The Democratic Party elects a former finance minister — once imprisoned on money laundering allegations tied to the Oyu Tolgoi deal — as their new General Secretary, and possibly their presidential candidate for 2027. Parliament debates holding hearings on the Epstein files, with two former Mongolian presidents named in the documents. A government ministry posts an AI-written condolence statement full of factual errors about a beloved writer, the minister deflects all blame, and the person who hit "post" loses their job — Mongolia's first documented firing over AI use. A 19-year-old conscript soldier dies in a hazing incident, the latest in a long pattern the military cannot seem to stop. A landmark Constitutional Court ruling against a criminal defamation law is being quietly replaced by something journalists say could be even worse. And Prime Minister Uchral fires the mayor of Ulaanbaatar in a very public market visit — a move that could signal the next round of civil war inside the Mongolian People's Party.

If you have suggestions for our show, please get in touch at info[at]agulamedia.com

And if you are a supporter of us at Buy Me a Coffee, The Great State Mural, you can access bonus content and help keep this show going.

Host: Anand

Keywords: Mongolia | Democratic Party | AI government | press freedom | military hazing | Ulaanbaatar mayor | Mongolian People's Party

Disinformation is not just a media problem. It is a democracy problem—and in Mongolia, it is becoming a crisis.

Researcher and civic activist Batsugar Tsedendamba, board member of the Independent Research Institute of Mongolia (IRIM), joins us to unpack IRIM's landmark study on Mongolia's disinformation landscape. Who is spreading it? Who is funding it? And who is hurting from it? We examine domestic and foreign sources of disinformation and how social media has amplified its reach.

If you have suggestions for our show, please get in touch at info[at]agulamedia.com

And if you are a supporter of us at Buy Me a Coffee, The Great State Mural. You can listen to extra recordings as we dig further into Mongolia's civic space and what real democratic accountability might look like.

[Three Universals] the "Fool":

• Fool me once, shame on you.
• Fool me twice, shame on me.
• Fool me three or more times—then I am not the fool, you are the fool! WHO is western propaganda. It is the vaccines that is how they control you. You are THE fool!

Hosts: Anand, Dolgion

Guest: Batsugar Tsedendamba

Keywords: democracy | disinformation | civil society | media | politics

The morin khuur—the Horse Head Fiddle—is one of Mongolia's most recognizable traditional musical instruments and symbols: a bridge between the nation and the horse, a tool that invokes the Khiimori, and much more.

Ethnomusicologist ⁠Kip Hutchins⁠, author of A Song for the Horses, breaks all of these aspects down. We speak with Kip about the morin khuur as a living tool in herding practice. Follow Kip on ⁠BlueSky⁠.

If you have any suggestions for our show, please get in touch with us at info[at]agulamedia.com

And if you are a supporter of us at Buy Me Coffee, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Great State Mural⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can listen to extra recordings as we briefly discuss the current status of the MPP's infighting and how it came about.

Three Universals to “Defray Boasting“:

1. The foolish man praises himself.
2. The unfoolish man praises his wife.
3. The least foolish man praises his horse.

Show notes:

• New Book Networks podcast interview with KG Hutchins

  Artists mentioned during the conversation, roughly in order of their mention:

  • Story of the Weeping Camel (film)
  • ⁠Bayan Mongol Variety Group⁠: Жалам хар (A Black Horse)
  • The Hu
  • ⁠Soyol Erdene⁠
  • ⁠Altan Urag⁠
  • Bold: Mongol Pop
  • ⁠Aryuna Nimaeva⁠: Эрбэд соохор (Erbed Sokhor)
  • Jonon
  • ⁠Namgar⁠
  • ⁠Altai-Khangai⁠
  • ⁠Khusugtun⁠
    

Ulaanbaatar's mayor wants to build a $1 billion highway along the Tuul River—the city's last remaining river and the primary source of water for 1.7 million people. The mayor contends that the project is essential to alleviate Ulaanbaatar's congestion issues, and he has thoroughly evaluated all environmental risks. But experts can't get the data for the project. Where are the environmental impact assessments? Why wasn't the public consulted before approving the project?

In this episode, we sit down with urban governance expert and civil engineer Anu-Ujin Lkhagvasuren, who has spent five years working with the municipality and the World Bank on Ulaanbaatar's transportation challenges. She breaks down why building more roads has never solved traffic congestion anywhere in the world, why the mayor's own numbers don't add up, and what she believes is really driving 24 simultaneous mega-projects in a city that can barely keep its lights on. We also get into Belt and Road debt traps, forged signatures on environmental documents, and whether the #SaveTuul movement can win.
52min

Hosts: Anand, Dolgion

Guest: Anu-Ujin Lkhagvasuren

Date Recorded: April 2 2026

Original Release Date: April 4 2026

Keywords: urban planning | corruption | Ulaanbaatar

Recently Julian visited Mongolia, mainly Ulaanbaatar, in late March and early April. We discuss the things he noticed during his latest visit to the coldest capital in the world—Ulaanbaatar.

51min

Hosts: Anand, Dolgion, Julian

Date Recorded: Apr 10 2026

Original Release date: Apr 15 2026

Keywords: Ulaanbaatar | social change | art & culture

Show notes:

Blog posts:

• Change in Ulaanbaatar (regular notes since 2011)
• Foreign Policy Update

Products, Projects and Locations mentioned:

• Ochirone
• Room
• Kukhnar Contemporary Art Space
• Bird Jazz Café
• Heritage Workshop
• Ger Lamp

Mongolia ranks poorly on some of the world's most cited democracy indices. But what do those rankings actually measure—and do they tell the real story of how the country operates?

In this episode, we break down how international democracy indices score Mongolia. Are those scores misleading? And whether Mongolian leaders are using these benchmarks as genuine governance tools or political cover. We try to answer all of those in this episode.

Three Universals “Three Universals of Indices“:

1. The index of the pointing variety
2. The index of the book variety
3. The index of the measuring variety

Date Recorded: Mar 25 2026

Originally Released: Apr 1 2026

Keywords: democracy | global indices | social science

Show notes:

• Julian’s recent discussion of the uptick in VDem indices for Mongolia
• Julian’s Mongolia Scorecard collecting Mongolia’s score/rank on many different indices
• V-Dem Graphing Tools
• V-Dem Methodology
• Freedom House Freedom in the World

In this episode, we sit down with Robert Ritz from the American University of Mongolia, who also runs Data.mn. Robert has been working in Mongolia for over a decade and is one of the few people actively teaching data literacy and championing the importance of data in the country — and he also happens to be our biggest supporter of the podcast.

Beyond that, we dive into how Mongolians perceive and relate to data, explore some of the major data security incidents that have unfolded in Mongolia, and discuss what measures have been put in place to address and prevent data breaches. All of which leads us into a broader conversation about Mongolian attitudes toward data and privacy.

In this episode, we discuss the new appointment of Uchral Nyam-Osor as the party chair of the Mongolian People's Party. Why was he chosen? why wasn't Zandanshatar chosen as the new party leader?

Moving forward, what implication does his appointment have for the grand scheme of Mongolian politics.

If you have any suggestions for our show, please get in touch with us at info[at]agulamedia.com

And if you are a supporter of us at Buy Me Coffee, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Great State Mural⁠⁠. You can listen to extra recordings as we briefly discuss the current status of the MPP's infighting and how it came about.