Podlovers Asia: All about Asian Podcasting

In this episode, we're going to India to talk with Abhishek Baxi of Podcast Hub!

Abhishek is a prolific writer covering tech and podcasting and is the founder of Podcasthub.in, covering the podcast ecosystem with a focus on the Indian podcasting industry. He is a digital consultant working on digital social media, mobile strategy for brands, organizations, and local businesses. He is also a technology journalist, a Senior Editor at Neowin, a Contributor at The Morning Context, and a Columnist at Hindustan Times.

We talked about:

• Abhishek's origin story: How he became obsessed with blogging and jumping into podcasting
• The entirety of the Indian podcasting scene: What is happening there? Abhishek gives us a detailed overview of all the podcasting players in the Indian podcasting space
• From Amazon's confusing strategy in India to Spotify's acquisition of shows, and India's audio consumption culture 
• How do we make the jump to go from radio to podcasts?
• Are independent producers and content houses doing well in India? What about investment and circulation? 

Enjoy!

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In this episode, we are going to China to have a conversation with someone who is gathering stories there, none other than the Host of Mosaic of China: Oscar Fuchs!

Oscar is the Host and Producer of Mosaic of China, a lighthearted English language podcast showcasing an array of people who are currently making their mark in China. Previously the Co-Founder of a headhunting company, that venture brought him to many different countries in Asia: three years in Japan, six years in Singapore, three years in Hong Kong, and five years in China. Now he is based in Shanghai.

In this episode we talk about:

• Oscar's origin story, from completing a 250-kilometer ultra-marathon in Namibia to starting Mosaic of China.
• The preconceptions and assumptions of China that Oscar is tackling with each episode
• Podcasting best practices in China and why we need two RSS feeds
• What's in the pipeline for Oscar as he wraps up Season 1
• The meaning of Asia as a word and how it is defined by Western influences

Enjoy!

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In this episode, we're going to take a trip to Taiwan, to have a chat with the host of the A.Connector Podcast, Mark Forman.

The Brooklyn Bluesman, as he is notably called RBBluesman, Mark is part of a consultancy providing various business education and communication training, speaking services online on the internet and live in-person originally from Brooklyn, New York. He studied Chinese culture and history in university and moved to Taiwan from 1987 to continue Chinese language studies.

From the podcasting perspective, he is right up there with the core group of podcasters starting up the first-ever podcasts. So we are going to do a little bit of time travel when it comes to talking about how podcasting started, now with his current show, A.Connector, satisfying his curiosity by talking to interesting people around the world.

We talked about:

• His origin story: How Mark started podcasting, coming into contact with the medium 
• Mark's connection to Evo Terra, a previous guest and amazing guy (Hi Evo!)
• The social dynamics between Western and Asian culture, not only from a podcasting perspective, but in terms of communication. 
• How conservative should we be when it comes to starting a podcast in Asia,
• The methods of showcasing frustration and moral outrage according to two different cultures
• Mark's thoughts on the Asian podcasting scene and much more. 

Enjoy!

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In this episode, we're going next door to Singapore to talk to a star in Asia's podcasting scene: Niki Torres! 

On a mission to reach out to thriving women and deconstruct their success stories, Niki, the Host of Chief Best Friends, talks to business partners who are actually best friends to see how can they thrive in their startup or their idea while keeping a healthy relationship with each other. And I thought I reached out to her after her launch of season two, to see how she is doing.

We talked about:

• How Chief Best Friends started: its missions, values and the impact that Niki is aiming for
• The other podcast ideas she's had and pitching this show in Splice Beta, the event for Asia's digital media transformation.
• The lack of awareness and biases that we tend to have in the VC world, the business world and the startup world. What are the different issues and barriers that women have to tackle all the time? 
• Handling her podcast with strict criteria for guests
• Nuances in Asia's podcasting ecosystem and its differences between the Western markets from cultural to language barriers.

Enjoy!

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Kicking off Season 3, we are talking with Rovik Robert, Co-Host of SG Explained!

SG Explained explores and takes a deep dive into all things Singapore-related: from policies to racism and history of Singapore to lighter subjects like chicken rice (one of my favorite foods!).

Since Rovik has been doing this for a couple of years now, I reached out to him to see his thoughts on starting this show and navigating through multiple topics of different levels of sensitivity in a multicultural context. Plus (of course), his observations on the Singaporean podcasting scene.

We talked about:

• Rovik's podcast origin story and starting up SG Explained
• His workflow and choosing the right topics and making sure, to get the most out of each opportunity in trending topics like racism, especially in Singapore
• The art of conversation, and the three types of conversations you can have
• How Rovik cooperates with his cohosts well, even if they have different opinions
• The other podcasts he's working on, including one internal within a corporate environment

Enjoy!

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