Manolo Quezon is #TheExplainer Podcast

After a long hiatus, the podcast has a conversation with a journalist from the Czech Republic, Pavel Vondra, who is an old friend. He is editor at Zaminutusest podcast, and has been a journalist since 1994. Having spent nearly two decades in public service media, he is now with SeznamZpravy. He is currently in the Philippines for the 2022 elections and has written the first book in the Czech language about the Philippines. The 2022 election will be the fourth Philippine election he's observed at close-hand. We discussed how he ended up interested in, and repeatedly visiting, the Philippines, and some surprising parallels between the Czech and Philippine democratic experiences, ranging from the time it took to tire of being a newly-restored democracy (about seven years), to the political effect of populism and the decline of mass media.

An Audio Long Read Omnibus: three reflections on the EDSA Revolution:

1. A FaceBook entry I wrote on February 25, 2016, the thirtieth anniversary of the People Power Revolution.

2. To Be Born Free: My Long View column on February 23, 2004.

3. Understanding the Way My Father Rejected the Marcos Dictatorship: My Arab News column for September 13, 2006.

A personal take, from three angles, on one of he defining events of my generation.

For the 80th Anniversary of WW2 in the PH, a homage to the "Hear It Now" audio documentaries of Edward R. Murrow. Audio extracts are from Philippines on the Potomac/Library of Congress and History on the Net, Hoover Institiution, Past Daily, and audio from newsreels (for ex.): 

1. 1/1/1940, March of Time 

2. 9/20/41 Paramount

3. 7/7/41(?) Paramount

4. 7/7/41(?) Paramount

5. 5/4/41(?) Paramount

6. Parada ng Japanese Imperial Army sa Maynila

7. The Japanese Army parades in victory through Manila

8. 4/1/42 Paramount

9. 5/1/42 Paramount

10. Soldier catches two thieves in Manila

11. March of Time

12. 6/13/42 Paramount

13. 6/14/42 Paramount

14. 5/11/43 NHK

15. 9/29/43 NHK

16. 10/19/43 NHK

17. 9/21/44 NHK

18. 9/21/44 NHK

19. 10/5/44 NHK

20. 8/11/45 Paramount

This is an audio long read of my Spot.ph article, "Bonifacio Is Your Cubicle Seatmate," originally published on November 30, 2017. 

This is an audio long read adaption of my Spot.ph article, "Why Isn’t Independence Day in August?" published on August 31, 2017. It's slightly diffierent because it only refers to the visual aids used in the original article.

This is an audio long read of a Long View column of mine, "The end of social mobility," published on February 26, 2009 in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. For the sake of context, I've included the first four paragraphs from a previous column, "Permanently poor," published on February 22, 2009. I ventured a thesis I have returned to time and again, since then: the implications of the rise of a "new" middle class, and the inability of our political system to reform itself. So it was in this piece, from 2009, that I suggested the restoration of the Marcoses was not just a possibility, but an increasing probability.

This is an audio long read of "Manna from Marcos." It originally came out in my The Explainer column in ABs-CBN Online on September 26, 2017. In it, I discuss Cargo Cults and how the Marcoses benefit from a kind of Cargo Cult.

My interest in Cargo Cults was first sparked a decade earlier, when I was co-writing a blog, "Inquirer Current," on Inquirer.net with John Nery. My entry from 2008, entitled, "A lack of ambition, a Cargo Cult culture, and gaming the system," is also a Podcast Episode. 

In my pieces in anticipation of the 2022 elections, I've returned to the theme of the Cargo Cult, which provides an important insight, I believe, into an important subset of the Marcos constituency.

This is an audio long read of two of my The Long View columns published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "September 23, not 21" was originally published on September 19, 2018, while "Time bandit" was published on September 23, 2020. These are the second and third, respectively, of my three pieces on the proper date for commemorating martial law. 

This audio long read is a recording of my The Explainer on ANC piece, "The big lie," published on September 18, 2017. This is the first of three explorations of the wrongness of commemorating martial law on September 21 that I've published.

This audio long read is a recording of my Rogue Magazine September 2014 article, "Showdown with the Supremes," on Ferdinand Marcos, martial law, and how the Supreme Court surrendered to him.