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History

The Colonial Department

by Lio Mangubat
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Latest episodes

  • S8E12 Borderline Bureaucrats: An Early History of La Union

    October 3, 2026 · 18 min

    As La Union historian Adriel Obar Meimban writes, La Union fits neatly into its geography: bound by rivers on the north and south, by the Cordillera mountain range on the east, and then, on its west side, the pounding surf that has made…

  • INTERVIEW: Mapping a life on time—the making of a historian

    September 25, 2026 · 59 min

    In 2018, I first encountered The Sulu Zone and Iranun & Balangingi—two important books by James Francis Warren that opened my eyes to the rich, roiling history of the seafaring cultures of the Sulu Sea. His groundbreaking work laid out a…

  • S8E11: We're Off to the 1924 Paris Olympics!

    September 11, 2026 · 17 min

    More than a century ago, the Philippine flag was unfurled for the first time on the biggest sports stage in the world. It was—and is—a matter of great pride to our nation. But it was also an event that was bizarrely marked with mystery and…

  • S8E10 In Paracale, the Faintest Gleam of Gold

    August 27, 2026 · 18 min

    According to historian Linda Newson, Bicol did not bow down easily to the Spanish occupation. For their resistance, they paid a dear price. Population showed Camarines lost almost half of its population from 1591 to 1649. With no major…

  • S8E9 White-Hot Heat: Climate and Culture in the Late 1800s

    August 8, 2026 · 17 min

    Writing in June 1889, the Manila-based correspondent for La Solidaridad listed down the calamities afflicting the archipelago: cholera, fires, earthquakes, and economic ruin. In those days, even the sky seemed to be on fire. Our reporter…

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  • INTERVIEW: What was it like to commute in Manila 100 years ago?

    August 1, 2026 · 44 min

    Just the thought of commuting around Manila is enough to set one’s teeth on edge. But do our current-day problems of congestion and overcrowding have their roots in decisions and policies made a century ago? There’s no one better to answer…

  • S8E8 Pacific Sick Ships: Medicine Aboard the Galleons

    July 18, 2026 · 18 min

    In the long journeys from Manila to Acapulco, disease was the clingy passenger no one wanted around. But it wandered around the decks, knocked on every cabin, stalked everyone on board—until one day, you woke up, and disease was just…

  • S8E7 The Fractured Plateau: Bukidnon in World War II

    July 4, 2026 · 18 min

    The word Bukidnon means “people of the mountains”, but historian Ronald K. Edgerton also gives another name for them: the people of the middle ground. As he writes in his book of the same name, “Many Bukidnons mastered the art of borrowing…

  • INTERVIEW: Making a Magellan Comedy Manga

    June 27, 2026 · 41 min

    In the offbeat manga Ferdie!, Ferdinand Magellan and Antonio Pigafetta are caught up in a storm right before they arrive in the Philippines…and find themselves transported five hundred years into the future into a place that’s beyond…

  • S8E6: After the Black Ships Departed

    June 13, 2026 · 18 min

    The island of Balangingi stands halfway between Borneo and Mindanao. Surrounding Balangingi were sharp reefs and surging cross-currents that would be lethal to any boatman… except for the Balangingi Samal, of course. Surrounding the main…

  • S8E5: Rajio TaisĹŤ; Or, How to Get Fit in a Time of War

    May 29, 2026 · 16 min

    At seven o’clock on the dot, a high-pitched Japanese voice blared out from speakers and switched-on radios all across the archipelago. The program came on like clockwork, chirping in immediately after every station signed on for the day—a…

  • INTERVIEW: Restoring historical markers with Project Panandito

    May 23, 2026 · 51 min

    You pass by them every day: plaques of metal set onto walls and plinths, heavy with text and history. You may have wondered—how do you maintain these historical markers? A group of students in the University of the Philippines Diliman…

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About the show

Lost stories from 🇵🇭 history 🔊 Narrative nonfiction pod 📖 Book version published by @factionpress 📻 Written, produced, engineered by @liomangubat