Hear in Taiwan

Join Fil, Hanna and Mary Anne as they talk about South Korean influencer barred from entering Taiwan for illegal work, as well as Taiwanese music festivals including Taiwan Music Festival, and why Taiwan was ranked as cheapest place to travel for Americans in 2025. 

Pigeon whistle racing season has started in Tainan, price gouging sees a 900% increase in guesthouse prices, and a Taiwanese organized crime organization tried to select their new mob boss at a restaurant within the Legislative Yuan.

Join Amanda, Mary Anne, and Tristan as they chat about this week's more interesting news stories.

Join Mary Anne, Ching-en, and Hanna as they chat about the quirkier bits of the news that didn't make it into our reports! Tune in to find out more about an upcoming dome being built, tattoos in Taiwan, and Harry Potter!

Join Michelle, Fil, and Mary Anne in the studio as they talk about Taichung's pet plans, a brave rescue effort to save mountaineers, and a mermaid festival in Hualien!

Join Fil, Joey and Hanna, as they discuss a boat coming to Penghu that holds quality library works, a foreigner gets into altercation and fired for it, and revoking a residency of a influencer.  

This week, Amber and Mary Anne chat about some of this week's stories, including Taiwan's obesity rate, drugs in strollers, and why Taiwanese authorities are urging the public NOT to push stranded marine animals back into sea. 

In this week's episode of Hear in Taiwan, Amber and Hanna discuss some of this week's stories inluding the busting of a crime ring in Tainan, a new amendment focusing on curbing workplace bullying, and the registraation for this years dragon boat festival race. 

Tristan and Amanda join Michelle in the studio to chat about a recent upswing in diarrhea cases, the appeal of tree burials, and a limited package including a cherry blossom tour on Ali Mountain's steam locomotive!

Join Fil, Joey and Tristan as they ramble on about what they would do had they won a lottery, obsession with height requirements, especially in Asia and a man being caught after he returned a wallet without money in it. 

2025-02-16

Michelle is joined by Fil and Joey to chat about what they'd do if they won the lottery, where Taiwan falls on the world Health Care Index, and their loss of a favorite celebrity.

Michelle is joined by Fil and Mary Anne for your weekly chat about *other news in Taiwan's headlines!  Is a lower birth rate good or bad?  How should we be schooling our children?  And what happens when you don't follow the railway rules?

Fil and Hanna sit down and chat about a recent earthquake, beehive invading bear and illegal breeders and their punishments. Tune in to find out more! 

Michelle and Amanda are in the studio chatting about a new noodle restaurant, a not-so-good restaurant experience, a favorite bookseller, and why people chase snow in Taiwan!

Join Fil, Joey, and Hanna as they cover why exotic pet owners are protesting a recently proposed ban and what's going on with migrant worker women.

It's all fun, property, and relationships here in the studio as Amanda Stephens, Mary Anne Sioco, and Michelle Chiang catch up on what's been trending at the beginning of 2025. First, we discuss an "earthshakingly" popular concert in Taipei, and then how so many people have moved property? Finally, it's onto the birthrate in Taiwan again, and some of the very real (if sometimes humorous) reasons behind it. 

In this week's episode of Hear in Taiwan, Amber and Fil are getting festive chatting about Santa Claus on Kaohsiung's pedestrian crossings and even break into song! They get serious discussing a man who turned himself into police after going onto the train tracks before a train, and they also discuss adopting animals, including a party for police dogs that are retiring after years of service. 

Hosts Mary Anne Sioco and Amber Hatfield sit down and chat about trending search terms in Taiwan for 2024, a dangerous ‘pimple chicken’ toy??? and the ongoing Geminid meteor shower. Tune in to find out more! 

Hosts Amanda Stephens and Michelle Chiang are back, this time with more stories from around Taiwan. While we have a bit of a dining theme this time (plate-sized cookies, and vitamin deficiencies), we also take a break to talk about traveling on Taiwan's amazing rail systems, before the wonders of solo dining.

Michelle Chiang and Amanda Stephens sit down for another talk about four headlines that seemingly... have little to do with each other? First up is the Taiwanese travel business KKday's upcoming Asia expansion, followed by one of Taiwan Police's largest drug bust yet. Then Amanda brings up Taipei's growing holiday celebrations, and ranking in the hearts of global citizens. (We think it should rank higher!)

Amanda, Joey, and Fil all sit in to talk about their (mostly) recent trips around the world. Joey shares an idyllic moment from his children's firs international trip, Fil waxes about the comfort of old friends, and Amanda shares about her driving terrors. 

It's a full house today! Mary Anne is in the studio with Fil, Amber, and Joey to chat about marijuana, Taiwan's lottery, snapping turtles, and women harassing police? Find out more in this episode's Hear in Taiwan!

Mary Anne Sioco is in the studio with Fil Leskovsky to talk about Taiwan's public restroom awards, a lost raccoon and the four storm systems around the nation (noooo....)! Tune in to the episode to find out more! 

Michelle is in the studio with Olek and Tristan to chat at length about the recent effects of Typhoon Kong-rey and the upcoming storm, as well as who's visiting Taiwan and who tried to bring illegal items through customs!

All four Friday Rti members are back to discuss Taiwan's reinstatement of an incentive lottery for return travelers. Then, Joey invites us to compare Taiwan's MRT to those in Japan, following a Youtuber's comments on the same thing.

We brought all our Friday news crew (Amanda, Tristan, and Michelle), to welcome the newest member of our team: Joey Chou! While some of you may know him from his disk jockey days on other stations, he introduces himself here and tells us some of what he's learned since being at Rti. Then everyone tries a bold new flavor combo: Coca Cola flavored Oreos... and Oreo flavored Cola! (Yes, it's a thing!)

In this week's episode of Hear in Taiwan, Fil and Hanna discuss a Michelin awarded Mexican food in Taipei and a happy ending of a parrot love story. 

In this week's episode of Hear in Taiwan, the dynamic duo Amber and Fil are back on the mics with some monkey business. They discuss the rising human-monkey conflicts in some of Taiwan's national parks and the human-human conflicts that occurred at the recent Bruno Mars concert in Kaohsiung.

Join Michelle and Amanda in the studio to chat about the Taiwan government's new regulations regarding non-domesticated animal performances and what claw machines have to do with an illegal poker gambling ring!

Amanda, Tristan and Sam join up to talk about an unwelcome visitor to the Taipei Metro, and to say goodbye to Sam, whose summer internship is wrapping up. 

Amber and Hanna discuss a Tainan resident who's managed to make himself famous by assembling portraits of famous people out of Rubik's cubes, as well as how much damage they've probably done to their bodies by this point through the consumption of "forever chemicals" like PFAS.

Hosts Amanda Stephens and Fil Levkovsky discuss a disheartening story about signs being snatched from Olympic spectators, and a story about the what the creative cooks at Pizza Hut Taiwan have made to celebrate Qixi festival. Personal dating stories, and pitches for new Olympic rules abound.

In this week's episode, hosts Amber and Maryanne chat about coffee, and how one barista from Taiwan won the 2024 World Latte Art Championship. There's also some good news for the environment as Taiwan's drink shops begin banning plastic cups this year. 

Today, hosts Michelle Chiang and Amanda Stephens once again tackle some of the weekends biggest and craziest news stories. We discuss a man whose grenade joke didn't play well while boarding his flight, and the big announcement (as of our recording) in the U.S.A. elections.

Hosts Michelle and Amanda talk about the students sailing around Taiwan for the summer, New York's very first Din Tai Fung, and Wafer the electronics sniffing dog!

Host Amanda Stephens welcomes the English Crew's new intern Samuel Feng! We discuss the president adopting a 3-legged pooch for the greater good, and how the Amis made a replica boat that went all the way to Green Island.

Mary Anne, Hanna and Ching-en chat about UFO sightings in Taiwan, aliens and the different conspiracy theories about them! They later come back to what's happening locally in the south of Taiwan with Kaohsiung's Indigenous tribes. Join in on the fun and tune in! 

Michelle and Hanna talk about honest sanitation workers, Taichung's self-proclaimed otaku hero, and a baker's dozen of sea turtles set free off the shore of Penghu.

Join Amanda and Tristan as they revisit some of the more lighthearted news that came about from Taiwan's 2024 Dragon Boat festival celebrations. They discuss dragon boat racing, and the interesting substitution for egg standing that happened in Pintung county.

Join Fil and Hanna as they discuss Pizza Hut's brilliant (?) marketing and closure of four universities due to decreasing population.