Best Jose A Colon Podcasts (2025)

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Jose Francisco Pérez Colón - A Contemporaneous Violinist From Dominican Republic In Europe 36:42

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27d ago36:42

36:42

In this episode, Jose Francisco shares his incredible story of starting the violin at 17 in the Dominican Republic, overcoming lack of resources, and rising to perform internationally. He discusses his early inspirations, the importance of finding one's own voice in music, and the challenges he faced along the way. This conversation also touches on…

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Jemimah Wei, "The Original Daughter" (Doubleday/Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2025) 44:25

5d ago44:25

44:25

Genevieve Yang, the protagonist of Jemimah Wei’s debut novel The Original Daughter (Doubleday/Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2025) works a dead-end job in Singapore, living in the shadow of her adopted younger sister, Arin, a rising movie star. Genevieve’s dying mother asks her to call Arin; Genevieve refuses. Jemimah’s novel then teases out the history of…

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Erin M.B. O'Halloran, "East of Empire: Egypt, India, and the World Between the Wars" (Stanford UP, 2025) 57:35

12d ago57:35

57:35

Between the First and Second World Wars, activists across the British Empire began to think about what their homes might look like as independent nations, rather than colonies subject to the control of London. Sometimes, these thinkers found refuge and common cause in others elsewhere in the Empire–such as between India and Egypt, , as Erin O’Hallo…

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Rosinka Chaudhuri, "India's First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire" (India Viking, 2025) 52:09

19d ago52:09

52:09

In 1831, the India Gazette wrote about a group of radical young thinkers that it credited for an upheaval in social and religious politics in Calcutta. These were the Young Bengal, the proteges of Henry Derozio of Hindu College. These thinkers, according to Rosinka Chaudhuri, were India’s first radicals, trying to reshape Indian politics as it came…

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Charles R. Butcher and Ryan D. Griffiths, "Before Colonization: Non-Western States and Systems in the Nineteenth Century" (Columbia UP, 2025) 47:28

25d ago47:28

47:28

Today’s international system is made up of states: Territorial entities with defined borders, with exclusive control within those borders, diplomatic recognition by other states outside of them and usually (though not always) tied to some idea of the “nation.” But how many states have existed throughout history, such as during the nineteenth centur…

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Wu Jianren, "New Story of the Stone: An Early Chinese Science Fiction Novel" (Columbia UP, 2025) 51:23

1M ago51:23

51:23

What happens if you took one of the classic characters of Chinese literary fiction and dropped him into early 20th-century China? That’s the premise of Wu Jianren’s novel, New Story of the Stone (Columbia UP, 2025), written in 1905, which takes Jia Baoyu, from the classic Dream of the Red Chamber, and takes him first to Qing China and the Boxer Reb…

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Sam Dalrymple, "Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia" (William Collins, 2025) 53:25

1M ago53:25

53:25

Partition—the rapid, uncoordinated, and bloody split between India and Pakistan after the Second World War—remains the central event of South Asian history. But 1947 wasn’t the only partition, according to historian and filmmaker Sam Dalrymple. Sam, in his book Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia (William Collins, 2025), …

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Tracy Slater, "Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp" (Chicago Review Press, 2025) 42:03

2M ago42:03

42:03

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced Executive Order 9066, which authorized the confinement of tens of thousands of Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the Western U.S., sending them to cramped, hastily-constructed camps like Manzanar and Amache. One such Japanese-American was Karl Yoneda, a well-known labor activist–an…

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Nan Z. Da, The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (Princeton UP, 2025) 29:38

2M ago29:38

29:38

I’m Nicholas Gordon, host of the Asian Review of Books podcast, done in partnership with the New Books Network. On this show, we interview authors writing in, around, and about the Asia-Pacific region. King Lear, one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, starts with Lear dividing up his kingdom between his three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cord…

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Audrey Truschke, "India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent" (Princeton UP, 2025) 44:10

2M ago44:10

44:10

I’m Nicholas Gordon, host of the Asian Review of Books podcast, done in partnership with the New Books Network. On this show, we interview authors writing in, around, and about the Asia-Pacific region. How do you tell the story of India–not just the modern-day country, but the whole region of South Asia, home to over two billion people? Historian A…

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Eiko Maruko Siniawer, "Ten Moments that Shaped Tokyo" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 49:03

2M ago49:03

49:03

How did Tokyo—Japan’s capital, global city, tourist hotspot and financial center—get to where it is today? Tokyo–or then, Edo–had a rather unglamorous start, as a backwater on Japan’s eastern coast before Tokugawa decided to make it his de facto capital. Eiko Maruko Siniawer picks ten distinct moments in Edo’s, and then Tokyo’s, history to show how…

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Aatish Taseer, "A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile" (Catapult, 2025) 46:06

2M ago46:06

46:06

In 2019, famed journalist and writer Aatish Taseer was thrown out of India. Soon after he wrote a cover article for Time calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the country’s “divider in chief,” New Delhi decided to revoke his residency. That sent Aatish on a journey across the world–to places like Turkey, Spain, Mexico and Sri Lanka–to explore identi…

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Sanjena Sathian, "Goddess Complex" (Penguin Press, 2025) 40:50

3M ago40:50

40:50

Sanjana Satyananda, the main character of Sanjena Sathian’s novel, Goddess Complex (Penguin Press, 2025), is a bit of a mess. She’s back in the States after a spell in India, ending her marriage with her actor husband when he wanted kids…and she didn’t. Her friends are starting to settle down–and wondering when Sanjana will do the same. And, distre…

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James D.J. Brown, "Cracking the Crab: Russian Espionage Against Japan, from Peter the Great to Richard Sorge" (Hurst, 2025), 39:49

3M ago39:49

39:49

The Russians came late to Japan, arriving after the Portuguese and other European powers. But as soon as they arrived, Russia tried to use spies and espionage to learn more about their neighbor—with various degrees of success. Sometimes, it failed miserably, like Russia’s early attempts to make contact with pre-Meiji Japan, or the debacle during th…

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Paul French, "Destination Macao" (Blacksmith Books, 2024) 57:39

3M ago57:39

57:39

Macau–onetime Portuguese colony, now casino hotspot–has long captured the imaginations of travelers, reporters, artists and writers. The city served as the only gateway to China for centuries; then, after the rise of Hong Kong, its slightly seedier vibe made it a popular setting for books, articles and movies exploring the more criminal elements of…

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Zev Handel, "Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese" (U Washington Press, 2025) 44:54

3M ago44:54

44:54

For centuries, scribes across East Asia used Chinese characters to write things down–even in languages based on very different foundations than Chinese. In southern China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, people used Chinese to read and write–and never thought it was odd. It was, after all, how things were done. Even today, Cantonese speakers use Chinese …

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Naomi Xu Elegant, "Gingko Season: A Novel" (W. W. Norton, 2025) 34:13

4M ago34:13

34:13

Naomi Xu Elegant’s debut novel, Gingko Season (W. W. Norton: 2025), stars Penelope Lin, a young Chinese woman living in New York in the faraway year of 2018. With difficult parents and a bad break-up, she works for a museum’s exhibition on bound feet, with a gaggle of other, somewhat clueless friends. But a meeting with Hoang, a researcher at a can…

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John Man, "Conquering the North: China, Russia, Mongolia: 2,000 Years of Conflict" (Oneworld Publications, 2025) 50:20

4M ago50:20

50:20

China, famously, built the Great Wall to defend against nomadic groups from the Eurasian steppe. For two millennia, China interacted with groups from the north: The Xiongnu, the Mongols, the Manchus, and the Russians. They defended against raids, got invaded by the north, and tried to launch diplomatic relations. John Man, in his book Conquering th…

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Fyodor Tertitskiy, "Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung" (Hurst UP, 2025) 32:36

4M ago32:36

32:36

The Kims, of North Korea, are perhaps the 21st century’s most successful family dictatorship–if only due to sheer longevity, having run North Korea for the almost eight decades since the country’s post-war founding. Kim Il-Sung led North Korea for over half that time, from its founding in 1948 to Kim’s death in 1994. But who was Kim Il-Sung? How di…

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Vappala Balachandran, "India and China at Odds in the Asian Century: A Diplomatic and Strategic History" (Hurst, 2025) 41:34

4M ago41:34

41:34

China and India have had a tense relationship, disagreeing over territory, support for each other’s rivals, and even, at times, leadership of the “Global South.” But there were periods where things seemed a bit rosier. For about a decade, between 1988 and 1998, relations between India and China thawed—and prompted heady predictions of an Asian cent…

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Chris Aslan, "Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia" (Icon Books, 2024) 45:07

5M ago45:07

45:07

The Silk Road may be the most famous trade network in history. But the flow of silk from China to the Middle East and Europe isn’t the only textile trade that’s made its mark on Central Asia, the subject of Chris Aslan’s latest book Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia (Icon Books, 2024), recently published in paperback. …

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Lizhi Liu, "From Click to Boom: The Political Economy of E-Commerce in China" (Princeton UP, 2024) 57:37

5M ago57:37

57:37

Alibaba. Tencent. JD. Pinduoduo. Run down the list of China’s most valuable companies and you’ll find, for the most part, that they’re all e-commerce companies—or at least facilitate e-commerce. The sector created giants: Alibaba grew from just 5.5 billion renminbi of revenue in 2010 to 280 billion last year. But how did Chinese e-commerce firms sh…

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Mayukh Sen, "Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star" (Norton, 2025) 55:15

5M ago55:15

55:15

In 2022, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. But she wasn’t the first actress of Asian origin to be nominated. In 1935, Merle Oberon was nominated for Best Actress for the role of Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel, only her second film in the U.S. film industry. But no one knew Oberon was Asian. Her pu…

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Laura Spinney, "Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 46:30

5M ago46:30

46:30

English. French. Italian. Hindi. Greek. Russian. All these different languages can trace their roots to the same origin: Proto-Indo-European, spoken in 4000 BC in the steppe that crosses from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Whether by migration, diffusion or conquest, the Indo-European languages spread west across Europe, east across Central Asia, …

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Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian, "The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform" (Yale UP, 2024) 40:03

6M ago40:03

40:03

In 1968, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, asserting his control of China 15 years later, Deng Xiaoping launched the reform and opening up period, putting China on the path to becoming an economic powerhouse. But what happens in between these two critical periods of Chinese history? How does China go from Mao's Cultural Revolution to Den…

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Can Learning Improvisation Improve Mental Health For Classical Musicians? 36:32

5M ago36:32

36:32

Chris talks with a classical violinist and PhD researcher, about the emotional toll of traditional training and how improvisation supports well-being. She explores nervous system regulation, perfectionism, and mindfulness techniques that help musicians feel more confident, expressive, and whole. This conversation offers practical tools and mindset …

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Chris Stowers, "Shoot, Ask...and Run" (Earnshaw Books Ltd, 2025) 51:53

6M ago51:53

51:53

Chris Stowers, longtime photographer, credits a fellow journalist for the title of his latest memoir, Shoot, Ask...and Run (Earnshaw, 2025). The journalist’s advice to a young Chris, just starting out, went like this. Shoot: Take the photo when the opportunity arises. Then, if someone notices that you took a photo, “ask” for permission to use the p…

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Spanglish Cafe #15 - INTERVIEW WITH LEONARD SIERRA 1:29:37

6M ago1:29:37

1:29:37

Join us for Episode #15 Our show today we are featuring Leonardo Sierra, International Salsa Singer www.leonardosierra.com @leonardosierraoficial **** The "Spanglish Cafe Music Podcast" is a captivating weekly podcast that offers a unique and engaging glimpse into the lives and careers of artists and musicians from around the world. Hosted by JCee …

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Spanglish Cafe #14 - BAILABLE INTERNACIONAL DE LOS VETERANOS PARTE 2 2:05:20

6M ago2:05:20

2:05:20

oin us for Episode #14 of our show as we interview the artists of "BAILABLE INTERNACIONAL DE LOS VETERANOS," celebrating its 5th anniversary with the sensational Calvito Reyes and his latest salsa creation. Featured Artists: MELINA ALMODOVAR RICHIE SANCHEZ KHARIM SANTOS CHRISTIAN RAY SPECIAL GUEST ??? They've come together for the love of salsa! Do…

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Spanglish Cafe #13 - BAILABLE INTERNACIONAL DE LOS VETERANOS 1:58:24

6M ago1:58:24

1:58:24

Join us for Episode #13 of our show as we interview the artists of "BAILABLE INTERNACIONAL DE LOS VETERANOS," celebrating its 5th anniversary with the sensational Calvito Reyes and his latest salsa creation. Featured Artists: MELINA ALMODOVAR KHARIM SANTOS DAVID ATANACIO CHRISTIAN RAY FABIAN ROSALES from Chile They've come together for the love of …

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Songwriting Strategies: A 360 Degree Approach (Part 2) w/ Mark Simos- Creative Strings Podcast Ep.15 44:02

6M ago44:02

44:02

By Christian Howes

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Songwriting Strategies: A 360 Degree Approach (Part 1) w/ Mark Simos- Creative Strings Podcast Ep.14 46:56

6M ago46:56

46:56

By Christian Howes

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Richard Overy, "Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan" (Norton, 2025) 37:39

6M ago37:39

37:39

September 2 will mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s formal surrender to the United States aboard the USS. Missouri, ending the Second World War. The U.S. decision to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—what drove Japan to surrender, at least in popular history—is still controversial to this day. How did the mass…

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Bin Yang, "Discovered But Forgotten: The Maldives in Chinese History, C. 1100-1620" (Columbia UP, 2024) 39:30

6M ago39:30

39:30

Chinese travelers first made their way to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean in the 14th century, looking for goods like coconuts, cowries, and ambergris. That started centuries of travel to the islands, including one trip by famed sailor Zheng He. Then, quickly, the Maldives—and the broader Indian Ocean—vanished as Ming China turned inward. Bin Yang…

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Kornel Chang, "A Fractured Liberation: Korea Under U.S. Occupation" (Harvard UP, 2025) 53:15

6M ago53:15

53:15

Four decades of Japanese colonialism in Korea ended abruptly in August 1945. It took three weeks for U.S. troops to arrive, which started almost three years of U.S. military occupation. By the end of the occupation, Korea was permanently divided into North and South, with Seoul set on an authoritarian path that would persist for decades. Kornel Cha…

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Robert J. Antony, "Outlaws of the Sea: Maritime Piracy in Modern China" (Hong Kong UP, 2024) 50:43

7M ago50:43

50:43

Did you know Hong Kong used to be a hub for pirates? That factoid has long been part of the popular history for Hong Kong—and for Southern China broadly. For centuries, Chinese pirates raided merchants and coastal communities up and down the Chinese coast, taking advantage of weak imperial rule and safe havens like what’s now present-day Vietnam. R…

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Parenting Musicians: Sun & D.D. Jackson’s Journey Through Music 33:26

7M ago33:26

33:26

Discover the joys and challenges of parenting musicians in this heartfelt episode of the Creative Strings Podcast. Christian Howes sits down with 15-year-old songwriter Sun Jackson and her father, Grammy-nominated pianist and composer D.D. Jackson, explores their inspiring father-daughter bond through music.This episode dives into:🎶 The emotional s…

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Ashis Ray, "The Trial That Shook Britain: How a Court Martial Hastened Acceptance of Indian Independence" (Routledge India, 2024) 41:50

7M ago41:50

41:50

In 1945 to 1946, postwar India was enthralled by the treason trial of three officers—formerly of the Indian National Army, who fought against the British in the Second World War. The trial sparked outrage across the country, among ordinary people, members of the pro-independence movement and, worryingly for the British Raj, members of the Indian ar…

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The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History 38:45

7M ago38:45

38:45

Geographic labels are sometimes misnomers. The Dead Sea’s name is not, for the most part. Its high salinity levels kill most forms of life, barring a couple hardy microbes and algae—and even these are threatened by environmental change. Except the Dead Sea has been part of human history for millennia. Jericho, the world’s oldest city, sits nearby. …

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Manu Pillai, "Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity" (Allen Lane, 2025) 59:51

7M ago59:51

59:51

What is Hinduism? For centuries, that question was particularly thorny, both for local Indians and for colonial outsiders. People inside and outside the country tried to define what Hinduism was. Missionaries grappled with Hindu practices, finding both similarities and dangerous differences with their own Christian faith. The East India Company ado…

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Kishore Mahbubani, "Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir" (Public Affairs, 2024) 41:27

8M ago41:27

41:27

Kishore Mahbubani, longtime Singaporean diplomat and academic, opens his new memoir with a provocative line: “Blame it on the damn British.” Kishore, who later served as Singapore’s ambassador to the UN and founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, was born to poor migrants in Singapore, studied philosophy on a government scholarsh…

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Tahir Kamran, "Chequered Past, Uncertain Future: The History of Pakistan" (Reaktion Books, 2024) 58:53

8M ago58:53

58:53

Pakistan’s history since independence is…complicated. Partition wrecked the economy, leaving all the economic infrastructure in India. Democracy was weak, as the military launched multiple coups to overthrow the civilian government. The country was split into an unsustainable two halves–with one declaring independence as Bangladesh by the Seventies…

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Bertil Lintner, "The Golden Land Ablaze: Coups, Insurgents and the State in Myanmar" (Oxford UP, 2024) 46:14

8M ago46:14

46:14

Four years ago, on Feb. 1 2021, the Burmese military overthrew the fledgling democratic government in the Southeast Asian country of Burma, officially known as Myanmar. That sparked a civil war that continues today–with neither the military junta nor the various rebel groups coming closer to victory. How did the country get here? Veteran Asia journ…

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Rosemary Wakeman, "The Worlds of Victor Sassoon: Bombay, London, Shanghai, 1918–1941" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 47:18

8M ago47:18

47:18

The 1920s and 1930s were a period of cosmopolitan globalization–and no one, perhaps, exemplified it more than Victor Sassoon, business tycoon, trader and industrialist. He’s the subject of Rosemary Wakeman’s latest book The Worlds of Victor Sassoon: Bombay, London, Shanghai, 1918–1941 (U Chicago Press, 2024) which traces Victor’s journey through th…

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Overcome Perfectionism as Musicians w/ Dr. Ellen Hendriksen 37:02

8M ago37:02

37:02

Break free from the “never good enough” mindset. Chris interviews clinical psychologist and author Dr. Ellen Hendriksen to explore how to overcome perfectionism as musicians. Whether you're a performer, teacher, or creative entrepreneur, this conversation is packed with actionable insights to help you:. Understand the roots of perfectionism in musi…

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Jorge Flores, "Empire of Contingency: How Portugal Entered the Indo-Persian World" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) 54:04

9M ago54:04

54:04

Portuguese India was tiny—a handful of trading posts and enclaves, centered on the colony of Goa. The Estado da Índia faced the Mughal Empire and the Deccan Sultanates, large Muslim and Persian-based societies that ruled the subcontinent. How did Portuguese India survive? Well, by spying. Jorge Flores in his book Empire of Contingency: How Portugal…

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Avinash Paliwal, "India's Near East: A New History" (Oxford UP, 2024) 47:06

9M ago47:06

47:06

After student protests toppled Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year, New Delhi and Dhaka have been at odds. Indian politicians complain about Hindus being mistreated in the Muslim-majority country; Bangladesh’s interim government fears that Hasina may launch a bid to return to power from India. It’s the latest development in what’s bec…

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Glenn Diaz, "Yñiga: A Novel" (Ateneo de Manila UP, 2022) 38:34

9M ago38:34

38:34

Yniga, the main character of Glenn Diaz’s novel of the same name, returns to her unnamed fishing town after her urban neighborhood burns down in a fire–what many suspect is retaliation for the capture of a wanted army general near her house. What follows is a story about activist politics, state retaliation and returning home. Yñiga (Ateneo de Mani…

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Embracing Musical Diversity: a journey from classical to folk music with Rebecca Clare Douglas 37:38

9M ago37:38

37:38

Discover the transformative journey of Rebecca Clare Douglas in this episode of the Creative Strings Podcast, where musical diversity takes center stage. From earning a music degree at Oxford to becoming a multifaceted folk musician, educator, and author, Rebecca shares how embracing diversity in her music brought freedom and joy.🎻 Learn how she tr…

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Peter Hessler, "Other Rivers: A Chinese Education" (Penguin, 2024) 49:06

9M ago49:06

49:06

In 2019, journalist and writer Peter Hessler traveled with his family to China. He’d gotten a gig as a teacher of writing—nonfiction writing in particular—in what he’d hoped would be a sequel to his 2001 book River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze. But plans changed—radically. At the very end of 2019, the COVID-19 virus emerges in Wuhan, leading to c…