He observed our society from up close as an advertising man — and then became an iconic storyteller on Twitter. Ramakrishna Desiraju aka Ramki joins Amit Varma in episode 415 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and all that it taught him.
Episode 94: Rajesh Jain and Dhan Vapasi
Rajesh Jain was one of the architects of Narendra Modi’s win in 2014 — and then got buyer’s remorse and turned against the BJP. Now, he has launched Dhan Vapasi, an insanely ambitious and innovative attempt at disrupting Indian politics. He joins Amit Varma in episode 94 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain where he’s coming from.
Note: The first half of the show is about Jain’s political journey before this: supporting Modi, changing his mind etc. The conversation about Dhan Vapasi starts at 1:03:25.
Episode 93: America in South Asia
For over 200 years, America has been interested in South Asia across three separate axes: power, ideology and culture. Historian Srinath Raghavan joins Amit Varma in episode 93 of The Seen and the Unseen to provide a guided tour of this fascinating history.
Episode 92: An Economist Looks at #MeToo
Will the #MeToo movement change behaviour by changing incentives? Economist Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 92 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about Criminal Economics in the context of crimes on women in India.
Episode 91: IL&FS and the Indian Financial System
The crisis at IL&FS reveals just how rotten India’s financial system is. Vivek Kaul and Ashutosh Datar join Amit Varma in episode 91 of The Seen and the Unseen to demystify the problem.
Episode 90: The #MeToo Movement
#MeToo is the most important cultural moment of our lifetimes. Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena join Amit Varma in episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen to share their insights.
Episode 89: The State of the Media 2
Are journalists redundant in a world where no one cares about facts any more? Are we to cater to people’s imagined realities? And when money and power come together, how are Independent journalists to resist? Sidharth Bhatia of The Wire and Peter Griffin of The Hindu join Amit Varma in episode 89 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 88: Metrics of Empowerment
The lives of women in India must be gradually getting better, right? How do we measure this? Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan join Amit Varma in episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss a range of possible metrics.
Episode 87: Where Are the Jobs?
India has entered a massive jobs crisis, with more than a million people coming into the workforce every month — and not enough jobs. Will our Demographic Dividend be a Demographic Disaster? Yazad Jal of the 20 Million Jobs project joins Amit Varma in episode 87 of The Seen and the Unseen to give insight on the scale of the problem.
Episode 86: The State of Our Farmers
India’s agricultural crisis has been caused by the state. Farmer leader Gunvant Patil of the Shetkari Sanghatana joins Amit Varma in episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain the many ways in which Big Government has created our agricultural crisis. (Note: This episode is in Hindi.)
Episode 85: DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State
Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen is about Demonetisation — and a lot else. First, host Amit Varma launches into an angry monologue about how economic benefits can never justify moral costs. Then he is joined by economist Shruti Rajagopalan, who elaborates on all the things wrong with DeMon. They discuss the predatory Indian state, how Indians are forced into jugaad to cope with it, and that this jugaad might seem to be a good thing, but represents the enormous cost that all of us pay.
Episode 84: Being Gay in India
What is it like to grow up gay in a deeply homophobic country? Writer and stand-up comedian Navin Noronha joins Amit Varma in ep 84 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his experience growing up gay in Bhayandar, and his insights from his podcast, Keeping it Queer.
Episode 83: Young India
India is a young country, and young Indians today are entitled and angry. Snigdha Poonam joins Amit Varma in episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the turmoil in small-town India.
Episode 82: Swachh Bharat
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is short-sighted, and does not achieve its purpose. Why? What can we do? Economist Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 82 of The Seen and the Unseen to break it all down.
Episode 81: Chinese Foreign Policy
How does China see its place in the world? What are its foreign policy objectives? Should India be worried? China expert Manoj Kewalramani joins Amit Varma in episode 81 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 80: India in the Nuclear Age
India as a nuclear power is a different force from what it was before we went nuclear. Lt Gen Prakash Menon joins Amit Varma in episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe how War and Statecraft have been redefined by nuclear weapons.
Episode 78: Crowd Violence in India
More and more, across this country, violent crowds are taking the law into their own hands. What’s going on? Legal experts Madhav Chandavarkar and Alok Prasanna Kumar share their insights with Amit Varma in episode 78 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 77: Education in India
According to education scholar and activist Amit Chandra, education in India is a fraud committed on the people of this country by the state. He joins Amit Varma in episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain why.
Episode 76: Claiming Your Space
Misogyny is ubiquitous. Women begin life with the odds stacked against them. Aditi Mittal joins Amit Varma in episode 76 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how hard it was for her to claim her space. Guest appearance: Swati Bakshi.
Episode 75: Stand-Up Comedy in India
“Comedy is tragedy plus time.” Aditi Mittal joins Amit Varma to elaborate on this in Episode 75 of The Seen and the Unseen. Abbas Momin sits in as well, as the conversation spins from the evolution of stand-up in India to the challenges it faces.
Episode 74: The Bad and Complex Tax
GST was supposed to be a Good and Simple Tax, but has ended up as just the opposite. This is hurting the poor the most. Economist Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 74 of The Seen and the Unseen to suggest a way out.
Episode 73: Trade Deficits (and Trumpism)
The US has a trade deficit with China. Trump is worried. Trump is nuts. Vivek Kaul explains why to Amit Varma in episode 73 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 72: The GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has just been passed in Europe. What are its Unseen Effects? What can India learn from it? Legal expert Manasa Venkataraman joins Amit Varma in episode 72 of The Seen and the Unseen to demystify this subject.
Episode 71: Data and the Government
The Indian government has a disturbing tendency to cherry-pick data. Vivek Kaul joins Amit Varma in episode 71 of The Seen and the Unseen to catch them with their pants down.
Episode 70: Online Conversations
The internet was supposed to bring us all together — but instead, is it driving us apart? Reddit moderator Nikhil X joins Amit Varma in episode 70 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the changing shape of online conversations — and society.
Episode 69: Immigration and Outsourcing
Donald Trump had two simple answers to everyone who complained about jobs in America. One: Immigrants are taking your jobs. Two: Your jobs are being shipped overseas. Trump was bullshitting. Gaurav Sabnis joins Amit Varma in episode 69 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain why.
Episode 68: Online Content Regulation
The government of India recently broached the possibility of regulating online content — even more than it already does. What does this mean for our freedoms. Nikhil Pahwa joins Amit Varma in episode 68 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 67: Ask Me Anything
This is an AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode, in which host Amit Varma answers questions from both in-studio guests and Twitter and Facebook users.
Episode 66: The State of the Economy 2
What does our economy look like today? Vivek Kaul joins Amit Varma in episode 66 of The Seen and the Unseen, as they talk about Air India, cash shortages, the jobs crisis and other such miscellanea.
Episode 65: The Future of the Internet
The internet has empowered us all beyond belief — but is there a flip side to this? Does it need to be regulated? Nikhil Pahwa and Amit Doshi have a lively conversation with Amit Varma in episode 65 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 64: Libertarianism
What does it mean to be free? What is the basis of individual rights? Episode 64 of The Seen and the Unseen is a rerun of an old episode of The Pragati Podcast, as Amit Varma tells Pavan Srinath what it means to be a libertarian, and why it all boils down to one word: Consent.
Episode 63: Foreign Policy
We all have our own guidelines for how individuals should treat each other. But how should nations behave with other nations? Foreign Policy Realist Nitin Pai joins Libertarian Amit Varma to explain the evolution of foreign policy through the ages, and its imperatives today.
Episode 62: Judicial Reforms
India’s judicial system is broken. How can we fix it? Legal expert Alok Prasanna Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 62 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 61: Aadhaar
According to media commentator Nikhil Pahwa, Aadhaar is a subject on which “what we do will impact generations.” Nikhil joins host Amit Varma on episode 61 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain how Aadhaar threatens our freedoms, and why we need to take it seriously.
Episode 60: India’s Water Crisis
We take water for granted, but India might be entering a full-blown water crisis. Water evangelist Vishwanath S joins Amit Varma in episode 60 of The Seen and the Unseen to shed light on this.
Episode 59: Protectionism
Protectionism is on the rise across the world, which is bewildering, given how harmful it is. Economist Anupam Manur joins Amit Varma in episode 59 of The Seen and the Unseen to bust eight common myths about protectionism
Episode 58: Misogyny and our Legal System
As three recent cases show, misogyny exist not just in our outdated laws, but also in the minds of our lawmakers and the judiciary. Legal expert Madhav Chandavarkar and feminist Hamsini Hariharan join Amit Varma in episode 58 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss Triple Talaq, Hadiya and the Mahmood Farooqui case.
Episode 57: India’s Maldives Dilemma
There is turmoil in the Maldives, as a tyrant unfriendly to India cozies up to China. Do we need to intervene? Foreign policy expert Pranay Kotasthane joins Amit Varma to give his point of view in episode 57 of The Seen and the Unseen.
Episode 56: Easy Money
The turbulence in the world economy today is enabled by the same phenomenon that caused the 2008 financial crisis, and was perversely also a response to that crisis: Easy Money. Vivek Kaul, author of the Easy Money trilogy, joins Amit Varma in episode 56 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain the damage irresponsible governments can do to the economy.
Episode 55: Defending the Indefensible
It is important to always question received wisdom. In episode 55 of The Seen and the Unseen, libertarian thinker Yazad Jal joins Amit Varma to challenge the commonly held view on five subjects. Listen in and see if you agree with him.