Search Results for: shruti

Episode 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.

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…

Episode 298: The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande

…— 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…

Episode 307: Suyash Rai Embraces India’s Complexity

…The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
36. The World of Premchand: Selected Short Stories — Munshi Premchand (translated and with an introduction by David Rubin).
37. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood — Howard Pyle.
38. Ivanhoe — Walter Scott.
39. The Swiss Family Robinson — Johann David Wyss.
40. Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson.
41. One Hundred Years of Solitude — Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
42. Saul Bellow on Amazon and Wikipedia.
43. Dangling Man — Saul Bellow.
44. Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Bernard Malamud on Amazon.
45. Aristotle on Amazon, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
46. Plato on Amazon, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
47. Gorgias — Plato.
48. The Dialogues of Plato.
49. Ramayana, Mahabharata and Amar Chitra Katha.
50. Nausea — Jean-Paul Sartre.
51. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism…

Episode 320: South India Would Like to Have a Word

…Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok).
47. Centrally Sponsored Government Schemes — Episode 17 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane).
48. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma.
49. Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem.
50. Athenian Democracy and Socrates.
51. Plato (or Why Philosophy Matters) — Episode 109 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rebecca Goldstein).
52. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan).
53. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra)..
54. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
55. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar.
56. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala,…

Episode 321: Josh Felman Tries to Make Sense of the World

…the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah)
8. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah..
9. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
10. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
11. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
12. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been — Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian).
14. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
15. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta).
…

Episode 362: You’re Ugly and You’re Hairy and You’re Covered in Shit but You’re Mine and I Love You

…Fat Chance — Robert Lustig on Fructose 2.0.
33. How Sugar & Processed Foods Impact Your Health — Robert Lustig on The Huberman Lab Podcast.
34. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen.
35. Privacy 3.0 — Rahul Matthan.
36. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen.
37. Shruti Jahagirdar’s Twitter thread on Bournvita.
38. Shruti Jahagirdar is the Sporty One — Episode 289 of The Seen and the Unseen.
39. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen.
40. Seven Stories That Should Be Films — Episode 23 of Everything is Everything.
41. What’s Wrong With Indian Agriculture? — Episode 18 of Everything is Everything.
42. The Walrus and the Carpenter — Lewis Carroll.
43. There is no Frigate like a Book — Emily Dickinson.
44….

Episode 365: Rakhshanda Jalil Watches the Changing World

…Dhool Ka Phool, with lyrics by Sahir Ludhainvi.
36. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
37. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
38. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
39. Why Freedom Matters — Episode 10 of Everything is Everything.
40. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? — Devika Kher.
41. Here’s What’s Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act — Suman Joshi.
42. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
43. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
44. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen…

Episode 366: Arghya Sengupta and the Engine Room of Law

…The Seen and the Unseen.
8. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. Apar Gupta Fights the Good Fight — Episode 353 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen.
12. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
13. Shruti Rajagopalan on our constitutional amendments.
14. ‘कोस-कोस पर बदले पानी, चार कोस पर वाणी।‘
15. Devangshu Datta Traded His Corduroy Pants — Episode 348 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. Ao.
17. Enid Blyton, Five Find-Outers, The Famous Five, Billy Bunter, Just William, Hardy Boys, Three Investigators and Jeffrey Archer.
18. Kane and Abel — Jeffrey Archer.
19. Bimbo — Jim…

Episode 31: Urban Governance in India

Our cities are in a mess. They are not in such bad shape because of corrupt individuals or apathetic citizens, but because our structures of governance are all messed up. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma to explain why.

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Episode 52: Caste in Modern India

Modern India’s greatest shame is that even after 70 years of Independence, we still haven’t solved the problem of caste. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 52 of the Seen and the Unseen to shed light on some of the ways in which we have messed up at an institutional level.

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Episode 53: Pakodanomics

Narendra Modi famously invoked a pakoda seller last week when he spoke about job creation in India. How apt is that invocation? Columnist Vivek Kaul, who coined the term ‘Pakodanomics’, and economist Shruti Rajagopalan join Amit Varma in episode 53 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the prime minister, the pakoda seller and India’s job problem.

Also read: Why Pakodanomics is Not the Answer to Creating Employment — Vivek Kaul

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Episode 94: Rajesh Jain and Dhan Vapasi

…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.

Also check out:

  1. The Dhan Vapasi website
  2. The Dhan Vapasi Manifesto
  3. The Dhan Vapasi Bill
  4. Rajesh Jain’s website
  5. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State — Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (on Demonetisation)
  6. Why Are Our Cities So Messed Up? — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (on Urban Governance)
  7. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (on Agriculture)
  8. Reclaim the Sky — Episode 11 of The Seen and the Unseen (on FSI)
  9. Shruti Rajagopalan’s talk on the many changes to our constitution

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Episode 103: The Emergency

The Emergency of 1975 was not an aberration, but was written into the DNA of the Indian state. Historian Gyan Prakash joins Amit Varma in episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen to shed light on why the framers of the constitution gave such draconian powers to the state — and why we may not have become so free in 1947 after all.

Also check out:
Emergency Chronicles by Gyan Prakash, on Amazon.
Shruti Rajagopalan on our constantly changing constitution (Aug 2015).
The Evil of Family Planning (Dec 2014) — Amit Varma
Lessons From 1975 (Sep 2015) — Amit Varma

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Episode 117: What is Libertarianism?

…of the misconceptions around it.

Also check out:

1. The Libertarian Mind — David Boaz

2. The Libertarian Reader — edited by David Boaz

3. What Does It Mean to Be Libertarian? — ep 64 of The Seen and the Unseen (w. Amit Varma)

4. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence — Amit Varma

5. The Evolution of Everything — ep 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w. Matt Ridley)

6. The World is Getting Better — ep 101 of The Seen and the Unseen (w. Steven Pinker)

7. The Right to Property — ep 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w. Shruti Rajagopalan)

8. Public Choice, Voting and Governance — ep 92 of The Pragati Podcast (w. Amit Varma)

9. The Kim Kardashian Liberal — Amit Varma

10. I, Pencil — Leonard Read

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Episode 129: Budget. Bollywood. Badmaashi

Like cricket and cinema, the annual budget brought out by the central government has become a national obsession. Vivek Kaul. the Shah Rukh Khan of Economics, joins Amit Varma, the Govinda of Podcasting, in episode 129 of The Seen and the Unseen to demystify the budget. Much fun is had. Blockbuster guaranteed.

Also check out:
1. The Sholay Redux — Vivek Kaul
2. Easynomics: Why high-income tax hurts — Vivek Kaul
3. How ?1.7 trillion has gone missing — Vivek Kaul
4. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil)
5. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State — Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan)
6. All Hail Public Choice Theory — Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen
7. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen

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Episode 131: Political Ideology in India

The usual spectrum of left and right does not apply to Indian politics. But does that mean that our politics is based on identity and patronage, and not ideology? Not quite, says political scientist Rahul Verma, as he joins Amit Varma in episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain the two ideological cleavages that divide India.

Also check out:
1. Ideology and Identity — Pradeep K Chhibber and Rahul Verma
2. Religious Practice and Democracy in India — Pradeep K Chhibber
3. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai)
4. Imagine No Possessions — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan)
5. Crime in Indian Politics — Episode 114 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Milan Vaishnav)

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Episode 140: India’s Agriculture Crisis

What exactly is wrong with Indian agriculture? How can we help our farmers? Barun Mitra and Kumar Anand join Amit Varma in episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the root causes and remedies of this decades-long problem.

Also check out:
1. The State of Our Farmers — Ep 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi).
2. Entry and Exit in Indian Agriculture — Ep 1 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pavan Srinath & Karthik Shashidhar)
3. Futures Markets in Agriculture — Ep 12 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Shashidhar)
4. The Unseen Effects of Farm-Loan Waivers –Ep 25 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kumar Anand & Vivek Kaul)
5. The Right to Property — Ep 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan)
6. The Delhi

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Episode 145: The Indian Conservative

…Rao
2. Conservatism: Ideas in Profile — Roger Scruton
3. Why I am Not a Conservative — Friedrich Hayek
4. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel)
5. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai)
6. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma)
7. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul)
8. Our Colourful Past — Episode 127 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai)
9. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan)
10. Marching for Salt — Amit Varma
11. The works of Edmund Burke on Amazon.
12. The column archives of Jaithirth Rao in Indian Express.

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Episode 149: A Life in Indian Politics

…politics, the nature of the state and what we need to do to change India for the better.

Also check out:
1. The State of Indian Politics — Episode 50 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan)
2. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel (pdf link)
3. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma
4, Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma
5. Government’s End — Jon Rauch
6. The Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gyan Prakash)
7. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan)
8. Crime in Indian Politics — Episode 114 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Milan Vaishnav)
9. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor)

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Episode 152: The Citizenship Battles

…and the “unfinished business” of Partition — Sanjib Baruah
9. Non-Citizens and History — Sanjib Baruah
10. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel)
11. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul)
12. The Indian Conservative — Episode 145 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jerry Rao)
13. The State of Indian Politics — Episode 150 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan)
14. Our Colourful Past — Episode 127 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai)
15. Shruti Rajagopalan’s YouTube talk on constitutional amendments
16. Interpreting India — Carnegie India podcast hosted by Srinath Raghavan

Follow The Seen and the Unseen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Tunein. You can also listen to us on Spotify and the Saavn app.

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Episode 154: The Art and Science of Economic Policy

…5. The Delhi Smog — Ep 44 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul)
6. Public Choice Theory — Ep 121 of The Seen and the Unseen
7. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma
8. Three Reasons Why A Cashless Society Would Be A Disaster — Amit Varma
9. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma
10. India’s Agriculture Crisis — Ep 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand)
11. Premature Imitation and India’s Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alex Tabarrok (pdf link)
12. Our Political Discourse — Ep 49 of The Seen and the Unseen (w transcript)
13. The Facts Do Not Matter — Amit Varma

Follow The Seen and the Unseen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Tunein. You can also listen to us on Spotify and the Saavn app.

…

Episode 176: The Nuances of Lockdown

What do past epidemics teach us about Covid-19? What do past disasters teach us about politics and the state? Is there a false binary between lockdown and no-lockdown? Anup Malani joins Amit Varma in episode 176 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his insights on these subjects and more.

Also check out:
1. Anup Malani’s homepage.
2. Taking Stock of Covid-19 — Episode 169 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
3. We Are Fighting Two Disasters — Amit Varma.
4. The Economic Approach to Human Behaviour — Gary Becker.
5. Learning During a Crisis: the SARS Epidemic in Taiwan — Daniel Bennett, Chun-Fang Chiang, Anup Malani.
6. Identifying Placebo Effects with Data from Clinical Trials — Anup Malani.
7. FSI (Floor Space Index) — Episode 11 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok).
8. Rent Control — Episode 14…

Episode 177: India’s Economy in the Time of Covid-19

Our economy was going down, down, down well before Covid-19 struck. And now? Vivek Kaul joins Amit Varma in episode 177 of The Seen and the Unseen to spread his usual quota of sunshine and joy.

Also check out:
1. TikTok and Indian Society — An online course by Amit Varma.
2. Bad Money — Vivek Kaul.
3. Taking Stock of Covid-19 — Episode 169 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
4. The Nuances of Lockdown — Episode 176 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Anup Malani).
5. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul).
6. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
7. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar &…

Episode 196: The Importance of Data Journalism

…(Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla
8. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra).
9. India’s coronavirus lockdown takes toll on migrant workers — Rukmini S.
10. The First 100 — The ProPublica investigation in Chicago.
11. Ideology and Identity — Pradeep K Chhibber and Rahul Verma.
12. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
13. Somesh Jha at Business Standard.
14. Covid19india.org.
15. Taking Stock of Covid-19 — Episode 169 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
16. The Nuances of Lockdown — Episode 176 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Anup Malani).
17. India’s Economy in the Time of Covid-19 — Episode 177 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul).
18. Our Cities After Covid-19 — Episode 191 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vaidehi Tandel).
…

Episode 198: Cities and Citizens

…of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
11. Reforming Urban Governance — Episode 48 of The Seen and the Unseen (w V Ravichandar).
12. Is India a Flailing State? — Lant Pritchett.
13. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma.
14. Prisoners of Geography — Tim Marshall.
15. The Importance of Cities — Episode 108 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Reuben Abraham & Pritika Hingorani.)
16. The Power Broker — Robert Caro.
17. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs.
18. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan).
19. What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been — Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian).

And do check out Amit’s online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting….

Episode 210: Feeding the Hungry in the Pandemic

…pandemic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
7. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma.
8. Reforming Urban Governance — Episode 48 of The Seen and the Unseen (w V Ravichandar).
9. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
10. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma.
11. AAP and Down — Mayank Gandhi and Shrey Shah.
12. Politics and the Sociopath (2014) — Amit Varma.
13. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan)
14. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra).
15. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma.
16. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma.
17. Where Anna Hazare Gets It Wrong (2011) — Amit Varma.

Also, registration is now open for…

Episode 211: The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills

…Choice Theory — Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen.
18. Analysing the 2021 budget — Ajay Shah.
19. The Theatre of the Budget (2020) — Episode 159 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah and Vivek Kaul).
20. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State — Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
21. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread.
22. India’s Water Crisis — Episode 60 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vishwanath S aka Zenrainman).
23. The Delhi Smog — Episode 44 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul).
24. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen on GST: 1, 2, 3.
25. Pratap Bhanu Mehta on the farm bills & what followed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag.

And do check out Amit’s…

Episode 214: Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s Father’s Scooter

…23. Naya Daur, the anti-Nehruvian film from 1957.
24. Nehru’s Hero: Dilip Kumar In The Life Of India — Meghnad Desai.
25. The Twitter threads on Mahmood Farooqui by Kavita Krishnan and Audrey Truschke.
26. Misogyny and our Legal System — Episode 58 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Chandavarkar and Hamsini Hariharan).
27. The Harshacharita of Banabhatta.
28. Murty Classical Library of India.
29. The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama.
30. The Light that Failed — Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes.
31. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok).
32. What Really Happened? — Lawrence H White on the 2008 Financial Crisis.
33. Range Rover — Archives of Amit Varma’s poker column for the Times of India.
34. The BJP’s Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and…

Episode 223: The Economics and Politics of Vaccines

…& Ajay Shah.
7. Vaccination in India: How Will Demand Change When Persons Above Age 18 Are Eligible? — Renuka Sane & Ajay Shah.
8. The Best Way to Vaccinate Most Indians in the Least Time — Shruti Rajagopalan (Sep 14, 2020).
9. Vaccinating India: What Next? — Naushad Forbes (March 16, 2021).
10. India’s Covid Crisis Has a Familiar Culprit — Mihir Sharma (April 13, 2021).
11. Biden Admin Remakes Vaccine Strategy — Erin Banco (March 29, 2021).
12. NYT Covid Vaccinations Tracker.
13. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
14. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah.
15. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah)
16. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The…

Episode 224: Modeling Covid-19

…Big Question: Can India Find a Way Out of Its Covid Nightmare? — Shahid Jameel interviewed by Bobby Ghosh.
6. Past episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19, featuring (in reverse chronological order) Ajay Shah, Anirban Mahapatra, Ruben Mascarenhas, Chinmay Tumbe, Rukmini S, Vaidehi Tandel, Vivek Kaul, Anup Malani and Shruti Rajagopalan.
7. My Family and Other Animals — Gerald Durrell.
8. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game — Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha).
9. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
10. We Are All Gamblers — Amit Varma.
11. Range Rover — Amit Varma’s column on poker for the Economic Times.
12. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta).
13. The New World Upon Us — Amit Varma (on Alpha Zero).
14. Why Does the Pandemic Seem…

Episode 226: Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic

…S, Vaidehi Tandel, Vivek Kaul, Anup Malani and Shruti Rajagopalan.
5. Despatches 36: The broader, continuing disaster — Amit Varma.
6. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma.
7. Community: The Structure of Belonging — Peter Block.
8. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky.
9. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress — Peter Singer.
10. Tolstoy’s Chicken and the Expanding Circle — Amit Varma.
11. The Astonishing Hypothesis — Francis Crick.
12. Resisting State Injustice — Episode 120 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jason Brennan).
13. The Lake Wobegon Effect.
14. Poker at Lake Wobegon — Amit Varma.
15. The Second Coming — William Butler Yeats.

This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Check out their course, The Great Revolutions of Modern History, taught by Lynne Ann Hartnett. For free unlimited access for a month, click…

Episode 229: The Practice of Medicine

In these difficult times, no one’s had a harder time than our medical professionals. They see death every day, and they fight it. What is it like to be a doctor in India? Lancelot Pinto joins Amit Varma in episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the practice of medicine in general, and the battle against Covid-19 in particular. Also discussed: the incentives of doctors, the importance of sleep, how to quit smoking, and the Epidemic of Sighing.

Also check out:
1. Past episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19, featuring (in reverse chronological order) Ashwin Mahesh, Gautam Menon, Ajay Shah, Anirban Mahapatra, Ruben Mascarenhas, Chinmay Tumbe, Rukmini S, Vaidehi Tandel, Vivek Kaul, Anup Malani and Shruti Rajagopalan.
2. Robin Cook on Amazon.
3. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes.
4. The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and…

Episode 238: The State of Indian Sport

…café-stopping runners were once Olympians too — Joy Bhattacharjya.
9. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan & Ajay Shah).
10. A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold — Abhinav Bindra and Rohit Brijnath.
11. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game — Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha).
12. The Tamilian gentleman who took on the world — Amit Varma.
13. The Girl From Haryana — Amit Varma.
14. Relative Age Effect (Wikipedia).
15. Outliers: The Story of Success — Malcolm Gladwell.
16. The Psychological Impact of the Partition of India — Edited by Sanjeev Jain and Alok Sarin.

Do follow Joy Bhattacharjya and Nandan Kamath on Twitter.

Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing….

Episode 248: The Decline of the Congress

…Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
7. The BJP’s Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha).
8. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh).
9. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi).
10. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. The Emergency of 1975 — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gyan Prakash).
12. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
13. The Business of Winning Elections — Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh).
14. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
15. The…

Episode 252: The State of Our Economy

…of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand).
8. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
9. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
10. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
11. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
12. Taking Stock of Our Economy (May 2021) — Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik).
13. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul).
14. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta).
15. The Art and…

Episode 253: Our Parliament and Our Democracy

…Is an Act of Violence — Amit Varma.
9. Taxes Should Be Used for Governance, Not Politics — Amit Varma.
10. Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy — Ashutosh Varshney.
11. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan).
12. A People’s Constitution — Rohit De.
13. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh).
14. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
15. The Federalist Papers — Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison.
16. The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution — Sujit Choudhry, Madhav Khosla and Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
17. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla).
18. India’s Founding Moment — Madhav Khosla.
19. India’s Greatest Civil Servant…

Episode 271: Crossing Over With Deepak Shenoy

…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…

Episode 279: Abhijit Bhaduri Breaks the Algorithm

…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…

Episode 281: From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck

…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).
…

Episode 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…