Night School

In this episode we go over French Psychoanalyst Jacque Lacan's three most famous concepts: the symbolic, the real and the imaginary. Along the way we will also touch on how psychoanalysis could be of use in understanding Malaysia.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode we look at the centrality and taken for granted value of our narratives. Angela Kuga Thas walks us through the fundamentals of how even the most intimate things we tell ourselves, are often social and political. Good narratives reveal our interaction with the world in honest ways, bringing us towards greater healing and freedom.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ethnomusicologist Lawrence Ross joins us again to critically explore the much talked about, and maligned, rural-urban Malay divide. He shares his opinions and observations on the pitfalls of that generalisation for understanding the full complexity of a globalising Malaysia.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we welcome iconic scholar and activist Dr. Syed Husin Ali to reflect on his career, intellectual development and Malaysia's future.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The US presidential elections have become a global spectacle and the mass media with its political pundits dominate the framing of this phenomenon. But how have professionally trained social scientists viewed this spectacle? Today we ask to what extent American political scientists have been successful in understanding electoral dynamics there and if they have failed, then why?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Dr. Mark Sabine takes us on a journey through Lusophone studies, touching on the major works of the canon and its corresponding historical and geopolitical contexts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We look back to what was an exciting 2015 for the episode, recounting the highs and lows and the challenges that await. More important, thank you all for the support over the past three years. It's been a wonderful journey and we look forward to more good stuff for the next year!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“[The nation] is an imagined political community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. [It] is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately, it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willing to die for such limited imaginings,” wrote Benedict Anderson in his influential ‘Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism’. While he was critical of what he called the “angels of banality” who decontextualised his historical argument, the expression “imagined community” secured Anderson’s global reputation. And along with Southeast Asian-focused “The Spectre of Comparisons” to an exploration of anarchism “Under Three Flags”, Anderson shaped several generations of scholars.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The quote Fuad meant actually reads as follows: "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." What does movement and space have to do with this discussion on our visual age? Join us this week to unpack how the act of looking has become where politics, ethics, morality and capitalism all converge. Pang Khee Teik leads the way.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Abjection: that which evokes deep repulsion and disgust, gripping us before we can even rationalise why. In this episode we reflect on how this works and the many forms it's taken in Malaysia. Aziff Azuddin sits in for Sharaad.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.