The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

Imagine being a young girl growing up in a world of constant curfews, occasional raids, army bunkers outside homes, and the fear that whoever leaves home may not return. Farah Bashir joins Amit Varma in episode 295 of The Seen and the Unseen to speak about her childhood in Kashmir — and the act of writing about it. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Farah Bashir on Twitter and Instagram. 2. Rumours of Spring: A Girlhood in Kashmir -- Farah Bashir. 3. Kashmir and Article 370 — Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 4. Curfewed Night -- Basharat Peer. 5. The Good Women Of China -- Xinran. 6. Svetlana Alexievich on Amazon. 7. Portrait of a Turkish Family -- Irfan Orga. 8. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Sharon and My Mother-in-Law -- Suad Amiry. 10. Derry Girls on Netflix and Wikipedia. 11. Nazia Hasan on Spotify. 12. Little Women -- Louisa May Alcott. 13. Nikaah -- BR Chopra. 14. Things Fall Apart -- Chinua Achebe. 15. Sonnets -- William Shakespeare. 16. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan -- Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Ghazal -- Agha Shahid Ali. 20. Farah Bashir on the Raw Mango campaign. 21. The Wretched of the Earth -- Frantz Fanon. 22. Kaabil: That Old Regressive Bollywood Strikes Again -- Amit Varma. 23. Georges Simenon on Amazon. 24. Varun Grover Is in the House -- Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Masaan — Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover. 26. Against White Feminism -- Rafia Zakaria. 27. Another Birth and Other Poems -- Forugh Farrokhzad. 28. The Late Bourgeois World -- Nadine Gordimer. 29. Telling Times -- Nadine Gordimer. 30. Kashmir ki Kali -- The Shakti Samanta film starring a Bengali! 31. Territory of Desire -- Ananya Jahanara Kabir. 32. Mahjoor and Habba Khatoon. 33. Ali Saffuddin and Parvaaz on Spotify. 34. Toni Morrison on Amazon. 35. The Patience Stone -- Atiq Rahimi. 36. Elena Ferrante on Amazon. 37. Milkman -- Anna Burns. 38. Paradise Lost -- John Milton. 39. Macbeth -- William Shakespeare. 40. Greta Gerwig on IMDb, Wikipedia and Mubi. 41. Hisham Matar on Amazon. 42. Museum of Innocence -- Orhan Pamuk. 43. Bell Hooks and WG Sebald on Amazon. 44. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 45. Vivian Gornick on Amazon. 46. The Odd Woman and the City — Vivian Gornick. 47. Fierce Attachments -- Vivian Gornick. 48. Shame On Me -- Tessa McWatt. 49. Home Fire -- Kamila Shamsie. 50. Joan Didion and Jane Austen on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by Capital Mind. Check out their offerings here. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art by Simahina, in a homage to Madhubani painting.

You can lose yourself in cinema -- and you can find yourself in it. Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty join Amit Varma in episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the films in their lives, why we should watch old films, why we should watch new films, why Bollywood and Hollywood and other woods are all great, and why we live in a wonderful technicolor world. This episode is a celebration of cinema! (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Jai Arjun Singh on Twitter and Instagram. 2. Haal-Chaal Theek Thaak Hai -- Subrat Mohanty and Pavan Jha's podcast. 3. Jai Arjun Singh Lost It at the Movies -- Episode 230 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Jabberwock — Jai Arjun Singh's blog. 5. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron: Seriously Funny Since 1983 — Jai Arjun Singh. 6. The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee -- Jai Arjun Singh. 7. Popcorn Essayists: What Movies do to Writers -- Edited by Jai Arjun Singh. 8. The Golden Era -- Subrat Mohanty's YouTube playlist of 100 lesser-known songs from the golden era of Hindi film music (mostly 1935-65). 9. The Unseen Lata -- Subrat Mohanty's YouTube playlist of 54 lesser-heard songs from Lata Mangeshkar, from 1948 to 1976. 10. Old posts by Subrat Mohanty from the Passion For Cinema web archives. 11. Some Spotify playlists, courtesy Nishant Shah, from Haal-Chaal Theek Thaak Hai episodes: 1, 2, 3, 4. 12. Pavan Jha's YouTube channel. 13. The only 1980s Maltova Mum commercial I could locate from the 1980s. (Couldn't find Singer.) 14. Kashmir Ki Kali -- Shakti Samanta. 15. Mughal-E-Azam -- K Asif. 16. Khuda Nigehbaan Ho -- Song from Mughal-E-Azam, sung by Lata Mangeshkar, music by Naushad, lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni. 17. Cinema Paradiso -- Giuseppe Tornatore. 18. Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan -- talk show by Tabassum. 19. Old episodes of Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan with RD Burman, Deepti Naval, Anand Bakshi and Bhupinder. 20. The Indiana Jones and Superman franchises. 21. The Evil Dead -- Sam Raimi. 22. Sam Raimi, Wes Craven and John Carpenter. 23. The Fugitive and The Bodyguard. 24. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Milan Kundera. 25. The Antichrist -- Friedrich Nietzsche. 26. The 400 Blows -- Francois Truffaut. 27. Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom -- Pier Paolo Pasolini. 28. Łódź Film School and Andrzej Wajda. 29. Do the Right Thing -- Spike Lee. 30. On Exactitude in Science (Wikipedia) -- Jorge Luis Borges. 31. Titus Andronicus -- William Shakespeare. 32. A Chess Story (previously published as The Royal Game) -- Stefan Zweig. 33. The World of Yesterday -- Stefan Zweig. 34. The Friday the 13th franchise. 35. Tracy and Hepburn -- Garson Kanin. 36. Bhimsen Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva and Lata Mangeshkar on Spotify. 37. Vijay Anand, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 38. Guide -- Vijay Anand. 39. Kaagaz Ke Phool -- Guru Dutt. 40. Jean-Luc Godard and Federico Fellini. 41. Shankar–Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra, Mukesh, KA Abbas, Ramanand Sagar and Kidar Sharma. 42. Aag, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Awaara, Barsaat and Shree 420.43. Nargis and Nadira. 44. Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh -- Song from Shree 420, sung by Asha Bhosle and Manna Dey, music by Shankar-Jaikishan, lyrics by Shailendra. 45. Orson Welles. 46. Squid Game on Netflix. 47. The Immediate Experience -- Robert Warshow. 48. Dil Dhadakne Do, Luck by Chance and Gully Boy -- Zoya Akhtar. 49. Casablanca -- Michael Curtiz. 50. Yudh and Tridev -- Rajiv Rai. 51. Amit Varma's Twitter threads on the MAMI festival from 2018 and 2019. 52. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 53. Dead Poet's Society -- Peter Weir. 54. The desire to help, and the desire not to be helped — Roger Ebert's review of Goodbye Solo. 55. Pauline Kael on Amazon. 56. Dekalog — Krzysztof Kieślowski. (And Roger Ebert's essay on it.) 57. The Dead — John Huston. 58. In the Bedroom -- Todd Field. 59. Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) and Parineeta (Pradeep Sarkar). 60. Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth. 61. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla. 62. PG Wodehouse on Amazon and Wikipedia. 63. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 64. Dharmyug and Dharamvir Bharati. 65. Andha Yug (Hindi) (English) -- Dharamvir Bharati. 66. Suraj ka Satvaan Ghoda -- Dharamvir Bharati. 67. Gunahon Ka Devta — Dharamvir Bharati. 68. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 69. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 70. Anil Biswas, SD Burman, Chitragupt, Roshan, C Ramchandra and Madan Mohan. 71. Naushad and Aan. 72. Maan Mera Ehsan -- Song from Aan, sung by Mohammad Rafi, music by Naushad, lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni. 73. Sebastian D'Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Ghulam Mohammed and Mohammed Shafi. 74. Khayyam and RD Burman. 75. The Long Tail -- Chris Anderson. 76. The Sound of Music -- Robert Wise. 77. Do-Re-Mi -- Song from The Sound of Music. 78. Giacomo Pucci

The world we live in is designed by men for men. What is it like to be a woman in this world? Mahima Vashisht joins Amit Varma in episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her experiences documenting all that is unseen by men and lived by women. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Mahima Vashisht on Twitter and Buy Me A Coffee. 2. Womaning in India -- Mahima Vashisht's newsletter. 3. The Womaning in India podcast. 4. The All-Powerful Female Imposter Syndrome -- Mahima Vashisht. 5. Maternity Discrimination is killing women's careers -- Mahima Vashisht. 6. Body shaming women is our favourite national pastime -- Mahima Vashisht. 7. Let's talk about Office Toilets -- Mahima Vashisht. 8. The Raja Beta Syndrome -- Mahima Vashisht. 9. Fabulous Lives of Indian Housewives -- Mahima Vashisht. 10. What is obstetric violence? (Aka my birth story) -- Mahima Vashisht. 11. Women face selective deafness in meetings -- Mahima Vashisht. 12. Lessons from the Tarun Tejpal judgment -- Mahima Vashisht. 13. The Great Indian Dhakosla -- Mahima Vashisht. 14. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 16. Nobody Told Me -- John Lennon. 17. The Sunk Cost Fallacy. 18. Koffee With Karan. 19. An Unsuitable Boy -- Karan Johar. 20. The Nurture Assumption -- Judith Rich Harris. 21. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 22. Dunning-Kruger Effect (Wikipedia). 23. Poker at Lake Wobegon — Amit Varma. 24. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 25. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 26. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. The Road to Freedom -- Arthur C Brooks. 28. Clarification Regarding Release of Funds to Prasar Bharti -- I&B Ministry press release. 29. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 49 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 30. The Darwaza Band campaign with Amitabh Bachchan and Anushka Sharma. 31. The Vidya Balan Nirmal Bharat commercial. 32. Swachh Bharat -- Episode 82 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan. 33. The Good Girls — Sonia Faleiro. 34. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree — Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 35. Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. 36. Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar's Swachh Bharat commercial. 37. Twin Peaks -- David Lynch. 38. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. My Friend Sancho -- Amit Varma. 40. The #MeToo Movement — Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair & Nikita Saxena). 41. Inside Bill's Brain -- Decoding Bill Gates. 42. Daily Rituals — Mason Currey. 43. Daily Rituals: Women at Work — Mason Currey. 44. The tweet Mahima referred to about Albert Einstein's wife. 45. Eileen Mary O'Connell's tweet about Marie Curie and Mariah Carey. 46. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 47. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee -- Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. It is immoral to have children. Here's why — Amit Varma. 50. Men Must Step Up Now — Amit Varma. 51. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner. 52. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? — Devika Kher. 53. Here's What's Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act — Suman Joshi. 54. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 55. Deep Work — Cal Newport. 56. Invisible Women -- Caroline Criado Perez. 57. The controversy over the woman with an oxygen cylinder cooking in the kitchen. 58. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) -- Amit Varma. 59. The Kavita Krishnan Files -- Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Fearless Freedom — Kavita Krishnan. 61. Why Loiter? — Shilpa Phadke. 62. The Jackson Katz quote on passive sentence constructions. 63. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist — Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 64. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 65. Whole Numbers and Half Truths — Rukmini S. 66. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 67. How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings -- Sarah Cooper. 68. Untamed -- Glennon Doyle. 69. Shrill -- Lindy West. 70. Steal Like an Artist -- Austin Kleon. 71. Show Your Work -- Austin Kleon. 72. Keep Going -- Austin Kleon. 73. Hannah Gadsby, Tig Notaro, James Acaster and Karunesh Talwar. 74. And here's Mahima's post with more show notes! This episode is sponsored by Capital Mind. Check out their offerings here. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art by Simahina, in a tribute to Cubism.

He's one of our finest writers, lyricists, comedians, dissenters -- and the breadth of his work is matched by the depth of his insights. Varun Grover joins Amit Varma in episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and work so far. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Varun Grover on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and IMDb. 2. Masaan -- Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover. 3. Aisi Taisi Democracy on YouTube. Twitter and Instagram. 4. Sandeep aur Pinky Faraar -- Directed by Dibakar Banerjee and co-written by Varun Grover. 5. Biksu -- Raj Kumari (illustrations) and Varun Grover (words). 6. Learn Screen Writing -- Varun Grover's course on Front Row. 7. Varun Grover interviewed on Slow Cafe by Neelesh Misra. 8. Guftagoo with Varun Grover. 9. Moh Moh Ke Dhaage -- Lyrics by Varun Grover. 10. Tu Kisi Rail Si -- Lyrics by Varun Grover. 11. Mann Kasturi -- Lyrics by Varun Grover. 12. Network -- Sidney Lumet. 13. Hot Drinks Equal Warm Feelings. 14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 15. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 16. Massive fire breaks out at Chitrakoot ground in Andheri. 17. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 18. I, Pencil -- Leonard Read. 19. Uski Roti -- Mani Kaul. 20. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind — Gustave le Bon. 21. Crowds and Power — Elias Canetti. 22. Nikaah -- BR Chopra. 23. Masoom -- Shekhar Kapur. 24. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 25. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal -- Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Stage.in. 27. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 28. Blowin' in the Wind -- Bob Dylan. 29. You're Missing -- Bruce Springsteen. 30. Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh and Dushyant Kumar. 31. M Indicator. 32. Range -- David Epstein. 33. The desire to help, and the desire not to be helped — Roger Ebert's review of Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo. 34. Georges Simenon on Amazon. 35. Fast Car -- Tracy Chapman. 36. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Aadha Gaon -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 38. Biba Sada Dil Morr De -- Nusrat Fatek Ali Khan. 39. Mirza Ghalib on Rekhta. 40. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 41. Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From — Tony Joseph. 42. Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, SD Burman, RD Burman and Abida Parveen on Spotify. 43. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck -- Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 44. Invisible Cities -- Italo Calvino. 45. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju -- Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. Songs of Life -- Puneet Aghi. 47. Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! -- Sooraj Barjatya. 48. Surabhi. 49. Forrest Gump, Notting Hill and Rambo. 50. Majid Majidi, Abbas Kiorastami and Jafar Panahi. 51. Loha, Farishtay, Border and Gadar. 52. Babel and Amores Perros. 53. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie -- John Cassavetes. 54. Mean Streets and Taxi Driver by Martin Scorcese. 55. Flow: The Psychology of Happiness -- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. 56. Ellevoro on Instagram and Trip Advisor. 57. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 58. Gunahon Ka Devta -- Dharamvir Bharati. 59. It is Immoral to Have Children. Here's Why — Amit Varma. 60. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham. 61. The Importance of Satya -- Episode 241 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Uday Bhatia). 62. The Great Man Theory of History. 63. Gaata Rahe Mera Dil -- Lyrics by Shailendra. 64. Surinder Kaur, Asa Singh Mastana, Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Parveen Sultana and Noor Jehan on Spotify. 65. Satyajit Ray on Wikipedia, IMDb and Amazon. 66. Agantuk -- Satyajit Ray. 67. The Wind Rises -- Hayao Miyazaki 68. Michael Haneke on Wikipedia and IMDb. 69. Dekalog — Krzysztof Kieślowski. 70. The Three Colours Trilogy -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 71. A Short Film About Love -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 72. A Short Film About Killing -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 73. The God of Small Things -- Arundhati Roy. 74. Dharamvir Bharati, Harishankar Parsai, Uday Prakash and Manohar Shyam Joshi. 75. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla. 76. Naiyer Masud on Wikipedia, Rekhta and Amazon. 77. Collected Stories -- Naiyer Masud. 78. Shamsur Rahman Faruqi on Wikipedia, Rekhta and Amazon. 79. Kai Chaand The Sar-e-aasman -- Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. 80. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 81. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire — Luis Buñuel. 82. The Dead -- John Huston. This episode is sponsored by Capital Mind. Check out their offerings here. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his podcas

He was born in a small village in Haryana, built and lost one of the biggest viral sites in the world, and is now building a Netflix for India's dialects. Vinay Singhal joins Amit Varma in episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen to speak about what he learnt from Witty Feed, the philosophy behind his new venture Stage, and how India lives, truly lives, in its dialects. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Vinay Singhal on Twitter and LinkedIn. 2. Stage.in. 3. Building Netflix for Bharat (2020) -- Vinay Singhal. 4. What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur (2016) -- Vinay Singhal. 5. 5 Ways to keep people before business (2017) -- Vinay Singhal. 6. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World -- Snigdha Poonam. 7. Young India -- Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 8. SuperSiblings -- Prachi Garg. 9. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 10. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma. 11. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel. 12. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. 13. Paper Menagerie -- Ken Liu. 14. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World -- Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 15. The Indus Valley Playbook -- Sajith Pai. 16. India2, English Tax and Building for the Next Billion Users -- Sajith Pai. 17. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 18. Real Steel -- Shawn Levy. 19. The Rocky series. 20. The Martian -- Ridley Scott. 21. The Good Doctor on Netflix. 22. The Hard Thing About Hard Things -- Ben Horowitz. 23. The Infinite Game -- Simon Sinek. 24. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel. 25. The Lean Startup -- Eric Ries. 26. Startup School. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his podcast, Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

In 1947, few people gave us 75 years. Bloody hell, here we are! And it is up to us now to make this country the best version of itself. Karthik Muralidharan joins Amit Varma in episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss one of our problem areas: the Indian state. Can we fix it? Yes we can! (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Karthik Muralidharan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and UCSD. 2. Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS) 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. General equilibrium effects of (improving) public employment programs: experimental evidence from India -- The paper on NREGA by Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus and Sandip Sukhtankar. 6. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 7. The Citizenship Battles -- Episode 152 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 8. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 9. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 10. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah). 11. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism -- Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pramit Bhattacharya). 12. The Paradox of Narendra Modi — Episode 102 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shashi Tharoor). 13. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia -- Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Montek Singh Ahluwalia). 14. 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 and Abhijit Bhaduri. 15. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes. 16. The Big Fat Surprise — Nina Teicholz. 17. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 18. The Macroeconomist as Scientist and Engineer -- N Gregory Mankiw. 19. The Gated Republic -- Shankkar Aiyar. 20. Despite the State — M Rajshekhar. 21. The Power Broker— Robert Caro. 22. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs. 23. India's Security State -- Episode 242 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Josy Joseph). 24. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 25. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 26. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 27. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama. 28. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama. 29. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama. 30. Computer Nahi Monitor -- Episode 5 of season 1 of Panchayat. 31. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India -- Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Courts Redux: Micro-Evidence from India -- Manaswini Rao. 33. The Checklist Manifesto -- Atul Gawande. 34. Annie Hall -- Woody Allen. 35. The Politics Limerick -- Amit Varma. 36. The Decline of the Congress -- Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 37. The Burden of Democracy -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 38. A Theory of Clientelistic Politics versus Programmatic Politics -- Pranab Bardhan and Dilip Mookherjee. 39. Power and Prosperity — Mancur Olson. 40. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 41. Premature load bearing: Evidence, Analysis, Action -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 42. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 43. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society -- Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 44. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 45. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha. 46. Participatory Democracy -- Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 47. Cities and Citizens -- Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 48. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic -- Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 49. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. The Tamilian gentleman who took on the world -- Amit Varma on Viswanathan Anand. 51. Running to Stand Still -- U2. 52. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 53. India's Founding Moment — Madhav Khosla. 54. The Ideas of Our Constitution -- Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 55. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia -- Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Pitfalls of Participatory Programs -- Abhijit Banerjee, Rukmini Banerji, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster and Stuti Khemani. 57. Our Parliament and Our Democracy -- Episode 253 of The Seen and

She's skated down tekdis, played volleyball for her state, run through deserts and wrestled a bear with her bare hands. Ok, not the last one. Shruti Jahagirdar joins Amit Varma in episode 289 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss women's sports in India, fitness, nutrition and a world without limits. Also check out: 1. Shruti Jahagirdar on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. 2. Halomi Fitness, Shruti Jahagirdar's startup. 3. The Evolution of Cricket -- Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle). 4. Building Sports Ecosystems -- Episode 126 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Joy Bhattacharjya). 5. The State of Indian Sport -- Episode 238 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Joy Bhattacharjya and Nandan Kamath). 6. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on sport with Ram Guha, Prem Panicker, Sharda Ugra, Ayaz Memon, Snehal Pradhan and Pradeep Magazine. 7. Wait But Why by Tim Urban. 8. This Ramesh Nagdev was a blazing bat -- Makarand Waingankar. 9. Chak De! India -- Shimit Amin. 10. The Sporting Spirit — George Orwell. 11. Allah Ke Bande -- Kailash Kher. 12. Kusha Kapila and the B-Plus Baccha.. 13. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 14. Atomic Habits -- James Clear. 15. Barefoot in the Park -- Neil Simon. 16. Tiger Muay Thai. 17. Former British Boxing Champ Julius Francis knocks out troublemaker. 18. Gimme Mo -- Mohit Satyanand's newsletter. 19. The Bell Hooks quote posted by Shruti Jahagirdar. 20. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 21. The Mary Oliver quote posted by Shruti Jahagirdar. 22. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes. 23. The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet — Nina Teicholz. 24. The Obesity Code — Jason Fung. 25. Nina Teicholz on The Joe Rogan Experience. 26. Wheat Belly -- William Davis.. 27. The Four Quadrants of Conformism -- Paul Graham. 28. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 29. The Diabetes Code -- Jason Fung. 30. Hikikomori. 31. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 32. Everything is Illuminated -- Liev Schreiber, based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. 33. The White Balloon -- Jafar Panahi. 34. Majid Majidi on Wikipedia and IMDb. 35. Panchayat, Season 2. 36. Schitt's Creek. 37. This is Us. 38. The Playbook- A Coach's Rules for Life. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his podcast, Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

To immerse yourself in literature is to immerse yourself in the world. Chandrahas Choudhury joins Amit Varma in episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen to chat about reading, writing, friendship, Mumbai and the guests at his fantasy dinner table. Also check out: 1. Chandrahas Choudhury on Instagram and Amazon. 2. The Middle Stage -- Chandrahas Choudhury's blog. 3. My Country Is Literature -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 4. Days of My China Dragon -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 5. Clouds -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 6. Arzee The Dwarf -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 7. Bamana Arzee -- Chandrahas Choudhury, translated by Sindhubala Choudhury. 8. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Two Men Who Left Third Man Alone -- Amit Varma and Chandrahas Choudhury. 10. The Curse of Knowledge. 11. Eunice De Souza on Amazon. 12. House of the Dead — Fyodor Dostoevsky. 13. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 14. The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist -- Orhan Pamuk. 15. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 16. Jai Arjun Singh Lost It at the Movies -- Episode 230 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 18. How Fiction Works -- James Wood. 19. Marcel Proust and Karl Ove Knausgaard on Amazon. 20. Six and a Third Acres -- Fakir Mohan Senapati. 21. Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? -- AK Ramanujan. 22. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 24. Cuckold -- Kiran Nagarkar. 25. Robert Bly on Amazon. 26. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 27. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Georges Simenon on Amazon. 29. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 30. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree — Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 31. Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay on Amazon. 32. The Business of Books -- Episode 150 of The Seen and the Unseen (w VK Karthika). 33. The Bear Came Over the Mountain -- Alice Munro. 34. Against Rang De Basanti -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 35. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 36. A Godless Congregation -- Amit Varma. 37. Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek. 38. The City -- CP Cavafy. 39. Junoon on Spotify. 40. Verrier Elwin on Amazon. 41. The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin: An Autobiography. 42. Suite Francaise -- Irène Némirovsky. 43. Taking Stock of Our Republic — Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

She helped generations of women in India find a voice. She expanded the worldview of countless people. She confronted the horrors of our past and the fissures of our present. Urvashi Butalia joins Amit Varma in episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life and learnings. Also check out: 1. Urvashi Butalia at Zubaan and Amazon. 2. The Other Side of Silence -- Urvashi Butalia. 3. Zubaan Books and Kali for Women. 4. Turning the Page for Feminism -- Nilanjana Roy on Urvashi Butalia. 5. Episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Mrinal Pande, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare, Shrayana Bhattacharya, Mukulika Banerjee, Manjima Bhattacharjya and Nilanjana Roy. 6. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 8. Tales from the Kathasaritsagara -- Somadeva (translated by Arshia Sattar). 9. The Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account. 10. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Will to Change — Bell Hooks. 12. Men Must Step Up Now -- Amit Varma. 13. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow -- Washington Irving. 14. Mahadevi Varma and Sheila Bhatia. 15. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 17. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 18. The Verdict: Decoding India's Elections -- Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala. 19. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 20. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 21. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Abhinandan Sekhri). 22. Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on Status of Women in India (1974). 23. The Kavita Krishnan Files -- Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist -- Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Kamla Bhasin on Wikipedia. 26. Division of Hearts -- Satti Khanna and Peter Chappell. 27. Heer Ranjha. 28. Kumar Gandharva sings Nirgun Bhajans. 29. Reshma sings Bulle Shah. 30. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on Spotify. 31. Ek Onkar -- Harshdeep Kaur. 32. Chaudhvin Ka Chand -- Guru Dutt. 33. Pyaasa -- Guru Dutt. 34. A Question of Silence -- Marleen Gorris. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

He wrote about cricket for decades -- and also turned his piercing gaze on society and himself. Pradeep Magazine joins Amit Varma in episode 286 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and how it changed him. Also check out: 1. Pradeep Magazine on Twitter, Amazon and Hindustan Times. 2. Not Just Cricket: A Reporter's Journey through Modern India -- Pradeep Magazine. 3. Not Quite Cricket: The Xplosive Story of How Bookmakers Influence the Game Today -- Pradeep Magazine. 4. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 5. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 6. Some of Satyajit Ray's masterpieces: Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha, Agantuk and Ghare Bhaire. 7. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 8. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll. 9. Adam Smith and John Locke. 10. The Art of Cricket -- Donald Bradman. 11. Ray Robinson and Neville Cardus. 12. Rahul Bhattacharya, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan and Anand Vasu. 13. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket -- Bill Frindall. 14. Rashomon -- Akira Kurosawa. 15. Sourav Ganguly and the Politburo -- Amit Varma. 16. Opportunity, Choice and the IPL (2008) — Amit Varma. 17. The IPL is Here and Here Are Six Reasons to Celebrate It (2019) — Amit Varma. 18. The Sporting Spirit -- George Orwell. 19. War Minus The Shooting -- Mike Marquesee. 20. Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

Our real heroes are often backstage. Montek Singh Ahluwalia joins Amit Varma in episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his learnings and the liberalisation of 1991. Also check out: 1. Backstage: The Story behind India's High Growth Years -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 2. Breaking Through: A Memoir -- Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 3. The M Document -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia's legendary note from 1990. 4. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 5. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 6. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Principles of Economics -- Alfred Marshall. 8. Alexandre Dumas on Amazon. 9. Gurbani and Heer Ranjha. 10. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 12. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 13. The Cantillon Effect: Because of Inflation, We're Financing the Financiers -- Jessica Schultz. 14. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 15. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama. 16. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama. 17. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama. 18. James Buchanan on Amazon. 19. Jawaharlal Nehru's speech about our "tryst with destiny." 20. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 21. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 22. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 23. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 24. The Beautiful Tree — James Tooley. 25. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 26. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 27. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 28. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 29. Narendra Modi Takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma 30. Minoo Masani, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Isaiah Berlin, John Hicks and Ian Little. 31. Spontaneous Order. 32. The Evolution of Everything -- Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 33. Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai on Amazon. 34. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 35. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 36. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mrinal Pande). 37. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 38. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 39. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 40. Managing Climate Change: A Strategy for India -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Utkarsh Patel. 41. Mahabharata. 42. Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio de Sica, Federico Fellini and Roman Polanski. 43. Amit Varma's tweet on velociraptors and turkeys. 44. The James Bond films. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

A lifetime spent reading, writing and reflecting teaches you a lot. Nilanjana Roy joins Amit Varma in episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about books, feminism, family, memory and the state of the world. Also check out:1. Nilanjana Roy on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Financial Times, Business Standard and her own website. 2. The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading -- Nilanjana Roy. 3. The Wildings -- Nilanjana Roy. 4. The Hundred Names of Darkness -- Nilanjana Roy. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discuss reading and writing with Sara Rai, Amitava Kumar, VK Karthika, Sugata Srinivasaraju, Mrinal Pande, Sonia Faleiro, Vivek Tejuja, Samanth Subramanian, Annie Zaidi and Prem Panicker. 6. 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 and Abhijit Bhaduri. 7. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 8. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 9. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 11. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 12. The Ranga-Billa Case. 13. Sarojini Naidu on Amazon. 14. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 15. The Mahatma and the Poet — The letters between Gandhi and Tagore, compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 16. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Margaret Mascarenhas on Amazon. 18. The Web We Have to Save -- Hossein Derakhshan. 19. The Country Without a Post Office -- Agha Shahid Ali. 20. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 21. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 22. The Silence of Scheherazade -- Defne Suman. 23. Silver -- Walter de la Mare. 24. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 25. George Saunders and Barack Obama on Amazon. 26. A life in 5,000 books -- Nilanjana Roy. 27. Surender Mohan Pathak, Ibne Safi and Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Amazon. 28. The Power Broker — Robert Caro. 29. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs. 30. JRR Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett on Amazon. 31. Forget reading Thomas Piketty. Try a bit of Terry Pratchett -- Robert Shrimsley. 32. Fifty Shades of Grey -- EL James. 33. Ankur Warikoo, Aanchal Malhotra, Manu Pillai and Ira Mukhoty on Amazon. 34. Mahashweta Devi and Naiyer Masud on Amazon. 35. The former homes of Hurree Babu and Putu the Cat. 36. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Om Namah Volume -- Amit Varma. 38. Salman's Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie's Substack newsletter. 39. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel. 40. The Hidden Life of Trees -- Peter Wohlleben. 41. An Immense World -- Ed Yong. 42. The Twitter thread by Sergej Sumlenny that Nilanjana mentioned. 43. The Inheritance of Loss -- Kiran Desai. 44. The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 45. Pather Panchali -- Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. 46. Gora -- Rabindranath Tagore. 47. William Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Geoffrey Chaucer and Krishna Sobti on Amazon. 48. The Cult of Authenticity -- Vikram Chandra. 49. Meenakshi Mukherjee: The Death of a Critic -- Nilanjana Roy. 50. Field Notes from a Waterborne Land: Bengal Beyond the Bhadralok -- Parimal Bhattacharya. 51. Patriots, Poets and Prisoners: Selections from Ramananda Chatterjee's The Modern Review, 1907-1947 -- Edited by Anikendra Sen, Devangshu Datta and Nilanjana Rao. 52. The City Inside -- Samit Basu. 53. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 54. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 55. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Manjula Padmanathan on Amazon. 57. The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy. 58. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Lawrence Alma-Tadema. 59. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Natalie Merchant. 60. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 62. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 63. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 64. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 65. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 66. The Kavita Krishnan Files — Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 67. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist -- Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 68. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Translated by Ranjit Hoskote. 69. Lal Ded's poem on wrestling with a tiger. 70. Anarchy is a likelier future for the west than tyranny -- Janan Ganesh. 71. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 72. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 73. Rukmini Sees Indi

If leaders are to be judged by their actions, PV Narasimha Rao was our tallest leader. Vinay Sitapati joins Amit Varma in episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how Rao showed conviction and political skill in going against the tides of the day to enable the 1991 reforms, which brought hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty Also check out: 1. Half-Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao Transformed India -- Vinay Sitapati. 2. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi -- Vinay Sitapati. 3. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 4. The Insider -- PV Narasimha Rao. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India -- Dhirendra Jha. 7. Ascetic Games and Ayodhya: A Dark Night. 8. How the BJP wins: Inside India's Greatest Election Machine -- Prashant Jha. 9. The BJP's Magic Formula -- Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 10. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 11. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 12. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 15. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Clash of Civilizations? (the article) -- Samuel Huntington. 17. The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order -- Samuel Huntington. 18. Cut the Clutter with Shekhar Gupta. 19. Headley And I -- S Hussain Zaidi and Rahul Bhatt. 20. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 21. Abhijit Bhaduri Breaks the Algorithm -- Episode 279 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 23. Amit Varma's tweet on winning the Asian Championships of Match Poker. 24. The Blue Bedspread -- Raj Kamal Jha. 25. The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda's Road to 9/11 -- Lawrence Wright. 26. Modi's Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 27. India's Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 28. The Alchemy of Finance -- George Soros. 29. Sturgeon's Law and Survivorship Bias. 30. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Libertarian -- Amit Varma. 31. Ancient India: Culture of Contradictions -- Upinder Singh. 32. Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History -- Romila Thapar. 33. Romila Thapar, DD Kosambi and Irfan Habib. 34. A Culture of Discrimination Or A Culture Of Emancipation? -- Aravindan Neelakandan on Romila Thapar. 35. The Wire -- David Simon etc. 36. Dekalog — Krzysztof Kieślowski. 37. The Fissures of Modern Hinduism -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivers the DD Kosambi Memorial Lecture. 38. Upinder Singh, Nayanjot Lahiri and Iravatham Mahadevan on Amazon. 39. The Power Broker -- Robert A Caro. 40. Robert A Caro on Amazon. 41. The World Is What It Is -- Patrick French. 42. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. 43. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 44. Sex tape: Andhra Governor N D Tiwari resigns. 45. Bad liver and a broken heart -- Sunil Murthy on Leela Naidu. 46. The Law of Truly Large Numbers. 47. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. 48. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln -- Doris Kearns Goodwin. 49. To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story -- Jairam Ramesh. 50. Brideshead Revisited -- Evelyn Waugh. 51. Brideshead Revisited, the TV series. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

He's been an academic who's studied the country, and a businessman who's created wealth and jobs. Now he wants to help India achieve its potential. Naushad Forbes joins Amit Varma in episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings -- and the roadmap that can help India lift its citizens. Also check out: 1. The Struggle And The Promise: Restoring India's Potential -- Naushad Forbes. 2. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. PG Wodehouse on Amazon. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 7. The Great Redistribution -- Amit Varma. 8. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 9. Tony Joseph's episode of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 11. Two-and-a-Half Bengalis Have an Economics Adda -- Episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswaro Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya). 12. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 13. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 14. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 15. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 16. The Beautiful Tree -- James Tooley. 17. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 18. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 19. Black Beauty -- Anne Sewell. 20. Enid Blyton and Gerald Durrell on Amazon. 21. Leave it to Psmith -- PG Wodehouse. 22. Survival In Auschwitz -- Primo Levi. 23. Homage to Catalonia -- George Orwell. 24. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 25. Marginal Revolution. 26. Econ Talk — Russ Roberts's podcast. 27. Conversations With Tyler — Tyler Cowen's podcast. 28. Deirdre McCloskey on Amazon. 29. Manmohan Singh's budget speech on July 24, 1991. 30. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch. 31. The oddest entry in Business Week's 2009 list of the 50 Most Powerful People in India. 32. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 33. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 34. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century -- Francis Fukuyama. 35. The Origins of Political Order -- Francis Fukuyama. 36. Political Order and Political Decay -- Francis Fukuyama. 37. James Buchanan on Amazon. 38. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Public Choice: A Primer — Eomonn Butler. 40. Wonder Woman, the God of War and Public Choice Economics -- Amit Varma and Kumar Anand. 41. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 43. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 44. Becoming Modern -- Alex Inkeles and David H Smith. 45. The Overton Window. 46. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty — Albert O Hirschman. 47. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha. 48. Wealth And Poverty Of Nations -- David S Landes. 49. The Uncommon Reader -- Alan Bennett. 50. On Liberty -- John Stuart Mill. 51. Patriots and Partisans -- Ramachandra Guha. 52. Democrats and Dissenters -- Ramachandra Guha. 53. 1984 -- George Orwell. 54. The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph -- Albert O Hirschman. 55. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin on Spotify. 56. Brahms: Second Piano Concerto in B Flat. 57. Beethoven: The Piano Concertos. 58. Beethoven: Symphonies 1 to 9. 59. Schubert: Impromptus. 60. The Philadelphia Story -- George Cukor. 61. Casablanca -- Michael Curtiz. Check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

He grew up in Cairo, spent many years writing on the Middle East, saw the Arab Spring coming, and was bureau chief of the Economist in South Asia. Max Rodenbeck joins Amit Varma in episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his experiences in journalism, the lessons he learnt in India, and the troubling ways in which it resembles Egypt. Also check out: 1. Max Rodenbeck on Twitter, The New York Review of Books and Wikipedia. 2. Cairo: The City Victorious -- Max Rodenbeck. 3. Selected stories on India by the Economist: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 4. The Power of Arabic -- Max Rodenbeck. 5. The Father of Violent Islamism -- Max Rodenbeck. 6. How She Wants to Modify Muslims -- Max Rodenbeck. 7. Bin Laden's Death: Why the Arab World Shrugs -- Max Rodenbeck. 8. The Long Wait -- Max Rodenbeck. 9. Max Rodenbeck interviewed on What I Did Next. 10. Top Gun -- Tony Scott. 11. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 12. Once Upon a Time in the West -- Sergio Leone. 13. Creature Features. 14. Godzilla and Creature From the Black Lagoon. 15. Agatha Christie on Amazon. 16. Tintin on Amazon. 17. Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. 18. Enid Blyton on Amazon. 19. The Golden Age of Murder -- Martin Edwards. 20. $41,754,153! -- Brandon Sanderson. 21. Brandon Sanderson's record-breaking Kickstarter campaign ends with $41.7 million -- K Holt. 22. Brandon Sanderson on Amazon and YouTube. 23. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 24. Gell-Mann Amnesia. 25. A Nile Journal -- Thomas Gold Appleton. 26. Lawrence Wright on Amazon. 27. Roam Research — and Zettelkasten. 28. US-Bangladesh blogger Avijit Roy hacked to death -- BBC. 29. Inside Bangladesh's killing fields: bloggers and outsiders targeted by fanatics -- Emma Graham-Harrison and Saad Hammadi. 30. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 31. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 32. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee -- Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee.) 33. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 34. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 35. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 36. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 37. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 38. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 39. The Generation of Rage in Kashmir — David Devadas. 40. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 41. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 42. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 43. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 44. Njáls saga. 45. Honoré de Balzac on Amazon. 46. The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee -- Honoré de Balzac. 47. Michael Pollan on how coffee enabled the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. 48. The Lives of Others -- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. 49. Yol -- Şerif Gören and Yılmaz Güney. 50. Baden Powell on Spotify. 51. Le Bureau. 52. The Anchoring Effect. 53. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. This episode is sponsored by Paradigm Shift, a new podcast by Microsoft India, produced by ATS Studios and hosted by Harsha Bhogle..Listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or any podcast app of your choice. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

The world is changing for women -- but is it getting better? Manjima Bhattacharjya joins Amit Varma in episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey as a feminist and why she believes in the long arc. She also talks about her book Intimate City, and the changing face of sex work in India. Also check out: 1. Manjima Bhattacharjya on Twitter, YouTube and Google Scholar. 2. Intimate City -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 3. Mannequin: Working Women in India's Glamour Industry -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 4. Jhumpa Lahiri on Amazon. 5. Empire of the Sun -- Steven Spielberg. 6. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 7. Farouk Abdul-Aziz and Kuwait Cine Club. 8. Nancy Drew on Wikipedia and Amazon. 9. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Some episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare and Shrayana Bhattacharjya, 11. Kali For Women. 12. Jagori. 13. Mrityudand -- Prakash Jha. 14. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 15. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 16. Bargaining with Patriarchy -- Deniz Kandiyoti. 17. On the Road to Change -- A conversation between Kavita Krishnan and Amit Varma. 18. If It's Monday It Must Be Madurai — Srinath Perur. 19. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 20. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 21. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? -- Devika Kher. 22. Here's What's Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act -- Suman Joshi. 23. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 24. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan). 25. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 26. An Economist Looks at #MeToo -- Episode 92 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 27. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner. 28. The Problem that Has No Name -- Betty Friedan. 29. Kamla Bhasin and Abha Bhaiya. 30. Live Sex Acts -- Wendy Chapkis. 31. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 32. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 33. Daily Rituals — Mason Currey. 34. Daily Rituals: Women at Work — Mason Currey. 35. Thin Places -- Ann Armbrecht. 36. Cheryl Strayed on Amazon. 37. Mahanagar — Satyajit Ray. 38. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 39. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 40. Abhimaan -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 41. Natasha Badhwar on Amazon. 42. Parenthood -- Episode 43 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Natasha Badhwar). 43. Yuzvendra Chahal's bullying. 44. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 45. Temporarily Yours – Intimacy, Authenticity and the Commerce of Sex -- Elizabeth Bernstein. 46. The Girlfriend Experience. 47. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 48. The Truth About Ourselves — Amit Varma. 49. Literotica stories archive. 50. The news article about a journalist and some artists forced to strip to their underwear. 51. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator economy with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 52. 11th Lane: Kamathipura -- Sudharak Olwe. 53. Tawaif -- Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 54. Notting Hill and Pretty Woman. 55. An Educated Woman In Prostitution -- Manada Devi. 56. Factory Girls -- Leslie T Chang. 57. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 58. Elles -- Malgoska Szumowska. 59. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Philip Kaufman. 60. Roger Ebert's review of Unbearable Lightness. 61. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire — Luis Buñuel. 62. The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas -- Rajesh Rajamani. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

If you make space for serendipity in your life, good things happen. Abhijit Bhaduri joins Amit Varma in episode 279 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey from the corporate life to the creator economy -- and the lessons he learnt along the way. Also check out: 1. Abhijit Bhaduri on Amazon, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and his own website. 2. Dreamers and Unicorns -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 3. The Digital Tsunami -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 4, Selected talks on YouTube by Abhijit Bhaduri: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain and Deepak Shenoy. 6. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 7. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. The Curse of Knowledge. 9. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Invisible Gorilla. 11. When Daddy Was a Little Boy -- Alexander Raskin and Lev Tokamakov. (Original cover.) 12. Tuntunir Galpa/The tale of The Tailer-Bird -- Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. 13. The Complete Adventures of Feluda -- Satyajit Ray. 14. Mukh Chai Mukh -- Milan Mukhopadhyay. 15. Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Banaphul, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Shivani and Munshi Premchand. 16. Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi and Kishori Amonkar on Spotify. 17. Haré Rama Haré Krishna -- Dev Anand. 18. The Charm of Raga Des - Abhijit Bhaduri. 19. SD Burman and Nikhil Banerjee on Spotify. 20. Is Old Music Killing New Music? -- Ted Gioia. 21. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Brave New World -- Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar). 23. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 24. Khushwant Singh and Mulkraj Anand on Amazon. 25. RK Laxman, Mario Miranda and Ajit Ninan. 26. In Search of Excellence -- Tom Peters. 27. Mirch Masala -- Ketan Mehta. 28. Ek Ruka Hua Faisla -- Basu Chatterjee. 29. 12 Angry Men -- Sidney Lumet. 30. Housefull Economics. 31. Manu Pillai and Ramachandra Guha on Amazon. 32. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen w Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 33. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 34. The Hedgehog And The Fox — Isaiah Berlin. 35. Are you a career3.0 person stuck in a career1.0 Job? -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 36. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok. 37. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel. 38. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones -- Pradip Krishen. 39. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (Jonathan Haidt speaking to host Vasant Dhar). 40. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (on isomorphic mimicry, with Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 41. Skeuomorphic Design. 42. The New World Upon Us -- Amit Varma on Alpha Zero. 43. Google's AlphaZero Destroys Stockfish In 100-Game Match -- Mike Klein. 44. Dicing An Onion -- Gordon Ramsey. 45. Satyajit Ray on Amazon. 46. Feluda @ 50 -- Edited by Boria Mazumdar. 47. Days & Nights In The Forest -- Sunil Gangopadhyay. 48. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 49. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 50. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). This episode is sponsored by Knest Manufacturers, India's largest and the world's fastest-growing formwork company, which has made real estate development in India more efficient, sustainable and scalable. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

To fight climate change, we need to reform the power sector. Right now, it's dysfunctional. Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah join Amit Varma in episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen to share their roadmap for change. Also check out: 1. Akshay Jaitly on Twitter, Linkedin, Nicheless and Substack. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. The lowest hanging fruit on the coconut tree: India's climate transition through the price system in the power sector -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 3. Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah's aggregated pieces on energy and climate. 4. The Time To Privatise India's Electricity Sector Is Now -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 5. Root cause analysis for the electricity crisis -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 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. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 9. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 10. Naren Shenoy's fancy dress competition. 11. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Chronicles of Narnia -- CS Lewis. 14. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- Roald Dahl. 15. Alistair MacLean and John Steinbeck on Amazon. 16. Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 17. Of Mice and Men -- John Steinbeck. 18. André Gide and Albert Camus on Amazon. 19. Another Country -- James Baldwin. 20. Warren Mendonsa Plays the Universal Pentatonic -- Episode 273 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 22. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 23. Hind Swaraj -- Mohandas Gandhi. 24. Politics and the Sociopath -- Amit Varma. 25. Google Scholar. 26. Roam Research and Zettelkasten. 27. Discom Privatisation Challenged (Dec 2020) -- Akshay Jaitly. 28. Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance -- Edited by Devesh Kapur and Madhav Khosla. 29. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 30. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 31. History of UN Climate Talks. 32. The Evolution of the UNFCCC -- Jonathan Kuyper, Heike Schroeder and Björn-Ola Linnér. 33. The COP List. 34. The Road From Rio (1993) -- Prodipto Ghosh and Akshay Jaitly. 35. William Nordhaus versus the United Nations on Climate Change Economics -- Robert P Murphy. 36. Hotter than the human body can handle: Pakistan city broils in world's highest temperatures -- Ben Farmer. 37. Price Controls Lead to Shortages and Harm the Poor -- Amit Varma. 38. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 39. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 40. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All -- Michael Shellenberger. 41. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 42. Kim Stanley Robinson on Amazon. 43. Death at Intervals -- José Saramago. 44. The Shape of Water -- Andrea Camilleri. 45. The Terracotta Dog -- Andrea Camilleri. 46. 12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love -- Jeanette Winterson. 47. The Singularity Is Near -- Ray Kurzweil. 48. Report to Greco -- Nikos Kazantzakis. 49. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics -- Carlo Rovelli. 50. Michael Dibdin on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by Knest Manufacturers, India's largest and the world's fastest-growing formwork company, which has made real estate development in India more efficient, sustainable and scalable. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

He grew up breathing Kannada literature -- and he also embraced the globalised world. Sugata Srinivasaraju joins Amit Varma in episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss this confluence of the old and the new, the near and the far, his society and the world. Also check out: 1. Sugata Srinivasaraju in Outlook, ToI/Mumbai Mirror, New Indian Express, The Wire, Mint, Twitter and his own website. 2. Furrows in a Field -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 3. Pickles from Home: The Worlds of a Bilingual -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 4. Keeping Faith with the Mother Tongue -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 5. Sugata Srinivasaraju on his father, Chi Srinivasaraju: 1, 2, 3. 6. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled -- Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujata Anandan). 7. Dodda Alada Mara (Big Banyan Tree). 8. GP Rajarathnam, AR Krishnashastry, P Lankesh and KS Nissar Ahmed on Wikipedia. 9. The Tell Me Why series of encyclopedias -- Arkady Leokum. 10. Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire on Amazon. 11. Rayaru Bandaru Mavana Manege -- The KS Narasimhaswamy poem Sugata translated. 12. Phoenix and Four Other Mime Plays -- Chi Srinivasaraju (translated by Sugata Srinivasaraju, who tweeted about it here.). 13. Ahobala Shankara, V Seetharamaiah, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, KV Narayana, Noam Chomsky, DR Nagaraj, Jorge Luis Borges and Tejaswini Niranjana. 14. Lawrence Weschler on how Akumal Ramachander discovered Harold Shapinsky. 15. AK Ramanujan and Gopalakrishna Adiga. 16. The Penguin Book of Socialist Verse -- Edited by Alan Bold. 17. Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern UP, 1921-22 -- Shahid Amin. 18. Kraurya -- Girish Kasaravalli. 19. Deconstructing Derrida -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 20. Yaava Mohana Murali -- Gopalakrishna Adiga's poem turned into a song. 21. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 23. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 24. Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to our Times -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 25. Ki Ram Nagaraja at Book Brahma. 26. A Map of Misreading -- Harold Bloom. 27. The Singer of Tales -- Albert Lord and David Elmer. 28. ಪಂಪ ಭಾರತ ದೀಪಿಕೆ: Pampa Bharatha Deepike -- DL Narasimhachar. 29. The Open Eyes: A Journey Through Karnakata -- Dom Moraes. 30. Dom Moraes on DR Bendre's love for numbers. 31. DR Bendre, Kuvempu, Shamba Joshi, MM Kalburgi, Shivaram Karanth, VK Gokak and Chandrashekhar Patil. 32. Da Baa Kulkarni, Sriranga, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Bhisham Sahni, Kartar Singh Duggal and HY Sharada Prasad. 33. His Will Was His God -- Sugata Srinivasaraju on HY Sharada Prasad. 34. Jeremy Seabrook on Amazon. 35. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual — Ramachandra Guha. 37. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 40. Negotiating Two Worlds, Bilingualism As A Cultural Idea -- Sugata Srinivasaraju delivers the HY Sharada Prasad Memorial Lecture. 41. Karunaalu Baa Belake -- A Kannada version of 'Lead, Kindly Light'. 42. Liberal impulses of our regional languages -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 43. Why Resisting Hindi is No Longer Enough -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 44, The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 45. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 46. Roam Research and Zettelkasten. 47. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 48. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 49. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 50. Speaking of Siva -- Ak Ramanujan's translations of the Vacanas. 51. Not Waving but Drowning -- Stevie Smith. 52. Pictures on a Page -- Harold Evans. 53. Notes From Another India -- Jeremy Seabrook. 54. Good Times, Bad Times -- Harold Evans. 55. John Pilger on Amazon. 56. Sugata Srinivasaraju's pieces in Outlook in 2005 on the Infosys land scam: 1, 2. 57. 'Bellary Is Mine' -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 58. Deca Log: 1995-2005. A history in ten-and-a-half chapters, through the eyes of Outlook -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 59. The Sanjay Story: From Anand Bhavan To Amethi -- Vinod Mehta. 60. Lucknow Boy: A Memoir -- Vinod Mehta. 61. Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker -- Ved Mehta. 62. Off the Record: Untold Stories from a Reporter's Diary -- Ajith Pillai. 63. A Town Offers Its Shoulder -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 64. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 65. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 66

How did one of the greatest nonviolent movements in history emerge from within the supposedly violent Pathans of the wild frontier? Why do poor people in India vote even though there seems to be no point to it? Why does an ancient garment like the sari endure -- but democracy seem in peril? Mukulika Banerjee joins Amit Varma in episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the questions that kept her up at night -- and the lessons they hold for us. Also check out:1. Mukulika Banerjee at LSE, Google Scholar, Amazon and Twitter. 2. The Pathan Unarmed -- Mukulika Banerjee. 3. Why India Votes -- Mukulika Banerjee. 4. Cultivating Democracy -- Mukulika Banerjee. 5. The Sari -- Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller. 6. Muslim Portraits: Everyday Lives in India -- Edited by Mukulika Banerjee. 7. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Thomas Hardy on Amazon. 9. Maxim Gorky, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov on Amazon. 10. The Proposal -- Anton Chekhov. 11. Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew on Amazon. 12. The House of the Dead -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 13. An American Werewolf in London -- John Landis. 14. The Emergency: A Personal History -- Coomi Kapoor. 15. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 16. India's Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 17. The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett. 18. Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Faith Is A Battle -- DG Tendulkar. 19. Kabuliwala -- Rabindranath Tagore. 20. Kabuliwala (1961 film) -- Hemen Gupta. 21. 'That Killed Cat Lives With Me' -- Isaac Asimov's quote. 22. The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock -- TS Eliot. 23. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 25. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 26. 'Tell a Sanghi/Bhakt at a job interview...' -- SirKazamJeevi's tweet. 27. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 49 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 28. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 29. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 30. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 31. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Modeling Covid-19 -- Episode 224 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gautam Menon). 33. Can the Subaltern Speak? -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. 34. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 35. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 36. Mahanagar -- Satyajit Ray. 37. Everybody Lies -- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 38. The Truth About Ourselves -- Amit Varma. 39. Electoral Politics in the Time of Change -- Yogendra Yadav 40. The Economics of Voting -- Amit Varma on Rational Ignorance. 41. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking -- Amit Varma on Lal Bihari Mritak. 42. Well Done, Abba -- Shyam Benegal. 43. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 44. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 45. Women in Rajniti and Lokniti -- Mukulika Banerjee (Go to page 19 to read). 46. Nick Hornby on Amazon. 47. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 48. Collective Effervescence on Wikipedia. 49. The Manchester School of Anthropology. 50. Desert Island Discs on BBC. 51. Deshe Bideshe (Bengali) (English) -- Syed Mujtaba Ali. 52. Uday Bhawalkar performs Raag Bhairav. 53. Dhrupad by Ustad Mohiuddin Dagar. 54. Songs of the Earth -- Soumik Datta. 55. Messengers -- Soumik Datta. This episode is sponsored by Paradigm Shift, a new podcast by Microsoft India, produced by ATS Studios and hosted by Harsha Bhogle..Listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or any podcast app of your choice. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Illustration by Khyati Pathak.

We live in times when all Indian Muslims are forced to be aware of their Muslimness. Hussain Haidry joins Amit Varma in episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his art and these difficult times we live in. Also check out: 1. Hussain Haidry on Twitter, Instagram and IMDb. 2. Hindustani Musalmaan -- Hussain Haidry. 3. Lat -- Hussain Haidry. 4. 10 Poems recommended by Hussain Haidry -- Chalchitra Talks. 5. Being Muslim in India -- Episode 216 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ghazala Wahab). 6. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 7. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 8. Nida Fazli and Dushyant Kumar at Rekhta. 9. Maximum City -- Suketu Mehta. 10. Shantaram -- Gregory David Roberts. 11. A Fine Balance -- Rohinton Mistry. 12. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 13. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 14. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 15. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 16. Private Truths, Public Lies -- Timur Kuran. 17. Muslim Portraits: Everyday Lives in India -- Edited by Mukulika Banerjee. 18. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's Father's Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen (w RSJ). 19. Mohammad Zubair's Twitter thread on the Dharam Sansad. 20. Malevolent Republic -- Kapil Komireddi. 21. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 23. Arvind Kejriwal's tweet after the abrogation of Article 370. 24. The tweets by Atishi Marlena and Raghav Chadha. 25. Sangham Sharanam Gachchami -- Vijai Trivedi. 26. Ranga Hari on Amazon. 27. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 28. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma. 29. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 30. Hussain Haidry's Twitter thread on blocking. 31. Alishan Jafri on Twitter. 32. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Aadha Gaon -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 34. Chai Coffee -- Hussain Haidry. 35. You're Missing -- Bruce Springsteen. 36. Hussain Haidry interviewed by Ravish Kumar. 37. Imtiaz Dharker on Amazon. 38. Dugg Duggi Dugg -- Song from Jugni. Lyrics by Shellee, music by Clinton Cerejo. 39. Qarib Qarib Singlle on Spotify. 40. Tanha Begum -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rochak Kohli. 41. Mukkabaaz on Spotify. 42. Haathapai -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 43. Blond Balma -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 44. Tu Kahaan Hai -- Song from Tripling. Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Nilotpal Bora. 45. Patang -- Song from Tripling. Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Nilotpal Bora. 46. Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Vishal Dadlani. 47. Bandar Baant -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Bandish Projekt. 48. Bahut Hua Samman -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 49. Ankahi Kahaniya -- Amnibus film that includes Madhyantara, with a screenplay by Hussain Haidry, and directed by Abhishek Chaubey. 50. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie -- Luis Buñuel. 51. Laakhon Mein Ek, Season 2 -- Written by Hussain Haidry. 52. लोहे के स्वाद -- Hussain Haidry. 53. Talkhiyan -- Sahir Ludhianvi. 54. Sahir Ludhianvi, Nida Fazli, Ahmad Faraz, Jaun Eliya, Rahat Indori, Waseem Barelvi, Munawwar Rana, Abbas Tabish, Rehman Faris, Azhar Faragh, Ameer Imam, Naeem Sarmad, Nomaan Shauque, Ali Zaryoun, Tehzeeb Hafi and Umair Najmi on Rekhta. 55. Fahrenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury. 56. Rangeela -- Ram Gopal Varma. 57. Ghulam -- Vikram Bhatt 58. On the Waterfront -- Elia Kazan. 59. Get Out -- Jordan Peele. 60. Fandry -- Nagraj Manjule. 61. Where is the Friend's Home? -- Abbas Kiarostami. 62. Soiyega Mat - Hussain Haidry. This episode is sponsored by The Desi Crime Podcast. You'll find them on all podcast apps. The illustration for this episode is one-off offering by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram, Substack and episode 260 of The Seen and the Unseen. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

India is in bad shape. Bad economics is one reason why. Economists Rajeswari Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya join Amit Varma in episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen to take stock of the mess. You don't like dissent? Too bad. We're Bongs, and you cannot shut us up. Also check out: 1. Shrayana Bhattacharya on Twitter, Instagram and Google Scholar. 2. Rajeswari Sengupta on Google Scholar and her own site. 3. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 4. Twelve Dream Reforms -- Episode 138 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan, Rajeswari Sengupta & Vivek Kaul). 5. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 6. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh -- Shrayana Bhattacharya. 7. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 8. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 9. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 10. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 11. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 12. The State of Our Economy (Nov 2021) -- Episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand.) 13. Taking Stock of Our Economy (May 2021) — Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik). 14. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) — Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand). 15. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 16. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 17. Everything That Was Broken -- Mary Oliver (from Felicity). 18. I Boiled My Buttocks for a Week -- Amit Varma on how we normalize everything. 19. Dekalog -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 20. What the Economy Needs Now -- Various authors. 21. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 22. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain and Deepak Shenoy. 23. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 24. Our Parliament and Our Democracy -- Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 25. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 26. Emergent Ventures. 27. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 28. On Inequality -- Harry Frankfurt. 29. We Must Save Our Farmers — Amit Varma. 30. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 31. Intent to Implementation : Tracking India's Social Protection Response to COVID-19 -- Shrayana Bhattacharya and Sutirtha Sinha Roy. 32. On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. 33. Modi's Lost Opportunity — Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 34. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 35. What a Long Strange Trip It's Been — Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian). 36. The Median Voter Theorem. 37. The 'bloated and grotesque' tweet by @mrjohndarby. 38. ASER, CMIE and SWAN. 39. The Billion Prices Project. 40. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. In Bollywood, women get screen time but very little talk time -- Mohua Das. 42. A Woman, Thinking -- Paromita Vohra. 43. Lost in the Shallows -- Amit Varma on Dear Zindagi. 44. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Mrinal Pande's pieces for Pragati on women in Indian agriculture: 1, 2. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

He's that Blackstratblues guy. He's done rock, blues, sessions work for Bollywood, and you can't put him in a box. Indie music legend Warren Mendonsa joins Amit Varma and guest co-host Chuck Gopal in episode 273 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his career, how he only aims to make music that makes him happy, and the common thread that binds us all. Also check out: 1. Warren Mendonsa on Instagram and Twitter. 2. Blackstratblues music and community. Also, on YouTube and Spotify. 3. Anuva's Sky and Ode to a Sunny Day. 4. The therapy that is Blackstratblues -- Deepak 'Chuck' Gopalakrishnan. 5. Warren interviewed by Chuck and Varad Wategaonkar: Part 1 & Part 2. 6. Warren Mendonsa: The Universe Has The Blues -- Interview by Michael Limnios. 7. 2018 interview of Warren by EveryoneLovesGuitar. 8. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Ted Gioia on Music as Cultural Cloud Storage -- Episode 79 of Conversations With Tyler. 10. The Great Man Theory. 11. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 12. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 13. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 14. What is Internet? -- Bill Gates on the David Letterman Show. 15. Why Old Music is Killing New Music -- Rick Beato. 16. The viral TikTok video by doggface208 featuring Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams.' 17. The Volkswagen commercial featuring Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon.' 18. The Time a Stiff Caught Fire -- Keith Yates on Billy Joel. 19. PSP 12" -- Zero. 20. Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale. 21. Derek Trucks talks guitar and plays incredible slide. 22. Turbo Killer -- Carpenter Brut. 23. Afrique Victime -- Mdou Moctar. 24. Tinariwen on Spotify. 25. Dungen on Spotify. 26. The Dungen albums, Ta Det Lugnt and 4, with the song Mina Damer Och Fasaner. 27. Josh Fix on Spotify. 28. This Town Is Making Me Angry -- Josh Fix. 29. The Formula Behind Every Perfect Pop Song -- Seeker. 30. Why We Choke -- Amit Varma (on the Yips). 31. This is Your Brain on Music -- Daniel Levitin. 32. Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality -- TED Talk by Anil Seth. 33. What Colour Is Your Raindrop -- Tajdar Junaid. 34. Dastaan -- Tajdar Junaid. 35. 10 Things I Wish I Knew when I started playing Guitar -- Warren Mendonsa. 36. This Is Spinal Tap -- Rob Reiner. 37. Monty Python's Life of Brian. 38. Masala Lab on Instagram. 39. Krish Ashok on Spotify and Apple Music. 40. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 41. Bill McClintock on YouTube. 42. Derek Trucks and Michael Landau on Spotify. 43. Nadia - Nitin Sawhney with Jeff Beck live. 44. Where Were You? -- Jeff Beck. 45. Arinjoy Sarkar and Rudi Wallang on YouTube. 46. Achint on Instagram and YouTube. 47. Tejas, Komorebi, Rohan Rajadhyaksha and Sandunes. Also, do check out Chuck Gopal's specially curated playlist of Indian rock and metal for listeners of The Seen and the Unseen. (Here's a YouTube version.) This episode is sponsored by The Desi Crime Podcast. You'll find them on all podcast apps. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Our freedom fighters didn't just fight the British. They also grappled with each other in the marketplace of ideas and actions. Shruti Kapila joins Amit Varma in episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe how so many of our founders were also innovative political philosophers -- and how we still fight their battles today. Also check out: 1. Shruti Kapila at Cambridge, The Print and Twitter. 2. Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age -- Shruti Kapila. 3. An Intellectual History for India -- Edited by Shruti Kapila. 4. Political Thought in Action: The Bhagavad Gita and Modern India -- Edited by Shruti Kapila and Faisal Devji. 5. The Death and Life of Great American Cities -- Jane Jacobs. 6. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 7. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 8. Tryst With Destiny (Text) (Video) -- Jawaharlal Nehru's speech at Independence. 9. Jawaharlal Nehru on Amazon. 10. Carl Schmitt on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 11. Junoon (1978) on IMDb and Wikipedia. 12. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 13. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 14. Hindutva -- VD Savarkar. 15. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 16. Malevolent Republic — Kapil Komireddi. 17. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 18. The Multitudes of Our Maharajahs -- Episode 244 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 19. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 20. Sigmund Freud on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 21. An Anthropologist Among Historians -- Bernard S Cohn. 22. The Birth of the Modern World -- CA Bayly. 23. CA Bayly on Amazon. 24. Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar on Amazon. 25. Hilary Mantel on Amazon. 26. Song of Myself, 51 -- Walt Whitman. 27. Indian Unrest -- Valentine Chirol. 28. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 29. Shrimad Bhagwad Gita Rahasya -- Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 30. The Indian War of Independence, 1857 -- Veer Savarkar. 31. Hind Swaraj -- Mahatma Gandhi. 32. Meatless Days -- Sara Suleri. 33. Rohinton Mistry and Salman Rushdie on Amazon. 34. Aguirre, the Wrath of God -- Werner Herzog. 35. Masaan -- Neeraj Ghaywan. 36. Khayal Gatha -- Kumar Shahani. 37. Mirzapur on Prime Video. 38. Paatal Lok on Prime Video. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Deepak Shenoy wants to ask Amit Varma about the creator economy. Amit wants to talk to Deepak about finance and his new book. Episode 271 of The Seen and the Unseen is a crossover episode with the Capital Mind Podcast in which Amit and Deepak get a jugalbandi going. Also check out: 1. Deepak Shenoy on LinkedIn and Twitter. 2. Money Wise: Timeless Lessons on Building Wealth -- Deepak Shenoy. 3. Capitalmind, Deepak Shenoy's investment research and wealth management company. 4. The Capitalmind Podcast and YouTube channel. 5. Lessons in Investing (and Life) -- Episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Deepak Shenoy). 6. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal and Nishant Jain. 8. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- James Thurber. 9. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne (on Wikipedia and YouTube). 10. The Truman Show -- Peter Weir. 11. Losing My Religion -- REM. 12. With or Without You -- U2. 13. Conversation and Society -- Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 14. Econ Talk (by Russ Roberts) and Conversations with Tyler (by Tyler Cowen). 15. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prem Panicker). 16. The Connell Guide to How to Write Well -- Tim de Lisle. 17. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 20. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll. 21. When Harry Met Sally -- Rob Reiner. 22. Dil Dhoondhta Hai Phir Wohi Fursat Ke Raat Din -- Bhupinder Singh. 23. Dave Barry on Amazon. 24. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years -- Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 25. Gurpriya Sidhu's tweet thread on sitting alone at cafes. 26. Self-Esteem (and a Puddle) -- Amit Varma's post with Douglas Adams's puddle quote. 27. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus -- John Gray. 29. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 30. $800,000 to Zero - The FASCINATING History of DaVinci Resolve -- Alex Jordan of Learn Color Grading. 31. Casey Neistat and MrBeast on YouTube. 32. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 33. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 34. Sinocism -- Bill BIshop's Newsletter. 35. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 36. Blueprint for Armageddon -- Episode 50-55 of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. 37. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok. 39. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel. 40. AR Rahman on Spotify. 41. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 42. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health -- Amit Varma. 43. Dave Chappelle on Netflix. 44. Ideas of India -- Shruti Rajagopalan's podcast. 45. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 47. Dunbar's Number. 48. Poker and Stock Markets -- Episode 47 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand). 49. So it's now 20,000, is it a big deal? -- Deepak Shenoy's famous ghazals post from 2007. 50. Hoshwalon Ko Khabar Kya -- Jagjit Singh, from Sarfarosh. 51. Tum Ko Dekha Toh Ye Khayal Aaya -- Jagjit Singh, from Saath Saath. 52. La Pila De Sharab Ai Saqi -- Jagjit Singh. 53. How I Made $4,790,000 in 2021 -- Ali Abdaal. 54. The Power of Imagination — Mohammed Salim Khan. 55. Don't Get Fooled By Success (2005) -- Amit Varma. 56. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. Zerodha Varsity. 58. The Motley Fool. 59. The YouTube Channels of Rachana Ranade and Ishmohit Arora. 60. Stock Market For Beginners (Hindi) -- Pranjal Kamra. 61. Everything You Need to Know About Finance and Investing in Under an Hour -- William Ackman. 62. Liar's Poker -- Michael Lewis. 63. Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist -- Roger Lowenstein. 64. When Genius Failed -- Roger Lowenstein. 65. Peter Lynch on Amazon. 66. Market Wizards & The New Market Wizards by Jack D Schwager. 67. The Complete TurtleTrader: How 23 Novice Investors Became Overnight Millionaires -- Michael W Covel. 68. Invest Like the Best — Patrick O'Shaughnessy's podcast. 69. Books we Like: On Investing, Trading & More — The Capitalmind team. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Things are bad -- so bad that he's written two books about it. Aakar Patel joins Amit Varma in episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss politics, the media and his reasons for being hopeful in spite of all the doom and gloom. Also check out: 1. Aakar Patel on Twitter, Amazon, Deccan Chronicle, Business Standard and the Times of India. 2. Our Hindu Rashtra: What It Is. How We Got Here -- Aakar Patel. 3. Price of the Modi Years -- Aakar Patel. 4. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 5. The Tank Man video. (And the Wikipedia page.) 6. August Landmesser, who may have been the man who didn't salute. 7. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Amit Varma's Twitter thread on Westland shutting down. 9. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty -- Albert O. Hirschman. 10. Selected episode of The Seen and the Unseen on the economy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 11. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 12. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 13. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 15. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 16. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma on Demonetisation. 17. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 18. India's Undeclared Emergency -- Arvind Narrain. 19. The Silent Coup: A History of India's Deep State — Josy Joseph. 20. India's Security State -- Episode 242 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Josy Joseph). 21. Colours of the Cage: A Prison Memoir -- Arun Ferreira. 22. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 23. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 24. Integral Humanism -- Deendayal Upadhyaya. 25. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind -- Gustave le Bon. 26. Crowds and Power -- Elias Canetti. 27. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 29. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 30. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century -- Francis Fukuyama. 31. The Origins of Political Order -- Francis Fukuyama. 32. Political Order and Political Decay -- Francis Fukuyama. 33. The Great Man Theory of History. 34. Modi's Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 35. My Country, My Life -- LK Advani. 36. Modi's Lost Opportunity -- Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 37. A Rude Life — Vir Sanghvi. 38. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati. 40. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 41. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 42. Excerpts from Narendra Modi's interview by Madhu Kishwar. 43. Obituary of a Culture -- Ashis Nandy. 44. The Second Coming — William Butler Yeats. 45. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 46. Joy Das's tweet thread about Indian Muslims being called Pakistanis. 47. Television Price Controls -- Episode 27 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashok Malik). 48. Fighting Fake News -- Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 49. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Aakar Patel's tweet on protests as a craft. 51. Here Comes The Groom: A Conservative Case for Gay Marriage -- Andrew Sullivan. 52. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 53. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Kumar Gandharva on Spotify. 54. The Histories -- Herodotus. 55. Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Julius Caesar on Amazon. 56. Baburnama: A Memoir -- Babur. 57. The Life of the Bee -- Maurice Maeterlinck. 58. Edward O Wilson on Amazon. 59. NASASpaceflight on YouTube. 60. Ludwig van Beethoven on Spotify. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

A lifetime in diplomacy gave Nirupama Rao an inside view of the making of the first draft of history. She joins Amit Varma in episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her life lessons -- and what still keeps her buzzing every day. Also check out: 1. Nirupama Rao on Twitter, Substack, Instagram and her own website. Her bio and work are here. 2. The Fractured Himalaya -- Nirupama Rao. 3. A Life in Diplomacy -- Nirupama Rao's talk at Claremont McKenna College. 4. Selected episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on China: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5. Selected episode of The Seen and the Unseen on Foreign Policy: 1, 2. 6. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. The Glass Cliff. 10. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting -- Episode 31 of Brave New World (hosted by Vasant Dhar). 11. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 12. Democracy in Pakistan — Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Hamsini Hariharan.) 13. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 14. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 15. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (with Tripurdaman Singh & Adeel Hussain.) 16. Talking South Asia: Can Identity Be Crafted Through the Medium of Music? -- A conversation between Nirupama Rao and Ali Sethi. 17. The Tirukkural -- Tiruvalluvar. 18. Collected Poems -- AK Ramanujan. 19. I Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer -- Joan Baez. 20. Joan Baez, Maria Callas, Renée Fleming and Marian Anderson on Spotify. 21. The Collected Tintin. 22. Ekla Chalo Re. 23. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 24. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. In Praise of Shadows -- Junichiro Tanizaki. 26. Some Prefer Nettles -- Junichiro Tanizaki. 27. The Book of Tea -- Kakuzo Okakura. 28. MS Subbulakshmi on Spotify. 29. The Country without a Post Office -- Agha Shahid Ali. 30. The Lark Ascending -- Vaughan Williams. 31. Norma -- Vincenzo Bellini. 32. Casta Diva -- Maria Callas. 33. Connais-Tu Le Pays -- Ambroise Thomas. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not just a seminal moment in world history, but a teachable one. Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai join Amit Varma in episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss concepts and frameworks of foreign policy that can help us make sense of this turmoil. If this subject interests you, consider signing up for Takashshila's GCPP: Defence & Foreign Affairs course. Registration is open for the May Cohort. Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 2. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 3. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 4. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Hamsini Hariharan.) 5. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6. Understanding Foreign Policy — Episode 63 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai). 7. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane's newsletter (with RSJ). 8. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra). 9. Selected episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on China: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 10. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The End of History? -- Francis Fukuyama's essay. 13. The End of History and the Last Man -- Francis Fukuyama's book. 14. The Great Man Theory of History. 15. Russia's War on Ukraine: A Roundtable -- Bari Weiss speaks to Niall Ferguson, Walter Russell Mead and Francis Fukuyama. 16. Around the halls: Implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- Brookings roundup of expert views, including from Marvin Kalb. 17. Modi's Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 18. The Median Voter Theorem. 19. Social Theory of International Politics -- Alexander Wendt on constructivism in international relations. 20. Hindutva -- VD Savarkar. 21. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel, discussing Hindutva among other things). 22. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 23. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 24. Whole Numbers and Half Truths — Rukmini S. 25. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 26. Why I am a Hindu -- Shashi Tharoor. 27. The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of A Nation -- Granville Austin. 28. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 29. Three Conundrums -- Anticipating the Unintended #159 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 30. Through The Looking Glass -- Anticipating the Unintended #160 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 31. No man is an island entire of itself... -- Anticipating the Unintended #161 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 32. The Overton Window. 33. India's Strategies for a New World Order -- Anirudh Kanisetti, Anupam Manur, Pranay Kotasthane and Akshay Alladi. 34. The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence -- Daniel Drezner, Henry Farrell and Abraham L Newman. 35. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 36. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. The Idiot -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 38. 'Stop the war.' 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin -- Sam Copeland. 39. Alexander Grischuk's emotional press conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Watch from 4:20.) 40. Power and International Relations -- David A Baldwin. 41. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers -- Paul M Kennedy. 42. The Power of Nations: Measuring What Matters -- Michael Beckley. 43. The game theory concept of Chicken. 44. India in the Nuclear Age -- Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 45. National Power After AI -- Matthew Daniels and Ben Chang. 46. Why liberal democracies have a distinct edge on cyber capability -- Nitin Pai. 47. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh.) 48. Can Democracy Survive in the Information Age? -- Eric Rosenbach and Katherine Mansted on the Authoritarian Information Paradox. 49. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 50. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek.) 51. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas -- Natasha Dow Schüll. 52. Irresistible: Why We Can't Stop Checking, Scrolling, Clicking and Watching -- Adam Alter. 53. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks -- Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. 54. The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium -- Martin Gurri. 55. Social media are turbocharging the export of America's political culture -- The Economist. 56. America in South Asia -- Episode 93 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 57. The Geopolitics of the Banglad

Indian mainstream media tends to see our country with the gaze of a privileged North Indian man. That is changing. Dhanya Rajendran joins Amit Varma in episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her journey in setting up The News Minute, and in deepening our journalism and the conversations we have. Also check out: 1. Dhanya Rajendran on Twitter, Instagram and The News Minute. 2. Support The News Minute. 3. Cut the Clutter. 4. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The death of Savita Halappanavar. 6. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 7. Some regional publications: Newsmeter, The Cue and Truecopythink. 8. 7 Indians are hostages in a conflict between Houthi rebels and Saudi coalition in Yemen -- Sanyukta Dharmadhikari. 9. The Story of an Income Tax Search -- Dhanya Rajendran on Instagram. 10. TV Newsance -- Manisha Pande -- YouTube Playlist. 11. 10,000 people charged with sedition in one Jharkhand district -- Supriya Sharma for Scroll. 12. Manju and the Mommy Wars: Why should women conform to 'ideal mother' stereotype? -- Sowmya Rajendran. 13. Superforecasting -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 14. The Mallu Analyst on YouTube. 15. Get Roast with Gaya3 on YouTube. 16. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 17. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma on Demonetisation. 18. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Tweets on the Bharat Biotech court case by Siddharth Varadarajan and Dhanya Rajendran. (See who got trolled more!) 20. Does India take its national symbols too seriously? — Jan 2008 episode of We the People. 21. Our Hindu Rashtra -- Aakar Patel. 22. Price of the Modi Years -- Aakar Patel. 23. Whole Numbers and Half Truths -- Rukmini S. 24. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 25. Malare -- Song from Premam. 26. Missing: Half the Story: Journalism as if Gender Matters -- Kalpana Sharma and others. 27. The Anatomy of Hate -- Revati Laul. 28. The Seasons of Trouble -- Rohini Mohan. 29. Notting Hill. 30. And once again, support The News Minute! This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Historians write about the lives of others -- but what about their own journeys? Ramachandra Guha joins Amit Varma in episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen to reflect on his notion of home, how he got from there to here, and the strange dreams that sometimes come. Also check out: 1. Rebels Against the Raj -- Ramachandra Guha. 2. Savaging the Civilized -- Ramachandra Guha. 3. A Functioning Anarchy?: Essays for Ramachandra Guha -- Nandini Sundar and Srinath Raghavan. 4. Ramachandra Guha on Amazon. 5. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game -- Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 6. Taking Stock of Our Republic -- Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 7. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas -- Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 8. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma -- Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 9. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Aadha Gaon -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 11. Jamuna Kinare Mera Gaon -- Kumar Gandharva. 12. What Have We Done With Our Independence? -- Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 13. A Fish in the Water -- Mario Vargas Llosa. 14. Subaltern and Bhadralok Studies -- Ramachandra Guha. 15. MN Srinivas on Amazon. 16. Manu Pillai on Amazon. 17. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 18. Sanjay Subrahmanyam on Amazon. 19. The Gun, the Ship and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions and the Making of the Modern World -- Linda Colley. 20. Linda Colley on Amazon. 21. Upinder Singh and Nayanjot Lahiri on Amazon. 22. Sturgeon's Law. 23. David Gilmour on Amazon. 24. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin -- Charles Darwin. 25. Of Gifted Voice: The Life and Art of MS Subbulakshmi -- Keshav Desiraju. 26. Finding The Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music -- Amit Chaudhuri. 27. Symphony No.3, Op.36 — Henryk Gorecki. 28. Mallikarjun Mansur, Bhimsen Joshi, Kumar Gandharva, Kishori Amonkar, Basavraj Rajguru, Sharafat Hussain Khan, DV Paluskar, Faiyaz Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Bismillah Khan, Vilayat Khan, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Arvind Parikh, Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Rashid Khan, Venkatesh Kumar and Priya Purushothaman on YouTube. 29. Raju Asokan and Subrata Chowdhury on YouTube. 30. Veena Doreswamy Iyengar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan in Jugalbandi, 1962-62. 31. Hamsadhvani -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, 1950s in Bangalore. 32. Dhano Dhanne -- Jaya Varma and the Chandigarh Choir. 33. The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do -- Judith Rich Harris. 34. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 35. In Absentia: Where are India's conservative intellectuals? -- Ramachandra Guha. 36. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 37. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society -- Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 38. Political Ideology in India -- Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 39. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. The Chipko Movement -- Shekhar Pathak. 41. DR Nagaraj, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Sujit Mukherjee, Tridip Suhrud, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Girish Karnad and Mahasweta Devi on Amazon. 42. Marxvaad aur Ram Rajya -- Karpatri Maharaj. 43. The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual -- Ramachandra Guha. 44. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 45. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Amazon. 46. Reconcling the Nagas -- Ramachandra Guha. 47. The State of Our Farmers -- Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil). 48. KT Achaya on Amazon. 49. Shiv Visvanathan on Amazon. 50. Manthan -- Shyam Benegal. 51. Science as a Vocation -- Max Weber. 52. AA Thomson on Wikipedia. 53. Ernest Hemingway, W Somerset Maugham, Penelope Fitzgerald, Barbara Pym and Leo Tolstoy on Amazon. 54. The Kingdom of God Is Within You -- Leo Tolstoy. 55. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 56. War and Peace -- Leo Tolstoy. 57. Father Sergius -- Leo Tolstoy (translated by Aylmer and Louise Maude). 58. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 59. Limonov -- Emmanuel Carrère. 60. The Netanyahus -- Joshua Cohen. 61. The Gate of Angels -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 62. The Knox Brothers -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 63. Nicholas Boyle on Amazon. 64. Gandhi's Formative Years -- Ramachandra Guha's essay that mentions Boyle's Laws of Biography. 65. Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography -- Sarvepalli Gopal. 66. The Wire -- David Simon etc. 67. The Second Coming -- William Butler Yeats. 68. Ramachandra Guha interviewed by Madhu Trehan. 69. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 70. Granville Austin on Amazon. 71. The Citizenship Battles -- Episode 152 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 72. The Multiple Tragedies of the Kashmiri Pandit -- Ramachandra Guha. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's f

Life is beautiful, but we are too busy to notice. Writing is one way to capture the world, and to make our journey memorable. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey as an author, journalist, artist, Instagrammer -- and to explain the joys of slow-jamming the news. Also check out:1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar and his own website. 2. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal -- Amitava Kumar. 3. Husband Of A Fanatic -- Amitava Kumar. 4. A Matter of Rats -- Amitava Kumar. 5. Writing Badly is Easy -- Amitava Kumar. 6. Pyre -- Amitava Kumar. 7. Beautiful World, Where Are You -- Sally Rooney. 8. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Susan Sontag and Joan Didion on Amazon. 10. Dom Moraes, Khushwant Singh and Suketu Mehta on Amazon. 11. Despatches 15: A World of Stopped Watches -- Amit Varma. 12. A Picture of Hell, and No Kerosene -- Amit Varma. 13. Why I Write -- George Orwell. 14. John Berger and William Maxwell on Amazon. 15. Austerlitz -- WG Sebald. 16. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 17. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 18. Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing, Translation, and Crossing Between Cultures — Episode 17 of Conversations With Tyler. 19. The Notebook Trilogy — Agota Kristof. 20. Ved Mehta and VS Naipaul on Amazon. 21. India: A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 22. JM Coetzee, Janet Malcolm, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Pankaj Mishra and Amit Chaudhuri on Amazon. 23. Chandrahas Choudhury at The Middle Stage and Instagram.. 24. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 25. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 26. Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. 27. Letters from a Father to his Daughter -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 28. The Mahatma and the Poet — The letters between Gandhi and Tagore, compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 29. Zadie Smith and Teju Cole on Amazon. 30. Symphony No.3, Op.36 -- Henryk Gorecki. 31. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 32. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 33. Tess of the d'Urbervilles -- Thomas Hardy. 34. Martin Amis on Amazon. 35. The Remains of the Day -- Kazuo Ishiguro. 36. Court -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 37. The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 38. Ted Hughes and Colm Toibin on Amazon. 39. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (Jonathan Haidt speaking to host Vasant Dhar). 41. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 42. Rahul Roy (documentary filmmaker) on IMDb. 43. Most of Amit Varma's writing on Demonetisation, collected in one Twitter thread. 44. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 45. The Odd Woman and the City — Vivian Gornick. 46. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 47. Amit Varma's tweet thread about AI writing fiction. 48. I Vitelloni and Amarcord by Federico Fellini. 49. Eho -- Dren Zherka. 50. Charulata and Aranyer Din Ratri by Satyajit Ray. 51. Ashis Nandy on Amazon. 52. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. Prem Panicker in The Windowpane Sessions. 54. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal and Nishant Jain. 55. Hermit in Paris -- Italo Calvino. 56. Sophie Calle on Wikipedia. 57. Sophie Calle and the Art of Leaving a Trace -- Lili Owen Rowlands. 58. Sankarshan Thakur on Amazon and Twitter. 59. Penelope Fitzgerald on Amazon. 60. So Long, See You Tomorrow -- William Maxwell. 61. Citizen: An American Lyric -- Claudia Rankine. 62. Waiting for the Barbarians -- JM Coetzee. 63. Disgrace -- JM Coetzee. 64. Voices From Chernobyl -- Svetlana Alexievich. 65. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth. 66. English, August: An Indian Story -- Upamanyu Chatterjee. 67. Raag Darbari -- Shrilal Shukla. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Intellectuals need to get out of their ivory towers and take their ideas to the people, learning from them in the process. Barun Mitra joins Amit Varma in episode 264 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss what he learnt from his decades combining reflection and activism. Also check out: 1. Barun Mitra on Twitter, and at The Print, Indian Express and Pragati. Also, a bio. 2. India's Agriculture Crisis -- Episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra and Kumar Anand). 3. The Anti-Defection Law -- Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 4. Sell the Tiger to Save It -- Barun Mitra. 5. Lessons From an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 6. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 7. The State of Our Farmers -- Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil). 8. Farmers, Technology and Freedom of Choice: A Tale of Two Satyagrahas -- Amit Varma. 9. Down to Earth -- Sharad Joshi. 10. The Ultimate Resource -- Julian Simon. 11. The Simon-Ehrlich Wager. 12. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 13. Too Many People? -- Nicholas Eberstadt. 14. Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand. 15. Ayn Rand on Amazon. 16. ARCH-Vahini and ARCH Gujarat. 17. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment -- John Stossel. 18. Spontaneous Order. 19. The Emergency: A Personal History -- Coomi Kapoor. 20. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas -- Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 21. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma -- Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 22. Romulus Whitaker on Wikipedia, YouTube and Amazon. 23. The Skeptical Environmentalist -- Bjorn Lomborg. 24. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 25. The Three Languages of Politics -- Arnold Kling. 26. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (Vasant Dhar in conversation with Jonathan Haidt). 27. Online Disinhibition Effect. 28. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 29. Think Again -- Adam Grant. 30. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Hamsini Hariharan). 31. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 32. The Trees -- Philip Larkin. 33. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 34. The Mahatma and the Poet -- The letters between Gandhi and Tagore, compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 35. Gora -- Rabindranath Tagore. 36. The Home and the World -- Rabindranath Tagore. 37. The Miracle of Calcutta -- Manubehn Gandhi. 38. Lakshmi: An Introduction -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 39. A Godless Congregation -- Amit Varma. 40. Hind Swaraj -- MK Gandhi. 41. Flying Spaghetti Monster. 42. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 43. Taxes Should Be Used for Governance, Not Politics -- Amit Varma. 44. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 45. India Awakes. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Mrinal Pande, older than our republic, was writing from a time when it was felt that "a woman writing was like a dog walking on two hind legs." She joins Amit Varma in episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her learnings from a life in literature. Subjects discussed include our society, our languages, gender, politics and the state of our media. Also check out: 1. Mrinal Pande on Twitter, Amazon, Indian Express and Scroll. 2. The Other Country -- Mrinal Pande. 3. A Conservative Rebel: Memories of an Unusual Mother -- Ira Pande. 4. Amader Shantiniketan -- Shivani (translated by Ira Pande). 5. Mahadevi Verma and Amrit Lal Nagar on Amazon. 6. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. A House Divided: Origin and Development of Hindi/Urdu — Amrit Rai. 8. Hindi Nationalism — Alok Rai. 9. The Second Sex -- Simone de Beauvoir. 10. Bechan Sharma 'Ugra' on Amazon. 11. Search For My Tongue -- Sujata Bhatt. 12. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 13. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 14. Folktales from India -- AK Ramanujan. 15. Clever Wives and Happy Idiots: Folktales from the Kumaon Himalayas -- Ivan Minayev. 16. Maya Ne Ghumayo -- Mrinal Pande. 17. The Odyssey: A Stage Version -- Derek Walcott. 18. The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 19. Our Colorful Past -- Episode 127 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 20. The Truth About Us — Sanjoy Chakravorty. 21. Mrinal Pande's pieces for Pragati on women in Indian agriculture: 1, 2. 22. The controversy over the misogynist CBSE paper. 23. Vijaydhan Detha on Amazon. 24. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 25. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. The Barkha Dutt Files -- Episode 243 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 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. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

There was a time when our leaders dived into the public discourse and embraced the world of ideas. Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain join Amit Varma in episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe four debates that Jawaharlal Nehru entered with Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Sardar Patel and Syama Prasad Mookerjee. These old debates matter today, because those ideas are still being contested. Also check out: 1. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India -- Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 2. Sixteen Stormy Days -- Tripurdaman Singh. 3. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 4. Jawaharlal Nehru on Amazon. 5. Shruti Rajagopalan's talk on the many amendments in our constitution. 6. Karl May on Amazon. 7. Christopher Bayly on Amazon. 8. Violent Fraternity -- Shruti Kapila. 9. Amit Varma's tweet about books read, a snarky response, and a, um, weird comment. 10. Jürgen Habermas on Amazon and Wikipedia. 11. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 12. On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians -- Vladimir Putin. 13. Roam Research -- and Zettelkasten. 14. Niklas Luhmann and his use of Zettelkasten. 15. Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Volumes 1 to 98. 16. Emily Hahn on Amazon. 17. Ramachandra Guha on Amazon. 18. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen featuring Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4. 19. Nehru: The Invention of India -- Shashi Tharoor. 20. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Ep 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 21. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 22. William Hazlitt on Amazon. 23. Ernst Cassirer. 24. The Last Mughal -- William Dalrymple. 25. Zygmunt Bauman and Perry Anderson on Amazon. 26. The Clash of Economic Ideas -- Lawrence H White. 27. Hind Swaraj -- MK Gandhi. 28. Meghnad Desai on Amazon. 29. Nehru: A Contemporary's Estimate -- Walter Crocker. 30. Ayodhya - The Dark Night -- Krishna Jha and Dhirendra K Jha. 31. India's Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 32. Being Muslim in India -- Episode 216 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ghazala Wahab). 33. The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence -- Faisal Devji. 34. Creating a New Medina -- Venkar Dhulipala. 35. Swami Shraddhanand. 36. Modi's Domination - What We Often Overlook -- Keshava Guha. 37. Selected episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on China: 1, 2, 3, 4. 38. China's Good War -- Rana Mitter. 39. Sturgeon's Law. 40. Characters of Shakespeare's Plays -- William Hazlitt. 41. Preface to Shakespeare -- Samuel Johnson. 42. The Soong Sisters -- Emily Hahn. 43. Empire of Pain -- Patrick Radden Keefe. 44. Kings of Shanghai -- Jonathan Kaufman. 45. Collected Works of Ram Manohar Lohia. 46. Liquid Modernity -- Zygmunt Bauman. 47. The Anarchy -- William Dalrymple. 48. The Silent Coup: A History of India's Deep State — Josy Joseph. 49. India's Security State -- Episode 242 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Josy Joseph). 50. Great Expectations -- Charles Dickens. 51. The Rabbit and the Squirrel: A Love Story about Friendship -- Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

You may think you have India figured out -- but do you? Rukmini S joins Amit Varma in episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen to speak about the many layers of India she has uncovered by looking closely at data, and the stories that lie beneath. Also check out: 1. Whole Numbers and Half Truths -- Rukmini S. 2. The Importance of Data Journalism -- Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 3. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 4. The White Album -- Joan Didion. 5. The world's most expensive coffee, made from poop of civet cat, is made in India -- Hindustan Times news report. 6. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 7. What Have We Done With Our Independence? -- Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 8. The Business of Books -- Episode 150 of The Seen and the Unseen (w VK Karthika). 9. Munni Badnaam Hui. 10. Beautiful Thing -- Sonia Faleiro. 11. The Good Girls -- Sonia Faleiro. 12. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 13. Daily Rituals -- Mason Currey. 14. Daily Rituals: Women at Work -- Mason Currey. 15. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism -- Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Food and Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations -- Angus Deaton and Jean Dreze. 17. The Three Languages of Politics -- Arnold Kling. 18. Modeling Covid-19 -- Episode 224 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gautam Menon). 19. The Practice of Medicine -- Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto). 20. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He's alive! 21. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes. 22. The Big Fat Surprise — Nina Teicholz. 23. The Obesity Code — Jason Fung. 24. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal and Nishant Jain. 25. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 26. Ravish Kumar's Instagram post on Rukmini's book. 27. Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking) -- Christian Rudder. 28. Everybody Lies -- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 29. The Truth About Ourselves -- Amit Varma. 30. Posts by Amit Varma on Mahindra Watsa: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 31. The Kavita Krishnan Files -- Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 33. The papers on declining labour force participation of Indian women by Ashwini Deshpande and Sonalde Desai. 34. Amit Varma's provocative tweet on Urdu poetry. 35. If It's Monday It Must Be Madurai -- Srinath Perur. 36. Ghachar Ghochar -- Vivek Shanbhag (translated by Srinath Perur). 37. Girl No.166: Will this retired cop ever stop looking for Pooja? -- Smita Nair. 38. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 39. Group Polarization on Wikipedia. 40. Where Anna Hazare Gets It Wrong -- Amit Varma. 41. Superforecasting -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 42. Think Again -- Adam Grant. 43. Ideology and Identity — Pradeep K Chhibber and Rahul Verma. 44. Political Ideology in India -- Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 45. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 46. The Ultimate Resource -- Julian Simon. 47. The Simon-Ehrlich Wager. 48. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 49. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 50. Unemployment rate at four-decade high of 6.1% in 2017-18: NSSO survey -- Somesh Jha. 51. Consumer spend sees first fall in 4 decades on weak rural demand: NSO data -- Somesh Jha. 52. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla. 53. The Competent Authority -- Shovon Chowdhury. 54. Despite the State -- M Rajshekhar. 55. Ponniyin Selvan (Tamil) (English) (English audio) -- Kalki R Krishnamurthy. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

What we mean by art has changed in modern times -- and there has never been a better time to be an artist. Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist joins Amit Varma in episode 260 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and to share his insights on the creator economy. Also check out: 1. The Sneaky Artist -- Nishant Jain's website. 2. The Sneaky Art Post -- Nishant Jain's newsletter. 3. The Sneaky Art Podcast on Apple and Spotify. 4. Nishant Jain on Twitter, Instagram and Linktree. 5. Earlier episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan and Chuck Gopal. 6. The Story of Art -- EH Gombrich. 7. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 8. The Time a Stiff Caught Fire — Keith Yates. 9. Random BOOMER Journalist Says WHAT About Paul Simon??? — Rick Beato's magnificent rant. 10. Puneet Superstar interviewed on Dostcast. 11. Only Fans. 12. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 13. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 14. XKCD -- Webcomic by Randall Munroe. 15. Objects Speak to Annapurna Garimella -- Episode 257 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Roam Research. 17. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia. 18. PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie on Amazon. 19. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 20. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 21. The Citizenship Battles -- Episode 152 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 22. The Importance of Being Earnest -- Nishant Jain. 23. Shantaram -- Gregory David Roberts. 24. Supermen of Malegaon. 25. The Existentialism of Tiny People -- Nishant Jain. 26. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. 27. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 28. Reddit Gets Drawn. 29. Imaginary Number -- Vijay Seshadri. 30. A path to infinity, and beyond -- Nishant Jain. 31. Art is for everyone -- Nishant Jain. 32. At The Existentialist Café -- Sarah Bakewell. 33. Levon Aronian interviewed by Sagar Shah. 34. After the End of Art -- Arthur Danto. 35. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte -- Georges Seurat 36. Kya Surat Hai -- Bombay Vikings. 37. Fountain -- Marcel Duchamp. 38. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. 39. Cat's Cradle -- Kurt Vonnegut. 40. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 41. The Multitudes of Our Maharajahs -- Episode 244 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 42. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. r/vancouver, r/mildlyinteresting and r/interestingasfuck. 44. Some Reddit posts by Nishant Jain: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 45. David Letterman and Bill Gates talk about the Internet. 46. Exhalation -- Ted Chiang. 47. Kurt Vonnegut on Amazon. 48. Catch 22 -- Joseph Heller. 49. V for Vendetta -- Alan Moore and David Lloyd. 50. Watchmen -- Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. 51. Alan Moore on Amazon. 52. Identity -- Francis Fukuyama. 53. The Anarchy -- William Dalrymple. 54. Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar -- Tom Holland. 55. The Origins of Political Order -- Francis Fukuyama. 56. Political Order and Political Decay -- Francis Fukuyama. 57. Bluebird -- Charles Bukowsky. Check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Indian women are lonely in the bedroom, lonely in the kitchen, lonely in the workplace. Shrayana Bhattacharya joins Amit Varma in episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the interior and exterior lives of these unseen millions. Also check out 1. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence -- Shrayana Bhattacharya. 2. Select Shah Rukh Khan films: Baazigar, DDLJ, Dil Tho Pagal Hai, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Dilwale, Mohabbatein. 3. Shar Rukh Khan interviews selected by Shrayana: 1, 2, 3, 4. 4. The Power to Choose -- Naila Kabeer. 5. Naila Kabeer on Amazon. 6. Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women are Worth -- Marilyn Waring. 7. The Odd Woman and the City -- Vivian Gornick. 8. Vivian Gornick on Amazon. 9. Future Sex -- Emily Witt. 10. Kamala Das's autobiography, poems and stories. 11. Deborah Levy and Bell Hooks on Amazon. 12. Poor Economics -- Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. 13. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty -- Albert O Hirschman. 14. The Art of Loving -- Erich Fromm. 15. The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford. 16. Selected Satire: Fifty Years of Ignorance -- Shrilal Shukla. 17. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 18. Dani Rodrik's tweet thread about the 'jerk quotient' in economics. 19. The Hidden Taxes on Women -- Sendhil Mullainathan. 20. "Academia is a giant circlejerk" -- Amit Varma's tweet. 21. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 22. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok. 24. Bahujan Economics. 25. Raghuram Rajan at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2018. (Minute 5 onwards.) 26. In Service of the Republic -- Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 27. Superforecasting -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 28. Listen, The Internet Has SPACE -- Amit Varma. 29. Raees: An Empty Shell of a Gangster Film -- Amit Varma. 30. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking -- Amit Varma. 31. Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist -- Bruce Yandle. 32. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Jai Arjun Singh and Uday Bhatia. 33. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 34. Films, Feminism, Paromita -- Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 35. Modi's Lost Opportunity -- Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 36. Women at Work -- Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 37. What explains the decline in female labour force participation in India? -- Urmila Chatterjee, Rinku Murgai and Martin Rama. 38. Why Are Fewer Married Women Joining the Work Force in India? -- Farzana Afridi, Taryn Dinkelman and Kanika Mahajan. 39. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 40. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 41. House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths. 42. The Right to Sex -- Amia Srinivasan. 43. 'Let Me Interrupt Your Expertise With My Confidence' -- New Yorker cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein. 44. The Confidence Gap -- Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 45. The Ugliness of the Indian Male -- Mukul Kesavan. 46. The Blank Noise Project by Jasmeen Patheja. 47. Why Loiter? -- Shilpa Phadke. 48. The Jackson Katz quote on passive sentence constructions. 49. The Kavita Krishnan Files -- Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan). 51. Jane Austen and Pico Iyer on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

There has never been a better time to be a creator -- but you need to be productive to make use of it! Deepak Gopalakrishnan aka Chuck Gopal joins Amit Varma in episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and to share his learnings on creation and productivity. Also check out: 1. Earlier episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra and Snehal Pradhan. 2. Chuck Gopal on Twitter, Instagram, LinkTree and his own website. 3. Chuck's podcasts: Simblified, The Origin of Things and Getting Meta. 4. Chuck's newsletter: Things of Internet. 5. Chuck on Spotify where he shares his playlists. 6. Agency Trash Talk -- Instagram account c-authored by Chuck that used cat pictures to make fun of advertising. 7. The Telegram Channel where Chuck and Berty Ashley share a song every day. 8. Chucks comics for Pagalguy. 9. Some of Chuck's writing on Music: a) Making live-streamed concerts better b) The therapy that is Blackstratblues c) The story & evolution of Pink Floyd: A playlist d) Underrated Tracks by Legendary Bands e) Stream of consciousness: Dream Theater live! 10. Chuck's Medium post recommending podcasts and newsletters. 11. Chuck's legendary Twitter thread on freelancing. 12. Episode 1 of Getting Meta (w Amit Varma). 13. Episode 2 of Getting Meta (w Rohan Joshi). 14. Episode 4 of Getting Meta (w Utsav Mamoria). 15. The Beatles: Get Back. 16. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -- The Beatles. 17. The Dark Side of the Moon -- Pink Floyd. 18. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 19. Ne Obliviscaris on Spotify, Bandcamp, Instagram, Twitter, Wikipedia and Patreon. 20. Ongoing History of New Music -- Podcast by Alan Cross. 21. DivyaG's YouTube channel. (She's the Nepali graphic designer mentioned by Chuck). 22. Girl With The Dogs -- The YouTube channel of the pet groomer mentioned by Chuck). 23. Yesterday, the film. 24. Ed Sheeran on the Van Morrison influence on 'Thinking Out Loud'. 25. Dave Gilmour performs Sonnet 18. 26. Hip-Hop and Shakespeare -- Akala at TEDxAldeburgh. 27. The New Basement Tapes on Spotify. 28. Kansas City -- Marcus Mumford for The New Basement Tapes. 29. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 30. The Pocket Gods on Spotify. (This is the band Chuck mentioned that does songs just over 30 seconds.) 31. Video games have replaced music as the most important aspect of youth culture -- Sean Monahan. 32. Roblox. 33. How I Gained 1 MILLION Subscribers — Ali Abdaal. 34. My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers — Ali Abdaal. 35. The Bugle. 36. Freakonomics Radio. 37. Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman. 38. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok. 39. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day -- Nilay Patel. 40. Galaxy Brain -- Charlie Warzen's newsletter. 41. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Persuasion -- Founded by Yascha Mounk. 43. Faye D'Souza on Instagram. And also on YouTube and Twitter. 44. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 45. Bad Thinking Requires Bad Writing -- Amit Varma. 46. An Adman Reflects on Society & the Self -- Episode 199 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ambi Parameswaran). 47. Blackstratblues and Zero on Spotify. 48. Anuva's Sky -- Blackstratblues. 49. Son of Bosey -- Anand Ramachandran. 50. Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure. 51. Marketing Management: A South Asian Perspective -- Philip Kotler, Abraham Koshy & others. 52. Louie -- Louis CK. 53. George Carlin at his website and on YouTube. 54. Zakir Khan on YouTube. 55. Gaurav Kapoor's vlog. 56. Star Boyz, with Kenny Sebastian, Naveen Richard and Mani Prasad. 57. Alchemy -- Rory Sutherland. 58. Irresistible -- Adam Alter. 59. How We Are Enslaved -- Amit Varma. 60. Disregard Work, Acquire Hobbies -- Krish Ashok's TEDx talk. 61. Roam Research. 62. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World -- Fareed Zakaria. 63. Scott Galloway: No Mercy/No Malice, Pivot and The Prof G Pod. 64. Rest of World. 65. This is Your Brain on Music -- Daniel J Levitin. 66. Sum: Tales from the Afterlives -- David Eagleman. 67. The Complete Asterix Box set -- René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. 68. Sapiens -- Yuval Noah Harari. (Also, the graphic adaptation: 1, 2.) 69. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 70. Cosmicomics -- Italo Calvino. 71. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. Check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

The world is what it is -- but no one knows what that is, and we all see different worlds. Designer and art historian Annapurna Garimella joins Amit Varma in episode 257 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her passage of seeing, remembering, reflecting. Also check out:1. Annapurna Garimella on Amazon. 2. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 4. Lord of the Flies -- William Golding. 5. Human Behavioral Biology -- 25 Lectures by Robert Sapolsky. 6. On Children -- Kahlil Gibran. 7. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 8. Mamta -- Directed by Asit Sen. 9. 'Rahen Na Rahen Hum' -- Song from Mamta. 10. 'Rahte The Kabhi Jinke' -- Song from Mamta. 11. 'Chupa Lo Yun Dil Mein Pyar Mera' -- Song from Mamta. 12. 'Kuchh Tho Log Kahenge' -- Song from Amar Prem. 13. Clara Barton, Margaret Mead and Florence Nightingale on Wikipedia. 14. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 15. Coming of Age in Samoa -- Margaret Mead. 16. Six Persimmons. 17. Paper Menagerie (the story) -- Ken Liu. 18. The Paper Menagerie (the book) -- Ken Liu. 19. David Shulman, Velcheru Narayana Rao and Arik Moran. 20. Ogata Kenzan on Wikipedia. 21. Sardar Gurcharan Singh: Father of Studio Pottery in India -- Sumita Dutta. 22. A Poetry Handbook -- Mary Oliver. 23. The Red Wheelbarrow -- William Carlos Williams. 24. The Time a Stiff Caught Fire -- Keith Yates. 25. You Can't Please All -- Bhupen Khakhar. 26. Openly In Total: Bhupen Khakhar's experiments with truth -- Nakul Krishna. 27. Selected writings of Bhupen Khakhar. 28. Creative Confession -- Paul Klee. 29. KG Subramanyan and Rabindranath Tagore on Amazon. 30. The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor, mentioning Cavendish Bananas). 31. Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni -- Ghazal by Amir Khusro. 32. Think Again -- Adam Grant. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Data has no ideology, and journalists should always be guided by skepticism. Pramit Bhattacharya joins Amit Varma in episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey learning the craft and the values of analytical journalism. Also check out: 1. Pramit Bhattacharya's writings in Mint. 2. The Importance of Data Journalism -- Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 3. Data Journalism and Indian Politics — Episode 136 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Roshan Kishore). 4. India's Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu). 5. Taking Stock of Our Republic -- Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 6. Growth in a Time of Debt -- The Reinhart–Rogoff paper. 7. Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs. Hayek - The Original Economics Rap Battle! 8. Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek - Economics Rap Battle Round Two. 9. Conversation and Society -- Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 10. The Literature Machine -- Italo Calvino. 11. Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson on Amazon. 12. Farmers, Technology and Freedom of Choice: A Tale of Two Satyagrahas -- Amit Varma. 13. Vidarbha's Tryst With BT Cotton -- Pramit Bhattacharya. 14. The State of Our Farmers — Ep 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi). 15. India's Agriculture Crisis -- Episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra and Kumar Anand). 16. Thinking it Through -- The archives of Amit Varma's weekly column for Mint in 2007-8. 17. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Abhinandan Sekhri). 18. Elena Ferrante's interview about her writing process. 19. Niranjan Rajadhayaksha and Manas Chakravarty in Mint.20. Dadabhai Naoroji and the Fight for India -- Episode 187 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Dinyar Patel). 21. Pramit Bhattacharya in conversation with Milan Vaishnav in Grand Tamasha. 22. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 23. The Economic Consequences of the Peace -- John Maynard Keynes. 24. The Tamilian gentleman who took on the world -- Amit Varma 25. The Man of System — Adam Smith (excerpted from The Theory of Moral Sentiments). 26. Mohit Satyanand's newsletter. 27. GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History -- Diane Coyle. 28. Dunbar's number on Wikipedia. 29. Modeling Covid-19 -- Episode 224 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gautam Menon). 30. Zeynep Tufekci, Eric Topol, Bhramar Mukherjee and Gautam Menon on Twitter. 31. How to Make the World Add Up -- Tim Harford. 32. Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India -- Rukmini S. 33. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life -- Richard Hofstadter. 34. Understanding Statistics -- Antony Davies. 35. Anthills of the Savannah -- Chinua Achebe. 36. Elena Ferrante on Amazon. 37. A Gentleman in Moscow — Amor Towles. 38. Our Parliament and Our Democracy -- Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). Check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

In India, we inhabit many worlds, and we live in many languages, many literatures. Sara Rai joins Amit Varma in episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her rich life learning to write, learning to read, learning to live. Also check out: 1. Sara Rai on Amazon. 2. "You will be the Katherine Mansfield of Hindi" -- Sara Rai's essay in Caravan. 3. Other Skies -- Sara Rai. 4. Wilderness -- Sara Rai. 5. Premchand's Kazaki And Other Marvellous Tales -- Munshi Premchand (translated and with an introduction by Sara Rai). 6. The City -- CP Cavafy. 7. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 8. The World of Premchand: Selected Short Stories -- Munshi Premchand (translated and with an introduction by David Rubin). 9. Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions From South Asia -- Sheldon Pollock. 10. Blue Is Like Blue -- Vinod Kumar Shukla (translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Sara Rai). 11. Vinod Kumar Shukla on Amazon. 12. Collected Stories -- Naiyer Masud. 13. Naiyer Masud on Amazon. 14. Georges Simenon, Charles Dickens and Guy de Maupassant on Amazon. 15. The Aim of Literature -- Munshi Premchand. (Another version.) 16. Testaments Betrayed -- Milan Kundera. 17. Jealousy -- Marcel Proust. 18. The Abyss and Other Stories -- Leonid Andreyev. 19. So Much Water So Close To Home -- Raymond Carver. 20. Short Cuts -- Robert Altman. 21. Limits -- Raymond Carver. (Scroll down on that link to find the poem.) 22. Cathedral -- Raymond Carver. 23. Raymond Carver on Amazon. 24. Jean-Paul Sartre, Anton Chekhov, Franz Kafka and WG Sebald on Amazon. 25. Rings of Saturn -- WG Sebald. 26. Umrao Jaan Ada (English, Urdu, Hindi) -- Mirza Hadi Ruswa. 27. Jyotsna Milan on Amazon. 28. In Absentia: Where are India's conservative intellectuals? -- Ramachandra Guha. 29. Young India -- Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 30. Dreamers: How Indians are Changing the World -- Snigdha Poonam. 31. Meghadutam -- Kalidasa. 32. Humans of New York. 33. Sturgeon's Law on Wikipedia. 34. Random BOOMER Journalist Says WHAT About Paul Simon??? -- Rick Beato's magnificent rant. 35. The Time a Stiff Caught Fire -- Keith Yates. 36. Hindi Nationalism -- Alok Rai. 37. A House Divided: Origin and Development of Hindi/Urdu -- Amrit Rai. 38. The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 39. Early Indians -- Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 40. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 41. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 42. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 43. East West Street -- Philippe Sands. 44. Group Polarization on Wikipedia. 45. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind -- Gustave le Bon (on crowd psychology). 46. Private Truths, Public Lies -- Timur Kuran. 47. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan.) 48. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident -- Amit Varma. 49. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavitha Rao). 50. The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy -- Michael McCarthy. 51. H is for Hawk -- Helen Macdonald. 52. The Genius of Birds -- Jennifer Ackerman. 53. Nirmal Verma and Ismat Chugtai on Amazon. 54. The Hidden Life of Trees -- Peter Wohlleben. This episode is sponsored by Intel. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

He carried cables on a film set. He teamed up with friends named Arvind and Manish to save Delhi. He started a media company that said Boo to advertisers. Abhinandan Sekhri joins Amit Varma in episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen to speak about the many things he's learned during his rich and unconventional life. Also check out: 1. Abhinandan Sekhri on Twitter, Instagram and Newslaundry. 2. Subscribe to Newslaundry. 3. PG Wodehouse on Amazon. 4. War and Peace and The Thorn Birds. 5. The Return of the Native -- Thomas Hardy. 6. Far From the Madding Crowd -- Thomas Hardy. 7. Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare on Amazon. 8. Mills and Boon on Amazon. 9. Rang De Basanti. 10. Amusing Ourselves to Death -- Neil Postman. 11. It is Obscene -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. 12. Highway on My Plate. 13. Gustakhi Maaf on NDTV. 14. The Barkha Dutt Files -- Episode 243 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barkha Dutt). 15. The Dark Side of Indian Pharma -- Episode 245 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Dinesh Thakur). 16. Dinesh Thakur interviewed by Madhu Trehan. 17. Monsoon Wedding -- Mira Nair. 18. Uday Mahurkar's books on Savarkar and Modi. 19. MSK Vlogs -- Mohammed Salim Khan's YouTube channel. 20. The Power of Imagination -- Mohammed Salim Khan. 21. Public Opinion -- Walter Lippmann. 22. Filhaal -- Meghna Gulzar. 23. Luck is All Around -- Amit Varma. 24. Luck by Chance -- Zoya Akhtar. 25. Accident on the Sets of Devdas. (And then another one.) 26. 'Journalism is a Combat Sport' -- Abhinandan Sekhri. 27. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan.) 28. Our Parliament and Our Democracy -- Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 29. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 30. Em and the Big Hoom -- Jerry Pinto. 31. Shame -- Salman Rushdie. 32. The Ground Beneath Her Feet -- Salman Rushdie. 33. Shalimar the Clown -- Salman Rushdie. 34. Brighton Rock -- Graham Greene. 35. The Great Gatsby -- F Scott Fitzgerald. 36. Real Dictators. This episode is sponsored by Intel. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

A democracy is not just about voting, The rules of the game have to protect individuals, and institutions have to keep the government accountable. MR Madhavan joins Amit Varma in episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his efforts at empowering MPs and MLAs with knowledge -- and why we should not lose hope in our nation. Also check out: 1. PRS Legislative Research. 2. When You Could Only Buy Two Litres of Milk -- MR Madhavan. 3. The Functioning of the Indian Parliament -- MR Madhavan. 4. Dilli Door Nahin: Engaging With the Policy Process -- MR Madhavan. 5. Ulysses and Dubliners -- James Joyce. 6. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 7. Education in India -- Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 8. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 9. Taxes Should Be Used for Governance, Not Politics -- Amit Varma. 10. Battles Half Won: India's Improbable Democracy -- Ashutosh Varshney. 11. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 12. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 13. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 14. The Right to Property -- Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 15. The Federalist Papers -- Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. 16. The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution -- Sujit Choudhry, Madhav Khosla and Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 17. The Ideas of Our Constitution -- Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 18. India's Founding Moment — Madhav Khosla. 19. India's Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu). 20. The Anti-Defection Law -- Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 21. Speech to the Electors of Bristol -- Edmund Burke. 22. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game -- Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 23. Bindra's Wishlist -- Amit Varma. 24. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 25. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know -- Adam Grant. 26. The Gray Man -- Mark Greaney. 27. PG Wodehouse on Amazon. 28. The Three-Body Problem -- Cixin Liu. 29. Project Hail Mary -- Andy Weir. 30. A Gentleman in Moscow -- Amor Towles. 31. The Lincoln Highway -- Amor Towles. 32. The Paper Menagerie -- Ken Liu. This episode is sponsored by Intel. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Winter is here.The pandemic has receded, but our economy was already in bad shape before Covid struck, which made it plummet further. Where do we stand now? Can we recover? Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand join Amit Varma in episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen to take stock. Also check out: 1. The Lost Decade -- Puja Mehra. 2. Gimme Mo -- Mohit Satyanand's newsletter. 3. India's Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 4. This is All Because of Rupal Ben -- Episode 5 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand.) 5. Poker and Stock Markets -- Episode 47 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand). 6. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) -- Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand). 7. India's Start-Up Ecosystem -- Episode 171 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand). 8. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 9. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 10. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 11. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 12. Taking Stock of Our Economy (May 2021) -- Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik). 13. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 14. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 15. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 16. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 17. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 18. The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. 19. On Bullshit -- Harry Frankfurt. 20. India: Redeeming the Economic Pledge -- Bibek Debroy. 21. The Anti-Defection Law -- Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 22. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 23. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 24. Pandemonium in India's Banks -- Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay.) 25. Goodbye Solo -- Ramin Bahrani. 26. The desire to help, and the desire not to be helped -- Roger Ebert's review of Goodbye Solo. 27. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 28. Fooled by Randomness -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb. 29. Women at Work -- Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 30. Kashi Ka Assi -- Kashinath Singh. 31. The Dharma Forest -- Keerthik Sasidharan. 32. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 33. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. This episode is sponsored by Intel. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

History is often told in such a boring way that it might as well not have happened. And then, there are those who bring it so alive that the present seems so much clearer. Amit Schandillia joins Amit Varma in episode 251 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about how his historical storytelling made him a Twitter sensation -- and why both history and storytelling matter in these times. Also check out: 1. Select Twitter threads by Amit Schandillia: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 2. Amit Schandillia on Storytel. 3. Nina's Journey -- Nina Markovna. 4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Srinath Raghavan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 7. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 8. Who We Are and How We Got Here -- David Reich. 9. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 10. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 11. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 12. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati. 13. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi) 14. Churchill's Secret War -- Madhusree Mukerjee. 15. Churchill and the genocide myth -- Zareer Masani. 16. Churchill: Walking with Destiny -- Andrew Roberts. 17. The Expanding Circle -- Amit Varma. 18. A History of European Morals -- WEH Lecky. 19. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress -- Peter Singer. 20. Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America -- John McWhorter. 21. John McWhorter interviewed by Bill Maher and Vasant Dhar. 22. PN Oak on Wikipedia. 23. Tawaif -- Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 24. The Seen and the Unseen episodes with Ira Mukhoty, Parvati Sharma and Rana Safvi. 25. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavitha Rao). 26. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 27. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 28. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 29. Archive.org, Google Books, Jstor and ResearchGate. 30. The Big Deal About Blogging -- Amit Varma. 31. The Book Club -- Amit Varma's old show on Storytel. 32. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 33. Typefully. 34. Sake Dean Mohamed at Internet Archive and Wikipedia. 35. The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 36. Public Opinion -- Walter Lippmann. 37. The World Outside and the Pictures in our Heads -- Walter Lippmann. 39. Irfan Habib on Amazon. 40. Pilgrim Nation: The Making of Bharatvarsh -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 41. History of Western Philosophy -- Bertrand Russell. 42. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 43. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 44. Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire -- Alex von Tunzelmann. 45. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich -- William L Shirer. 46. Hardcore History by Dan Carlin. This episode is sponsored by Intel. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy are cult figures who transcend the universe of ordinary podcast guests. One of them, a renowned storyteller, joins Amit Varma in episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. Which one? Who knows? Schrödinger's Shenoy. Also check out: 1. Simblified, co-hosted by Narendra Shenoy. 2. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 3. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. EconTalk (hosted by Russ Roberts) and Conversations With Tyler (hosted by Tyler Cowen). 5. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 6. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 7. Getting Meta, hosted by Deepak Gopalakrishnan. 8. Why I Am Not a Christian -- Bertrand Russell. 9. A Godless Congregation -- Amit Varma. 10. It is immoral to have children. Here's why -- Amit Varma. 11. The Paperclip Maximiser. 12. Self-Esteem (and a Puddle) -- Amit Varma. 13. Dekalog -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. (And Roger Ebert's essay on it.) 14. Restaurant Regulations in India -- Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon). 15. We want Narendra Shenoy to write a book. 16. Masala Lab -- Krish Ashok. 17. Deep Work -- Cal Newport. 18. How to Escape From the Shallows -- Amit Varma. 19. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. 20. Collected Poems -- Mark Strand. 21. Duty Calls -- XKCD. 22. Bonhoeffer's Theory of Stupidity. 23. On Bullshit -- Harry G Frankfurt. 24. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He's alive! 25. Kashi Ka Assi -- Kashinath Singh. 26. Sam Harris on Amazon. 27. 3Blue1Brown on YouTube. 28. TheBackyardScientist on YouTube. 29. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 30. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 31. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 32. Early Indians -- Tony Joseph. 33. Thinking Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman. 34. PG Wodehouse on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by Intel. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

C is for Cricket. C is also for Creator. Snehal Pradhan, former fast bowler for the Indian team and current superstar creator, joins Amit Varma in episode 249 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her insights on both these ecosystems. Also check out: 1. Snehal Pradhan's website, newsletter, YouTube Channel, Instagram and Twitter. 2. An Equal Hue -- Senhal Pradhan, Karunya Keshav and Sidhanta Patnaik. 3. The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Women's Cricket in India -- Karunya Keshav and Sidhanta Patnaik. 4. A Day in the Life of an IPL Cricket Commentator -- Snehal Pradhan. 5. The Writing Habit behind the Spirit of Cricket -- Snehal Pradhan. 6. Why I regret my Cricket Coaching Journey -- Snehal Pradhan. 7. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 8. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World, featuring Jonathan Haidt in conversation with Vasant Dhar. 9. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. India Women v Pakistan Women, May 9, 2008 -- Snehal Pradhan's official ODI debut. 11. How to Film the Most Epic Coffee B Roll -- Peter McKinnon. 12. Why Virat Kohli is right to leave out Ravichandran Ashwin -- Snehal Pradhan. 13. Trainer Tips -- Nicholas Oyzon's Pokemon Go Vlog. 14. The State of Indian Sport -- Episode 238 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Joy Bhattacharjya & Nandan Kamath). 15. The Sports, Law and Policy Centre. 16. Ladies and Lords: A History of Women's Cricket in Britain -- Rafaelle Nicholson. 17. Opportunity, Choice and the IPL (2008) — Amit Varma. 18. Double Trouble with Smriti and Jemi -- YouTube playlist of Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues's talk show. 19. Earlier sports-related episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Harsha Bhogle, Sharda Ugra, Joy Bhattacharjya, Ramachandra Guha, Prem Panicker, Gideon Haigh+Prem Panicker, Joy Bhattacharjya+Nandan Kamath and Ayaz Memon. 20. Earlier episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala and Neelesh Misra. This episode is sponsored by Intel. This episode is co-sponsored by CricHeroes, the national app of Cricketistan. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

The Congress Party once dominated Indian politics. Today, it's on the outside looking in. Rahul Verma joins Amit Varma in episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the complex social and political factors behind this massive decline. Also check out: 1. Political Ideology in India -- Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 2. Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India -- Pradeep K Chhibber and Rahul Verma. 3. Taking Stock of Our Republic -- Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 4. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 5. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 6. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 7. The BJP's Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 8. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 9. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 10. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Emergency of 1975 -- Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gyan Prakash). 12. India's Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 13. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 14. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 15. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking -- Amit Varma. 16. Caste in Indian Politics -- Rajni Kothari. 17. Politics In India -- Rajni Kothari. 18. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 19. The Burden of Democracy -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 20. Myron Weiner, Saadat Hasan Manto, Shivani and Harishankar Parsai on Amazon. 21. Murdahiya -- Dr Tulsiram. 22. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) -- Shrilal Shukla. 23. Dynastic parties: Organization, finance and impact -- Pradeep Chhibber. 24. 24 Akbar Road -- Rashid Kidwai. 25. Congress after Indira: Policy, Power, Political Change -- Zoya Hasan. 26. The future of the Congress party -- A Conversation between Yamini Aiyar, Zoya Hasan and Rahul Verma. 27. Why big companies squander brilliant ideas -- Tim Harford. 28. A Game Theory Problem: Who Will Bell The Congress Cat? -- Amit Varma. 29. Mahua Moitra interviewed by Barkha Dutt. 30. Democracy without Associations -- Pradeep K Chibber. 31. Are You Anchored to the Past? -- Amit Varma. This episode is sponsored by Intel. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Our political parties suck at governance but excel at narratives, as that's what wins them elections. Shivam Shankar Singh joins Amit Varma in episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his experiences at the heart of different political machines. Also check out: 1. How to Win an Indian Election -- Shivam Shankar Singh. 2. The Art Of Conjuring Alternate Realities -- Shivam Shankar Singh and Anand Venkatanarayanan. 3. LAMP Fellowships. 4. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites. 5. Why I Am Resigning From the BJP -- Shivam Shankar Singh. 6. Is Parliament's questions system broken? — Here's how to fix it! -- Shivam Shankar Singh. 7. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen on China, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 8. In Absentia: Where are India's conservative intellectuals? -- Ramachandra Guha. 9. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 10. Political Ideology in India -- Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 11. Dreamers: How Indians are Changing the World -- Snigdha Poonam. 12. Young India -- Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 13. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled -- Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujatha Anandan). 14. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 15. India's Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 16. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 17. Hamsini Hariharan's tweet on 'Indic'. 18. Private Truths, Public Lies -- Timur Kuran. 19. The Facts Do Not Matter -- Amit Varma. 20. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He's alive! 21. Fighting Fake News -- Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 22. Range Rover -- The archives of Amit Varma's poker columns for the Economic Times. 23. A Tale Of Two Bandits: Naxals And The Indian State -- Amit Varma 24. Power and Prosperity -- Mancur Olson. 25. When Crime Pays — Milan Vaishnav. 26. Crime in Indian Politics -- Episode 114 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Milan Vaishnav). 27. Politics -- A limerick by Amit Varma. 28. Government's End -- Jonathan Rauch. 29. The Anti-Defection Law -- Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 30. The Barkha Dutt Files -- Episode 243 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barkha Dutt). 31. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 32. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 33. How the BJP wins: Inside India's Greatest Election Machine -- Prashant Jha. 34. The BJP's Magic Formula -- Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 35. Politics and the Sociopath -- Amit Varma. 36. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 37. The Dictator's Handbook -- Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith. 38. The Psychology of Money -- Morgan Housel. 39. The Silent Coup: A History of India's Deep State — Josy Joseph. 40. India's Security State -- Episode 242 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Josy Joseph). 41. Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Over the last few decades, India has changed, cricket has changed, our media has changed -- and one man has seen it all. Ayaz Memon joins Amit Varma in episode 246 of The Seen and the Unseen to reflect on some of what he has seen and learnt. Also check out: 1. Indian Innings: The Journey of Indian Cricket from 1947 -- Edited by Ayaz Memon. 2. Cricket-related episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Harsha Bhogle, Sharda Ugra, Ramachandra Guha, Prem Panicker and Gideon Haigh+Prem Panicker. 3. The Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. 4. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) -- Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 5. The Test where India beat Australia at Brabourne Stadium, 1964. 6. Sachin Tendulkar's first Test, Sunil Gavaskar's last Test, Kapil Dev's 175 and the 1983 World Cup final. 7. Opportunity, Choice and the IPL (2008) -- Amit Varma. 8. What cricket can learn from poker -- Amit Varma. 9. The Tamasha All Purists Should Love -- Amit Varma. 10. Beyond a Boundary -- CLR James. 11. Neville Cardus and Jack Fingleton on Amazon. 12. The Picador Book of Cricket -- Edited by Ramachandra Guha. 13. Hardcore History -- Dan Carlin. 14. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World. 15. Kicking Schoolbags (2006) -- Amit Varma. 16. The Jubilee Test, 1980. 17. My Cricketing Years -- Ajit Wadekar. 18. Sunny Days -- Sunil Gavaskar. 19. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Deep Work -- Cal Newport. 21. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. 22. The abandoned ODI at Sialkot, October 31, 1984. 23. Mankad's Test, India's first Test win, Gavaskar's 29th, Gavaskar's 30th. 24. R Ashwin's YouTube channel. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.