Episodes
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It might seem to be a subject that would interest only wonks and retirees, but "pensions can reshape an entire society." Ajay Shah and Renuka Sane join Amit Varma in episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain why -- and to take a deep dive into the crisis India is facing right now.
1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
2. Renuka Sane on Twitter and The Print.
3. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
4. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah.
5. XKDR Forum (where Ajay Shah is co-founder).
6. TrustBridge (where Renuka Sane is research director).
7. The Project Oasis Report (2000).
8. A sustainable and scalable approach in Indian pension reform (2005) -- Ajay Shah.
9. Towards estimating India’s implicit pension debt on account of civil service employees (2006) -- Gautam Bhardwaj and Surendra A Dave.
10. Pension guarantees are subtle (2006) -- Ajay Shah.
11. Understanding the Indian financial environment (2015) -- Ajay Shah.
12. The way forward with one-rank-one-pension (2015) -- Ajay Shah and Renuka Sane.
13. Stay the course on the NPS (2018) -- Ajay Shah.
14. Fund management that you buy (2022) -- Ajay Shah.
15. The NPS challenge (2022) -- Ajay Shah.
16. Jayaprakash Narayan Wants to Mend Our Democracy -- Episode 334 of The Seen and the Unseen.
17. The Greatest Productivity Mantra: Kaator Re Bhaaji! -- Episode 11 of Everything is Everything.
18. Whose Money is it Anyway? -- Amit Varma.
19. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz).
20. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on GST: 1, 2, 3.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Wilderness’ by Simahina. -
She's been a journalist, an editor, a columnist, a novelist -- someone who sees the world and writes it down. Seema Goswami joins Amit Varma in episode 346 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life and times, and what they taught her.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Seema Goswami on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon and her own site.
2. Seema Goswami's column in HT Brunch.
3. Woman on Top -- Seema Goswami.
4. Race Course Road -- Seema Goswami.
5. Madam Prime Minister -- Seema Goswami.
6. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. One Foot on the Ground — Shanta Gokhale's brilliant memoir.
8. I Feel Bad About My Neck -- Nora Ephron.
9. Swim against the stereotypes -- Seema Goswami.
10. Zeenat Aman on Instagram.
11. The Culture Code -- Clotaire Rapaille.
12. Jane Austen on Amazon and Wikipedia.
13. Photographic memory -- Seema Goswami.
14. Cameo: Personalized videos from your favorite stars.
15. The West Wing -- Aaron Sorkin.
16. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prem Panicker).
17. Kohrra and Dahaad.
18. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. Self-Portrait — AK Ramanujan.
20. The Complete Works of George Bernard Shaw.
21. Georgette Heyer, Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, James Hadley Chase and Alistair MacLean on Amazon.
22. SJ Bennett's murder mysteries.
23. Manu Pillai on Amazon and The Seen and the Unseen (1, 2, 3, 4).
24. Madhulika Liddle's Muzaffar Jang mysteries.
25. The Malory Towers collections by Enid Blyton: 1, 2, 3, 4.
26. The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.
27. Aakash Singh Rathore, the Ironman Philosopher -- Episode 340 of The Seen and the Unseen.
28. Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To — David Sinclair.
29. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity — Peter Attia.
30. Peter Attia on the Huberman Lab Podcast.
31. Pandemic Praise -- Seema Goswami.
32. Blooming Glory -- Seema Goswami.
33. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen.
34. Why I Loved and Left Poker — Amit Varma.
35. The archives of Amit Varma’s poker column for the Economic Times, Range Rover.
36. Amarcord -- Federico Fellini.
37. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen.
38. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor).
39. Chourangi, Dhamaka and Semma.
40. The Slow Fire Chef on Twitter.
41. Mahabelly, Savya Rasa and Jamun.
42. The Romantic Idiot -- Samarth Bansal.
43. Cut the Clutter with Shekhar Gupta.
44. Mojo Story on YouTube.
45. Faye D'Souza on YouTube and Instagram.
46. Faye D'Souza doing stand-up comedy on One Mic Stand.
47. Larking About -- Seema Goswami.
48. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
49. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra).
50. The Poetic Feminism of Paromita Vohra — Episode 339 of The Seen and the Unseen.
51. Seema Goswami's Instagram post on her mother and grandmother.
52. The Simple Knot -- Seema Goswami.
53. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya.
54. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
55. The Imitation Game -- Seema Goswami.
56. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
57. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen.
58. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia.
59. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen.
60. Shashi Tharoor on Amazon.
61. The Paradox of Narendra Modi — Episode 102 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shashi Tharoor).
62. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh.
63. Kathal: A Jackfruit Mystery -- Yashowardhan Mishra.
64. Daniel Silva, Clare Mackintosh and Elizabeth Jane Howard on Amazon.
This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Write it Down’ by Simahina. -
Missing episodes?
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If Bihar was a country, it would be both one of the largest and one of the poorest in the world. How did we get here? What can we do? Mohit Satyanand and Kumar Anand join Amit Varma in episode 345 of The Seen and the Unseen to share their insights from a lifetime of study -- and a road trip they took last year.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Mohit Satyanand (Twitter, Instagram, IMdB) and Kumar Anand (Twitter).
2. Gimme Mo -- Mohit Satyanand's newsletter.
3. Power of Ideas -- Kumar Anand's blog.
4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Mohit Satyanand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Kumar Anand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
6. Politics — A limerick by Amit Varma.
7. The Right to Property — Ep 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
8. Raees: An Empty Shell of a Gangster Film — Amit Varma.
9. Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist -- Bruce Yandle.
10. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra).
11. The Poetic Feminism of Paromita Vohra -- Episode 339 of The Seen and the Unseen.
12. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
13. Shruti Rajagopalan Dives Into Delimitation -- Episode 336 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma.
15. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
16. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra).
17. Return to Good Riddance : A Cameo of Contemporary Patna -- Sankarshan Thakur.
18. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. A Matter of Rats — Amitava Kumar.
20. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen.
21. Not Anurag Behar, Not Smriti Irani, Ramchandara’s Wife Knows Best What’s Good For Her Kids -- Kumar Anand.
22. Education & the Industrial Revolution -- EG West.
23. The Steady Determination of Yamini Aiyar -- Episode 341 of The Seen and the Unseen.
24. Barun Mitra, Philosopher and Practitioner — Episode 264 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. Gobar Kababs -- Picture by Mohit Satyanand.
26. Snapshots from Bihar: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 -- Pictures by Kumar Anand.
27. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
28. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
29. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
30. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
31. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything, hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
32. The Double ‘Thank-You’ Moment — John Stossel.
33. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty — Albert O Hirschman.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Inside Bihar’ by Simahina. -
She's a journalist, a satirist and a connoisseur of bullshit. Manisha Pande joins Amit Varma in episode 344 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life, her learnings and the lamentable state of our nation and our journalism.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Manisha Pande on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Newslaundry.
2. TV Newsance.
3. Newslaundry.
4. Rahul Gandhi interviewed by Arnab Goswami (2014), Samdish and Curly Tails.
5. Newslaundry on the BeerBiceps collab with MyGov.
6. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
7. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen.
8. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia.
9. S Jaishankar on The Ranveer Show.
10. The Universe of Chuck Gopal — Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. The Looking-Glass Self.
12. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. The Doors, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Bad Company, Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Cat Stevens.
14. Highway 61 Revisited -- Bob Dylan.
15. Blonde and Blonde -- Bob Dylan.
16. Blood on the Tracks -- Bob Dylan.
17. Fyodor Dostoyevsky on Britannica, Wikipedia and Amazon.
18. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. What the moral lessons for journalists quitting Republic TV miss out -- Manisha Pande.
20. What women think of Narendra Modi -- Manisha Pande.
21. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh.
22. The Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast episode after Gino Mader's death.
23. The TV Newsance episode on Seema Haidar and Piyush Goyal.
24. The Lallantop video on the vegetable vendor.
25. The Barkha Dutt Files — Episode 243 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barkha Dutt).
26. We all live in a Cannibal Holocaust -- Amit Varma.
27. Cannibal Holocaust -- Ruggero Deodato.
28. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He’s alive!
29. Narendra Modi interviewed by Akshay Kumar.
30. Why we report on the media -- Manisha Pande.
31. Kean -- Jean-Paul Sartre.
32. Cross Purpose -- Albert Camus.
33. Oscar Wilde, Vijay Tendulkar, RK Narayan, Nida Fazli,
34. Collected Plays -- Girish Karnad.
35. Vajpayee: The Ascent of the Hindu Right, 1924–1977 -- Abhishek Choudhary.
36. Diddi: My Mother's Voice -- Ira Pande.
37. The Way Things Were -- Aatish Taseer.
38. India: A Wounded Civilization -- VS Naipaul.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Watch’ by Simahina. -
Our statues must eat ice cream, our cities must be designed by cardiovascular surgeons, and we must all go to the fifth temple. Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy join Amit Varma in episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen to banter away a few perfectly good hours. What a waste of time, eh? NO!
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Krish Ashok on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, his own website and Spotify/Apple Music/Soundcloud.
2. Naren Shenoy on Twitter, Instagram and Blogspot.
3. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen.
4. A Scientist in the Kitchen — Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok).
5. Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking -- Krish Ashok.
6. Simblified, co-hosted by Narendra Shenoy.
7. We want Narendra Shenoy to write a book.
8. Lohapurusha -- Krish Ashok's Sanskrit Heavy Metal album.
9. The Masala Lab Dal Recipe Generator -- Krish Ashok.
10. The Amaklamatic Salad Recipe Generator -- Krish Ashok.
11. The Amaklamatic Chutney Recipe Generator -- Krish Ashok.
12. Newton the Alchemist. Gandhi the Black Swan -- Episode 7 of Everything is Everything.
13. Krish Ashok hates computers and this is proof.
14. Roshan Abbas and the Creator Economy — Episode 239 of The Seen and the Unseen.
15. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas).
16. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen.
17. Caste, Gender, Karnatik Music — Episode 162 of The Seen and the Unseen (w TM Krishna).
18. 4′33″ -- John Cage.
19. Is the Singularity Near? -- Episode 2 of Everything is Everything.
20. The Formula Behind Every Perfect Pop Song — Seeker.
21. I, Pencil -- Leonard Read.
22. The Cadbury Dairy Milk Mystery -- Krish Ashok.
23. A Poetry Handbook — Mary Oliver.
24. Tvam -- Krish Ashok's version of Rammstein's Du Hast.
25. Du Hast -- Rammstein.
26. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph).
27. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen.
28. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen.
29. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee).
30. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee.
31. The Country Foods channel.
32. Ulhas Kamathe -- The Chicken Leg Piece Guy.
33. Sell the Tiger to Save It — Barun Mitra.
34. The Poultry Map.
35. The Egg Map.
36. Team Pizza or Team Biryani?
37. Gordon tries to make Pad Thai -- The F Word.
38. The Panchatantra.
39. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen.
40. Kimaham Abhavam -- Krish Ashok's version of Johnny Cash's version of Nine Inch Nails's Hurt.
41. Hurt -- Johnny Cash.
42. Hurt -- Nine Inch Nails.
43. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok.
44. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel.
45. The Menu -- Mark Mylod.
46. Cilappatikaram.
47. Dunbar's number.
48. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht — Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen.
49. Womaning in India — Mahima Vashisht’s newsletter.
50. Superforecasting -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
51. Essays -- Paul Graham.
52. Nityananda making sense.
53. Uncle Roger.
54. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen.
55. Never Talk About TURMERIC on Social Media — Abby Philips.
56. The Magic Pill -- Rob Tate.
57. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
58. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window -- Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen.
59. Brandolini's law.
60. Foodpharmer on Instagram.
61. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly.
62. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin.
63. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes.
64. The Big Fat Surprise — Nina Teicholz.
65. The Obesity Code — Jason Fung.
66. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll.
67. Your Undivided Attention -- Podcast by Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin.
68. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
69. 3Blue1Brown on YouTube.
70. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen.
71. Jaya Varma and the Chandigarh Choir perform Dhano Dhanne.
72. In a Silent Way — Episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gaurav Chintamani).
73. Sonnet 18 -- William Shakespeare.
74. Sonnet 18 -- Harriet Walter.
74. Sonnet 18 -- Akala.
75. Sonnet 18 -- David Gilmour.
76. Raga Ahir Bhairav -- Gangubai Hangal.
77. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri).
78. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavitha Rao).
79. Dark Was the Night -- Blind Willie Johnson.
80. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road -- Lucinda Williams.
81. Sweet Old World -- Lucinda Williams.
82. All That She Wants -- Ace of Base.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Amits’ by Simahina. -
Everything about the world must be rethought -- and Vitalik Buterin is on it. He joins Amit Varma and guest co-host Ajay Shah in episode 342 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss currencies, freedom, political philosophy, community, aging and why we need not be too scared of men with guns.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Vitalik Buterin on Twitter and his own website.
2. Ending Aging -- Aubrey de Grey.
3. The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant -- Nick Bostrom.
4. Issue # 1 of Bitcoin Magazine.
5. The World of Warcraft origin story.
6. Human Action -- Ludwig von Mises.
7. Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand.
8. Thomas Sowell on Amazon, Wikipedia and his own website.
9. Frédéric Bastiat’s writings at Bastiat.org and Amazon.
10. The Bastiat-Proudhon Debate.
11. True Names -- Vernon Vinge.
12. The Overton Window.
13. In Defense of Alternative Cryptocurrencies (2013) -- Vitalik Buterin.
14. Convex and Concave Dispositions -- Vitalik Buterin.
15. Arrow's impossibility theorem.
16. Credible Auctions: A Trilemma -- Mohammad Akbarpour and Shengwu Li.
17, Crypto currencies and conventional currencies will both evolve -- Ajay Shah.
18. How Bitcoin Can Actually Help Iranians and Argentinians (2013) -- Vitalik Buterin.
19. Law, Legislation and Liberty -- Friedrich Hayek.
20. The Wandering Earth -- Frant Gwo, based on the book by Cixin Liu.
21. 3 Body Problem -- David Benioff, DB Weiss and Alexander Woo, based on the book by Cixin Liu.
22. The Studio Ghibli Collection.
23. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- Robert Heinlein.
24. Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant -- Video by CGP Grey.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Vitalik’ by Simahina. -
She's one of our finest thinkers, and has devoted her life to public policy and building this country. Yamini Aiyar joins Amit Varma in episode 341 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life, her learnings and how the Indian state can be reformed.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Yamini Aiyar at Twitter, Deccan Herald, Hindustan Times and Center for Policy Research.
2. The Curious Case of the Powerful yet Powerless Bureaucrat -- BSC Seminar with Yamini Aiyar.
3. Rules Vs. Responsiveness -- A talk by Yamini Aiyar at IIM-A.
4. The State of the State: Strengthening India's Governance Capabilities -- Panel discussion featuring Yamini Aiyar and moderated by Amit Varma.
5. Rewriting the Grammar of the Education System: Delhi’s Education Reform (A Tale of Creative Resistance and Creative Disruption) -- Yamini Aiyar et al.
6. The Post Office Paradox: A Case Study of the Block Level Education Bureaucracy -- Yamini Aiyar and Shrayana Bhattacharya.
7. Rights, Accountability and Citizenship: Examining India’s Emerging Welfare State -- Yamini Aiyar and Michael Walton.
8. Citizen vs labharthi? Interrogating the welfare state -- Yamini Aiyar.
9. The Looking-Glass Self.
10. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
11. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia.
12. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window -- Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. The Overton Window.
14. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
15. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
16. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
17. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State — Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen.
18. Ashutosh Salil and the Challenge of Change — Episode 312 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. India’s Far From Free Markets (2005) — Amit Varma in the Wall Street Journal.
20. Pure Magic -- Kumkum Chadha on Shankara Pillai Krishna Kumar.
21. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
22. India’s Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon).
23. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra.
24. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan).
26. Jayaprakash Narayan Wants to Mend Our Democracy — Episode 334 of The Seen and the Unseen.
27. The RISE Programme.
28. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma.
29. Is the Singularity Near? -- Episode 2 of Everything is Everything.
30. My Hero, Oppenheimer -- Episode 5 of Everything is Everything.
31. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
32. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta).
33. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
34. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah.
35. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen.
36. Missing In Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley.
37. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley).
38. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
39. Making Bureaucracy Work: Norms, Education and Public Service Delivery in Rural India -- Akshay Mangla.
40. Is India a Flailing State? — Lant Pritchett.
41. James Manor on Amazon.
42. The Hedgehog And The Fox — Isaiah Berlin.
43. Vajpayee: The Ascent of the Hindu Right, 1924–1977 -- Abhishek Choudhary.
44. Planning Democracy: How A Professor, An Institute, And An Idea Shaped India — Nikhil Menon.
45. The History of the Planning Commission -- Episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Menon).
46. Nehru's India -- Taylor Sherman.
47. Hindutva and Violence -- Vinayak Chaturvedi.
48. The Thursday Murder Club -- Richard Osman.
49. Lessons in Chemistry -- Bonnie Garmus.
50. Agatha Christie on Amazon.
51. Dahaad, Kohrra, Scoop and Crash Course in Romance.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Build It’ by Simahina. -
He's a philosopher, a political theorist, a runner, a wine lover, an Ambedkarite -- and he used to be a Dharma Bum. Aakash Singh Rathore joins Amit Varma in episode 340 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his unusual journey and his unconventional insights.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Aakash Singh Rathore on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon, Deccan Herald and his own website.
2. Poorva Paksha -- Aakash Singh Rathore's columns in Deccan Herald.
3. Indian Political Theory: Laying the Groundwork for Svaraj -- Aakash Singh Rathore.
4. Ambedkar's Preamble: A Secret History of the Constitution of India -- Aakash Singh Rathore.
5. Becoming Babasaheb: The Life and Times of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Volume 1): Birth to Mahad (1891-1929) -- Aakash Singh Rathore.
6. Vision for a Nation: Paths and Perspectives -- Edited by Aakash Singh Rathore and Ashis Nandy.
7. A Scientist in the Kitchen — Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok).
8. Cathedral — Raymond Carver.
9. Both Sides Now -- Joni Mitchell.
10. Some ancient wisdom for the modern world -- Aakash Singh Rathore.
11. The Three Languages of Politics -- Arnold Kling.
12. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man -- Marshall McLuhan.
13. Understanding Media -- Marshall McLuhan.
14. Phaedrus -- Plato.
15. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma.
16. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma.
17. Philosophy, Cognition and Writing: A Talk on the Writing Process -- Aakash Singh Rathore.
18. Ghare Baire / Home and the World -- Rabindranath Tagore.
19. Ghare Baire -- Satyajit Ray.
20. Citizen Kane — Orson Welles.
21. A Movable Feast -- Ernest Hemingway.
22. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
23. Murder in Mahim — Jerry Pinto.
24. Eric Weinstein Won’t Toe the Line -- Episode 330 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll.
26. The Dharma Bums -- Jack Kerouac.
27. The Beat Generation.
28. Kicking Schoolbags -- Amit Varma.
29. The Sex Pistols and Clash.
30. Unsatisfied — The Replacements.
31. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
32. Yukio Mishima on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon.
33. The Poetic Feminism of Paromita Vohra -- Episode 339 of The Seen and the Unseen.
34. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Life and Mission -- Dhananjay Keer.
35. CB Khairmode's 12-volume Marathi biography of Ambedkar.
36. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila).
37. India’s Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu).
38. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh).
39. Hind Swaraj -- Mohandas Gandhi.
40. Understanding Gandhi: Part 1: Mohandas -- Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
41. Understanding Gandhi: Part 2: Mahatma -- Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
42. The centre-Left in India is more concerned with dirty politics -- Aakash Singh Rathore interviewed by Caravan.
43. Coriolanus -- William Shakespeare.
44. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee -- Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen.
45. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee.
46. Josh Felman Tries to Make Sense of the World — Episode 321 of The Seen and the Unseen.
47. Relativity: The Special And The General Theory -- Albert Einstein.
48. I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You) -- Aakash Singh Rathore.
49. Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers -- Jeremy Corbell.
50. The Fermi Paradox.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Running to Find the Light’ by Simahina. -
She's a filmmaker, feminist, artist, writer -- impossible to pin down, a connoisseur of multitudes. Paromita Vohra joins Amit Varma in episode 339 of The Seen and the Unseen to shoot the breeze and share her thoughts on Covid, relationships, the garden of consent, how being a misfit can be liberating and what she means by Poetic Feminism.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Paromita Vohra on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, IMDb and Parodevi Pictures.
2. Paromita Vohra's column archives in Mid-Day.
3. Agents of Ishq.
3. Films, Feminism, Paromita -- Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra).
4. Unlimited Girls (95 mins).
5. Partners in Crime (95 mins).
6. Paromita Vohra interviewed by The Third Eye.
7. Empire of the Sun -- Steven Spielberg.
8. Simple Recipes for Complicated Times -- Peter Griffin's Facebook group.
9. Tsunami Help and Cloudburst Mumbai.
10. Feeding the Hungry in the Pandemic — Episode 210 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ruben Mascarenhas).
11. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen.
12. Chekhov's Gun.
13. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. Padosan and Kashmir Ki Kali.
15. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. One Foot on the Ground — Shanta Gokhale.
17. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus — John Gray.
18. What Makes Women Happy -- Fay Weldon.
19. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
20. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
21. Asterix, Tintin, Phantom and Mandrake.
22. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie.
23. Shame -- Salman Rushdie.
24. Amitav Ghosh on Amazon.
25. Anjali Arondekar on Amazon and her own website.
26. Sex, Law, and the Politics of Age: Child Marriage in India, 1891–1937 -- Ishita Pande.
27. Indian Sex Life -- Durba Mitra.
28. The Looking-Glass Self.
29. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham.
30. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok.
31. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel.
32. Tokyo is the new Paris -- Noah Smith.
33. Maximum City -- Suketu Mehta.
34. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai — Karan Johar.
35. Supermen of Malegaon -- Faiza Ahmad Khan.
36. The Overton Window.
37. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor).
38. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen.
39. Stage.in.
40. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges.
41. On Uniform Civil Code, intent matters -- GN Devy.
42. Past Lives -- Celine Song.
43. Joseph Fasano on Twitter.
44. Imaginary Number — Vijay Seshadri.
45. Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women -- Translated by Charles Hallisey.
46. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph).
47. Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From — Tony Joseph.
48. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma.
49. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen.
50. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist -- Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen.
51. Roots -- Alex Haley.
52. Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To — David Sinclair.
53. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity -- Peter Attia.
54. Chronicle of a Summer -- Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin.
55. Chaalbaaz -- Pankaj Parashar.
56. Topsy-Turvy -- Mike Leigh.
57. Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency -- Chen Chen.
58. i love you to the moon & -- Chen Chen.
59. Chen Chen on Instagram.
60. Rajendra Krishan on Wikipedia, IMDb and Rekhta.
61. Pyar Ke Jahan Ki Nirali Sarkar Hai -- Song from Patang, written by Rajendra Krishan.
62. Ga Ga Ga Gori Gori -- Baba Sehgal.
63. Ek Thi Ladki -- Roop Shorey.
64. Lara Lappa Lara Lappa -- Song from Ek Thi Ladki.
65. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee).
66. Regrets, None -- Dolly Thakore.
67. Timepass: The Memoirs of Protima Bedi -- Protima Bedi.
68. Joan Didion on Amazon.
69. The Odd Woman and the City — Vivian Gornick.
70. We Should All Be Feminists -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
71. Fearless Freedom -- Kavita Krishnan.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘The Dance of Life’ by Simahina. -
There are few spaces in the world more intense than an intensive care unit, where life hangs in the balance, where nothing can be taken for granted. Nitin Arora joins Amit Varma in episode 338 of The Seen and the Unseen to speak about the history and evolution of intensive care, what Covid taught him and why he speaks more Punjabi in Birmingham than in Amritsar.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Nitin Arora on Twitter, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Google Scholar and Those We Carry.
2. The Beginner's Guide to Intensive Care -- Nitin Arora and Shondipon K Laha.
3. Nitin Arora on the Simblified podcast: 1, 2, 3, 4.
4. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto).
5. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine -- Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
7. The Importance of Finance -- Episode 125 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
8. The Medical Council of India — Episode 8 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pavan Srinath).
9. Critical: Stories from the front line of intensive care medicine -- Matt Morgan.
10. The Armchair Economist -- Stephen Landsburg.
11. Being Mortal -- Atul Gawande.
12. Platoon -- Oliver Stone.
13. Freakonomics -- Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.
14. The Darwin Awards.
15. Oxygen cylinders or Irish nuns?.
15, The Checklist Manifesto -- Atul Gawande.
16. When Breath Becomes Air -- Paul Kalanithi.
17. Thinking Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Intensive Care’ by Simahina. -
To live the examined life, we have to examine our own desires. Luke Burgis joins Amit Varma in episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his insights into human nature -- and to talk about his own evolution as a person and a thinker.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Luke Burgis on Twitter, Instagram and his own website.
2. Wanting -- Luke Burgis.
3. Anti-Mimetic -- Luke's newsletter.
4. Ride/Drive -- Another newsletter by Luke.
5. Speaking Out (Of Order) -- Luke Burgis.
6. Podcast Heroes -- Luke Burgis.
7. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma.
8. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma.
9. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma.
10. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges.
11. Getting out from under the influencers -- Luke Burgis on Look Ma' No Hands, Laura Max Rose's podcast.
12. Marshall McLuhan on Britannica, Wikipedia and Amazon.
13. The Power of Mimetic Desire -- Luke Burgis on The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish.
14. Dietrich von Hildebrand on Wikipedia and Amazon.
15. Leisure: The Basis of Culture -- Josef Pieper.
16. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
17. Dunbar's Number.
18. Imaginary Number — Vijay Seshadri.
19. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
20. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
21. How the Language of Therapy Took Over Dating -- Dani Blum.
22. The Pathless Path -- Paul Millerd.
23. How To Find Your True Desires -- Luke Burgis on Paul Millerd's Pathless Path podcast.
24. Songs of Surrender -- U2.
25. Gurwinder Bhogal Examines Human Nature -- Episode 331 of The Seen and the Unseen.
26. Gurwinder Bhogal's recent megathread -- and his tweet about the learning pyramid.
27. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia.
28. Man's Search For Meaning -- Viktor Frankl.
29. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
30. Mystagogues Wanted -- Luke Burgis.
31. Cormac McCarthy on Amazon.
32. Suyash Rai Embraces India’s Complexity -- Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen.
33. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai).
34. What People Are Really Doing When They Play Hard to Get -- Luke Burgis.
35. The Two Gentlemen of Verona -- William Shakespeare.
36. Blood Meridian -- Cormac McCarthy.
37. Aesop's Fables.
38. The Crisis of Political Imagination -- Glenn Tinder.
39. A Hidden Life -- Terrence Malick.
40. Paterson -- Jim Jarmusch.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Look' by Simahina. -
In a democracy, every vote should be equal. But in India, that's not the case. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 336 of The Seen and the Unseen to give a detailed primer into the complex issue of Delimitation -- and to suggest her own radical solution.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram and her podcast, Ideas of India.
2. Demography, Delimitation, and Democracy -- Shruti Rajagopalan's detailed post on Delimitation.
3. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
4. India’s Emerging Crisis of Representation -- Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson.
5. Of Openings and Possibilities -- Pranay Kotasthane on Delimitation.
6. South India Would Like to Have a Word — Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS).
7. Jayaprakash Narayan Wants to Mend Our Democracy -- Episode 334 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan).
8. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. Amit Varma on the Creator Economy -- A recent episode of the Ideas of India podcast.
11. Gurwinder Bhogal Examines Human Nature -- Episode 331 of The Seen and the Unseen.
12. The Prism -- Gurwinder Bhogal's Substack newsletter.
13. Public Choice Theory — Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. Public Choice: A Primer — Eomonn Butler.
15. Public Choice -- Politics Without Romance -- James M Buchanan.
16. Politics Without Romance -- Amit Varma's column archives for Bloomberg Quint.
17. David Hume on Britannica, Wikipedia and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
18. Adam Smith on Britannica, Wikipedia and Amazon.
19. James M Buchanan on Britannica, Wikipedia, Econlib and Amazon.
20. Gordon Tullock on Wikipedia, Econlib, Mercatus and Amazon.
21. The Calculus of Consent — James M Buchanan and Gordon Tullock.
22. Democracy in Deficit -- James M Buchanan and Richard E Wagner.
23. Shruti Rajagopalan on our constitutional amendments.
24. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State -- Episode 33 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra.
26. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma.
27. The Political Theory of a Compound Republic -- Vincent Ostrom.
28. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
29. India’s Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon).
30. Great Soul -- Joseph Lelyveld.
31. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
32. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
33. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma.
34. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan).
35. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh).
36. Nehru’s Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.)
37. Coalition Politics and Economic Development -- Irfan Nooruddin.
38. The Laffer Curve.
39. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra).
40. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan).
41. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham.
42. ‘Let Me Interrupt Your Expertise With My Confidence’ — New Yorker cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein.
43. Eppur si muove.
44. Jagdish Bhagwati's co-written defence of demonetisation, and Shruti Rajagopalan's co-written rebuttal.
This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off.
Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Figure it Out’ by Simahina. -
The war in Ukraine may seem distant -- but it affects us all in a million unseen ways. Ajay Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen to deliver an in-depth masterclass on exactly what is going on.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack.
2. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
3. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah.
4. Rising to the China Challenge -- Gautam Bambawale, Vijay Kelkar, Raghunath Mashelkar, Ganesh Natarajan, Ajit Ranade and Ajay Shah.
5. Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy — Episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai).
6. Conflict in Ukraine: A timeline (2014 - present) -- Nigel Walker for House of Commons Library.
7. RUSI's commentary on Ukraine.
8. Rand Corporation's archive on the war.
9. Understanding the Russo-Ukranian War: A Guide From War on the Rocks.
10. Foreign Affairs articles on Ukraine, Russia and China.
11. Maps that update every day from Deep State and War Mapper.
12. YouTubers to follow on this subject: Perun, Timothy Snyder, Anders Puck Nielsen, The Telegraph, Silicon Curtain and William Spaniel.
13. Wind and solar power generated more electricity in the EU last year than gas did. Here’s how -- Stefan Ellerbeck.
14. Economic stress in Russia -- Ajay Shah.
15. More ammo: Improving resilience against extreme surges in demand -- Ajay Shah.
16. Downstream from the Ukraine war -- Gautam Bambawale and Ajay Shah.
17. Bloodlands -- Timothy Snyder.
18. Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine -- Anne Applebaum.
19. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 -- Anne Applebaum.
20. On Tyranny -- Timothy Snyder.
21. What is Populism? -- Jan-Werner Müller.
22. Tyranny in the Post-Truth Universe (2017) -- Amit Varma.
23. Why Both Modi and Trump are Textbook Populists (2017) -- Amit Varma.
24. The End of History? — Francis Fukuyama’s essay.
25. The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama’s book.
26. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
27. Arthur Koestler and Boris Pasternak on Amazon.
28. Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (2005) -- Vladimir Putin.
29. Requiem -- Anna Akhmatova.
30. Russian court orders closure of country’s oldest human rights group -- Andrew Roth on the ban of Memorial.
31. The Resource Curse.
32. Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Vasily Grossman.
33. Dersu Uzala -- Akira Kurosawa.
34. Servant of the People -- The show in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy starts as the president of Ukraine.
35. Volodymyr Zelenskyy plays the piano with his penis.
36. How Corruption Destroys Armies - Theft, Graft, and Russian failure in Ukraine -- Perun.
37. An excerpt from Wittgenstein's diary -- Parul Sehgal on Twitter.
38. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus -- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
39. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton M Christensen.
40. National Security Strategy of Japan.
41. Suspicious deaths of Russian businesspeople (2022–2023).
42. ‘Stop the war.’ 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin — Sam Copeland.
43. Alexander Grischuk’s emotional press conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Watch from 4:20.)
44. India must detach from Russia -- Renuka Sane.
45. Helping India Replace Russia in the Value Arms Market -- Vasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach.
46. After Ukraine, Where Will India Buy its Weapons? -- Vasabjit Banerjee and Benjamin Tkach.
47. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- Ernest Hemingway.
48. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- John Donne.
49. Night of the Long Knives.
50. Anton Geraschenko's tweet after the Wagner backdown.
51. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller.
52. Max Seddon's tweet about Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘War’ by Simahina. -
He was a physician, and then an IAS officer, and then a universally-respected politician. Jayaprakash Narayan joins Amit Varma in episode 334 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his lifelong quest to complete our task of nation-building.
1. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan).
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
2. The State of Indian Politics — Episode 50 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan).
3. The Myth of Sisyphus (Amazon) (Wikipedia) -- Albert Camus.
4. Factfulness — Hans Rosling.
5. The best stats you’ve ever seen — Hans Rosling.
6. What’s Consolation For An Atheist? (2008) -- Amit Varma.
7. Barun Mitra, Philosopher and Practitioner -- Episode 264 of The Seen and the Unseen.
8. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra.
9. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State -- Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. India’s Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon).
11. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma.
12. Rajesh Jain and Dhan Vapasi -- Episode 94 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. Team of Rivals — Doris Kearns Goodwin.
14. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
15, The Indian State Is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer -- Amit Varma.
16. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
17. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra).
18. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
19. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
20. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
21. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
22. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
23. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma.
24. The Double ‘Thank-You’ Moment — John Stossel.
25. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander.
26. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta & Hamsini Hariharan).
27. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma.
28. South India Would Like to Have a Word — Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS).
29. Animal Farm -- George Orwell.
30. Guns, Germs And Steel -- Jared Diamond.
31. Yuval Noah Harari on Amazon.
32. The Economic Government of the World: 1933-2023 -- Martin Daunton.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Build’ by Simahina. -
India is like a caged tiger -- and the cage is unseen by most and difficult to break through. Subhashish Bhadra joins Amit Varma in episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe the many ways in which the Indian state holds back the Indian people -- and also to introspect on his own journey.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Subhashish Bhadra on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
2. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back -- Subhashish Bhadra.
3. Freedom at Midnight -- Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.
4. The Universe of Chuck Gopal — Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen.
5. Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) -- Marvin Gaye.
6. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
8. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. Yeh Honsla -- Song from Dor.
10. Gurwinder Bhogal Examines Human Nature -- Episode 331 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. The Perils of Audience Capture — Gurwinder Bhogal.
12. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
13. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil).
14. The Indian State Is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer -- Amit Varma.
15. Power and Prosperity — Mancur Olson.
16. A Tale Of Two Bandits: Naxals And The Indian State -- Amit Varma.
17. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh).
18. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh.
19. The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty -- Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.
20. Paul Graham’s essays.
21. Malevolent Republic — Kapil Komireddi.
22. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi).
23. A New Idea of India -- Harsh Madhusudan and Rajeev Mantri.
24. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah.
25. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Ep 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah).
26. The Transformative Constitution -- Gautam Bhatia.
27. The Great Repression — Chitranshul Sinha.
28. India’s Sedition Law — Episode 146 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chitranshul Sinha).
29. Georges Simenon on Amazon.
30. The Road to Serfdom — Friedrich Hayek.
31. Leviathan -- Thomas Hobbes.
32. India’s Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon).
33. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash.
34. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen.
35. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
36. Minimum government, maximum governance: A manifesto for a limited state -- Reuben Abraham and Vivek Dehejia.
37. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma.
38. India's Far From Free Markets (2005) -- Amit Varma in the Wall Street Journal.
39. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
40. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra.
41. The Great Redistribution — Amit Varma.
42. The Delhi Smog — Ep 40 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul).
43. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
44. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor.
45. Coomi Kapoor Has the Inside Track — Episode 305 of The Seen and the Unseen.
46. Memories of a Father -- TV Eachara Varier.
47. Flying Spaghetti Monster.
48. Don’t Insult Pasta (2007) — Amit Varma.
49. Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India -- Abhinav Chandrachud.
50. South India Would Like to Have a Word — Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS).
51. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century -- Yuval Noah Harari.
52. Rethinking Public Institutions in India -- Edited by Devesh Kapur, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Milan Vaishnav.
53. Black Mirror on Netflix.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Cage’ by Simahina. -
She's been a historian and a filmmaker. She's worked on feminism and caste and Buddhism. She's collected oral histories of India's traumas. She's mentored generations. The legendary Uma Chakravarti joins Amit Varma in episode 332 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life, her times and her invaluable work towards the pursuit of truth.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Uma Chakkravarti on Wikipedia and Amazon.
2. The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism -- Uma Chakravarti.
3. Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai -- Uma Chakravarti.
4. Gendering Caste Through a Feminist Lens -- Uma Chakravarti.
5. Delhi Riots: Three Days in the Life of a Nation -- Uma Chakravarti and Nandita Haksar.
6. Thinking Gender, Doing Gender -- Edited by Uma Chakravarti.
7. A Quiet Little Entry -- Uma Chakravarti.
8. Fragments of a Past -- Uma Chakravarti.
9. Ek Inquilab Aur Aaya: Lucknow 1920-1949 -- Uma Chakravarti.
10. Prison Diaries -- Uma Chakravarti.
11. Sexual Violence in Indian Society -- Uma Chakravarti.
12. Restructuring the Path: Inserting Women into History (2000) -- Uma Chakravarti.
13. Select 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, Natasha Badhwar, Shanta Gokhale, Arshia Sattar, Rohini Nilekani and Shaili Chopra.
14. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra).
15. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander.
17. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan).
18. Kiran Ahluwalia Finds Our Aam Zameen -- Episode 328 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. Yogendra Yadav on why he was named Salim.
20. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel).
21. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel).
22. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila).
23. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph).
24. Early Indians — Tony Joseph.
25. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich.
26. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World — Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai).
27. Therīgāthā on Wikipedia and Amazon.
28. Arshia Sattar and the Complex Search for Dharma — Episode 315 of The Seen and the Unseen.
29. Deedar -- Nitin Bose.
30. Diya Jalao Jagmag Jagmag -- Song from Tansen.
31. Do Bigha Zameen -- Bimal Roy.
32. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
33. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
34. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman — Mary Wollstonecraft.
35. Frankenstein -- Mary Shelley.
36. Amit Varma’s episode of The Book Club on Wollstonecraft’s book.
37. Amit Varma's episode of The Book Club on Shelley's book.
38. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen.
39. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist — Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen.
40. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game — Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
41. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe).
42. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe.
43. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
44. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra).
45. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
46. The Great Redistribution — Amit Varma.
47. The Beautiful Tree — James Tooley.
48. Hum Dekhenge -- Iqbal Bano.
49. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Question of Socialism in India -- V Geetha.
50. Let's Read Ambedkar -- Lecture series by V Geetha.
51. Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India -- Douglas Ober.
52. The Conversion of the Untouchables -- BR Ambedkar.
53. The Gregorian Chant.
54. Deva Bandha Namma -- Bhimsen Joshi.
55. Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada So Hi Param Pada Pavega -- Bhimsen Joshi.
56. Vaishnav Jan To -- Riyaaz Qawwali.
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: ‘Carrying the Torch’ by Simahina. -
It is not the world that is the problem but the flawed ways in which we think about it. Gurwinder Bhogal joins Amit Varma in episode 331 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his interest in meta-cognition -- and what it reveals about us and the world.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Gurwinder Bhogal on Substack and Twitter.
2. My Story -- Gurwinder Bhogal.
3. Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things -- Gurwinder Bhogal.
4. The Perils of Audience Capture -- Gurwinder Bhogal.
5. Skin in the Game -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
6. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
7. The Looking-Glass Shelf.
8. Nikocado Avocado -- Nicholas Perry's YouTube channel.
9. God is Not Great -- Christopher Hitchens.
10. The Coddling of the American Mind — Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.
11. A Biologist Explains Why Sex Is Binary -- Colin Wright.
12. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Think About Thinking’ by Simahina. -
He's a freethinker who's never been scared to rattle orthodoxies. Eric Weinstein joins Amit Varma in episode 330 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about how he became the man he is.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Eric Weinstein on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and his own website.
2. Eric Weinstein on The Joe Rogan Experience (1, 2) and Lex Fridman (1, 2, 3, 4).
3. Eric Weinstein in Karjat, 1986.
4. The Road Not Taken -- Robert Frost.
5. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening -- Robert Frost.
6. Total Love -- Gur Bentwich.
7. Eric Weinstein in Kiev, 1989.
8. Eric Weinstein meets a harmonica friend.
9. The 27 Club.
10. Umwelt.
11. John Mayer and Blake Mills on Spotify.
12. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. Desire -- Clementine Von Radics.
14. The Is-Ought Problem.
15. The Naturalistic Fallacy.
16. The Big Questions — Steven E Landsburg.
17. Hindi Nationalism — Alok Rai.
18. Jahnavi and the Cyclotron — Episode 319 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jahnavi Phalkey).
19. Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth-Century India — Jahnavi Phalkey.
20. The Law of Truly Large Numbers.
21. Unlikely is Inevitable — Amit Varma.
22. Poisson Point Process.
23. The Major-General song from The Pirates of Penzance.
24. The HMS Pinafore song.
25. The New World Upon Us — Amit Varma (on Alpha Zero).
26. Alfred Hitchcock and The Beach Boys.
27. Roger Ebert on Mulholland Drive and Memento.
28. Joe Morgenstern and Bonnie and Clyde.
29. Creep -- Radiohead.
30. The Perils of Audience Capture -- Gurwinder Bhogal (on 'The Looking-Glass Self; and more).
31. David Bowie and Madonna.
32. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) -- Green Day.
33. I Can't Stand the Rain -- Ann Peebles.
34. Fast Car -- Tracy Chapman.
35. Planet Claire -- The B52s.
36. Dunning-Kruger Effect.
37. Imposter Syndrome.
38. Bethany Hamilton on Wikipedia, Twitter, Instagram and her own website.
39. FOO Camp.
40. Gad Saad's poll on Like vs Respect.
41. Mary Oliver and Mark Strand.
42. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prem Panicker).
43. The Great Brain -- John D Fitzgerald.
44. Pippi Longstocking -- Astrid Lindgren.
45. Tom Lehrer on Spotify.
46. Eric Weinstein on Kung Fu Panda.
47. Kung Fu Panda -- John Stevenson.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Endless Possibility’ by Simahina. -
He gave up a staggeringly successful career to live a quiet life -- and now he shares his wisdom with us. Murali Neelakantan joins Amit Varma in episode 329 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the life he has lived and the lessons he has learnt.
75. Tum Bilkul Hum Jaise Nikle -- Fehmida Riaz.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Also check out:
1. Murali Neelankantan on Twitter and LinkedIn.
2. An Idea of a Law School -- NR Madhava Menon, Murali Neelakantan and Sumeet Malik.
3. Akshaya Mukul and the Life of Agyeya -- Episode 324 of The Seen and the Unseen.
4. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
5. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
6. It is immoral to have children. Here’s why — Amit Varma.
7. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
8. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. Casino Royale -- Martin Campbell.
11. Schrödinger's cat.
12. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty).
13. Right to Education: Just another law -- Meera Neelakantan.
14. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen.
15. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
16. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prem Panicker).
17. Major Navneet Vats SM.
18. Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To — David Sinclair.
19. The Lifespan Podcast by David Sinclair.
20. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas).
21. Loss Aversion.
22. Aandhi -- Gulzar.
23. Nowhere Near -- Yo La Tengo.
24. Dil Hi To Hai Na Sang o Hishat -- Abida Parveen.
25. Ranjish hi Sahi -- Mehdi Hasan.
26. Old Man -- Neil Young.
27. Oscar Wilde on Amazon and Wikipedia.
28. Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho -- Jagjit Singh.
29. Bonjour Tristesse -- Françoise Sagan.
30. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.
31. Politics and the Sociopath (2014) — Amit Varma.
32. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky.
33. The Expanding Circle — Peter Singer.
34. Dunbar's number.
35. Rankthings.io by Aella and David.
36. Aella on Twitter and Substack.
37. Ye Humse Na Hoga -- Javed Akhtar.
38. All You Who Sleep Tonight -- Vikram Seth.
39. GCN +.
40. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
41. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
42. SVB, Banking and the State of the Economy -- Episode 323 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah and Mohit Satyanand).
43. Ashutosh Salil and the Challenge of Change -- Episode 312 of The Seen and the Unseen.
44. Laws Against Victimless Crimes Should Be Scrapped — Amit Varma.
45. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens — Amit Varma.
46. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek).
47. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (on isomorphic mimicry, with Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok).
48. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley).
49. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen.
50. Restaurant Regulations in India — Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon).
51. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith.
52. The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith.
53. Humesha Der Kar Deta Hoon Main -- Muneer Niazi.
54. The Economics and Politics of Vaccines — Episode 223 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
55. Rustom -- Tinu Suresh Desai on the Nanavati case.
56. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
57. The Nurture Assumption — Judith Rich Harris.
58. Mohit Satyanand on Twitter and Substack.
59. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Mohit Satyanand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
60. Richard Dawkins on unpleasant gods.
61. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life -- Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen.
62. Three Hundred Verses: Musings on Life, Love and Renunciation -- Bhartrihari.
63. Drug Price Controls -- Episode 29 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pavan Srinath).
64. The Dark Side of Indian Pharma — Episode 245 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Dinesh Thakur).
65. Bottle of Lies — Katherine Eban.
66. The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India -- Dinesh Thakur and Prashant Reddy.
67. Fire in the Blood -- Dylan Mohan Gray.
68. New York Stories -- Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen.
69. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla).
70. Kumārasambhava -- Kalidasa.
71. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking -- Susan Cain.
72. Goodbye, Mr Chips -- Sam Wood.
73. Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil -- Jim Goddard.
74. What Money Can't Buy -- Michael Sandel.
76. Kuchh Log Tumhein Samjhaaenge -- Fehmida Riaz.
77. The Four Quadrants of Conformism — Paul Graham.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘This is the World’ by Simahina. -
Her career spans decades and genres, and she's brought together worlds that seldom meet. Kiran Ahluwalia joins Amit Varma in episode 328 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life, her music and the ethic that binds it all together.
(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)
Song Timecodes:
Rabba Ru: 34:56
Har Khayal : 01:06:00
Awara : 02:00:12
Dil: 03:08:30
Zindagi : 04:11:45
Pancake: 4:16:56
Jaane Jahan : 04:21:13
Mustt Mustt: 04:27:25
Hayat: 04:31:40
We Sinful Women : 4:36:40
Also check out:
1. Kiran Ahluwalia on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her own website.
2. Kashish: Attraction -- Kiran Ahluwalia.
3. Beyond Boundaries -- Kiran Ahluwalia.
4. Kiran Ahluwalia -- Kiran Ahluwalia. (Also see this.)
5. Wanderlust -- Kiran Ahluwalia.
6. Aam Zameen: Common Ground -- Kiran Ahluwalia (featuring Tinariwen and Terakaft).
7. Sanata: Stillness -- Kiran Ahluwalia.
8. 7 Billion -- Kiran Ahluwalia. (Also see this.)
9. Kiran Ahluwalia interviewed by Asia Blog.
10. Kalpana Bharat, Narendra Datar, Padma Talwalkar and Vithal Rao.
11. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
12. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen.
15. The War Against Cliche — Martin Amis.
16. Lament from Night Song -- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with Michael Brook.
17. Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali and Mehdi Hasan.
18. Yogendra Yadav on why he was named Salim.
19. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra).
20. Souad Massi on Spotify and YouTube Music.
21. Pink Moon -- Nick Drake. (And also Amit's favourite Nick Drake song, Northern Sky.)
22. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen.
23. Cities of Sleep -- Shaunak Sen.
24. All That Breathes -- Shaunak Sen.
25. Saving Face -- Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge.
26. My Octopus Teacher -- Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed.
27. Metamorphosis -- Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper.
28. Shooting Indians -- Ali Kazimi.
29. Kaifinama -- Sumantra Ghosal.
30. Garm Hava -- MS Sathyu.
31. Nainsukh -- Amit Dutta.
32. The Fall -- Tarsem Singh.
33. Timbuktu -- Abderrahmane Sissako. (Also check out the soundtrack.)
34. The Square -- Ruben Östlund.
35. Triangle of Sadness -- Ruben Östlund.
36. The Innocents -- Anne Fontaine.
37. Border -- Ali Abbasi.
38. The Hedgehog -- Mona Achache.
39. A Fraction Of The Whole -- Steve Toltz.
40. What is the What -- Dave Eggers.
41. Barabbas -- Pär Lagerkvist.
42. Tinariwen, Amadou & Mariam, Fatoumata Diawara, Khaira Arby, Tufail Niazi, Vithal Rao, Padma Talwalkar, Ulhas Kashalkar and Venkatesh Kumar on Spotify.
Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
Episode art: ‘Listen to the Music’ by Simahina. - Show more
