Sparks Interviews and Podcasts

->for events after 2023, please see this site’s regular “Speaking and Media” page.  

The San Francisco Experience Podcast
28 November 2023

An interview with former tech investor and podcast guru Jim Herlihy. Listen to our conversation here.

The Spectator “Chinese Whispers” Podcast
13 Nov 2023

“Battling the official narrative–China’s underground historians.” A wonderfully concise interview with Cindy Yu of The Spectator for her Chinese Whispers podcast. Listen to it here.

NPR Book of the Day
31 October 2023

An 11-minute interview with NPR Beijing correspondent, John Ruwitch. Listen to it here. 

SOAS China in Context
11 October 2023

A snappy 15-minute interview with Duncan Bartlett. Listen here.

The Wire China Q&A
8 October 2023

An extended interview with The Wire China’s Katrina Northrop on Sparks, writing, and journalism. Read it here.

The Foreign Affairs Podcast
7 October 2023

A sharp, focused talk with Dan Kurz-Phelan on China’s Underground Historians, with a special focus on a FA piece I recently wrote on Xi’s “Age of Stagnation.” Listen to the podcast here.

Australian Broadcasting
29 September 2023

an in-depth 23-minute interview on the “Saturday Extra” show with Geraldine Doogue. Please listen to it here.

Georgetown University Law School
29 September 2023

A talk with Emily Matson of Georgetown Unversity’s history department about Sparks, co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service Asian Studies Program, Center for Asian Law at Georgetown Law, and Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues.

Watch the video on YouTube here.

NPR’s “Here and Now”
26 September 2023

One of U.S. public radio’s best-known hosts, Scott Tong, interviews Ian about Sparks and talks about his own family’s experiences in a Chinese laogai camp. Listen here.

The China Power Podcast
26 September 2023

An interview with Bonny Lin of CSIS on what China’s underground history movement means for China’s future. Listen to it here.

Sinica Podcast
21 September 2023

An in-depth interview with Kaiser Kuo of The China Project’s “Sinica” podcast. ” Johnson argues that the efforts of China’s “counter-historians” have managed to survive the stepped-up efforts of Xi Jinping to control the historical narrative completely.” Listen to the show here.