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Talking Indonesia
by Talking Indonesia
In the Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Jemma Purdey, Dr Jacqui Baker, Tito Ambyo and Dr Elisabeth Kramer present an extended interview each fortnight with experts on Indonesian politics, foreign policy, culture, language and more. Find all the Talking Indonesia podcasts and more at the Indonesia at Melbourne blog.
Episodes
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Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir - Disorder and the Preman State
Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir - disorder and the preman state Indonesian modern history is littered with stories of shadowy figures, underworld groups, militia, and criminal gangs, commonly known as preman. For its co-option and adoption of the activities and characteristics of these groups, scholars...
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Natalie Sambhi-Militarising Indonesia
Under the Prabowo Subianto government, the Indonesian military’s (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI) long-cherished role in national economic development and governance has been vastly enhanced. The TNI seems to be everywhere. Active-duty officers now run ministries, head a state food company, and...
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Mitha Eka & Linda Bennett - Patient Education for Cancer
Any cancer diagnosis will leave the patient with lots of questions. What is this disease, and why has it happened to me? What are my chances, what are my options, and what will it mean for me and my family? For Indonesian women diagnosed with cervical cancer, the answers have not always been easy...
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Imam Ardhianto - Changing Human-Tiger Relations in Sumatra
Six years ago, in a village in West Sumatra, a tiger died and its human relatives moved to bury it — because the tiger is understood as their own family. The Indonesian wildlife conservation authority BKSDA intervened, fearing poachers might take the carcass; the villagers, in deep grief, buried...
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Dania Joedo - LGBTQI+ Community under Attack
Last month a series of attacks on transgender women in Bogor, sent a chill through a community for whom this kind of violence is increasingly normal. The recent attacks have coincided the release of the full text of Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2025 concerning the 2025-2029 General Policy…
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Syarafina Vidyadhana - Indonesia's Independent Publishing
Independent publishing might seem like a small element of Indonesia’s cultural landscape: limited print runs, niche books, and audiences that rarely extend into the mainstream. Yet these spaces can matter precisely because they make room for voices, ideas, and forms of cultural expression that…
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Liam Prince - Experiencing Indonesia
The problem of Australian knowing and engaging Indonesia, as our closest neighbour, has vexed successive Australia governments ever since Keating called for Asian literacy in the 1980s. Toward that end, we have seen intermittent policy interventions recognizing the strategic importance of what…
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Austin Jenish - Environmental activism, the law and SLAPP
Indonesia is home to some of the largest stretches of tropical rainforest left on Earth — and to a growing community of people willing to put themselves on the line to defend it. But across the archipelago, environmental activists are increasingly finding that the sharpest threat they face isn't...
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Tito Ambyo and Jamie Edmonds - Indonesian Ghosts and Ghost Stories
What does it mean to believe in ghosts? It turns out that's exactly the wrong question. In this special episode of Talking Indonesia, co-hosts Tito Ambyo and Jamie Edmonds sit down together not as interviewer and guest, but as co-editors who have spent months immersed in a collection of essays on...
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Airlangga Julio - The People versus Fadli Zon
Airlangga Julio - The People versus Fadli Zon Last month marked the 28th anniversary of the mass rioting, that shook Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, and other major cities for several days in mid-May 1998. There was widespread looting and arson, which resulted in the deaths of over a 1000 people…
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Wengki Ariando: Sea Nomads and the Future of Our Ocean
Every year on the 8th of June, World Ocean Day calls us to reflect on the vital role our seas and waterways play in sustaining life on Earth. Yet for most of us, the ocean remains something we observe from a distance, and more recently, a source of anxiety as sea levels rise, waters warm, and...
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Murni Sianturi - Education in Papua
When we talk about improving education in remote or indigenous communities, we usually start with the wrong questions. We ask: what's missing? What needs to be fixed? But what if the problem isn't a lack of education but a failure to recognise the rich opportunities for education that are already...
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Panggah Ardiyansyah: 'Kramat' and the Politics of Indonesian History
If you studied Indonesian history in school in the 1990s, you learned to divide the archipelago's past into neat chapters: Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, then Islamic sultanates, with a brief “transitional period” somewhere in between. Colonial archaeologists created these categories in the nineteenth...
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Rassela Malinda - Papua, Development and Politics From Below
Rassela Malinda – Papua, development and politics from below In his inauguration speech in October 2024 President Prabowo Subianto reiterated his campaign pledge to “achieve food security in the shortest possible time”. He was not the first Indonesian president to make such a declaration. For...
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Linda Susilowati: Gender Transformation in Rural Java
Rural Java has changed enormously over the past half-century. Girls now finish school, women hold community leadership positions, and dual incomes have become the norm rather than the exception. And yet, many Javanese women will tell you they still cook every meal, manage the household, and show…
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Melissa Johnston: Resilient Patriarchies
Timor Leste became independent from Indonesia in 2002, after 24 painful years of Indonesian occupation built on centuries of Portuguese colonisation. Both regimes were deeply violent and extractive, and as my guest today argues, drew Timorese society into different forms of a valorised armed...
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Maidina Rahmawati - The New Criminal Code
On January 2nd, 2026, Indonesia entered what officials are calling a "new era" of criminal justice. The country implemented a completely new Criminal code – KUHP - and a new Criminal Procedure Code—known as KUHAP—that changes what counts as a crime and how crimes are identified, investigated and...
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Farabi Fakih and Fathun Karib: Indonesian Ecological Thinking
As Indonesia grapples with increasingly frequent climate disasters—from the devastating floods in Sumatra and Aceh to prolonged droughts affecting food security—a new book is rejecting the usual solutions. No carbon credits. No waiting for the next Elon Musk. Instead, Bacaan Bumi asks: what if…
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Alfira O'Sullivan and Murtala - After the Flood
After the floods – Alfira O’Sullivan and Murtala In late November last year, heavy rainfall brought by Cyclone Senyar saw massive floods and landslides hit large parts of West and North Sumatra and Aceh Province. The images captured on cell phones and quickly sent across the world showed…
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Wahyu Astuti - Jakarta Water Crisis
Jakarta is said to be in a water crisis. This is a familiar claim that has been repeated for years as parts of the city sink, groundwater is over-extracted, and access to clean water remains uneven. Yet what, precisely, is the crisis that Jakarta is facing? In this episode of Talking Indonesia, I...
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Ken Setiawan and Lailly Prihatiningtyas - Soeharto as National Hero
On 10 November 2025, Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto made a controversial decision that reignited divisions in Indonesian society: he posthumously designated former President Suharto as a pahlawan nasional or a ‘national hero.’ Suharto seized power in 1965 during a period of violent…
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Zainal Arifin Mochtar: Dirty Vote II o3
Cast your minds back to February 2024, in the campaign lull before Indonesians hit the ballot box, a documentary unceremoniously dropped on youtube. Now, documentaries on electoral campaigning are legion, and generally they attract a pretty narrow audience. By contrast, Dirty Vote, directed by...
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Irma Hidayana - Free Nutritious Meals Program
Irma Hidayana - Free Nutritious Meals Program by Talking Indonesia
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Egi Primayogha - Corruption in Prabowo-Gibran's First Year
Corruption is always a hot topic in Indonesia, but where does the situation stand right now? In this episode, we talk to Egi Primayogha who is the advocacy coordinator for the NGO Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) about their assessment of the current government and their recent report entitled...
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Dian Tri Irawaty - Kampung and Urban Advocacy
Dian Tri Irawaty - Kampung and Urban Advocacy by Talking Indonesia
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Grace Leksana - A Re/writing History Project
A ‘re’-writing history project - Grace Leksana Shortly after taking up his position as the Minister for Culture and Education in the Prabowo government, Fadli Zon announced he was commissioning a reworking of the official Indonesian history textbook. In early 2025, outlines of the project’s terms...
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Aliansi Gusar - Overseas Responses to Indonesia's Protests
On August 25 2025, protestors took to the streets in Jakarta outside the parliament to vocalise their loss of confidence in the current parliament. While the protests were triggered by a newly announced increase in parliamentarian housing allowances, the protests were about so much more....
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Rebecca Meckelburg: Indonesia's New Protest Movements
In late August, demonstrations against housing allowances for national parliamentarians escalated dramatically when a motorcycle delivery driver, Affan Kurniawan, caught up in the protests, was run over by a police tactical vehicle. His death, live-streamed, saw waves of protests in at least 47...
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Clara Siagian - Rusunawa and the State
While Jakarta's eviction politics have often dominated headlines and grassroots campaigns, the experiences of those who have been relocated to rusunawa (social housing) complexes have remained largely invisible. Yet these families reveal how Indonesia's vision of urban modernity is being…
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Diah Angendari - AI Policy in Indonesia
From the algorithms that curate your social media feed to the recommendation systems that influence what you buy, artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping every aspect of our daily lives. Yet most of us remain in the dark about how these powerful technologies are governed—and that's a problem...
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Ara Simanjuntak : Betting the Farm
Palm oil contributes to up 4.5% to Indonesia’s GDP and unlike other commodities, the Indonesian government promotes palm oil as motor of rural development. This is because up to half of Indonesia’s palm oil production is generated by smallholders, farmers with 2-3 hectares of land, cultivating…
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Nurwanto - School Violence and Bullying
Nurwanto Nurwanto - School Violence and Bullying In recent months Indonesians have grown increasingly concerned and indeed outraged following several reports of deadly violence involving children as young as elementary school age. In a case in Riau in May an eight-year-old boy died after...
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Justinus Lhaksana - Indonesian Football and the Road to the 2026 World Cup
Justinus Lhaksana - Indonesian Football and the Road to the 2026 World Cup In October 2022, the image of Indonesian football filling news bulletins around the world was one of tragedy and horror at the huge loss of life sparked by clashes between fans and security agents at a football match in...
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Nadia Egalita - Ethnography of Online Food Delivery
When you order food through Gojek or Grab in Indonesia, you're not just getting dinner delivered, but you're also participating in what has become a sophisticated digital platform economy. These food apps have fundamentally transformed how millions of Indonesians eat, shop, and navigate daily…
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Sarah Shair-Rosenfield - Women and Healthcare
Despite significant strides in recent decades, Indonesia continues to face one of Southeast Asia's higher maternal mortality rates. A recent study published by Syaraji and colleagues (2024) found that for every 100,000 live births, approximately 249 women die from pregnancy-related causes. In...
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Evi Mariani - Media Freedom
Evi Mariani - Media Freedom In March this year parcels containing a pig’s head and the carcasses of dead rats were sent to the offices of Tempo magazine in Jakarta. The story made international headlines and led to an outpouring of support and condemnation from across Indonesia’s mediascape and...
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Haryo Pambuko Jiwandono - Indonesian Games and Esports
In recent years, Indonesia has experienced a remarkable transformation in its gaming landscape, with mobile esports emerging as a powerful cultural and economic force. What was once considered a fringe activity now enjoys mainstream legitimacy, supported by both grassroots communities and...
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Olin Monteiro - A Growing Protest Movement
A growing protest movement On 28 March, in downtime Jakarta across from the Sarinah department store, an unlikely group of protesters gathered holding signs and making speeches. The crowd largely consisted of middleclass women of various ages, gathered under the name ‘Suara Ibu Indonesia’ (Voices...
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Melandri Vlok - Archaeology and Reading Bones
Bones can tell us so much about the past, not just about the ancestry of modern humans (or homo sapiens) but also about the people and cultures of times long forgotten. When we think about Indonesia’s place in history, we’re often inclined to think about the histories that shape the…
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Citra Lestari - Engaging Marginalised Groups in Risk Communication
In Indonesia, a country prone to disasters and emergencies, effective risk communication can mean the difference between safety and vulnerability for millions. But what happens when risk communication fails to reach those most marginalised? How do social determinants of health impact how urban…
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Diego Garcia Rodriguez - Queer Muslims and Their Allies
Queer Muslims and Their Allies Amid Indonesia’s conservative turn, the moral panics of the 2010s and the introduction of the draconian Criminal Code in 2022, LGBTQI+ people are as vulnerable as at any time in the country’s modern history. In a nation with the world’s largest Muslim population and...
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Riandy Laksono - Prabonomics
This past week has seen what some have argued are the first big mobilisations of the new Prabowo government, with coordinated student protests across 12 cities under the banner of Indonesia Gelap, or “Dark Indonesia”. The students list a number of demands, from human rights to environmental…
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Jane Ahlstrand - The Climate Crisis and Gender Nexus
Climate Change is well-recognised as a massive challenge facing society today. It is clear that the political, economic and social consequences of climate change will not be felt equally, not only globally but also across Indonesia. Geography, class and—indeed--gender dynamics will influence how...
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Moira Tirtha - Nongkrong Festival and the Indonesian Diaspora
In Melbourne and across Australia, Indonesian diaspora communities are reimagining what it means to celebrate their cultural identity through art, food, and the simple act of "nongkrong" - hanging out. But what happens when these cultural practices become spaces for exploring complex questions...
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Wulan Dirgantoro - Art, Activism and a Cancelled Show
Art, activism and a cancelled show - Wulan Dirgantoro Late last year news media splashed the image of an elderly artist standing before a locked door at the National Gallery of Indonesia. The sign behind him displayed his name - Yos Suprapto – and the title of his solo exhibition 'Kebangkitan:...
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Ian Wilson - Regional Elections
Late last month, for the first time its history, Indonesia held simultaneous regional elections across 545 provinces, regencies and municipalities across the country. Across 6000 ballot stations, and 1553 contesting candidates, there were upsets in key regions, like Central Java where the...
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Vannessa Hearman - East Timor's Great Famine, 1977-1979
Vannessa Hearman - East Timor’s Great Famine, 1977-1979 Following Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor in December 1975, the forced displacement and mass starvation of its people resulted in what is known as the Great East Timor Famine, 1977-1979. As Indonesian forces moved into the province...
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Aristyo Darmawan - Prabowo, China and the South China Sea
About 1000km north of Jakarta is a little pocket of paradise, a sprinkle of islands called the Natuna Islands, home to less than 100,000 people. These sparsely populated islands are the gateway to the North Natuna Sea, an area of unparalleled natural wealth. These waters are rich in fish, tuna,...
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Wayne Palmer - Foreign Workers
We often talk hear about the lives and living conditions of Indonesian migrant workers, many of them going to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and states in the Middle East to find employment. In its 2024 Empowering Migrant Workers report, the United Nations Development Project...
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Bagus Laksono - The Papal Visit
The Papal Visit In early September, Pope Francis visited Indonesia as part of a tour of the region. It was the third papal visit to the country after tours by Pope Paul VI in 1970 and Pope John Paul II in 1989. This trip included Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The theme…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
In the Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Jemma Purdey, Dr Jacqui Baker, Tito Ambyo and Dr Elisabeth Kramer present an extended interview each fortnight with experts on Indonesian politics, foreign policy, culture, language and more. Find all the Talking Indonesia podcasts and more at the Indonesia at Melbourne blog.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Talking Indonesia have?
Talking Indonesia currently has 298 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Talking Indonesia about?
In the Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Jemma Purdey, Dr Jacqui Baker, Tito Ambyo and Dr Elisabeth Kramer present an extended interview each fortnight with experts on Indonesian politics, foreign policy, culture, language and more. Find all the Talking Indonesia podcasts and more at the Indonesia at...
How often does Talking Indonesia release new episodes?
Talking Indonesia publishes regularly with 298 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to Talking Indonesia on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Talking Indonesia?
Talking Indonesia is created and hosted by Talking Indonesia.
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