Indonesia has embarked on an ambitious project to build a new capital city from scratch because Jakarta is overcrowded, polluted and sinking, fast.

But the multibillion dollar new city, Nusantara, was plagued with problems from the very start. On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha talks to Bloomberg’s Faris Mokhtar about what went wrong, and what’s at stake for Southeast Asia’s largest economy if it fails.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They caused global markets to seize up – and raised serious questions about just how much money was at stake. No, we’re not talking about Nvidia’s earnings. Or the US jobs report. We’re talking about carry trades – an obscure part of international markets that’s suddenly less obscure.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, the Bloomberg Explains series continues with Bloomberg Opinion columnist Shuli Ren. She tells hosts K. Oanh Ha and David Gura about how the yen carry trade became so popular with big banks to small-time investors, what went wrong during the August markets rout and how soup dumplings are key to understanding why carry trades shouldn’t work … but do.

Read more: How Big Is the Yen Carry Trade, Really?

Further listening: Odd Lots Podcast - Bloomberg

Watch, from Bloomberg Originals: Why Japan’s Yen is So Volatile

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Call centers in the Philippines, the world’s second-biggest outsourcing center after India, are embracing artificial intelligence - and it’s radically changing what it looks and sounds like to work there.

On today's Big Take Asia Podcast, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins demos the Sanas AI app and talks to Bloomberg's Saritha Rai about the industry's rapid transition and what it might mean for workers around the world.

Read more: The World's Call Center Capital Is Gripped by AI Fever — and Fear

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Chinese businessman persuaded officials to establish a special economic zone in a remote part of Laos. The gamblers arrived first. Then came the drug runners, human traffickers and scammers.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek editor Matt Campbell about his investigation into the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone and how it became a criminal’s paradise.

Read more: Dodge City

Watch, from Bloomberg Originals: How One Man Rules in Asia's Golden Triangle

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After weeks of protests and a brutal crackdown that led to several hundred deaths, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to step down and flee the country, putting an abrupt end to her more than 15 years in power. Stepping into the leadership vacuum is Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, who we spoke to last month -- when he was facing charges that his supporters said were trumped up by Hasina.

Today on The Big Take Asia, host K. Oanh Ha speaks to Bloomberg’s Kai Schultz about what drove the student-led uprising and Hasina’s downfall, Yunus’s surprising turn to politics, and what’s at stake for one of Asia’s most promising economies.

Read more:

Yunus Cleared in Graft Case After Becoming Bangladesh Leader

Further listening:

Why This Nobel Prize Winner Faces Life Imprisonment in Bangladesh

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gautam Adani, the controversial Indian billionaire, gathered his two sons and two nephews for a family lunch one day and asked them a bombshell question: Did they want to carve up the Adani Group’s sprawling businesses between themselves and part ways? Or did they want to stick together? He gave them three months to decide.

Today on The Big Take Asia, host K. Oanh Ha talks to Bloomberg editor Anto Antony about the Adanis’ ambitious succession plan, in the wake of regulatory probes and a daring short-seller attack. We also hear from the Adanis themselves on their vision of an Adani Group without Gautam at the helm, how they’ll make decisions to manage an empire – which spans everything from airports to solar farms – and what's at stake for India’s $3.5 trillion economy.

Read more: Adani Unveils $213 Billion Succession Plan as Scrutiny Persists

Further listening: The Rise of Modi: Why India’s Leader Is So Popular – and Polarizing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Costs are rising in Japan and small businesses risk being squeezed into oblivion if they don’t figure out how to raise their prices. After decades of deflation, many small Japanese companies are out of practice on exactly how to do it.

Today on The Big Take Asia, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins talks to Bloomberg senior editor Reed Stevenson about a class he visited where people are relearning the long-lost skill of negotiation, and what a failure to raise prices at these small businesses – which make up 90% of the economy – could mean for Japan’s future.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.