Aung Suu Kyi appears before the Hague this week to refute that Myanmar committed Genocide against the Rohingya people. To review the evidence, what really happened and the stories of the dead, I spoke to one of the most qualified experts on the subject: Francis Wade

Francis and I discuss the history of the Rohingya, The horrors inflicted upon them by the Myanmar State, and possible paths forward to resolve one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

For more information on Francis, I highly recommend his book: https://www.amazon.com/Myanmars-Enemy-Within-Buddhist-Violence/dp/1786995778/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Myanmar%27s+Enemy+Within%3A+Buddhist+Violence+and+the+Making+of+a+Muslim+%27Other%27&qid=1575786944&s=books&sr=1-1

He's written extensively for the LA Review of Books as well. This is my favorite interview he conducted w. Anthropologist James C. Scott: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/most-resistance-does-not-speak-its-name-an-interview-with-james-c-scott/

And for more on the Aung Suu Kyi's appearance before the Hague please head here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/20/aung-san-suu-kyi-to-defend-myanmar-against-genocide-charge-at-the-hague

While we despise Big Tech as much as anyone automated out of their job, forced into the gig economy or killed on an Amazon assembly line, we've recently found a great deal of tech criticism rather shallow. With strange idiosyncratic personalities like Jucerio's Doug Evans or Adam Neumann's WeWork give us so much material to criticize, we end up learning very little on the nuts, bolts (and yes, Soylent) that actually powers these Tech Monopolies and the Venture Capitalism cash on which they gorge.

To guide me through the byzantine maze of Silicon Valley, I had the great pleasure of speaking w. Vice's Edward Ongweso Jr. He's one of my favorite (anti) tech writers, and has written a series of thoughtful and nuanced articles about both the strangeness of Tech's Leaders, but the even stranger systems of monopoly, greed and near infinite cash propping up firms like WeWork.

This is a great chat if you'd like to better understand the stupidity of the 'geniuses' of tech, and how an entire industry is premised that your bank account equals your intelligence. So put in your Airpods (if you haven't already lost them!) and listen to me and Edward discuss the bad, worse and worst of WeWork, Venture Capital and Big Tech!

For reference here are the articles that inspired me to reach out to Edward. Please do follow his work, he's one of the better tech writers I've come across!

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3ae7y/weworks-implosion-shows-how-softbank-is-breaking-the-world

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/a35awb/capitalism-is-dead-says-billionaire-made-rich-by-capitalism

Beats by Eskry: https://www.youtube.com/user/sigiradam/videos

Asia Art Tours recently spoke with Newly elected San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin. Now we've had the pleasure of interviewing a second challenger to the establishment in California: Shahid Buttar (Twitter: @ShahidForChange), he's running as a Democratic Socialist against Nancy Pelosi in CA-12.

San Francisco is ground zero for the worst abuses of The Tech industry and wealth inequality. I asked Shahid to lay out, how he could run as a Democratic Socialist and win, without bending a knee to San Francisco's tech elite.

Though we didn't always see eye-to eye, I have to applaud Shahid for being open-minded and discussing tough questions with us. Give it a listen and let us know what you think! We're hoping to give Shahid the famous " Asia Art Tours Bump" we gave Chesa A:)

For more on Shahid please check out his twitter or his main campaign website, which can be found here: https://shahidforchange.us/

I know of a country called Lebanon through my Grandfather, Joe Dagher was a quiet and decent man. The last fluent Arabic speaker in the family, he wanted to take his grandchildren back to his homeland before he died. Then Israel bombed Beirut's airport, my grandfather passed, and that path in my life was closed.

But Lebanon remains, and right now millions of Lebanese are in the streets demanding justice. They are joined by millions of young voices in Hong Kong, Chile, Iraq, West Papua, Columbia, Bolivia and Iran demanding the same. Demanding an end to a sectarianism that divides us and a neoliberalism that exploits us. I watch the protests, see men who look like Grandfather, and can imagine us there together marching for justice.

Joining me to discuss Lebanon and the better world that's possible is Joey Ayoub (Twitter: @joeyayoub). Joey is a writer, researcher and activist who is one of the most impressive minds I've ever spoken with. Our conversation is a great introduction to Lebanon's protests and how they connect to global struggles and global solidarity.

For more Information on Joey and Lebanon I highly recommend the following links:

Joey's Best of List for Twitter Accounts on the Protest: https://twitter.com/joeyayoub/lists/lebanon-2019?s=09

Writer/Activist Lara Bitar: @LaraJBitar

Reporter Timour Azhari: @timourazhari

The Lebanese Politics Podcast: @LebPoliticsPod

Joey's incredible CrimeThinc article which gives an overview on the protests: https://crimethinc.com/2019/11/13/lebanon-a-revolution-against-sectarianism-chronicling-the-first-month-of-the-uprising

And Joey's Blog - Hummus For Thought: https://hummusforthought.com/

To discuss the crisis in Yemen, we were fortunate to speak with the brilliant Michigan State Professor Shireen Al-Adeimi (Twitter @shireen818).

Shireen as a Yemeni immigrant (first to Canada, now in the US) has become one of the most forceful critics of the Saudi-led destruction of Yemen, and the Obama and Trudeau administrations role enabling this pointless carnage. I spoke with Shireen after reading her incredible article from IN THESE TIMES on Samantha Power, and listening to her interview on MSNBC's Chris Hayes.

Incidentally, Mr Hayes, became a big part of this podcast ... because after expressing such concern and solidarity during an interview with Shireen, he conducted a later interview w. Samantha Power. Ms. Power is one of the main policy architects who helped drag Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises ... but during their interview, Chris, so eloquent in his knowledge on Yemen with Shireen is suddenly mute on the subject w. Ms Power.

So while we discuss the Yemen conflict, we also discuss how elites (both liberals and conservatives) mold policy, KNOWING that they can avoid scrutiny from other elites. This is captured in the hypocrisy of political figures like Samantha Power and Justin Trudeau, but also in media figures like Chris Hayes, who refuse to ask the powerful any questions that expose their hypocrisy. Thus becoming hypocrites themselves.

Yemen, like so many needless tragedies, is a conspiracy of silence, and the only way to break through is to do what Ms. Al-Ademi does: make some fucking noise!

Here is Shireen's Writing on Yemen at In These Times: https://inthesetimes.com/community/profile/322961

Here is her wonderful interview on Yemen w. Chris Hayes: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/detailing-america-s-role-world-s-worst-crisis-shireen-al-ncna906286

And here is Chris's boot-licking interview w. Samantha Power. I consider it to be a blight on his career, and a sickening example of how elitism and 1% politics work: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/education-idealist-samantha-power-podcast-transcript-ncna1055331

Lastly for more on how self-serving, false and cold-blooded Samantha Power's memoir is, I highly recommend Jon Schwarz review at the Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2019/09/11/a-memoir-from-hell-samantha-power-will-do-anything-for-human-rights-unless-it-hurts-her-career/

(music credited to Ahmad Fathi - Salam احمد فتحي - سلام يا احباب قلبي )

To catch up on Hong Kong and Taiwan, we had the great pleasure to speak with Brian Hioe (Twitter: @brianhioe). Brian writes for @popula , @newbloommag and @lausanhk.

For Taiwan we discuss Taiwan's 2020 presidential elections (Tsai Ing-wen vs. Han Kuo-yu), How Western Media has often failed to report on Asia with nuance. And how new media projects are emerging from Asia to provide more meaningful and centered coverage. (from 0:00-22:00ish)

For Hong Kong, we discuss the recent protests, the Eros of solidarity among protesters and the grotesque Thanatos of police violence attempting to extinguish hope. As well as what Hong Kong's protests say about the global wave of unrest. (From 23:19 minutes onward)

For more on Brian please check out his work here: https://newbloommag.net/

And here for great analysis on Hong Kong: https://lausan.hk/

Lastly, the great article Brian wrote for Popula that inspired this interview, can be found here: https://popula.com/2019/10/03/man-was-born-for-love-and-revolution/

(Photo credit for image is James Pomfret)

For the past few months, protests have been raging in West Papua and Indonesia, with the former rarely reported on by the Western Press, and the latter terribly misunderstood. To provide education and clarity, I spoke with one of the most well-connected journalists in West Papua and Indonesia: Febriana Firdaus (Twitter: @febrofirdaus)

We discuss the recent protests in both territories, her thoughts (and respectful criticisms) of Western Media, and how she sees the protests connected to global struggles around the world.

Febriana, along w. Veronica Korman, (Twitter: @VeronicaKoman) are two of the bravest journalists working in Asia and I can't think of anyone better to have on Asia Art Tours.

The Audio quality is a bit chippy in the beginning, but gets better after 7 minutes. (Not everyone podcasts from studios. Sometimes they have to podcast from out in the field!)

Podcast was recorded September 29th, 2019.

I had the good fortune of interviewing San Francisco DA Candidate Chesa Boudin, right before the Nov 5th election. District Attorney for San Francisco is an incredibly powerful position (just ask Kamala Harris!) from which many lives will either be saved and given a second chance, or more bodies (black, white, brown) will continue to be fed into the carceral system.

Moreover, if a truly progressive DA, like Chesa is elected it will allow him to enact policies (notably an end to cash bail) that will challenge the rest of America to emulate, exceed or at least consider what changes could be made to the US criminal justice system, that would focus less on CRIMINAL and more on justice.

Chesa was kind enough to join the Arts of Travel Podcast to discuss his vision on how he wants to reform criminal justice; and willing to take tough questions. We discuss homelessness, mental health, the work of Ruth Wilson Gilmore (prison abolition), The work of Virginia Eubanks (predictive algorithms and tech), and activists like Standing Rock and J20

For more on Chesa, I highly recommend checking out his website (and if you're in San Fransisco, volunteering!) you can find that here: https://www.chesaboudin.com/

And for articles used to research this interview, I highly recommend:

• https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html

• https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-punishment-bureaucracy

• https://lausan.hk/2019/reading-guide-police-prison-abolition-hong-kong/

• https://theappeal.org/san-francisco-deputy-public-defender-chesa-boudin-announces-run-for-district-attorney/

PS: Its the position of Asia Art Tours that many DAs (such as Cy Vance, Eric Holder, Kamala Harris and others) , claim to be 'progressives' when they are anything but! We despise DA's like Vance, Holder and Harris, who will happily punish the weak but are terrified of prosecuting the powerful, and dare to call themselves "progressive".

Though we support Boudin now, should he turn out to be a timid, milquetoast, DA, we will happily invite critics on to excoriate his record. For now he has our support... but we'll be watching to see if his words on the campaign trail, match his deeds if he makes it into office).

This is a funny, brutally honest conversation with writer Rafe Bartholomew (Twitter: @Rafeboogs). He's edited for Grantland, written for The Athletic and authored several books including Pacific Rims and Basketball: a Love Story

Originally, our conversation was intended to focus solely on the Philippines and basketball there, but with the controversy swirling around Hong Kong, China and the NBA we dialogued about these issues as well. The first part of our chat is mostly about Hong Kong & the NBA, the rest is about the Philippines, but it's all worth listening to.

In an era of "sports-shouting" and where honesty can destroy your career, Rafe is a unique figure. Our discussions about he legends and real history of basketball in the Philippines is some of the best storytelling I've captured on this podcast, and I think you'll find he's a brave voice in discussing the NBA and its responsibility to social justice.

So hop in your Jeepney, it's time for Pacific Rims! After listening you can find out more about Rafe at his website: http://www.rafebartholomew.com/

His book on Philippines Hoops is here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/306146/pacific-rims-by-rafe-bartholomew/

Now out on paperback, Basketball: A Love Story is here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558131/basketball-by-jackie-macmullan-rafe-bartholomew-dan-klores/

And check him out at the Athletic here: https://theathletic.com/author/rafe-bartholomew/