Business News · Jonas Prien, Thorsten Gutmann & Thomas Baier

Steppe Ahead - The Central Asia Podcast

by Jonas Prien, Thorsten Gutmann & Thomas Baier

Steppe Ahead – The Central Asia Podcast Insights from the heart of Eurasia By Jonas Prien, Thorsten Gutmann and Thomas Baier Central Asia is one of the world’s most dynamic and most overlooked regions. With ambitious young people, rapidly growing economies, dynamic investments, and some of the world’s most strategic trade routes and natural resources crossing its vast landscape, the region is becoming increasingly important to global business and geopolitics. Still, it receives the attention it deserves. Steppe Ahead aims to change that! Each episode explores key developments shaping Central Asia from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. The podcast breaks down markets, politics, and regional trends through the perspectives of regional experts. For anyone who wants to understand Central Asia before it becomes impossible to ignore. New episodes? Whenever the region gives us something worth talking about!

Latest episodes

Showing 9 · updated from the feed

Football Revolution: Uzbekistan Leads Central Asia to the World Stage

Jonas and Thomas record a special football-focused Steppe Ahead podcast. They discuss Uzbekistan qualifying for its first World Cup in the expanded 2026 tournament and pr

May 20
33 min

Team Astana: Successful Sports Branding & Humboldt in Central Asia

In this episode of the Steppe Ahead Podcast, Jonas and Thomas discuss Alexander von Humboldt’s 1829 expedition through Russia and into Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan’s cycling

Apr 27
37 min

Nazerke Kalidolda on Leaving Google, Failing Forward & Investing in Central Asia

She won coding olympiads as a teenager, published robotics research at 20, landed at Google, quit to found a startup that failed, built a mentorship platform for Kazakh s

Apr 19
38 min

Tourism Boom, Missing Central Asian Foods & Middle Corridor Trucking

In this episode of the "Steppe Ahead" podcast, Jonas Thorsten and Thomas talk about Easter traditions and Thomas's trip to a Mix Markt in Germany, where he found almost n

Apr 15
40 min

Kazakhstan’s Car Market Goes Chinese & The Rise of Local Language Apps

In this episode of the Steppe Ahead podcast, Jonas Thorsten and Thomas talk about the Kazakh car market and how Thorsten’s viral video highlighted the rapid change and wh

Apr 9
33 min

Central Asian Literature, Alatau City & EU–Central Asia Cooperation

In this episode of the Steppe Ahead podcast, Jonas shares impressions from the Leipzig Book Fair, noting 300,000 visitors and discussing Central Asian literature, includi

Apr 2
33 min

Nowruz Traditions Explained & Uzbekistan's Next Steps Towards the WTO

Jonas, Thorsten, and Thomas discuss Nowruz, the Persian “new day” spring festival, its 3,000-year-old origins, Soviet-era public ban, and current Kazakh traditions such a

Mar 22
40 min

Kazakhstan Constitutional Referendum, Uzum's Rise, and a New Fast-Food Chain in Kyrgyzstan

In this episode, Thorsten, Jonas and Thomas discuss Kazakhstan’s referendum on a new constitution that would take effect July 1, dissolve the current parliament, and trig

Mar 14
40 min

Central Asia Amid the Iran Crisis, Middle Corridor & Aral Sea Disaster

The hosts Jonas, Thorsten, and Thomas discuss how landlocked Central Asian economies rely on transit routes such as the Turkmenistan–Iran rail link and warn that disrupte

Mar 12
31 min