Asian Review of Books

Asian Review of Books

episodes

Interviews with authors of books reviewed in the Asian Review of Books.

Alone in Japan: A Journey to the Future with Tom Feiling (Allen Lane, 2025)

October 1, 2026

Alone in Japan

Tom Feiling
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Japan has been aging for decades. The country’s birth rate first fell below the replacement rate in 1974, long before phrases like the “demographic tr…

Mehran Gul, "The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies" (Simon and Schuster, 2026)

September 24, 2026

The New Geography of Innovation

Mehran Gul
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Increasingly, it seems like the corporate names that dominate headlines are much more diverse than they used to be. Samsung, TSMC, and SK Hynix. Aliba…

Andrew Seth Meyer, "To Rule All Under Heaven: A History of Classical China, from Confucius to the First Emperor" (Oxford UP, 2026)

September 17, 2026

To Rule All Under Heaven

Andrew Seth Meyer
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The Warring States Period is one of the most important times in China’s history. It marked the end of one dynasty–the Zhou–and the beginning of a new …

Charlie Walker, "On Thin Ice: An Explorer's Memoir of Siberia, Surveillance and Survival" (Duckworth, 2026)

September 10, 2026

On Thin Ice

Charlie Walker
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In February 2022, British explorer Charlie Walker flew to Siberia's Sakha Republic to walk a thousand miles up frozen rivers to the Arctic Ocean, thro…

Jieun Baek,  "Privileged But Powerless: How North Korean Elite Grievances Reveal the Regime’s Greatest Weakness" (Yale UP, 2026)

September 3, 2026

Privileged But Powerless

Jieun Baek
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

What do the people closest to power really think about the system they serve? That’s perhaps one of the most important questions one could ask about N…

Yuri Pines, "China's Aristocratic Age: Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period" (Princeton UP, 2026)

August 27, 2026

China's Aristocratic Age

Yuri Pines
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The Springs-and-Autumns period is a strange period in Chinese history. Coming after the decline of the Zhou, and before the famous Warring States Peri…

Sandip Roy, "Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal" (Seagull Books, 2026)

August 20, 2026

Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal

Sandip Roy
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Chapal Rani was one of India’s most famous performers of jatra, Bengal’s popular theater. Traditionally, all the roles, including female roles, were p…

Paul French, "The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City" (St. Martin's Press, 2026)

August 13, 2026

The Last Emperor of China

Paul French
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The life of Puyi, the last emperor of China, often feels like a spectacle—in no small part due to the 1987 Oscar-winning film The Last Emperor. Yet th…

Tom Lin, "Babylon, South Dakota" (Little, Brown and Co, 2026)

August 6, 2026

Babylon, South Dakota

Tom Lin
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Today, we’re welcoming novelist Tom Lin back to the show, whose new novel Babylon, South Dakota (Little, Brown and Company: 2026) moves his fascinatio…

Joe Ngai and Nick Leung, "The Next China Is Still China: An Insider's Playbook for Winning in the New Era" (Scribner, 2026)

July 30, 2026

The Next China Is Still China

Joe Ngai and Nick Leung
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

What’s going on in the Chinese economy? China reported GDP growth of just 4.3% last quarter. Consumption is sluggish, exports are booming, electronics…

Eamonn Gearon, "The Arab Bureau: The Story of Britain's Most Ingenious Intelligence Unit" (Hurst, 2026)

July 23, 2026

The Arab Bureau

Eamonn Gearon
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Many of us have watched the classic 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia, the somewhat fictionalized work based on the life of T. E. Lawrence during the Arab…

Matthew Campbell, "The Man Who Stole the Gods: A True Story of War, Obsession, and a Global Art Conspiracy" (Penguin, 2026)

July 16, 2026

The Man Who Stole the Gods

Matthew Campbell
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

On June 10, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York returned two pieces of artwork to Cambodia: an Angkor statue and a sandstone lintel. It’s the l…

Gregory Smits, "The Ryukyu Islands: A New History from the Stone Age to the Present" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

July 9, 2026

The Ryukyu Islands

Gregory Smits
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Most people only know one of the Ryukyu Islands: the island of Okinawa, home to sandy beaches and one of the U.S.’s most important bases in Asia. Ther…

Olivier Hein, "Mother of the World: The Remarkable History of Turkmenistan" (Hurst, 2026)

July 2, 2026

Mother of the World

Olivier Hein
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Turkmenistan rarely makes international headlines–and when it did, it was often stories that highlighted things like the strange cult of personality t…

Xiaobing Li, "China’s Mahan: Admiral Liu Huaqing and the Rise of the Modern Chinese Navy (Naval Institute Press, 2026)

June 25, 2026

China's Mahan

Xiaobing Li
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 2012, China debuted its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a refurbished Soviet-era ship from Ukraine. The debut of the Liaoning was largely tha…

Charlotte Brooks, "The Moys of New York and Shanghai: One Family’s Extraordinary Journey Through War and Revolution" (U California Press, 2026)

June 18, 2026

The Moys of New York and Shanghai

Charlotte Brooks
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The story of the Moy family—U.S.-born Chinese-American siblings who grow up in the first half of the 20th century—is one that spans the Pacific, cover…

Robert Templer, "The Shah's Party: And the Iranian Revolution That Followed (Hurst, 2026)

June 11, 2026

The Shah's Party

Robert Templer
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 1971, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi threw a party to celebrate the 2,500-year anniversary of the Persian Empire. It was planned to be a massive party,…

Homa Katouzian, "Iran and the Revolution: A History" (Yale UP, 2026)

June 4, 2026

Iran and the Revolution

Homa Katouzian
Hosted by Raghav Verma

Iran's revolution in 1979 shook the world. The Pahlavi dynasty came crashing down, and the Islamic Republic rose in its place. But what led to this se…

Shefalee Vasudev, "Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance" (Westland Non-Fiction, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Stories We Wear

Shefalee Vasudev
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is known for his outfits. Since rising to become India’s head of government in 2014, photographers and journali…

Evelyn Iritani, "Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During World War II" (FSG, 2026)

May 21, 2026

Safe Passage

Evelyn Iritani
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In October 1943, the Gripsholm—a Swedish ocean liner—and the Teia Maru—a Japanese troop ship—sat in Mormugao, a port in Portuguese India. There, the t…