With our eyes set on unearthing the freshest flavours from unexpected places, we widen our scope with hand-picked musical gems from all across Asia. Taiwanese folk dreampop band, Huan Huan 緩緩, joins us on the show to chat about their depature from the post-rock shoegaze heavy sounds of their early work, taking the slower route during recording sessions, translating the album experience for live shows and more.

--

CLOUDRIVER 雲端司機 - Sunshine

LINION - Blue Dream

Huan Huan 緩緩 - Lauren

Huan Huan 緩緩 Interview 1

Huan Huan 緩緩 - Night’s Still Young

Huan Huan 緩緩 Interview 2

Huan Huan 緩緩 - 日出 (Sunrise)

The Fur. - Julie

Osean - 溺溺

Wendy Wander 溫蒂漫步 - Yes Today

--

In collaboration with Taiwan Asean Music Action (TAMA), an initiative by The Ministry of Culture of Taiwan and Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia. Head to www.taiwanaseanmusicaction.com for more information.

The FreedomFilmFest has been platforming documentary films on human rights in Malaysia since 2003. This year, the Freedom Film Network are releasing specially curated film playlists called Weekend Watch with FreedomFilmFest on their YouTube channel, for free viewing. The films highlight a variety of socially relevant issues, from indigenous rights to urban poverty to deaths in custody. We review the films on offer, and discuss the importance of efforts like these in highlighting human rights challenges in the country.

Everyone's A Critic is jointly presented with CENDANA. For updates on Malaysian arts and culture, visit BASKL.

Construction clusters have been in the headlines for much of the pandemic, with the most recent being yesterday's largest Covid-19 cluster - a construction site with 428 positive cases. We get an understanding of why this is a recurring issue and the measures that are needed to alleviate it.

Image Source: Grant Durr, Unsplash

Notice of Parliament's postponement due to Covid-19 cases led to anger over the weekend, from critics who called it a political ploy by Muhyiddin and the Perikatan Nasional government to remain in power. We explore the developments by first looking back at the events that unfolded in the past week. Then, we hear from an Opposition MP who was among those gathered outside Parliament, and then at Dataran Merdeka this morning. Finally, we look at the science of closing Parliament due to Covid-19: does the science check out?

Image Source: fadiatuddin, Shutterstock

Now that Covid-19 self-test kits are widely available, we talk about whether companies should be providing them to employees regularly to ensure a safe work environment.

Image Source: Mika Baumeister, Unsplash

The Malaysian Pharmacists Society has lodged a complaint with the Health Ministry over a link in MySejahtera, that promotes Covid-19 self-test kits from one particular company and site, Pharma2U. We speak to a representative to understand why buying self-test kits online poses a risk and how it can be better distributed.

*Correction: During the segment, we introduced Jack Shen Lim as Treasurer of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society. This is erroneous and it should be Malaysian Pharmacists Society.

Image Source: Ekahardiwito, Shutterstock

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic had hydroxychloroquine, which has since been debunked as being effective in preventing and treating COVID-19. This year, it’s ivermectin. Is ivermectin – a veterinary anti-parasite medication – the miracle drug it’s touted to be? Or should it be approached with extreme caution by everyone, including healthcare practitioners and politicians? We check in with Datuk Dr Christopher Lee, Infectious Disease Physician.

Image source: Shutterstock

As we've seen, pandemic or not, a conservationist's work carries on, as threats to the survival of wildlife continue. The same is the case for Dr Chen Pelf Nyok and her team at the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia, who have been working tirelessly to ensure the survival of river terrapins, a critically-endangered freshwater turtle species here in Malaysia. While working for the survival of terrapins, the team at TCS also work to ensure local communities - who are similarly involved in conservation work - are supported through these tough times. We speak to Dr Pelf, who is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia, about challenges faced, and the solutions being explored to counter these struggles. 

Image source: Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia Facebook 

Last Saturday, the 31st of July, saw more than 1000 young Malaysians take to the streets to voice their frustration against the current Perikatan Nasional administration. Protestors demanded for the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to resign, for parliament to be allowed to reconvene properly and for full moratoriums for all Malaysians during these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the protest, the police announced that they will be calling up and investigating both organisers and participants of the LAWAN protest. But is that fair? Wathshlah Naidu, Executive Director of CIJ, joins us to share her observations and thoughts about the protest, as well as the investigations that are currently taking place.

Image source: EPA-EFE

Following in the footsteps of the MIT100K Entrepreneurship Competition which has been running since 1989, Asia School of Business, one of the leading B-School in Asia launches it’s Inaugural 101K Entrepreneurship Competition this year.

Image Credit: Peshkova | Shutterstock