WTF is Up in Southeast Asia + Hong Kong

This week, our hosts talk to local rapper Subhas Nair about what activism means and how the Internet has rallied together to help save a man accused of drug trafficking from execution.

Other top stories include: Teen couple in Lombok forced to marry for coming home after dusk | Dinosaur, dairy cow, Thaiborg vie for best provincial beauty pageant costume | Cardboard cutout of Carrie Lam guest stars on Conan O'Brien talk show | Makeup brand removes ad that used same model for different skin color, races | Love drowns out the hate after Singapore hotel features gay couple | Singapore realtors apologize for video deriding Indian culture | iQIYI sorry for embarrassing 'Anal Malaysia' poster | Internet rallies to save Singaporean drug trafficker from execution

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

On this week's episode, we discuss influencers and accountability in Singapore with up-and-coming writer, photographer, and podcaster Joel Lim.

Other top stories include: Malaysian singer Nora Ariffin admits teen daughter made out with a boy on TikTok | Screaming jets a WFH nightmare for northeast Singapore | Hong Kong bus driver arrested for 'dangerous driving' during protest was going at 30km/h | Manila mayor Isko Moreno shuts down cemeteries | Dismay after Thailand bans all alcohol delivery | ThaiGov sneaks French tourists in to test 'Phuket model' | Pinoys rally to #CancelKorea after Fil-Am influencer Bella Poarch called 'short and uneducated' | 3,000 tourists touched down at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport daily last month

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The Coconuts Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe today!

On this week's episode, we chat with Marissa Trew and Hanli Hoefer, hosts of new podcast "Just So We're Clear," which focuses on subjects ranging from from sex to mental health to Third Culture identity.

Other top stories include: Filipino politician and staff resign after caught having sex during Zoom call | It looked like a taxi from the outside, inside was a sacred forest | Singaporean national claims he was extorted and held captive in Bali hotel, police investigate | Manpower minister tears up over workers in latest emo display | Indonesian TikTok user apologizes for video suggesting unkempt neighborhood is haunted | Sex-positive NUS group cancels 'BDSM workshop' after participants doxxed

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The Coconuts Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe today!

Summer Lee and Vim Shanmugam take us through the top stories of the week!

Including: Paranoia, xenophobia meet plan to reopen Phuket to tourists | YouTuber Daud Kim says sorry to woman who accused him of attempted rape | Video shows Hong Kong domestic helper spitting into baby milk formula | Korean 'oppa' catcalled on Bali street sparks discussion on street harassment among Indonesians | After 90 years, Bangkok's 'Muslim Restaurant' to serve its last mutton biryani | 2 Indonesian men arrested for allegedly forcing a toddler to drink alcohol | A ruff life no more: You can now catch an Uber with your pets in Hong Kong

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The Coconuts Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe today!

We speak with John Winyu - one of Thailand's biggest political commentators and a YouTube star veiwed by millions - about the recent youth-led protests that are rocking Thailand. Why does this movement feel different than other Thai political protests in 2010 and 2014? What do the protesters want? What are the risks of speaking out? John answers all of our questions.

Other top stories include: Dee Kosh offered me $1,000 to go to his home, teen accuser says | Thousands want rude Malaysian judge out of singing contest | Indonesia opening up to foreign digital nomads with working holiday regulation | Hong Kong's typhoon days no longer de facto holiday in work-from-home era | Mayor Isko Moreno allows 24/7 food delivery in Manila | Save these adorable things, public demands after deaths of Irrawaddy dolphins

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The Coconuts Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe today!

On this week's episode, we chat with James Crabtree about TikTok's precarious position between China and the US and how the possible splintering of the global internet would affect Southeast Asia.

Crabtree, an Associate Professor of Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, is a columnist for Foreign Policy and Nikkei Asian Review, the former Mumbai Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, and the author of "The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age."

Other top stories include:

Indomie-flavored ice cream puzzles and revolts upon launch

Viral Quezon City ostrich that died of stress cooked into adobo

Revellers pop champagne to toast Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai's arrest, fined for defying social distancing laws

Egg? Chicken? Truck? Meet 2020's Miss Universe Myanmar costumes

Fitness YouTuber Chloe Ting says Singaporean bodybuilder was 'defaming' her

Trumps pronounces Thailand 'Thighland,' world just can't even

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The Coconuts Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe today!

Executed for allegedly murdering children and eating their organs, Si Quey Sae-Ung, Thailand's infamous "cannibal killer" and bogeyman to generations of children was recently laid to rest at a Buddhist temple in metro Bangkok in the wake of doubts about the extent of his crimes.

We speak with Todd Ruiz about this fantastical story and why doubts recently began to arise about the guilt of Si Quey, whose mummified corpse spent six decades on display at Bangkok's Siriraj Medical Museum.

Other top stories include: In a country obsessed with fair skin, Malaysia's brown women are finally in the spotlight | Disney+ gets Sept. 5 Indonesia launch date in Southeast Asia first | Actually, the cocaine in Boss Red Bull's blood was regular old cocaine: medical pros | Suicide killed more young Singaporeans than anything else last year | Ostrich runs loose in Quezon City | July 2020 was Hong Kong's hottest month since records began in 1884

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

We discuss Southeast Asia's booming gaming and esports scene with Ilyas Sholihyn, a content strategist at Singapore news website AsiaOne and avid gamer himself.

Other top stories include: BBC chef to cook rice with Malaysian YouTuber who roasted her | Thailand's pandemic recovery ranked No. 1 on index | Police arrest American fugitive accused of making porn to survive in Bali | Singapore elderly woman whose devastating story went viral 'very stressed' by attention | Hong Kong's Swindon bookstore closes its doors after 100 years in business | Najib Razak guilty in 1MDB trial involving transfer of US$10 million

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

On this week's episode, we chat with Coconuts Singapore's Nurul Azliah on how anti-racism and cancel culture have dominated the online discourse in recent weeks.

Other top stories include: Catriona Gray goes after persons who allegedly uploaded fake nude photo online | Malaysians troll film licensing rule on social media with cat videos, fancams, and more | Hong Kong man wrangles massive snake outside Discovery Bay apartment | Anti-government rallies spreading across Thailand | Carcass of blue whale washes up on Indonesia beach | Land a Wife: Indonesian man says buyer of his property can marry his sister-in-law

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The Coconuts Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe today!

In Indonesia, one man threatened to blow up a local McDonald's because he thought Italians (?) created coronavirus. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, an alleged Triad gang member made a late night attack on a McDonald's employee after being asked to wear a mask.

Other top stories on this week's podcast include: Sajat responds to haters over racy bikini photos | Bangkok axe club strikes back at farang 'dual pricing' | Narelle Kheng Trump-shames Xiaxue for defending racist tweets | Russian tourist stuck around Bali airport detained

The Coconuts Podcast delivers impactful, weird, and wonderful reporting by our journalists on the ground in eight cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, and Bali. Listen to headline news and insightful interviews on matters large and small, designed for people located in - or curious about - Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The Coconuts Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe today!