Live & Learn

Rebecca is Professor of History at New York University, whose work focuses on the modern history of China. Her work has explored the intersections of Chinese intellectual-cultural history, global change, and conceptual histories so as to understand the ways in which China’s violent integration into the global capitalist world system of economics, culture, and society transformed China and the world from the late-nineteenth century onwards. The author of several books, her latest offering, China’s Revolutions in the Modern World, investigates seven revolutionary moments, from the Taiping to 1989, to illustrate how China’s revolutions were part and parcel of global struggles to define possible futures. She joins us to discuss her research and work.

Multi-award winning food author Mohana Gill is an advocate for healthy living and nutritious eating in a sustainable manner. The author, cook, and nature lover is keen on sharing the life-giving powers of nature through food, and her latest book, Flowerlicious is a selection of recipes that use edible flowers. It follows two of her other works - Fruitastic! which celebrated fresh fruits, and also Vegemania!, which looked at plant-based recipes. She joins us to share how she is chipping away at the stereotype that healthy recipes are boring and bland, through her cooking and books.

The 2019 edition of the UN’s Human Development Report was launched by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) back in December 2019, and is said to articulate a rise of a new generation of inequalities - around education, and around technology and climate change. The report analyzed inequality in three steps, which are beyond income, beyond averages, and beyond today. Highlighting that the problem of inequality is “not beyond solutions,” the publication proposes ways of tackling these inequalities, so that the 22nd Century will be one where every person has equal opportunities and freedoms. Joining us to shed more light on this report is Niloy Banerjee, the UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.

History on Repeat is a new eight-part miniseries that aims to delve into key aspects of Malaysian history. While we won’t be able to cover every period and topic in our vast and complex past, we will be having a series of conversations on key subjects, places and themes, and discussing why our history still matters today. For our first episode, we speak with Dr Nasha Rodziadi Khaw, lecturer in the Centre for Global Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and discuss the roots of the Malay World through the lens of archaeology.

History on Repeat #2: Rethinking Melaka and the Sejarah Melayu

History on Repeat #3: Portuguese and Dutch Legacies in the Malay Peninsula

History on Repeat #4: Nineteenth-Century Women of Malaya

History on Repeat #5: British Malaya through the Lens of Architecture

History on Repeat #6: Migration and the Making of Chinese and Indian Diasporas in Malaysia

History on Repeat #7: Malaya and the Second World War

History on Repeat #8: The Making of Malaysian Identities

The spiciest of Malaysian conversations often take place over our shared love for food, but are there topics that are off the table? What we eat, where we eat and how we eat our food are questions that are easily answered, as long as there is no peppering of religious and racial inferences. What IS Malaysian food, at its cultural heart? We speak to Preeta Samarasan, who put together a series of these conversations where food and politics converge, for the Asian American Writers' Workshop.

In 2020, a new batch of secondary school students will have the distinction of being the first batch of Fourth Formers under the new Secondary Schools’ Standard Curriculum, where they will be required to select 5 elective subjects from either STEM or Art and Humanities packages. With the push towards Industry 4.0 gaining momentum, careers in STEM are going to be all the rage. But is an affinity towards STEM subjects in late secondary school, too far off the starting blocks? We speak to Dr Mahaletchumy Arjunan, Executive Director of the Malaysia Biotechnology Information Centre to find out her thoughts on promoting science literacy.

Law & Behold is an ongoing series aimed at improving constitutional literacy among Malaysians, done in collaboration with The Malaysian Bar and the University of Malaya's Faculty of Law. In conjunction with Human Rights Day, Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi, a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Malaya, joins us to discuss new threats and challenges to human rights globally and locally, and also to look at opportunities to protect and uphold the human rights of all people.

Budget 2020 allocated a significant amount of funding towards digitisation but SME’s in Malaysia are still struggling to take up the clarion call to move towards Industry 4.0? And how can they, when there still remains skepticism and resistance towards understanding how the automation of processes will benefit their business rather than decimate the workforce. Another major issue is a number of government and non-governmental agencies clamouring to take the lead on realising the national policy on Industry 4.0. We speak to VKK Raja, President of the Malaysia Industry 4.0 Association about what needs to be done to remove the hurdles towards achieving Industry 4.0.

Despite laws, enforcement, campaigns and programmes mushrooming in every country of the world, violence against women and girls remains pervasive and unrepentant. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence is now in its 28th year, and we speak to Marcela Suazo from the UN’s Population Fund about what needs to be done to unequivocally meet the development goal of ensuring the safety of women and girls, worldwide.

Misogyny. Racism. Entitlement. Are we talking about what happens on social media? No, actually, it’s just another day in Parliament. What are the standards that we should hold our elected representatives to, and why are they being allowed to get away with bad behaviour? We dive into a behind the scenes look within our august hall with the Member of Parliament for Kluang, Wong Shu Qi in our monthly show with Rajiv Rishyakaran who is the Bukit Gasing ADUN.