It’s the United States’ year to host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose 21 members reach from Russia to the Pacific and from South America to China. U.S. Senior Official for APEC Matt Murray joins us to talk about how the big job is coming along.  

Elise Hu spent four years as NPR’s first bureau chief in Seoul. She joins us to talk about her new book, a deeply reported and deeply reflective account of Korea’s world-challenging beauty industry.

Order a copy of her book Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital. 

In the restless Rajshahi district of Bangladesh, a five-year experiment built a community warning system for religious freedom violations.

If all the world’s care workers were one national economy, it would be among the largest, in hours worked, in the world. It would also consist mostly of women, and they would be mostly unpaid.

“You can’t protect what you don’t love, and you can’t love what you don’t know.” Indonesian women harness the local power of social forestry.  

As president and CEO, David Arnold steered The Asia Foundation through 12 momentous years. 

Sri Lanka’s 75th anniversary arrives at a moment of peril and, perhaps, possibility for this nation of about 21 million in the Indian Ocean. 

A year and a half after the Taliban’s return to power, the hardships of daily life in Afghanistan are becoming dire. Yet, the government’s restrictive policies threaten to block even basic humanitarian aid. What is the way forward?  

A new book tells the story of Fazlé Hasan Abed, the “mild-mannered accountant” who helped lift Bangladesh from the ashes of its violent birth and reimagined international development.