Podcast Free Asia
So in the intro, Eugene wanted to push a nickname for the RFA Insider cohosts and thus came up with the "Insider Crew" and later "The Insiders." Amy was scripted to have a negative reaction to it, but secretly she probably thinks one of those is kind of cool.
Eugene explained that the webpage is currently under construction but it is now in a functional state. He also made a correction about calling the Vietnamese film "Mai" a romantic comedy in episode 2. It's more accurate to call it a romantic drama with comedic elements.
The Rundown
The Lao Service reported how authorities rescued 16 black bear cubs whose bile was harvested for use in Chinese traditional medicine, and a Chinese man who was found with the cubs in his office is now on the run. Moon bear bile is a cooling medicine and said to prevent gallstones and improve liver function and even improve eyesight.
The Cantonese and Mandarin Services reported that Chinese nationalists called the "little pinks" think that a Chinese drink manufacturer is too Japanese, because it has a water bottle with a red cap, which they saw as a representation of the Japanese flag, some of their teas have a temple on their label, which they said looks like a Japanese temple, and their fruity teas have the greek letter π (pi), which they say looks like the torii gates outside Tokyo's Yasukuni jinja, the shrine that commemorates Japan's war dead, including some convicted war criminals, and it gets a rise out of many Koreans and Chinese whenever it's visited by Japanese politicians.
Eugene took issue with the assertion that the temple on the label was Japanese, invoking his expertise conferred upon him by traditional architecture test on the website alllooksame.com, where he scored 14/18, and therefore thinks he knows what he is talking about when identifying East Asian temples. (Note: alllooksame.com is not affiliated in any way with Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Asia does not necessarily endorse any of that website's content.)
How it's made
Joining us in the studio this time was "Wilson," who is not a bloodstained volleyball from the 2000 film "Castaway" starring Tom Hanks, but who is a social media editor at Radio Free Asia. Wilson explained to us why RFA's social media presence is very popular in some countries, what makes a particular post perform well on social media, and how RFA as a news organization navigates changes in policy from the leading social media platforms, as well as other engaging topics related to social media. Wilson is a pseudonym that he uses whenever he is at Starbucks, because he does not like to spell out his name. He is also using it here to protect his identity, as many RFA journalists in the language services do.