Filtra per genere
- 460 - Ep 456: Karthik Shashidhar Lives the Quantified Life
He went the IIT-IIM route, became a self-taught data genius, but then got off the treadmill to live a portfolio life. Karthik Shashidhar joins Amit Varma in episode 456 of the Seen and the Unseen to share his insights from a lifetime of looking. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Karthik Shashidhar on LinkedIn, Twitter, Mint, GitHub, Pensieve and his own website. 2. Pertinent Observations — Karthik Shashidhar's Substack. 3. Art of Data Science — Karthik Shashidhar's data Substack. 4. ADHD and Company — Karthik Shashidhar's other substack. 5. Between the Buyer and the Seller — Karthik Shashidhar. 6. Old episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Karthik Shashidhar: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 7. Gopi Gupta, Vegetarian — Karthik Shashidhar. 8. Anxiety and the Path of Least Resistance — Aella. 9. Coming Back To Me — Marcus Trescothick. 10. My learnings (for myself) from Babbage Insight — Karthik Shashidhar. 11. What Our Genes and Phones Tell Us — Episode 117 of Everything is Everything. 12. Marginal Revolution and EconLog. 13. Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science — Andrew Gelman's blog. 14. Junk Charts — Kaiser Fung's blog. 15. Thirty to twenty nine — Karthik Shashidhar's 2011 post after quitting his job. 16. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Studs and Fighters — Karthik Shashidhar. 18. AlphaZero defeats Stockfish: Quick thoughts — Karthik Shashidhar. 19. From Strength to Strength — Arthur Brooks. 20. Roam Research. 21. London taxi drivers and bus drivers: a structural MRI and neuropsychological analysis — Eleanor Maguire, Katherine Woollett and Hugo Spiers. 22. Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain – Here's how to do it — Neal Stephenson. 23. Project Thirty, Hippies and Capitalism — Karthik Shashidhar. 24. Liquidity — Karthik Shashidhar. 25. Correlations: In Traffic, Mortgages and Everything Else — Karthik Shashidhar. 26. Social Desirability Bias: How Psych Can Salvage Econo-Cynicism — Bryan Caplan. 27. Binders full of women — Karthik Shashidhar. 28. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 29. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics — Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. What Maharashtra wants: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 — Karthik Shashidhar's five-part series. 31. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 32. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Rafa and the Ranatunga Principle — Karthik Shashidhar. 34. 2024 Commencement Address by Roger Federer at Dartmouth. 35. Amit's Pomodoro clock. 36. The Misbehavior of Markets — Benoit Mandlebrot. 37. Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Amazon. 38. The Selfish Gene — Richard Dawkins. 39. The Baroque Cycle — Neal Stephenson. 40. Deep Work — Cal Newport. 41. Number of the Beast, Painkiller, Ride the Lightning. 42. Rust Covers Diamonds — Karthik Shashidhar's playlist. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Life, Understood' by Simahina.
Mon, 02 Nov 2026 - 3h 46min - 459 - Ep 455: Puliyabaazi and the Fine Art of Hindi Podcasting
It is difficult to talk about economics and policy and philosophy in our languages -- but it is important, and the discourse needs it. Pranay Kotasthane, Saurabh Chandra and Khyati Pathak join Amit Varma in episode 455 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the sense of purpose behind their iconic Hindi podcast Puliyabaazi, and the lessons they learnt from it. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Khyati Pathak on Twitter, Instagram, Substack and her own website of comics. 2. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 3. Saurabh Chandra on LinkedIn and Twitter. 4. Puliyabaazi. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 6. Making Policy Fun with Khyati Pathak and Friends — Episode 374 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil). 8. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. The Ideas of Gandhi -- Episode 545 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 10. Indians Dads Going to School. 11. The Nurture Assumption — Judith Rich Harris. 12. The Blank Slate — Steven Pinker. 13. Very Bad Wizards. 14. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 15. भारतीय भाषाओँ में हमारे अतीत के सुराग़. Clues to our past in Indian languages ft. Peggy Mohan -- Puliyabaazi. 16. यह लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? Foundational Ideas of Liberalism -- Amit Varma on Puliyabaazi. 17. Yamini Aiyar on Puliyabaazi: 1, 2. 18. Special Episode: संविधान का मुखड़ा -- Puliyabaazi. 19. Premchand Ki Amar Sahitya Collection (Hindi) -- Munshi Premchand. 20. Sanskriti Ke Char Adhyay (Hindi) -- Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'. 21. Puliyabaazi courses on YouTube. 22. Why Is India's Liquor Policy So Weird? -- Puliyabaazi. 23. स्टार्ट-अप करें तो कैसे? How to Start-Up ft. Saurabh Chandra -- Puliyabaazi. 24. Divya Prakash Dubey: Ek Jeevani — Episode 399 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Harishankar Parsai on Amazon and Wikipedia. 26. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla. 27. नई वाली हिंदी कहानियाँ। The Art of Storytelling ft. Divya Prakash Dubey -- Puliyabaazi. 28. Story Jam -- Arti Jain. 29. गांधी टैगोर की पुलियाबाज़ी. The Gandhi Tagore Debates -- Puliyabaazi. 30. Pranay Kotasthane's Mindmap about the Gandhi-Tagore debates. 31. The Mahatma and the Poet — Edited & Compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 32. विज्ञान का विज्ञान। The Scientific Method ft. Nihar Shah -- Puliyabaazi. 33. रेत का दिमाग़: मस्तिष्क से प्रेरित इंजीनियरिंग. Neuromorphic Computing ft. Chetan Thakur -- Puliyabaazi. 34. 1857 की लड़ाई का आँखों देखा हाल. An Eyewitness Account of the 1857 War -- Puliyabaazi. 35. अश्वशास्त्र. The Story of the Horse in India -- Puliyabaazi. 36. The Dominance of War-Elephants in India. हाथियों का युद्ध में इस्तेमाल। -- Puliyabaazi. 37. Puliyabaazi episodes on BR Ambedkar. 38. Thoughts on Linguistic States -- BR Ambedkar. 39. The Grammar of Anarchy — BR Ambedkar. 40. Parchaiyan (Wikipedia, YouTube), Tanhaiyaan (Wikipedia, YouTube), Dhoop Kinare (Wikipedia, YouTube) and Doctor Bahu (YouTube). 41. पाकिस्तान का आर्थिक सफ़र। Understanding Pakistan's Economic Challenges ft. Uzair Younus -- Puliyabaazi. 42. मिलिट्री-जिहादी कॉम्प्लेक्स:पाकिस्तान का दूसरा चेहरा. The Pakistani Military-Jihadi Complex -- Puliyabaazi. 43. Puliyabaazi episodes on the constitution. 44. सिर्फ राजनेताओं ने नहीं, भारतीय जनमानस ने हमारा संविधान पिरोया है। How Public Movements Shaped Indian Constitutionalism? ft. Rohit De and Ornit Shani -- Puliyabaazi. 45. क्या खून बेचना वैध होना चाहिए? Should Paid Blood Donations be Legal? -- Puliyabaazi. 46. एक देश, एक परीक्षा और अंतहीन दबाव: क्या वाकई कोई और रास्ता नहीं है? One Nation, One Exam, One Deep Crisis -- Puliyabaazi. 47. Anand Unni's podcast. 48. Thale-Harate Kannada Podcast. 49. John Mayer and Ed Sheeran discuss watches. 50. The Devil's Dictionary — Ambrose Bierce. 51. Kafan (Hindi) -- Mushi Premchand. 52. हिंदी साहित्य का स्वाद: कविता, कहानियाँ और किस्से। A Brief History of Hindi Literature ft. Arun Jee -- Puliyabaazi. 53. पुलियाबाज़ी वाली हिंदी का मतलब क्या? How Do We Discuss New Ideas in Hindi? -- Puliyabaazi. 54. पंडित नेहरू का 15 अगस्त 1947 का 'किस्मत से एक बाज़ी' वाला ऐतिहासिक भाषण -- Jawaharlal Nehru's 'Kismat se Baazi' speech. 55. Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai -- Uma Chakravarti. 56. The Pakistan Experience -- Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. 57. The Complete Robot -- Isaac Asimov. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Puliyabaazi' by Simahina.
Mon, 19 Oct 2026 - 3h 22min - 458 - Ep 454: The Ideas of Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi's ideas shaped modern India, and were as fiercely contested in his time as they are today. Ramachandra Guha joins Amit Varma in episode 454 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss Gandhi and his arguments. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ramachandra Guha on Amazon, Twitter and his own website. 2. Arguments With Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 3. Ram and Friends -- Episode 440 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Ram Guha Writes a Letter to a Friend — Episode 371 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life — Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game — Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 7. Taking Stock of Our Republic — Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 8. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 9. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 10. Gandhi Before India -- Ramachandra Guha. 11. Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World -- Ramachandra Guha. 12. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 13. Hind Swaraj -- MK Gandhi. 14. An Autobiography — MK Gandhi. 15. The Good Boatman -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 16. The Multitudes of Mahatma Gandhi -- Episode 10 of Watching the Wheels. 17. Small Doors Into the Large Rooms of India -- Episode 450 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and RSJ). 18. Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. 19. The Mahatma and the Poet -- Edited by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 20. The Grammar of Anarchy — BR Ambedkar. 21. Stride Toward Freedom -- Martin Luther King Jr. 22. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: Fountainhead of fundamentalism in India -- B Jeyamohan. 23. The Flaming Feet -- DR Nagaraj. 24. BR Ambedkar interviewed by the BBC in 1955. 25. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 26. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 27. For Love of the Automobile -- Wolfgang Sachs. 28. The Simon-Ehrlich Bet. 29. Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 -- Rana Mitter. 30. China's Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism -- Rana Mitter. 31. Cecil John Rhodes in Love and War -- Jonny Steinberg. 32. Victorian Miniature -- Owen Chadwick. 33. The Mantle of the Prophet -- Roy Mottahedeh. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Motion' by Simahina.
Mon, 05 Oct 2026 - 2h 15min - 457 - Ep 453: Srikrishna Ayyangar Examines Populism
Indian politics is deeply complicated, and existing frames don't do it justice. Srikrishna Ayyangar joins Amit Varma in episode 453 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the deep dives he has made in the field, including with innovative methods like set theory. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Srikrishna Ayyangar on LinkedIn, Amazon andNLSIU. 2. A Logic of Populism: India and Its States -- Srikrishna Ayyangar. 3. Administrative Analysis -- Christopher Hood. 4. The Burden of Democracy -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 5. The Republic of Apathy (2007) -- Amit Varma. 6. Manish Sabharwal is a Good Ancestor-- Episode 451 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. 300 Ramayanas — AK Ramanujan. 8. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 9. Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Shaping the Political Arena -- Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier. 11. A Certain Idea of Europe -- Craig Parsons. 12. Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 13. From Strength to Strength — Arthur Brooks. 14. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh. 15. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama. 16. John Collison's tweet on the world being a museum of passion projects. 17. The Structures of Everyday Life -- Fernand Braudel. 18. The Design of Everyday Things -- Don Norman. 19. What is Populism? — Jan-Werner Müller. 20. Why Both Modi and Trump are Textbook Populists (2017) -- Amit Varma. 21. The Populist Playbook — Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 22. The Populist Zeitgeist -- Cas Mudde. 23. Populism: Its Meaning and National Characteristics -- Ghita Ionescu and Ernest Gellner. 24. The Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America -- Rudiger Dornbusch and Sebastian Edwards. 25. Populism: Concepts in the Social Sciences -- Paul Taggart. 26. A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens. 27. Neoliberalism and the Transformation of Populism in Latin America: The Peruvian Case -- Kenneth Roberts. 28. Populism: What's in a Name? -- Ronaldo Munck. 29. Kiran Ahluwalia Finds Our Aam Zameen -- Episode 328 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Facts Don't Matter. Stories do (2016) -- Amit Varma. 31. Barack Obama roasting Donald Trump. 32. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 33. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 34. Populism and Hindu Nationalism in India -- Ashutosh Varshney, Srikrishna Ayyangar and Siddharth Swaminathan. 35. The Logic of Social Science -- James Mahoney. 36. Ethnicity and Populist Mobilization -- Narendra Subramanian. 37. A Sixth Of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey -- Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. 38. Raja Yoga -- Swami Vivekananda. 39. Evolution of Pragmatism in India, The: An Intellectual Biography of BR Ambedkar -- Scott Stroud. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Rally' by Simahina.
Mon, 21 Sep 2026 - 3h 25min - 456 - Ep 452: Harini Nagendra is Woolgathering and Ground Truthing
The city and nature do not need to be at odds with each other; and dreamers can be doers. Harini Nagendra joins Amit Varma in episode 452 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her work in ecology, urban sustainability, detective fiction and the art of managing multitudes. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Harini Nagendra at LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Google Scholar, Amazon, Substack, Azim Premji University and her own website. 2. Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities -- Harini Nagendra & Seema Mundoli. 3. Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India's Cities -- Harini Nagendra & Seema Mundoli. 4. Nature in the City -- Harini Nagendra. 5. The Bangalore Detectives Club -- Harini Nagendra. 6. Insights on linking forests, trees, and people from the air, on the ground, and in the laboratory -- Elinor Ostrom & Harini Nagendra. 7. Polycentric governance of multifunctional forested landscapes -- Harini Nagendra & Elinor Ostrom. 8. Tree diversity, distribution, history and change in urban parks: studies in Bangalore, India -- Harini Nagendra & Divya Gopal. 9. From Bangalore's Lakes to Detective Mysteries -- Harini Nagendra interviewed on the Expressions Podcast. 10. If a city forgets itself, what lies ahead? -- Harini Nagendra interviewed on From the Marginlands. 11. Thinking ecologically about our urban future -- A talk by Harini Nagendra. 12. Our Cities are Designed For Men, By Men -- Harini Nagendra & Amrita Sen. 13. Where Have All the Women Gone? -- Episode 1 of Watching the Wheels. 14. Safety First: Perceived Risk of Street Harassment and Educational Choices of Women — Girija Borker. 15. The Life and Music of Shubha Mudgal — Episode 426 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. Elinor Ostrom at Wikipedia, Google Scholar and Econlib. 19. The Overcoat -- Nikolai Gogol. 20. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh. 21. Earwitness to Place — Bernie Krause interviewed by Erin Robinsong. 22. What Our Genes and Phones Tell Us -- Episode 117 of Everything is Everything (on alternative data). 23. Silent Spring -- Rachel Carson. 24. Tragedy of the Commons -- Garrett Hardin. 25. The Logic of Collective Action -- Mancur Olson. 26. India Awakes -- The documentary presented by Johan Norberg about, among other things, the Forest Rights Act. 27. Barun Mitra, Philosopher and Practitioner — Episode 264 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. The Hidden Life of Trees — Peter Wohlleben. 29. Ideas of India -- Shruti Rajagopalan's podcast. 30. Robin Hobb on Amazon. 31. Folktales From India -- Selected and edited by AK Ramanujan. 32. A Flowering Tree --And Other Oral Tales from India -- AK Ramanujan. 33. Mookajjiya Kanasugalu -- K Shivaram Karanth. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'My City' by Simahina.
Mon, 07 Sep 2026 - 3h 59min - 455 - Ep 451: Manish Sabharwal is a Good Ancestor
There should be more to our lives than just doing well for ourselves. Manish Sabharwal joins Amit Varma in episode 451 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey from being a successful entrepreneur to trying to change India. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Manish Sabharwal at LinkedIn and Indian Express. 2. TeamLease. 3. Kashmir Under 370: A Personal History -- Mahendra Sabharwal with Manish Sabharwal. 4. Made in India: The Story of Desh Bandhu Gupta, Lupin and Indian Pharma -- Manish Sabharwal and Sundeep Khanna. 5. A Masterclass on Regulation (and Deregulation) -- Episode 442 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 6. The Heckman Equation — a website based on James Heckman's work. 7. The Agony And The Ecstasy -- Irving Stone. 8. Lust For Life -- Irving Stone. 9. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty -- Albert O Hirschman. 10. The Passions and the Interests -- Albert O Hirschman. 11. Jailed for Doing Business: The 26,134 Imprisonment Clauses in India's Business Laws. 12. TheVishnu Sahasranama. 13. The Great Transformation -- Karl Polanyi. 14. Wealth and Power -- Orville Schell and John Delury. 15. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 16. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Lake Wobegon Days -- Garrison Keillor. 18. In Defence of Politics -- Bernard Crick. 19. The Overton Window. 20. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 21. Where Has All the Education Gone? — Lant Pritchett. 22. India After Gandhi-- Ramachandra Guha. 23. Strategy -- Lawrence Freedman. 24. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Ancestor' by Simahina.
Mon, 24 Aug 2026 - 3h 46min - 454 - Ep 450: Small Doors Into the Large Rooms of India
On Independence Day week, why not look back at some highlights and lowlights of the last 79 years? Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley join Amit Varma in episode 450 of The Seen and the Unseen, and each of them presents his list. You will find hope and despair, celebration and lament, multitudes. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley's newsletter. 3. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra & Khyati Pathak). 4. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Raghu S Jaitley). 5. Caste and the Census -- Episode 417 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Raghu S Jaitley). 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's Father's Scooter — Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. 9. Clerk -- Manoj Kumar. 10. Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. 11. AiyyoShraddha on Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. 12. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 13. Ek Chidiya, Anek Chidiya. 14. The Sporting Spirit -- George Orwell. 15. War Minus The Shooting -- Mike Marqusee. 16. India vs Pakistan, Final at Sharjah, Apr 18 1986. 17. The Soccer War -- Ryszard Kapuscinski. 18. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 19. Omkara -- Vishal Bhardwaj. 20. Gol Maal-- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 21. The Shirur Mutt case. 22. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 23. Planning Democracy — Nikhil Menon. 24. The History of the Planning Commission — Episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Menon). 25. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Aankhen To Kholo Swami. 27. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 28. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu). 30. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. Scam 1992 -- Hansal Mehta. 32. Backrooms -- Kane Parsons. 33. Pather Panchali — Satyajit Ray. 34. Court — Chaitanya Tamhane. 35. Scenes From a Situationship -- Vaibhav Munjal. 36. Amit Varma's post on the film. 37. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 38. The River -- Jean Renoir. 39. Apur Sansar -- Satyajit Ray. 40. Days & Night In The Forest — Sunil Gangopadhyay. 41. Aranyer Din Ratri — Satyajit Ray. 42. Synecdoche, New York -- Charlie Kaufman. 43. A Sixth Of Humanity -- Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. 44. Assembling India's Constitution -- Rohit De and Ornit Shani. 45. Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala. 46. Shruti Rajagopalan's YouTube talk on constitutional amendments. 47. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash. 48. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 50. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 51. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 52. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 53. The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom — David Boaz. 54. Saat Hindustani-- KA Abbas. 55. Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani -- V Shantaram. 56. Awaara and Shree 420. 57. Bambai Raat Ki Bahon Mein -- KA Abbas. 58. Faslah -- KA Abbas. 59. The 42nd Amendment. 60. What These Labels Mean — Episode 107 of Everything is Everything. 61. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 62. Shruti Rajagopalan Dives Into Delimitation — Episode 336 of The Seen and the Unseen. 63. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 64. The Tamilian Gentleman Who Took on the World — Amit Varma. 65. The Life and Times of Chess -- Episode 52 of Everything is Everything. 66. Life Lessons From Chess in 2024 -- Episode 81 of Everything is Everything. 67. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 68. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 69. Speech to the Electors of Bristol -- Edmund Burke. 70. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking -- Amit Varma on Lal Bihari Mritak. 71. The Trial -- Franz Kafka. 72. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty — Albert O Hirschman. 73. Genocide -- Anthony Mascarenhas. 74. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War — Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 75. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh -- Srinath Raghavan. 76. The 1991 Project. 77. Backstage — Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 78. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 79. Zanjeer and Deewar. 80. Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study — Thomas Sowell. 81. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 82. How the BJP wins: Inside India's Greatest Election Machine — Prashant Jha. 83. The BJP's Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 84. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma on Demonetization. 85. The Skeptical Environmentalist — Bjorn Lomborg. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Small Doors' by Simahina.
Mon, 10 Aug 2026 - 4h 56min - 453 - Ep 449: Five Assassinations and an Arms Deal
The 1980s were box office, and General K Sundarji was Forrest Gump, everywhere all at once. Probal DasGupta joins Amit Varma in episode 449 to tell the story of a fascinating man and the turbulent times he lived in. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Probal DasGupta on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Amazon. 2. General Brasstacks: The Sundarji Story -- Probal Dasgupta. 3. Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China — Probal DasGupta. 4. Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields — Probal DasGupta. 5. Of Some Consequence: A Soldier Remembers -- K Sundarji. 6. Blind Men of Hindoostan -- K Sundarji. 7. Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag -- Episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Shooting Straight: A Military Biography of Lt Gen. Rostum K Nanavatty -- Arjun Subramaniam. 9. Fair & Square interview of SK Sinha about Operation Bluestar. 10. The Light Has Gone Out -- Jawaharlal Nehru's speech after Mahatma Gandhi died. 11. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War — Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 12. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh — Srinath Raghavan. 13. Testaments Betrayed — Milan Kundera. 14. Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper -- Chander Mohan and Jyotsna Mohan. 15. Boforsgate: A Journalist's Pursuit of Truth -- Chitra Subramaniam. 16. Assignment Colombo -- JN Dixit. 17. 100 Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez (translated by Gregory Rabassa). 18. Nuremberg -- James Vanderbilt. 19. Spotlight -- Tom McCarthy. 20. Munich – The Edge of War -- Christian Schwochow. 21. The Plot Against America -- Philip Roth. 22. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny -- Kiran Desai. 23. The Indian Empire At War -- George Morton-Jack. 24. A Confederacy of Dunces -- John Kennedy Toole. 25. Until August -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 26. Portnoy's Complaint -- Philip Roth. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Five Assassinations and an Arms Deal' by Simahina.
Mon, 27 Jul 2026 - 5h 42min - 452 - Ep 448: Vidya Mahambare, the Rooted Economist
She is not an ivory tower academic but an economist whose deep understanding of society comes from lived experience and endless curiosity. Vidya Mahambare joins Amit Varma in episode 448 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life and her learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vidya Mahambare on Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Great Lakes, Mint and her own website. 2. What Shapes Us? -- Vidya Mahambare's podcast. 3. Closing the income gap -- Vidya Mahambare's column on the five Es. 4. Family structure, education and women's employment inrural India -- Sowmya Dhanaraj and Vidya Mahambare. 5. Male backlash and female guilt: women's employment and intimate partner violence in urban India -- Sowmya Dhanaraj and Vidya Mahambare. 6. Women's challenging commutes in southern India: A case of the metropolitan region of Chennai -- Vidya Mahambare and Sowmya Dhanaraj. 7. Analysing the sentiment-based variation in finance ministers' communication -- Vidya Mahambare, Akash Gupta and Sowmya Dhanaraj. 8. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 11. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 12. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane, Saurabh Chandra and Khyati Pathak's podcast. 13. What These Labels Mean -- Episode 107 of Everything is Everything. 14. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 15. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 16. India's MSME Landscape — Some Useful Frameworks — Episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sudhir Sarnobat and Narendra Shenoy). 17. What Ails Indian Manufacturing? -- Episode 104 of Everything is Everything. 18. Is Manufacturing the Answer? -- Episode 105 of Everything is Everything. 19. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Varditalya Mansachya Nondi -- Sadanand Date. 21. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. EconForEverybody -- Ashish Kulkarni's blog. 23. FSI (Floor Space Index) — Episode 11 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok). 24. Rent Control — Episode 14 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok). 25. Roofs or Ceilings -- Milton Friedman. 26. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs — Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 27. Luxury Beliefs are Status Symbols -- Rob Henderson. 28. A Matter of Life and Death -- Amit Varma. 29. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 30. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 31. Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 33. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 34. Is Your Impact Evaluation Asking Questions That Matter? A Four Part Smell Test — Lant Pritchett. 35. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 36. More from Less for More -- Raghunath Mashelkar and Sudhil Borde. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Women at Work' by Simahina.
Mon, 13 Jul 2026 - 4h 47min - 451 - Ep 447: Rahul Ahluwalia Fights for Growth and Freedom
Eight decades after independence, India still isn't free. Rahul Ahluwalia joins Amit Varma in episode 447 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain why economic growth has such a positive humanitarian impact -- and freedom lies at its heart. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rahul Ahluwalia on Twitter, LinkedIn and FED. 2. Foundation for Economic Development. 3. Growth is Good -- Rahul Ahluwalia's podcast at FED. 4. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Swaminathan Aiyar's columns at ToI and his own website. 6. Gurcharan Das's columns at ToI and his own website. 7. India Unbound — Gurcharan Das. 8. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das — Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 10. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 12. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 16. Why Freedom Matters — Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 17. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 18. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 19. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 20. The 1991 Project. 21. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 22. Gig Work is AWESOME! -- Episode 124 of Everything is Everything. 23. Reading Lolita in Tehran -- Azar Nafisi. 24. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 25. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World — Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 26. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 27. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 28. The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it -- Max Roser. 29. The Florentines -- Paul Strathern. 30. National output without government? State capacity and welfare measurement -- Vincent Geloso and Chandler Reilly. 31. Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand. 32. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith. 33. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 34. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 35. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 36. Where Has All the Education Gone? — Lant Pritchett. 37. Looking like a state: The seduction of isomorphic mimicry -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 38. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 39. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 40. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 41. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 42. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 43. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 44. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Colours of the Cage: A Prison Memoir — Arun Ferreira. 46. Shikha Dalmia Is the Unpopulist -- Episode 403 of The Seen and the Unseen. 47. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State — Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 48. Narendra Modi Takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma. 49. Horseshoe Theory and the Median Voter Theorem. 50. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working — Jonathan Rauch. 51. Denial: My 25 Years Without a Soul -- Jonathan Rauch. 52. The Logic of Collective Action -- Mancur Olson. 53. Anarchy, State and Utopia — Robert Nozick. 54. A Theory of Justice — John Rawls. 55. India After Gandhi — Ramachandra Guha. 56. Arguments for Liberty -- Edited by Aaron Ross Powell and Grant Babcock. 57. Johan Norberg on Amazon and YouTube. 58. State Building -- Francis Fukuyama. 59. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything is Everything. 60. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 61. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 62. The Profit Motive in Education — Episode 9 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Parth Shah). 63. Our Unlucky Children (2008) -- Amit Varma. 64. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) -- Amit Varma. 65. Profit = Philanthropy -- Amit Varma. 66. Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance — Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck. 67. Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction -- Huberman Lab. 68. Master Your Sleep & Be More Alert When Awake -- Huberman Lab. 69. Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker. 70. Matthew Walker on the Huberman Lab podcast. 71. The Frido 3D eye mask Amit uses. 72. John Collison's tweet on the world being a museum of passion projects. 73. The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Metallica, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden on Spotify. 74. Love Me Tender and Can't Help Falling in Love-- Elvis Presley. 75. Aaj -- Bloodywood. 76. Bekhauf-- Bloodywood (featuring BABYMETAL) 77. Coke Studio Bharat Season 2 and Season 3. 78. Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem on Spotify. 79. The Next Episode -- Dr Dre featuring Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Nate Dogg. 80. Ravi Shankar at Monterey Pop. 81. Ain't No Man Alive Can Handle Me -- Dumpster Grooves. 82. Alistair MacLean and PG Wodehouse on Amazon. 83. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams. 84. Animal Farm -- George Orwell. 85. Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 86. The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain't Learning -- Lant Pritchett. 87. Lant Pritchett On Growth, Development & Income Inequality -- FED Dialogues. 88. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 89. Random Critical Analysis. 90. Chupke Chupke -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Marketplace of Ideas' by Simahina.
Mon, 29 Jun 2026 - 4h 52min - 450 - Ep 446: The Joyful Agency of Luis Miranda
After a successful career as a banker, he decided to devote himself to making his country better off. Luis Miranda joins Amit Varma in episode 446 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss banking, India, education, healthcare, parenthood and the joy of working. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Luis Miranda on LinkedIn, Twitter, ISPP, CCS, Forbes and his own website. 2. The Indian School of Public Policy. 3. Centre for Universal Health Assurance. 4. HDFC Bank 2.0 -- Tamal Bandyopadhyay. 5. Gautam John is Figuring it Out — Episode 437 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Testaments Betrayed — Milan Kundera. 7. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. The Case For India -- Will Durant. 9. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das — Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Where Has All the Education Gone? — Lant Pritchett. 11. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 13. A Deep Dive Into Education — Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 14. Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 16. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 17. Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar — Rohini Nilekani. 18. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward — Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Closing of the American Mind -- Allan Bloom. 20. The Armchair Economist -- Steven Landsburg. 21. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 22. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 24. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 25. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 26. The 1991 Project. 27. Indian Liberals. 28. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 29. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 30. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 31. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 32. Shruti Rajagopalan's YouTube talk on constitutional amendments. 33. Saving Capitalism From The Capitalists — Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales. 34. India After Gandhi — Ramachandra Guha. 35. Luxury Beliefs. 36. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs — Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 37. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 38. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 39. On Bullshit — Harry G Frankfurt. 40. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 41. Pandemonium in India's Banks — Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay.) 42. The Innovator's Dilemma — Clayton Christensen. 43. The Evolution of Everything — Matt Ridley. 44. The Evolution of Everything — Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 45. The Nature of the Firm -- Ronald Coase. 46. Naval Ravikant on the size of a firm. 47. Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities — Alain Bertaud. 48. The Surface Area of Serendipity — Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 49. The Luck Factor: The Scientific Study of the Lucky Mind -- Richard Wiseman. 50. Fire Bird -- Perumal Murugan. 51. Billion Readers. 52. Factfulness -- Hans Rosling. 53. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 54. The Progress of Humanity -- Episode 101 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Steven Pinker). 55. Capitalisn't -- Podcast by Luigi Zingales and Bethany McLean. 56. Is a River Alive? -- Robert Macfarlane. 57. Black Butterflies -- Priscilla Morris. 58. General Brasstacks -- Probal DasGupta. 59. In Praise of Floods — James C Scott. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Stay Alive' by Simahina.
Mon, 15 Jun 2026 - 5h 20min - 449 - Ep 445: 'I Am Saloni and I Like Collecting Mice'
She's one of the best writers on science today, combining optimism about progress with a realist understanding of the messiness of our world. Saloni Dattani joins Amit Varma in episode 445 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss science, medicine, data, academia and how to make the world a better place. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Saloni Dattani at Google Scholar, Twitter, LinkedIn, Our World in Data and Works in Progress. 2. Scientific Discovery -- Saloni Dattani's newsletter. 3. Hard Drugs -- Saloni Dattani's podcast. 4. Saloni's guide to data visualization -- Saloni Dattani. 5. Four charts to understand causes of death across the lifespan -- Saloni Dattani. 6. What I've learnt about writing -- Saloni Dattani. 7. In praise of the Covid superforecasters -- Saloni Dattani. 8. The decline in cancer mortality is about much more than smoking -- Saloni Dattani. 9. Death rates from cardiovascular disease have fallen dramatically — what were the breakthroughs behind this? -- Saloni Dattani. 10. The golden age of vaccine development -- Saloni Dattani. 11. Why we didn't get a malaria vaccine sooner -- Saloni Dattani. 12. The first cancer vaccine -- Transcript of a Hard Drugs episode. 13. Measles vaccines save millions of lives each year -- Saloni Dattani. 14. Why the total fertility rate doesn't necessarily tell us the number of births women eventually have -- Saloni Dattani. 15. The rise in reported maternal mortality rates in the US is largely due to a change in measurement -- Saloni Dattani. 16. How do global statistics on suicide differ between sources? -- Saloni Dattani. 17. How many people die from snakebites? -- Saloni Dattani. 18. The Demographic and Health Surveys brought crucial data for more than 90 countries — without them, we risk darkness -- Saloni Dattani. 19. We don't have to sit back and just watch the horror unfold -- Saloni Dattani. 20. Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable -- Saloni Dattani. 21. Will AI solve medicine? -- Transcript of a Hard Drugs episode. 22. Real peer review has never been tried -- Saloni Dattani. 23. The speed of science -- Saloni Dattani. 24. Medical breakthroughs in 2025 -- Saloni Dattani. 25. Scientific progress is at risk of slowing down. Saloni Dattani is making sure it doesn't. -- Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg. 26. Innovation is not linear -- Jason Crawford. 27. Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech -- Sally Smith Hughes. 28. Missing Markets for Innovation: Evidence from New Uses for Existing Drugs -- Eric Budish, Maya Durvasula, Benjamin Roin and Heidi Williams. 29. The 100% CI. 30. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 31. How Long Do We Wait for New Inventions? -- Brian Potter. 32. Million Dollar Secret. 33. Woolly mice designed to engineer mammoth-like elephants -- Pallab Ghosh. 34. Age of Invention -- Anton Hause. 35. Million Death Study. 36. Science Fictions -- Stuart Ritchie. 37. Outliers -- Malcolm Gladwell. 38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Rukmini S: 1, 2, 3. 39. Fortress and Frontier in American Health Care — Robert Graboyes. 40. Strong Medicine -- Michael Kremer and Rachel Glennerster. 41. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto). 42. Project Resource Optimization. 43. Giving What We Can. 44. Coefficient Giving. 45. 1493 -- Charles Mann. 46. The Collapse -- Mary Elise Sarotte. 47. How to Survive a Plague -- David France. 48. The Mole. 49. And the Band Played On -- Randy Shilts. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Salonium' by Simahina.
Mon, 01 Jun 2026 - 4h 27min - 448 - Ep 444: Suman Kumar is Perennially Pregnant With Stories
He is best known for writing The Family Man and Farzi, but his journey to being a storyteller was far from smooth. Suman Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 444 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the highs and lows of his life, as well as the craft of writing, directing and telling stories. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Suman Kumar on IMDb, Instagram, LinkedIn and his own website. 2. The Family Man -- Season 1 :: Season 2 :: Season 3. 3. Guns and Gulaabs -- Season 1. 4. Farzi -- Season 1. 5. Raghu Thatha -- written and directed by Suman Kumar. 6. Ranga Half-Pants -- Suman Kumar. 7. Scientific Advertising -- Claude Hopkins. 8. The Ghost and the Darkness -- Stephen Hopkins. 9. You've Got Mail -- Nora Ephron. 10. Angrezi Medium -- Homi Adajania. (CHECK) 11. The return of small-town creators on Instagram -- Shephali Bhatt. 12. lifeofpuja on Instagram. 13. Gangs of Wasseypur -- Anurag Kashyap. 14. On Writing -- Stephen King. 15. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Stage.in. 17. Gopallapurathu Makkal -- K Rajanarayanan (Ki Ra). 18. Madhu Babu and his audiobooks on YouTube. 19. Yandamuri Veerendranath on Amazon and YouTube. 20. Yerramsetty Sai. 21. Ilaiyaraaja on Spotify and YouTube. 22. The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction -- Pritham Chakrabathy and Rakesh Khanna. 23. Advanced History of India -- KA Nilakanta Sastri and G Srinivasachari. 24. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Pehla Nasha and More Than Words. 26. The Design of Everyday Things -- Don Norman. 27. Phantoms in the Brain -- VS Ramachandran. 28. The Reith Lectures -- VS Ramachandran. 29. Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale. 30. Aranyer Din Ratri — Satyajit Ray. 31. Days & Night In The Forest -- Sunil Gangopadhyay. 32. Train Dreams (the book) -- Denis Johnson. 33. Train Dreams (the film) -- Clint Bentley. 34. As Good as It Gets -- James L Brooks. 35. Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 36. The Vigil Idiot. 37. The Dream Is No More a Dream -- Suman Kumar. 38. Notting Hill -- Roger Michell. 39. All the President's Men -- Alan J Pakula. 40. Hrishikesh Mukherjee on Wikipedia and IMDb. 41. Adolescence — Created by Stephen Graham & Jack Thorne. 42. Oppenheimer -- Christopher Nolan. 43. Tumbbad -- Rahi Anil Barve. 44. Mayasabha -- Rahi Anil Barve. 45. On Film-Making -- Alexander Mackendrick. 46. Maheshinte Prathikaaram -- Dileesh Pothan. 47. Trance -- Anwar Rasheed, 48. Manjummel Boys -- Chidambaram S Poduval. 49. Romancham -- Jithu Madhavan. 50. Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey -- Vipin Das. 51. Su From So -- JP Thuminad. 52. No Country for Old Men -- The Coen Brothers. 53. The Shawshank Redemption -- Frank Darabont. 54. The Devil's Own -- Alan J Pakula. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Story' by Simahina.
Mon, 18 May 2026 - 3h 50min - 447 - Ep 443: The Making of a Law Firm
An Indian lawyer in 2000 could not have recognised the legal ecosystem of today. One firm took India marching forward into a new world. Akshay Jaitly joins Amit Varma in episode 443 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe the rise of the firm he founded, Trilegal -- and the lessons he learnt during that journey. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Akshay Jaitly on Twitter, Linkedin and Nicheless. 2. Trilegal: The Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm -- Akshay Jaitly. 3. TrustBridge. 4. Climate Change and Our Power Sector — Episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshay Jaitley and Ajay Shah). 5. Blood on the Tracks -- Bob Dylan. 6. The Art of Reading -- Episode 120 of Everything is Everything. 7. Scrivener. 8. The Creative Act -- Rick Rubin. 9. Testaments Betrayed — Milan Kundera. 10. Amicus Curiae: Khaitan & Co is 100 -- Aditi Roy Ghatak. 11. The Broken Script — Swapna Liddle. 12. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Tocqueville Effect. 14. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh. 15. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Privacy 3.0 — Rahul Matthan. 17. Letters To A Young Poet -- Rainer Maria Rilke. 18. Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia -- Sam Dalrymple. 19. A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders -- Jonn Elledge. 20. The Beginning of Infinity -- David Deutsch. 21. The Fabric of Reality -- David Deutsch. 22. A Gentleman in Moscow — Amor Towles. (Also watch the series!) 23. Mobland -- Ronan Bennett. 24. The Diplomat-- Debora Cahn. 25. Fontaines DC, Joy Division, Massive Attack, St Germain, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Tosca on Spotify. 26. Rock en Seine. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Disrupt' by Simahina.
Mon, 04 May 2026 - 3h 06min - 446 - Ep 442: A Masterclass on Regulation (and Deregulation)
We keep using the terms 'regulation' and 'deregulation' -- and now it's time for a primer. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 442 of The Seen and the Unseen go discuss first principles AND get into the weeds. What is regulation? When do we need it? When do we not? What's India's journey been like? And finally, why is deregulation both important and difficult? (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram, her podcast, Ideas of India and her own website. 2. Emergent Ventures India, which is run by Shruti. 3. The 1991 Project. 4. Shruti Rajagopalan Remembers the Angle of the Light -- Episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Shruti Rajagopalan Dives Into Delimitation -- Episode 336 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. All past episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. 8. Urinal regulation in the Factories Act, 1948. 9. Four Seasons in Rome -- Anthony Doerr. 10. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 11. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 12. The Curse of Knowledge. 13. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 14. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 15. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith. 16. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 17. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 18. Traffic -- Tom Vanderbilt. 19. Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel -- Barenaked Ladies. 20. Driving in a Foreign Country -- My Italian Diaries: 7 -- Amit Varma. 21. Marching For Salt -- Amit Varma. 22. The Transitional Gains Trap -- Gordon Tullock. 23. Interventionism: An Economic Analysis -- Ludwig von Mises. 24. Mises's dynamics of interventionism: Lessons from Indian agriculture -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 25. Gandhi -- Richard Attenborough. 26. Anton Howes on Trade, Innovation, and the Forgotten History of Salt -- The Ideas of India podcast. 27. Age of Invention, by Anton Howes. 28. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 29. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 31. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 32. The Road to the 1991 Industrial Policy Reforms and Beyond: A Personalized Narrative from the Trenches -- Rakesh Mohan. 33. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 34. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 35. A Sixth Of Humanity -- Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. 36. Entry and Exit in Agriculture -- Episode 1 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pavan Srinath and Karthik Shashidhar). 37. Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist — Bruce Yandle. 38. Farmers, Technology and Freedom of Choice: A Tale of Two Satyagrahas -- Amit Varma. 39. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil). 40. Talking to an Empty Room -- Sharad Joshi's speeches in the Rajya Sabha. 41. Raees: An Empty Shell of a Gangster Film — Amit Varma. 42. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 43. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 44. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Blendjet. 46. The Whole Truth Foods protein powder that Amit has. 47. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. The Bad and Complex Tax -- Episode 74 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 49. India's Supreme Court -- Episode 123 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 50. Restaurant Regulations in India — Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon). 51. India's MSME Landscape — Some Useful Frameworks -- Episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sudhir Sarnobat and Naren Shenoy). 52. What Ails Indian Manufacturing? -- Episode 104 of Everything is Everything. 53. Commands and controls: Planning for Indian industrial development, 1951–1990 -- Rakesh Mohan and Vandana Aggarwal. 54. Futures Markets in Agriculture -- Episode 12 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Shashidhar). 55. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 58. The Economics of Derivatives -- TV Somanathan and V Anantha Nageswaran. 59. Sorry, Wrong Number -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 60. Reforming Agricultural Land Conversion Laws in Indian States -- Shruti Rajagopalan, Shreyas Narla, Ankita Dinkar, Kadambari Shah and Ankit Bhatia. 61. The Case for Nuclear Electricity -- Episode 78 of Everything is Everything. 62. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist & Steven Pinker. 63. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 64. India's Agriculture Crisis — Episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra and Kumar Anand). 65. Economics in One Lesson — Henry Hazlitt. 66. That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen — Frédéric Bastiat. 67. The Candlemaker's Petition -- Frédéric Bastiat. 68. Marginal Revolution University. 69. Public Choice – A Primer — Eamonn Butler 70. Micromotives and Macrobehavior -- Thomas Schelling. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Regulated' by Simahina.
Mon, 20 Apr 2026 - 4h 35min - 445 - Ep 441: Ravikumar Kashi Is in Play Mode
He's one of India's great artists, and a Renaissance man you cannot put inside a box. Ravikumar Kashi joins Amit Varma in episode 441 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about life and art. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ravikumar Kashi on Instagram, LinkedIn and his own website. 2. Flexing Muscles -- Ravikumar Kashi. 3. Engaging With Visuals -- Ravikumar Kashi's 15-part lecture series. 4. Handmade Paper Making Process (English parts one and two; Kannada parts one and two)-- Ravikumar Kashi. 5. 12 Layers of Hanji -- Ravikumar Kashi. 6. Paper Trails: Reflections on Practice -- Ravikumar Kashi. 7. We don't end at our edges -- Exhibition by Ravikumar Kashi. 8. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 9. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 10. Francisco Goya's Black Paintings. 11. The Light in Winter — Episode 97 of Everything is Everything, where Amit talks about Goya. 12. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das — Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot -- William Kentridge. 14. Songs of Surrender — U2. 15. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Paris, Texas -- Wim Wenders. 17. What Do You Say After You Say Hello? -- Eric Berne. 18. The Blind Watchmaker -- Richard Dawkins. 19. Wounds -- Somnath Hore. 20. Roger Von Oech's Four Roles of Creativity. 21. The Garden of Forking Paths -- Jorge Luis Borges. 22. The Overton Window. 23. Puliyabaazi -- Pranay Kotasthane, Saurabh Chandra and Khyati Pathak's Hindi podcast. 24. Sturgeon's Law. 25. Marysia on Twitter/X. 26. From Strength to Strength — Arthur Brooks. 27. Ways of Seeing -- John Berger. 28. How to Have Creative Ideas -- Edward de Bono. 29. Gut -- Giulia Enders. 20. The Selfish Gene -- Richard Dawkins. 21. The Nutmeg's Curse -- Amitav Ghosh. 22. Sapiens -- Yuval Noah Harari. 23. Immortality -- Milan Kundera. 24. Jagjit Singh, Rammstein and Agam on Spotify. 25. William Kentridge, Sudhir Patwardhan, Rameshwar Broota and Arpita Singh. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit is travelling through Italy these days and blogging every day from there. Follow his Italian Dairies here. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: Detail from 'Untitled, 2008' by Ravikumar Kashi.
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 - 3h 35min - 444 - Ep 440: Ram and Friends
We are shaped by the people we let into our lives -- and sometimes only realise this in hindsight. Ramachandra Guha joins Amit Varma in episode 440 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about some of the friends who changed his life. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ramachandra Guha on Amazon, Twitter and his own website. 2. Ram Guha Writes a Letter to a Friend -- Episode 371 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life — Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game — Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 5. Taking Stock of Our Republic — Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 6. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 7. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 8. The Last Liberal and Other Essays -- Ramachandra Guha's collection, which includes his essay on Dharma Kumar. 9. Patriots and Partisans -- Ramachandra Guha's collection, which includes his essay on Krishna Raj. 10. 'The real Chipko': How Shekhar Pathak wrote the first exhaustive, people's history of the movement -- Ramachandra Guha. 11. An Anthropologist among the Marxists and other Essays -- Ramachandra Guha's collection, which includes his essay on DR Nagaraj. 12. The Ecumenical Marxist -- Ramachandra Guha on Anjan Ghosh. 13. Land and Caste in South India -- Dharma Kumar. 14. Colonialism, Property and the State -- Dharma Kumar. 15. The Chipko Movement: A People's History -- Shekhar Pathak. 16. The Flaming Feet and Other Essays -- DR Nagaraj. 17. Ramachandra Guha's 2024 tribute to Andre Béteille. 18. Penelope Fitzgerald, Barbara Pym and Shirley Hazzard on Amazon. 19. Original Spin: Misadventures in Cricket -- Vic Marks. 20. Late Cuts: Musings on cricket -- Vic Marks. 21. The Gate of Angels -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 22. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 23. Beyond A Boundary -- CLR James. 24. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 25. Time Out of Mind -- Bob Dylan. 26. From Strength to Strength — Arthur Brooks. 27. The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 28. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh. 29. The Book of Indian Essays -- Edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. 30. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains -- Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 31. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das — Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Salman Rushdie interviewed by Mishal Husain. 33. Joseph Anton: A Memoir -- Salman Rushdie. 34. Economic and Political Weekly. 35. The India Forum. 36. The Mantle of the Prophet -- Roy Mottahadeh. 37. ChatGPT's investigative work on unnamed Calcutta Marxist. 38. The Role of Rumour in History Writing -- Anjan Ghosh. 39. Who are the Guilty? -- Report on the 1984 riots by PUDR and PUCL. 40. Sharafat Hussain Khan, Latafat Hussain Khan, Shrikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar, Dinkar Kaikini, Malini Rajurkar, Radhika Mohan Maitra and Buddhadev Das Gupta. 41. The Call of Music -- Priya Purushothaman. 42. The Secret Master: Arun Kashalkar and a Journey to the Edge of Music -- Sumana Ramanan. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Koshy's' by Simahina.
Mon, 23 Mar 2026 - 2h 24min - 443 - Ep 439: Janhavi Nilekani Threw the Other Shoe
She is a thinker and doer who takes on difficult problems, whether it's maternal care in India or a dangerous ideological cult. Janhavi Nilekani joins Amit Varma in episode 439 of The Seen and the Unseen to chat about her work in healthcare -- and her gender-critical thinking. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Janhavi Nilekani on Instagram, Twitter, Substack and Aastrika. 2. Aastrika Foundation. 3. Aastrika Midwifery Centre. 4. Janhavi Nilekani's Substack. 5. Janhavi Nilekani on Maternal Healthcare and Evidence-Based Decision-Making -- The Ideas of India podcast by Shruti Rajagopalan. 6. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 7. Essays at the Intersection of Environmental and Development Economics -- Janhavi Nilekani. 8. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward — Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality -- Helen Joyce. 11. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 12. Maxims for Thinking Analytically: The wisdom of legendary Harvard Professor Richard Zeckhauser -- Dan Levy. 13. The Skeptical Environmentalist -- Bjorn Lomborg. 14. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto). 15. Informed Consent is Meaningless if the Information is False and the Consent is Coerced -- Janhavi Nilekani. 16. Beyond too little, too late and too much, too soon -- Suellen Miller et al. 17. What These Labels Mean -- Episode 107 of Everything is Everything. 18. The Positive Birth Book -- Milli Hill. 19. The Word is Woman -- Milli Hill's Substack. 20. The Cass Report. 21. Inclusivity In Healthcare Should Not Be Valued Above Our Paramount Mandate: First, Do No Harm -- Janhavi Nilekani. 22. Understanding the Sex Binary -- Colin Wright. 23. Irreversible Damage -- Abigail Shrier. 24. The Famous Five and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. 25. Sense and Sensibility -- Jane Austen. 26. The Grand Sophy -- Georgette Heyer. 27. Ilona Andrews on Amazon. 28. The Liaden series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. 29. Lupa. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Compassion' by Simahina.
Mon, 09 Mar 2026 - 4h 03min - 442 - Ep 438: V Ravichandar is Heading North by Northwest
What can one man do for a city in a lifetime of work? A lot! V Ravichandar joins Amit Varma in episode 438 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his times and what he has learnt as a civic evangelist for Bangalore. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. V Ravichandar on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Feedback Consulting. 2. Reforming Urban Governance — Episode 48 of The Seen and the Unseen (w V Ravichandar). 3. The Greater Bengaluru Governance Act. 4. BLR Hubba. 5. Bangalore International Centre. 6. Bangalore Literature Festival. 7. Bangalore Agenda Task Force. 8. Gautam John is Figuring it Out -- Episode 437 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Inside the Hearts of Men and Women — Episode 118 of Everything is Everything. 10. Understanding Human Sexuality — Episode 126 of Everything is Everything. 11. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das — Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 13. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 14. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic — Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 15. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 16. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh. 17. Unboxing Bengaluru — Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash. 18. Malini Goyal is the Curious One — Episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese. 21. Breaking Bad. Amit Varma and Mohit Satyanand run a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Bangalorean Man' by Simahina.
Mon, 23 Feb 2026 - 4h 06min - 441 - Ep 437: Gautam John is Figuring it Out
He studied law, found success as an entrepreneur, and has since spent almost two decades in the social sector trying to make the world a better place. Gautam John joins Amit Varma in episode 437 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his reflections on society, technology, gender, friendships, fatherhood, the crisis of masculinity and his journey towards figuring out the world and himself. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Gautam John on LinkedIn, Twitter, IDR, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Substack. 2. From Strength to Strength — Arthur Brooks. 3. An Ode to Meanderness -- Episode 434 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane). 4. The Final Episode -- Episode 128 of Everything is Everything. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Mohit Satyanand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 6. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 7. Hikikomori. 8. Laayak. 9. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 10. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 11. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 12. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 13. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World — Snigdha Poonam. 14. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 15. Of Boys and Men -- Richard Reeves. 16. Inside the Hearts of Men and Women -- Episode 118 of Everything is Everything. 17. Understanding Human Sexuality -- Episode 126 of Everything is Everything. 18. Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process — Henrik Karlsson. 19. Unboxing Bengaluru — Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash. 20. Malini Goyal is the Curious One — Episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. Testaments Betrayed — Milan Kundera. 22. Ken Wilber's Integral Theory. 23. Pucar. 24. Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen -- Baz Luhrmann. 25. Pratham Books. 26. The Center for Internet and Society. 27. Bistecca Tuscan Steakhouse. 28. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das -- Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 31. Seeing Like a State — James C Scott. 32. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward — Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Bridging toward Belonging -- Brian Stout's Substack. 34. Relational State Capacity -- Dan Honig. 35. Team of Teams -- Stanley McChrystal. 36. Emergent Strategy -- adrienne maree brown. 37. Mother Mary Comes to Me -- Arundhati Roy. 38. Stain -- Sarah Joseph. 39. Heart Lamp -- Banu Mushtaq. 40. Babel -- RF Kuang. 41. Quarterlife -- Devika Rege. 42. Brotherless Night -- VV Ganeshananthan. 43. Exhalation -- Ted Chiang. 44. The Glass Hotel -- Emily St John Mandel. 45. Nilgiris - A Shared Wilderness -- Sandesh Kadur. Amit Varma and Mohit Satyanand run a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Figuring' by Simahina.
Mon, 09 Feb 2026 - 4h 12min - 440 - Ep 436: Rukmini and the Numbers
The world is complex, India contains multitudes, and we need more numbers, better numbers, to make sense of it all. Rukmini S joins Amit Varma in episode 436 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about Data For India -- and to share some surprising insights. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rukmini S on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. 2. Data For India. 3. Whole Numbers And Half Truths — Rukmini S. 4. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 5. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 6. India's Demographic Dilemmas: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3 -- Rukmini S. 7. Anaemia in India -- Rukmini S. 8. How one village swung India's workforce numbers in 2022-23 -- Pramit Bhattacharya and Nandlal Mishra. 9. The rise of 'custom tailoring' -- Nileena Suresh. 10. Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process — Henrik Karlsson. 11. Homebound -- Neeraj Ghaywan. 12. Taking Amrit Home -- Basharat Peer. 13. Railsong -- Rahul Bhattacharya. 14. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth. 15. Many Roads to Paradise -- Shyam Selvadurai. 16. Funny Boy -- Shyam Selvadurai. 17. When Memory Dies -- A Sivanandan. 18. Our World in Data. 19. After the Spike -- Dean Spears and Michael Deruso. 20. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 21. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pramit Bhattacharya). 23. Martin Wickramasinghe and Anuja Chauhan. 24. Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen. 25. Kaathal – The Core -- Jeo Baby. 26. Olivia Dean on Spotify and YouTube. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Play With Numbers' by Simahina.
Mon, 26 Jan 2026 - 2h 50min - 439 - Ep 435: A Primer on China
China looms large in our modern world -- and yes, is misunderstood, or not understood at all. Manoj Kewalramani joins Amit Varma in episode 435 of The Seen and the Unseen to put together a primer on China, from ancient times through all the kingdoms through Mao and Deng to Xi and this present moment. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Manoj Kewalramani on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Scholar, Amazon, Takshashila, Substack and his own website. 2. The Takshashila Institution. 3. The Great Power Show on Spotify, Apple and Substack. 4. Tracking People's Daily -- Manoj Kewalramani's Substack Newsletter. 5. Eye on China -- Anushka Saxena's Substack newsletter (formerly written by Manoj). 6. China in the Changing Geo-economic Landscape -- A Takshashila course on China that begins later this month. 7. The China Dude Is in the House -- Episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 8. What Does China Want? — Episode 143 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 9. Chinese Foreign Policy — Episode 81 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 10. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 11. The Dragon and the Elephant — Episode 181 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Hamsini Hariharan & Shibani Mehta). 12. Keeping India Safe — Episode 219 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sushant Singh). 13. Kanti Bajpai on India vs China -- Episode 234 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. The History of Indian Cricket -- Mihir Bose. 15. The Invention of China -- Bill Hayton. 16. When Marx Met Confucius. 17. Red Roulette -- Desmond Shum. 18. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. 19. China's New Red Guards -- Jude Blanchette. 20. Factional Model-making in China -- Olivia Cheung. 21. America against America -- Wang Huning. 22. The Lying Flat Movement. 23. China Media Project. 24. Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag — Episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Wealth and Power -- Orville Schell and John Delury. 26. Rethinking Chinese Politics -- Joseph Fewsmith. 27. The Party's Interests Come First -- Joseph Torigian. 28. Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion -- Joseph Torigian. 29. John Fairbank, Alastair Iain Johnston and Vijay Gokhale on Amazon. 30. The Long Game -- Vijay Gokhale. 31. China Talk -- Jordan Schneider. 32. Sinica -- Kaiser Kuo. 33. The Third Revolution -- Elizabeth Economy. 34. End of an Era -- Carl Minzner. 35. Hrithik Roshan on Dhurandhar. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'A Maze' by Simahina.
Mon, 12 Jan 2026 - 3h 47min - 438 - Ep 434: An Ode to Meanderness
Enough serious talk about economics and geopolitics. As the year draws to an end, it's time to sit and chill with friends -- and let the mind meander. Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 434 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about friendship, horses, second acts -- and more! (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram, her podcast, Ideas of India and her own website. 2. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, Puliyabaazi and the Takshashila Institution. 3. Emergent Ventures India. 4. The Takshashila Institution. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. 6. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 7. Shruti Rajagopalan Remembers the Angle of the Light -- Episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 10. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 11. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 12. You're Ugly and You're Hairy and You're Covered in Shit but You're Mine and I Love You — Episode 362 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 13. Long Distance II -- Tony Harrison. 14. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Poetic Feminism of Paromita Vohra — Episode 339 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Heart of Disruption -- Episode 86 of Everything is Everything (on Amit's heart issues). 17. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto). 18. How I Reversed My Type 2 Diabetes -- Episode 9 of Everything is Everything. 19. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 20. The Art of Reading -- Episode 120 of Everything is Everything. 21. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Inside the Hearts of Men and Women -- Episode 118 of Everything is Everything. 23. Understanding Human Sexuality -- Episode 126 of Everything is Everything. 24. Kavitha Rao Chases Chatto and Roy -- Episode 416 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. The Life and Times of the Takshashila Institution -- Episode 433 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane). 27. I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City -- Harry Nilsson. 28. After Virtue -- Alasdair MacIntyre. 29. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 30. The Black Paintings -- Francisco Goya. 31. From Strength to Strength -- Arthur Brooks. 32. Songs of Surrender -- U2. 33. Creep -- Radiohead. 34. Choo Lo -- The Local Train. 35. Second Act -- Henry Oliver. 36. BR Ambedkar's Grammar of Anarchy Speech in Hindi on Puliyabaazi. 37. Mohak Mangal, Veritasium, 3Blue1Brown, Jared Owen, Van Neistat and vlogbrothers. 38. We're here because were here -- The vlogbrothers video Amit mentions. 39. Mathematica -- David Bessis. 40. A Sixth Of Humanity — Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. 41. In Praise of Floods -- James C Scott. 42. Seeing Like a State -- James C Scott. 43. Against the Grain -- James C Scott. 44. A Passion for Cycling -- Episode 53 of Everything is Everything. 45. Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process -- Henrik Karlsson. 46. On agency -- Henrik Karlsson. 47. Notes on the Synthesis of Form -- Christopher Alexander. 48. Anaximander -- Carlo Rovelli. 49. Divya Prakash Dubey: Ek Jeevani -- Episode 399 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Ibnebatuti -- Divya Prakash Dubey. 51. Divya Prakash Dubey and Terry Pratchett on Amazon. 52. His Dark Materials -- Philip Pullman. 53. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma. 54. Amit's backscratcher. 55. Notebook LM. 56. Learn LM by Ashish Kulkarni. 57. Bojack Horseman on Netflix. 58. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Meanderness' by Simahina.
Mon, 29 Dec 2025 - 2h 55min - 437 - Ep 433: The Life and Times of the Takshashila Institution
India's policy ecosystem was once a desolate landscape, stuck in bad ideas of the past. One institution shook it all up. Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 433 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe their journey building the Takshashila Institution. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Nitin Pai on Twitter, LinkedIn, his own website and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 3. The Takshashila Institution. 4. Takshashila's courses and Open Takshashila. 5. The Liberal Nationalism of Nitin Pai — Episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Nitin Pai: 1, 2, 3. 8. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. 9. The archives of The Acorn, Nitin Pai's blog. 10. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das -- Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Assembling India's Constitution -- Rohit De and Ornit Shani. 12. The Overton Window. 13. Nitin Pai's 2011 FAQ on Anna Hazare and the Lok Pal bill. 14. Arthashastra and History of the Peloponnesian War. 15. Distance From Delhi -- Various Takshashila authors. 16. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh. 17. The Prestige -- Christopher Priest. 18. Everything Evolves -- Mark Vellend. 19. Humankind -- Rutger Bregman. 20. A Sixth Of Humanity -- Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Lighthouse' by Simahina.
Mon, 15 Dec 2025 - 3h 48min - 436 - Ep 432: Vasant Dhar's Lifetime in Artificial Intelligence
He's been working in AI since the late 1970s, and started a pioneering machine learning hedge fund in the 1990s. Now he's a professor, a podcaster, a Substacker, a yoda -- and has just written a cracking book on the subject. Vasant Dhar joins Amit Varma in episode 432 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the life and times of AI through the life and times of Vasant Dhar. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vasant Dhar on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and NYU Stern. 2. Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI -- Vasant Dhar. 3. Brave New World -- Vasant Dhar's podcast. 4. Vasant Dhar's Brave New World on Substack. 5. Brave New World — Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar). 6. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley. 7. Death of a Salesman -- Arthur Miller. 8. Aldous Huxley interviewed by Mike Wallace. 9. Anil Seth On The Science of Consciousness – Episode 94 of Brave New World. 10. How the Mind Works -- Steven Pinker. 11. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work — Episode 35 of Brave New World. 12. The Naked Sun -- Isaac Asimov. 13. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare — Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol). 14. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement — Episode 21 of Brave New World. 15. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 16. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting — Episode 31 of Brave New World. 17. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 18. "When you control the mail..." -- Clip from Seinfeld. 19. The Future of Liberal Education — Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). 20. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 21. When Should We Trust Machines? -- Vasant Dhar's TEDx talk from 2018. 22. From Strength to Strength -- Arthur Brooks. 23. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton Christensen. 24. Raghu Sundaram on Building a Great University -- Episode 88 of Brave New World. 25. Power and Prediction -- Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb. 26. The Paperclip Maximiser. 27. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith. 28. The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- Adam Smith. 29. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister — Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 30. Aswath Damodaran on Investing — Episode 33 of Brave New World. 31. The Damodaran Bot. 32. Dmitry Rinberg on the Mysteries of Smell — Episode 62 of Brave New World. 33. Alex Wiltschko on the Sense of Smell — Episode 81 of Brave New World. 34. Sandeep Robert Datta on Smell and the Brain -- Episode 90 of Brave New World. 35. Alex Wiltschko on Digitizing Scent -- Episode 97 of Brave New World. 36. A Billion Wicked Thoughts -- Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam. 37. Being You: A New Science of Consciousness -- Anil Seth. 38. Noise -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein. 39. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay Shah also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Mage' by Simahina.
Mon, 01 Dec 2025 - 3h 27min - 435 - Ep 431: Ghazala Wahab and the Hindi Heartland
Our Hindi Heartland has more people than the USA and Western Europe combined -- and is arguably more diverse. Ghazala Wahab joins Amit Varma in episode 431 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her research into those states -- and much else, including being an outspoken Muslim woman in India, and the future of warfare. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ghazala Wahab on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, the Wire and Force. 2. The Hindi Heartland -- Ghazala Wahab. 3. Born a Muslim: Some Truths About Islam in India — Ghazala Wahab. 4. Dragon On Our Doorstep — Pravin Sawhney and Ghazala Wahab. 5. The Peacemakers -- Edited by Ghazala Wahab. 6. Force — The magazine edited by Ghazala Wahab. 7. Being Muslim in India — Episode 216 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ghazala Wahab). 8. The Future of War -- Episode 112 of Everything is Everything. 9. A Deep Dive Into the Indian Military -- Episode 31 of Everything is Everything. 10. A Deep Dive Into Ukraine vs Russia — Episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 11. The State of the Ukraine War — Episode 14 of Everything is Everything. 12. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton Christensen. 13. Tanhaiyaan and Parchaiyan. 14. What Just Happened Between India & Pakistan? -- Episode 418 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Aditya Ramanathan). 15. The Age of Hybrid Warfare -- Episode 84 of Everything is Everything. 16. The Broken Script — Swapna Liddle. 17. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Stage.in. 20. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 21. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism — Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 22. Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From — Tony Joseph. 23. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 24. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 25. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. How the BJP Wins — Prashant Jha. 27. The BJP's Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 28. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 29. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that touched on women's participation in the labour market with Namita Bhandare, Shrayana Bhattacharya and Ashwini Deshpande. 30. Another India -- Pratinav Anil. 31. Influence of Islam on Indian Culture -- Tara Chand. 32. Political Economy of Colonial and Post-Colonial India -- Aditya Mukherjee. 33. The Identity Project -- Rahul Bhatia. 34. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa -- Kundan Shah. 35. Ahmad Faraz on Wikipedia and Rekhta. 36. Pretty Woman -- Garry Marshall. 37. Harry Potter : The Complete Collection -- JK Rowling. 38. Home Fire -- Kamila Shamsie. 39. Yeh Hawa Yeh Raat Yeh Chandni -- Song from Sangdil. 40. Madhumati -- Salil Chowdhury. 41. Andaz -- Naushad. 42. Amar -- Naushad. 43. Elvis Presley and Perry Como on Spotify. 44. Na To Karvan Ki Talash Hai -- Song from Barsaat ki Raat. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Heartland' by Simahina.
Mon, 17 Nov 2025 - 3h 39min - 434 - Ep 430: Aneesh Pradhan: A Life in Hindustani Music
When it comes to Hindustani music, he is both a doer and a thinker. A great tabla player, he has written books about the history and theory of music. Aneesh Pradhan joins Amit Varma in episode 430 of The Seen and the Unseen to chat about his life, his music and this world we inhabit. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Aneesh Pradhan on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Scroll, Amazon, Spotify and his own website. 2. Chasing the Raag Dream: A Look into the World of Hindustani Music -- Aneesh Pradhan. 3. Hindustani Music in Colonial Bombay -- Aneesh Pradhan. 4. Tabla: A Performer's Perspective -- Aneesh Pradhan. 5. The Life and Music of Shubha Mudgal -- Episode 426 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 7. From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life -- Arthur Brooks. 8. The Heckman Equation — a website based on James Heckman's work. 9. The Instagram reel about The Godfather. 10, The interview with Vasant Pradhan. 11. Dehachi Tijori -- Sudhir Phadke. 12. Chal Chal Chal Mere Saathi-- Song from Haathi Mere Saathi. 13. Categories of Music -- Ashok D Ranade. 14. Nationalism Is Bad for the Nation -- Episode 122 of Everything is Everything. 15. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 16. Tawaif — Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 17. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. Stage.in. 19. How Music Works — David Byrne. 20. The Changing Forms of Creativity -- Episode 72 of Everything is Everything. 21. Em and the Big Hoom — Jerry Pinto. 22. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. The War Against Cliche — Martin Amis. 24. Bridge of Dreams -- Various artists. 25. Out of the Shruti Box -- Anuja K's YouTube channel. 26. Malini Goyal is the Curious One — Episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. The Disciple — Chaitanya Tamhane. 28. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. Why Hindustani Musicians are Good Cooks: Analogies between Music and Food in North India -- Adrian McNeil. 30. Sangeet Kosh. 31. Begum Akhtar, Siddheshwari Devi, Kesarbai Kerkar, Faiyaz Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan, Sharadchandra Arolkar, Ahmed Jan Thirakwa, Amir Hussain Khan, Alla Rakha, Kishan Maharaj, Samta Prasad, Zakir Hussain, Anindo Chatterjee, Swapan Chaudhuri, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis on Spotify. 32. Music Contexts: A Concise Dictionary of Hindustani Music -- Ashok D Ranade. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Play' by Simahina.
Mon, 03 Nov 2025 - 4h 46min - 433 - Ep 429: Rudraneil Sengupta is Embedded
He wrote the definitive history of Indian wrestling. His longform reportage has taken him into strange territories. He embedded himself with the Delhi police and has now come out with his first crime novel. Rudraneil Sengupta joins Amit Varma in episode 429 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about he throws himself into both his life and his work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rudraneil Sengupta on Instagram, Twitter, Mint and Amazon. 2. The Beast Within -- Rudraneil Sengupta. 3. Enter the Dangal -- Rudraneil Sengupta. 4. The Girl From Haryana -- Amit Varma's feature story on Sakshi Malik (2016). 5. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza. 6. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Kind of Blue -- Miles Davis. 9. Wall-E -- Andrew Stanton. 10. The Complete Adventures of Feluda (Volume 1) (Volume 2) -- Satyajit Ray. 11. The Adventures Of Kakababu -- Sunil Gangopadhyay. 12. More Adventures Of Kakababu -- Sunil Gangopadhyay. 13. Sandesh. 14. Paar -- Goutam Ghose. 15. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? -- Philip K Dick. 16. Philip K Dick and Ursula K Le Guin on Amazon. 17. Sandman -- Neil Gaimon. 18. Persepolis -- Marjane Satrapi. 19. The Buddha -- Osamu Tezuka. 20. The Solitary Writer Meets the Impossible Man -- Episode 428 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu). 21. A Man For All Seasons: The Life Of KM Panikkar — Narayani Basu. 22. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 23. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 24. Frank Zappa, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters and Django Reinhardt on Spotify. 25. Satyaki Banerjee and Paban Das Baul on Spotify. 26. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 27. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Stage.in. 29. Tom Waits, Mark Strand and Mary Oliver. 30. The Golden Age of Murder -- Martin Edwards. 31. Roseanna -- Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. 32. Ian Rankin (of Inspector Rebus fame) on Amazon. 33. Six Four -- Hideo Yokoyama. 34. Raag Darbari -- Shrilal Shukla (translated by Gillian Wright). 35. Saans -- Neena Gupta. 36. Anne Tyler on Amazon. 37. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- Hunter S Thompson. 38. The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved -- Hunter S Thompson. 39. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das -- Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. Meet Suyash Dixit, the man who would be king -- Rudraneil Sengupta. 41. The Autopsy Report -- Rudraneil Sengupta. 42. Court -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 43. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind -- Gustave Le Bon. 44. Invisible Man -- Ralph Ellison. 45. The Is-Ought Problem and the Naturalistic Fallacy. 46. V for Vendetta -- Alan Moore and David Lloyd. 47. Murder in Mahim -- Jerry Pinto. 48. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Hayao Miyazaki, Satyajit Ray and Martin Beck. 50. Disgrace -- JM Coetzee. 51. Moby Dick -- Herman Melville. 52. Julian Lage and Bill Frisell on Spotify. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Delhi' by Simahina.
Mon, 20 Oct 2025 - 3h 25min - 432 - Ep 428: The Solitary Writer Meets the Impossible Man
Writing biographies is solitary and difficult -- even when the subject is way more interesting than anything you could make up. Narayani Basu joins Amit Varma in episode 428 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss writing, friendship, hustling, ageing, intentionality and the subject of her latest book, the impossible KM Panikkar. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Narayani Basu on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Amazon. 2. A Man For All Seasons: The Life Of KM Panikkar -- Narayani Basu. 3. VP Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India -- Narayani Basu. 4. Allegiance: Azaadi and the End of Empire -- Narayani Basu. 5. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu). 6. Kavitha Rao Chases Chatto and Roy -- Episode 416 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. When Harry Met Sally -- Rob Reiner. 8. Can men and women be just friends? — The Economist. 9. Malini Goyal is the Curious One — Ep 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Unboxing Bengaluru — Malini Goyal & Prashanth Prakash. 11. Finding Love in Modern India — Ep 401 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sanjana Ramachandran and Samarth Bansal). 12. Inside the Hearts of Men and Women -- Episode 118 of Everything is Everything. 13. Heart Tantrums: A Feminist's Memoir of Misogyny and Marriage -- Aisha Sarwari. 14. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das -- Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Ambassador -- Narayani Basu on CB Muthamma. 16. Five Epic Stories That Must Be Films -- Episode 29 of Everything is Everything. 17. The Cripps Version: The Life of Sir Stafford Cripps 1889-1952 -- Peter Clarke. 18. Lady Doctors : The Untold Stories Of India's First Women In Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 19. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. The Heckman Equation — a website based on James Heckman's work. 21. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 22. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 23. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism -- Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 24. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 25. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 26. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 27. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 28. Impossible Germany — Wilco. 29. Coolie No 1 -- David Dhawan. 30. Anne de Courcy, Sonia Purnell and Ben Macintyre on Amazon. 31. Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill -- Sonia Purnell. 32. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of Virginia Hall, WWII's Most Dangerous Spy -- Sonia Purnell. 33. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, BookishandDepartment Q. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Solitary and Impossible' by Simahina.
Mon, 06 Oct 2025 - 4h 24min - 431 - Ep 427: The Boy Who Loved Cricket -- The Vijay Lokapally Story
Cricket isn't just what happens across 22 yards, and great cricket writers always go beyond the boundary. Vijay Lokapally joins Amit Varma in episode 427 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the joys and heartbreaks of a lifetime of writing about cricket -- and much else. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vijay Lokapally on Amazon, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, The Hindu and Sportstar. 2. Pen, Paper and Podcast -- Vijay Lokapally's podcast. 3. The Virender Sehwag Story -- Vijay Lokapally. 4. The Hitman: The Rohit Sharma Story -- Vijay Lokapally. 5. Driven: The Virat Kohli Story -- Vijay Lokapally. 6. Speed Merchants: The Story of Indian Pace Bowling 1886 to 2019 -- Gulu Ezekiel and Vijay Lokapally. 7. Net Flicks: India's Smashing Affair with the Shuttle -- Akshay Lokapally and Vijay Lokapally. 8. Housefull:The Golden Years Of Hindi Cinema -- Edited by Ziya Us Salam, with writing by Vijay Lokapally. 9. Vijay Lokapally's episodes on 81 All Out: 1, 2. 10. India vs Australia, 3rd Test at Delhi, Nov 28, 1969. 11. Bishan Singh Bedi's letter to Vijay Lokapally. 12. The Evolution of Cricket — Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle). 13. Hatari -- Howard Hawks. 14. Roger Federer's commencement address at Dartmouth, 2024. 15. Pundits from Pakistan -- Rahul Bhattacharya. 16. The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Women's Cricket in India -- Sidhanta Patnaik and Karunya Keshav. 17. Triumph in Bombay: Travels during the Cricket World Cup -- Vaibhav Vats. 18. Wrist Assured -- Gundappa Vishwanath with R Kaushik. 19. Apradh -- Feroz Khan. 20. Kaagaz Ke Phool -- Guru Dutt. 21. Anand -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 22. Kala Bazar -- Vijay Anand. 23. Mackenna's Gold -- J Lee Thompson. 24. The Magnificent Seven -- Antoine Fuqua. 25. The Ten Commandments -- Cecil B DeMille. 26. Ben Hur -- William Wyler. 27. Safar -- Asit Sen. 28. Teesri Kasam -- Basu Bhattacharya. 29. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi -- Satyam Bose. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Boy in the Stands' by Simahina.
Mon, 22 Sep 2025 - 3h 41min - 430 - Ep 426: The Life and Music of Shubha Mudgal
She's straddled the worlds of Hindustani classical and popular music, and is a legend in both spaces. Shubha Mudgal joins Amit Varma in episode 426 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life, her music and this changing world. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shubha Mudgal on Spotify, Instagram, Twitter, Wikipedia and her own website. 2. Looking for Miss Sargam: Stories of Music and Misadventure -- Shubha Mudgal. 3. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Lady Doctors : The Untold Stories Of India's First Women In Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 5. The Heckman Equation — a website based on James Heckman's work. 6. The Disciple — Chaitanya Tamhane. 7. A Chess Story (previously published as The Royal Game) — Stefan Zweig. 8. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 9. The Köln Concert (YouTube, Spotify) -- Keith Jarrett. 10. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Aneesh Pradhan on Scroll, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter and his own website. 12. Stories in a Song -- Sunil Shanbag, Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan. 13. Nothing Without You/Tery Bina -- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. 14. How Music Works -- David Byrne. 15. Acoustic analysis of two Hindu temples in Southern India -- Shashank Aswathanarayana & Braxton Boren. 16. Begum Akhtar on Spotify and YouTube. 17. Uzr Aane Mein Bhi Hai -- Begum Akhtar. 18. Woh Jo Ham Men Tum Men Qarar Tha -- Begum Akhtar. 19. Siddheshwari Devi on Spotify and YouTube. 20. Shayam Prem Gagariyaa Bhaari -- Siddheshwari Devi. 21. Latcho Drom -- Tony Gatlif. 22. Yeh Kothewaliya -- Amritlal Nagar. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Song' by Simahina.
Mon, 08 Sep 2025 - 4h 45min - 429 - Ep 425: The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das
He reached the top of the corporate world -- and then gave it up to become a writer, with books that probed our deepest questions, and influenced millions of people. Gurcharan Das joins Amit Varma in episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life and learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Gurcharan Das on Amazon, Wikipedia, Twitter, LinkedIn, Times of India and his own website. 2. Another Sort of Freedom -- Gurcharan Das. 3. India Unbound -- Gurcharan Das. 4. The Difficulty of Being Good -- Gurcharan Das. 5. Kama: The Riddle of Desire -- Gurcharan Das. 6. Three Plays: Larins Sahib, Mira, 9 Jakhoo Hill -- Gurcharan Das. 7. A Fine Family -- Gurcharan Das. 8. The Elephant Paradigm -- Gurcharan Das. 9. India Grows At Night -- Gurcharan Das. 10. The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal -- Gurcharan Das. 11. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. 12. Rashomon -- Akira Kurosawa. 13. Toba Tek Singh -- Sadat Hasan Manto. 14. Imagined Communities -- Benedict Anderson. 15. A Treatise of Human Nature -- David Hume. 16. Tales from the Kathasaritsagara -- Soma Deva (translated by Arshia Sattar). 17. What These Labels Mean -- Episode 107 of Everything is Everything. 18. Economic Facts and Fallacies -- Thomas Sowell. 19. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression -- Amity Shlaes. 20. In Search of Lost Time -- Marcel Proust. 21. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 22. War and Peace -- Leo Tolstoy. 23. Pedro Páramo -- Juan Rulfo. 24. Don Quixote -- Miguel De Cervantes. 25. The Great Books of the Western World -- Edited by Mortimer J Adler. 26. The Double 'Thank You' Moment -- John Stossel. 27. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Episode 37 of Everything is Everything. 28. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Nature of the Firm -- Ronald Coase. 30. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 32. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 34. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. The 1991 Project. 36. The Future of War -- Episode 112 of Everything is Everything. 37. Perpetual Peace -- Immanuel Kant. 38. The Bhagawad Gita. 39. Four Quartets -- TS Eliot. 40. Walden -- Henry David Thoreau. 41. Essays on the Gita -- Sri Aurobindo. 42. Sri Bhagavadgita Rahasya -- Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 43. Many Threads of Hinduism -- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya. 44. Bourgeois Dignity -- Deirdre McCloskey. 45. The Makropulos Case -- Karel Capek. 46. The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality -- Bernard Williams. 47. Don't Punish Victimless Crimes -- Episode 73 of Everything is Everything. 48. The Mahabharata. 48. Plato, Aristotle and Karl Marx. 49. Charulata -- Satyajit Ray. 50. The Apu Trilogy -- Satyajit Ray. 51. The Calcutta Trilogy -- Satyajit Ray. 52. Shatranj ke Khiladi-- Satyajit Ray. 53. Duvidha -- Mani Kaul. 54. Cinema Paradiso -- Giuseppe Tornatore. 55. Amarcord -- Federico Fellini. 56. Stolen Kisses -- François Truffaut. 57. Last Year at Marienbad -- Alain Resnais. 58. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis -- Vittorio De Sica. 59. The Prince -- Niccolò Machiavelli. 60. The Leopard -- Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa. 61. The Leopard -- Luchino Visconti. 62. Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Kishori Amonkar and Mallikarjun Mansur on Spotify. 63. The plays of Anton Chekhov. 64. The short stories of Anton Chekhov. 65. Four Major Plays -- Federico García Lorca. 66. The Great Gatsby -- F Scott Fitzgerald. 67. Waiting for Godot -- Samuel Beckett. 68. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 69. The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 70. The Stranger -- Albert Camus. 71. The Black Paintings -- Francisco Goya. 72. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 73. Virasat-e-Khalsa. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Two Birds' by Simahina.
Mon, 25 Aug 2025 - 7h 54min - 428 - Ep 424: Gitanjali Babbar and the Didis of GB Road
Trained as a journalist, but driven by a desire to make a difference, she spent over a decade working with sex workers in Delhi to understand and improve their lives. Gitanjali Babbar joins Amit Varma in episode 424 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her learnings about GB Road -- and our strange and twisted society. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Gitanjali Babbar on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. 2. Kat Katha (also on Facebook and Instagram.) 3. Donate to Kat Katha. (Alternate link). 4. Select talks by and interviews of Gitanjali Babbar: 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. The Fat Girl -- Andre Dubus. 6. Aashayein -- song from Iqbal. 7. Talks on the Gita -- Vinobha Bhave. 8. The Forty Rules of Love -- Elif Shafak. 9. Tu Jhoom -- Naseebo Lal and Abida Parveen. 10. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar -- Mansoor Khan. 11. Saathiya -- Shaad Ali. 12. Anurag Garg on Amazon. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Street' by Simahina.
Mon, 11 Aug 2025 - 3h 55min - 427 - Ep 423: Minar Pimple's Life in Social Work
He founded the iconic organisation Yuva 50 years ago when he was in his early 20s, pioneered social work in India, and went on to drive change for the UN and Amnesty. Minar Pimple joins Amit Varma in episode 423 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his learnings and the ceaseless tumult in our society. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Minar Pimple at Yuva and Instagram. 2. An ISDM case study of Yuva. 3. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. India's MSME Landscape — Some Useful Frameworks -- Episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sudhir Sarnobat and Narendra Shenoy). 5. The Atheism Episode -- Episode 83 of Everything is Everything. 6. Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Friedrich Engels. 7. The Communist Manifesto -- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 8. The Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. 9. Paulo Freire and Saul Alinsky. 10. Towards a Philosophy of Social Work in India -- Sugata Dasgupta. 11. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 13. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 14. The Gate of Angels -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 15. The Moral Animal -- Robert Wright. 16. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 17. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World — Snigdha Poonam. 18. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 19. Adolescence — Created by Stephen Graham & Jack Thorne. 20. The Mayor of Casterbridge -- Thomas Hardy. 21. All My Sons -- Arthur Miller. 22. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Salil Tripathi and the Gujaratis -- Episode 409 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community — Salil Tripathi. 25. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 26. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 27. The Case for Nuclear Electricity -- Episode 78 of Everything is Everything. 28. Pyaasa -- Guru Dutt. 29. Samna -- Jabbar Patel. 30. Phule -- Anant Mahadevan. 31. Long Walk To Freedom -- Nelson Mandela. 32. Why I am an Atheist -- Bhagat Singh. 33. Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule -- Edited by GP Deshpande. 34. IPTA Mumbai. 35. Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi on Spotify. And here are the episodes mentioned by Amit in the introduction: 1. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 2. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us — Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Ajay Shah Brings the Dreams of the 20th Century -- Episode 402 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Praxis' by Simahina.
Mon, 28 Jul 2025 - 9h 24min - 426 - Ep 422: The Past and Present of Cricket
Cricket is the most unusual of games with the most unusual of histories -- which can reveal so much about our society and our times. Tim Wigmore joins Amit Varma in episode 422 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the history of Test cricket -- and how the game is changing today. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Tim Wigmore on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, Cricinfo and the Daily Telegraph. 2. Test Cricket: A History -- Tim Wigmore. 3. Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution -- Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde. 4. Crickonomics: The Anatomy of Modern Cricket-- Stefan Szymansk and Tim Wigmore. 5. White Hot: The Inside Story of England Cricket's Double World Champions -- Tim Wigmore and Matt Roller. 6. The Best: How Elite Athletes Are Made -- Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore. 7. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) — Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 8. Beyond A Boundary -- CLR James. 9. Pundits from Pakistan -- Rahul Bhattacharya. 10. England: The Biography: The Story of English Cricket -- Simon Wilde. 11. The Unforgiven -- Ashley Gray. 12. How to Think About Cricket (and Life) -- Episode 19 of Everything is Everything. 13. Selected pieces by Amit Varma on T20 cricket and changing cricket strategy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 14. Money in Cricket — Episode 41 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gideon Haigh and Prem Panicker). 15. The Evolution of Cricket — Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle). 16. Homeland -- Fernando Aramburu. 17. Levels of the Game -- John McPhee. 18. Rear Window -- Alfred Hitchcock. 19. Psycho -- Alfred Hitchcock. 20. State of Happiness -- Petter Næss and Pål Jackman. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Cricket Tragic' by Simahina.
Mon, 14 Jul 2025 - 3h 00min - 425 - Ep 421: Ira Mukhoty's Quest for Unseen Histories
Too much of our history is looked at through either a colonial lens or a patriarchal one. Ira Mukhoty joins Amit Varma in episode 421 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her gaze on India's history, and all that it has taught her. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ira Mukhoty on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads and Amazon. 2. Women in Indian History -- Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 3. The Lion and The Lily: The Rise and Fall of Awadh -- Ira Mukhoty. 4. Akbar: The Great Mughal -- Ira Mukhoty. 5. Song of Draupadi -- Ira Mukhoty. 6. Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire -- Ira Mukhoty. 7. Heroines: Powerful Indian Women of Myth and History -- Ira Mukhoty. 8. Jahangir the Curious — Episode 147 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Parvati Sharma). 9. The Many Cities of Delhi — Episode 172 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rana Safvi). 10. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 11. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life -- Anna Funder. 12. Invisible Women -- Caroline Criado Perez. 13. An Immense World -- Ed Yong. 14. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel. 15. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 16. The Expanding Circle — Peter Singer. 17. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 18. The Great Indian Kitchen -- Jeo Baby. 19. Heart Lamp -- Banu Mushtaq. 20. Misogyny is the Oldest Indian Tradition -- Amit Varma. 21. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 22. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Mughal History as a window to Modern India -- Ira Mukhoty on The India Briefing. 24. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. In defence of suit, boot — Chandra Bhan Prasad. 28. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 29. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Real Birds in Imagined Gardens -- Kavita Singh. 31. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything, on Spanish art. 32. Tawaif — Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 33. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 34. The Broken Script — Swapna Liddle. 35. Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court -- Audrey Truschke. 36. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. 37. The Year of Magical Thinking -- Joan Didion. 38. Blue Nights -- Joan Didion. 39. H is for Hawk -- Helen Macdonald. 40. The Procrastination Matrix -- Tim Urban. 41. The Age of the Partial Outsider -- Janan Ganesh. 42. Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light -- Hilary Mantel. 43. The Silence of the Girls -- Pat Barker. 44. The Hindus: An Alternative History -- Wendy Doniger. 45. Daily Rituals -- Mason Currey. 46. Daily Rituals: Women at Work -- Mason Currey. 47. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 48. Tawaifnama — Saba Dewan. 49. The Other Song -- Saba Dewan. 50. Sex and the Family in Colonial India -- Durba Ghosh. 51. Blueprint for Armageddon — Episode 50-55 of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. 52. Roam Research. 53. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia. 54. The History Thieves: Secrets, Lies and the Shaping of a Modern Nation -- Ian Cobain. 55. Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan -- Ruby Lal. 56. Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jehan -- Ruby Lal. 57. Coming of Age in Nineteenth-Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness -- Ruby Lal. 58. What is Islam? -- Shahab Ahmad. 59. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity -- Manu Pillai. 60. The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East -- Barnaby Rogerson. 61. Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh -- ʽAbd al-Qadir Badayuni. 62. Sarkai Lo Khatiya Jada Lage -- Song from Raja Babu. 63. Edge of Empire -- Maya Jasonoff. 64. Shatranj Ke Khiladi -- Satyajit Ray. 65. That Obscure Object of Desire -- Luis Buñuel. 66. This House of Grief -- Helen Garner. 67. Joe Cinque's Consolation -- Helen Garner. 68. Grief Is the Thing with Feathers -- Max Porter. 69. Burial Rites -- Hannah Kent. 70. Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. 71. The Wonder -- Emma Donahue. 72. When Montezuma Met Cortés -- Matthew Restall. 73. Stolen -- Karan Tejpal. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Unseen Histories' by Simahina.
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 - 6h 04min - 424 - Ep 420: Siddhartha Basu Is in the Hot Seat
Circumstance made him a legend of the quizzing world, but Siddhartha Basu is a man of many parts. He joins Amit Varma in episode 420 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about life, India, the art of asking questions and the answers he has found.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Siddhartha Basu on Wikipedia, Twitter, Instagram and IMDb. 2. Tree of Knowledge, DigiTok. 3. Quizzitok on YouTube. 4. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 5. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 6. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen featuring Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 9. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 12. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism — Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 13. How to Become a Tyrant -- Narrated by Peter Dinklage. 14. What Is Populism? -- Jan-Werner Müller. 15. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 16. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- Richard Fleischer. 17. The Hedgehog And The Fox — Isaiah Berlin. 18. Trees of Delhi : A Field Guide -- Pradip Krishen. 19. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. Stage.in. 22. Dance Like a Man -- Mahesh Dattani. 23. How Old Are You? -- Rosshan Andrrews. 24. The Mehta Boys -- Boman Irani. 25. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- James Joyce. 26. Massey Sahib -- Pradip Krishen. 27. Derek O'Brien talks to Siddhartha Basu -- Episode 6 of the Quizzitok Podcast. 28. Kwizzing with Kumar Varun. 29. Ivanhoe, Treasure Island and Black Beauty. 30. Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, James Joyce, TS Eliot and Vivekananda. 31. Ramayana and Mahabharata -- C Rajagopalachari. 32. Paradise Lost -- John Milton. 33. Morte d'Arthur -- Alfred Tennyson. 34. Death of a Salesman -- Arthur Miller. 35. Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Mukul Kesavan, Rukun Advani, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Jhumpa Lahiri, I Allan Sealy, Arundhati Roy and William Dalrymple. 36. The Trotter-nama -- I Allan Sealy. 37. The Everest Hotel -- I Allan Sealy. 38. The Life and Times of Altu-Faltu -- Ranjit Lal. 39. Mr Beast on YouTube. 40. The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar — Episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Ramki and the Ocean of Stories -- Episode 415 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Adolescence -- Created by Stephen Graham & Jack Thorne. 43. Anora -- Sean Baker. 44. Jerry Seinfeld on the results of the Seinfeld pilot. 45. Scam 1992 -- Hansal Mehta. 46. Dahaad -- Created by Reema Kagti & Zoya Akhtar. 47. The Delhi Walla -- Mayank Austen Soofi. 48. Flood of Fire -- Amitav Ghosh. 49. The Shadow Lines -- Amitav Ghosh. 50. The God of Small Things -- Arundhati Roy. 51. Shillong Chamber Choir. 52. The Waste Land -- TS Eliot. 53. Omkara, Maqbool and Haider -- Vishal Bhardwaj. 54. A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens. 55. William Shakespeare and Henry James. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Your Time Starts Now' by Simahina.
Mon, 16 Jun 2025 - 4h 10min - 423 - Ep 419: India's MSME Landscape -- Some Useful Frameworks
Firms are the means of economic progress. India's micro, small and medium enterprises have been hobbled for decades, and flounder even today. Sudhir Sarnobat and Narendra Shenoy join Amit Varma in episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss this landscape -- and Sudhir's brilliant new venture that aims to tackle this. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sudhir Sarnobat on Twitter and LinkedIn. 2. Naren Shenoy on Twitter, Instagram and Blogspot. 3. How Frameworks — Sudhir Sarnobat's new venture. 4. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World -- Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 7. You're Ugly and You're Hairy and You're Covered in Shit but You're Mine and I Love You -- Episode 362 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 8. The Teaching Learning Community. 9. Ascent Foundation. 10. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything. 11. Other episodes of Everything is Everything on firms: 1, 2, 3, 4. 12. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran -- Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Restaurant Regulations in India — Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon). 14. Restart -- Mihir Sharma. 15. Backstage — Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 16. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Devil's Dictionary -- Ambrose Bierce. 18. The Bad and Complex Tax -- Episode 74 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 19. They Stole a Bridge. They Stole a Pond -- Amit Varma. 20. Bihar real estate brokers build illegal bridge on river. 21. The Globalisation Episode -- Episode 95 of Everything is Everything. 22. Is Globalization Doomed? -- Episode 96 of Everything is Everything 23. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 24. The Case for Nuclear Electricity -- Episode 78 of Everything is Everything. 25. अंतू बरवा -- Pu La Deshpande. 26. Testaments Betrayed -- Milan Kundera. 27. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 28. Marginal Revolution University. 29. The Bankable Wisdom of Harsh Vardhan — Episode 352 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown -- Denis Diderot. 31. Good to Great -- Jim Collins. 32. Economics in One Lesson -- Henry Hazlitt. 33. The Goal -- Eliyahu Goldratt. 34. The Toyota Way -- Jeffrey Liker. 35. Start With Why -- Simon Sinek. 36. The Lean Startup -- Eric Reis. 37. The Hard Thing About Hard Things -- Ben Horowitz. 38. Romancing the Balance Sheet -- Anil Lamba. 39. Connect the Dots -- Rashmi Bansal. 40. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel. 41. Acquired, Lenny's Podcast, EconTalk, Work Life, Rethinking, The Knowledge Project, How I Built This, Everything is Everything, HBR Podcast, Ideacast, Deep Questions. 42. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 43. Can We Build Switzerland in India? -- Episode 58 of Everything is Everything. 44. Dwarkesh Patel and Hannah Fry. 45. Habuild. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Battleground' by Simahina.
Mon, 02 Jun 2025 - 4h 40min - 422 - Ep 418: What Just Happened Between India & Pakistan?
Why did the attacks in Pahalgam happen? What took place in the skirmishes after that? What have we learnt about geopolitics and our military preparedness? Pranay Kotasthane and Aditya Ramanathan join Amit Varma in episode 418 of The Seen and the Unseen to try to clear some of the fog of war. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Aditya Ramanathan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and the Takshashila Institution. 3. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra & Khyati Pathak). 4. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's newsletter. 5. All Things Policy -- The Takshashila Institution's podcast. 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. The India-Pakistan Conflict -- Episode 111 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 8. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Hamsini Hariharan). 9. India in the Nuclear Age -- Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 10. All previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 11. Aditya Ramanathan's piece on how India's air defence system performed. 12. Aditya Ramanathan's analysis of Operation Sindoor. 13. 9/11 and Pakistan's Economy (2006) -- Amit Varma's post on 'Al Faeda'. 14. Action Produces Information -- Brian Armstrong at Startup Archive. 15. Khushi Mukherjee on India, Pakistan and PoK. 16. The Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition, 1969-1970 -- Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov. 17. Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks -- Barry R Posen. 18. The People Next Door: The Curious History of India-Pakistan Relations -- TCA Raghavan. 19. The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan: Post-Partition Statehood in South Asia -- Atul Mishra. 20. Husain Haqqani on Amazon. 21. Empires of the Indus -- Alice Albinia. 22. Network for Advanced Study of Pakistan (NASP) Fellowship. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Fog of War' by Simahina.
Mon, 19 May 2025 - 2h 29min - 421 - Ep 417: Caste and the Census
Data is apolitical and always useful, right? Then why is the caste census so controversial? Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley join Amit Varma in episode 417 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss its history, context and implications. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's newsletter. 3. Missing In Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley. 4. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra & Khyati Pathak). 5. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Raghu S Jaitley). 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's Father's Scooter — Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. All episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 9. Some Slopes Are Slippery For Real -- RSJ and Pranay's last debate (Sep 2024) on the caste census. 10. जातीय जनगणना होनी चाहिए या नहीं? -- The Puliyabaazi episode (May 2023) on the caste census. 11. Other posts of Pranay and RSJ's newsletter that touch on this subject: 1, 2, 3. 12. Look Beyond Quotas for Equality -- Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai. 13. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 15. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 17. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism -- Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 19. How the BJP wins: Inside India's Greatest Election Machine — Prashant Jha. 20. The BJP's Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 21. Badri Narayan on Wikipedia and Amazon. 22. Terms of Trade: Mandal wins, por ahora -- Roshan Kishore. 23. Caste questions for Rahul Gandhi -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 24. The mirage of social justice -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 25. Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study -- Thomas Sowell. 26. The Grammar of Anarchy -- Babasaheb Ambedkar. 27. Policy Paradox -- Deborah Stone. 28. Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and Succeed? — Devesh Kapur. 29. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 31. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 32. An Area of Darkness -- VS Naipaul. 33. India: A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 34. Upstream -- Zheng Xu. 35. The Sea Hawk -- Manohar Malgonkar. 36. Ideas of India -- Shruti Rajagopalan's podcast. 37. The Great Power Show -- Manoj Kewalramani's podcast. 38. May December -- Todd Haynes. 40. Hard Truths -- Mike Leigh. 41. Secrets and Lies -- Mike Leigh. 42. A Real Pain -- Jesse Eisenberg. 43. Orbital -- Samnatha Harvey. 44. How Music Works -- David Byrne. 45. Visual Arts in the 20th Century -- Edward Lucie-Smith. Applications are open for the Takshashila Institution's Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy, where Pranay will be one of your teachers! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Count' by Simahina.
Mon, 05 May 2025 - 2h 15min - 420 - Ep 416: Kavitha Rao Chases Chatto and Roy
The most astonishing men lie in the far, forgotten corners of history. Kavitha Rao joins Amit Varma in episode 416 of The Seen and the Unseen to shed light on the life and times of two magnificent failures, Chatto and Roy. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Kavitha Rao on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon and her own website. 2. Spies, Lies and Allies: The Extraordinary Lives of Chatto and Roy -- Kavitha Rao. 3. Lady Doctors : The Untold Stories Of India's First Women In Medicine -- Kavitha Rao. 4. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Chatto: The Life and Times of an Anti-Imperialist in Europe -- Nirode K Barooah. 6. In Freedom's Quest : A Study of the Life and Works of MN Roy -- Sibnarayan Ray. 7. The collected works of MN Roy. 8. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 9. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism -- Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 10. Ira Mukhoty on Instagram. 11. The Difficulty In Dating Good Men -- Aella. 12. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus -- John Gray. 13. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya. 14. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 15. The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj -- Anita Anand. 16. Rama Bhima Soma: Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka -- Srikar Raghavan. 17. Lady Doctors on Goodreads. 18. The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar -- Episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Vinayak Calling Vinayak — Episode 385 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinayak Chaturvedi). 20. Daughter of Earth -- Agnes Smedley. 21. The Gilded Age and The White Lotus. 22. Rumours -- Fleetwood Mac. 23. The Day I Became a Runner -- Sohini Chattopadhyay. 24, Brotherless Night -- VV Ganeshananthan. 25. Miss Austen, Wolf Hall and The Traitors. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Lenin Speaks Bengali' by Simahina.
Mon, 28 Apr 2025 - 2h 55min - 419 - Ep 415: Ramki and the Ocean of Stories
He observed our society from up close as an advertising man -- and then became an iconic storyteller on Twitter. Ramakrishna Desiraju aka Ramki joins Amit Varma in episode 415 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and all that it taught him. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ramakrishna Desiraju aka Ramki on LinkedIn and Twitter. 2. Cartwheel Creative Consultancy. 3. Selected legendary threads by Ramki. 4. Ramki's commercial for Kotak Mahindra Bank featuring Ranveer Singh. 5. Celluloid Man -- Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. 6. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- James Thurber. 7. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne -- Prakash Jha. 8. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 9. Heere Ko Kya Pata -- SBI Life Insurance commercial by Prasoon Pandey. 10. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Dead Poet's Society -- Peter Weir. 12. The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar -- Episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Rumble Fish -- Francis Ford Coppola. 14. John Collison's tweet on the world being a museum of passion projects. 15. The Fisher King -- Terry Gilliam. 16. The Grand Central Station scene from The Fisher KIng. 17. The Wheel commercial with Govinda. 18. Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense -- Rory Sutherland. 19. Hausla Hai Toh Ho Jayega -- Kotak commercial. 20. Anora -- Sean Baker. 21. Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl and John le Carre on Amazon. 22. The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 23. Perfect Days -- Wim Wenders. 24. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 25. Chhannulal Mishra on Spotify and YouTube. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Waves' by Simahina.
Mon, 14 Apr 2025 - 4h 49min - 418 - Ep 414 : The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar
He learnt his craft from Shyam Benegal, became a pioneer & a legend of advertising filmmaking, learnt & taught scuba diving, started the Prithvi Cafe, and lived every moment to the full in a million different ways. Prahlad Kakar joins Amit Varma in episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his long and wondrous life.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Prahlad Kakar on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, IMDb and his own website. 2. Adman Madman: Unapologetically Prahlad -- Prahlad Kakar. 3. Genesis Film Production. 4. Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag -- Episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China — Probal DasGupta. 6. Sahil Bloom's tweet on preparation vs planning. 7. Big City Blues -- Mervyn LeRoy. 8. Does India take its national symbols too seriously? — Jan 2008 episode of We the People. 9. Au Hasard Balthazar -- Robert Bresson. 10. The Bicycle Thief -- Vittorio De Sica. 11. Blade Runner -- Ridley Scott. 12. 2001: A Space Odyssey -- Stanley Kubrick 13. Straw Dogs -- Sam Peckinpah. 14. Prahlad Kakar's Bombay Dyeing commercial from 1983. 15. Ankur -- Shyam Benegal. 16. Bhumika -- Shyam Benegal. 17. Manthan -- Shyam Benegal. 18. Dekho Dekho, Duniya Dekho -- Prahlad Kakar's commercial for Air India. 19. Modesty Blaise, The Saint, Harry Potter and the work of Tom Clancy, Wilbur Smith and Louis L'Amour. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Shoot' by Simahina.
Mon, 31 Mar 2025 - 3h 37min - 417 - Ep 413: Shaheen Mistri Goes to School
One of India's tragedies lies in the schooling of our children. We have let our kids down. Can we fix this problem? Shaheen Mistri joins Amit Varma in episode 413 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey -- and what she has learnt about education. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shaheen Mistri on Instagram, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and Facebook. 2. Redrawing India: The Teach For India Story -- Kovid Gupta and Shaheen Mistri. 3. Teach For India. 4. Akanksha Foundation. 5. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 6. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Teach For America. 8. Indicorps. 9. Sahil Bloom's tweet on planning and preparation. 10. Lighthouse Studios. 11. Third Space. 12. The Conference of the Birds by Teach For India. 13. Slam Out Loud. 14. Kahani Tree. 15. What Feelings Do When No One's Looking -- Tina Oziewicz and Aleksandra Zajac. 16. Charlotte's Web -- EB White. 17. Oh, The Places You'll Go! -- Dr Seuss. 18. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 19. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must!
And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free!
Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
Episode art: 'Learn' by Simahina.
Mon, 17 Mar 2025 - 3h 12min - 416 - Ep 412: Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag
So much in history never made it to the popular imagination -- such as the battles of 1967 in which India beat China. Probal DasGupta joins Amit Varma in episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his time in the Indian army -- and his fascinating discoveries as a military historian. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Probal DasGupta on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Amazon. 2. Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China -- Probal DasGupta. 3. Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields -- Probal DasGupta. 4. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 5. The Killing Fields -- Roland Joffé. 6. Shame -- Salman Rushdie. 7. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 8. The Satanic Verses -- Salman Rushdie. 9. India's War -- Srinath Raghavan. 10. A Deep Dive Into Ukraine vs Russia — Episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 11. The State of the Ukraine War — Episode 14 of Everything is Everything. 12. A Deep Dive Into the Indian Military -- Episode 31 of Everything is Everything. 13. Indian Defence Strategy: Forces, Potential and Procurement Disasters -- Perun. 14. Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 16. The Absent Dialogue -- Anit Mukherjee. 17. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Episode 37 of Everything is Everything. 18. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 19. Love Story -- Rahul Rawail. 20. Grave of the Fireflies -- Isao Takahata. 21. The Nutty Putty cave picture. 22. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War — Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 23. 1971: A Global History Of The Creation Of Bangladesh -- Srinath Raghavan. 24. The chair-raising scene between Adenoid Hynkel and Benzino Napaloni in The Great Dictator. 25. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 26. One Hundred Years of Solitude, the web series. 27. Until August -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 28. Chronicle of a Death Foretold -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 29. No One Writes to the Colonel -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 30. Love in the Time of Cholera -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 31. Feast of the Goat -- Mario Vargas Llosa. 32. Indian Summer -- Alex von Tunzelmann. 33. The Last Emperor -- Bernardo Bertolucci. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Rare Air' by Simahina.
Mon, 03 Mar 2025 - 6h 03min - 415 - Ep 411: Vishal Nevatia Finds His True North
Business and life can sometimes be seen more as a search for values than a quest for profit. Private equity pioneer Vishal Nevatia joins Amit Varma in episode 411 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey towards finding his true north. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vishal Nevatia at True North. 2. Ingredients for high growth firms -- Vishal Nevatia in 2015. 3. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. The Beauty of Finance -- Ep 21 of Everything is Everything. 7. How Family Firms Evolve -- Ep 34 of Everything is Everything. 8. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Ep 37 of Everything is Everything. 9. Graduating to Globalisation -- Epi 48 of Everything is Everything. 10. The Horrors of KYC -- Episode 74 of Everything is Everything. 11. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Mohit Satyanand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 12. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. How We Do the Small Things — Amit Varma. 14. How the Trump Whale Correctly Called the Election -- Alexander Osipovich. 15. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 16. Devangshu Datta Traded His Corduroy Pants — Episode 348 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Polls get elections wrong. So use Google -- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'True North' by Simahina.
Mon, 17 Feb 2025 - 4h 46min - 414 - Ep 410: Shruti Rajagopalan Remembers the Angle of the Light
She's an economist, an institution-builder, an ecosystem-nurturer and one of our finest thinkers. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life & times -- and her remarkable work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram, her podcast, Ideas of India and her own website. 2. Emergent Ventures India. 3. The 1991 Project. 4. Life Lessons That Are Priceless -- Episodes 400 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 6. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma's newsletter post explaining Shruti Rajagopalan's swimming pool analogy for social science research. 7. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 8. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 9. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 10. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 11. Where Has All the Education Gone? -- Lant Pritchett. 12. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith. 14. The Wealth of Nations — Adam Smith. 15. Commanding Heights -- Daniel Yergin. 16. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 17. Free to Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 18. Economics in One Lesson -- Henry Hazlitt. 19. The Road to Serfdom -- Friedrich Hayek. 20. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 21. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 22. Individualism and Economic Order -- Friedrich Hayek. 23. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 24. Richard E Wagner at Mercatus and Amazon. 25. Larry White and the First Principles of Money -- Episode 397 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 27. Marginal Revolution. 28. Paul Graham's essays. 29. Commands and controls: Planning for indian industrial development, 1951–1990 -- Rakesh Mohan and Vandana Aggarwal. 30. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. India: Planning for Industrialization -- Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai. 32. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration -- Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith. 33. Cows on India Uncut. 34. Abdul Karim Khan on Spotify and YouTube. 35. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 36. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 37. Sriya Iyer on the Economics of Religion -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 39. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pratap Bhanu Mehta: 1, 2. 40. Rohit Lamba Reimagines India's Economic Policy Emphasis -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 41. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan — Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. The Constitutional Law and Philosophy blog. 43. Cost and Choice -- James Buchanan. 44. Philip Wicksteed. 45. Pratap Bhanu Mehta on The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 46. Conversation and Society — Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 47. The Common Sense of Political Economy -- Philip Wicksteed. 48. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Manmohan Singh: India's Finest Talent Scout -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 51. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 52. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 54. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 55. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Breaking Through — Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 57. Breaking Out — Padma Desai. 58. Perestroika in Perspective -- Padma Desai. 59. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Pics from the Seen-Unseen party. 61. Pramod Varma on India's Digital Empowerment -- Episode 50 of Brave New World. 59. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 61. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 62. The Overton Window. 63. When Ideas Have Sex -- Matt Ridley. 64. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 65. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics -- Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 66. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 67. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 68. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 69. What Does It Mean to Be Libertarian? — Episode 64 of The Seen and the Unseen. 70. The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom -- David Boaz. 71. Publish and Perish — Agnes Callard. 72. Classical Liberal Institute. 73. Shruti Rajagopalan's YouTube talk on constitutional amendments. 74. What I, as a development economist, have been actively "for" -- Lant Pritchett. 75. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 76. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 77. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 78. Invisible Infrastructure -- Episode 82 of Everything is Everything. 79. The Sundara Kanda. 80. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us -- Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 81. Y Combinator. 82. Space Fields. 83. Apoorwa Masuk, Onkar Singh Batra, Naman Pushp, Angad Daryani, Deepak VS and Srijon Sarkar. 84. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 85. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away -- The Beatles. 86. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 87. Data For India -- Rukmini S's startup. 88. Whole Numbers And Half Truths — Rukmini S. 89. The Moving Curve — Rukmini S's Covid podcast, also on all podcast apps. 90. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 91. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 92. Prosperiti. 93. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 94. The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal -- Gurcharan Das. 95. Zakir: 1951-2024 -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 96. Dazzling Blue -- Paul Simon, featuring Karaikudi R Mani. 97. John Coltrane, Shakti, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan, Pannalal Ghosh, Nikhil Banerjee, Vilayat Khan, Bismillah Khan, Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Esperanza Spalding, MS Subbulakshmi, Lalgudi Jayaraman, TN Krishnan, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Ranjani-Gayatri and TM Krishna on Spotify. 98. James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Israel Kirzner, Mario Rizzo, Vernon Smith, Thomas Schelling and Ronald Coase. 99. The Calculus of Consent -- James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock. 100. Tim Harford and Martin Wolf. 101. The Shawshank Redemption -- Frank Darabont. 102. The Marriage of Figaro in The Shawshank Redemption. 103. An Equal Music -- Vikram Seth. 104. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 - Zubin Mehta and the Belgrade Philharmonic. 105. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's violin concertos. 106. Animal Farm -- George Orwell. 107. Down and Out in Paris and London -- George Orwell. 108. Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift. 109. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass -- Lewis Carroll. 110. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 111. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 112. Khosla Ka Ghosla -- Dibakar Banerjee. 113. Mr India -- Shekhar Kapur. 114. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi -- Satyen Bose. 114. Finding Nemo -- Andrew Stanton. 115. Tom and Jerryand Bugs Bunny. 116. Michael Madana Kama Rajan -- Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. 117. The Music Box, with Laurel and Hardy. 118. The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 119. Court -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 120. Dwarkesh Patel on YouTube. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Learn' by Simahina.
Sun, 02 Feb 2025 - 6h 48min - 413 - Ep 409: Salil Tripathi and the Gujaratis
He's lived a rich life as a journalist, a human rights activist, an author, a columnist -- and now he's written a great book on Gujaratis. Salil Tripathi joins Amit Varma in episode 409 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his learnings, these times we live in -- and the times that came before. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Salil Tripathi on Twitter, Instagram, Wikipedia, LinkedIn and Amazon. 2. The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community -- Salil Tripathi. 3. The Colonel Who Would Not Repent -- Salil Tripathi. 4. Offence – The Hindu Case -- Salil Tripathi. 5. Detours: Songs of the Open Road -- Salil Tripathi. 6. For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit -- Edited by Shilpa Gupta and Salil Tripathi. 7. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 8. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 9. Saraswatichandra (Gujarati) (English) -- Govardhanram Tripathi. 10. Gujarat Ni Asmita -- KM Munshi. 11. I Follow the Mahatma -- KM Munshi. 12. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us — Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Ahimsa: 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization — Devdutt Pattanaik. 14. Until the Lions -- Karthika Nair. 15. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 16. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism -- Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 17. Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain -- Fintan O'Toole. 18. Understanding Gandhi: Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 19. Understanding Gandhi: Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 20. Gandhi Before India -- Ramachandra Guha. 21. Objects From Our Past-- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 22. The Diary of Manu Gandhi (Part 1) (Part 2) -- Edited and Translated by Tridip Suhrud. 23. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 24. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 25. Akhil Katyal's poem on caste. 26. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 27. Bare Feet – a Poem about MF Husain -- Salil Tripathi. 28. My Mother's Fault -- Salil Tripathi. 29. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 30. Yashwant Rao -- Arun Kolatkar. 31. The Patriot -- Nissim Ezekiel. 32. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne -- Satyajit Ray. 33. You're Missing -- Bruce Springsteen. 34. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Milan Kundera, Ved Mehta and John McPhee on Amazon. 35. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 36. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. On Tyranny -- Timothy Snyder. 38. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Saving Capitalism From The Capitalists -- Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales. 40. Check out Johan Norberg's great work. 41. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy — Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 42. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 43. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs — Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 44. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 45. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 46. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He's alive! 47. Amit Varma's 2022 piece on the mess-up at The Wire. 48. Television Price Controls — Episode 27 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashok Malik). 49. The Selfish Altruist -- Tony Vaux. 50. Sadanand Dhume's tweet on the hypocrisy around The Satanic Verses. 51. Bad Elements -- Ian Buruma. 52. Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 54. The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad — Episode 302 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. The Wal-Mart Effect-- Charles Fishman. 57. Modern South India -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 58. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 59. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander. 60. Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat -- Narmad. 61. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 62. Where the Green Ants Dream -- Werner Herzog. 63. People's Linguistic Survey of India -- GN Devy and others. 64. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 65. Stage.in. 66. Reading Lolita in Tehran -- Azar Nafisi. 67. Two Concepts of Liberty — Isaiah Berlin. 68. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 69. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 70. Shruti Rajagopalan's talk on the many amendments in our constitution. 71. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 72. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 73. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 74. Goodbye Solo — Ramin Bahrani. 75. The desire to help, and the desire not to be helped — Roger Ebert's review of Goodbye Solo. 76. Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada -- Shahu Patole. 77. Firaaq -- Nandita Das. 78. How the BJP Wins — Prashant Jha. 79. The BJP's Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 80. The Year of Living Dangerously -- Peter Weir. 81. Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray, Francois Truffaut and Aparna Sen. 82. The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and London Review of Books. 83. Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain and Vilayat Khan on Spotify. 84. Nadine Gordiner, Fintan O'Toole, Ilya Kaminsky, Karthika Nair, Ruchir Joshi, Kiran Desai, Nilanjana Roy, Sunil Gavaskar and Mike Brearley. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Asmita' by Simahina.
Mon, 20 Jan 2025 - 6h 13min - 412 - Ep 408: Amitava Kumar Finds His Gulmohar Tree
His earlier episodes on this show have been huge hits, and as he completes a trilogy of books, he returns to complete a trilogy of episodes. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 408 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about writing, noticing, painting, travelling, trees, and unfulfilled train journeys. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar, Granta and his own website. 2. The Green Book: An Observer's Notebook -- Amitava Kumar. 3. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain -- Episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal — Amitava Kumar. 6. The Yellow Book: A Traveller's Diary — Amitava Kumar. 7. My Beloved Life: A Novel-- Amitava Kumar. 8. A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 9. The Trees — Philip Larkin. 10. Before the Storm -- Amitava Kumar. 11. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 12. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 13. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth. 14. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. 'Indian languages carry the legacy of caste' — Chandra Bhan Prasad interviewed by Sheela Bhatt. 16. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Stage.in. 18. Laapataa Ladies -- Kiran Rao. 19. Kanthapura -- Raja Rao. 20. All About H Hatterr -- GV Desani. 21. From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada -- Sudha Bharadwaj. 22. India is Broken -- Ashoka Mody. 23. Being Mortal -- Atul Gawande. 24. Earwitness to Place -- Bernie Krause interviewed by Erin Robinsong. 25. All That Breathes -- Shaunak Sen. 26. Frog: 1 Poetry: 0 -- Amitava Kumar. 27. The Heat Will Kill You First -- Jeff Goodell. 28. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron. 30. An excerpt from Wittgenstein's diary — Parul Sehgal on Twitter. 31. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Ludwig Wittgenstein. 32. Burdock -- Janet Malcolm. 33. Hermit in Paris — Italo Calvino. 34. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 35. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) — Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 36. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 37. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 38. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 39. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 40. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Bhavni Bhavai -- Ketan Mehta. 42. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 43. Secondhand Time -- Svetlana Alexievich. 44. Amitava Kumar's post with Danish Husain's postcard. 45. Fire Weather -- John Vaillant. 46. Ill Nature -- Joy Williams. 47. Hawk -- Joy Williams. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Gulmohar' by Simahina.
Mon, 06 Jan 2025 - 2h 49min - 411 - Ep 407: Sarbpreet Singh Finds His Sikhism
He was born in Sikkim and lives in the USA, and in the course of engaging with his identity, has written powerful books of Sikh history, and revived its music. Sarbpreet Singh joins Amit Varma in episode 407 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his writing, his music and the lessons of Sikhism. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sarbpreet Singh on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Linktree and Amazon. 2. The Story of the Sikhs -- Sarbpreet Singh's podcast on Spotify. 3. The Gurmat Sangeet Podcast. 4. The Gurmat Sangeet Project. 5. The Story of the Sikhs: 1469-1708 -- Sarbpreet Singh. 6. Cauldron, Sword and Victory: The Rise of the Sikhs -- Sarbpreet Singh. 7. The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia -- Sarbpreet Singh. 8. Kultar's Mime -- Sarbpreet Singh. 9. Night of the Restless Spirits: Stories from 1984 -- Sarbpreet Singh. 10. The Sufi's Nightingale -- Sarbpreet Singh. 11. Nanak Was Here — Episode 166 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amardeep Singh). 12. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us -- Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Sarbpreet Singh in conversation with Jerry Pinto. 14. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Em and the Big Hoom — Jerry Pinto. 16. History of the Sikhs -- JD Cunningham. 17. Khyal: Creativity within North India's Classical Music Tradition -- Bonnie Wade. 18. Who are the Guilty? -- The PUCL report about the 1984 riots. 19. Gangster Rule -- Madhu Kishwar. 20. Anthropological Knowledge and Collective Violence: The Riots in Delhi, November 1984 -- Veena Das. 21. 100 Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 22. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 23. In The City of Slaughter-- Hayyim Nahman Bialik. 24. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil — Hannah Arendt. 25. The Pluralism Project. 25. Kaya Taran -- Sashi Kumar. 26. A History of the Sikhs -- Khushwant Singh. 27. Kirtan Sewa Malaysia. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Seeker' by Simahina.
Mon, 23 Dec 2024 - 4h 31min - 410 - Ep 406: Sathya Saran and the Shaping of the Indian Woman
She worked with Femina for 26 years, 12 of them as editor. And she wrote numerous biographies after that. Sathya Saran joins Amit Varma in episode 406 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss Indian society, feminism, femininity, her life as a journalist and the art of the biography. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sathya Saran on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Amazon. 2. Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi's Journey -- Sathya Saran. 3. Sun Mere Bandhu Re: The Musical World Of SD Burman -- Sathya Saran. 4. Baat Niklegi Toh Phir: The Life and Music of Jagjit Singh -- Sathya Saran. 5. Breath of Gold: Hariprasad Chaurasia -- Sathya Saran. 6. The Dark Side and Other Stories -- Sathya Saran. 7. How To Look Like Miss India -- Sathya Saran. 8. Gulzar's Angoor: Insights into The Film -- Sathya Saran. 9. From Me to You -- Sathya Saran. 10. Madhumati -- Bimal Roy. 11. How We Do the Small Things -- Amit Varma. 12. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt. 14. Coming Through Slaughter -- Michael Ondaatje. 15. Take A Chance On Me -- Abba. 16. Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam -- Guru Dutt. 17. The Monk and His Music -- Moti Lalwani and Richa Lakhanpal. 18. Close -- Lukas Dhont. 19. Girl -- Lukas Dhont. 20. Mughal-E-Azam -- K Asif. 21. Pyaasa -- Guru Dutt. 22. Lekin -- Gulzar. 22. Ijaazat -- Gulzar. 24. Angoor -- Gulzar. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Beauty' by Simahina.
Mon, 09 Dec 2024 - 3h 30min - 409 - Ep 405: The Forces That Shaped Hinduism
Every simple story about it is wrong: Hinduism contains multitudes. And it went into the directions it did for specific reasons. Manu Pillai joins Amit Varma in episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe the role of history in the shaping of Hinduism -- and Hindu nationalism. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Manu Pillai on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Amazon and his own website. 2. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity -- Manu Pillai. 3. The Deccan Before Shivaji — Episode 98 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 4. Our Colorful Past — Episode 127 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 5. Kerala and the Ivory Throne — Episode 156 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 6. The Multitudes of Our Maharajahs -- Episode 244 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 7. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 8. The Changing Forms of Creativity -- Episode 72 of Everything is Everything. 9. Hardcore History — Dan Carlin. 10. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us -- Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 12. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube. 13. William Dalrymple kicking off a controversy. 14. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 15. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 16. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Evolution of Everything — Matt Ridley. 18. The Evolution of Everything — Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 19. Merchants of Virtue -- Divya Cherian. 20. The Logic of Collective Action — Mancur Olson. 21. Caged Tiger — Subhashish Bhadra. 22. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Much Maligned Monsters -- Partha Mitter. 24. Literotica. 25. Genealogy of the South-Indian Gods -- Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg. 26. The Big Questions -- Steven Landsburg. 27. State, Politics, and Cultures in Modern South India: Honour, Authority, and Morality -- Pamela Price. 28. The Broken Script — Swapna Liddle. 29. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. The History of British India -- James Mill. 31. Vindication of the Hindoos -- Charles Stuart. 32. Tuḥfat al-Muwaḥḥidīn -- Ram Mohan Roy. 33. Devangshu Datta Traded His Corduroy Pants — Episode 348 of The Seen and the Unseen. 34. Satyarth Prakash -- Dayanand Saraswati. 35. Gulamgiri -- Jyotirao Phule. 36. How the BJP Wins — Prashant Jha. 37. The BJP's Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 38. Three Statesmen -- BR Nanda's biographies of GK Gokhale, MK Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. 39. Essentials of Hindutva -- Vinayak Savarkar. 40. Savarkar: The True Story of the Father of Hindutva -- Vaibhav Purandhare. 41. Hindutva and Violence: VD Savarkar and the Politics of History — Vinayak Chaturvedi. 42. Vinayak Calling Vinayak -- Episode 385 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinayak Chaturvedi). 43. The Savarkar Boxset -- Vikram Sampath. 44. Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva -- Janaki Bakhle. 45. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator -- Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. Anne with an E -- Moira Walley-Beckett. 47. Arcane -- Christian Linke and Alex Yee. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Open-Source Religion' by Simahina.
Mon, 25 Nov 2024 - 5h 53min - 408 - Ep 404: Part 2: Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us
Our societies, our norms, our values are all shaped by stories from the past. Devdutt Pattanaik joins Amit Varma in episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, our society and why we should take mythology seriously. Note: This is Part 2 of a 12-hour episode, being uploaded in two parts now because Spotify and YouTube don't allow uploads over 12 hours. So do listen to Part 1 first -- and if you are on another podcast app, just play the full version if it is there! (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Devdutt Pattanaik on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube, Amazon and his own website. 2. Myth = Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 3. The Girl Who Chose -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 4. The Boys Who Fought -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 5. Ramayana Versus Mahabharata -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 6. My Gita -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 7. Bahubali: 63 Insights into Jainism -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 8. Sati Savitri -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 9. Business Sutra -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 10. Ahimsa: 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 11. Olympus -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 12. Eden -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 13. East vs West -- The Myths That Mystify -- Devdutt Pattanaik's 2009 TED Talk. 14. Today My Mother Came Home -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 15. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 20. Women in Indian History — Episode 144 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 21. The Jewel in the Crown -- BBC TV series. 22. Heat and Dust -- James Ivory. 23. The Sexual Outlaw -- John Rechy. 24. Bombay Dost and Gay Bombay. 25. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 26. The Kama Sutra. 27. Liberty -- Isaiah Berlin. 28. Thought and Choice in Chess -- Adriaan de Groot. 29. The Seven Basic Plots -- Christopher Booker. 30. The Seven Basic Plots -- Episode 69 of Everything is Everything. 31. The Hero with a Thousand Faces -- Joseph Campbell. 32. The Big Questions -- Steven Landsburg. 33. 300 Ramayanas — AK Ramanujan. 33. The egg came before the chicken. 34. The Evolution of Cooperation — Robert Axelrod. 35. The Trees -- Philip Larkin. 36. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 37. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 38. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 39. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 40. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 41. Jugalbandi -- Vinay Sitapati. 42. Perfect Days -- Wim Wenders. 43. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 44. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 45. Mary Wollstonecraft and bell hooks. 46. If India Was Five Days Old -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 47. The Road to Freedom — Arthur C Brooks. 48. The Master and His Emissary -- Iain McGilchrist. 49. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 50. Human -- Michael Gazzaniga. 51. The Elephant in the Brain — Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson. 52. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 53. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 54. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants — Peggy Mohan. 55. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 56. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 57. The Golden Bough -- James Frazer. 58. Myth And Reality: Studies In The Formation Of Indian Culture -- DD Kosambi. 59. Srimad Bhagavatam -- Kamala Subramaniam. 60. Boris Vallejo on Instagram, Wikipedia and his own website. 61. The Last Temptation Of Christ -- Nikos Kazantzakis. 62. The Last Temptation Of Christ -- Martin Scorcese. 63. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 64. The Poem of the Killing of Meghnad -- Michael Madhusudan Dutt. 65. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil — Hannah Arendt. 66. The Crown -- Created by Peter Morgan. 67. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 68. Imaginary Number — Vijay Seshadri. 69. The Buddha's Footprint -- Johan Elverskog. 70. A Prehistory of Hinduism -- Manu Devadevan. 71. The 'Early Medieval' Origins of India -- Manu Devadevan. 72. Unmasking Buddhism -- Bernard Faure. 73. The Red Thread -- Bernard Faure. 74. The Power of Denial -- Bernard Faure. 75. The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha -- Bernard Faure. 76. A Modern Look At Ancient Chinese Theory Of Language -- Chad Hansen. 77. Hermann Kulke, Umakant Mishra and Ganesh Devy on Amazon. 78. The Hours -- Michael Cunningham. 79. The Hours -- Stephen Daldry. 79. Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization -- Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay. 80. Myth -- Laurence Coupe. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Tell' by Simahina.
Tue, 12 Nov 2024 - 6h 09min - 407 - Ep 404: Part 1: Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us
Our societies, our norms, our values are all shaped by stories from the past. Devdutt Pattanaik joins Amit Varma in episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, our society and why we should take mythology seriously. Note: This is Part 1 of a 12-hour episode, being uploaded in two parts now because Spotify and YouTube don't allow uploads over 12 hours. So if you are on another podcast app, just play the full version if it is there! (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Devdutt Pattanaik on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube, Amazon and his own website. 2. Myth = Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 3. The Girl Who Chose -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 4. The Boys Who Fought -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 5. Ramayana Versus Mahabharata -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 6. My Gita -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 7. Bahubali: 63 Insights into Jainism -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 8. Sati Savitri -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 9. Business Sutra -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 10. Ahimsa: 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 11. Olympus -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 12. Eden -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 13. East vs West -- The Myths That Mystify -- Devdutt Pattanaik's 2009 TED Talk. 14. Today My Mother Came Home -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 15. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 20. Women in Indian History — Episode 144 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 21. The Jewel in the Crown -- BBC TV series. 22. Heat and Dust -- James Ivory. 23. The Sexual Outlaw -- John Rechy. 24. Bombay Dost and Gay Bombay. 25. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 26. The Kama Sutra. 27. Liberty -- Isaiah Berlin. 28. Thought and Choice in Chess -- Adriaan de Groot. 29. The Seven Basic Plots -- Christopher Booker. 30. The Seven Basic Plots -- Episode 69 of Everything is Everything. 31. The Hero with a Thousand Faces -- Joseph Campbell. 32. The Big Questions -- Steven Landsburg. 33. 300 Ramayanas — AK Ramanujan. 33. The egg came before the chicken. 34. The Evolution of Cooperation — Robert Axelrod. 35. The Trees -- Philip Larkin. 36. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 37. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 38. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 39. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 40. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 41. Jugalbandi -- Vinay Sitapati. 42. Perfect Days -- Wim Wenders. 43. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 44. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 45. Mary Wollstonecraft and bell hooks. 46. If India Was Five Days Old -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 47. The Road to Freedom — Arthur C Brooks. 48. The Master and His Emissary -- Iain McGilchrist. 49. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 50. Human -- Michael Gazzaniga. 51. The Elephant in the Brain — Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson. 52. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 53. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 54. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants — Peggy Mohan. 55. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 56. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 57. The Golden Bough -- James Frazer. 58. Myth And Reality: Studies In The Formation Of Indian Culture -- DD Kosambi. 59. Srimad Bhagavatam -- Kamala Subramaniam. 60. Boris Vallejo on Instagram, Wikipedia and his own website. 61. The Last Temptation Of Christ -- Nikos Kazantzakis. 62. The Last Temptation Of Christ -- Martin Scorcese. 63. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 64. The Poem of the Killing of Meghnad -- Michael Madhusudan Dutt. 65. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil — Hannah Arendt. 66. The Crown -- Created by Peter Morgan. 67. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 68. Imaginary Number — Vijay Seshadri. 69. The Buddha's Footprint -- Johan Elverskog. 70. A Prehistory of Hinduism -- Manu Devadevan. 71. The 'Early Medieval' Origins of India -- Manu Devadevan. 72. Unmasking Buddhism -- Bernard Faure. 73. The Red Thread -- Bernard Faure. 74. The Power of Denial -- Bernard Faure. 75. The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha -- Bernard Faure. 76. A Modern Look At Ancient Chinese Theory Of Language -- Chad Hansen. 77. Hermann Kulke, Umakant Mishra and Ganesh Devy on Amazon. 78. The Hours -- Michael Cunningham. 79. The Hours -- Stephen Daldry. 79. Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization -- Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay. 80. Myth -- Laurence Coupe. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Tell' by Simahina.
Tue, 12 Nov 2024 - 5h 59min - 406 - Ep 404: Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us
Our societies, our norms, our values are all shaped by stories from the past. Devdutt Pattanaik joins Amit Varma in episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, our society and why we should take mythology seriously. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Devdutt Pattanaik on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube, Amazon and his own website. 2. Myth = Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 3. The Girl Who Chose -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 4. The Boys Who Fought -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 5. Ramayana Versus Mahabharata -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 6. My Gita -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 7. Bahubali: 63 Insights into Jainism -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 8. Sati Savitri -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 9. Business Sutra -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 10. Ahimsa: 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 11. Olympus -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 12. Eden -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 13. East vs West -- The Myths That Mystify -- Devdutt Pattanaik's 2009 TED Talk. 14. Today My Mother Came Home -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 15. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 20. Women in Indian History — Episode 144 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 21. The Jewel in the Crown -- BBC TV series. 22. Heat and Dust -- James Ivory. 23. The Sexual Outlaw -- John Rechy. 24. Bombay Dost and Gay Bombay. 25. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 26. The Kama Sutra. 27. Liberty -- Isaiah Berlin. 28. Thought and Choice in Chess -- Adriaan de Groot. 29. The Seven Basic Plots -- Christopher Booker. 30. The Seven Basic Plots -- Episode 69 of Everything is Everything. 31. The Hero with a Thousand Faces -- Joseph Campbell. 32. The Big Questions -- Steven Landsburg. 33. 300 Ramayanas — AK Ramanujan. 33. The egg came before the chicken. 34. The Evolution of Cooperation — Robert Axelrod. 35. The Trees -- Philip Larkin. 36. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 37. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 38. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 39. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 40. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 41. Jugalbandi -- Vinay Sitapati. 42. Perfect Days -- Wim Wenders. 43. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 44. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 45. Mary Wollstonecraft and bell hooks. 46. If India Was Five Days Old -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 47. The Road to Freedom — Arthur C Brooks. 48. The Master and His Emissary -- Iain McGilchrist. 49. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 50. Human -- Michael Gazzaniga. 51. The Elephant in the Brain — Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson. 52. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 53. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 54. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants — Peggy Mohan. 55. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 56. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 57. The Golden Bough -- James Frazer. 58. Myth And Reality: Studies In The Formation Of Indian Culture -- DD Kosambi. 59. Srimad Bhagavatam -- Kamala Subramaniam. 60. Boris Vallejo on Instagram, Wikipedia and his own website. 61. The Last Temptation Of Christ -- Nikos Kazantzakis. 62. The Last Temptation Of Christ -- Martin Scorcese. 63. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 64. The Poem of the Killing of Meghnad -- Michael Madhusudan Dutt. 65. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil — Hannah Arendt. 66. The Crown -- Created by Peter Morgan. 67. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 68. Imaginary Number — Vijay Seshadri. 69. The Buddha's Footprint -- Johan Elverskog. 70. A Prehistory of Hinduism -- Manu Devadevan. 71. The 'Early Medieval' Origins of India -- Manu Devadevan. 72. Unmasking Buddhism -- Bernard Faure. 73. The Red Thread -- Bernard Faure. 74. The Power of Denial -- Bernard Faure. 75. The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha -- Bernard Faure. 76. A Modern Look At Ancient Chinese Theory Of Language -- Chad Hansen. 77. Hermann Kulke, Umakant Mishra and Ganesh Devy on Amazon. 78. The Hours -- Michael Cunningham. 79. The Hours -- Stephen Daldry. 79. Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization -- Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay. 80. Myth -- Laurence Coupe. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Story' by Simahina.
Mon, 11 Nov 2024 - 12h 08min - 405 - Ep 403: Shikha Dalmia Is the Unpopulist
Populism is on the rise everywhere, and the long arc of history has bent away from freedom. Shikha Dalmia joins Amit Varma in episode 403 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the derangements of our modern times -- and the threat that Donald Trump poses. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shikha Dalmia on Twitter, LinkedIn, Reason, The Week and ISMA. 2. Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. 3. The UnPopulist. 4. The Seen/Unseen episode on immigration with Shikha Dalmia. 5. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 6. Why Both Modi and Trump are Textbook Populists (2017) -- Amit Varma. 7. Rhinoceros -- Eugène Ionesco. 8. Stopping the Rhinoceros Takeover -- Shikha Dalmia. 9. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 10. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 11. Colours of the Cage: A Prison Memoir — Arun Ferreira. 12. The Reactionary Spirit -- Zack Beauchamp. 13. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on demonetisation). 14. Beware of the Useful Idiots — Amit Varma. 15. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 16. The Good and Bad of Critical Race Theory -- Fabio Rojas. 17. The Color of Law -- Richard Rothstein. 18. Identity -- Francis Fukuyama. 19. Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury and John McWhorter on Twitter/X. 20. The Fall of Minneapolis -- Alpha News. 21. What Really Happened to George Floyd? -- Coleman Hughes. 22. The retconning of George Floyd: Parts One, Two, an Update, Three -- Radley Balko. 23. The Murder Trial of OJ Simpson. 24. Glenn Loury & John McWhorter do a second take. 25. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 26. A Typology of the New Right -- Shikha Dalmia. 27. The Flight 93 Election -- Michael Anton. 28. A Passage to India -- EM Forster. 29. Jane Austen on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 30. Thomas Hardy and W Somerset Maugham on Amazon. 31. Ayn Rand on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 32. Milton Friedman on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 33. Friedrich Hayek on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 34. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 35. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra. 36. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics -- Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. A Rude Life — Vir Sanghvi. 39. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 40. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 41. Don't Mess With the Price System -- Episode 66 of Everything is Everything. 42. The Road to Serfdom -- Friedrich Hayek. 43. Dadabhai Naoroji, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar. 44. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box — Episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. What Is Populism? -- Jan-Werner Müller. 47. The State of Indian Politics — Episode 50 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 48. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. The Liberalism of Fear -- Judith Shklar. 50. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Nooran Sisters and Hadiqa Kiani on Spotify. 51. Kamli -- Hadiqa Kiani. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Unpopulist' by Simahina.
Mon, 28 Oct 2024 - 3h 08min - 404 - Ep 402: Ajay Shah Brings the Dreams of the 20th Century
He's a polymath who cares deeply about the world, tries to understand it, and straddles many fields. He's played a key role over the last few decades in India's journey towards development. Ajay Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 402 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and times. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. Everything is Everything -- Ajay Shah's YouTube show with Amit Varma. 3. Life Lessons -- A course taught by Ajay Shah and Amit Varma. 4. In Service of the Republic: The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 5. XKDR Forum. 6. The LEAP blog. 7. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 8. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 9. The Economic Lives of the Poor -- Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. 10. The Universe of Chuck Gopal — Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Hiking Episode -- Episode 35 of Everything is Everything. 12. Declutter -- Episode 30 of Everything is Everything. 13. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 17. A Passion for Cycling -- Episode 53 of Everything is Everything. 18. Il Lombardia: Tadej Pogačar delivers historical fourth consecutive victory. 19. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. 20. Seven Stories That Should Be Films -- Episode 23 of Everything is Everything (including Ajay's retelling, 'The Fat Frogs of Tatsinskaya'). 21. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 22. VP Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India — Narayani Basu. 23. Five Epic Stories That Must Be Films -- Episode 29 of Everything is Everything (including Amit's retelling of VP Menon's story). 24. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 — Tony Judt. 25. The God That Failed -- Edited by Richard Crossman. 26. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 27. Free to Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 28. Both Sides Now -- Joni Mitchell. 29. How to Write a Paper -- Episode 62 of Everything is Everything. 30. Jim Corbett on Wikipedia and Amazon. 31. Trek The Sahyadris -- Harish Kapadia. 32. Inflation Targeting Rocks! -- Episode 68 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. The Heckman Equation. 34. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 35. The Two Cultures -- CP Snow. 36. Shivaji and His Times -- Jadunath Sarkar. 37. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity — Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Seeing Like a State — James C Scott. 39. The Tyranny of Experts — William Easterly. 40. Are You Just One Version of Yourself? -- Episode 3 of Everything is Everything. 41. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 42. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything if Everything. 44. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 45. Plato (or Why Philosophy Matters) — Episode 109 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rebecca Goldstein). 46. How to Do Development -- Episode 57 of Everything is Everything. 47. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. The Life and Times of Chess -- Episode 52 of Everything is Everything. 49. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 50. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 51. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 52. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything. 53. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 54. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. The Importance of Finance — Episode 125 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 56. India in Transition: Freeing the Economy -- Jagdish Bhagwati. 57. The UNIX Episode -- Episode 32 of Everything is Everything. 58. Don't Mess With the Price System -- Episode 66 of Everything is Everything. 59. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 60. The Ghost and the Darkness -- Stephen Hopkins. 61. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 62. Understanding India's Pensions Disaster -- Episode 65 of Everything is Everything. 63. What Bruce Springsteen Means to Us -- Episode 13 of Everything is Everything. 64. Distance From Delhi -- The Takshashila Institution. 65. Beyond A Boundary -- CLR James. 66. Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers 1947-1963 -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 67. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister — Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 68. The Long Road to Change -- Episode 36 of Everything is Everything. 69. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 70. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch. 71. Understanding deviations from the fiscal responsibility law in India -- Pratik Datta, Radhika Pandey, Ila Patnaik and Ajay Shah. 72. Who Lends to the Indian State? -- Aneesha Chitgupi, Ajay Shah, Manish Singh, Susan Thomas and Harsh Vardhan. 73. The Percy Mistry report. 74. Bare Acts. 75. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 76. Shruti Rajagopalan on our constitutional amendments. 77. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 78. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 79. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 80. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 81. The Matrix -- Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski. 82. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 83. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Episode 37 of Everything is Everything. 84. Graduating to Globalisation -- Episode 48 of Everything is Everything. 85. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 86. Born to Run -- Bruce Springsteen. 87. Go to the root cause (2007) -- Ajay Shah. 88. Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah Will Not Wear a Blue Tie to Work — Episode 389 of The Seen and the Unseen. 89. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 90. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 91. When Should the State Act? -- Episode 26 of Everything is Everything. 92. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 93. Public Choice – A Primer -- Eamonn Butler. 94. The Journey of Indian Finance -- Ajay Shah. 95. Amrita Agarwal Wants to Solve Healthcare -- Episode 393 of The Seen and the Unseen. 96. Fortress and Frontier in American Health Care -- Robert Graboyes. 97. We Love Vaccines! We Love Freedom! -- Episode 27 of Everything is Everything. 98. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 99. Pranay Kotasthane on Amazon. 100. A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox -- Henrik Karlsson. 101. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- Ernest Hemingway. 102. Essays in Persuasion -- John Maynard Keynes. 103. The Ascent Of Man -- Jacob Bronowski. 104. How to Modernise the Working of Courts and Tribunals in India -- Many authors including Ajay Shah. 105. How to Modernise the Working of Courts and Tribunals in India -- Ajay Shah. 106. The lowest hanging fruit on the coconut tree — Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 107. Climate Change and Our Power Sector — Episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshay Jaitley and Ajay Shah). 108. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 109. False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet -- Bjorn Lomborg. 110. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 111. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist & Steven Pinker. 112. But Clouds Got In My Way -- Ayush Patnaik, Ajay Shah, Anshul Tayal and Susan Thomas. 113. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 114. The Truth About Ourselves — Amit Varma. 115. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 116. Against the Grain -- James C Scott. 117. The Beatles, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen on Spotify. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Dreaming' by Simahina.
Mon, 14 Oct 2024 - 10h 26min - 403 - Ep 401: Finding Love in Modern India
Bloody hell. The world has changed, society looks different, and men and women have to find new ways of relating to each other. We're not equipped for this. Sanjana Ramachandran and Samarth Bansal join Amit Varma in episode 401 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how meeting and mating are both easier and, well, harder. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sanjana Ramachandran on Twitter, Instagram, Substack, LinkedIn , FiftyTwo and her own website. 2. Samarth Bansal on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and his own website. 3. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal -- Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. The Romantic Idiot -- Samarth Bansal. 5. Thirty and Thriving -- Samarth Bansal. 6. The Namesakes -- Sanjana Ramachandran. 7. The 'Woman-Math' Of A 31-Year-Old, Unmarried, Bengaluru Woman -- Sanjana Ramachandran. 8. Society of the Snow -- JA Bayona. 9. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil — Hannah Arendt. 10. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 11. Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood -- Satya Doyle Byock. 12. A Godless Congregation — Amit Varma. 13. What's Consolation For An Atheist? -- Amit Varma. 14. Molecules Of Emotion -- Candace B Pert. 15. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. 15. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht — Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Scenes From a Marriage -- Ingmar Bergman. 17. Behave -- Robert Sapolsky. 18. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident — Amit Varma's column on Chris Cornell's death. 19. Determined -- Robert Sapolsky. 20. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 21. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 22. Reinventing Love -- Mona Chollet. 23. Sex Is Not a Spectrum -- Colin Wright. 24. Understanding the Sex Binary -- Colin Wright. 25. The Naturalistic Fallacy. 26. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 27. Bad Faith in Existentialism. 28. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. 29. Whiplash -- Damien Chazelle. 30. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma on Demonetisation. 31. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. 32. The Gulag Archipelago — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 33. I Am The Best -- The Shah Rukh Khan song from Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. 34. The Madonna–Whore Complex. 35. Ranbir Kapoor on Nikhil Kamath's show. 36. Tamasha -- Imtiaz Ali. 37. Manic Pixie Dream Girl. 38. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything Everything. 39. Anatomy of a Fall — Justine Triet. 40. Anatomy of a Folly — Amit Varma. 41. Marriage Story -- Noah Baumbach. 42. The Abyss and Other Stories — Leonid Andreyev. 43. Amit Varma's BTS reel as Gitanjali. 44. Peter Cat Recording Co. on Spotify, YouTube, Instagram and their own website. 45. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 46. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 47. How to Do Development -- Episode 57 of Everything is Everything. 48. The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee — Honoré de Balzac. 49. Sasha's 'Newsletter' -- Sasha Chapin. 50. The Evolution of Desire -- David Buss. 51. Modern Family and Friends. 52. Eve Fairbanks Examines a Fractured Society -- Episode 398 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. The Flirting Trap — Eve Fairbanks. (Scroll down on that page for this piece). 54. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- Michel Gondry. 55. The Bookshop Romeo -- Amit Varma. 56. The Stranger -- Albert Camus. 57. When Harry Met Sally... -- Rob Reiner. 58. Annie Hall -- Woody Allen. 59. Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative -- Glenn Loury. 60. Rob Henderson's tweet on Glenn Loury's book. 61. The Game -- Neil Strauss. 62. On Flirting -- Rega Jha. 63. Notting Hill -- Roger Michell. 64. Postcards From Utsav Mamoria -- Episode 376 of The Seen and the Unseen. 65. Malini Goyal is the Curious One — Episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 66. Unboxing Bengaluru — Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash. 67. Indian Matchmaking -- Created by Smriti Mundhra. 68. High Fidelity -- Nick Hornby. 69. Third Place. 70. The Pineapple Game. 71. The Razor's Edge -- W Somerset Maugham. 72. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 73. Mating in Captivity -- Esther Perel. 74. The State Of Affairs -- Esther Perel. 75. The Poly Couple of YouTube and Instagram. 75. The School of Life. 76. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 77. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 78. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 79. Eden Project: In Search of the Magical Other -- James Hollis. 80. Fallen Leaves -- Aki Kaurismäki. 81. I hired a Contract Killer -- Aki Kaurismäki. 82. Manhattan, Husbands and Wives, Crimes and Misdemeanors& Bullets Over Broadway -- Woody Allen. 83. New York Stories -- Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese. 84. Running with Scissors -- Augusten Burroughs. 85. Aftersun -- Charlotte Wells. 86. Elena Ferrante on Amazon. 87. Bloodline -- Todd Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman. 88. Sex and the City -- Darren Star, based on Candace Bushnell's columns and book. 89. She's Gotta Have It -- Spike Lee. 90. She Said -- Maria Schrader. 91. The Take on YouTube. 92. Succession's Shiv - The Real "Woman Problem" in Business -- The Take. 93. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 92. You're Ugly and You're Hairy and You're Covered in Shit but You're Mine and I Love You -- Episode 362 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 93. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 94. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). This episode is sponsored by The 6% Club, which will get you from idea to launch in 45 days! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Meetings and Matings' by Simahina.
Mon, 30 Sep 2024 - 6h 26min - 402 - Ep 400: Life Lessons That Are Priceless
It's episode 400, and on this special and unlikely occasion, Shruti Rajagopalan gets Amit Varma to chat about all the life lessons he has learnt during these eight years -- and favourite books, films, music and poetry. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Amit Varma on Twitter, India Uncut, Substack, The Art of Clear Writing, The Seen and the Unseen and Everything is Everything. 2. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram and her podcast, Ideas of India. 3. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 4. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 6. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 7. Why Are My Episodes So Long? -- Amit Varma. 8. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 9. 'How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives' -- Amit Varma. 10. 'I Play to Play' -- Amit Varma. 11. How We Do the Small Things -- Amit Varma. 12. New York Stories -- The anthology film including Martin Scorcese's Life Lessons. 13. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane, in reverse order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 14. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics -- Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Dead Poets Society -- Peter Weir. 16. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon. 17. Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom -- Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. He Tells Her -- Wendy Cope. 19. Not Waving but Drowning -- Stevie Smith. 20. Runaway -- Alice Munro. 21. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage -- Alice Munro. 22. The Bear Came Over the Mountain — Alice Munro. 23. Lives of Girls and Women -- Alice Munro. 24. Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift. 25. How To Know a Person -- David Brooks. 26. Fierce Attachments -- Vivian Gornick. 27. The Odd Woman and the City -- Vivian Gornick. 28. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible -- Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Dead — John Huston. 30. Dubliners -- James Joyce. 31. Amit Varma's thread on The Dead. 32. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 33. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 34. You Can Always Get There From Here — Mark Strand. 35. Father Returning Home — Dilip Chitre. 36. PG Wodehouse on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon. 37. Finding Nemo -- Andrew Stanton. 38. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance — Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck. 40. Atomic Habits -- James Clear. 41. The City — CP Cavafy. 42. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 43. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 44. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers — Ali Abdaal. 47. Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah Will Not Wear a Blue Tie to Work -- Episode 389 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. Louie — Louis CK. 49. You're Missing — Bruce Springsteen. 50. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 51. Behave -- Robert Sapolsky. 52. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube. 53. Anatomy of a Fall -- Justine Triet. 54. Anatomy of a Folly -- Amit Varma. 55. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 56. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 57. Individualism and Economic Order -- Friedrich Hayek. 58. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 59. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith. 60. Trickle-up, not trickle-down -- Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar. 61. "Trickle Down" Theory and "Tax Cuts for the Rich" -- Thomas Sowell. 62. Beware of These Five Fallacies! -- Episode 45 of Everything is Everything. 63. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 64. This Passing Moment — Amit Varma's Housefull Economics piece on Opportunity Cost. 65. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Life is Here' by Simahina.
Mon, 23 Sep 2024 - 2h 12min - 401 - Ep 399: Divya Prakash Dubey: Ek Jeevani
He's a bestselling writer who's brought Hindi literature into a modern age -- and he also writes films and tells stories. Divya Prakash Dubey joins Amit Varma in episode 399 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his language, his society and his art. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:1. Divya Prakash Dubey on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, IMDb, Amazon and his own website. 2. Musafir Cafe -- Divya Prakash Dubey. 3. October Junction -- Divya Prakash Dubey. 4. Ibnebatuti-- Divya Prakash Dubey. 5. Aako Baako -- Divya Prakash Dubey. 6. Sharten Laagoo -- Divya Prakash Dubey. 7. Masala Chay -- Divya Prakash Dubey. 8. The first episodes of Hum Log, Buniyaad and Byomkesh Bakshi.9. Maya Memsaab -- Ketan Mehta. 10. Raja Hindustani-- Dharmesh Darshan. 11. Deep Work and Slow Productivity -- Cal Newport. 12. Memories, Dreams, Reflections -- Carl Gustav Jung. 13. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 14. How Not To Get Trolled -- Amit Varma. 15. Kya Bhulu Kya Yaad Karu -- Harivansh Rai Bachchan. 16. Mujhe Chand Chahiye -- Surendra Verma. 17. Shekhar: Ek Jeevani (Hindi) (English) — Agyeya. 18. Self-Portrait — AK Ramanujan. 19. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 20. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World — Snigdha Poonam. 21. Husain Ki Kahani, Apni Zubani -- MF Husain. 22. Mrityunjaya -- Shivaji Sawant. 23. Yugandhar -- Shivaji Sawant. 24. जिन मुश्किलों में मुस्कुराना हो मना -- Gopaldas Niraj. 25. Rahi Masoom Raza on Amazon, Wikipedia, Hindwi, Rekhta and IMDb. 26. Kissi Se Na Kehna -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 27. Scene: 75 (Hindi) (English) -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 28. Cinema Aur Sanskriti -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 29. Aadha Gaon -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 30. Manohar Shyam Joshi on Amazon, Wikipedia, Hindwi and IMDb. 31. Kathasaritsagara -- Somadeva. 32. Bimal Mitra on Wikipedia, Amazon and IMDb. 33. Chitralekha -- Bhagwaticharan Verma. 34. Nayi Kahani Andolan. 35. Hindi Nationalism -- Alok Rai. 36. The Life and Times of Ira Pande — Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 38. Imaginary Number — Vijay Seshadri. 38. A Piece of String -- Guy de Maupassant. 39. Divya Prakash Dubey's tweet about his influence for dialogue writing. 40. Ponniyin Selvan -- Mani Ratnam. 41. Humankind -- . 42. Bela Sheshe. 43. Anand -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 44. 96 -- S Prem Kumar. 45. Notting Hill -- xxx. 46. Ten Years with Guru Dutt-- Abrar Alvi in conversation with Sathya Saran. 47. Tamsoma Jyotirgamay and Peevat Ram Ras Lagi Khumari -- Rajnish aka Osho. 48. Urdu Ki Aakhiree Kitab -- Ibne Insha. 49. कल चौदहवीं की रात थी -- Ibne Insha. 50. Humesha Der Kar Deta Hoon Main — Muneer Niazi. 51. Kunwar Narayan, Vinod Kumar Shukla and Kedarnath Singh. 52. Deewar Mein Ek Khidki Rahti Thi -- Vinod Kumar Shukla. 53. Complete Short Stories -- Guy de Maupassant. 54. Pyramid Ka Sapna -- Jack Harte. This episode is sponsored by The 6% Club, which will get you from idea to launch in 45 days! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Naye Waale Writer' by Simahina.
Mon, 16 Sep 2024 - 6h 40min - 400 - Ep 398: Eve Fairbanks Examines a Fractured Society
She learnt journalism in America and spent many years in South Africa writing a portrait of their troubled society, where everything is complicated and nothing is settled -- much like anywhere else. Eve Fairbanks joins Amit Varma in episode 398 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life, her work, her craft and the world around her. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Eve Fairbanks on Twitter, LinkedIn and her own website. 2. The Inheritors -- Eve Fairbanks. 3. The Dispossession of District Six -- Eve Fairbanks. 4. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Wendell Berry on Wikipedia and Poetry Foundation. 6. Get Married -- Brad Wilcox. 7. The Four Loves -- CS Lewis. 8. The World in a World Cup -- Eve Fairbanks. 9. Robert George's thread on his rhetorical question to his students. 10. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Harmony in the Boudoir — Mark Strand. 12. The Seven Basic Plots -- Christopher Booker. 13. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled — Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujata Anandan). 14. The Flirting Trap -- Eve Fairbanks. (Scroll down on that page for this piece). 15. The Art of Gathering -- Priya Parker. 16. Common Sense -- Thomas Paine. 17. On Tyranny -- Timothy Snyder. 18. The Origins of Political Order -- Francis Fukuyama. 19. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 20. The Power Broker — Robert Caro. 21. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 22. The Good Girls — Sonia Faleiro. 23. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree — Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 24. The Broken Script — Swapna Liddle. 25. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. RRR -- SS Rajamouli. 27. Here Comes The Groom: A (conservative) case for gay marriage -- Andrew Sullivan. 28. Eric Weinstein Won't Toe the Line — Episode 330 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 30. William Prince and Khwezi on Spotify. 31. Love: A History -- Simon May. 32. How Far Can Amapiano Go? -- Kelefa Sanneh. This episode is sponsored by The 6% Club, which will get you from idea to launch in 45 days! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'This Town' by Simahina.
Mon, 09 Sep 2024 - 4h 21min - 399 - Ep 397: Larry White and the First Principles of Money
We take money and banking and finance for granted -- but the way they exist in the world is not the only way they could exist. Lawrence H White joins Amit Varma in episode 397 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss ideas, ideologies, money, crypto and the field he pioneered, free banking. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Lawrence H White on Twitter, Wikipedia, Cato, GMU, Amazon and Google Scholar. 2. Free Banking in Britain – Theory, Experience and Debate 1800-1845 -- Lawrence H White. 3. The Clash of Economic Ideas -- Lawrence H White. 4. Better Money: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin? -- Lawrence H White. 5. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. The Long Divergence — Timur Kuran. 7. The Problem With Digital Public Goods -- Episode 56 of Everything is Everything. 8. Seeing Like a State — James C Scott. 9. Javier Milei's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. 10. For a New Liberty -- Murray Rothbard. 11. Laissez Faire Books. 12. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 13. Power and Market -- Murray Rothbard. 14. Economics in One Lesson — Henry Hazlitt. 15. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal-- Ayn Rand. 16. Man, Economy and State -- Murray Rothbard. 17. Gold and Economic Freedom -- Alan Greenspan. 18. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution -- Bernard Bailyn. 19. Is Nonprice Competition in Currency Inefficient? -- Lawrence H White & Donald J Boudreaux. 20. Demonetisation and welfare -- Shruti Rajagopalan and Lawrence H White. 21. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma. 22. Anarchy, State and Utopia -- Robert Nozick. 23. Civilization III. 24. The Fatal Conceit — Friedrich Hayek. 25. The Private Mint In Economics: Evidence from American Gold Rushes -- Lawrence H White. 26. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass -- Frederick Douglass. 27. Lombard Street - A Description of the Money Market -- Walter Bagehot. 28. Has Government Any Role in Money? -- Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz. 29. Antifragile -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb. 30. What Really Happened? — Lawrence H White on the 2008 Financial Crisis. 31. Gambling with Other People's Money -- Russell D Roberts. 32. The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure -- John Allison. 33. Check Your Financial Privilege -- Alex Gladstein. 34. Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin -- Andrew Bailey, Bradley Rettler and Craig Warmke. 35. Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptoassets -- Fabian Schär and Aleksander Berentsen. 36. The Denationalisation of Money -- Hayek. 37. The Theory of Free Banking -- George Selgin. 38. Money: Free and Unfree -- George Selgin. 39. The Experience of Free Banking -- Kevin Dowd. 40. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 41. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham. 42. The Outlaws -- Episode 61 of Everything is Everything. 43. Guru -- Mani Ratnam. 44. Sholay -- Ramesh Sippy. 45. Don -- Chandra Barot. 46. Red Plenty -- Francis Spufford. 47. Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood -- Joachim Fest. 48. The Madeira, Lords of Atlantis, Man Or Astro-Man?, Satan's Pilgrims and Badmarsh & Shri on Spotify. 49. Godzilla Minus One-- Takashi Yamazaki. 50. Amarcord -- Federico Fellini. 51. Roma -- Federico Fellini. 52. I Vitelloni -- Federico Fellini. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Money on the Mind' by Simahina.
Mon, 02 Sep 2024 - 4h 04min - 398 - Ep 396: Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha Are Fighting for Us
They started out busting misinformation. Then, as fake news became weaponized at an industrial scale, they become warriors not just for truth, but for a better society. Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha join Amit Varma in episode 396 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about their life, their work and their country. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Mohammed Zubair on Twitter, Instagram and Alt News. 2. Pratik Sinha on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Alt News. 3. Alt News. 4. Fighting Fake News — Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 5. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He's alive! 6. PeerTube and BigBlueButton. 7. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything is Everything. 8. Mohammed Zubair interviewed by Alishan Jafri. 9. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 10. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 11. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander. 12. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh. 14. Kaveri's thread about the new scam in town. 15. BR Ambedkar's BBC interview. 16. The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad — Episode 302 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Swiss Family Robinson -- Johann David Wyss. 19. The Historybook -- Jannik Hastrup. You can SUPPORT ALT NEWS by donating here. This episode is sponsored by The 6% Club, which will get you from idea to launch in 45 days! Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Fighting Leviathon' by Simahina.
Mon, 26 Aug 2024 - 5h 20min - 397 - Ep 395: Tanvi Madan Is the Kid Who Asked Why
She's an authority in the field of foreign policy -- and what makes her such a force is her deep curiosity about, well, everything. Tanvi Madan joins Amit Varma in episode 395 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life, her learnings and this changing world. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Tanvi Madan at Brookings, War on the Rocks and Twitter. 2. Fateful Triangle: How China Shaped US-India Relations During the Cold War -- Tanvi Madan. 3. The Global India Podcast, hosted by Tanvi Madan. 4. War on the Rocks, where Tanvi Madan is a contributing editor. 5. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen touching on foreign policy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. 6. Tanvi Madan's paper on the Quad for Rand. 7. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 8. We, The Citizens: Strengthening the Indian Republic — Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane. 9. Making Policy Fun with Khyati Pathak and Friends — Episode 374 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 12. John Lewis Gaddis, Stephen Cohen and James Steinberg. 13. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working — Jonathan Rauch. 14. The Ideas Industry -- Dan Drezner. 15. Blind Oracles -- Bruce Kuklick. 16. India and The United States: Estranged Democracies -- Dennis Kux. 17. The Cold War on the Periphery -- Robert McMahon. 18. Promoting the National Interest -- Condoleezza Rice. 19. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne -- Prakash Jha. 20. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- James Thurber. 21. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham. 22. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War — Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 23. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh -- Srinath Raghavan. 24. Is there going to be an India-China deal? -- Tanvi Madan. 25. The Metaphysical Club -- Louis Menand. 26. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 28. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 29. War and Peace in Modern India -- Srinath Raghavan. 30. The Liberal Nationalism of Nitin Pai — Episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen. 31. Seeing Like a State — James C Scott. 32. Slow Horses, A Spy Among Friends, The Sandbaggers, Deutschland 83and Shadow Lines. 33. John le Carré on Amazon. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Kid Who Asked Why' by Simahina.
Mon, 19 Aug 2024 - 4h 15min - 396 - Ep 394: Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics
Why is our political discourse so polarised? Why do we shout past each other instead of talking to each other? Arnold Kling joins Amit Varma in episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, the state of the world and how a fourth language has joined the three he mentioned in his seminal book on political discourse. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Arnold Kling on Wikipedia, Twitter, Amazon and his own website. 2. In My Tribe -- Arnold Kling on Substack. 3. The Three Languages of Politics -- Arnold Kling. 4. Specialization and Trade: A Re-introduction to Economics -- Arnold Kling. 5. Invisible Wealth: The Hidden Story of How Markets Work -- Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz. 6. Not What They Had in Mind: A History of Policies that Produced the Financial Crisis of 2008 -- Arnold Kling. 7. Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care -- Arnold Kling. 8. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 9. David Boaz and the state of libertarianism -- Arnold Kling. 10. Splinter Groups -- Arnold Kling. 11. Seeing Like a State -- James C Scott. 12. A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 13. The Median Voter Theorem. 14. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything is Everything. 15. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 16. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Stage.in. 18. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 19. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution -- CP Snow. 20. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 21. Arnold Kling's extended biographical note on himself. 22. The Best and the Brightest -- David Halberstam. 23. The Wind in the Willows -- Kenneth Grahame. 24. The State of AI with Marc & Ben -- The A16Z Podcast. 25. The Cash Nexus -- Niall Ferguson. 26. Marginal Revolution -- Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok's blog. 27. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Alex Tabarrok: 1, 2, 3, 4. 28. Stubborn Attachments -- Episode 106 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tyler Cowen). 29. Conversation and Society — Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 30. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 31. Free to Choose -- The documentary series by Milton Friedman. 32. The Anxious Generation -- Jonathan Haidt. 33. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy — Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 34. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 35. Arnold Kling's July 19 post on JD Vance. 36. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 37. Eric Weinstein Won't Toe the Line — Episode 330 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web -- Bari Weiss. 39. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence — Amit Varma. 40. The Experience Machine. 41. What is Populism? — Jan-Werner Müller. 42. The Populist Playbook — Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 43. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 44. Matt Y's Declaration of Independence -- Arnold Kling. 45. Lies, Damned Lies, and Productivity Data -- Arnold Kling. 46. Everything Is Amazing & Nobody Is Happy -- Louis CK. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Don't Fight' by Simahina.
Mon, 12 Aug 2024 - 2h 54min - 395 - Ep 393: Amrita Agarwal Wants to Solve Healthcare
She grew up reading three books a day, became a high-flying consultant, and then became hyperfocused on healthcare. Amrita Agarwal joins Amit Varma in episode 393 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her learnings from years of studying the field. Also discussed: first-principles thinking, consulting, philanthropy, longevity and sunscreen. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Amrita Agarwal at LinkedIn. 2. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 4. How to Do Development -- Episode 57 of Everything is Everything. 5. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 6. The Life and Times of Chess -- Episode 52 of Everything is Everything. 7. Strong Medicine -- Arthur Hailey. 8. Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand. 9. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Acting Life — Episode 189 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rasika Dugal and Mukul Chadda). 11. The case for Universal Health Care is weak -- Jeffrey S Hammer. 12. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 13. Sanjiv Sharma Sails Through 45 Years of Indian Entertainment -- Episode 390 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 15. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 16. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 18. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 19. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto). 20. The Dark Side of Indian Pharma — Episode 245 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Dinesh Thakur). 21. The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India -- Dinesh Thakur and Prashant Vaidya. 22. Distribution of self-reported health in India: The role of income and geography -- Ila Patnaik, Renuka Sane, Ajay Shah and SV Subramanian. 23. Our Unlucky Children (2007) -- Amit Varma. 24. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything is Everything. 25. Economic Learnings of India for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Bihar — Episode 345 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand and Kumar Anand). 26. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 27. Karthik Muralidharan and the Bureaucrat's Burden -- Episode 375 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 29. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Why We Sleep -- Matthew Walker. 31. Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen -- Baz Luhrmann. 32. Sandman -- Neil Gaiman. 33. Dune -- Frank Herbert. 34. Ender's Game -- Orson Scott Card. 35. Speaker for the Dead -- Orson Scott Card. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Solve' by Simahina.
Mon, 05 Aug 2024 - 4h 22min - 394 - Ep 392: Biju Rao Won't Bow to Conventional Wisdom
He's an economist who cares more about people than numbers -- and he thinks his field needs more sociology and anthropology in it. Vijayendra (Biju) Rao joins Amit Varma in episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about what makes him angry, what drives him forward and what brings him peace. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vijayendra (Biju) Rao on Twitter, Google Scholar, The World Bank and his own website. 2. Biju Rao's blog at the World Bank. 3. Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? -- Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao. 4. Oral Democracy: Deliberation in Indian Village Assemblies -- Paromita Sanyal and Vijayendra Rao. 5. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? -- Vijayendra Rao. 6. Vamsha Vriksha -- Girish Karnad. 7. 'I want absolute commitment to our gharana': A tribute to Rajshekhar Mansur and his music-- Vijayendra Rao. 8. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande — Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Two Hundred and Fifty-Thousand Democracies: A Review of Village Government in India -- Siddharth George, Vijaendra Rao and MR Sharan. 10. Last Among Equals : Power Caste And Politics In Bihar's Villages-- MR Sharan. 11. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? — Lant Pritchett. 13. The Perils of Partial Attribution: Let's All Play for Team Development — Lant Pritchett. 14. The Rising Price of Husbands: A Hedonic Analysis of Dowry Increases in Rural India -- Vijayendra Rao. 15. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible -- Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Jiddu Krishnamurti on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon. 18. Biju Rao listens to Jiddu Krishnamurthy. 19. Ben Hur -- William Wyler. 20. Trade, Institutions and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia -- Saumitra Jha. 21. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 22. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra. 23. Deliberative Democracy -- Jon Elster. 24. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 25. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 27. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 28. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 29. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 30. Accelerating India's Development— Karthik Muralidharan. 31. The Added Value of Local Democracy -- Abhishek Arora, Siddharth George, Vijayendra Rao and MR Sharan. 32. Some memories of VKRV Rao -- Vijayendra Rao. 33. The Foundation Series — Isaac Asimov. 34. Lawrence of Arabia -- David Lean. 35. Gandhi -- Richard Attenborough. 36. The Story of My Experiments with Truth -- Mohandas Gandhi. 37. Bhagavad Gita on Wikipedia and Amazon. 38. KT Achaya on Amazon. 39. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor. 40. My Varied Life in Management: A Short Memoir -- SL Rao. 41. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Ram Guha Writes a Letter to a Friend -- Episode 371 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. Terror as a Bargaining Instrument : A Case Study of Dowry Violence in Rural India -- Francis Bloch and Vijayendra Rao. 44. Domestic Violence and Intra-Household Resource Allocation in Rural India: An Exercise in Participatory Econometrics -- Vijayendra Rao. 45. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. 46. Narrative Economics -- Robert J Shiller. 47. Culture and Public Action -- Edited by Vijayendra Rao and Michael Walton. 48. The Capacity to Aspire -- Arjun Appadurai. 49. Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming -- Agnes Callard. 50. Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind -- Tom Holland. 51. PV Sukhatme in EPW. 52. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything if Everything. 53. Deliberative Inequality: A Text-As-Data Study of India's Village Assemblies -- Ramya Parthasarathy, Vijayendra Rao and Nethra Palaniswamy. 54. A Method to Scale Up Interpretive Qualitative Analysis with An Application to Aspirations among Refugees and Hosts in Bangladesh -- Julian Ashwin, Vijayendra Rao, Monica Biradavolu, Aditya Chhabra, Afsana Khan, Arshia Haque and Nandini Krishnan. 55. Using Large-Language Models for Qualitative Analysis Can Introduce Serious Bias -- Julian Ashwin, Aditya Chhabra and Vijayendra Rao. 56. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 57. Audacious Hope: An Archive of How Democracy is Being Saved in India -- Indrajit Roy. 58. Poverty and the Quest for Life -- Bhrigupati Singh. 59. Recasting Culture to Undo Gender: A Sociological Analysis of Jeevika in Rural Bihar, India-- Paromita Sanyal, Vijayendra Rao and Shruti Majumdar. 60. We Are Poor but So Many -- Ela Bhatt. 61. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 62. James Wolfensohn in Wikipedia and The World Bank. 63. Arati Kumar-Rao Took a One-Way Ticket -- Episode 383 of The Seen and the Unseen. 64. Marginlands: Indian Landscapes on the Brink— Arati Kumar-Rao. 65. Amitav Ghosh on Amazon. 66. Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life -- Nicholas Phillipson. 67. Elinor Ostrom on Amazon, Britannica, Wikipedia and EconLib. 68. Jane Mansbridge on Amazon, Wikipedia, and Google Scholar. 69. Albert O Hirschman on Amazon and Wikipedia. 70. Mughal-e-Azam -- K Asif. 71. Samskara-- Pattabhirama Reddy. 72. The Wire -- David Simon. 73. Deadwood -- David Milch. 74. Biju Rao on Democracy, Deliberation, and Development -- the Ideas of India podcast with Shruti Rajagopalan. Biju Rao's Specially curated music recommendations: 1. The Senior Dagar Brothers (Moinuddin & Aminuddin Dagar) performing (Komal Rishab) Asavari and Kamboji. 2. Raghunath Panigrahi performing Ashtapadi from the Geeta Govinda and Lalita Lavanga. 3. Amir Khan performing Lalit and Jog. 4. Vilayat Khan performing Sanjh Saravali and Hameer. 5. Ravi Shankar performing Jaijaiwanti and Tilak Shyam (full concert) and Durga. 6. Faiyaz Khan performing Raga Darbari and Raga Des. 7. N Rajam performing a full concert with Gorakh Kalyan, Sawani Barwa, Hamir, Malkauns. 8. Kumar Gandharva performing Tulsidas – Ek Darshan and Surdas – Ek Darshan. 9. Bhimsen Joshi performing Ragas Chhaya and Chhaya Malhar & Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada – Bhajan in Raga Bhairavi (original recording from 1960). The Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana: 1. Mallikarjun Mansur in a guided Listening Session by Irfan Zuberi, and performing Basanti Kedar and Tilak Kamod. 2. Kesarbai Kerkar performing Lalit and Bhairavi. 3. Moghubai Kurdikar performing Kedar and Suddha Nat. 4. Kishori Amonkar performing Bhimpalas and Bhoop(ali). 5. Some performances by Rajshekhar Mansur are linked in Biju Rao's piece on him. Karnatic Music: 1. TM Krishna performing Krishna Nee Begane Baaro, Yamuna Kalyani (Yaman Kalyan) and Nalinakanthi (closest Hindustani equivalent is Tilak Kamod). 2. MD Ramanathan performing Bhavayami – Raga Malika and Samaja Vara Gamana – Ragam Hindolam (Malkauns). 3. Aruna Sairam performing a full concert. 4. Madurai Mani Iyer performing Taaye Yoshade. 5. MS Subbulakshmi performing a full Concert from 1966 and Bhaja Govindam (Ragamalika). 6. TR Mahalingam performing Swara Raga Sudha – Shankarabharanam. Jugalbandis: 1. Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan performing Marwa. 2. Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar performing Jaijaiwanti. 3. N Rajam with her brother TN Krishnan performing Raga Hamsadhwani. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Iconoclast' by Simahina.
Mon, 29 Jul 2024 - 3h 54min - 393 - Ep 391: Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible
The internet has changed the way we live -- and someone needs to make sense of it all. Shephali Bhatt joins Amit Varma in episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe all that she has learnt through her deep dives into popular culture, the creator economy, this turbulent society and her Mamaji's library. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shephali Bhatt on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Economic Times, Mint and Instagram. 2. Santosh Desai is Watching You — Episode 356 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years — Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 4. The plays of Maxim Gorky: 1, 2. 5. Bollywood Masala and a French Art Film -- Amit Varma. 6. Enter, tastefluencer: The rise of a curator economy -- Shephali Bhatt. 7. The Artist -- Michel Hazanavicius. 8. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga -- Shelly Chopra Dhar. 9. Gaming the algorithm to 'manifest' -- Shephali Bhatt. 10. Search Party -- Shephali Bhatt. 11. The Experience Machine. 12. Badtime Stories -- Shephali Bhatt. 13. Lentil Powerhouse at Pret a Manger. 14. Brave New World — Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar). 15. Brave New World -- Vasant Dhar's podcast. 16. When the third-party cookie crumbles -- Shephali Bhatt. 17. Digital Minimalism and Slow Productivity -- Cal Newport. 18. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma's column on poker for the Economic Times. 19. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll. 20. Cache Cab: Taxi Drivers' Brains Grow to Navigate London's Streets -- Ferris Jabr. 21. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Em and the Big Hoom — Jerry Pinto. 23. Behave — Robert Sapolsky. 24. Grave of the Fireflies -- Isao Takahata. 25. Cosmos -- Carl Sagan. 26. Irfan, the Keeper of Memories -- Episode 368 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. Voice Wide Web -- Shephali Bhatt. 28. Ishaan Chintamani on Instagram and YouTube. 29. Breaking Bad, House of Cards, The Wire, Harry Potter, Friends. 30. All the President's Men -- Alan J Pakula. 31. Surabhi on Wikipedia and IMDb. 32. The unplanned glory of Surabhi -- Shephali Bhatt. 33. Alt News. 34. Fighting Fake News — Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 35. Don't Choose Tribalism Over Principles -- Amit Varma. 36. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Multiverse of food-fluencers -- Shephali Bhatt. 38. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Stage.in. 40. Shephali Bhatt's story on how Koffee With Karan inspired many Indians to learn English. 41. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 42. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World — Snigdha Poonam. 43. The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 44. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 45. How Instagram reels are transforming Indian weddings -- Shephali Bhatt. 46. The Parenting Influencers Who Won't Stop Posting Their Children -- Fortesa Latifi. 47. "We're Never Doing This Again": What It Took for These Parenting Influencers to Pull Their Kids Offline -- Fortesa Latifi. 48. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. The Influencer Diaries-- Shephali Bhatt. 50. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 51. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 52. The Streisand Effect. 53. Varun Mayya on YouTube. 54. The YouTube Election -- Shephali Bhatt. 55. With content king, creators trying hard to be kingmakers this Lok Sabha elections -- Shephali Bhatt. 56. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale— Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 59. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 -- Cho Nam-Joo. 60. Rasidi Ticket (Punjabi) (English) -- Amrita Pritam. 61. The Good Girls Revolt -- Lynn Povich. 62. Jagte Raho -- Amit Maitra and Sombhu Mitra. 63. Zakhm -- Mahesh Bhatt. 64. Shephali Bhatt's Spotify playlists. 65. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Search' by Simahina.
Mon, 22 Jul 2024 - 4h 21min - 392 - Ep 390: Sanjiv Sharma Sails Through 45 Years of Indian Entertainment
He started in advertising in 1979, became a pioneering ad filmmaker, broke new ground in Indian television, and is the managing trainee of his own life. Sanjiv Sharma joins Amit Varma in episode 390 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his frameworks for living. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sanjiv Sharma on Instagram, Twitter, IMDb and LInkedIn. 2. Divya Prakash Dubey on Instagram, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, IMDb, Twitter, Amazon and his own website. 3. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 4. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Mansoor Khan on Wikipedia, Amazon and IMDb. 6. Umberto -- Mansoor Khan. 7. American Cinematographer. 8. Idhar Udhar. 9. Chalti Ka Naam Antakshari. 10. Khul Ja Sim Sim. 11. The Evolution of Cricket -- Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle). 12. Television Price Controls -- Episode 27 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashok Malik). 13. Yeh Meri Life Hai. 14. Urban Discoveries for Ford Ecosport. 15. Crime Patrol Season 2. 16. Comedy Circus Season 1. 17. My Cancer is Me -- Vijay Bhat and Nilima Bhat. 18. Sakshi. 19. The Rakshin Project. 20. Smita Bharti interviewed by Radio One. 21. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma. 22. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 23. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward — Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Double 'Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 25. Lectures by Swami Sarvapriyananda: 1, 2, 3, 4 plus a full series of them here. 26. Spiral Bound -- Screenwriting with Boman Irani. Sanjiv's Recommendations: Movies 1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Miloš Forman. 2. As Good as It Gets -- James L Brooks. 3. Roman Holiday -- William Wyler. 4. Anne of the Thousand Days -- Charles Jarrott. 5. Kramer vs Kramer -- Robert Benton. 6. The Shawshank Redemption -- Frank Darabont. 7. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 8. Oppenheimer -- Christopher Nolan. 9. The Dark Knight -- Christopher Nolan. Sanjiv's Recommendations: Books1. The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese. 2. The Untethered Soul -- Michael A Singer. 3. The Craving Mind -- Judson Brewer. 4. The Ascent of Humanity -- Charles Eisenstein. 5. Essence of the Upanishads -- Eknath Easwaran. 6. The Mind Illuminated -- Culadasa (John Yates). 7. Same as Ever -- Morgan Housel. 8. The Ascent of Money -- Niall Ferguson. 9. The Ending of Time -- Jiddu Krishnamurti. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Sailing' by Simahina.
Mon, 15 Jul 2024 - 4h 29min - 391 - Ep 389: Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah Will Not Wear a Blue Tie to Work
The world is complex. The state is primitive. Regulation is where they meet. Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 389 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her experiences with the regulatory state at the intersection of law & economics. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Bhargavi Zaveri Shah on Twitter, LinkedIn, The Leap Blog and her own website. 2. The accountability framework of UIDAI: Concerns and solutions -- Vrinda Bhandari and Renuka Sane and Bhargavi Zaveri. 3. Institutionalise formal regulatory independence -- Bhargavi Zaveri. 4. Regulators don't need constitutional status -- Bhargavi Zaveri. 5. Measuring Regulatory Responsiveness in India: A Framework for Empirical Assessment -- Anirudh Burman and Bhargavi Zaveri. 6. Participatory governance in regulation making: How to make it work? -- Bhargavi Zaveri. 7. IBBI's draft framework sets new standards of regulatory governance in India -- Bhargavi Zaveri. 8. FIU's Penalty on PayPal: The Wisdom of Jurisprudence by Committee -- Bhargavi Zaveri. 9. Survey-based measurement of Indian courts -- Pavithra Manivannan, Susan Thomas, and Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah. 10. Helping litigants make informed choices in resolving debt disputes -- Pavithra Manivannan, Susan Thomas, and Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah. 12. Judicial triage in the lockdown: evidence from India's largest commercial tribunal -- Anjali Sharma and Bhargavi Zaveri. 13. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 14. Young India -- Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 15. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World -- Snigdha Poonam. 16. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 17 Alice Evans on Twitter and The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The End of History? — Francis Fukuyama's essay. 19. The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama's book. 20. Economic Facts and Fallacies — Thomas Sowell. 21. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression -- Amity Shlaes. 22. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 23. Parkinson's Law. 24. Statutory Regulatory Authorities and the Federal System in India -- KP Krishnan, Amrita Pillai and Karan Gulati. 25. Suits on Netflix. 26. The Accidental Prime Minister -- Sanjaya Baru. 27. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham. 30. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 31. The Anxious Generation -- Jonathan Haidt. 32. Concrete Island -- JG Ballard. 33. High-Rise -- JG Ballard. 34. Judicial Reforms -- Episode 62 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alok Prasanna Kumar). 35. Noise -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein. 36. Court on Trial: A Data-Driven Account of the Supreme Court of India -- Aparna Chandra, Sital Kalantry and William HJ Hubbard. 37. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 38. The Plague -- Albert Camus. 39. The Outsider -- Albert Camus. 40. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 41. Shoe Dog -- Phil Knight. 42. Laapataa Ladies -- Kiran Rao. 43. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 44. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Warrior' by Simahina.
Sun, 07 Jul 2024 - 3h 50min - 390 - Ep 388: Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator
He's an elder statesman in the worlds of journalism, policy and economics in India -- and he takes the long view. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha joins Amit Varma in episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha on Twitter, Mint and Artha Global. 2. The Rise of India -- NIranjan Rajadhyaksha. 3. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha interviewed in Marathi by Think Bank: Part 1. Part 2. 4. MV Rajadhyaksha and Vijaya Rajadhyaksha. 5. The Times of India obituary of MV Rajadhyaksha. 6. The Song of Life -- Vijaya Rajadyaksha. 7. Adventures of a Bystander -- Peter F Drucker. 8. The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- Adam Smith's book that contains the concept of the impartial spectator. 9. The Impartial Spectator columns by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha and Shruti Rajagopalan. 10. Ratatouille -- Brad Bird. 11. The Overton Window. 12. John Maynard Keynes on Alfred Marshall. 13. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual -- Ramachandra Guha. 15. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 16. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 17. The Heckman Equation -- a website based on James Heckman's work. 18. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Suyash Rai (1, 2) and Rahul Verma (1, 2). 19. Stri Purush Tulana by Tarabai Shinde on Amazon and Wikipedia. 20. Kalyanche Nishwas by Vibhavari Shirurkar (Malati Bedekar) on Amazon and Wikipedia. 21. Makers of Modern India -- Ramachandra Guha. 22. Simone de Beauvoir (Wikipedia, Britannica, Amazon) and Germaine Greer (Wikipedia, Britannica, Amazon). 23. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar's essay on education for girls. 24. The omnibus volume of BR Nanda's biographies of Gokhale, Gandhi and Nehru. 25. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 26. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 27. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan -- Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Volga Se Ganga (Hindi) (English) -- Rahul Sankritayan. 29. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 30. Turning Over the Pebbles: A Life in Cricket and in the Mind -- Mike Brearley. 31. Slow Horses (book one of Slough House) -- Mick Herron. 32. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 -- Tony Judt. 33. On Warne -- Gideon Haigh. 34. The Essential Keynes -- John Maynard Keynes. 35. The Age of Uncertainty — John Kenneth Galbraith. 36. Asian Drama -- Gunnar Myrdal. 37. Aneesh Pradhan on Spotify, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter and his own website. 38. Malini Goyal is the Curious One — Episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. The UNIX Episode -- Episode 32 of Everything is Everything. 40. The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development -- Michael Kremer. 41. Why Abhijit Banerjee Had to Go Abroad to Achieve Glory -- Amit Varma. 42. Why Talent Comes in Clusters -- Episode 8 of Everything is Everything. 43. The Dark Knight Rises -- Christopher Nolan. 44. Thinking it Through -- The archives of Amit Varma's column for Mint. 45. Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker -- Ved Mehta. 46. Videhi -- Vijaya Rajadhyaksha. 47. Select pieces on the relationship between Raymond Carver and Gordon Lish: 1, 2, 3, 4. 48. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy -- Joseph Schumpeter. 49. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled — Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujata Anandan). 50. Complaint Resolution Systems: Experimental Evidence from Rural India -- Chinmaya Kumar and MR Sharan. 51. Parkinson's Law — C Northcote Parkinson. 52. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 53. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 54. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 55. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 58. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 59. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 60. The Logic of Collective Action — Mancur Olson. 61. Ashutosh Salil and the Challenge of Change — Episode 312 of The Seen and the Unseen. 62. Rational Ignorance. 63. The State of Our Farmers — Ep 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi). 64. India's Agriculture Crisis — Ep 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand). 65. The Indian State Is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer — Amit Varma. 66. The Worldly Philosophers -- Robert Heilbroner. 67. The Clash of Economic Ideas — Lawrence H White. 68. Capital-Labor Substitution and Economic Efficiency -- Kenneth Arrow, Hollis Chenery, Bagicha Singh Minhas and Robert Solow. 69. Room 666 -- Wim Wenders. 70. Laapataa Ladies -- Kiran Rao. 71. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 72. What I, as a development economist, have been actively "for" — Lant Pritchett. 73. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? — Lant Pritchett. 74. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 75. Smoke and Ashes -- Amitav Ghosh. 76. Sata Uttarachi Kahani -- GP Pradhan. 77. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 78. Collections of VD Savarkar's Marathi essays: 1, 2. 79. Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva -- Janaki Bakhle. 80. Savarkar Te BJP -- SH Deshpande. 81. Sarvakarancha Buddhiwad Ani Hindutvawad -- Sheshrao More. 82. Swatantryaveer Savarkar Ek Rahasya -- DN Gokhale. 83. Shodh Savarkarancha -- YD Phadke. 84. The Taking of Pelham 123 -- Tony Scott. 85. Sriram Raghavan (IMDb) (Wikipedia) and Vijay Anand (IMDb) (Wikipedia). 86. Manorama Six Feet Under -- Navdeep Singh. 87. Agatha Christie and Frederick Forsyth on Amazon. 88. Salil Chowdhury and RD Burman on Spotify. 89. Haikyu -- Haruichi Furudate. 90. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 91. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister — Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 92. Dilip José Abreu: an elegant and creative economist — Rohit Lamba. Niranjan would like to inform listeners that Spontaneous Order would be translated to Marathi as उत्सफूर्त व्यवस्था. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Impartial Spectator' by Simahina.
Mon, 01 Jul 2024 - 3h 50min - 389 - Ep 387: The Life and Times of the Indian Economy
Our greatest moral imperative is to solve the problem of poverty -- and after over 75 years, we still have some distance to travel. Rajeswari Sengupta joins Amit Varma in episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen for a deep dive into how we got here, where we went wrong, what we got right, and how we should look at the Indian economy going forward. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:1. Rajeswari Sengupta's homepage. 2. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 3. Twelve Dream Reforms — Episode 138 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan, Rajeswari Sengupta & Vivek Kaul). 4. Two-and-a-Half Bengalis Have an Economics Adda -- Episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya). 5. Talks & Discussions on the Indian Economy featuring Rajeswari Sengupta. 6. Rajeswari Sengulta's writings on the Indian economy. 7. Rajeswari Sengupta's writing for Ideas for India. 8. Rajeswari Sengupta's writing on the Leap Blog. 9. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on GDP: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 10. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on fiscal policy: 1, 2, 3. 11. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on the banking crisis: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 12. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on the financial sector: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 13. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on Covid: 1, 2, 3, 4. 14. Getting the State out of Our Lives -- Rajeswari Sengupta's TEDx talk. 15. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 16. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 17. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 18. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 20. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 21. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan -- Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity -- Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Josh Felman Tries to Make Sense of the World — Episode 321 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan -- Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box — Episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. The State of Our Farmers — Ep 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi). 27. India's Agriculture Crisis — Ep 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand). 28. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 29. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 30. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) — Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand). 31. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 32. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State -- Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 34. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 35. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 37. When Should the State Act? -- Episode 26 of Everything is Everything. 38. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 39. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 40. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 41. The Long Road to Change -- Episode 36 of Everything is Everything. 42. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything is Everything. 43. Beware of These Five Fallacies! -- Episode 45 of Everything is Everything. 44. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 45. Graduating to Globalisation -- Episode 48 of Everything is Everything (on I18N). 46. Ask Me ANYTHING! -- Episode 50 of Everything is Everything. 47. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 48. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 49. The 1991 Project. 50. The quest for economic freedom in India — Shruti Rajagopalan. 51. What I, as a development economist, have been actively "for" — Lant Pritchett. 52. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? — Lant Pritchett. 53. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 54. Is India a Flailing State?: Detours on the Four Lane Highway to Modernization — Lant Pritchett. 55. Is Your Impact Evaluation Asking Questions That Matter? A Four Part Smell Test — Lant Pritchett. 56. The Perils of Partial Attribution: Let's All Play for Team Development — Lant Pritchett. 57. Some episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the state of the economy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 58. Accelerating India's Development — Karthik Muralidharan. 59. Unshackling India -- Ajay Chhibber and Salman Soz. 60. India Grows At Night -- Gurcharan Das. 61. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 62. Mohit Satyanand's newsletter post on the informal sector. 63. Pratap Bhanu Mehta's column on mission mode interventions. 64. The Hedonistic Treadmill. 65. 77% low-income households saw no income increase in the past 5 yrs -- Vasudha Mukherjee. 66. Pandit's Mind — The 1951 Time magazine cover story on Jawaharlal Nehru. 67. Economic Facts and Fallacies -- Thomas Sowell. 68. An Autobiography -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 69. The Double 'Thank You' Moment -- John Stossel. 70. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 71. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 72. The China Dude Is in the House -- Episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 73. The Dragon and the Elephant -- Episode 181 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Hamsini Hariharan and Shibani Mehta). 74. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 75. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 76. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 77. How to assess the needs for aid? The answer: Don't ask -- William Easterly. 78. The White Man's Burden -- William Easterly. 79. The Elusive Quest for Growth -- William Easterly. 80. The Tyranny of Experts -- William Easterly. 81. Planners vs. Searchers in Foreign Aid — William Easterly. 82. Pandit's Mind — The 1951 Time magazine cover story on Jawaharlal Nehru. 83. 75 Years of India's Foreign Exchange Controls -- Bhargavi Zaveri Shah. 84. Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India's Economic Future — Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba. 85. The History of the Planning Commission — Episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Menon). 86. Adam Smith on The Man of System. 87. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 88. Price Controls Lead to Shortages and Harm the Poor -- Amit Varma. 89. The Great Redistribution -- Amit Varma. 90. Backstage: The Story behind India's High Growth Years -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 91. The Indian State Is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer -- Amit Varma piece, which contains the Sharad Joshi shair. 92. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 93. The Economic Legacies of Colonial Rule in India -- Tirthankar Roy. 94. The Semiconductor Wars — Episode 358 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Abhiram Manchi). 95. BR Shenoy on Wikipedia and Indian Liberals. 96. BR Shenoy: Stature and Impact -- Peter Bauer. 97. The Foreign Exchange Crisis and India's Second Five Year Plan -- VKRV Rao. 98. India's Water Crisis — Episode 60 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vishwanath S aka Zenrainman). 99. The Delhi Smog — Episode 44 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 100. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 101. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 102. The Profit Motive in Education — Episode 9 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Parth Shah). 103. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 104. Where Has All the Education Gone? — Lant Pritchett. 105. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 106. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma on DeMon & Mao killing sparrows. 107. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor. 108. Coomi Kapoor Has the Inside Track — Episode 305 of The Seen and the Unseen. 109. Seven Stories That Should Be Films -- Episode 23 of Everything in Everything, in which Amit talks about the Emergency. 110. Milton Friedman on the minimum wage. 111. The Commanding Heights -- Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. 112. Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist -- Bruce Yandle. 113. Raees: An Empty Shell of a Gangster Film — Amit Varma. 114. Josh Felman on Twitter, Project Syndicate, JH Consulting and The Marginal Economist. 115. Obituaries of SV Raju by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha and Samanth Subramanian. 116. Breaking Out -- Padma Desai. 117. Breaking Through -- Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 118. India's Far From Free Markets (2005) — Amit Varma in the Wall Street Journal. 119. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen.
120. The Struggle And The Promise — Naushad Forbes. 121. Half-Lion -- Vinay Sitapati's biography of PV Narasimha Rao. 122. A Game Theory Problem: Who Will Bell The Congress Cat? — Amit Varma. 123. India Transformed -- Rakesh Mohan. 124. Highway to Success: The Impact of the Golden Quadrilateral -- Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami and William R Kerr. 125. The Cantillon Effect. 126. The Lost Decade -- Puja Mehra. 127. Modi's Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 128. XKDR Forum. 129. Beware of the Useful Idiots — Amit Varma. 130. Some of Amit Varma's pieces and episodes against Demonetisation: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 131. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen on GST: 1, 2, 3. 132. Miniature episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on PSBs, NPAs and NBFCs. 133. The Bankable Wisdom of Harsh Vardhan -- Episode 352 of The Seen and the Unseen. 134. Politics of Economic Growth in India, 1980-2005 -- Atul Kohli. 135. The Economic Consequences of the Peace -- John Maynard Keynes. 136. India's GDP Mis-estimation: Likelihood, Magnitudes, Mechanisms, and Implications -- Arvind Subramanian. 137. What a Long Strange Trip It's Been -- Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian). 138. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 139. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World -- Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 140. The Indus Valley Playbook — Sajith Pai. 141. India's Trade Policy Is Working Great — for Vietnam -- Andy Mukherjee. 142. A Trade Deficit With a Babysitter -- Tim Harford. 143. The City & the City — China Miéville. 144. A Decade of Credit Collapse in India -- Harsh Vardhan. 145. The Low Productivity Trap of Collateralised Lending for MSMEs -- Harsh Vardhan. 146. Economic Learnings of India for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Bihar -- Episode 345 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand and Kumar Anand). 147. They Stole a Bridge. They Stole a Pond -- Amit Varma. 148. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister -- Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 149. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 150. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 151. Some of Amit Varma's pieces on agriculture: 1, 2, 3. 152. The Crisis in Indian Agriculture — Brainstorm on Pragati. 153. Where are the Markets? — Kumar Anand. 154. Empower Women Farmers -- Mrinal Pande. 155. The Mystery of Capital — Hernando De Soto. 156. India Unbound -- Gurcharan Das. 157. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 158. We, The Citizens: Strengthening the Indian Republic — Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane. 159. Making Policy Fun with Khyati Pathak and Friends -- Episode 374 of The Seen and the Unseen. 160. Seeing Like a State — James C Scott. 161. Free To Choose — Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 162. Classical Liberalism- A Primer -- Eamonn Butler. 163. Friedrich Hayek: The ideas and influence of the libertarian economist -- Eamonn Butler. 164. Milton Friedman: A concise guide to the ideas and influence of the free-market economist -- Eamonn Butler. 165. Public Choice – A Primer -- Eamonn Butler. 166. Adam Smith – A Primer: Eamonn Butler. 167. The Clash of Economic Ideas -- Lawrence H White. 168. Just a Mercenary?: Notes from My Life and Career -- D Subbarao. 169. Who Moved My Interest Rate? -- D Subbarao. 170. Advice & Dissent: My Life in Public Service -- YV Reddy. 171. A Business History of India -- Tirthankar Roy. 172. Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath -- Ben Bernanke. 173. Whole Numbers And Half Truths -- Rukmini S. 174. Fragile by Design -- Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber. 175. Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes -- Richard Davenport-Hines. 176. A Life in Our Times -- John Kenneth Galbraith. 177. The Age of Uncertainty -- John Kenneth Galbraith. 178. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'It's Complicated' by Simahina.Mon, 24 Jun 2024 - 9h 53min - 388 - Ep 386: Shashi Verma Made London Move
Our cities have changed -- but the ways in which they are governed and imagined can take time to catch up. Shashi Verma joins Amit Varma in episode 386 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey in thought and action -- and his pioneering work in reshaping urban transport. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shashi Verma on LinkedIn and Centre for London. 2. Shashi Verma on Transport in the 21st Century -- Episode 83 of Brave New World, hosted by Vasant Dhar. 3. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 4. Guns, Germs and Steel -- Jared Diamond. 5. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 6. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 7. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. How We Do the Small Things -- Amit Varma. 9. Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance — Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck. 10. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 11.Confronting Constraints: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Tackle a Tough Contract -- Harvard case study. 12. Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure -- Oliver Hart. 13. India: The Dabhol Power Corporation -- Shashi Verma's case study for Harvard Kennedy School. 14. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto). 15. The Epic of Gilgamesh. 16. Dunbar's number. 17. The Life and Death of Ancient Cities -- Greg Woolf. 18. The Complete Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle. 19. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 20. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 21. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 23. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs. 24. The Power Broker — Robert Caro. 25. Michael Beesley and Cost Benefit Analysis -- CD Foster. 26. Pritika Hingorani Wants to Fix Our Cities -- Episode 361 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. Reclaim the Sky -- Episode 11 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok). 28. Status Quo Bias. 29. Parkinson's Law — C Northcote Parkinson. 30. Seen/Unseen episodes with singing by Karthik Muralidharan and Ashwini Deshpande -- and no singing by TM Krishna. 31. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 32. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 33. Pyaasa -- Guru Dutt. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'London Calling' by Simahina.
Mon, 17 Jun 2024 - 5h 02min - 387 - Ep 385: Vinayak Calling Vinayak
To understand modern India, we must understand the history of Hindutva -- and we must wrestle with Savarkar. Vinayak Chaturvedi joins Amit Varma in episode 385 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life and work as a historian -- and the importance of history in shaping the present moment. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) (This episode was recorded in March, 2024.) Also check out: 1. Vinayak Chaturvedi at UC Irvine and Amazon. 2. Hindutva and Violence: VD Savarkar and the Politics of History -- Vinayak Chaturvedi. 3. Peasant Pasts – History and Memory in Western India -- Vinayak Chaturvedi. 4. Imaginary Homelands -- Salman Rushdie. 5. The Road and No Country for Old Men -- Cormac McCarthy. 6. No Country for Old Men -- Joel and Ethan Coen. 7. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 8. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 9. Partha Chatterjee on Amazon, Wikipedia and Columbia University. 10. The Egg -- Andy Weir. 11. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face -- Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran -- Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 14. The Long Divergence — Timur Kuran. 15. Some plagiarism complaints against Claudine Gay: 1, 2, 3, 4. 16. The Exquisite Irony of Claudine Gay's Downfall -- Glenn Loury with John McWhorter. 17. Why Did Harvard Cancel Its Best Black Professor? -- Documentary by Rob Montz on the destruction of Roland Fryer. 18. "A White Male Would Probably Already Be Gone" -- Carol Swain interviewed by Christopher Rufo. 19. How one hearing brought down two Ivy League presidents -- Sareen Habeshian. 20. Carlo Ginzburg and Christopher Bayly. 21. The Birth of the Modern World -- CA Bayly. 22. Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire -- CA Bayly. 23. The Indian Ideology -- Perry Anderson. 24. Event, Metaphor, Memory : Chauri Chaura -- Shahid Amin. 25. Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania -- Steven Feierman. 26. Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India -- Ranajit Guha. 27. Maps Are Magic -- Episode 44 of Everything is Everything. 28. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges. 29. Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars -- CA Bayly. 30. The Cheese and the Worms -- Carlo Ginzburg. 31. From Peasant Pasts to Hindutva Futures? -- Vinayak Chaturvedi. 32. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 33. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 34. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. A Rude Life — Vir Sanghvi. 36. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 37. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 38. Essentials Of Hindutva -- VD Savarkar. 39. Farewell Waltz -- Milan Kundera. 40. A Zone of Engagement -- Perry Anderson. 41. Spectrum: From Right to Left in the World of Ideas -- Perry Anderson. 42. BR Ambedkar's interview on BBC from 1955. 43. Hindutva before Hindutva: Selected Writings and Discourses of Chandranath Basu in Translation -- Edited by Amiya Sen. 44. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 45. The Many Shades of George Fernandes -- Episode 327 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. The Life and Times of George Fernandes — Rahul Ramagundam. 47. Hind Swaraj — MK Gandhi. 48. Annihilation of Caste — BR Ambedkar. 49. Understanding Gandhi: Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 50. Understanding Gandhi: Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 51. The Indian War of Independence: 1857 -- VD Savarkar. 52. Savarkar: The True Story of the Father of Hindutva -- Vaibhav Purandare. 53. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 54. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 55. Hindu-Padpaadshahi (Hindi Edition) -- VD Savarkar. 56. Veer Savarkar -- Dhananjay Keer. 57. GS Sardesai, VK Rajwade and Jadunath Sarkar. 58. The Collected Works of MK Gandhi and BR Ambedkar. 59. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen with Srinath Raghavan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 61. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 62. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 63. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ira Mukhoty, Parvati Sharma and Rana Safvi. 64. John McEnroe plus Anyone -- Edward Said. 65. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste -- Pierre Bourdieu. 66. Lendl, Becker, McEnroe, & Wilander interviewed in the Tennis Legends Podcast. 67. Ben Böhmer, Sultan+Shepard, Nora En Pure, U2 and New Order on Spotify. 68. The Zone of Interest -- Jonathan Glazer. 69. Oldboy -- Park Chan-wook. 70.Burning -- Lee Chang-dong. 71. Memories of Murder -- Bong Joon-ho. 72. Return to Seoul -- Davy Chou. 73. Past Lives -- Celine Song. 74. Monster -- Kore-eda Hirokazu. 75. The Wind From Far Away -- Amit Varma (on Monster among other things). 76. Shoplifters -- Hirokazu Kore-eda. 77. Nobody Knows -- Hirokazu Kore-eda. 78. Broker -- Hirokazu Kore-eda. 79. A Death in the Family -- Book 1 of Karl Ove Knausgaard's A Struggle. 80. In Search Of Lost Time -- Marcel Proust. 81. My Saga -- Karl Ove Knausgaard's essay for NYT. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Historian' by Simahina.
Mon, 10 Jun 2024 - 4h 38min - 386 - Ep 384: Narayan Ramachandran Is Playing the Long Game
He has lived two lives: first he reached the top of the corporate ladder and became a top banker; and now he is embarked upon the long game of changing India. Narayan Ramachandran joins Amit Varma in episode 384 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about stimulating change, building institutions -- and making ideas and serendipity come together. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Narayan Ramachandran at LinkedIn, Takshashila and Mint. 2. Narayan Ramachandran's quote on timeframes in an interview by Rithika Kumar. 3. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 4. The omnibus volume of BR Nanda's biographies of Gokhale, Gandhi and Nehru. 5. The Road to Serfdom -- Friedrich Hayek. 6. The Constitution of Liberty -- Friedrich Hayek. 7. Why Talent Comes in Clusters -- Episode 8 of Everything is Everything. 8. Marching For Salt -- Amit Varma. 9. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 10. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Median Voter Theorem. 12. Morgan Hausel's books and podcast. 13. The Fortune at The Bottom of The Pyramid -- CK Prahalad. 14. 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman' -- Richard Feynman. 15. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma's column on reading. 16. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 17. Mindset -- Carol S Dweck. 18. Dunbar's number. 19. How Many Friends Does One Person Need? — Robin Dunbar. 20. Religion, Food, Indian Society — Episode 207 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shoba Narayan). 21. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 22. When Ideas Have Sex -- Matt Ridley. 23. Traffic -- Tom Vanderbilt. 24. RSJ's newsletter post on Akio Morita and Japan. 25. Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance — Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck. 26. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. Rick Beato's Ultimate Bundle. 28. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol -- Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. Beware of These Five Fallacies! -- Episode 45 of Everything is Everything. 30. Chip War -- Chris Miller. 31. The Power Law -- Sebastian Mallaby. 32. The Economist, New Yorker and National Geographic. 33. Lords of the Deccan -- Anirudh Kanisetti. 34. Empire of the Mughal -- Alex Rutherford. 35. Vajpayee: The Ascent of the Hindu Right, 1924–1977 -- Abhishek Choudhary. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Puzzle' by Simahina.
Mon, 03 Jun 2024 - 3h 58min - 385 - Ep 383: Arati Kumar-Rao Took a One-Way Ticket
She gave up a corporate career to live a slow life: to travel, to immerse, to write, to learn to see. Arati Kumar-Rao joins Amit Varma in episode 383 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her writing, her photography and the lessons she has learnt by standing still and looking. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:
1. Arati Kumar-Rao on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and her own website. 2. Marginlands: Indian Landscapes on the Brink -- Arati Kumar-Rao. 3. The Peepli Project. 4. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Killers of the Flower Moon -- David Grann. 6. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Masanobu Fukuoka and Wendell Berry. 9. India's Water Crisis — Episode 60 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vishwanath S aka Zenrainman). 10. The American Geographies -- Barry Lopez. 11. The Invisible Gorilla. 12. Letters to a Young Poet -- Rainer Maria Rilke. 13. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor -- Rob Nixon. 14. The Fatal Conceit -- Friedrich Hayek. 15. The Gokhale Bridge fiasco. 16. Pritika Hingorani Wants to Fix Our Cities — Episode 361 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Toba Tek Singh -- Sadat Hasan Manto. 18. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 20. Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to our Times -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 21. Blindness -- José Saramago. 22. The Wreck -- Rabindranath Tagore. 23. Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray and Gulzar. 24. Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, Nan Shepherd and Robert Macfarlane on Amazon. 25. The Living Mountain -- Nan Shepherd. 26. The Peregrine -- JA Baker. 27. Paul Salopek on Twitter and the Out of Eden Walk. 28. Pradip Krishen on Wikipedia, Amazon and IMDb. 29. Pather Panchali -- Satyajit Ray, 30. The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 31. Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 32. Call Me American -- Abdi Nor Iftin. 33. Hisham Matar and Kamila Shamsie on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'River' by Simahina.Mon, 27 May 2024 - 3h 24min - 384 - Ep 382: Kushal Mehra Dives Into Hindu Thought
He describes himself as a dharmik skeptic, and has written a book about how atheism evolved within Hindu philosophy. Kushal Mehra joins Amit Varma in episode 382 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his intellectual evolution-- and his journey as a podcaster. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Kushal Mehra on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and his own website. 2. Nastik: Why I Am Not an Atheist -- Kushal Mehra. 3. The Cārvāka Podcast -- Kushal Mehra's podcast on YouTube. 4. Kushal Mehra's YouTube monologues. 5. 'How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives' -- Amit Varma. 6. Hanlon's Razor. 7. Tim Urban's tweet on getting to know people. 8. The Harm Principle. 9. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 11. I, Pencil -- Leonard Read. 12. Why People Believe Weird Things -- Michael Shermer. 13. Richard Dawkins on the God of the Old Testament. 14. Vinamre Kasanaa and Prakhar Gupta on YouTube. 15. Kushal Mehra on Dostcast. 16. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 17. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference -- Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The God Delusion -- Richard Dawkins. 19. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube. 20. The Evolution of Cooperation -- Robert Axelrod. 21. A Manual for Creating Atheists -- Peter Boghossian. 22. A Godless Congregation — Amit Varma. 23. Tell Me You Love Me -- Amit Varma. 24. Dr Chatterjee and therealnihal's Instagram post on friendship. 25. The New Atheism and the Four Horsemen. 26. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett on Amazon. 27. 'Wet Streets Cause Rain' — Michael Crichton. 28. The Big Questions -- Steven Landsburg. 29. Three cultures of atheism: on serious doubts about the existence of God -- Simon Glendinning. 30. Charvaka and Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa. 31. Tattvopaplavasiṃha — Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa. 32. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Imagine There's No Svarga: Rediscovering Cārvāka, India's 2,700-Year-Old Atheistic Tradition -- Kushal Mehra on Quilette. 34. Moral Foundations Theory, proposed by Jonathan Haidt, Craig Joseph and Jesse Graham. 35. Hitchen's Razor. 36. Consciousness Explained -- Daniel Dennett. 37. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 38. Soul and Sword: The History of Political Hinduism -- Hindol Sengupta. 39. Hind Swaraj -- MK Gandhi. 40. Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box — Episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Hindutva -- Vinayak Savarkar. 42. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 43. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 44. Rangila Rasul. 45. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 46. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 47. Don't Insult Pasta (2007) -- Amit Varma. 48. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 49. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. The Progress of Humanity -- Episode 101 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Steven Pinker). 51. Colours of the Cage -- Arun Ferreira. 52. Modi's Domination: What We Often Overlook -- Keshava Guha. 53. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 54. Anand -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 55. How We Do the Small Things -- Amit Varma. 56. How Not To Get Trolled -- Amit Varma. 57. The Pursuit of Happyness -- Gabriele Muccino.. 58. Andaz Apna Apna -- Rajkumar Santoshi. 59. I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto -- Tupac Shakur. 60. Shiv Kumar Batalvi on Rekhta. 61.Bulleh Shah on Wikipedia. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Study' by Simahina.
Sun, 19 May 2024 - 5h 30min - 383 - Ep 381: V Vinay Has Lived a Life of Science
He created the iconic Simputer, and has lived a life that married science and its applications. V Vinay joins Amit Varma in episode 381 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey and what it taught him. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. V Vinay on Twitter, LinkedIn, IISC and Google Scholar. 2. The UNIX Episode -- Episode 32 of Everything is Everything. 3. Calculus Made Simple -- H Mulholland. 4. India vs West Indies, 1st Test, Bengaluru, November 22 – 27, 1974. 5. Ram Guha Writes a Letter to a Friend -- Episode 371 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. A Text-book Of Inorganic Chemistry -- JR Partington. 7. Perkin and Kipping's Organic Chemistry -- Stanley F Kipping and Barry Kipping. 8. There's no speed limit — Derek Sivers. 9. The Botany of Desire -- Michael Pollan. 10. Vishwa Bandhu Gupta on cloud computing & more! 11. Design & Analysis of Computer Algorithms -- Alfred V Aho, John E Hopcroft and Jeffrey D Ullman. 12. A Circuit-Based Proof of Toda′ s Theorem -- Ravi Kannan, H Venkateswaran, V Vinay and Andrew C Yao. 13. Ramesh Hariharan's website. 14. The Little Prince -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. 15. Bruce Sterling on the Simputer in the New York Times. 16. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. James Hadley Chase, Alistair Maclean, Desmond Bagley and Agatha Christie on Amazon. 18. Illusions -- Richard Bach. 19. Jonathan Livingston Seagull -- Richard Bach. 20. Lila -- Robert M Pirsig. 21. The True Believer -- Eric Hoffer. 22. Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 23. The Idiot -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 24. Leo Tolstoy's short stories. 25. Essays -- Ralh Waldo Emerson. 26. The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 27. Self-Reliance -- Ralph Waldo Emerson. 28. Walden -- Henry David Thoreau. 29. Vinaya Pitaka. 30. Isha Upanishad. 31. Atoms in Motion -- Richard Feynman. 32. Mandukya Upanishad. 33. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. 34. The Matrix -- The Wachowskis. 35. Chanakya -- Chandraprakash Dwivedi. 36. Chomana Dudi -- BV Karanth. 37. Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu. 38. Tokyo Story -- Yasujirō Ozu. 39. Departures -- Yôjirô Takita. 40. The Silence of the Lambs -- Jonathan Demme. 41. Notorious -- Alfred Hitchcock. 42. Mr Smith Goes to Washington -- Frank Capra. 43. The Philadelphia Story -- George Cukor. 44. Bringing Up Baby -- Howard Hawks. 45. Casablanca -- Michael Curtiz. 46. Gandhi -- Richard Attenborough. 47. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring -- Kim Ki-duk. 48. Bicycle Thieves -- Vittorio De Sica. 49. Ilaiyaraaja, TM Krishna and MS Subbulakshmi on Spotify. 50. Twenty-Five Twenty-One -- Jung Ji-hyun. 51. Misaeng -- Kim Won-seok. 52. My Ahjusshi -- Kim Won-seok. 53. Succession, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and House. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Searching for Truth' by Simahina.
Mon, 13 May 2024 - 4h 12min - 382 - Ep 380: Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference
How do women live in India? How do workers live? What impact can economics have in the real world? Sowmya Dhanaraj joins Amit Varma in episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her life, her work and the churn in our society. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sowmya Dhanaraj on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Scholar, Good Business Lab and her own website. 2. Male Backlash and Female Guilt: Women's Employment and Intimate Partner Violence in Urban India -- Sowmya Dhanaraj and Vidya Mahambare. 3. Family structure, education and women's employment in rural India -- Sowmya Dhanaraj and Vidya Mahambare. 4. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box -- Episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 7. Tell No One -- Harlan Coben. 8. Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach -- Jeffrey Wooldridge. 9. Econometric Analysis -- William Greene. 10. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything. 11. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi -- Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years — Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 13. Santosh Desai is Watching You -- Episode 356 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Challenges of Change: An Experiment Promoting Women to Managerial Roles in the Bangladeshi Garment Sector -- Rocco Macchiavello, Andreas Menzel, Atonu Rabbani & Christopher Woodruff. 16. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 17. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 18. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 20. Sowmya Dhanaraj and Vidya Mahambare speak to Alice Evans on her podcast. 21. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 23.India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 24. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face -- Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 26. Emergent Ventures. 27. Malini Goyal is the Curious One -- Episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Is Work Fun -- Tyler Cowen. 29. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 30. Housefull Economics. 31. This Passing Moment -- Amit Varma's Housefull Economics piece on Opportunity Cost. 32. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? — Devika Kher. 33. Here's What's Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act — Suman Joshi. 34. Evicted -- Matthew Despond. 35. Whole Numbers And Half Truths -- Rukmini S. 36. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 37. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 38. The Great Indian Kitchen -- Jeo Baby. 39. Pariyerum Perumal -- Mari Selvaraj. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Machinery of Society' by Simahina.
Mon, 06 May 2024 - 4h 28min - 381 - Ep 379: Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity
He's one of the great economists of our times, always focussed on the big questions, no matter how hard they are. Lant Pritchett joins Amit Varma in episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his work and what he has learnt about the world. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Lant Pritchett on Google Scholar and his own website. 2. Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 3. Deals and Development: The Political Dynamics of Growth Episodes -- Lant Pritchett, Kunal Sen and Eric Werker. 4. What I, as a development economist, have been actively "for" -- Lant Pritchett. 5. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? -- Lant Pritchett. 6. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough -- Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 7. Is India a Flailing State?: Detours on the Four Lane Highway to Modernization -- Lant Pritchett. 8. Is Your Impact Evaluation Asking Questions That Matter? A Four Part Smell Test -- Lant Pritchett. 9. The Perils of Partial Attribution: Let's All Play for Team Development -- Lant Pritchett. 10. Where Has All the Education Gone? -- Lant Pritchett. 11. Looking Like a State: Techniques of Persistent Failure in State Capability for Implementation -- Lant Pritchett. 12. Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania -- Deepa Narayan and Lant Pritchett. 13. Where Did Development Economics Go Wrong? -- Lant Pritchett speaks to Shruti Rajagopalan on Ideas of India. 14. Reforming Development Economics -- Lant Pritchett speaks to Shruti Rajagopalan on Ideas of India. 15. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity — Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Economics in One Lesson — Henry Hazlitt. 17. The Worldly Philosophers -- Robert L Heilbroner. 18. That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen — Frédéric Bastiat. 19. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 20. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything (in which Amit talks about Hayek's essay). 21. The Great Wave off Kanagawa. 22. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face -- Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. How We Do the Small Things -- Amit Varma. 24. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 25. The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development — Michael Kremer. 26. Why Abhijit Banerjee Had to Go Abroad to Achieve Glory — Amit Varma. 27. Amadeus -- Milos Forman. 28. Why Talent Comes in Clusters -- Episode 8 of Everything is Everything. 29. Imagined Communities -- Benedict Anderson. 30. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 31. Accelerating India's Development -- Karthik Muralidharan. 32. An update in 2020 of the Big Stuck in State Capability -- Lant Pritchett. 33. The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy -- Daniel Carpenter. 34. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 35. Seeing Like a State -- James C Scott. 36. Dido and Aeneas -- Mark Morris Dance Group. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Lighthouse' by Simahina.
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 - 4h 09min - 380 - Ep 378: Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan
He is an economist with the soul of a poet. He has studied number theory and is an expert on policy. He has studied Urdu and and dreams in shairi. Rohit Lamba joins Amit Varma in episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss economics, politics, society and our human condition. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rohit Lamba links at Penn State, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Scholar, YouTube and his own website. 2. Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India's Economic Future -- Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba. 3. The Broken Script -- Swapna Liddle. 4. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi -- Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Six More Stories That Should Be Films -- Episode 43 of Everything is Everything, which includes a chapter inspired by Swapna Liddle's book. 6. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 7. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 8. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes -- Zachary D. Carter. 10. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 11. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube. 12. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 13. The Nurture Assumption — Judith Rich Harris. 14. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face -- Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran -- Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 17. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. 300 Ramayanas — AK Ramanujan. 19. Ramcharitmanas -- Tulsidas. 20. Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva -- Janaki Bakhle. 21. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 22. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 23. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 24. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 25. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 26. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 27. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza. 29. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Postcard from Kashmir -- Agha Shahid Ali. 31. The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems -- Agha Shahid Ali. 32. You Can Always Get There From Here -- Mark Strand. 33. Collected Poems — Mark Strand. 34. Variants of chess on chess.com. 35. The Tamilian gentleman who took on the world — Amit Varma on Viswanathan Anand. 36. The New World Upon Us — Amit Varma on Alpha Zero. 37. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. 38. The History of the Planning Commission -- Episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Menon). 39. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan -- Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 41. Milton Friedman on Minimum Wage Laws. 42. Main Gautam Nahin Hoon -- Khalilur Rahman Azmi. 43. Lessons from Nirala's ballad for our battle with covid -- Rohit Lamba. 44. Poker and Life -- Episode 38 of Everything is Everything. 45. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma's column on poker for the Economic Times. 46. What is Populism? — Jan-Werner Müller. 47. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 48. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 49. Dynamism with Incommensurate Development: The Distinctive Indian Model -- Rohit Lamba and Arvind Subramanian. 50. List of Soviet and Russian leaders by height. 51. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma on Demonetisation. 52. Beware of the Useful Idiots — Amit Varma. 53. Number Theory. 54. Fermat's Last Theorem. 55. A Beautiful Mind -- Ron Howard. 56. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande — Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. Dilip José Abreu: an elegant and creative economist -- Rohit Lamba. 58. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 59. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 60. Ghummakkad Shastra -- Rahul Sankrityayan. 61. Jahnavi and the Cyclotron — Episode 319 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jahnavi Phalkey). 62. The Looking-Glass Self. 63. Jo Bhi Main -- Song from Rockstar with lyrics by Irshad Kamil. 64. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains — Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 65. Politically correct, passive-aggressive: How Indians in the US struggle to decode corporate speak -- Anahita Mukherji. 66. Lincoln -- Steven Spielberg. 67. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 68. The Economics and Politics of Vaccines — Episode 223 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 69. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 70. The Semiconductor Wars — Episode 358 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Abhiram Manchi). 71. The Smile Curve. 72. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 73. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma. 74. The Child and the State in India -- Myron Weiner. 75. Where India Goes -- Diane Coffey and Deam Spears. 76. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 77. South India Would Like to Have a Word — Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS). 78. South vs North: India's Great Divide — Nilakantan RS. 79. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ashwin Mahesh: 1, 2, 3. 80. Maximum City -- Suketu Mehta. 81. Disgrace -- JM Coetzee. 82. Snow -- Pamuk. 83. Bahut Door, Kitna Door Hota Hai -- Manav Kaul. 84. Shakkar Ke Paanch Dane -- Manav Kaul.. 85. Poems: 1962–2020 -- Louise Glück. 86. Mahabharata. 87. राम की शक्ति-पूजा -- सूर्यकांत त्रिपाठी निराला. 88. Iqbal and Ahmad Faraz on Rekhta. 89. Ranjish Hi Sahi -- Ahmad Faraz. 90. Zindagi Se Yahi Gila Hai Mujhe -- Ahmad Faraz. 91. AR Rahman on Wikipedia and Spotify. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Pick a Tree' by Simahina.
Mon, 22 Apr 2024 - 6h 31min - 379 - Ep 377: Malini Goyal is the Curious One
As a journalist, she always went deep. As an author, she has peeled off layers of Bengaluru -- and Indian society. Malini Goyal joins Amit Varma in episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her insights -- and the values that shape her work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Malini Goyal at Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Economic Times. 2. Unboxing Bengaluru: The City of New Beginnings -- Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash. 3. Unboxing Bengaluru -- The website. 4. After Hours With India Inc -- Malini Goyal's podcast. 5. Bindra's Wishlist (2005) -- Amit Varma. 6. Reforming Urban Governance -- Episode 48 of The Seen and the Unseen (w V Ravichandar). 7. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. . 8. Malini Goyal's piece on Alang. 9. India's first social media election -- Malini Goyal. 10. Malini Goyal's four-part story on India's liberalisation children: 1, 2, 3, 4. 11. Malini Goyal's series on Hyderabad. 12. 'Wet Streets Cause Rain' — Michael Crichton explains Gell-Mann Amnesia. 13. Maruti 800 to Alto 800: A 30-year journey -- Malini Goyal. 14. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma's column on poker for The Economic Times. 15. How large corporations go about picking CXO-level honchos -- Malini Goyal. 16. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 17. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 18. Shaili Chopra and the Sisterhood -- Episode 325 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Israel, a startup oasis in the middle of a war zone -- Malini Goyal. 20. The Romantic Idiot -- Samarth Bansal. 21. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Aella's tweet about the slutcloud. 23. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ashwin Mahesh: 1, 2, 3. 24. The Pursuit of Happyness -- Gabriele Muccino. 25. Personal History -- Katherine Graham. 26. Open: An Autobiography -- Andre Agassi. 27. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography -- Walter Isaacson. 26. Einstein: His Life and Universe -- Walter Isaacson.. 27. Alice Munro, Kazuo Ishiguro and Roald Dahl on Amazon. 28. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'There is More Here' by Simahina.
Mon, 15 Apr 2024 - 3h 55min - 378 - Ep 376: Postcards From Utsav Mamoria
When he travels, he's a man of reflection. When he creates, he's a man of action. Utsav Mamoria joins Amit Varma in episode 376 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his philosophy towards travel, creating and living. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Utsav Mamoria on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. 2. Postcards From Nowhere -- Utsav Mamoria's podcast. 3. The 6% Club.. 4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy, Abhijit Bhaduri and Gaurav Chintamani.. 5. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Getting Meta. -- Chuck Gopal's podcast. 7. The legendary Simblified. 8. Sabbaticalling -- Episode 85 of Simblified (w Utsav Mamoria). 9. The Untravel Show -- Abhishek.Vaid's YouTube show. 10. Chuck Gopal interviews Utsav Mamoria. 12. Horizon -- Barry Lopez. 13. Imaginary Cities -- Darran Anderson. 14. Invisible Cities -- Italo Calvino. 15. The Hiking Episode -- Episode 35 of Everything is Everything. 16. I Play to Play -- Amit Varma. 17. Unboxing Bengaluru -- Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash. 18. Lords of the Deccan -- Anirudh Kanisetti. 19. Anirudh Kanisetti's podcasts. 20. Are You Just One Version of Yourself? -- Amit Varma. 21. Don't Get Into a Box -- Amit Varma. 22. Shoveling Smoke -- William Mazzarella. 23. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. The Stanford Prison Experiment. 26. Imagined Communities — Benedict Anderson. 27. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years — Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 28. Santosh Desai is Watching You — Episode 356 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. Dhadak Dhadak -- Song from Bunty and Babli. 30. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 31. The Language of Food -- Dan Jurafsky. 32. Bihar Review -- Kumar Anand's twitter account on Bihar. 33. Interior design for 10 crore kids. 34. Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain -- Episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. Amadeus -- Miloš Forman. 36. Arctic Dreams -- Barry Lopez. 37. The Art of Travel -- Alain De Botton. 38. The School of Life. 39. Robert Macfarlane and Pico Iyer on Amazon. 40. Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. 41. Marginlands -- Arati Kumar-Rao. 42. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 43. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 44. Tarana Husain Khan, Sadaf Hussain and Krish Ashok on Amazon. 45. The Language of Cities -- Deyan Sudjic. 46. Italo Calvino on Amazon. 47. When Breath Becomes Air -- Paul Kalanithi. 48. Coke Studio Pakistan. 49. Kabir, Kabir Cafe and Songs of Kabir. 50. The soundtracks of Qala, Udaan and Lootera. 51. Ud Jayega Hans Akela -- Kumar Gandharva. 52. Spotlight -- Tom McCarthy. 53. Grave of the Fireflies -- Isao Takahata. 54. My Neighbour Totoro -- Hayao Miyazaki. 55. Woman in the Dunes -- Hiroshi Teshigahara. 56. Departures -- Yōjirō Takita. 57. Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Majid Majidi, Tahmineh Milani and Yasujirō Ozu. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Travel' by Simahina.
Mon, 08 Apr 2024 - 4h 16min - 377 - Ep 375: Karthik Muralidharan and the Bureaucrat's Burden
To reform India, you must reform the Indian state. Karthik Muralidharan joins Amit Varma in episode 375 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his much-awaited new book that has finally released -- and the chapters on it that deal with our bureaucracy. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Karthik Muralidharan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar, UCSD and CEGIS. 2. Accelerating India's Development -- Karthik Muralidharan. 3. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 4. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 5. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 7. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah). 8. Brave New World -- Vasant Dhar's podcast. 9. To Kill A Mockingbird -- Harper Lee. 10. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 11. The Elusive Quest for Growth -- William R Easterly. 12. The White Man's Burden -- William R Easterly. 13. The Tyranny of Experts -- William R Easterly. 14. Thomas Sargent's speech at Berkeley. 15. Front-line Courts As State Capacity: Evidence From India -- Manaswini Rao. 16. The Argumentative Indian -- Amartya Sen. 17. BR Ambedkar's speech to the constituent assembly in 1949. 18. State Building -- Francis Fukuyama. 19. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 20. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 21. When Should the State Act? -- Episode 26 of Everything is Everything. 22. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 23. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 25. The Political Economy of Bureaucratic Overload -- Aditya Dasgupta and Devesh Kapur. 26. Red Tape -- Akhil Gupta. 27. Paper Tiger -- Nayanika Mathur. 28. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya. 29. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 30. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande -- Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen. 31. Annie Hall -- Woody Allen. 32. The withering trend of public employment in India -- CP Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh. 33. The Colonial Constitution — Arghya Sengupta. 34. Arghya Sengupta and the Engine Room of Law — Episode 366 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. Active and Passive Waste in Government Spending -- Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat and Tommaso Valletti. 36. Lagaan -- Ashutosh Gowariker. 37. List of Soviet and Russian leaders by height. 38. Bureaucratic Indecision and Risk Aversion in India -- Sneha P, Neha Sinha, Avanti Durani and Ayush Patel. 39. A Theory of Misgovernance -- Abhijit Banerjee. 40. Premature load bearing: Doing too much too soon -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 41. Sense and Sensibility -- Jane Austen. 42. Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen. 43. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Montek Singh Ahluwalia). 44. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 45. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 46. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap -- Yuen Yuen Ang. 47. Pritika Hingorani Wants to Fix Our Cities -- Episode 361 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. Gangaajal -- Prakash Jha. 49. Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India -- Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus and Sandip Sukhtankar. 50. Amitabh Bachchan on Twitter. 51. Nick Bloom at Stanford. 52. The Personnel Economics of the Developing State -- Frederico Finan, Benjamin Olken and Rohini Pande. 53. Double for Nothing? Experimental Evidence on an Unconditional Teacher Salary Increase in Indonesia -- Joppe de Ree, Karthik Muralidharan, Menno Pradhan and Halsey Rogers. 54. The Indian Labour Market through the Lens of Public Sector Recruitment -- Kunal Mangal. 55. Timepass: Youth, Class, and the Politics of Waiting in India -- Craig Jeffrey. 56. Karmayogi Bharat. 57. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 58. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 59. A new vision for legal education in India -- Abhishek Singhvi. 60. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht — Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Zindagi Toh Bewafa Hai -- Song from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Magic and Files' by Simahina.
Mon, 01 Apr 2024 - 5h 09min - 376 - Ep 374: Making Policy Fun with Khyati Pathak and Friends
Economics and public policy touch all our lives, and have humanitarian consequences. But isn't it damn boring? No! Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 374 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk policy and comics -- and how they came together in their book, We the Citizens. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) I strongly recommend that you check out the courses and the output of the Takshashila Institution. What they do is nothing less than a great public service to India. Also check out: 1. Khyati Pathak on Twitter, Instagram, Substack and her own website of comics. 2. Anupam Manur on Twitter, LinkedIn and the Takshashila Institution. 3. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 4. We, The Citizens: Strengthening the Indian Republic -- Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane. 5. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane and Khyati Pathak's podcast (co-hosted with Saurabh Chandra). 6. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's newsletter. 7. Missing In Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley. 8. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Raghu S Jaitley). 9. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Semiconductor Wars -- Episode 358 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Abhiram Manchi). 11. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 12. Protectionism -- Episode 59 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Anupam Manur). 13. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Toan Truong's Twitter thread on learning how to learn. 15. Harvard's CS50 course. 16. A Bushel is equal to "2 kennings, 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons." 17. A trade deficit with a babysitter (2005) — Tim Harford. 18. 1984 -- George Orwell. 19. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel. 20. There's no speed limit -- Derek Sivers. 21. A Deep Dive Into the Indian Military -- Episode 31 of Everything is Everything. 22. A Deep Dive Into Ukraine vs Russia — Episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 23. The State of the Ukraine War -- Episode 14 of Everything is Everything. 24. The Economics of Arms -- Keith Hartley. 25. The Indian Armed Forces — Episode 175 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 26. India in the Nuclear Age — Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 27. Guns vs Butter. 28. This Passing Moment -- Amit Varma on Opportunity Cost. 29. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 30. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration -- Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith. 31. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 32. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 33. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 34. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 35. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 36. The Overton Window. 37. Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box -- Episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face -- Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Radical Markets -- Eric Posner and E Glen Weyl. 40. Karejwa -- Varun Grover, Ankit Kapoor and Sumit Kumar. 41. Parsai -- Mansi Sharma and Sumit Kumar. 42. So Below -- Sam Wallman. 43. Manjula Padmanabhan is a Forever Outsider -- Episode 372 of The Seen and the Unseen. 44. Irfan, the Keeper of Memories -- Episode 368 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 47. When Should the State Act? -- Episode 26 of Everything is Everything. 48. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi -- Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 51. भारतीय भाषाओँ में हमारे अतीत के सुराग़ -- Episode 106 of Puliyabaazi (w Peggy Mohan). 52. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 53. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 54. We, The Citizens: A Review -- Ashish Kulkarni. 55. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham. 56. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 57. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 58. Anupam Manur's piece on water pricing in Bangalore. 59. The Great Redistribution (2015) — Amit Varma. 60. Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist — Bruce Yandle. 61. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma). 62. We the Living -- Ayn Rand. 63. so you want to be a writer? -- Charles Bukowski. 64. Vijay Kelkar's legendary CD Deshmukh Lecture. 65. In Service of the Republic: The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 66. Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and Succeed? -- Devesh Kapur. 67. Milton Friedman on India. 68. The Dalit Emancipation Manifesto of 1951 — Babasaheb Ambedkar. 69. How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time -- Hal Varian. 70. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 71. We Want More FSI -- Episode 11 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok). 72. Defending the Undefendable -- Walter Block. 73. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 74. Free To Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 75. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 76. Milton Friedman Speaks -- Collected speeches in a YouTube playlist. 77. The Economist. 78. Free Trade under Fire -- Douglas Irwin. 79. The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye -- Sonny Liew. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'The Artist' by Simahina.
Mon, 25 Mar 2024 - 4h 06min - 375 - Ep 373: Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face
He's an entrepreneur who thinks deeply about the world, and some of his ideas could make your brain explode. Deepak VS joins Amit Varma in episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his thoughts on entrepreneurship, education, morality, life and the old hag who sits on your chest. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Deepak VS at Twitter, LinkedIn and his own website. 2. Tilt. 3. Everything flows: Looking back on six years of Tilt -- Deepak VS. 4.Deepak VS on why incubators are broken. 5. Y Combinator. 6. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 7. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel. 8. 4chan. 9. Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance -- Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck. 10. Nomsita MS Haritashya on Instagram. 11. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 12. Tim Minchin on Wikipedia, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and his own website. 13. In a Silent Way — Episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gaurav Chintamani). 14. Gaurav Chintamani on Instagram.. 15. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin -- Episode 405 of the Lex Fridman Podcast. 17. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything. 18. Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking on Amazon. 19. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward — Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel. 21. Angad Daryani at Praan, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.. 22. Ship of Theseus. 23. Dangerous Dave. 24. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Ludwig Wittgenstein. 26. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges. 27. Anatomy of a Folly -- Amit Varma. 28. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 29. The Expanding Circle — Peter Singer. 30. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil — Hannah Arendt. 31. The Ethics of Vegetarianism -- An interview with Peter Singer where he talks about oysters. 32. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Essays — Paul Graham. 34. Free Will -- Sam Harris. 35. Determined: Life Without Free Will -- Robert Sapolsky. 36. Behave -- Robert Saponsky. 37. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas -- Ursula K LeGuin. 38. The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant — Nick Bostrom. 39. Vitalik Buterin Fights the Dragon-Tyrant — Episode 342 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. Pour Some Sugar on Me -- Amit Varma. 41. The Last Lecture -- Randy Pausch. 42. Poker and Life -- Episode 38 of Everything is Everything. 43. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen.. 44. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen featuring Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 45. Lucid Dreaming. 46. Sleep Paralysis. 47. The Night Hag. 48. Devangshu Datta Traded His Corduroy Pants — Episode 348 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 50. House of the Dead -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 51. Titus Andronicus -- William Shakespeare. 52. Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track -- Richard Feynman. 53. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 54. Quichotte -- Salman Rushdie. 55. We -- Yevgeny Zamyatin. 56. PG Wodehouse on Amazon and Wikipedia. 57. Storm -- Tim Minchin. 58. The Egg -- Andy Weir. 59. Lifespan -- David Sinclair. 60. Ash Jogalekar's tweet on Chandrasekhar, Fermi and von Neumann. 61. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 62. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity -- Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Chal Hut' by Simahina.
Mon, 18 Mar 2024 - 3h 47min - 374 - Ep 372: Manjula Padmanabhan is a Forever Outsider
She's a comic-strip artist, a playwright, a science fiction author -- a creator who doesn't fit into any box. Manjula Padmanabhan joins Amit Varma in episode 372 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life and learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Manjula Padmanabhan on.Amazon, Wikipedia, Instagram, Substack and her own website. 2. Getting There -- Manjula Padmanabhan. 3. Harvest -- Manula Padmanabhan. 4. Escape -- Manjula Padmanabhan. 5. The Island Of Lost Girls -- Manjula Padmanabhan. 6. Blood and Laughter: Plays -- Manjula Padmanabhan. 7. Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities -- Manjula Padmanabhan. 8. My Friend Sancho -- Amit Varma. 9. Why We Sleep -- Matthew Walker. 10. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Looking-Glass Self. 12. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Escape With Manjula Padmanabhan (2008) -- Amit Varma. 14. Comedy Vs Mortality -- Amit Varma. 15. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains — Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. How Not To Boil An Egg -- MFK Fisher. 17. Journey To Ixtlan -- Carlos Castaneda. 18. Anton Chekhov on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon. 19. The classic Derek Guy tweet.. 20. Make Me a Canteen for My Soul — Episode 304 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage). 21. Deham -- Govind Nihalani. 22. Watchmen -- Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. 23. Amartya Ghosh on Spotify. 24. Declutter -- Episode 30 of Everything is Everything. 25. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams. 26. Ursula K Le Guin, Ken Liu and Ted Chiang on Amazon. 27. Blue Apron. 28. Penelope Fitzgerald on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon. 29. Wordle and Words With Friends. 30. The House of Doors -- Tan Twan Eng. 31. The Gift of Rain -- Tan Twan Eng. 32. Fire On The Ganges -- Radhika Iyengar. 33. Amarcord -- Federico Fellini. 34. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 35. The Obscure Object of Desire -- Luis Buñuel. 36. All That Jazz -- Bob Fosse. 37. Star Wars -- George Lucas. 38. Popcorn Essayists: What Movies Do to Writers -- Edited by Jai Arjun Singh. 39. The 400 Blows -- François Truffaut. 40. The Magus -- John Fowles. 41. Through the Looking-Glass -- Lewis Carroll. 42. The Beatles and Pink Floyd on Spotify. 43. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie -- Luis Buñuel. 44. The Phantom of Liberty -- Luis Buñuel. 45. Jean-Claude Carrière on Wikipedia and IMDb. 46. The Mahabharata -- Peter Brook. 47. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Philip Kaufman. 48. I Vitelloni -- Federico Fellini. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Outsider' by Simahina.
Mon, 11 Mar 2024 - 5h 42min - 373 - Ep 371: Ram Guha Writes a Letter to a Friend
His latest book looks back at a friendship -- and at a world gone by. Ramachandra Guha joins Amit Varma in episode 371 of The Seen and the Unseen to shoot the breeze and share some memories. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ramachandra Guha on Amazon, Twitter and his own website. 2. The Cooking of Books: A Literary Memoir -- Ramachandra Guha. 3. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game — Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 5. Taking Stock of Our Republic — Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 6. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 7. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 8. Savaging the Civilized: Verrier Elwin, His Tribals and India -- Ramachandra Guha. 9. Gandhi before India -- Ramachandra Guha. 10. Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World -- Ramachandra Guha. 11. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 12. Environmentalism: A Global History -- Ramachandra Guha. 13. A Corner of a Foreign Field -- Ramachandra Guha. 14. The New India Foundation. 15. Stet: An Editor's Life -- Diana Athill. 16. Of Gifted Voice: The Life and Art of MS Subbulakshmi — Keshav Desiraju. 17. Dunbar's number. 18. How Many Friends Does One Person Need? -- Robin Dunbar. 19. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 20. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 21. Trapped Inside the Infinite Scroll -- Amit Varma. 22. India vs West Indies, 1st Test, Bengaluru, November 22 - 27, 1974. 23. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 26. Pundits from Pakistan -- Rahul Bhattacharya. 27. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 28. Where Are The Conservative Intellectuals in India (2015) -- Ramachandra Guha. 29. Beethoven Among the Cows -- Rukun Advani. 30. Sharafat Hussain Khan, Latafat Hussain Khan, Lalith Rao, Radhika Mohan Maitra and Buddhadev Das Gupta. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Letter' by Simahina.
Mon, 04 Mar 2024 - 2h 00min - 372 - Ep 370: Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box
So what if he is an academic? He is also an an original thinker with deep insights about education, elections, colonisation, politics, history, society. Yugank Goyal joins Amit Varma in episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen to throw thought-bomb after thought-bomb at all of us. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:
1. Yugank Goyal on Twitter, LinkedIn, EPW, Flame University and Google Scholar. 2. Who Moved My Vote? -- Yugank Goyal and Arun Kumar Kaushik. 3. Documenting India: The Centre for Knowledge Alternatives. 4. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 5. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube. 6. Harvard's CS50 course. 7. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 8. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 9. The Superiority of Economists -- Marion Fourcade, Etienne Ollion and Yann Algan. 10. Publish and Perish — Agnes Callard. 11. The Long Divergence — Timur Kuran. 12. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity — Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Premchand on Amazon and Wikipedia. 15. Dead Poet's Society -- Peter Weir. 16. Maithili Sharan Gupt and Jaishankar Prasad. 17. Kafan -- Premchand. 18. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 19. Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? — AK Ramanujan. 20. The Intimate Enemy -- Ashis Nandy. 21. The Colonial Constitution — Arghya Sengupta. 22. Arghya Sengupta and the Engine Room of Law -- Episode 366 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. The History of British India -- James Mill. 24. SN Balagangadhara (aka Balu) on Amazon and Wikipedia. 25. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 26. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 27. Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen. 28. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains -- Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The UNIX Episode -- Episode 32 of Everything is Everything. 30. The Evolution of Everything -- Matt Ridley. 31. The Evolution of Everything -- Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 32. The Evolution of Cooperation -- Robert Axelrod. 33. Kantara -- Rishab Shetty. 34. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 35. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 36. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 37. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. The People of India -- Herbert Risley. 39. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. Gangs of Wasseypur -- Anurag Kashyap. 41. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 42. Laws Against Victimless Crimes Should Be Scrapped — Amit Varma. 43. Intimate City — Manjima Bhattacharjya. 44. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist — Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 46. Politics — A limerick by Amit Varma. 47. India's Far From Free Markets (2005) — Amit Varma in the Wall Street Journal. 48. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham. 49. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 50. Ramayana, the 1987 serial, on Wikipedia and YouTube. 51. 300 Ramayanas — AK Ramanujan. 52. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 54. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 55. Cycle -- Prakash Kumte. 56. Mulshi Pattern -- Pravin Tarde. 57. The Heathen in His Blindness -- SN Balagangadhara. Amit's newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Look Inside the Box' by Simahina.Mon, 26 Feb 2024 - 4h 34min - 371 - Ep 369: The Life and Times of Ira Pande
She's a writer. She's a translator. She's as old as this Republic, and she knows it well. Ira Pande joins Amit Varma in episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life and her learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ira Pande on Amazon, Goodreads and The Tribune.. 2. Diddi: My Mother's Voice -- Ira Pande. 3. Amader Shantiniketan -- Shivani (translated by Ira Pande). 4. Dhano Dhanne — Jaya Varma and the Chandigarh Choir. 5. Pitch Perfect -- Ira Pande's obituary of Jaya Varma. 6. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi -- Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Old world nationalism -- Ira Pande. 11. Buniyaad on Wikipedia, IMDb and YouTube. 12. Do Bigha Zameen -- Bimal Roy. 13. Ganga Jamuna -- Nitin Bose. 14. Awaara and Shree 420 -- Raj Kapoor. 15. Nehru's Hero: Dilip Kumar In The Life Of India -- Meghnad Desai. 16. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 17. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 18. The Other Side of Silence — Urvashi Butalia. 19. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Tamas -- Bhisham Sahni. 21. Tamas -- Govind Nihalani. 22. The Secret City -- Robin Gupta. 23. Secret city and more -- Ira Pande. 24. Apradhi Kaun -- Shivani. 25. Apradhini - Women Without Men -- Shivani (translated by Ira Pande). 26. T'ta Professor -- Manohar Shyam Joshi (translated by Ira Pande). 27. कसप -- मनोहरश्याम जोशी 28. The Matunga Racket -- Amit Varma. 29. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma. 30. The Secret Diary Of Kasturba -- Neelima Dalmia Adhar. 31. Father Dearest -- Neelima Dalmia Adhar. 32..Remain in Me -- Peter Cat Recording Co. 33. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee). 34. A Life Apart -- Prabha Khaitan (translated by Ira Pande). 35. Ira Pande on Chetan Bhagat. 36. Akshaya Mukul and the Life of Agyeya — Episode 324 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Stage.in. 39. Try living in the slow lane -- Ira Pande. 40. A Room of One's Own -- Virginia Woolf. 41. Raw Umber -- Sara Rai. 43. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya -- Akshaya Mukul. 44. Here And Hereafter: Nirmal Verma's Life in Literature -- Vineet Gill. 45. Biyaban Me -- Sara Rai. 46. Nabeela Aur Anya Kahaniyan -- Sara Rai. 47. Lapoojhanna -- Ashok Pande. 48. One Foot on the Ground — Shanta Gokhale. 49. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ''She Writes" by Simahina.
Mon, 19 Feb 2024 - 3h 11min - 370 - Ep 368: Irfan, the Keeper of Memories
He's a master of the longform conversation, a connoisseur of the past, a man steeped in culture. Syed Mohd Irfan joins Amit Varma in episode 368 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his times, his learnings -- and Guftagoo! (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Syed Mohd Irfan on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,LinkedIn and YouTube. 2. Guftagoo with Irfan. 3. Guftagoo at Sansad TV. 4. Guftagoo at Rekhta. 5. Interviewing as a tool of archiving of knowledge and memories -- TEDx talk by Syed Mohd Irfan. 6. Preserving Moments: The Significance of Audio-Visual Records -- TEDx talk by Syed Mohd Irfan. 7. Irfan on Memorywala. 8. Irfan interviewed by UnReported India. 9.Ek Mulakaat with Senior Journalist Mr Syed Mohd Irfan. 10. Do Ankhen Barah Haath -- V Shantaram. 11. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza. 13. Hind Pocket Books. 14. Bhagat Singh, Dhoomil, Krishan Chander, Amrita Pritam, Shivani and Vivekananda. 15. The Story of My Experiments with Truth -- Mohandas Gandhi. 16. Ankur -- Shyam Benegal. 17. Aakrosh -- Govind Nihalani. 18. Premchand on Amazon and Wikipedia. 19. Pita -- Govind Nihalani. 20. Stage Whisper -- Vimal Bhagat. 21. Walk on the Wild Side -- Lou Reed. 22. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains -- Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Father Returning Home — Dilip Chitre. 24. Guftagoo with Raghuvir Yadav. 25. Guftagoo with Gulzar. 26. Guftagoo with Dr Guri. 27. Guftagoo with Imtiaz Ali. 28. Guftagoo with Jaideep Ahlawat. 29. Guftagoo with Ram Gopal Bajaj. 30. Guftagoo with Mohan Agashe. 31. Guftagoo with Jackie Shroff. 32. Jackie Shroff talks about his mom in Guftagoo. 33. Guftagii with Danish Husain. 34. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. कविवर -- सुरजीत पातर. 36. Irfan's Instagram post on magazines like Madhuri.. 37. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 39. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 39. Kashi ka Assi -- Kashinath Singh. 41. Sone ki Chidiya -- Shaheed Latif. 42. Caste, Gender, Karnatik Music -- Episode 162 of The Seen and the Unseen (w TM Krishna).. 43. Kumar Gandharva on Spotify. 44. Dhanraj Bhagat, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Balraj Sahni and Ritwik Ghatak. 45. Meghe Dhaka Tara -- Ritwik Ghatak. 46. अपनी खबर -- पांडेय बेचन शर्मा 'उग्र' 47. Pedagogy of the Oppressed -- Paulo Freire. 48. A Pedagogue's Romance -- Krishna Kumar. 49. Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen and Mani Kaul. You can write to Irfan at Irfan.rstv@gmail.com. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'The Keeper of Memories' by Simahina.
Mon, 12 Feb 2024 - 4h 31min - 369 - Ep 367: Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi
Delhi has had a mad history -- and that history has shaped our culture, our art, our languages, our society. Swapna Liddle joins Amit Varma in episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen to take us on a walk through space and time. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:1. Swapna Liddle on Facebook, Instagram, Wikipedia and Amazon.. 2. The Broken Script -- Swapna Liddle. 3. Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of Old Delhi -- Swapna Liddle. 4. 14 Historic Walks of Delhi -- Swapna Liddle. 5. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. . 6. Dorothy L Sayers & Agatha Christie on Amazon. 7. The Englishman's Cameo -- Madhulika Liddle. 8. The Golden Age of Murder -- Martin Edwards. 9. ye na thi hamari qismat ki visal-e-yar hota -- Mirza Ghalid. 10. ye masail-e-tasawwuf ye tera bayan ghaalib -- Mirza Ghalib. 11. Use kaun dekh saktaa hai -- Mirza Ghalib. 12. Charlotte's Web -- EB White. 13. Physics for Entertainment -- Yakov Perelman. 14. The Adventures of Dennis -- Viktor Dragunsky. 15. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 16. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 17. Rani Ketki Ki Kahaani -- Insha Allah Khan Insha. 18. Rekhta. 19. When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink? -- Jeanne Maglaty. 20. The Thugs Or Phansigars of India -- William Henry Sleeman. 21. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee). 22. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 23. Delhi Between Two Empires, 1803-1931 -- Narayani Gupta. 24. Percival Spear on Wikipedia and Amazon. 25. Old Delhi: 10 Easy Walks -- Gaynor Barton and Laurraine Malone. 26. The Financial foundations of the British Raj -- Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 27. Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain -- Episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Women in Indian History — Episode 144 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 29. Jahangir the Curious — Episode 147 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Parvati Sharma). 30. Public Opinion — Walter Lippman. 31. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 32. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Rakhshanda Jalil Watches the Changing World -- Episode 365 of The Seen and the Unseen. 34. The 'Delhi Renaissance: Indigenous roots of colonial modernity -- A talk by Swapna Liddle. 35. Dadabhai Naoroji and the Fight for India — Episode 187 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Dinyar Patel). 36. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 37. The Many Cities of Delhi — Episode 172 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rana Safvi). 38. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'Shahjahanabad' by Simahina.
Mon, 05 Feb 2024 - 4h 06min - 368 - Ep 366: Arghya Sengupta and the Engine Room of Law
He's been an important force in shaping legal policy over the last decade. He's written an essential book on our constitution. He's worked closely with government -- but done so with a sense of public purpose. Arghya Sengupta joins Amit Varma in episode 366 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his work and his learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Arghya Sengupta on Twitter, LinkedIn, Times of India and Vidhi Center for Legal Policy. 2. The Colonial Constitution -- Arghya Sengupta. 3. Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. 4. Insiders and Outsiders -- Amit Varma. 5. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 6. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 7. Murali Neelakantan Looks at the World -- Episode 329 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol -- Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Apar Gupta Fights the Good Fight -- Episode 353 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan -- Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State -- Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The Right to Property -- Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 13. Shruti Rajagopalan on our constitutional amendments. 14. 'कोस-कोस पर बदले पानी, चार कोस पर वाणी।' 15. Devangshu Datta Traded His Corduroy Pants -- Episode 348 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Ao. 17. Enid Blyton, Five Find-Outers, The Famous Five, Billy Bunter, Just William, Hardy Boys, Three Investigators and Jeffrey Archer. 18. Kane and Abel -- Jeffrey Archer. 19. Bimbo -- Jim Reeves. 20. Chandril Bhattacharya interviewed at Kolkata Literary Meet 2016. (Listen to him 5:40 onwards). 21. Chandrabindoo on Spotify and YouTube. 22. Rabindra Sangeet. 23. The Complete Adventures of Feluda — Satyajit Ray. 24. Chander Pahar (Bengali) -- Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. 25. Sonar Kella -- Satyajit Ray. 26. Donoghue v Stevenson. 27. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Ludwig Wittgenstein. 28. Law, Legislation and Liberty -- Friedrich Hayek.
29. Nationalist Thought in a Colonial World -- Partha Chatterjee. 30. The Truth Pill -- Dinesh Thakur and Prashant Reddy. 31. Taxi No 9211 -- Milan Luthria. 32. Kashmir and Article 370 — Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 33. The Overton Window. 34. From Addict to Convict -- Neha Singhal, Arpita Mitra and Kaushiki Sanyal. (Scroll down on the page for Punjabi version.) 35. Punjab's drug menace: Secrecy renders women substance abusers 'invisible' -- Neha Singhal & Sumathi Chandrashekaran. 36. End of Life Care in India: A Model Legal Framework 2.0 -- Dhvani Mehta and Akshat Agarwal. 37. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 39. Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. 40. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma. 42. The Federalist Papers — Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. 43. Marching For Salt (2015) -- Amit Varma. 44. Two Concepts of Liberty -- Isaiah Berlin. 45. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 46. Sandipto Dasgupta on the Anxious Administrator. 47. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 48. Hind Swaraj — MK Gandhi. 49. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 50. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 51. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back -- Subhashish Bhadra. 52. Of Gods and Men -- Xavier Beauvois. 53. Devi -- Satyajit Ray. 54. Jalsaghar -- Satyajit Ray. 55. Advaita on YouTube Music, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and Twitter. 56. Junoon and Coke Studio Pakistan. 57. Now and Then -- The Beatles. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ''The Engine Room of Law" by Simahina.Mon, 29 Jan 2024 - 3h 43min - 367 - Ep 365: Rakhshanda Jalil Watches the Changing World
You could think of her as someone who tries to preserve a fading world -- or to chronicle a changing one. Rakhshanda Jalil joins Amit Varma in episode 365 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about literature, language and loss. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rakhshanda Jalil on Twitter, Wikipedia, The Wire, Scroll and Amazon. 2. But You Don't Look Like a Muslim -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 3. Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of Delhi -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 4. Urdu: The Best Stories of Our Times -- Edited & translated by Rakhshanda Jalil. 5. Liking Progress, Loving Change -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 6. Preeto and Other Stories: The Male Gaze in Urdu -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 7. A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 8. Shahryar: A Life in Poetry -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 9. Release and Other Stories -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 10. The Temple and The Mosque -- Premchand (translated by Rakhshanda Jalil). 11. Fear, Depression in Indian Muslims Is Palpable Even Among Those Who Are 'Privileged' -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 12. In New India, a Muslim Rose Smells Different From a Hindu Rose -- Rakhshanda Jalil. 13. Aaliya Waziri's essay about her mother Rakhshanda Jalil. 14. Being Muslim in India — Episode 216 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ghazala Wahab). 15. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Many Cities of Delhi — Episode 172 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rana Safvi). 17. The Age of Average -- Alex Murrell. 18. Order Without Design -- Alain Bertaud. 19. Asar–us–Sanadid -- Syed Ahmed Khan. 20. Basu Da's Bombay. 21. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Stage.in. 24. Yogendra Yadav on why he was named Salim. 25. The Elephant in the Room -- Kay Ryan. 26. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 27. Malevolent Republic -- Kapil Komireddi. 28. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee). 29. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 30. Khwaab Baaki Hai -- Ale Ahmad Suroor. 31. Uneasy Lies the Head -- Mayank Austen Soofi. 32. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 33. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 34. Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein -- Song from Hum Hindustani. 35. Tu Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega -- Song from Dhool Ka Phool, with lyrics by Sahir Ludhainvi. 36. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 37. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 38. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 40. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? — Devika Kher. 41. Here's What's Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act — Suman Joshi. 42. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 43. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 44. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 45. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 46. Ibn-e Safi on Amazon. 47. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity — Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. Personal Libraries -- Rakhshanda Jalil's book collection. 49. Charles Dickens, Mills and Boon, Georgette Heyer, Barbara Cartland, Jean-Paul Sartre, James Hadley Chase, Northrop Frye and TS Eliot. 50. Exile and the Kingdom -- Albert Camus. 51. Waiting for Godot -- Samuel Beckett. 52. The Art of Translation — Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 53. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 54. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains -- Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. Raw Umber : A Memoir -- Sara Rai. 58. The Death of Sheherzad -- Initizar Husain (translated by Rakhshanda Jalil). 59. Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 60. Drown -- Junot Diaz. 61. Mehroom -- Raman Negi. 62. Hindi Nationalism -- Alok Rai. 63. Saare Jahaan Se Achha -- Rakesh Sharma speaks to Indira Gandhi. 64. Premchand on Amazon and Wikipedia. 65. The Nature and Purpose of Literature -- Premchand's presidential address at the First All India Progressive Writers' Conference, 1936. 66. The Progressive Writer's Movement. 67. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh. 68. Patrice Lumumba. 69. Testaments Betrayed -- Milan Kundera. 70. Hum Jo Tarik Rahon Mein Mare Gae -- Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 71. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 72. Aag Ka Dariya (River of Fire) -- Qurratulain Hyder. 73. Rahman Abbas on Amazon, Wikipedia and Twitter. 74. Tambih -- Shahryar. 75. Bol -- Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 76. Hum Dekhenge -- Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 77. Hum Dekhenge -- Faiz. 78. Krishan Chander, Qurratulain Hyder and Ismat Chugtai. 79. Rekhta. 80. The Paradise of Food -- Khalid Jawed (translated by Baran Farooqi). 81. Sturgeon's Law. 82. Imposter Syndrome. 83. 'How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives' -- Amit Varma. 84. Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen. 85. Mirza Ghalib on Rekhta. 86. Faiz Ahmad Faiz on Rekhta. 87. Mujhse Pahli Si Mohabbat Meri Mahbub Na Maang -- Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 88. Hindostan Hamara -- Edited by Jan Nisar Akhtar. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'Change' by Simahina.
Mon, 22 Jan 2024 - 4h 22min - 366 - Ep 364: Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain
Writing helps you find yourself, and shape yourself. Nothing illustrates this better than the life & work of our guest today. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen to continue his journaling in the form of this conversation. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar and his own website.. 2. The Yellow Book: A Traveller's Diary -- Amitava Kumar. 3. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal — Amitava Kumar.. 4. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. 6. The White Lioness -- Henning Mankell. 7. The Snow in Ghana -- Ryszard Kapuściński. 8. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza. 11. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept -- Elizabeth Smart. 13. Open City -- Teju Cole. 14. Intimacies -- Katie Kitamura. 15. Bradford -- Hanif Kureishi. 16. Maximum City -- Suketu Mehta. 17. The Lonely Londoners -- Sam Selvon. 18. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Bear Came Over the Mountain -- Alice Munro. 20. The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron. 21. Vinod Kumar Shukla on Wikipedia and Amazon. 22. Waiting for the Barbarians -- JM Coetzee. 23. Paris, Texas -- Wim Wenders. 24. Janet Malcolm, Susan Sontag and Joan Didion on Amazon. 25. Iphigenia in Forest Hills -- Janet Malcolm. 26. Butter Chicken in Ludhiana -- Pankaj Mishra. 27. Hermit in Paris -- Italo Calvino. 28. In the Waiting Room -- Elizabeth Bishop. 29. Abandon the Old in Tokyo -- Yoshihiro Tatsumi. 30 The Push Man and Other Stories -- Yoshihiro Tatsumi. 31. Why I Write -- George Orwell. 32. Tum Na Jaane Kis Jahaan Mein Kho Gaye -- Lata Mangeshkar song from Sazaa. 33. Monsoon Wedding -- Directed by Mira Nair, written by Sabrina Dhawan. 34. Ranjish Hi Sahi -- Mehdi Hassan. 35. Ranjish Hi Sahi -- Ali Sethi. 36. Saaranga Teri Yaad Mein -- Mukesh song from Saranga. 37. Mohabbat Kar Lo Jee Bhar Lo -- Song from Aar Paar. 38. Mera Dil Ye Pukare, Aaja -- Lata Mangeshkar song from Nagin. 39. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains -- Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars -- Kunal Purohit. 41. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche -- Haruki Murakami. 42. UP Girl Challenges CM Yogi To Arrest Her Over Oxygen Shortage -- Mojo Story. 43. Too Many Hurried Goodbyes -- Amitava Kumar. 44. Ways of Seeing -- John Berger. 45. Wheatfield with Crows -- Vincent van Gogh. 46. The Wind -- Warren Zevon. 47. El Amor de Mi Vida -- Warren Zevon. 48. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. My Friend Sancho -- Amit Varma. 50. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma's column on poker for The Economic Times. 51. Why I Loved and Left Poker -- Amit Varma. 52. That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen — Frédéric Bastiat. 53. The Bastiat Prize. 54. Kashmir and Article 370 — Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 55. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 56. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 59. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 60. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 61. Listen, The Internet Has SPACE -- Amit Varma. 62. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 63. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman. 64. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 65. Human -- Michael Gazzaniga. 66. The Undoing Project -- Michael Lewis. 67. The podcasts of Russ Roberts, Sam Harris and Tyler Cowen. 68. Roam Research: A note-taking too for networked thought. 69. The Greatest Productivity Mantra: Kaator Re Bhaaji! -- Episode 11 of Everything is Everything. 70. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life -- Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen. 71. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 72. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window -- Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 73. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 74. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 75. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 76. Pandemonium in India's Banks — Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay). 77. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Abhinandan Sekhri). 78. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature — Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 79. Crossing Over With Deepak Shenoy — Episode 271 of The Seen and the Unseen. 80. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 81. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 82. Brave New World -- Hosted by Vasant Dhar. 83. Among the Believers -- VS Naipaul. 84. Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle ka Naata Koi -- Soham Chatterjee sings for his dying mother. 85. Eric Weinstein Won't Toe the Line — Episode 330 of The Seen and the Unseen. 86. Aakash Singh Rathore, the Ironman Philosopher -- Episode 340 of The Seen and the Unseen. 87. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil -- Hannah Arendt. 88. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 89. Particulate Matter -- Amitava Kumar. 90. A Seventh Man -- John Berger. 91. Khushwant Singh and Ved Mehta on Amazon. 92. Disgrace -- JM Coetzee. 93. Elizabeth Costello -- JM Coetzee. 94. Penelope Fitzgerald, VS Naipaul and Ashis Nandy on Amazon. 95. A House for Mr Biswas -- VS Naipaul. 96. Sabbath's Theater -- Philip Roth. 97. Finding the Centre -- VS Naipaul. 98. Dinesh Thakur, not Dinesh Thakur. 99. Rajnigandha -- Basu Chatterjee. 100. Rules of Writing -- Amitava Kumar. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'The Storm Is Inside Me' by Simahina.
Mon, 15 Jan 2024 - 3h 10min - 365 - Ep 363: Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains
He's a poet, art critic, curator, translator, cultural theorist -- and someone who helps make sense of our world. Ranjit Hoskote joins Amit Varma in episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his times and his work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ranjit Hoskote on Twitter, Instagram and Amazon. 2. Jonahwhale-- Ranjit Hoskote. 3. Hunchprose -- Ranjit Hoskote. 4. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Translated by Ranjit Hoskote. 5. Poet's nightmare -- Ranjit Hoskote. 6. State of enrichment -- Ranjit Hoskote. 7. Nissim Ezekiel, AK Ramanujan, Arun Kolatkar, Keki Daruwalla, Dom Moraes, Dilip Chitre, Gieve Patel, Vilas Sarang, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Agha Shahid Ali, Mani Rao, Mustansir Dalvi, Jerry Pinto, Sampurna Chattarji, Vivek Narayanan and Arundhathi Subramaniam. 8. Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Hill, Seamus Heaney, Sharon Olds, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham and Rita Dove. 9. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. कुँवर नारायण, केदारनाथ सिंह, अशोक वाजपेयी and नागार्जुन. 12. Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Bismillah Khan, Igor Straviksky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Steve Reich and Terry Riley. 13. Palgrave's Golden Treasury: From Shakespeare to the Present. 14. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 15. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Art of Translation — Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 17. Arun Khopkar, Mani Kaul and Clement Greenberg. 18. Stalker -- Andrei Tarkovsky. 19. The Sacrifice -- Andrei Tarkovsky. 20. Ivan's Childhood -- Andrei Tarkovsky. 21. The Color of Pomegranates -- Sergei Parajanov. 22. Ranjit Hoskote's tribute on Instagram to Gieve Patel. 23. Father Returning Home -- Dilip Chitre. 24. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 25. Modern Poetry in Translation -- Magazine and publisher founded by Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort. 26. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges. 27. How Music Works — David Byrne. 28. CBGB. 29. New York -- Lou Reed. 30. How This Nobel Has Redefined Literature — Amit Varma on Dylan winning the Nobel Prize. 31. The Fire and the Rain -- Girish Karnad. 32. Vanraj Bhatia on Wikipedia and IMDb. 33. Amit Varma's tweet thread on Jonahwhale. 34. Magic Fruit: A Poetic Trip -- Vaishnav Vyas. 35. Glenn Gould on Spotify. 36. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture -- Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Steven Fowler. 38. Serious Noticing -- James Wood. 39. How Fiction Works -- James Wood. 40. The Spirit of Indian Painting -- BN Goswamy. 41. Conversations -- BN Goswamy. 42. BN Goswamy on Wikipedia and Amazon. 43. BN Goswamy (1933-2023): Sage and Sensitivity -- Ranjit Hoskote. 44. Joseph Fasano's thread on his writing exercises. 45. Narayan Surve on Wikipedia and Amazon. 46. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 47. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 48. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 49. Future Shock -- Alvin Toffler. 50. The Third Wave -- Alvin Toffler. 51. The Long Tail -- Chris Anderson. 52. Ranjit Hoskote's resignation letter from the panel of Documenta. 53. Liquid Modernity -- Zygmunt Bauman. 54. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol -- Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. Panopticon. 56. Tron -- Steven Lisberger. 57. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 58. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 59. Ramchandra Gandhi on Wikipedia and Amazon. 60. Majma-ul-Bahrain (also known as Samudra Sangam Grantha) -- Dara Shikoh. 61. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 62. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 63. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 64. पुराण स्थल. 65. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 66. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 67. The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society -- Richard Lannoy. 68. Clifford Geertz, John Berger and Arthur C Danto. 69. The Ascent of Man (book) (series) -- Jacob Bronowski. 70. Civilization (book) (series) -- Kenneth Clark. 71. Cosmos (book) (series) -- Carl Sagan. 72. Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks. 73. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla.. 74. Raag Darbari on Storytel. 75. Krishnamurti's Notebook -- J Krishnamurty. 76. Shame -- Salman Rushdie. 77. Marcovaldo -- Italo Calvino. 78. Metropolis -- Fritz Lang. 79. Mahanagar -- Satyajit Ray. 80. A Momentary Lapse of Reason -- Pink Floyd. 81. Learning to Fly -- Pink Floyd, 82. Collected poems -- Mark Strand. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'Dancing in Chains' by Simahina.
Mon, 08 Jan 2024 - 4h 01min - 364 - Ep 362: You're Ugly and You're Hairy and You're Covered in Shit but You're Mine and I Love You
What is the difference between ch*tiya and dusht? Why are vegetarians evil? Why do Indians do the best bench pressing? Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy join Amit Varma in episode 362 of The Seen and the Unseen for the most fun conversation ever. Really, ever. We got it certified. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Krish Ashok on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, his own website and Spotify/Apple Music/Soundcloud. 2. Naren Shenoy on Twitter, Instagram and Blogspot. 3. We Are All Amits From Africa -- Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. A Scientist in the Kitchen — Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 5. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking — Krish Ashok. 7. We want Narendra Shenoy to write a book. 8. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 9. Kashmir and Article 370 — Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 10. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years — Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 11. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 16. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 17. Narendra Modi on climate change. 18. Yes Minister -- Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 19. Yes Prime Minister -- Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 20. The Overview Effect. 21. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma. 22. Security Check -- Varun Grover. 23. Nothing is Indian! Everything is Indian! -- Episode 12 of Everything is Everything. 24. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe -- Douglas Adams. 25. Arrival — Denis Villeneuve. 26. The Hidden Life of Trees — Peter Wohlleben. 27. Self-Esteem (and a Puddle) — Amit Varma's post with Douglas Adams's puddle quote. 28. Bittu Sahgal on Wikipedia, Instagram, Twitter and Amazon. 29. I Contain Multitudes -- Ed Yong. 30. Song of Myself — Walt Whitman. 31. How I Reversed My Type 2 Diabetes -- Episode 9 of Everything is Everything. 32. Fat Chance -- Robert Lustig on Fructose 2.0. 33. How Sugar & Processed Foods Impact Your Health -- Robert Lustig on The Huberman Lab Podcast. 34. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol -- Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. Privacy 3.0 — Rahul Matthan. 36. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Shruti Jahagirdar's Twitter thread on Bournvita. 38. Shruti Jahagirdar is the Sporty One -- Episode 289 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. Seven Stories That Should Be Films -- Episode 23 of Everything is Everything. 41. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 42. The Walrus and the Carpenter -- Lewis Carroll. 43. There is no Frigate like a Book -- Emily Dickinson. 44. Why I'm Hopeful About Twitter -- Amit Varma. 45. A decontextualized reel of Dr Pal on The Ranveer Show. 46. The Liver Doctor's feisty response to the reel above. 47. The full interview of Dr Pal on The Ranveer Show. 48. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Aakash Singh Rathore, the Ironman Philosopher — Episode 340 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Dunbar's number. 51. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson. 52. Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. 53. The Selfish Gene -- Richard Dawkins. 54. GianChand Whisky. 55. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health — Amit Varma. 56. Homeopathic Faith — Amit Varma. 57. Homeopathy, quackery and fraud — James Randi. 58. Fallacy of Composition. 59. The Secret to a Happy Marriage -- Mike and Joelle. 60. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud -- William Wordsworth. 61. WD 40 on Amazon. 62. Dog Songs -- Mary Oliver. 63. The Evolution of Cooperation -- Robert Axelrod. 64. The Interpreter -- Amit Varma (on Michael Gazzaniga's split-brain experiments). 65. Human -- Michael Gazzaniga. 66. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 67. Minority Report -- Steven Spielberg. 68. Free Will -- Sam Harris. 69. Determined: Life Without Free Will -- Robert Sapolsky. 70. Behave -- Robert Sapolsky. 71. Noise -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein. 72. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley. 73. Cicada -- Shaun Tan. 74. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident — Amit Varma's column on Chris Cornell's death. 75. Are You Just One Version of Yourself? -- Episode 3 of Everything is Everything. 76. Lat Uljhi Suljha Ja Balam -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan performs Raag Bihag. 77. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture -- Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 78. Danish Husain's anecdote about Mahatma Gandhi and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. 79. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life -- Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 80. Arijit Singh on Autotune. 81. How Music Works -- David Byrne. 82. Raga Lalita Gauri -- Mallikarjun Mansur. 83. Raag Lalita Gauri (1947) -- Kesarbai Kerkar. 84. Raga Vibhas -- Mallikarjun Mansur. 85. Mohe Rang Do Laal -- Song from Bajirao Mastani. 86. Raag Basanti Kedar -- Mallikarjun Mansur. 87. Travelling through Pakistan; from Karachi to K2 -- Salman Rashid on The Pakistan Experience, hosted by Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. 88. A rare video of Balasaraswathi dancing while singing Krishna Nee Begane. 89. Krishna Nee Begane Baro -- Madras String Quartet. 90. Albela Sajan -- Hard rock adaptation by Krish Ashok and Vijay Kannan. 91. [Don't Fear] The Reaper -- Blue Oyster Cult. 92. Krish Ashok's Sanskrit version of the song above. 93. Purple Haze -- Jimi Hendrix. 94. All That She Wants — Ace of Base. 95. Caste, Gender, Karnatik Music — Episode 162 of The Seen and the Unseen (w TM Krishna). 96. Brown Eyed Girl -- Van Morrison. 97. Astral Weeks -- Van Morrison. 98. Moondance -- Van Morrison. 99. Episode on Astral Weeks in the podcast, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. 100. In a Silent Way — Episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gaurav Chintamani). 101. Advaita on YouTube Music, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and Twitter. 102. Raman Negi on YouTube Music, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and Twitter. 103. Greta Van Fleet and The Mars Volta on Spotify. 104. Shakti and Indian Ocean on Spotify. 105. Pink Floyd and Kendrick Lamar on Spotify. 106. Analysis of Food Pairing in Regional Cuisines of India -- Anupam Jain, Rakhi NK and Ganesh Bagler. 107. Krish Ashok's reel explaining the above paper. 108. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 109. How to Show, Not Tell: The Complete Writing Guide -- Diane Callahan. 110. We Love Vaccines! We Love Freedom! -- Episode 27 of Everything is Everything. 111. Math Is Better Than the Brigadier's Girlfriend -- Episode 15 of Everything is Everything. 112. Chintaman and I -- Durgabai Deshmukh. 113. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 114. Lady Doctors -- Kavitha Rao. 115. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast talking about one-way doors and two-way doors. 116. It is immoral to have children. Here's why — Amit Varma. 117. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 118. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 119. ChuChuTV. 120. A Deep Dive Into Ukraine vs Russia — Episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 121. The State of the Ukraine War -- Episode 14 of Everything is Everything. 122. King Lear -- William Shakespeare. 123. Churchill: Walking with Destiny -- Andrew Roberts. 124. Churchill and the genocide myth — Zareer Masani. 125. Perplexity. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ''Let's Dance" by Simahina.
Mon, 01 Jan 2024 - 6h 23min - 363 - Ep 361: Pritika Hingorani Wants to Fix Our Cities
Cities are that miraculous technology that bring people together to make us all better, richer, happier. But bad planning, or even too much planning, can turn them into hellholes. Pritika Hingorani joins Amit Varma in episode 361 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her insights on how we should think about cities, how governments do policy, and what economics can bring to urban planning. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pritika Hingorani at Artha Global and Twitter. 2. The Importance of Cities — Episode 108 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Reuben Abraham & Pritika Hingorani). 3. Financing urban infrastructure for an evolving India -- Pritika Hingorani, Sharmadha Srinivasan & Harshita Agrawal. 4. Reforming Urban India -- Pritika Hingorani et al. (Page 14 of this report has the map Pritika mentions in the episode.) 5. India Infrastructure Report: Making Housing Affordable -- Various authors. 6. Bombay: The Cities Within -- Sharada Dwiwedi and Rahul Mehrotra. 7. Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities -- Alain Bertaud. 8. The Death and Life of Great American Cities -- Jane Jacobs. 9. Norwegian Wood -- Haruki Murakami. 10. Absolutely on Music -- Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa. 11. Haruki Murakami and Ryu Murakami on Amazon. 12. Piercing -- Ryu Murakami. 13. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 15. Miniature early episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on FSI and Rent Control with Alex Tabarrok, and Slums with Pavan Srinath. 16. The Mystery of Capital — Hernando De Soto. 17. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Power Broker -- Robert Caro. 19. Urban expansion: theory, evidence and practice -- Shlomo Angel. 20. Atlas of Urban Expansion. 21. Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization -- Justin Marozzi. 22. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 23. The Faltering Escalator of Urban Opportunity -- David Autor. 24. The Shane Parrish tweet on WFH. 25. Securing the Home Market -- Alice Amsden. 26. The Elusive Quest for Growth -- William Easterly. 27. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 28. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 29. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic -- Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 30. Parkinson's Law. 31. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma. 33. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 34. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 35. The Skeptical Environmentalist — Bjorn Lomborg. 36. London 1870-1914: A City at Its Zenith -- Andrew Saint. 37. Modi's Lost Opportunity — ep 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 38. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 39. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma. 41. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 42. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 44. Living London History -- The blog Pritika mentions. 45. Good Bye, Lenin -- Wolfgang Becker. This episode is sponsored by the Pune Public Policy Festival 2024, which takes place on January 19 & 20, 2024. The theme this year is Trade-offs! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'These Are People' by Simahina.
Mon, 25 Dec 2023 - 3h 39min - 362 - Ep 360: Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol
The world is changing fast. Technology can be used to empower us -- and also to hack our brains & our lives. What laws do we need to protect our freedoms? Rahul Matthan joins Amit Varma in episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his work on privacy -- and on a new, subtle approach towards data governance. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rahul Matthan on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Trilegal, Substack and his own website. 2. Privacy 3.0: Unlocking Our Data-Driven Future -- Rahul Matthan. 3. The Third Way: India's Revolutionary Approach to Data Governance -- Rahul Matthan. 4. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan -- Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World -- Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Roam Research. 7. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia. 8. Tana, Obsidian and Notion. 9. Getting Things Done -- David Allen. 10. The Greatest Productivity Mantra: Kaator Re Bhaaji! -- Episode 11 of Everything is Everything. 11. Hallelujah (Spotify) (YouTube) -- Leonard Cohen. 12. Hallelujah (Spotify) (YouTube) -- Jeff Buckley. 13. The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" -- Alan Light. 14. Hallelujah on Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell. 15. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life -- Anne Lamott. 16. The New Basement Tapes. (Also Wikipedia.) 17. Kansas City -- Marcus Mumford. 18. The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial -- Venkatesh Rao. 19. Vitalik Buterin Fights the Dragon-Tyrant — Episode 342 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Paul Graham on Twitter and his own website. (His essays are extraordinary.) 21. Ribbonfarm by Venkatesh Rao. 22. The Network State -- Balaji Srinivasan. 23. Marc Andreessen on Twitter. 24. The Techno-Optimist Manifesto -- Marc Andreessen. 25. Siddhartha Mukherjee and Carlo Rovelli on Amazon. 26. For the Lord (Spotify) (YouTube) -- Rahul Matthan. 27. Predicting the Future -- Rahul Matthan (on Asimov's concept of Psychohistory etc). 28. Gurwinder Bhogal Examines Human Nature — Episode 331 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Looking-Glass Self. 30. Panopticon. 31. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture -- Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. A Scientist in the Kitchen — Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 33. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 34. Nothing is Indian! Everything is Indian! — Episode 12 of Everything is Everything. 35. The Right to Privacy -- Samuel D Warren and Louis D Brandeis. 36. John Locke on Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Wikipedia and Econlib. 37. Build for Tomorrow -- Jason Feifer. 38. Ex Machina -- Alex Garland. 39. Arrival -- Denis Villeneuve. 40. The Great Manure Crisis of 1894 -- Rahul Matthan. 41. Climate Change and Our Power Sector — Episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshay Jaitley and Ajay Shah). 42. The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect -- Judea Pearl. 43. The New World Upon Us — Amit Varma on Alpha Zero. 44. Brave New World -- Vasant Dhar's podcast, produced by Amit Varma. 45. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare -- Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol). 46. The Colonial Constitution -- Arghya Sengupta. 47. Beyond Consent: A New Paradigm for Data Protection -- Rahul Matthan. 48. The Puttaswamy case. 49. Judicial Reforms in India -- Episode 62 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alok Prasanna Kumar.) 50. Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility among India's Professional Elite -- Swethaa S Ballakrishnen. 51. Magic Fruit: A Poetic Trip -- Vaishnav Vyas. 52. Hermanos Gutiérrez and Arc De Soleil on Spotify. 53. The Travelling Salesman Problem. 54. The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet -- Jeff Kosseff. 55. Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace -- Lawrence Lessig. 56. Financial Inclusion and Digital Transformation in India -- Suyash Rai. 57. No Time for False Modesty -- Rahul Matthan. 58. In Service of the Republic: The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 59. Once Upon a Prime -- Sarah Hart. 60. The Greatest Invention -- Silvia Ferrara. 61. Surveillance State -- Josh Chin and Liza Lin. 62. Surveillance Valley -- Yasha Levine. 63. Sex Robots and Vegan Meat -- Jenny Kleeman. 64. How to Take Smart Notes -- Sönke Ahrens. 65. The Creative Act -- Rick Rubin. 66. How to Write One Song -- Jeff Tweedy. 67. Adrian Tchaikovsky and NK Jemisin on Amazon. 68. Snarky Puppy. on Spotify and YouTube. 69. Empire Central -- Snarky Puppy. 70. Polyphia on Spotify and YouTube. 71. The Lazarus Project on Jio Cinema. This episode is sponsored by the Pune Public Policy Festival 2024, which takes place on January 19 & 20, 2024. The theme this year is Trade-offs! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'Protocol' by Simahina.
Mon, 18 Dec 2023 - 5h 11min - 361 - Ep 359: Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture
He is a writer, an actor, a poet, a storyteller, an anti-storyteller -- and he cares about both the world outside and the one inside. Danish Husain joins Amit Varma in episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Danish Husain on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Wikipedia and IMDb. 2. TheHoshrubaRepertory, Qissebaazi and Poetrification. 3. Danish Husain interviewed by Irfan for Jashn-e-Rekhta. 4. The art of storytelling -- Danish Husain interviewed by Purva Naresh. 5. 'Becoming the story when performing it' -- Danish Husain interviewed by Roanna Gonsalves. 6. The 27 Club. 7. Self-Portrait — AK Ramanujan. 8. The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter -- Mark Strand. 9. Collected Poems — Mark Strand. 10. Man's Search For Meaning -- Viktor E Frankl. 11. The Importance of Satya — Episode 241 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Uday Bhatia). 12. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza. 14. Out of Place: A Memoir -- Edward Said. 15. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 17. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 19. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 20. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma. 21. Santosh Desai is Watching You -- Episode 356 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Bombay--London--New York -- Amitava Kumar. 24. Fighting Fake News — Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 25. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He's alive! 26. Life is Elsewhere -- Milan Kundera. 27. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham. 28. Ignaz Semmelweis on Britannica and Wikipedia. 29. India's Tryst With Pandemics -- Episode 205 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 30. Age of Pandemics — Chinmay Tumbe. 31. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh. 32. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 33. Scene: 75 -- Rahi Masoom Raza (translated by Poonam Saxena). 34. Folktales From India — Edited by AK Ramanujan. 35. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 36. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Stage.in. 38. The Age of Average -- Alex Murrell. 39. Nothing is Indian! Everything is Indian! -- Episode 12 of Everything is Everything. 40. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 41. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 42. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 43. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 44. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. 'Indian languages carry the legacy of caste' — Chandra Bhan Prasad interviewed by Sheela Bhatt. 46. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 47. Premchand, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie on Amazon. 48. Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Saul Bellow, Henry Miller and Octavio Paz on Amazon.. 49. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 50. Selected Poems -- Dom Moraes. 51. Theatres of Independence -- Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker. 52. Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chugtai on Amazon. 53. Toba Tek Singh -- Saadat Hasan Manto. 55. How Music Works -- David Byrne. 56.Danish Husain's anecdote about Mahatma Gandhi and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. 57. Poems -- Louise Glück. 58. Harmony in the Boudoir -- Mark Strand. 59. And Then One Day: A Memoir -- Naseeruddin Shah. 60. Kohrra -- Created by Sudip Sharma and directed by Randeep Jha.. 61. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 62. Make Me a Canteen for My Soul — Episode 304 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage). 63. The Aaron Levie tweet on the market for cars. 64. 'A feeble no may mean yes': Indian court overturns rape conviction -- Michael Safi. 65. Grace is Poetry -- Danish Husain. 66. Train-Track Figure -- Kay Ryan. 67. अंधा कबाड़ी -- नून मीम राशिद. 68. The Conjurer of Meaning -- Danish Husain. 69. Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians -- Edited by Sudeep Sen. 67. Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English: 2022 -- Edited by Sukrita Paul Kumar & Vinita Agrawal. 68. मत बुरा उस को कहो गरचे वो अच्छा भी नहीं -- कलीम आजिज़. 69. शम्-ए-तन्हा की तरह सुब्ह के तारे जैसे -- इरफ़ान सिद्दीक़ी.. 70. हुस्न-ए-मह गरचे ब-हंगाम-ए-कमाल अच्छा है -- मिर्ज़ा ग़ालिब. 71. हिरास -- साहिर लुधियानवी. 72. Separation -- WS Merwin 73. वो जो इक शर्त थी वहशत की उठा दी गई क्या -- इरफ़ान सिद्दीक़ी. 74. तुम्हें डर है. -- गोरख पाण्डेय. 75. शायद कि ये ज़माना उन्हें पूजने लगे -- अब्दुल वहाब सुख़न. 76. Kya sitam hai waqt ka -- Madan Mohan Danish. 77. फ़राज़ अब कोई सौदा कोई जुनूँ भी नहीं -- फ़राज़. 78. कौन-सी बात कहाँ , कैसे कही जाती है -- वसीम बरेलवी. 79. A Plain Landscape -- Danish Husain. 80. इतिहास की कगार -- दानिश हुसैन. 81. Jawaab -- Kumar Ambuj (translated by Danish Husain). 82. Your Touch -- Danish Husain. 83. The Joke -- Milan Kundera. 84. Herzog -- Saul Bellow. 85. Edward Said, Mary Oliver and Toni Morrison on Amazon. 86. Step Across This Line -- Salman Rushdie. 87. Harishankar Parsai, John Kenneth Galbraith and AS Byatt on Amazon. 88. Garam Hawa -- MS Sathyu. 89. Shatranj Ke Khilari -- Satyajit Ray. 90. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppolla. 91. Do Ankhen Barah Haath -- V Shantaram. 92. Mandi -- Shyam Benegal. 93. Party -- Govind Nihalani. 94. Khosla Ka Ghosla! -- Dibakar Banerjee. This episode is sponsored by the Pune Public Policy Festival 2024, which takes place on January 19 & 20, 2024. The theme this year is Trade-offs! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'The Actor as a Builder of Worlds' by Simahina.
Mon, 11 Dec 2023 - 6h 17min
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