PODCAST · news
The Doghouse
by Team Watchdog
Welcome to Watchdog's regular podcast where we look at the key factchecks produced by the Watchdog team in Sri Lanka and give you a breakdown of our lengthier analyses and upcoming projects.
Episodes
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The Green Death: Part 3 - Empowering journalists with technology
A frequent problem encountered by journalists is how we can use technology like satellite imaging to provide more depth to stories on environmental degradation. This episode Yudhanjaya and Nadim discuss ways in which these maps can contribute to journalistic storytelling. You can access the maps...
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The Green Death: Part 2 - Tourism and Conservation
This episode Yudhanjaya and Nadim look at the interplay between the tourism industry and loss of forest cover in Sri Lanka. We look at developments particularly in the "buffer zones" around national parks and protected forest areas. You can access the composite satellite maps and get an overview…
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The Green Death: Part 1 - Mapping the loss of forest cover in Sri Lanka
Deforestation and the loss of forest cover in Sri Lanka is an issue that the team at Watchdog has been passionate about, but how to go about telling this complex story? We needed a better vantage point. In this episode we delve into how we used satellite imagery to build a series of detailed maps...
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Digitising Agriculture: Introducing Watchdog's Agri Sensor Kit
Our resident mechatronics engineer (yes, we have one of those), has built a sensor kit for the budding home gardener! Curious about how much light, heat, and moisture your plants are getting? Well then look no further, the Watchdog Agri Sensor Kit is just for you - the catch? You'll have to build...
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Introducing Lanka Wiki: Watchdog's how-to guide on growing 70 crops
This week we're shifting from urban planning to agriculture with the launch of Lanka Wiki, a database we've put together on 70 crops. Each listing includes growing conditions and a difficulty rating. Listen on to find out more. Whether you're a doomsday prepper or a city slicker looking to cut…
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Building virtual Colombo - A "Cities: Skylines" experiment, Part 2
Why build Colombo in Cities: Skylines? Yudhanjaya and Nadim discuss the use cases for Colombo's digital twin; from road design and the placement of bus stops to ideas surrounding basic urban planning. Download the virtual city and access the wiki on GitHub Music and sound effects from...
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Building virtual Colombo - A "Cities: Skylines" experiment, Part 1
Why have two of the brightest minds at Team Watchdog spent the better part of the last 6 months playing a city-builder? Welcome to Colombo in Cities: Skylines, our solution to the problems of ideation, visualization, and communication in urban planning for the city of Colombo! Download the…
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Restructure, Reset, Recover - Is Sri Lanka failing at New Year resolutions?
Sri Lanka's economic crisis has caught the attention of international media outlets over the past couple of weeks. Two separate narratives are at play here. One is that China is the biggest obstacle to debt restructuring. The other is that private lenders who own our International Sovereign Bonds...
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Too Slow Too Furious - Understanding Sri Lanka's transport system with Prof. Amal Kumarage
All roads lead to doom; that's what seems to best describe transport policymaking in Sri Lanka since independence. On this episode of the Doghouse Nadim Majeed speaks to Prof. Amal Kumarage, head of the Moratuwa University's Department of Transport & Logistics, on his decades of research on the...
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Cherry-picking & Narrative Spin - Co-opting Sri Lanka's economic crisis
Sri Lanka's economic crisis has become a favourite case study/guinea pig for parties seeking to push a certain narrative or to cherry-pick issues to discount others. From currency boards and the myth of the Chinese debt trap to the "ESG" spellbinding of the Green elites, it appears that every…
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The Power to Remain in Power: Sri Lanka's 37 steps backwards
Despite promises of lean and frugal government, Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe last week appointed 37 state ministers to the executive branch. The list of appointees reads like a who's who of some of the most controversial figures in the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the party of the...
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Have no fear the IMF is here?
Sri Lanka has finally reached a long-awaited staff level agreement with the IMF to enter into a 2.9 billion dollar Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program. What does this mean and what happens next? This week on The Doghouse, Watchdog's resident economist Umesh Moramudali, takes us through the next...
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Powerless: Sri Lanka's energy dependency problem
Sri Lanka's main coal power plant has suffered yet another breakdown which means power cuts have been extended again. Add to this the fact that electricity tariffs have nearly doubled and it's fair for consumers to wonder if they are being treated fairly by the state-owned Ceylon Electricity…
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Forced Cremations - The intersection of racism and tragedy in Sri Lanka's COVID-19 policies
TRIGGER WARNING - In this episode of the Doghouse we are talking about the grief inflicted upon thousands of victims of COVID-19 and their families by the administration of ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Beginning with retro-active changes to public health guidelines on the handling of the…
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"Ranilsplaining" 101 - Policy statement without any policies
On August 3, President Ranil Wickremesinghe opened the 3rd session of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka, delivering his policy statement. The problem though is that while the President acknowledged facts in terms of the economic crisis and set out some lofty goals, he failed to tell us how he plans...
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Crisis of legitimacy - Sri Lanka needs elections. But when? And how?
This week Nadim and Yudhanjaya discuss the crisis of legitimacy facing the Sri Lankan government. What happens when a parliament that has seemingly lost its mandate from the people, elects from among themselves a President who has no mandate? Sri Lanka needs elections for democracy to prevail…
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#GotaGoHome - Presidential Flight & International "Punditry"
History has been made in Sri Lanka, where the world witnessed one of the most farcical departures from power of a Head of State in global political history. What happens next? In this episode we take a look at the events leading up to mass protests on 9 July, the storming of President's House…
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Surviving the food crisis - A data driven approach
Dystopia beckons... How can Sri Lanka get through the worsening food crisis? Continuing our coverage of the aftermath of the catastrophic decision to ban the use of synthetic fertilisers, we look at potential solutions to mitigate the disaster, and the knock on effects of the ban. Follow our...
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White Elephant Software: State Pharma Corp's "Masterclass"
7 Billion Rupee Software??? What does the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation want, exactly? Well if you want to combine the functionality of Google, Uber, Adobe, Canva, and a myriad of other existing tech solutions, you could consider 7 billion rupees to be cheap. We wouldn't touch this beast even...
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Our 1600km journey across the agricultural belt
This week on the Doghouse Amalini De Sayrah and Nadim Majeed take us through their journey across some of the major agricultural districts in the country, investigating the impact of the sudden ban on synthetic fertilisers. From Hambantota to Jaffna we met a diverse cross section of farmers who...
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"Experts" & Experts - The food crisis as explained by Prof. Buddhi Marambe
Sri Lanka could be facing one of the severest food shortages in recent history in the coming months. How has it come to this pass? What was the science behind Sri Lanka's ill-fated organic only policy? Why should we be worried about massive losses in the maize harvest? We posed these questions…
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Starvation Caused by Policy? - kicking off Watchdog's deep dive into Sri Lanka's agriculture sector
Why is Sri Lanka on the brink of a major food crisis? What role did Gotabaya Rajapaksa's overnight 'organic' farming policy have in exacerbating this crisis? Food is finally on the menu at The Doghouse. With this episode we're kicking off our deep dive into Sri Lanka's agriculture sector and...
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A Question of Survival - Sri Lanka's future with the IMF
Ignore the 'Forwarded many times' messages from your 'politically savvy' uncle claiming that there's pots of billions of dollars coming into Sri Lanka now that we have a new Prime Minister. What is actually happening with securing bridge financing, debt restructuring, and the negotiations with…
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Cry Havoc & Let Loose the Dogs - The Attack on GotaGoGama & the Aftermath
What a week it's been! Peaceful protestors attacked, violent reprisals against the attackers and those perceived to have supported them, curfews and patrols by armoured vehicles, and the return of the inimitable Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister for a record 6th time. In this episode of The...
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No Confidence Motions & Constitutional Amendments - Resolving Sri Lanka's Political Crisis
This week we're joined by Dr. Dinesha Samararatne of the University of Colombo's Faculty of Law and Ms. Ermiza Tegal, Attorney-at-Law, to discuss the proposed No Confidence Motions against the Prime Minister and President, and the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. What will these political...
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Sri Lanka's Worsening Healthcare Crisis: How You Can Help
The public rollout of Elixir is done; we're giving you some context on the worsening health crisis and introducing you to our #OSINT tool to track medicine shortages. Over the next six months, we’ll need millions of units of medicine and equipment. Here’s introducing Elixir, and how you can help...
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Sniffing out Medicine Shortages and Tracking Protests in Sri Lanka - All in a Week's Work
This week on the Doghouse we discuss the denial of the healthcare crisis by the Department of Government Information. We're introducing you to Elixir - A Watchdog tool that enables healthcare professionals to submit lists of medicine shortages at hospitals around the country and provides a…
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No Medicine for the Economy, No Medicine in the Hospitals
We're putting international and Indian media in the doghouse this week. The crisis in Ukraine and Chinese debt are not the primary causes of Sri Lanka's ailments. Stop trying to take away Sri Lanka's agency. Also on the doghouse this week - Ask Watchdog! - "brief' explainers on some interesting...
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Power Cuts and Foreign Debt - A Marriage of Hubris and Stupidity
We realise that a lot has happened since we sat down to record on Wednesday (30/3/2022), but in this episode of the Doghouse, we're taking you through the minutiae of the key issues that have forced people onto the streets. We're looking at one of our first longform analyses from January this…
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What's happening with the Sri Lankan economy?
Power cuts, queues for everything from food to fuel; why is the Sri Lankan economy in this sorry state? On the first episode of the doghouse we give you an overview of the current situation and the 'policies' that have brought about this mess. Read the companion piece for this episode here. Music…
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The Doghouse Episode 1 - Trailer
Coming soon to your favourite podcast platforms! Music: Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to Watchdog's regular podcast where we look at the key factchecks produced by the Watchdog team in Sri Lanka and give you a breakdown of our lengthier analyses and upcoming projects.
HOSTED BY
Team Watchdog
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Doghouse have?
The Doghouse currently has 31 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Doghouse about?
Welcome to Watchdog's regular podcast where we look at the key factchecks produced by the Watchdog team in Sri Lanka and give you a breakdown of our lengthier analyses and upcoming projects.
How often does The Doghouse release new episodes?
The Doghouse has 31 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Doghouse?
You can listen to The Doghouse 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 The Doghouse?
The Doghouse is created and hosted by Team Watchdog.
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