logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2024
26m 10s

The Army of Poets and Students Fighting ...

The New York Times
About this episode

Warning: this episode contains descriptions of injuries.

Myanmar is home to one of the deadliest, most intractable civil wars on the planet. But something new is happening. Unusual numbers of young people from the cities, including students, poets and baristas, have joined the country’s rebel militias. And this coalition is making startling gains against the country’s military dictatorship.

Hannah Beech, who covers stories across Asia for The Times, discusses this surprising resistance movement.

Guest: Hannah Beech, a Bangkok-based reporter for The New York Times, focusing on investigative and in-depth stories in Asia.

Background reading: 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Up next
Yesterday
Trump’s Top Aides Spread the Epstein Conspiracy. Now They Are Trying to Kill It.
For months, President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested that they would expose the hidden, potentially sinister truth about Jeffrey Epstein’s death in 2019.But over the past few days, the Trump administrationWhite House decided to shut down has poured cold water on t ... Show More
21m 47s
Jul 8
A Love Letter to Camp Mystic
On Monday evening, the death toll from the flooding in Central Texas rose past 100. A single place accounted for 27 of those deaths: Camp Mystic, a century-old Christian summer camp for girls.Erin Paisan, who attended Camp Mystic, explains what the place meant to generations of g ... Show More
25m 9s
Jul 7
A Dark Moment for Journalism — and Devastation in Texas
Last week, when Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, announced a $16 million settlement with President Trump over editing of a segment of “60 Minutes,” many of the network’s journalists were furious.The deal also raised questions about the independence of CBS’s journalism, ... Show More
34m 15s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2024
What’s behind the civil war in Myanmar?
It’s been three years since Myanmar’s military coup when the army took control of the country, a decade after agreeing to hand power to a civilian government. A civil war broke out after the after the military used lethal force to put down mass protests in the weeks after the cou ... Show More
15m 48s
Apr 2022
Defecting online: How soldiers are deserting the Burmese army
Myanmar has been engulfed by a civil war which is getting deadlier and more violent as time goes on. Last year the Tatmadaw – the Burmese armed forces – overthrew the civilian-led government, led by Aung Sun Suu Kyi. Now they’re acting with impunity, allegedly committing heinous ... Show More
22m 3s
Feb 2022
Myanmar's bloody revolution, one year on
It's been a year since Myanmar's violent military junta overthrew the country's democratic experiment and seized power in a coup. With thousands of civilians imprisoned or killed, what has the past year in the country looked like?WARNING: some listeners may find some of this epis ... Show More
31m 56s
Mar 2023
American Militarism w/ Nadia Abu El-Haj
Featuring Nadia Abu El-Haj on Combat Trauma: Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America. How the civil-military divide makes troops into super citizens and what it means that agents of state violence are turning to the grammar of identity politics—and more. The secon ... Show More
1h 22m
Apr 2022
Myanmar: Fighting the might of the junta
Myanmar is now in a state of civil war. What started in February 2021 as a mass protest movement against the military coup is now a nationwide armed uprising. The junta is under attack across the country from a network of civilian militias called the People’s Defence Forces who s ... Show More
27m 25s
Mar 2021
Myanmar protesters face 'killing spree'
More than 70 protesters have been killed and nearly 2,000 detained since early February when the protest against the military coup began in Myanmar. Amnesty International says many of the killings documented amount to “extrajudicial execution” by military security forces. Still, ... Show More
19m 24s
Dec 2023
Living with the Myanmar Rebels
Today we speak to journalist Daphne Wesdorp about her time staying with the Myanmar rebels deep in the jungles of Karen state. She saw how they live, how they fight, and how they stay motivated to contiune their struggle against the military junta despite being ignored by the wor ... Show More
52m 56s
Apr 2021
Is Myanmar heading for civil war?
Zack, Alex, and returning guest Jen Kirby talk about the potential for a “bloodbath” in Myanmar. Since the military deposed the democratic government in a February 1 coup, pro-democracy protesters and armed ethnic groups have risen up against the junta. They’ve been met with extr ... Show More
42m 52s