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The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

455 episodes — Page 4 of 10

S1 Ep 303Ep 303: The Loneliness of the Indian Man

Women are not the only victims of patriarchy -- men are also diminished by it. Nikhil Taneja joins Amit Varma in episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss what he has learnt about mental health, young people in India, the epidemic of loneliness in our country -- and the enormous power of storytelling. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 2. Nikhil Taneja on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, IMDb and HT Brunch. 3. Yuvaa. 4. The internet—a toxic love story -- Nikhil Taneja. 5. The pandemic pretence of being 'okay' -- Nikhil Taneja. 6. Keeping up with the algorithms -- Nikhil Taneja. 7. It is okay for men to cry -- Nikhil Taneja. 8. Reject the mission statement of your gender -- Nikhil Taneja. 9. Kindness: Don't be an A**hole! -- Nikhil Taneja. 10. Why young Indians are lonelier than ever before -- Nikhil Taneja. 11. How stories can heal our divided world -- Nikhil Taneja. 12. Nikhil Taneja on Advertising is Dead with Varun Duggirala. 13. Nikhil Taneja on the Filter Koffee Podcast with Karthik Nagarajan. 14. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted — Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism & gender with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Mrinal Pande, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare, Shrayana Bhattacharya, Mukulika Banerjee, Manjima Bhattacharjya, Nilanjana Roy, Urvashi Butalia, Mahima Vashisht, Alice Evans, Ashwini Deshpande and Natasha Badhwar. 16. Hitesh Kewalya on Twitter, Instagram and IMDb. 17. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. 18. Dev Anand and Roger Corman. 19. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal -- Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 21. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Gendered Leadership Course by Angellica Aribam. 23. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 24. Dreamers — Snigdha Poonam. 25. Men Must Step Up Now -- Amit Varma. 26. Beedi Jali Le -- Song from Omkara. 27. NH 10 (Navdeep Singh), Hichki (Siddharth Malhotra), Chhapaak (Meghna Gulzar), Rashmi Rocket (Akarsh Khurana) and Queen (Vikas Bahl). 28. Ghostbusters (2016, Paul Feig) and The Lost City (Nee Brothers). 29. 3 Idiots (Rajkumar Hirani), Dangal (Nitesh Tiwari), Badhaai Ho (Amit Ravindernath Sharma), Kantara (Rishab Shetty) and Thugs of Hindostan (Vijay Krishna Acharya). 30. Aamir Khan on Koffee With Karan (2018). 31. Parasite -- Bong Joon-ho. 32. Asghar Farhadi on Wikipedia and IMDb. 33. Delhi Crime. 34. TikTok and Indian Society -- The online course conducted by Amit Varma, now no longer on offer. 35. Vicky Donor (Shoojit Sircar) and RRR (SS Rajamouli). 36. Salim-Javed. 37. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma's poker column for the Economic Times. 38. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Aditya Chopra) and Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (Rakesh Roshan). 39. Dev D (Anurag Kashyap), Udaan (Vikramaditya Motwane) and Oye Lucky Oye Lucky (Dibakar Banerjee). 40. Bhuvam Bam, Prajakta Koli and Amit Bhadana. 41. Man's World (Y-Films) and Ki & Ka (R Balki). 42. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. Mumbai Diaries 26/11 -- NIkhil Advani. 44. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 45. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 46. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 47. 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. 48. One Cut of the Dead — Shin'ichirō Ueda. 49. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala -- Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 50. Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith (Clerks), Sofia Coppola and Richard Linklater. 51. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande -- Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen. 52. Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and Mani Kaul. 53. Andaz Apna Apna (Rajkumar Santoshi), Gunda (Kanti Shah) and Disco Dancer (Babbar Subhash). 54. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht -- Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. Womaning in India — Mahima Vashisht's newsletter. 56. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence — Shrayana Bhattacharya. 57. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 58. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra. 59. Shravana Kumara, the pious son. 60. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavitha Rao). 61. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 62. Penelope Fitzgerald on Amazon and Wikipedia. 63. Roshan Abbas and the Creator Economy -- Episode 239 of The Seen and the Unseen. 64. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai -- Karan Johar. 65. The Chaos Machine -- Max Fisher. 66. The Social Dilemma -- Jeff Orlows

Nov 14, 20227h 23m

S1 Ep 302Ep 302: The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad

She began as a journalist in the pursuit of truth. She went on to embrace activism in the pursuit of justice. Teesta Setalvad joins Amit Varma in episode 302 to talk about all that she learnt from her life and work. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Teesta Setalvad on Twitter, Facebook and Amazon. 2. Foot Soldier of the Constitution -- Teesta Setalvad. 3. Beyond Doubt: A Dossier on Gandhi's Assassination -- Teesta Setalvad. 4. Gujarat: Behind the mirage -- Edited by Teesta Setalvad. 5. Citizens for Justice and Peace. (Also see their About and Twitter pages..) 6. Sabrang India. 7. Teesta Setalvad | A powerful voice for India's human rights movement -- Video feature by Sabrang India. 8. A half baked secularism -- Teesta Setalvad. 9. Hopes for tomorrow -- Teesta Setalvad's speech in Nuremberg. 10. Courts keep me Busy -- Teesta Setalvad. 11. My Hindu Hriday Samrats -- Teesta Setalvad. 12. Teesta Setalvad Refuses to be Silenced. 13. It's vital to recall the sparks of hate that burst into Gujarat's brutal 2002 riots -- Teesta Setalvad. 14. Teesta Setalvad empowers citizens and questions modalities with regards to NRC -- CJP team. 15. Wrong intention, wrong rationale, wrong method -- Teesta Setalvad on CAA-NPR-NRC. 16. Teesta Setalvad addresses massive crowd on CAA, NPR-NRC -- CJP Team. 17. What next for those left out of the NRC? -- Teesta Setalvad. 18. A Home Behind Bars -- Teesta Setalvad. 19. Prisoner of Conscience Teesta Setalvad -- Feminist Dissent. 20. Forced confinement is loss of dignity, says Teesta Setalvad -- Sonam Saigal. 21. The pandemic has put the spotlight on inhumane conditions in Indian prisons -- Teesta Setalvad. 22. Teesta Setalvad's First Interview After Bail by Arfa Khanum Sherwani. 23. My Life: Law and Other Things -- MC Setalvad. 24. Javed Anand in the Indian Express. 25. Basavanna, Narayana Guru, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Eknath, Namdev, Tukaram and the Bhakti Movement. 26. Nanak Was Here -- Episode 166 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amardeep Singh). 27. Savitribai Phule, Jyotirao Phule and BR Ambedkar. 28. Jogan, starring Nargis, on YouTube and IMDb. 29. Mirabai and Janabai. 30. The Poverty of India -- Dadabhai Naoroji. 31. Dadabhai Naoroji and the Fight for India -- Episode 187 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Dinyar Patel). 32. The Indigo Revolt, the Santhal Rebellion, the Tebhaga Movement and Birsa Munda. 33. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 34. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen, 35. Picture of Arvind Kejriwal with portraits of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh in the background. 36. India: Legacies and Challenges of the Land & Forest Rights Movement -- Ashok Chowdhury, Teesta Setalvad, Roma and Divya Kapoor. 37. Forest Rights Act, 2006. 38. The Pathalgadi Movement. 39. Stan Swamy profiled by Scroll, India Today, the Wire, the Times of India and Hindustan Times. 40. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 41. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 42. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal -- Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. Romila Thapar and KM Panikkar on Amazon. 44. Romila Thapar interviewed by Teesta Setalvad. 45. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 46. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 47. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 48. India's Founding Moment — Madhav Khosla. 49. P Sainath interviewed by Teesta Setalvad. 50. A People's Constitution — Rohit De. 51. All the President's Men -- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. 52. The Citizenship Battles — Episode 152 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 53. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 54. The Nellie Massacre. 55. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. A Rude Life — Vir Sanghvi. 57. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 58. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati. 59. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 60. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash. 62. The Decline of the Congress -- Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 63. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee). 64. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 65. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 66. 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. 67. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled — Episod

Nov 7, 20225h 2m

S1 Ep 301Ep 301: Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life

Her acclaimed personal essays explore motherhood, marriage and this modern world -- and hold up a mirror to all of us. Natasha Badhwar joins Amit Varma in episode 301 to speak about her life and her writing. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Natasha Badhwar on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, LinkedIn, The Tribune and Mint Lounge. 2. My Daughters' Mum -- Natasha Badhwar. 3. Immortal for a Moment -- Natasha Badhwar. 4. Natasha Badhwar's newsletter on Substack. 5. Natasha Badhwar's old blog on Blogspot. 6. Natasha Badhwar's Memoir Writing Course. 7. Parenthood -- Episode 43 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Natasha Badhwar). 8. Reconciliation: Karwan e Mohabbat's Journey of Solidarity through a Wounded India -- Edited by Harsh Mander, John Dayal and Natasha Badhwar. 9. Karwan e Mohabbat. 10. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht -- Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal -- Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Jonathan Haidt in conversation with Vasant Dhar in episode 8 of Brave New World. 14. Why my daughters don't go to school anymore -- Natasha Badhwar interviewed by Manisha Natarajan. (Full video.) 15. The most important lesson learnt as an #unschooling parent -- Natasha Badhwar. 16. School forced me to put parts of myself inside a box -- Sahar Beg (Natasha's daughter). 17. Meet the unschooling girls -- Homeschooling India Community. 18. The Joys of Walking Out -- Natasha Badhwar and Sahar Beg. 19. How Children Fail -- John Holt. 20. Unsatisfied -- The Replacements. 21. To Fail Without Feeling Like A Failure -- Natasha Badhwar. 22. The Nurture Assumption — Judith Rich Harris. 23. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal — Amitava Kumar. 25. Sholay — Ramesh Sippy. 26. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza. 27. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 28. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 29. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? -- Harsh Mander. 31. The real difference between my husband and me -- Natasha Badhwar. 32. Self-Portrait -- AK Ramanujan. 33. The Girl From Kashmir -- Episode 295 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Farah Bashir). 34. The Barkha Dutt Files -- Episode 243 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. Roger Ebert and me: How tragedy and Twitter bonded us across continents -- Natasha Badhwar. 36. In Conversation with Roger Ebert -- Natasha Badhwar. 37. The desire to help, and the desire not to be helped — Roger Ebert's review of Goodbye Solo. 38. Roger Ebert's essay on Dekalog. 39. A welcome note for new husbands and wives -- Natasha Badhwar. 40. Five things to learn from the man you love -- Natasha Badhwar. 41. Deep Work — Cal Newport. 42. Fatherhood is a funny thing -- Natasha Badhwar. 43. El Amor de Mi Vida -- Warren Zevon. 44. Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, John Steinbeck and JD Salinger on Amazon. 45. Cyrano De Bergerac -- Edmond Rostand. 46. Sweet Thursday -- John Steinbeck. 47. The Catcher in the Rye -- JD Salinger. 48. To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee. 49. The Colour Purple -- Alice Walker. 50. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 51. Imposter Syndrome. 52. What we say and what we mean, the fine art of small talk -- Natasha Badhwar. 53. Kabhi Hum Khoobsurat -- Nayyara Noor. 54. Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen. 55. Little Women -- Louisa May Alcott. 56. Hayao Miyazaki on IMDb, Wikipedia and Britannica. 57. Ponyo -- Hayao Miyazaki. 58. Natasha's favourite shows: Bad Buddy, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, The Dragon Prince and The Good Place. 59. Masaan — Neeraj Ghaywan. 60. Mirch Masala -- Ketan Mehta. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'The Examined Life' by Simahina.

Oct 31, 20225h 48m

S1 Ep 300Ep 300: The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Our selves are nebulous, the world is complex and the times they are a-changin'. Pratap Bhanu Mehta joins Amit Varma in episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen for a freewheeling chat about how to make sense of all of this. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen, where Amit Varma answers questions from his guests. 2. Pratap Bhanu Mehta on Twitter, Amazon and the Indian Express. 3. What Have We Done With Our Independence? -- Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 4. Self-Esteem (and a Puddle) — Amit Varma's post with Douglas Adams's puddle quote. 5. The End of History? — Francis Fukuyama's essay. 6. The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama's book. 7. Francis Fukuyama on Amazon. 8. Ideas of India: The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta discusses Adam Smith with Shruti Rajagopalan. 9. Conversation and Society -- Russ Roberts discusses Adam Smith with Amit Varma in episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Human — Michael S Gazzaniga. 11. The Interpreter — Amit Varma. 12. Free Will on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 13. Free Will — Sam Harris. 14. Immanuel Kant on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 15. The Median Voter Theorem. 16. 'Thinking and Reflecting' and 'The Thinking of Thoughts': Gilbert Ryle's essays on 'thick description' and Winks vs Twitches, also found in Collected Essays. 17. Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture -- Clifford Geertz. 18. Fighting Fake News -- Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 19. The Greater India Experiment: Hindutva and the Northeast -- Arkotong Longkumer. 20. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 21. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra. 22. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident -- Amit Varma's column on Chris Cornell's death. 23. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence -- Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. Scientism. 25. Ludwig Wittgenstein on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 26. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 27. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 28. Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 29. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 30. Agarkar's Donkeys: A Meditation on God -- Amit Varma. 31. Faust, as portrayed by Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 32. The Measure of a Man -- Episode 9, Season 2, Star Trek: The Next Generation (Wikipedia entry). 33. Ex Machina -- Alex Garland. 34. Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy -- David Chalmers. 35. Yoga Vasistha. 36. On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings -- William James. 37. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 38. The Experience Machine -- Robert Nozick. (Wikipedia entry.) 39. Utilitarianism: For and Against -- JJC Smart and Bernard Williams. 40. Reasons and Persons -- Derek Parfit. 41. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 42. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy -- Bernard Williams. 43. Bernard Williams on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 44. India's Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 45. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 46. Friedrich Hayek on Amazon, Econlib, Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 47. The Dark Side of Democracy -- Michael Mann. 48. Jayaprakash Narayan on proportional representation. 49. Pakistan or the Partition of India — BR Ambedkar. 50. Don't Insult Pasta (2007) — Amit Varma. 51. Manish Sisodia invokes 'Rajput' caste amidst CBI probe -- Janta Ka Reporter. 52. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs — Devesh Kapur, D Shyam Babu and Chandra Bhan Prasad. 54. Beware of Half Victories -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 55. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan -- Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Carl Schmitt on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 57. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's Father's Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. Justin Amash on why he left the Republican Party. 59. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh. 60. Rational Ignorance. 61. The Economics of Voting — Amit Varma on Rational Ignorance. 62. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 63. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma on the importance of reading. 64. John Aubrey's biography of Thomas Hobbes. 65. Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George Frideric Handel and Felix Mendelssohn on Spotify. 66. Digital Concert Hall -- Berliner Philharmoniker.

Oct 24, 20224h 18m

S1 Ep 299Ep 299: The Reflections of Samarth Bansal

What should a newsroom report on? Does journalism know its own purpose? Do we? What ethics should we live by, and why? Samarth Bansal joins Amit Varma in episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about living the examined life, and asking the fundamental questions. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Samarth Bansal on Twitter and his own website. 2. The Interval -- Samarth Bansal's newsletter. 3. Truth Be Told -- Samarth Bansal's Food and Fitness newsletter with Shashank Mehta and others. 4. Journalists refer to themselves as storytellers. Is that a mistake? -- Samarth Bansal. 5. Why the event-oriented structure of news doesn't help in understanding how the world works -- Samarth Bansal. 6. A different way to think about Indian media -- Samarth Bansal. 7. Sugar-coated conspiracies: How 'publication bias' amplifies half-truths -- Samarth Bansal. 8. How I approach and manage my freelance journalism career -- Samarth Bansal. 9. Thoughts and observations on data journalism in India -- Samarth Bansal. 10. Why I am relearning statistics -- Samarth Bansal. 11. The Wire's TekFog investigation: A futile search for evidence -- Samarth Bansal. 12. Indian pollsters are doing fine. Here is how forecasts work -- Samarth Bansal. 13. Lessons learnt from my 52-week workout streak -- Samarth Bansal. 14. The pursuit of truth with Samarth Bansal -- An interview by In Old News. 15. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature -- Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 19. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 20. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 22. Strangers Drowning -- Larissa MacFarquhar. 23. Larissa MacFarquhar on Getting Inside Someone's Head -- Episode 58 of Conversations With Tyler. 24. Dil Dhadakne Do -- Zoya Akhtar. 25. Kapoor & Sons -- Shakun Batra. 26. Why are India's housewives killing themselves? -- Soutik Biswas. 27. Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho -- Jagjit Singh's ghazal from Arth. 28. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence -- Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. Amit Varma's tweet on winning the Asian Championships of Match Poker. 30. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 31. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Dead Poets Society -- Peter Weir. 33. Amusing Ourselves to Death — Neil Postman. 34. Deep Work — Cal Newport. 35. Ira Glass on the Creative Process. 36. The Parable of the Pottery Class. 37. Behave -- Robert Sapolsky. 38. The Biology of Good and Evil -- Robert Sapolsky speaks to Sam Harris in episode 91 of The Making Sense Podcast. 39. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube. 40. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 41. The Overconfidence Game -- Episode 6 of Against the Rules with Michael Lewis. 42. Men Explain Things to Me -- Rebecca Solnit. 43. 'Let Me Interrupt Your Expertise With My Confidence' — New Yorker cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein. 44. Free Will on Wikipedia, Brittanica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 45. Free Will -- Sam Harris. 46. The Blind Watchmaker -- Richard Dawkins. 47. The CBS 60 Minutes documentary on the Indian Institute of Technology. 48. Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. 49. A Student's Guide to Startups -- Paul Graham. 50. Paul Graham's essays. 51. Coursera and Udacity. 52. The Last Lecture -- Randy Pausch. 53. The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. 54. The Blank Slate — Steven Pinker. 55. The Moral Animal -- Robert Wright. 56. Ezra Klein Interviews Noam Chomsky. 57. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. Tamasha -- Imtiaz Ali. 59. The Turn of the Tortoise -- TN Ninan. 60. Bad Blood -- John Carreyrou. 61. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on Demonetisation). 62. Enabled by technology, young Indians show what it means to be a citizen -- Amit Varma. 63. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Aakar Patel: 1, 2. 64. Adults in the Room -- Yanis Varoufakis. 65. Larry Summers at Harvard, Wikipedia, Twitter and his own website. 66. India's 50 Most Powerful People of 2009 -- List by Business Week including, heh, Amit Varma. 67. The theory of the interlocking public. 68. CRISPR gene editing. 69. Genetic Engineering -- Episode 165 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shambhavi Naik). 70. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz -- Brian Knappenberger. 71. I Hate the News -- Aaron Swartz. 72. Everybody Loves a Good Drought -- P Sainath. 73. Why everyone hates the mainstream media -- Andrew Potter. 74. Income Tax department raids Dainik Bhask

Oct 17, 20225h 33m

S1 Ep 298Ep 298: The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande

Her pioneering work has helped us understand how caste and gender remain huge problems in India. But her past goes beyond numbers, into a rich history of aajobas and aajis and theatre and song. Ashwini Deshpande joins Amit Varma in episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how she used her economist's gaze to understand our social problems -- and how films and music also played their part. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Ashwini Deshpande on Twitter, Ashoka, Google Scholar, Amazon and her own website. 2. The Grammar of Caste -- Ashwini Deshpande. 3. Why are Indian Women not employed? -- Ashwini Deshpande's talk for Manthan. 4. What Women Do: Is it even "work"? -- A seminar by Ashwini Deshpande at Ashoka. 5. The New Grammar of Caste -- Ashwini Deshpande's talk at JNU. 6. Gender and Caste Discrimination and Affirmative Action in India -- Ashwini Deshpande speaks to Shruti Rajagopalan on the Ideas of India podcast. 7. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discussed gender with Shrayana Bhattacharya, Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Urvashi Butalia, Namita Bhandare, Manjima Bhattacharjya, Mahima Vashisht and Alice Evans. 9. Amit Varma's tweet with Ashwini Deshpande's viral and potentially award-winning vocal performance. 10. Archaeology and the Public Purpose -- Nayanjot Lahiri. 11. Rahimatpur: Town along the Kamandalu -- GP Deshpande. 12. Satyashodhak (out-of-print book) (YouTube) -- GP Deshpande. 13. Uddhwasta Dharmashala (Marathi) (English)-- GP Deshpande. 14. Thelma and Louise -- Ridley Scott. 15. Jyoti Subhash, Amruta Subhash, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Ebrahim Alkazi, Rohini Hattangadi, Jayadev Hattangadi, Manohar Singh, Sai Paranjpye, Arun Joglekar, Shriram Lagoo and Amol Palekar. 16. Ghashiram Kotwal -- Vijay Tendulkar. 17. Jai Santoshi Maa -- Vijay Sharma. 18. English Vinglish -- Gauri Shinde. 19. Satyajit Ray and Manmohan Desai. 20. Qurbani -- Feroz Khan. 21. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala -- Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 22. Dance Dance — Babbar Subhash. 23. Aagaya Aagaya Halwa Wala — Song from Dance Dance. 24. Ek Aur Ek Gyarah -- David Dhawan. 25. Baba Sehgal and ML Sondhi. 26. The Man Who Resides in Music -- PL Deshpande on Malikarjun Mansur, translated by Ashwini Deshpande. 27. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Chhoti Si Baat -- Basu Chatterjee. 29. Raj Kumar's famous dialogue from Waqt. 30. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande and Manik Bhide. 31. Yuval Noah Harari on Amazon. 32. The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. 33. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht -- Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen. 34. Kaushik Basu and Amazon, Twitter, Wikipedia and his own website. 35. Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? -- Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan. 36. Race At Work: Realities of Race and Criminal Record in the NYC Job Market -- Devah Pager and Bruce Western. 37. Walking the Talk? What Employers Say Versus What They Do -- Devah Pager and Lincoln Quillian. 38. The Economics of Discrimination -- Gary Becker. 39. How Gary Becker Saw the Scourge of Discrimination -- Kevin Murphy. 40. The Theory of Discrimination -- Kenneth Arrow. 41. What Has Economics to Say About Racial Discrimination? -- Kenneth Arrow. 42. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? — Devika Kher. 43. Here's What's Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act — Suman Joshi. 44. Who is the Identifiable Victim?: Caste Interacts with Sympathy in India -- Ashwini Deshpande and Dean Spears. 45. Identifiable victim effect. 46. Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study -- Thomas Sowell. 47. Dominant or Backward? Political Economy of the Demand for Quotas by Jats, Patels and Marathas -- Ashwini Deshpande and Rajesh Ramachandran. 48. (In)Visibility, Care and Cultural Barriers: The Size and Shape of Women's Work in India -- Ashwini Deshpande and Naila Kabeer. 49. Norms that matter -- Ashwini Deshpande and Naila Kabeer. 50. The gendered effects of droughts -- Farzana Afridi, Kanika Mahajan and Nikita Sangwan. 51. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Gendered Division of Paid and Unpaid Work -- Ashwini Deshpande. 52. Women's Work in India: Evidence from changes in time use between 1998 and 2019 -- Nicholas Li. 53. Dropping Out, Being Pushed Out or Can't Get in? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women -- Ashwini Deshpande and Jitendra Singh. 54. Women at Work -- Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 55. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 56. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal -- Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta & Hamsini Hariharan). 58. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce R

Oct 10, 20224h 24m

S1 Ep 297Ep 297: Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence

We're in the 21st century, and it would seem that the world is finally moving towards gender equality, right? Not so fast. Alice Evans joins Amit Varma in episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss why some parts of the world are crawling slower than others. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Alice Evans on her blog, website, YouTube, podcast, Google Scholar, King's College and Twitter. 2. Rocking Our Priors -- Alice Evans's podcast. 3. Ten Thousand Years of Patriarchy, Updated! -- Alice Evans. 4. An Intellectual History of the Patriarchy -- Alice Evans. 5. Friendships and Women's Liberation -- Alice Evans. 6. 3 Things I Got Wrong About Patriarchy -- Alice Evans. 7. What Don't We Know About Patriarchy? -- Alice Evans. 8. Overcoming the Global Despondency Trap -- Alice Evans. 9. Ideas of India: The Great Gender Divergence -- Alice Evans on Shruti Rajagopalan's podcast. 10. Ideas of India: Female Friendships and Fraternal Capital -- Alice Evans on Shruti Rajagopalan's podcast. 11. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discussed gender with Shrayana Bhattacharya, Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Urvashi Butalia, Namita Bhandare, Manjima Bhattacharjya and Mahima Vashisht. 12. Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome. 13. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma. 14. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta & Hamsini Hariharan). 15. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 16. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya. 17. Chup: Breaking the Silence About India's Women -- Deepa Narayan. 18. Terror as a Bargaining Instrument -- Francis Bloch and Vijayendra Rao. 19. Russia: Bill to Decriminalize Domestic Violence -- Human Rights Watch. 20. The Argumentative Indian -- Amartya Sen. 21. Climate Change and Our Power Sector -- Episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah). 22. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 23. Emergent Ventures prizes for best new and recent blogs -- Tyler Cowen. 24. Zotero -- Your Personal Research Assistant. 25. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 26. On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough -- Alberto Alesina, Paola Giuliano, Nathan Nunn. 27. The Ties That Bound -- Barbara A Hanawalt. 28. Jared Diamond and Paul Collier on Amazon. 29. Pseudoerasmus.-- Blog about economic history & comparative development. 30. Daron Acemoglu on Amazon. 31. Naila Kabeer on Twitter, LSE, her own website.and Google Scholar. 32. Sylvia Chant at LSE and Google Scholar. 33. Claudia Goldin at Harvard and Google Scholar. 34. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 35. Tony Joseph's episode of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 37. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 38. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 39. On the Economic Origins of Restricting Women's Promiscuity -- Anke Becker. 40. Herding, Warfare, and a Culture of Honor: Global Evidence -- Yiming Cao, Benjamin Enke, Armin Falk, Paola Giuliano and Nathan Nunn. 41. The Politics of Marriage in Medieval India: Gender and Alliance in Rajasthan -- Sabita Singh. 42. The Ulema-State Alliance: A Barrier to Democracy and Development in the Muslim World -- Ahmet T Kuru. 43. Gendered Morality -- Zahra Ayubi. 44. Parkinson's Law — C Northcote Parkinson. 45. Sowmya Dhanaraj and Vidya Mahambare speak to Alice Evans on her podcast. 46. Structural Transformation and Employment Generation in India -- Amit Basole. 47. Networks and Misallocation: Insurance, Migration, and the Rural-Urban Wage Gap -- Kaivan Munshi and Mark Rosenzweig. 48. Curse of the Mummy‐Ji: The Influence of Mothers‐In‐Law on Women in India -- S Anukriti, Catalina Herrera‐Almanza, Praveen Pathak and Mahesh Karra. 49. Gender, Intersectionality and Smartphones in Rural West Bengal -- Sirpa Tenhunen. 50. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 51. The Rise and Fall of Imperial China: The Social Origins of State Development -- Yuhua Wang. 52. Penis pins. 53. Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa -- Nwando Achebe. 54. The Enlightened Economy: Britain and the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1850 -- Joel Mokyr. 55. The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa -- Nathan Nunn and Leonard Wantchekon. 56. Michael Pollan on coffee. 57. Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions -- Alberto Alesina, Reza Baqir and William Easterly. 58. The Progress of Humanity -- Episode 101 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Steven Pinker). 59. Claiming the State -- Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner. 60. Capable Women, Incapable States -- Poulami Roychowdhury. 61. The Big Questions -- Steven Landsburg. 62. A Godless Congregation — Amit Varma. 63. Honour and Shame: Women in Modern Iraq -- Sana Al-K

Oct 3, 20224h 7m

S1 Ep 296Ep 296: Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad

The evil of caste will be solved not by deliverance from up top but empowerment from down below. Dalit scholar and writer Chandra Bhan Prasad joins Amit Varma in episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain why the cure for caste lies in capitalism -- and why his two great heroes are Babasaheb Ambedkar and Adam Smith. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Chandra Bhan Prasad on Twitter, Amazon, Wikipedia. Mercatus, Times of India and Google Scholar. 2. Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs -- Devesh Kapur, D Shyam Babu and Chandra Bhan Prasad. 3. What is Ambedkarism? -- Chandra Bhan Prasad. 4. Dalit Phobia: Why Do They Hate Us -- Chandra Bhan Prasad. 5. When Adam Smith entered an Ambedkar village -- Chandra Bhan Prasad. 6. In defence of suit, boot -- Chandra Bhan Prasad. 7. How Piketty got it wrong -- Chandra Bhan Prasad. 8. Who was the real Ambedkar? -- Chandra Bhan Prasad. 9. On Ambedkarism, Caste and Dalit Capitalism -- Chandra Bhan Prasad in conversation with Shruti Rajagopalan in the Ideas of India podcast. 10. 'Indian languages carry the legacy of caste' -- Chandra Bhan Prasad interviewed by Sheela Bhatt. 11. Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the Market Reform Era -- Devesh Kapur, Chandra Bhan Prasad, Lant Pritchett and D Shyam Babu. 12. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 13. The Dalit Emancipation Manifesto of 1951 -- Babasaheb Ambedkar. 14. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discussed caste with TM Krishna, Shruti Rajagopalan and Manu Pillai. 15. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discussed the 1991 reforms with Shruti Rajagopalan+Ajay Shah, Vinay Sitapati and Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 16. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discussed gender with Shrayana Bhattacharya, Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Urvashi Butalia, Namita Bhandare, Manjima Bhattacharjya and Mahima Vashisht. 17. Ramchandra Keh Gaye Siya Se -- Song from Gopi. 18. The Laws of Manu (Manu Smriti) -- The Penguin edition & the Buhler translation. 19. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 20. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 21. Devesh Kapur at University of Pennsylvania. 22. Crusader Sees Wealth as Cure for Caste Bias -- The New York Times profile of Chandra Bhan Prasad by Somini Sengupta. 23. In an Indian Village, Signs of the Loosening Grip of Caste -- The Washington Post piece on Chandra Bhan Prasad by Emily Wax. 24. Small Holdings in India and Their Remedies -- Babasaheb Ambedkar. 25. Aims and Objects of the Republican Party of India -- Babasaheb Ambedkar. 26. Ambedkar's memorandum to the British (in Volume 10 of his collected works). 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! Episode art by Simahina, in a homage to Gond painting.

Sep 26, 20223h 38m

S1 Ep 295Ep 295: The Girl From Kashmir

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.

Sep 19, 20223h 15m

S1 Ep 294Ep 294: Dance Dance For the Halva Waala

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

Sep 12, 20224h 50m

S1 Ep 293Ep 293: Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht

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.

Sep 5, 20225h 45m

S1 Ep 292Ep 292: Varun Grover Is in the House

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

Aug 29, 20224h 25m

S1 Ep 291Ep 291: The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal

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.

Aug 22, 20223h 42m

S1 Ep 290Ep 290: Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State

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

Aug 14, 20225h 10m

S1 Ep 289Ep 289: Shruti Jahagirdar is the Sporty One

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.

Aug 8, 20224h 44m

S1 Ep 288Ep 288: Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature

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.

Aug 1, 20223h 50m

S1 Ep 287Ep 287: The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia

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.

Jul 25, 20224h 5m

S1 Ep 286Ep 286: Pradeep Magazine Replays His Life

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.

Jul 18, 20223h 18m

S1 Ep 285Ep 285: The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia

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.

Jul 11, 20223h 11m

S1 Ep 284Ep 284: The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy

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

Jul 4, 20225h 47m

S1 Ep 283Ep 283: The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao

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.

Jun 27, 20224h 21m

S1 Ep 282Ep 282: Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India

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.

Jun 20, 20223h 2m

S1 Ep 281Ep 281: From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck

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.

Jun 13, 20224h 17m

S1 Ep 280Ep 280: Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist

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.

Jun 6, 20224h 2m

S1 Ep 279Ep 279: Abhijit Bhaduri Breaks the Algorithm

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.

May 30, 20224h 17m

S1 Ep 278Ep 278: Climate Change and Our Power Sector

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!

May 23, 20223h 43m

S1 Ep 277Ep 277: The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju

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

May 16, 20225h 18m

S1 Ep 276Ep 276: The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee

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.

May 9, 20225h 16m

S1 Ep 275Ep 275: Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan

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!

May 2, 20224h 59m

S1 Ep 274Ep 274: Two-and-a-Half Bengalis Have an Economics Adda

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!

Apr 25, 20223h 40m

S1 Ep 273Ep 273: Warren Mendonsa Plays the Universal Pentatonic

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!

Apr 18, 20222h 59m

S1 Ep 272Ep 272: The Ferment of Our Founders

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!

Apr 11, 20223h 23m

S1 Ep 271Ep 271: Crossing Over With Deepak Shenoy

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!

Apr 4, 20224h 54m

S1 Ep 270Ep 270: Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope

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!

Mar 28, 20223h 6m

S1 Ep 269Ep 269: The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao

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!

Mar 21, 20224h 10m

S1 Ep 268Ep 268: Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy

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

Mar 14, 20223h 27m

S1 Ep 267Ep 267: Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze

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!

Mar 7, 20223h 28m

S1 Ep 266Ep 266: Ram Guha Reflects on His Life

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

Feb 28, 20222h 28m

S1 Ep 265Ep 265: Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life

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!

Feb 21, 20223h 37m

S1 Ep 264Ep 264: Barun Mitra, Philosopher and Practitioner

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!

Feb 14, 20224h 5m

S1 Ep 263Ep 263: The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande

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!

Feb 7, 20223h 3m

S1 Ep 262Ep 262: Nehru's Debates

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!

Jan 31, 20224h 15m

S1 Ep 261Ep 261: Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes

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!

Jan 24, 20223h 40m

S1 Ep 260Ep 260: Sneaky Artist Sees the World

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!

Jan 17, 20225h 6m

S1 Ep 259Ep 259: The Loneliness of the Indian Woman

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!

Jan 10, 20223h 57m

S1 Ep 258Ep 258: The Universe of Chuck Gopal

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!

Jan 3, 20224h 21m

S1 Ep 257Ep 257: Objects Speak to Annapurna Garimella

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!

Dec 27, 20213h 20m

S1 Ep 256Ep 256: Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism

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!

Dec 20, 20213h 35m

S1 Ep 255Ep 255: Sara Rai Inhales Literature

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.

Dec 13, 20212h 54m

S1 Ep 254Ep 254: The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri

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.

Dec 6, 20213h 56m