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The Conversation

The Conversation Documentaries (formerly The Anthill) is podcast from The Conversation UK. Our documentary series cover everything from science to the environment, politics, culture and economics. We unearth new stories from the world of academia and talk to experts to shed light on some of the big questions of today. The Conversation is a not-for-profit independent media organisation and our journalists work with academics to help share their research knowledge with as many people as possible.

The Anthill

Scam factories is a special three-part series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to work in these scam factories. Many were trafficked there and forced into criminality by defrauding people around the world.

The Conversation collaborated for this series with three researchers: Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne, Ling Li, a PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Mark Bo, an independent researcher. 

In episode 1, our researchers travel to a village in Cambodia called Chrey Thom to see what these compounds look like. And we hear from two survivors about how they were recruited into compounds in Laos and Myanmar. 

This podcast series was first aired in February 2025 on The Conversation Weekly podcast. In June 2025 it won Best Investigative Podcast series at the Publisher Podcast Awards. 

The series was written and produced by Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design by Michelle Macklem. Leila Goldstein was our producer in Cambodia and Halima Athumani recorded for us in Uganda. Hui Lin helped us with Chinese translation. Editing help from Justin Bergman and Ashlynee McGhee. 

Locked in: the inside story of Southeast Asia's fraud compounds‘It seemed like a good job at first’: how people are trafficked, trapped and forced to scam in Southeast Asia – Scam Factories podcast, Ep 1

Scam Factories Ep 1: No skills required

A few weeks after Ben Yeo travelled to Cambodia for what he thought was a job in a casino, he found himself locked up in a padded room. “It’s a combination between a prison and a madhouse,” he remembers. He was being punished for refusing to conduct online scams.

Scam Factories is a podcast and multimedia series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. The Conversation collaborated for this series with three researchers: Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne, Ling Li, a PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Mark Bo, an independent researcher. 

In the second episode, Inside the Operation, we explore the history of how scam compounds emerged in Southeast Asia and who is behind them. We hear about the violent treatment people receive inside through the testimonies of two survivors, Ben, and another man we're calling George to protect his real identity. 

This podcast series first aired in February 2025 on The Conversation Weekly. In June 2025 it won Best Investigative Podcast series at the Publisher Podcast Awards. 

The series was written and produced by Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design by Michelle Macklem. Leila Goldstein was our producer in Cambodia and Halima Athumani recorded for us in Uganda. Hui Lin helped us with Chinese translation. Editing help from Justin Bergman and Ashlynee McGhee. 

Rise of an industry: part 2 of Scam FactoriesLocked in: the inside story of Southeast Asia's fraud compounds

Scam Factories Ep 2: Inside the operation

Every day that he was locked up in a scam compound in Southeast Asia, George thought about how to get out. "We looked for means of escaping, but it was hard," he said. 

Scam Factories is a podcast series taking you inside Southeast Asia's brutal fraud compounds. It accompanies a series of multimedia articles on The Conversation.

In our third and final episode, Great Escapes, we find out the different ways survivors manage to escape, what it takes for them to get home, and what is being done to clamp down on the industry. 

This podcast series first aired in February 2025 on The Conversation Weekly. In June 2025 it won Best Investigative Podcast at the Publisher Podcast Awards. 

The series was written and produced by Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design by Michelle Macklem. Leila Goldstein was our producer in Cambodia and Halima Athumani recorded for us in Uganda. Hui Lin helped us with Chinese translation. Editing help from Justin Bergman and Ashlynee McGhee. 

Getting out of Southeast Asia's scam factoriesFrom empty fields to locked cities: the rise of a billion-dollar criminal industry‘We could hear the screams until midnight’: life inside Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds

Scam Factories Ep 3: Great Escapes

Welcome to The Anthill – a new podcast that unearths some of the best research from the world of academia.

Introducing a new podcast from The Conversation UK

A podcast on time: telling it, perceiving it, doing it and travelling through it.

Anthill 1: About time

A special episode of the Anthill, a podcast from The Conversation, on the referendum on Britain's EU membership.

Anthill 2: Brexit special

From football to the space race and folklore to the forest, here's why you should back the little guy.

Anthill 3: Rooting for the underdog

The fourth episode of our podcast takes on fuel – from Olympic diets to conflict over oil in the Niger Delta.

Anthill 4: Fuel

In this first of two podcasts, listen in to hear about the rebooting of a Syrian rebel group, an old drug and your computer.

Anthill 5: Reboot – part 1

In part two of our podcast on rebooting, we explore what would happen if humanity was wiped out, take a look at a political comeback in France, and get a taste of a revamped US institution.

Anthill 5: Reboot – part 2

In the second episode of Know Your Place: what happened to class in British politics, host Laura Hood, senior politics editor at The Conversation, looks back at a century of class in British politics to understand why Tony Blair's decision to move Labour away from the working class was such a watershed moment. 

Featuring Mark Garnett, senior lecturer in politics at Lancaster University, Martin Farr, senior lecturer in contemporary British history at Newcastle University and Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. Plus interviews with former Labour MPs Reg Race and David Hanson, who is now a member of the House of Lords and minister of state for the Home Office.

Know your place is a series supported by the National Centre for Social Research. It's produced and mixed by Anouk Millet for The Conversation. Full credits available here.

The Conversation Documentaries, formerly The Anthill podcast, is home to in-depth audio series from The Conversation UK, a not-for-profit independent news organisation. Find out more and donate here. And consider signing up for our free daily newsletter.

Further reading

Can Kemi Badenoch claim to have ‘become working class’ while working in McDonald’s – and why would she want to?Age, not class, is now the biggest divide in British politics, new research confirmsThatcher helped people to buy their own homes – but the poorest paid the price

Know Your Place part 2: a history of class politics

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