Curated playlist

Countries in Asia

JapanJapan sealed itself off from the outside world for more than two centuries.
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia is named after one family, the Al Saud. King Abdulaziz made the name official by decree in 1932.
KuwaitIn August 1990, Iraqi forces invaded and annexed Kuwait without warning. Retreating soldiers set oil wells on fire.
UzbekistanUzbekistan touches no coast, and every country bordering it is landlocked too.
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan lies farther from the sea than any other individual country on Earth. Even its rivers cannot reach an ocean, because every one of them empties into a closed drainage system. Yet this landlocked nation in the mountains of Central…
CambodiaCambodia's Tonle Sap lake swells to nearly ten times its dry-season size each year.
TajikistanTajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, was once a mountain town of roughly 1,000 residents. Now it has 1.24 million people.
TurkmenistanTurkmenistan banned satellite dishes the same month it launched its first satellite. That was April 2015.
CyprusIn March 2008, a wall that had cut across Ledra Street in the heart of Nicosia was demolished. The wall had stood for decades, and it had come to symbolise a division of the island that lasted 32 years. On the 3rd of April 2008, Ledra…
OmanIn 2010, the United Nations Development Programme named Oman the most improved country in the world over the preceding 40 years. That is a striking verdict for a nation on the southeastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, facing the Arabian…
JordanJordan holds the world's oldest known evidence of bread-making.
KazakhstanKazakhstan was the last Soviet republic to declare independence. It did so on the 16th of December 1991.
LaosBetween 1964 and 1973, American planes dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos.
Georgia (country)In 2005, Georgia fired its entire traffic police force of around 30,000 officers.
BahrainBahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia, close to the western shore of the Persian Gulf. In 2024 its population stood at 1,588,670 people. Of these, 848,934 were expatriates, or 53.4 percent, and only…
PakistanPakistan's name began as an acronym in a 1933 student pamphlet. Choudhry Rahmat Ali published it in Now or Never.
MalaysiaMalaysia's king is elected by and from nine hereditary rulers, for a five-year term.
AfghanistanPersians, Mongols, British, Soviets and Americans all marched into Afghanistan, and each marched out.
SyriaIn December 2024, rebels took Damascus and ended the Assad family's 53-year rule of Syria.
QatarQatar is smaller than Connecticut but holds the world's third-largest natural gas reserves.
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan's name once belonged only to a region of northwestern Iran. Before 1918, no country used it.
IndonesiaMore than half of Indonesia's people live on one island, Java. It is the most heavily populated island in the world.
SingaporeIn 1965, Malaysia's Parliament voted 126 to 0 to expel Singapore from its federation. It had joined in 1963.
United Arab EmiratesIn 2021, the United Arab Emirates sent a probe named Hope into Mars orbit. It was the first Arab country to reach Mars.
IraqIraq's land gave the world writing, the wheel and the sailboat.
BhutanBhutan began mining bitcoin in 2019 using power from its rivers. By November 2024 it held around 12,206 BTC.
MongoliaMongolia is the most sparsely populated sovereign state on Earth.
NepalIn September 2025, protests over a social media ban in Nepal forced the prime minister to resign.
LebanonLebanon takes its name from a Phoenician root, lbn, which means white. The word apparently describes the snow on its mountain peaks. The name is far older than the modern country. It turns up in Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of…
ArmeniaArmenia is a landlocked country in the Armenian highlands of West Asia, and its best-loved mountain stands outside its borders. Mount Ararat rises 5,137 meters, or 16,854 feet, making it the highest mountain in the region. It now lies in…
BruneiBrunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, may owe its name to a shout of recognition. According to local tradition, a ruler named Awang Alak Betatar left Garang, in the Temburong District, and moved to the estuary of the Brunei River around AD…
Timor-LesteOn the 20th of May 2002, Timor-Leste became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century. Its official name is the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and many people still call it East Timor. The country is oddly assembled. It holds…
ChinaChina gave the world papermaking, printing, the compass and gunpowder.
ThailandThailand avoided European rule by bending like bamboo in the wind. It ceded land but never fell.
IsraelIsrael sits at one of the strangest addresses on the planet. Its eastern side drops to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth. Its western coast meets the Mediterranean, and its southern tip touches the Red Sea. On land…
PhilippinesThe Philippines records about five earthquakes a day, though most are too weak to be felt.
IranIranian students seized the US embassy in 1979 and held 52 hostages for 444 days.
BangladeshBangladesh became a country only on the 16th of December 1971. Its land was once called the breadbasket of India.
EgyptAbout 99% of Egyptians live on roughly 5.5% of the country's land. The rest is desert and scattered oases.
MyanmarMyanmar has two names, and choosing between them is a political statement. The military renamed Burma in 1989.
RussiaRussia spans eleven time zones, more than any other country. Its borders touch fourteen nations.
TurkeyAlmost everyone in Turkey lives with some risk of earthquakes. Two major fault lines border the Anatolian plate.
VietnamVietnam has a cave with a rainforest inside it. Hang Sơn Đoòng has caverns big enough to hold a 40-story skyscraper.
IndiaIndia is both the most populous country and the most populous democracy. More than 1.4 billion people live there.
Sri LankaThe English word serendipity comes from an old Arab name for Sri Lanka. Travelers knew the island as Sarandīb.
MaldivesOne Maldives president held a cabinet meeting underwater. Mohamed Nasheed did it in 2009 to raise climate awareness.