾怡碩) about Taiwan’s national security in an uncertain time when the global world order continues to shift. Dr. Lee is chief of the Division of National Security and Decision-Making at INDSR. Dr. Tzeng is chief of the Division of Cyber Warfare and Information Security at INDSR. Hosted by J.R. Wu - Chief of the Secr...
May 05, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 10
On April 12, Taiwan's CPBL (confusingly named, the “Chinese Professional Baseball League” 中華職棒大聯盟) became the first pro baseball league in the world to start its 2020 season. In this episode, we catch up with journalists Jacky Lee and Adam Wang on the innings and outs of the CPBL and on the history of Taiwan baseball. Jacky is a contributor to Fox Sports Taiwan and Eleven Sports. Adam, for the past three years, worked in the U.S. writing about Taiwanese players in the American Major League Baseb...
Apr 27, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 9
On March 19, 2017, Taiwanese pro-democracy activist Lee Ming-Che (李明哲) disappeared in China. Ten days later, China admitted to having taken him. Mr. Lee is now serving a five-year sentence for the “subversion of state” in Hunan, China. Evidence against him included social media activities on QQ, WeChat, and Facebook, both when he was physically inside and outside Chinese borders. Today’s guest is E-ling Chiu （邱伊翎）Executive Director of Amnesty International in Taiwan , and former Secretary Genera...
Mar 18, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 8
It’s two more months until the second inauguration of Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen. This episode, we chat with journalist Chris Horton to recap the general election on January 11 and the race for national legislators. (This interview was recorded in late January, 2020.) Chris Horton is a freelance journalist based in Taipei. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Nikkei Asian Review, and The Atlantic. Hosted by J.R. Wu - Chief of the Secretariat for INDSR (Institute for National...
Mar 04, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Although many countries have begun to reconsider how to balance what they get in return for trading with China, this question has always been existential in Taiwan. Trade policies have oscillated inconsistently between opening up and restricting access to the Chinese economy. The challenges of doing trade with China is a global issue. And this is The Taiwan take. Our guest is political scientist, Syaru Shirley Lin (林夏如), author of the book “Taiwan’s China Dilemma” (2016) and the forthcoming sequ...
Jan 20, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Kent Feng (馮世寬) is a top-gun and twice-appointed Taiwan cabinet minister. He was the Minister of National Defense from 2016-2018 and is currently the Minister of the Veterans Affairs Council. In this holiday special, Feng shares stories of his life and his times. It offers rare insights, in English, from this retired three-star general of the ROC Air Force. Hosted by J.R. Wu - Chief of the Secretariat for INDSR (Institute for National Defense and Security Research) in Taiwan. Wu is a former jour...
Dec 31, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 5
When it comes to US and China trade disputes, perhaps no country is feeling the effects quite as acutely as Taiwan. Amidst the uncertainty, how can players trapped in the middle make the most out of the situation they now find themselves in? These are global issues. And this is The Taiwan Take. Our guest is Rupert Hammond-Chambers - president of the US-Taiwan Business Council. We discuss the on-going trade war and its effect on Taiwan. We walk talk high tech, which makes up a large part of the T...
Dec 20, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Sylvia Feng (馮賢賢) is the producer of a new political TV drama, “Island Nation 國際橋牌社" - which looks at Taiwan from 1990-94 during its transition to democracy. Sylvia and J.R. discuss the media industry in Taiwan and the challenges media and creative professionals face today. Feng has had over three decades of experience in broadcast journalism, including a long career in Taiwan’s public television network, of which she helped to build and later came a president. The challenge of balancing politic...
Dec 12, 2019•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Today, we look at Chinese influence and infiltration. Our guest is Dr. Jeremy Hung - a researcher at INDSR (Institute for National Defense and Security Research). We discuss the role of proxy agents (ie. intermediaries) and how they may be helping China to influence media, impact politics, and strengthen its control over Taiwan. Hosted by J.R. Wu - Chief of the Secretariat for INDSR (Institute for National Defense and Security Research) in Taiwan. Wu is a former journalist with nearly two decade...
Dec 03, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Welcome to the first episode. Today, we discuss the changing landscape of Asia-Pacific security, its implications on Taiwan, and the role that partners like the U.S. plays. Today's guest is Dr. Kharis Templeman - a political scientist and an advisor on the Taiwan Democracy and Security Project at Stanford University. Hosted by J.R. Wu - Chief of the Secretariat for INDSR (Institute for National Defense and Security Research) in Taiwan. Wu is a former journalist with nearly two decades of media e...
Nov 26, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 1
