I’m still trying to put the pieces back together too. I built my career around Central Asia, and now wonder if there will ever be anything there that can make ends meet. I have many meaningful relationships throughout the region that I don’t know how to nurture. Hang in there. It’s tough out there.

I'm not saying there aren't legitimate reasons to pursue critical minerals in the region too. There definitely are. I just hope someone will be following the money.

Thanks, John! Love the book and my copy of it.

For a less academic side of things, you can check out the Dop Soz podcast, which sometimes touches on this. I don't speak Kazakh, but the Russian-speaking guests are great. The way this podcast handles language is illustrative of the changes happening in Kazakhstan. www.youtube.com/@DOPESOZ/vid...

A lot of the good voices on this never made the switch from Twitter to Bluesky, since Bluesky still seems mostly a non-entity in Central Asia.

The group that hosts the podcast, Bashtan Bashta, has been doing decolonization stuff in Kyrgyz and Russian since before the full-scale invasion, when it all really took off. www.instagram.com/bashtan_bash...

I was very focused on this while I was still at NED. I've had less time lately to focus on this, but it is still an issue I'm passionate about. The Yurt Jurt podcast is a really strong place to start, and I'm sure following the guest speakers will only lead you to good places. yurtjurt.mave.digital