Big Take Asia

For more than 30 years, the Indian-born writer Amitav Ghosh has built a global following with novels that draw on deep historical research.
But his latest offering, Ghost-Eye, is more esoteric. The plot moves back and forth between India and the US, using past lives to explore the ties between the personal and the political.
The plot centers on a psychiatrist treating a 3-year-old who shocks her family by insisting she remembers a past life in a fishing community.
In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Ghosh explains why he’s finding it harder to write nowadays, how the memories of his childhood came flooding back during the Covid pandemic, why he sees capitalism as an obstacle to protecting the environment and thinks India has lost its way diplomatically.
Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

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As global attention is focused on war in the Middle East, North Korea has been accelerating its nuclear and missile program — testing new weapons and producing more warheads.
On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Jon Herskovitz on Kim Jong Un’s aggressive nuclear buildup and the strain that puts on US defenses.
Read more: North Korea’s Nuclear Arsenal is Outgrowing the US Missile Defenses
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Hosted by K. Oanh Ha; Produced by Naomi Ng; Reported by Jon Herskovitz, Soo-Hyang Choi; Edited by Paddy Hirsch Fact-checking by Yang Yang; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
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As global attention is focused on war in the Middle East, North Korea has been accelerating its nuclear and missile program — testing new weapons and producing more warheads.
On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Jon Herskovitz on Kim Jong Un’s aggressive nuclear buildup and the strain that puts on US defenses.
Read more: North Korea’s Nuclear Arsenal is Outgrowing the US Missile Defenses
We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer.
Hosted by K. Oanh Ha; Produced by Naomi Ng; Reported by Jon Herskovitz, Soo-Hyang Choi; Edited by Paddy Hirsch.
Fact-checking by Yang Yang; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa.
Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

India wants to become a manufacturing powerhouse to rival China — but its reliance on the Chinese supply chain for things like batteries and semiconductors makes for a complex and exceedingly difficult puzzle to untangle.
On today's Big Take Asia Podcast, host Oanh Ha and Bloomberg’s Alisha Sachdev on how corporate India is struggling to navigate this unique geopolitical landscape.
Read more: China’s Control Over Tech Is Threatening India’s Manufacturing Dreams
Further listening: Asia Is Bearing the Brunt of the Iran War Energy Crisis
We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer.
Hosted by Oanh Ha; Produced by Yang Yang; Reported by Alisha Sachdev; Edited by Patrick Hirsch; Fact-checking by Eleanor Harrison-Dengate; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugiura Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the war in Iran creating a shortage of the fuel and fertilizer that farmers across Asia need to plant and harvest rice, many smallholders are seeking alternative supplies or pondering whether to plant at all.
On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, agriculture reporter Hallie Gu tells host Oanh Ha what the bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz means for rice farmers from Cambodia to India — and how the fate of the region’s staple crop shapes its economy and politics.

Read more: Fuel Shortages From Iran War Threaten Asia’s Biggest Food Staple
Listen more: Asia Is Bearing the Brunt of the Iran War Energy Crisis
Hosted by Oanh Ha; Produced by Yang Yang; Reported by Hallie Gu; Edited by Patrick Hirsch Fact-checking by Eleanor Harrison-Dengate; Engineering by Alex Sugiura Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.