The Chicken-Neck Podcast

About The Chicken-Neck Podcast

The Chicken-Neck, is North - East India's first policy based podcast offering an informed take on culture, language, food, clothes, history, politics, law, policy and many more. Designed and started with a team of three, the podcast offers interviews of some of the most enthralling and fascinating people living and working for the North-East India.

Publisher

Shubham, Neil, Animesh

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Mar 2021

Latest episode

7 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

50 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Aug 2026

   TCN - Yandaboo and the Making of Modern Manipur - Pradip Phanjoubam

   What did the Treaty of Yandaboo of 1826 truly mean for Manipur-and why does its legacy continue to shape the politics, identities, and administrative realities of Northeast India nearly two centuries later? In the second episode of the Yandaboo Treaty Series, host Samrat Choudhary-journalist, author, and academic-is joined by Pradip Phanjoubam, one of the Northeast's foremost public intellectuals, senior journalist, and Editor of the Imphal Review of Arts and Politics. Drawing on his widely discussed essay "Yandaboo Treaty is now Largely Forgotten but is Pivotal in NE Modern History," Phanjoubam revisits the Treaty not merely as the conclusion of the First Anglo-Burmese War, but as a defining historical watershed that fundamentally altered the trajectory of Manipur and the wider Northeast. The conversation explores how the Treaty ended the devastating Burmese occupation remembered in Manipur as Chahi Taret Khuntakpa (Seven Years of Devastation), restored the kingdom while simultaneously ushering in British political dominance across the region, and laid the foundations for a new colonial order whose legacies continue to influence contemporary Northeast India. Together, the speakers examine how British frontier policies, the creation of the Inner Line, differentiated systems of administration for the hills and valleys, and evolving notions of sovereignty and statehood emerged in the aftermath of Yandaboo-questions that remain deeply relevant to present-day debates on governance, identity, and federalism. Moving beyond conventional narratives, the episode situates the Treaty of Yandaboo within the broader geopolitical history of South and Southeast Asia, reflecting on how a diplomatic agreement signed in a small Burmese village transformed the destinies of kingdoms, redrew political relationships, and shaped the modern Northeast in ways that continue to resonate today. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the podcast are those of the individual podcasters. Listener discretion is advised. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can listen to our show on all streaming platforms by clicking on the link: - The Chicken-Neck Podcast | Bingepods - Best Indian podcasts.

2. 

   1 Jun 2026

   TCN - Treaty of Yandaboo : The events that reshaped North East India - Sangeeta Baroaah Pisharoty & Samrat Choudhury

   As the Northeast approaches the bicentenary of the historic Treaty of Yandabo (1826), we begin a special podcast series exploring one of the most consequential yet often overlooked turning points in South Asian history. In the inaugural episode, “The Treaty of Yandabo: The Turning Point That Reshaped Northeast India,” we are joined by two distinguished voices on the region’s history and politics - Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, senior journalist, author, and National Affairs Editor at The Wire, and Samrat Choudhury, journalist, author, and writer of Northeast India: A Political History. Together, they unpack the dramatic events that led to the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826), the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo in a small village on the Irrawaddy River, and the far-reaching consequences that followed. The conversation examines how the treaty altered the political fate of Assam, Manipur, and the wider Northeast, transformed regional power dynamics, accelerated British colonial expansion, and laid the foundations of many geopolitical realities that continue to shape the region today. From Burmese imperial ambitions and British strategic calculations to questions of borders, identity, memory, and colonial governance, this episode traces how a single treaty became a defining moment in the making of modern Northeast India. It also explores how the treaty is remembered differently across India, Myanmar, and Western historical narratives, and whether Yandabo represented a diplomatic settlement or merely the first step in a larger imperial project. As we mark 200 years of the Treaty of Yandabo, this special series aims to revisit its legacy through multiple perspectives. In the coming weeks, we will feature leading historians, journalists, researchers, and subject experts discussing the political, cultural, legal, military, and international dimensions of the treaty that reshaped an entire region. Join us as we revisit 1826 and uncover why the Treaty of Yandabo remains central to understanding the history, borders, and identities of Northeast India today. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the podcast are those of the individual podcasters. Listener discretion is advised. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can listen to our show on all streaming platforms by clicking on the link: - The Chicken-Neck Podcast | Bingepods - Best Indian podcasts

3. 

   4 Apr 2026

   TCN - Roots of Extraction: Oil Palm, Power, and the Politics of Land in the Northeast - Roderick Wijunamai

   In episode 4 of season 5, we are joined by Mr. Roderick Wijunamai, a PhD scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University, USA, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Highland Institute, Kohima. His work sits at the intersection of political ecology, agrarian change, and Indigenous studies, where he closely examines how ecological transformations are reshaping food systems and livelihoods in the Indo-Myanmar borderlands. Drawing from immersive fieldwork across Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram, this conversation unpacks the complex and often unsettling story of oil palm expansion in Northeast India. What emerges is not a simple narrative of development but a layered inquiry into a crop that is at once a promise and a provocation. We explore whether oil palm is truly a pathway to economic self-sufficiency or a looming ecological disruption - probing its implications for health, environment, and indigenous ways of life. Situating this within a longer historical arc, the episode traces how India’s dependence on edible oil imports has shaped the sudden push toward oil palm cultivation in the region. Through an anthropological lens, Roderick invites us to see palm oil beyond its materiality - as a financial commodity, a state-driven project, and a deeply contested site where national economic ambitions collide with indigenous geographies and lived realities. At the heart of this discussion lies a more difficult question: how does one write about these tensions ethically? As an anthropologist, how do you protect interlocutors, navigate anonymity, and represent a reality where an “environmentally unsustainable plantation” may simultaneously offer tangible financial benefits to local communities? Tune in to unpack these layered questions and reimagine how we understand development, ecology, and lived realities in the borderlands. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the podcast are those of the individual podcasters. Listener discretion is advised. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can listen to our show on all streaming platforms by clicking on the link: - The Chicken-Neck Podcast | Bingepods - Best Indian podcasts

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

27 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

34

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51