India's policy ecosystem was once a desolate landscape, stuck in bad ideas of the past. One institution shook it all up. Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 433 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe their journey building the Takshashila Institution.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Nitin Pai on Twitter, LinkedIn, his own website and the Takshashila Institution.
2. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution.
3. The Takshashila Institution.
4. Takshashila's courses and Open Takshashila.
5. The Liberal Nationalism of Nitin Pai — Episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Nitin Pai: 1, 2, 3.
8. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
9. The archives of The Acorn, Nitin Pai's blog.
10. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das -- Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. Assembling India's Constitution -- Rohit De and Ornit Shani.
12. The Overton Window.
13. Nitin Pai's 2011 FAQ on Anna Hazare and the Lok Pal bill.
14. Arthashastra and History of the Peloponnesian War.
15. Distance From Delhi -- Various Takshashila authors.
16. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh.
17. The Prestige -- Christopher Priest.
18. Everything Evolves -- Mark Vellend.
19. Humankind -- Rutger Bregman.
20. A Sixth Of Humanity -- Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian.

This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days!

Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here.

And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free!

Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Episode art: 'Lighthouse' by Simahina.

Trained as a journalist, but driven by a desire to make a difference, she spent over a decade working with sex workers in Delhi to understand and improve their lives. Gitanjali Babbar joins Amit Varma in episode 424 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her learnings about GB Road -- and our strange and twisted society.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out
1. Gitanjali Babbar on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
2. Kat Katha (also on Facebook and Instagram.)
3. Donate to Kat Katha. (Alternate link).
4. Select talks by and interviews of Gitanjali Babbar: 1, 2, 3, 4.
5. The Fat Girl -- Andre Dubus.
6. Aashayein -- song from Iqbal.
7. Talks on the Gita -- Vinobha Bhave.
8. The Forty Rules of Love -- Elif Shafak.
9. Tu Jhoom -- Naseebo Lal and Abida Parveen.
10. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar -- Mansoor Khan.
11. Saathiya -- Shaad Ali.
12. Anurag Garg on Amazon.

Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here.

Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must!

And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free!

Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Episode art: 'The Street' 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.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:

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.

(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.

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.

George Fernandes was an activist, politician, minister, thinker -- and was as complicated as the times he lived in. Rahul Ramagundam joins Amit Varma in episode 327 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his biography of Fernandes, the decades he lived through, and this country that kept changing, changing, changing.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Rahul Ramagundam at Jamia Millia Islamia, Amazon, LinkedIn and Google Scholar.
2. The Life and Times of George Fernandes -- Rahul Ramagundam.
3. Gandhi's Khadi: A History of Contention and Conciliation -- Rahul Ramagundam.
4. Including the Socially Excluded -- Rahul Ramagundam.
5. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee).
6. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee.
7. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul).
8. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul.
9. A shoe store brings together two faces of 2002 Gujarat riots -- The Hindu.
10. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma.
11. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra).
12. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan).
13. The Decline of the Congress — Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
14. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
15. South India Would Like to Have a Word — Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS).
16. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma's column on reading.
17. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
18. Love in the Time of Cholera --  Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
19. No One Writes to the Colonel -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
20. The Moon is Down -- John Steinbeck.
21. Is Paris Burning? -- Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.
22. Freedom at Midnight -- Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.
23. Hermann Hesse and Henry Miller on Amazon.
24. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma.
25. Life among the Scorpions -- Jaya Jaitly.
26. Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru.
27. The Graham Staines murder.
28. Thomas Weber's books on Gandhi.
29. Coomi Kapoor Has the Inside Track -- Episode 305 of The Seen and the Unseen.
30. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor.
31. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen.
32. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash.
33. A Prisoner's Scrap-Book -- LK Advani.
34. Prison Diary -- Jayaprakash Narayan.
35. The Power Broker — Robert A Caro.
36. Robert A Caro on Amazon.
37. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges.
38. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie.
39. VS Naipaul on Amazon.
40. Idgah (Hindi) (English) -- Munshi Premchand.
41. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
42. Raw Umber: A Memoir -- Sara Rai.
43. Samuel Huntington on Wikipedia and Amazon.
44. Francis Robinson and Barbara Metcalf on Amazon.
45. India in the Persianate Age — Richard Eaton.
46. The New India Foundation.
47. Weapons of the Weak -- James C Scott.
48. The Causes of the Indian Revolt -- Syed Ahmed Khan.
49. Hind Swaraj — MK Gandhi.
50. Hindutva — VD Savarkar.
51. Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar.
52. Gandhi before India -- Ramachandra Guha.
53. Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World -- Ramachandra Guha.
54. Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Amazon.
55. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Fist' by Simahina.

He taught international relations for a living, and he lived Indian culture -- food, clothes, music, films, languages, the whole package. Pushpesh Pant joins Amit Varma in episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his times and this beautiful country he loves so much.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Pushpesh Pant on Amazon, Twitter and YouTube.
2. India: Cookbook -- Pushpesh Pant.
3. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen.
4. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
5. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature — Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
8. Devi : Tales Of The Goddess In Our Time -- Mrinal Pande.
9. Amader Shantiniketan — Shivani (translated by Ira Pande).
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey — Stanley Kubrick.
11. In Praise of Slowness -- Carl Honore.
12. Tabiyat: Medicine and Healing in India and Other Essays --  Farokh Erach Udwadia.
13. Things to Leave Behind -- Namita Gokhale.
14. Raag Pahadi -- Namita Gokhale, translated by Pushpesh Pant.
15. Roshan Abbas and the Creator Economy — Episode 239 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas).
17. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
18. Lahron Ke Rajhans (Hindi) -- Mohan Rakesh.
19. India: A Sacred Geography -- Diana Eck.
20. Caste, Gender, Karnatik Music — Episode 162 of The Seen and the Unseen (w TM Krishna).
21. An Equal Music -- Vikram Seth.
22. The Wonder That Was India -- AL Basham.
23. Dhano Dhanne -- Jaya Varma and the Chandigarh Choir.
24. Ira Pande's obituary of Jaya Varma.
25. Ira Pande on Amazon.
26. Akshaya Mukul and the Life of Agyeya -- Episode 324 of The Seen and the Unseen.
27. Constantine Cavafy, André Gide and Jean Genet.
28. The Counterfeiters -- André Gide.
29. Death in Venice -- Thomas Mann.
30. Collected Poems 1954 - 2004 -- Dom Moraes.
31. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen.
32. Phir Ek Din Aisa Aayega -- Ali Sardar Jafri.
33. Zindagi -- Kiran Ahluwalia.
34. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes.
35. In a Silent Way — Episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gaurav Chintamani).
36. Kishore Mahbubani on Amazon.
37. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie — Luis Buñuel.
38. Chance and Necessity -- Jacques Monod.
39. Try Anything Twice -- Peter Cheyney.
40. Rakesh Raghunathan on YouTube.
41. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor).
42. Cooking the world's oldest known curry -- Soity Banerjee.
43. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen.
44. Stage.in.
45. The Slow Fire Chef on Twitter.
46. Marginal Revolution posts on books.
47. The Myth of the Holy Cow -- DN Jha.
48. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok).
49. The Lady's Dressing Room -- Jonathan Swift.
50. My Friend Dropped His Pants -- Amit Varma.
51. A Paean to the Paan -- Pushpesh Pant.
52. Vairagya Shatak (Hindi) -- Bhartihari.
53. Bhaja Govindam -- Adi Shankara.
54. Rainer Maria Rilke and Meer Taqi Meer.
55. Titash Ekti Nadir Naam -- Ritwik Ghatak.
56. Jukti Takko Aar Gappo -- Ritwik Ghatak.
57. Teesri Kasam -- Basu Bhattacharya.
58. Duniya Banane Wale -- Song from Teesri Kasam.
59. Guide — Vijay Anand.
60. Caurapañcāśikā -- Bilhana.
61. Dagar Brothers, Siyaram Tiwari, Vidya Rao and TM Krishna.
62. A Southern Music — TM Krishna.
63. The Raga-Ness of Ragas -- Deepak S Raja..
64. NAD - Understanding Raga Music -- Sandeep Bagchee.
65. Form in Indian and Western Music -- Chetan Karnani.

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: 'The Feast' by Simahina.

Women in India are much more than either bechari, badass or bitch -- and they won't be defined any more by the male gaze. Shaili Chopra joins Amit Varma in episode 325 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life, her learnings and why she won't hold back on her anger.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Shaili Chopra on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and her own website.
2. Sisterhood Economy -- Shaili Chopra.
3. SheThePeople.tv and GyTree.
4. Let Her Be Angry -- Shaila Chopra's TEDx Talk.
5. 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 and Rohini Nilekani.
6. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. The Argumentative Indian -- Amartya Sen.
8. Jai Arjun Singh Lost It at the Movies — Episode 230 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. The Life and Times of Mita Kapur -- Episode 322 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra).
12. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra.
13. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World, hosted by Vasant Dhar, featuring Jonathan Haidt.
14. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy, Abhijit Bhaduri and Gaurav Chintamani.
15. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly.
16. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin.
17. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen.
18. Mrinal Pande's pieces for Pragati on women in Indian agriculture: 1, 2.
19. Men Must Step Up Now -- Amit Varma.
20. 'What's Your Favourite Position?' -- Shaili Chopra's Instagram post.
21. Imposter Syndrome.
22. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya.
23. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
24. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran.
25. 'Let Me Interrupt Your Expertise With My Confidence' — New Yorker cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein.
26. The Second Sex — Simone de Beauvoir.
27. The #MeToo Movement — Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair & Nikita Saxena).
28. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma.
29. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
30. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht -- Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen.
31. The Raja Beta Syndrome — Mahima Vashisht.
32. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative.
33. Ways of Seeing -- John Berger.
34. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra).
35. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dabangg, Mardaani, Badhaai Ho, Badhaai Do, Astitva and Lust Stories.
36. Alice Munro, Marilynne Robinson, Mary Oliver and JK Rowling.
39. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.
40. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph).
41. Early Indians — Tony Joseph.
42. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich.
43. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen.
44. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande -- Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen.
45. Women at Work — Ep 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare).
46. The Code Breaker -- Walter Isaacson.
47. Lessons in Chemistry -- Bonnie Garmus.
48. Caste -- Isabel Wilkerson.
49. Normal People -- Sally Rooney.
50. Conversations with Friends -- Sally Rooney.
51. Red, White & Royal Blue -- Casey McQuiston.
52. Curry -- Lizzie Cunningham.
53. Figuring -- Maria Popova.
54. The Marginalian -- Maria Popova's website.
55. Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary -- Anita Anand.
56. Hello, Mum -- Polly Dunbar.
57. Bruno Mars, Blue, Michael Jackson, Amjad Ali Khan, Shobha Gurtu, Shubha Mudgal and Kishori Amonkar on Spotify.
58. Chor Bazari, Prem Ki Naiyya and Girls Like To Swing.
59. Waka Waka -- Shakira.
60. Valeria, Unauthorised Living, Monarca, and High Seas.
61. Sitting Woman -- Henri Matisse.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Sisterhood' by Simahina.

Agyeya was a writer, a rebel, a soldier, a lover-- and a man who shaped modern Hindi literature. Akshaya Mukul joins Amit Varma in episode 324 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the life of this remarkable man -- as well as the art of biography and the state of the nation.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Akshaya Mukul on Amazon and Twitter.
2. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya -- Akshaya Mukul.
3. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul.
4. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul).
5. Agyeya on Wikipedia, Amazon, Kavitakosh and Hindwi.
6. Shekhar: Ek Jeevani (Hindi) (English) -- Agyeya.
7. Dunning-Kruger Effect.
8. Poker at Lake Wobegon — Amit Varma.
9. Listen, The Internet Has SPACE -- Amit Varma.
10. Siddharth Chowdhury on Amazon.
11. The Power Broker — Robert Caro.
12. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs.
13. Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing -- Robert Caro.
14. Robert Caro on Amazon.
15. John Richardson's books on Pablo Picasso.
16. Sontag: Her Life and Work -- Benjamin Moser.
17. Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector -- Benjamin Moser.
18. Stephen Kotkin's volumes on Joseph Stalin.
19. Hilary Spurling's volumes on Henri Matisse.
20. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha.
21. Gandhi Before India -- Ramachandra Guha.
22. Here And Hereafter: Nirmal Verma's Life in Literature -- Nirmal Verma.
23. Ian Kershaw's books on Adolf Hitler.
24. Listen, The Internet Has SPACE — Amit Varma.
25. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma.
26. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
27. To the Book -- WS Merwin.
28. Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, Raghuvir Sahay, Nagarjun, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Jainendra Kumar.
29. Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo -- Hayden Herrera.
30. Maya C Popa, Ilya Kaminsky, Mary Oliver, Nâzım Hikmet, Nizar Qabbani and Forugh Farrokhzad.
31. Francis Newton Souza, VS Gaitonde and Krishen Khanna.
32. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan).
33. The Shah Bano case.
34. Hindi Modernism: Rethinking Agyeya and His Times -- Edited by Vasudha Dalmia.
35. Raw Umber : A Memoir -- Sara Rai.
36. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
37. The email conversation between Pankaj Mishra and Amit Chaudhuri.
38. Rahul Sankrityayan on Wikipedia and Amazon.
39. Jahnavi and the Cyclotron -- Episode 319 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jahnavi Phalkey).
40. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.
41. Frank Sinatra Has a Cold -- Gay Talese.
42. Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me -- Ada Calhoun.
43. Sunita -- Jainendra Kumar.
44. Song of Myself, 51 -- Walt Whitman.
45. Tar Saptak.
46. Suraj Ka Saatwaan Ghoda -- Dharamvir Bharti.
47. Patrick French on Amazon and Wikipedia.
48. Leon Edel and James Atlas.
49. The Art of Biography No 1 -- Leon Edel interviewed by Jeanne McCulloch for Paris Review.
50. Delmore Schwartz: The Life of an American Poet -- James Atlas.
51. The Shadow in the Garden: A Biographer's Tale -- James Atlas.
52. The Most of Nora Ephron -- Nora Ephron.
53. What Makes Women Happy -- Fay Weldon.
54. Keeda Jadi Ki Khoj Mein -- Anil Yadav.
55. Bhuvanesh Komkali, Mukul Shivputra, Amir Khan and Alladiya Khan.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Writing on the Wall' by Simahina.

What happened at SVB? Is our banking system in crisis? What are we to make of our economy? Ajay Shah and Mohit Satynanand join Amit Varma in episode 323 of The Seen and the Unseen to tackle these complicated questions and more.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Ajay Shah (Twitter, Substack) and Mohit Satyanand (Twitter, Substack).
2. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
3. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Mohit Satyanand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
4.  Ajay Shah on currencies and crypto (1, 2, 3), an RBI misstep, the third globalisation, NBFCs and banks (1, 2), digital payments, the resolution corporation (1, 2), interest rate mismatch, voting in the MPC, the importance of low and stable inflation and the mispricing of risks.
5. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) — Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand).
6. The State of Our Economy -- Episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand).
7. The Importance of Finance -- Episode 125 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
8. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah).
9. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah.
10. Josh Felman Tries to Make Sense of the World -- Episode 321 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
12. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
13. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley).
15. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok).
16. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok.
17. Public Opinion — Walter Lippman.
18. The World Outside and the Pictures in our Heads — Walter Lippman.
19. Watching the Wheels -- John Lennon. (Amit also loves Chris Cornell's version.)
20. You're Missing — Bruce Springsteen.
21. The End of Silicon Valley (Bank) -- Ben Thompson on Stratechery.
22. This Banking Crisis Won't Wreck the Economy -- Tyler Cowen.
23. SVB Took the Wrong Risks -- Matt Levine.
24. Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market -- Walter Bagehot.
25. Moral Hazard and the Cantillon Effect.
26. Beware of the Useful Idiots — Amit Varma.
27. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek.
28. Austrian Economics: An Introduction -- Steven Horwitz.
29. Friedrich Hayek: The ideas and influence of the libertarian economist -- Eamonn Butler.
30.The End of History? — Francis Fukuyama's essay.
31. The End of History and the Last Man — Francis Fukuyama's book.
32. Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology -- Chris Miller.
33. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel.
34. Why Pramila Devi Uses Her Chappals Sparingly -- Sayantan Bera.
35. Where Are the Customers' Yachts? -- Fred Schwed Jr.
36. South India Would Like to Have a Word — Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS).
37. Jimi Hendrix on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
38. Neil Young on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Madness of Money' by Simahina.

She's been an author, an entrepreneur, a literary agent, an organiser of events and a mother -- but her finest achievement is perhaps her making of herself. Mita Kapur joins Amit Varma in episode 322 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the life she has lived, and what it has taught her. Much talk of writing, food, patriarchy and motherhood.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Mita Kapur at Siyahi, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and her own website.
2. The F Word -- Mita Kapur.
3. Siyahi -- A Literary Consultancy.
4. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen.
5. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. Objects Speak to Annapurna Garimella — Episode 257 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. The Business of Books — Episode 150 of The Seen and the Unseen (w VK Karthika).
8. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma's column on reading.
9. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. Harry Potter, Twilight and the Rick Riordan books.
11. Mills and Boon on Wikipedia, Amazon and their own website.
12. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya — Akshaya Mukul.
13. Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew on Amazon.
14. Arthur Hailey, Nathaniel Hawthorne, TS Eliot, Leon Uris, Harold Robbins and James Hadley Chase on Amazon.
15. Wheels -- Arthur Hailey.
16. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao.
17. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavitha Rao).
18. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. The Nurture Assumption — Judith Rich Harris.
20. South India Would Like to Have a Word -- Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS).
21. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen.
22. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia.
23. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
24. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
25. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen.
26. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin.
27. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
28. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe.
29. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe).
30. Chuck Palahniuk and Susan Sontag on Amazon.
31. Kitchen -- Banana Yoshimoto.
32. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
33. Karthika Nair and Sampurna Chattarji on Amazon.
34. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
35. My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers — Ali Abdaal.
36. Imposter Syndrome.
37. In a Silent Way -- Episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gaurav Chintamani).
38. Pavan Varma on Wikipedia and Amazon.
39. Make Me a Canteen for My Soul -- Episode 304 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage).
40. Choco Butterscotch Barks — Amit Varma's favourite dessert of all time.
41. Daastan-e-Dastarkhan: Stories and Recipes from Muslim Kitchens -- Sadaf Hussain.
42. Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Suzanne Vega, Tom's Diner, Rufus Wainwright, Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, Harry Styles and Sam Smith on Spotify.
43. The Book of Goose -- Yiyun Li.
44. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers -- Yiyun Li.
45. Valeria, The Cook of Castamar, Daughter From Another Mother, Gentefied and Velvet Colección 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: 'A Girl and Her Books' by Simahina.

He's a renowned economist, he's worked in the IMF, he's an Asia specialist and he loves India. Josh Felman joins Amit Varma in episode 321 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his times, and all that he has learnt about economics and human beings. This episode is co-hosted by Ajay Shah.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Josh Felman on Twitter, Project Syndicate, JH Consulting and The Marginal Economist.
2. Why India Can't Replace China -- Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman.
3. Three Globalization Shocks Could Hurt China and Help India -- Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman.
4. India's Size Illusion -- Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman.
5. India's Stalled Rise --  Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman.
6. Are Intellectuals Killing Convergence? -- Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman.
7. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and 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).
16. Pandemonium in India's Banks — Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay.)
17. The State of Our Economy (Nov 2021) -- Episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand.)
18. Taking Stock of Our Economy (May 2021) — Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik).
19. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul).
20. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) — Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand).
21. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti -- Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley).
22. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
23. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
24. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok).
26. Maya on IMDb and Wikipedia.
27. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen.
28. Stage.in.
29. Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things -- Gurwinder.
30. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization --  Bryan Ward-Perkins.
31. Richard Clarida and Thomas Laubach.
32. Thomas Laubach remembered by Ila Patnaik and Ajay Shah.
33. Parkinson's Law — C Northcote Parkinson.
34. That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen — Frédéric Bastiat.
35. A History of European Morals — WEH Lecky.
36. I, Pencil — Leonard Read.
37. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome — Mary Beard.
38. Mussolini: A Biography — Dennis Mack Smith.
39. Mussolini — RJB Bosworth.
40. The Great Dictator — Charlie Chaplin.
41. The chair-raising scene between Adenoid Hynkel and Benzino Napaloni.
42. Far Far Away on IMDb and Wikipedia — Amos Why.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'A Man, A Dog and the World' by Simahina.

India is run in a top-down way with a Northern bias -- and this is a problem. Nilakantan RS joins Amit Varma in episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how and why our Southern states perform so much better -- and are punished for it. Also discussed: virtue ethics, the charms of Madras and the dangers of storytelling.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Nilakantan RS on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
2. South vs North: India's Great Divide -- Nilakantan RS.
3. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature — Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen.
4. Lessons in Investing (and Life) — Episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Deepak Shenoy).
5. Crossing Over With Deepak Shenoy -- Episode 271 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza..
8. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. Phineas Gage.
10. The Great Man Theory of History.
11. Pandemonium in India's Banks — Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay).
12. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
13. On Bullshit — Harry Frankfurt.
14. The Facts Do Not Matter — Amit Varma.
15. Facts Don't Matter. Stories do -- Amit Varma.
16. It is immoral to have children. Here's why -- Amit Varma.
17. Better Never to Have Been -- David Benator.
18. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
19. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia.
20. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
21. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
22. Beyond Words: Philosophy, Fiction, and the Unsayable -- Timothy Cleveland.
23. Consider the Hamiltonian.
24. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. Murder in Mahim — Jerry Pinto.
26. Mallikarjun Mansur and Bhimsen Joshi on Spotify.
26. Paul Krugman on the internet in 1998.
27. The naked man with an egg -- Amit Varma's prompt and ChatGPT's reply.
28. The Liberal Nationalism of Nitin Pai -- Episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen.
29. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
30. Adam Gopnik, Michel Martin, Paul Harding and Timothy Gowers.
31. Tinkers -- Paul Harding.
32. Eraserhead -- David Lynch.
33. There's a Name for the Blah You're Feeling: It's Called Languishing -- Adam Grant.
34. The variants on Chess.com.
35. A Summons to Memphis -- Peter Taylor.
36. Virtue Ethics on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
37. VP Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India — Narayani Basu.
38. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu).
39. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World — Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai).
40. The Indus Valley Playbook — Sajith Pai.
41. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
42. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
43. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State — Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen.
44.  Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma.
45.  Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma.
46. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — 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, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy, Abhijit Bhaduri and Gaurav Chintamani.
57. The Walk -- Robert Walser.
58. So Long, See You Tomorrow -- William Maxwell.
59. All Aunt Hagar's Children -- Edward P Jones.
60. The Known World -- Edward P Jones.
61. Slow Man -- JM Coetzee.
62. The Changeling -- Kenzaburo Oe.
63. Earthlings -- Sayaka Murata.
64. Birth of a Theorem -- Cedric Villani.
65. Gilead -- Marilynne Robinson.
66. If I Survive You -- Jonathan Escoffery.
67. Donnie Darko -- Richard Kelly.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Conflict' by Simahina.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone possessed of an obsession will run into the forces of inertia. Jahnavi Phalkey joins Amit Varma in episode 319 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her history of nuclear physics in India, the men who brought a cyclotron to Chandigarh to study the world -- and her own quest to make common people love science.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Jahnavi Phalkey on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
2. Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth-Century India -- Jahnavi Phalkey.
3. Cyclotron -- Jahnavi Phalkey (Password: cyclotron_2020).
4. Science Gallery Bengaluru.
5. Re:Collect India.
6. CV Raman, Meghnad Saha and Homi Jehangir Bhabha.
7. Because the Night -- Patti Smith.
8. CBGB.
9. Venus -- Television.
10. Just Kids -- Patti Smith.
11. Patti Smith's Instagram post on Tom Verlaine.
12. Ward Morehouse on Wikipedia and UMass Amherst.
13. Rahul Sankrityayan on Wikipedia and Amazon.
14. A House for Mr Biswas -- VS Naipaul.
15. Satyajit Ray's Oscar acceptance speech.
16. 'Let Me Interrupt Your Expertise With My Confidence' — New Yorker cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein.
17. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri).
18. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao.
19. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavitha Rao).
20. Scum Manifesto -- Valerie Solanas.
21. The History Boys — Alan Bennett.
22. Children are Topple.
23. Yuganta — Irawati Karve.
24. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne (on Wikipedia and YouTube).
25. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
26. Arshia Sattar and the Complex Search for Dharma -- Episode 315 of The Seen and the Unseen.
27. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward — Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen.
28. The Law of Truly Large Numbers.
29. Ursula Le Guin, Mary Oliver, Mark Strand and Tom Waits.
30. The Sopranos and The Wire.
31. Binaca Geetmala.
32. Tumhe Ho Na Ho -- Runa Laila.
33. Diva -- Annie Lennox.
34. Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Patti Smith on Spotify.
35. Kishori Amonkar and Bhimsen Joshi on Spotify.
36. Tosca — Giacomo Puccini — performed at Arena di Verona.
37. Vissi d'arte -- From Tosca by Puccini, performed by Maria Callas. (And the lyrics.)
38. Gloria -- Patti Smith. (And the Van Morrison/Them original.)
39. Horses -- Patti Smith.
40. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma.
41. Leviathan and the Air-Pump -- Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer.
42. The Moomin books by Tove Jansson.
43. Lawrence and His Laboratory -- JL Heilbron and Robert W Seidel.
44. A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes -- Rodrigo Garcia.
45. Ironic -- Alanis Morisette.
46. The Argumentative Indian -- Amartya Sen.
47. Behave — Robert Sapolsky.
48. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube.
49. $800,000 to Zero – The FASCINATING History of DaVinci Resolve — Alex Jordan of Learn Color Grading.
50. Justice with Michael Sandel.
51. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes.
52. The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet — Nina Teicholz.
53. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma.
54. Falsifiability.
55. The Logic of Scientific Discovery -- Karl Popper.
56. Merchants of Doubt -- Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway.
57. Priyanka Pulla on Twitter and LinkedIn.
58. The Ultimate Pocket Camera: Insta360 X3! -- Marques Brownlee.
59. Listen, The Internet Has SPACE -- Amit Varma.
60. Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Volumes 1 to 98.
61. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
62. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine -- Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen.
63. Hortus Malabaricus.
64. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health — Amit Varma.
65. A Godless Congregation — Amit Varma.
66. In a Silent Way -- Episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gaurav Chintamani).
67. Raymond Carver on Amazon.
68. Cathedral -- Raymond Carver.
69. Joseph Epstein on Amazon and Wikipedia.
70. Wisława Szymborska on Poetry Foundation, Amazon and Wikipedia.
71. The Foundation Series -- Isaac Asimov.
72. Abbey Road -- The Beatles.
73. The Man Who Sold the World -- David Bowie.
74. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro — Kundan Shah.
75. The 400 Blows — Francois Truffaut.
76. Delicatessen --  Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
77. La Haine -- Mathieu Kassovitz.
78. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Srinath Raghavan:1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
79. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off.

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And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Void Stares Back' by Simahina.

The task of nation-building did not end with our founders, and does not stop at our politicians. It's up to us to build the India we want to see. Nitin Pai joins Amit Varma in episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his learnings and his liberal nationalism.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Nitin Pai on his own website, Mint & Mastodon .
2. The Nitopadesha -- Moral Tales for Good Citizens.
3. The archives of The Acorn, Nitin Pai's blog. And its current avatar.
4. Nitin Pai's ideas, notes and current research and teaching.
5. The Takshashila Institution.
6. Seven Tenets of Indian Nationalism -- Nitin Pai.
7. In support of a liberal nationalism -- Nitin Pai.
8. A republic - if we can keep it -- Nitin Pai.
9. Saving the Nation From Nationalists -- Nitin Pai.
10. The real problem is that we have too little republic -- Nitin Pai.
11. The operating system of liberal democracy needs a major upgrade -- Nitin Pai.
12. Social harmony is a matter of national interest -- Nitin Pai.
13. Liberal democracies must protect their citizens' minds from being hacked -- Nitin Pai.
14. Understanding Foreign Policy — Episode 63 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai).
15. Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy -- Episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai).
16. The City and the City — China Miéville.
17. The State of Our Economy -- Episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand).
18. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
19. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich.
20. Early Indians — Tony Joseph.
21. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph).
22. The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People — Michael Shermer.
23. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky.
24. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress — Peter Singer.
25. How the BJP Wins — Prashant Jha.
26. The BJP's Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha).
27. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen.
28. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
29. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward -- Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen.
30. Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar : A citizen-first approach — Rohini Nilekani.
31. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind — Gustave le Bon.
32. Crowds and Power — Elias Canetti.
33. EO Wilson on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica.
34. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on Modi, Mao and locusts).
35. FAQ: Why Anna Hazare is wrong and Lok Pal a bad idea -- Nitin Pai.
36. Sadanand Dhume on Twitter -- and this podcast!
37. Social media is an existential threat to civilisation -- Nitin Pai.
38. Reframing the social media policy debate -- Nitin Pai.
39. The coming regulation of social media is an opportunity for India -- Nitin Pai.
40. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel.
41. Thinking Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman.
42. Human — Michael S Gazzaniga.
43. The Interpreter — Amit Varma.
44. The Elephant in the Brain -- Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson.
45. Freedom to Think -- Susie Alegre.
46. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll.
47. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
48. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
49. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
50. The original Takshashila.
51. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
52. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
53. Hind Swaraj — MK Gandhi.
54. Nikita -- Elton John.
55. The Importance of Cities — Episode 108 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Reuben Abraham & Pritika Hingorani).
56. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
57. The Arthashastra -- Kautilya
58. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges.
59. Emergent Ventures.
60. Friedrich Hayek on Wikipedia, Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Econlib.
61. Milton Friedman on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Econlib.
62. Arshia Sattar and the Complex Search for Dharma -- Episode 315 of The Seen and the Unseen.
63. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence — Amit Varma.
64. The Generation of Rage in Kashmir — David Devadas.
65. Counterinsurgency Warfare — David Galula.
66. We Won't Need To Fight A War If We Can Win The Peace — Amit Varma.
67. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan).
68. Think the Unthinkable (2008) -- Vir Sanghvi.
69. Independence Day for Kashmir (2008) -- Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar.
70. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra).
71. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan).
72. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen.
73. Why Read the Classics? — Italo Calvino.
74. History Of Western Philosophy -- Bertrand Russell.
75. Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud -- Peter Watson.
76. Arthashastra -- Kautilya (translated by Shama Shastri).
77. The Upanishads.
78. The Mahabharata -- translated by Bibek Debroy.
79. Brihatkatha, Kathasaritsagara, Panchatantra and Hitopadesha.
80. Charvaka and Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa.
81. Tattvopaplavasiṃha -- Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa.
82. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams.
83. Catch 22 -- Joseph Heller.
84. Commanding Hope -- Thomas Homer-Dixon.
85. Paul Auster, David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, Ryu Murakami and Terry Pratchett on Amazon.
86. Piercing -- Ryu Murakami.
87. 2021 - The Year in Fiction -- Nitin Pai.
88. Bhimsen Joshi, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Radiohead, Norah Jones, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Himesh Reshammiya and Yehudi Menuhin on Spotify.
89. Take Five -- The Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Bigger Picture' by Simahina.

Samaaj came before Sarkaar and Bazaar. We are more than subjects of the state and consumers of the market. Rohini Nilekani joins Amit Varma in episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life and her learnings, why citizens need to embrace their agency -- and why those with wealth have a special responsibility.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out
1. Rohini Nilekani on Amazon, Wikipedia and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.
2. Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar : A citizen-first approach -- Rohini Nilekani.
3. Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.
4. Arghyam, EkStep and Pratham Books.
5. The Annual Status of Education (ASER) Report, 2022.
6. Enid Blyton, Just William, Winnie the Pooh, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys on Amazon.
7. A Terrible Beauty -- Peter Watson.
8. Iris Murdoch and VS Ramachandran on Amazon.
9. The Tell-Train Brain -- VS Ramachandran.
10. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti -- Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley).
11. Sansar Se Bhage Phirte Ho — Song from Chitralekha with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi.
12. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma.
13. Arshia Sattar and the Complex Search for Dharma -- Episode 315 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. Germaine Greer, Nancy Friday and Betty Friedan on Amazon.
15. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. 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 and Arshia Sattar.
17. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
18. The Will to Change — Bell Hooks.
19. The Jackson Katz quote on passive sentence constructions.
20. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen.
21. Imposter Syndrome.
22. Gerald Durrell, The Jungle Book and Black Beauty on Amazon.
23. Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
24. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Mohit Satyanand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
25. The Chauri Chaura Incident.
26. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
27. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence — Amit Varma.
28. The Third Pillar — Raghuram Rajan.
29. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
30. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
31. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic — Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
32. Lewis Mumford on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica.
33. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen.
34. The Median Voter Theorem.
35. Mohammad Zubair's Twitter thread on the Dharam Sansad.
36. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma's column on the importance of reading.
37. Janaagraha.
38. Emergent Ventures.
39. Giving Billions Fast, MacKenzie Scott Upends Philanthropy -- Nicholas Kulish.
40. The/Nudge Institute, Give India, Dasra and Bridgespan India.
41. Lewis Hyde on Amazon.
42. The Brass Notebook: A Memoir - Devaki Jain.
43. Breaking Through: A Memoir -- Isher Judge Ahluwalia.
44. My Life in Full -- Indra Nooyi.
45. A Full Life -- Sabira Merchant.
46. Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past and Savarkar: A Contested Legacy -- Vikram Sampath.
47. Ramachandra Guha on Amazon.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Nurture' by Simahina.

Cricket is the most unusual of games with the most unusual of histories -- which can reveal so much about our society and our times. Tim Wigmore joins Amit Varma in episode 422 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the history of Test cricket -- and how the game is changing today.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Tim Wigmore on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, Cricinfo and the Daily Telegraph.
2. Test Cricket: A History -- Tim Wigmore.
3. Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution -- Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde.
4. Crickonomics: The Anatomy of Modern Cricket -- Stefan Szymansk and Tim Wigmore.
5. White Hot: The Inside Story of England Cricket's Double World Champions -- Tim Wigmore and Matt Roller.
6. The Best: How Elite Athletes Are Made -- Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore.
7. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) — Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall.
8. Beyond A Boundary -- CLR James.
9. Pundits from Pakistan -- Rahul Bhattacharya.
10. England: The Biography: The Story of English Cricket -- Simon Wilde.
11. The Unforgiven -- Ashley Gray.
12. How to Think About Cricket (and Life) -- Episode 19 of Everything is Everything.
13. Selected pieces by Amit Varma on T20 cricket and changing cricket strategy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
14. Money in Cricket — Episode 41 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gideon Haigh and Prem Panicker).
15. The Evolution of Cricket — Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle).
16. Homeland -- Fernando Aramburu.
17. Levels of the Game -- John McPhee.
18. Rear Window -- Alfred Hitchcock.
19. Psycho -- Alfred Hitchcock.
20. State of Happiness -- Petter Næss and Pål Jackman.

Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here.

Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must!

And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free!

Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Episode art: 'The Cricket Tragic' by Simahina.

He's a guitarist, a composer, a producer, an audio engineer and a teacher. Gaurav Chintamani joins Amit Varma in episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his reflections on music and life.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Gaurav Chintamani at Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, SACAC and his own website.
2. Advaita on YouTube Music, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and Twitter.
3. Raman Negi on YouTube Music, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and Twitter.
4. The Dirt Machine on YouTube Music, YouTube and Spotify.
5. Grounded in Space -- Advaita.
6. The Silent Sea -- Advaita.
7. Shaksiyat -- Raman Negi.
8.  Mehroom -- Raman Negi.
9. Lullaby for the Anxious Bones -- Raman Negi.
10. It's About Time -- The Dirt Machine.
11. Kleptocrat -- The Dirt Machine + Amartya Ghosh (The song that started with dripping water).
12. Carol of the Bells -- Ishaan Chintamani.
13. Gaurav Chintamani on the School of Bass Podcast.
14. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
15. Hard work vs. Long work -- Seth Godin.
16. Warren Mendonsa Plays the Universal Pentatonic — Episode 273 of The Seen and the Unseen.
17. The Beatles on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
18. Bob Dylan on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
19. Choo Lo -- The Local Train.
20. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri.
21. Four Thousand Weeks -- Oliver Burkeman.
22. Redemption Song -- Bob Marley.
23. The Beach (book) -- Alex Garland.
24. The Beach (film) -- Danny Boyle.
25. John Cage on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
26. A Scientist in the Kitchen — Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok).
27. Over the Hills and Far Away -- Led Zeppelin.
28. Amit Varma's favourite lofi playlists on YouTube and Spotify.
29. Music for Airports -- Brian Eno.
30. The Formula Behind Every Perfect Pop Song — Seeker.
31. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel.
32. Deezer -- The French streaming service that Gaurav mentions. This is how they pay their artists.
33. Entry and Exit in Agriculture -- Episode 1 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pavan Srinath and Karthik Shashidhar).
34. Altitude -- Advaita on The Dewarists.
35. A Hard Day's Night -- The Beatles.
36. Thriller -- Michael Jackson.
37. Guns N' Roses, Pantera and The Doors.
38. The Sky is Crying -- Stevie Ray Vaughan.
39. Jai Arjun Singh Lost It at the Movies — Episode 230 of The Seen and the Unseen.
40. Lou Majaw on YouTube Music and Spotify.
41. Acquired Senses (a demo version) -- HFT.
42. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
43. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity -- Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen.
44. Jeff Beck on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
45. Jimi Hendrix on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
46. Imposter Syndrome.
47. Aakar Patel on Twitter.
48. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma.
49. Wanting — Luke Burgis.
50. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia.
51. Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don't Have To — David Sinclair.
52. Waking Up - A New Operating System for Your Mind -- Sam Harris.
53. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas).
54. Dirty Mind -- Jeff Beck.
55. The Haas Effect.
56. The Advaita jam in the Kolkata hotel room.
57. Here, There and Everywhere -- Geoff Emerick.
58. Paul McCartney listens to John Lennon's Beautiful Boy.
59. Watching the Wheels -- John Lennon.
60. Chris Cornell's covers of Watching the Wheels, Redemption Song, Long As I Can See The Light, Nothing Compares 2 U, I Will Always Love You and Thunder Road.
61. Penny Lane -- The Beatles.
62. Strawberry Fields Forever -- The Beatles.
63. The Bends -- Radiohead.
64. The White Album -- The Beatles.
65. Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street and Goat's Head Soup -- The Rolling Stones.
66. Time out of Mind -- Bob Dylan.
67. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
68. A Day in the Life -- The Beatles.
69. Stevie Wonder on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
70. Friends, Crime, & The Cosmos -- Abhishek Upmanyu.
71. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin.
72. Somebody That I Used To Know -- Mike Dawes.
73. Happy -- Pharrell Williams.
74. Blow by Blow -- Jeff Beck.
75. Cause We've Ended as Lovers -- Jeff Beck.
76. Miles Davis on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
77. Bitches Brew -- MIles Davis.
78. Pat Metheny on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
79. John Scofield on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
80. I Can See Your House from Here -- Pat Metheny and John Scofield.
81. SD Burman on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
82. John Williams on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
83. The Study of Orchestration -- Samuel Adler.
84. Maurice Ravel on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
85. Claude Debussy on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
86. Johann Sebastian Bach on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
87. Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major -- Johann Sebastian Bach, played by Yo Yo Ma.
88. Thomas Dybdahl on YouTube Music, Spotify and Wikipedia.
89. The Old Man and the Sea -- Ernest Hemingway.
90. The Great Gatsby -- F Scott Fitzgerald.
91. Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky.
92. Atomic Habits — James Clear.
93. Stanley Kubrick on IMDb and Wikipedia.
94. Martin Scorsese on IMDb and Wikipedia.
95. Goodfellas -- Martin Scorsese.
96. Raging Bull -- Martin Scorsese.
97. Bernard Herrmann.
98. Psycho -- Alfred Hitchcock.
99. The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
100. Seven Samurai -- Akira Kurosawa..
101. The Girl From Kashmir — Episode 295 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Farah Bashir).
102. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty).
103. Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu.
104. Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks -- David Lynch.
105. Taxi Driver, New York Stories, Casino, Kundun and Silence -- Martin Scorsese.
106. A Whiter Shade of Pale -- Procul Harum.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Pieces of Me' by Simahina.

The Ramayana is not one book, but a living text with countless versions across languages, each reflecting the values of its time and place. Arshia Sattar joins Amit Varma to share her insights from decades of study. Also discussed: the art of translation -- and our search for dharma.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out
1. Arshia Sattar on Amazon, Open and Wikipedia.
2. Valmiki's Ramayana -- Translated by Arshia Sattar.
3. Maryada: Searching for Dharma in the Ramayana -- Arshia Sattar.
4. Lost Loves: Exploring Rama's Anguish -- Arshia Sattar.
5. AK Ramanujan on Amazon and Wikipedia.
6. Wendy Doniger on Amazon and Wikipedia.
7. Alf Hiltebeitel on Amazon and Wikipedia.
8. 300 Ramayanas — AK Ramanujan.
9. On Hinduism and The Hindus — Wendy Doniger.
10. Yuganta — Irawati Karve.
11. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
12. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
13. 'I Have a Dream' (video) (transcript) -- Martin Luther King.
14. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander.
15. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul).
14. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul.
15. The Shah Bano case, the Sati at Deorala and the banning of Satanic Verses.
16. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World -- Mark Kurlanksy.
17. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
18. Girish Karnad on Amazon and Wikipedia.
19. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan).
20. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan.
21. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph).
22. Early Indians — Tony Joseph.
23. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich.
24. Nissim Ezekiel on Amazon, Wikipedia and All Poetry.
25. The Seven Basic Plots — Christopher Booker.
26. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti -- Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley).
27. Sansar Se Bhage Phirte Ho — Song from Chitralekha with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi.
28. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen on Mughal history with Ira Mukhoty, Parvati Sharma, Rana Safvi and Manimugdha Sharma.
29. Tales from the Kathasaritsagara -- Somadeva (translated by Arshia Sattar).
30. The Second Game of Dice -- Amit Varma.
31. Range Rover -- The archives of Amit Varma's column on poker for the Economic Times.
32. Critical Theory and Structuralism.
33. The Missing Queen -- Samhita Arni.
34. Ramcharitmanas (Hindi) (English) (Wikipedia) -- Tulsidas.
35. Krittivasi Ramayan (Bengali) (Wikipedia) -- Krittibas Ojha.
36. The Kamba Ramayana -- Translated by PS Sundaram.
37. The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer.
38. David Shulman on Amazon and Wikipedia.
39. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on demonetisation).
40. Bimal Krishna Matilal on Amazon and Wikipedia.
41. Dharma: Dimensions of Asian Spirituality -- Alf Hiltebeitel.
42. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
43. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
44. The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology -- Wendy Doniger.
45. Raja Ravi Varma.
46. Shoodhra Tapasvi -- Kuvempu.
47. Ludwig Wittgenstein on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
48. The Art of Translation — Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha).
49. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
50. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto -- Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
51. RRR -- SS Rajamouli.
52. The Girish Karnad Podcasts: The Rover Has No Fear of Memories -- An oral history enabled by Arshia Sattar and Anmol Tikoo.
53. This Life At Play: Memoirs -- Girish Karnad.
54. Kind of Blue -- Miles Davis.
55. Elena Ferrante on Amazon.
56. The Door -- Magda Szabó.
57. The Mahabaharata -- Peter Brook.
58. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire — Luis Buñuel.
59. The Unbearable Lightness of Being — Philip Kaufman.
60. The Line -- An Apple Original podcast.

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: 'Searching for Dharma' by Simahina.

Poet, novelist, translator, journalist, crime fiction writer, children's book author, teacher, math tutor: now here is a man who contains multitudes. Jerry Pinto joins Amit Varma in episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Jerry Pinto on Instagram, Amazon and his own website.
2. Em and the Big Hoom -- Jerry Pinto.
3. The Education of Yuri -- Jerry Pinto.
4. Murder in Mahim -- Jerry Pinto.
5. A Book of Light -- Edited by Jerry Pinto.
6. Baluta -- Daya Pawar (translated by Jerry Pinto).
7. I Have Not Seen Mandu -- Swadesh Deepak (translated by Jerry Pinto).
8. Cobalt Blue -- Sachin Kundalkar (translated by Jerry Pinto).
9. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale -- Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. 'Sometimes I feel I have to be completely invisible as a poet' -- Jerry Pinto's interview of Adil Jussawalla.
11. A Godless Congregation — Amit Varma.
12. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. The Big Questions — Steven E Landsburg.
14. Unlikely is Inevitable — Amit Varma.
15. The Law of Truly Large Numbers.
16. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
17. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam).
18. Dreamers — Snigdha Poonam.
19. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
20. The History Boys -- Alan Bennett.
21. The Connell Guide to How to Write Well -- Tim de Lisle.
22. Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut -- Marcus Du Sautoy.
23. Dead Poet's Society -- Peter Weir.
24. A Mathematician's Apology -- GH Hardy.
25. The Man Who Knew Infinity -- Robert Kanigel.
26. David Berlinski and Martin Gardner on Amazon, and Mukul Sharma on Wikipedia..
27. Range Rover -- The archives of Amit Varma's column on poker for The Economic Times.
28. Luck is All Around -- Amit Varma.
29. Stoicism on Wikipedia, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Britannica.
30. House of the Dead —  Fyodor Dostoevsky.
31. Black Beauty -- Anna Sewell.
32. Lady Chatterley's Lover -- DH Lawrence.
33. Mr Norris Changes Trains -- Chistopher Isherwood.
34. Sigrid Undset on Amazon and Wikipedia.
35. Some Prefer Nettles -- Junichiro Tanizaki.
36. Things Fall Apart — Chinua Achebe.
37. Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy on Amazon.
38. Orientalism -- Edward Said.
39. Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Kurt Vonnegut on Amazon.
40. Johnny Got His Gun -- Dalton Trumbo.
41. Selected Poems -- Kamala Das.
42. Collected Poems -- Kamala Das.
43. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen.
44. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty).
45. Tosca -- Giacomo Puccini.
46. Civilisation by Kenneth Clark on YouTube and Wikipedia.
47. Archives of The World This Week.
48. Dardi Rab Rab Kardi -- Daler Mehndi.
49. Is Old Music Killing New Music? — Ted Gioia.
50. Mother India (Mehboob Khan) and Mughal-E-Azam (K Asif).
51. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma.
52. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen.
53. Collected Poems — Mark Strand.
54. Forgive Me, Mother -- Eunice de Souza.
55. Porphyria's Lover -- Robert Browning.
56. Island -- Nissim Ezekiel.
57. Paper Menagerie — Ken Liu.
58. Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing, Translation, and Crossing Between Cultures — Episode 17 of Conversations With Tyler.
59. The Notebook Trilogy — Agota Kristof.
60. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
61. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal — Amitava Kumar.
62. Nissim Ezekiel on Amazon, Wikipedia and All Poetry.
63. Adil Jussawalla on Amazon, Wikipedia and Poetry International.
64. Eunice de Souza on Amazon, Wikipedia and Poetry International.
65. Dom Moraes on Amazon, Wikipedia and Poem Hunter.
66. WH Auden and Stephen Spender on Amazon.
67. Pilloo Pochkhanawala on Wikipedia and JNAF.
68. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Amazon, Wikipedia and Poetry Foundation.
69. Amar Akbar Anthony -- Manmohan Desai.
67. Ranjit Hoskote on Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, Wikipedia and Poetry International.
71. Arundhathi Subramaniam on Amazon, Instagram, Wikipedia, Poetry International and her own website.
72. The Red Wheelbarrow -- William Carlos Williams.
73. Mary Oliver's analysis of The Red Wheelbarrow.
74. A Poetry Handbook — Mary Oliver.
75. The War Against Cliche -- Martin Amis.
76. Seamus Heaney on Amazon, Wikipedia and Poetry Foundation.
77. The world behind 'Em and the Big Hoom' -- Jerry Pinto interviewed by Swetha Amit.
78. Jerry Pinto interviewed for the New York Times by Max Bearak.
79. Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and GV Desani on Amazon.
80. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri.
81. Graham Greene, W Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley on Amazon.
82. Surviving Men -- Shobhaa De.
83. Surviving Men -- Jerry Pinto.
84. The Essays of GK Chesterton.
85. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy — Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen.
86. City Improbable: Writings on Delhi -- Edited by Khushwant Singh.
87. Bombay, Meri Jaan -- Edited by Jerry Pinto and Naresh Fernandes.
88. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen.
89. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra).
90. Wanting -- Luke Burgis.
91. Kalpish Ratna and Sjowall & Wahloo on Amazon.
92. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra).
93. Ashad ka Ek Din -- Mohan Rakesh.
94. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy (translated by Constance Garnett).
95. Gordon Lish: 'Had I not revised Carver, would he be paid the attention given him? Baloney!' -- Christian Lorentzen..
96. Sooraj Barjatya and Yash Chopra.
97. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen.
98. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident — Amit Varma.
99. Phineas Gage.
100. Georges Simenon on Amazon and Wikipedia..
101. The Interpreter -- Amit Varma on Michael Gazzaniga's iconic neuroscience experiment.
102. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen..
103. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert.
104. Self-Portrait — AK Ramanujan.
105. Ivan Turgenev, Ryu Murakami and Patricia Highsmith on Amazon.
106. A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess.
107. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges.
110. Playwright at the Centre: Marathi Drama from 1843 to the Present — Shanta Gokhale.
111. Kubla Khan -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
112. Girish Shahane, Naresh Fernandes, Suketu Mehta, David Godwin and Kiran Desai.
113. The Count of Monte Cristo -- Alexandre Dumas.
114. Pedro Almodóvar and Yasujirō Ozu.
115. The Art of Translation — Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha).
116. The Lives of the Poets -- Samuel Johnson.
117. Lives of the Women -- Various authors, edited by Jerry Pinto.
118. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma.
119. On Bullshit — Harry Frankfurt.
120. The Facts Do Not Matter — Amit Varma.
121. Beware of the Useful Idiots — Amit Varma.
122. Modi's Lost Opportunity — Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz).
123. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala.
124. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
125. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
126. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen.
127. Listen, The Internet Has SPACE -- Amit Varma..
128. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
129. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen.
130. The Saturdays -- Elizabeth Enwright.
131. Summer of My German Soldier -- Bette Greene.
132. I am David -- Anne Holm.
133. Tove Jannson and Beatrix Potter on Amazon.
134. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings -- JRR Tolkien.
135. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness -- William Styron.
136. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness -- Kay Redfield Jamison.
137. Searching for Swadesh -- Nirupama Dutt..
138. Parsai Rachanawali -- Harishankar Parsai.
139. Not Dark Yet (official) (newly released outtake) -- Bob Dylan..
140. How This Nobel Has Redefined Literature -- Amit Varma on Dylan winning the Nobel Prize..
141. The New World Upon Us — Amit Varma.
142. PG Wodehouse on Amazon and Wikipedia.
143. I Heard the Owl Call My Name -- Margaret Craven.
144. 84, Charing Cross Road -- Helen Hanff.
145. Great Expectations, Little Dorrit and Bleak House -- Charles Dickens.
146. Middlemarch -- George Eliot.
147. The Pillow Book -- Sei Shonagon.
148. The Diary of Lady Murasaki -- Murasaki Shikibu.
149. My Experiments With Truth -- Mohandas Gandhi.
150. Ariel -- Sylvia Plath.
151. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar.
152. Missing Person -- Adil Jussawalla.
153. All About H Hatterr -- GV Desani.
154. The Ground Beneath Her Feet -- Salman Rushdie.
155. A Fine Balance -- Rohinton Mistry.
156. Tales from Firozsha Baag -- Rohinton Mistry.
157. Amores Perros -- Alejandro G Iñárritu.
158. Samira Makhmalbaf on Wikipedia and IMDb.
159. Ingmar Bergman on Wikipedia and IMDb.
160. The Silence, Autumn Sonata and Wild Strawberries - Ingmar Bergman.
161. The Mahabharata.
162. Yuganta — Irawati Karve.
163. Kalyug -- Shyam Benegal.
164. The Hungry Tide -- Amitav Ghosh.
165. On Hinduism and The Hindus -- Wendy Doniger.
166. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd — Lal Dĕd (translated by Ranjit Hoskote).
167. The Essential Kabir -- Arvind Krishna Mehrotra.
168. The Absent Traveller -- Arvind Krishna Mehrotra.
169. These My Words: The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry -- Edited by Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo.

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: 'He is Reading' by Simahina.

Public policy may seem arcane and complicated, a field only for geeks. But all our lives are shaped by it. Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley join Amit Varma in episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe their efforts to make policy great again.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Missing In Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy -- Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley.
2. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's newsletter.
3. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra).
4. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's Father's Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen.
5. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani).
7. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
8. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah).
9. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah.
10. Angus Maddison's chart on GDP through the ages.
11. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen.
12. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta).
13. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. Bhaktamal -- Nabha Dass.
15. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling.
16. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
17. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
18. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. The Overton Window.
20. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma.
21. Where Did Development Economics Go Wrong? -- Shruti Rajagopalan speaks to Lant Pritchett on the Ideas of India podcast.
22. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch.
23. Public Opinion — Walter Lippmann.
24. Democracy in America — Alexis De Tocqueville.
25. Yeh Jo Public Hai Sab Janti Hai -- Song from Roti.
26. Price Controls Lead to Shortages and Harm the Poor -- Amit Varma.
27. Amit Varma's prescient 2017 tweet on the price caps on stents.
28. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen.
29. Tu Kisi Rail Si — Lyrics by Varun Grover.
30. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen.
31. The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People -- Michael Shermer.
32. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky.
33. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress — Peter Singer.
34. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama.
35. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama.
36. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama.
37. The Right to Property -- Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
38. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking — Amit Varma.
39. Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist — Bruce Yandle.
40. Zanjeer (Prakash Mehra) and Gol Maal (Hrishikesh Mukherjee).
41. A People's Constitution— Rohit De.
42. Laws Against Victimless Crimes Should Be Scrapped -- Amit Varma.
43. We All Gamble. Make It Legal -- Devangshu Datta.
44. Yes We Cannabis! -- Devangshu Datta.
45. Prohibition doesn't work. Tax Alcohol Instead -- Devangshu Datta.
46. Legalise Prostitution to Fight Trafficking -- Amit Varma.
47. Sea of Poppies -- Amitav Ghosh.
48. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok).
49. Rent Control — Ep 14 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok).
50. A Theory of Justice — John Rawls.
51. Anarchy, State and Utopia — Robert Nozick.
52. Politics and Money -- Amit Varma's limerick.
53. The Great Redistribution — Amit Varma.
54. Power and Prosperity — Mancur Olson.
55. Swaminathan S Aiyar at Times of India, Amazon and his own website.
56. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra.
57. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
58. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen on GST: 1, 2, 3.
59. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State — Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan).
60. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
61. A Game Theory Problem: Who Will Bell The Congress Cat? — Amit Varma.
62. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh.
63. A Beast Called Government (2007) -- Amit Varma.
64. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma.
65. Policy Paradox – The Art of Political Decision Making — Deborah Stone.
66. Bara -- UR Ananthamurthy
67. Sookha -- MS Sathyu's film based on Bara,
68. Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy -- Episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai).
69. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker.
70. The Third Pillar -- Raghuram Rajan.
71. Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar : A citizen-first approach -- Rohini Nilekani.
72. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel.
73. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma.
74. Frédéric Bastiat's writings at Bastiat.org and Amazon.
75. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek.
76. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek).
77. Econ Talk — Russ Roberts's podcast.
78. Conversation and Society — Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts).
79. The Economist as Scapegoat -- Russ Roberts.
80. Bollywood's New Capitalist Hero (2007) -- Amit Varma.
81. Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! -- Saaed Mirza.
82. Scam 1992 -- Hansal Mehta.
83. Bharat Ane Nenu -- Koratal Siva.
84. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
85. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra).
86. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma.
87. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma.
88. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
89. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
90. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic — Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
91. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma.
92. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma.
93. The Solution -- Bertolt Brecht.
94. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine -- Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen.
95. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi).
96. The Multitudes of Our Maharajahs -- Episode 244 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai).
97. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz).
98. Sansar Se Bhage Phirte Ho -- Song from Chitralekha with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi.
99. Crimemaster Gogo in the house!

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Graveyard of Good Intentions' by Simahina.

He is an IAS officer who has just co-written a book about Gandhian social workers in Vidarbha. Ashutosh Salil joins Amit Varma in episode 312 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the difficult work of bringing about change from within society -- and from within the state.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Ashutosh Salil on Twitter, Amazon and Outlook.
2. Being the Change: In the Footsteps of the Mahatma -- Ashutosh Salil and Barkha Mathur.
3. Friendship Day: An IAS Officer Recollects His Childhood Friend -- Ashutosh Salil.
4. Nomad's Diary: An IAS Officer Tries To Find The Meaning Of Home -- Ashutosh Salil.
5. Singing Frogs & Sinking Roads: Experiencing The Monsoons In Smalltown Bihar -- Ashutosh Salil.
6. Writer's Diary: Walking Down The Memory Lane -- Ashutosh Salil.
7. Learning From Tribals -- Ashutosh Salil.
8. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. Stage.in.
10. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan).
11. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan.
12. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. Sharda Sinha on Spotify and YouTube.
14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul).
15. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul.
16. Maithili Thakur on Spotify and YouTube.
17. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor).
18. The Darbhanga Gharana on Wikipedia and YouTube.
19. Chhannulal Mishra on Spotify and YouTube.
20. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen.
21. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen.
22. Womaning in India With Mahima Vashisht — Episode 293 of The Seen and the Unseen.
23. Parkinson's Law — C Northcote Parkinson.
24. Restaurant Regulations in India — Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon).
25. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
26. Friedrich Hayek on Wikipedia, Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Econlib.
27. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek).
28. Tory MP visibly furious over party chaos -- Guardian News.
29. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
30. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
31. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic -- Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh).
32. Mission Shaurya on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
33. Poorna -- Directed by Rahul Bose.
34. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
35. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
36. Where There is no Doctor -- David Werner.
37. Chinki Sinha at Outlook and Twitter.
38. Rohinton Mistry and WG Sebald on Amazon.
39. The Imposter Syndrome.
40. Kumar Gandharva on Spotify and YouTube.
41. Nirbhay Nirgun -- Kumar Gandharva.
42. Prahlad Singh Tipanya on YouTube.
43. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya -- Akshaya Mukul.
44. Shekhar: A Life -- Agyeya.
45. Shekhar: Ek Jeevani -- Agyeya.
46. The Life and Times of George Fernandes -- Rahul Ramagundam.
47. Man's Search for Meaning -- Viktor Frankl.
48. Kantara -- Rishab Shetty.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Being the Change' by Simahina.

Known online as The Liver Doctor, he's a crusader against quackery of all sorts. Cyriac Abby Philips joins Amit Varma in episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey to becoming a doctor-scientist, the breakthroughs in his field, what he has learnt as a physician -- and the dangers of 'alternative medicine.'

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Abby Philips on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google Scholar, Rajagiri Hospital and The Morning Context.
2. The Dark Side of Indian Pharma -- Episode 245 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Dinesh Thakur).
3. The Practice of Medicine -- Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto).
4. Understanding Indian Healthcare -- Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
5. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health -- Amit Varma.
6. Homeopathic Faith -- Amit Varma.
7. Bad Science -- Ben Goldacre.
8. Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial -- Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst.
9. Homeopathy, quackery and fraud -- James Randi.
10. Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker.
11. Doctor, heal thyself -- Suresh K Pandey and Vidushi Sharma on the shorter life expectancy of doctors in India.
12. Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart — Gerd Gigerenzer, Peter M Todd and the ABC Research Group on 'fast and frugal heuristics').
13. The Medical Council of India -- Episode 8 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pavan Srinath).
14. Abby Philips's tweet about how cirrhosis can be reversed.
15. A Phase 3 Trial of Pirfenidone in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis -- Various authors for the ASCEND study group.
16. Repurposing Pirfenidone for Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis-related Cirrhosis: A Case Series -- Cyriac Abby Philips and others.
17. Regression of Human Cirrhosis: Morphologic Features and the Genesis of Incomplete Septal Cirrhosis -- Ian R Wanless, Eisuke Nakashima and Morris Sherman.
18. Reversal of Liver Cirrhosis: A Desirable Clinical Outcome and Its Pathogenic Background -- Flavia Bortolotti and Maria Guido.
19. Ignaz Semmelweis on Britannica and Wikipedia.
20. The Diabetes Code -- Jason Fung.
21. The perfect treatment for diabetes and weight loss -- Interview of Jason Fung.
22. Intestinal microbiota contributes to individual susceptibility to alcoholic liver disease -- M Llopis and others.
23. Fecal microbiota manipulation prevents dysbiosis and alcohol-induced liver injury in mice -- Gladys Ferrere and others.
24. Some of Abby Philips's papers on stool transplants: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
25. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Karthik Muralidharan: 1, 2, 3.
26. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
27. Fecal enema as an adjunct in the treatment of pseudomembranous enterocolitis -- Ben Eiseman and others.
28. Duodenal Infusion of Donor Feces for Recurrent Clostridium difficile -- Els van Nood and others.
29. There is no safe level of alcohol consumption -- Abby Philips.
30. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes.
31. The Big Fat Surprise — Nina Teicholz.
32. The Obesity Code — Jason Fung.
33. Priyanka Pulla on Twitter and LinkedIn.
34. Abby Philips and Krish Ashok's Instagram post on Ayurveda.
35. Edzard Ernst on Twitter and his own website.
36. The studies on nanoparticles in homeopathy from IIT Bombay and Belgium.
37. Parents guilty of manslaughter over daughter's eczema death -- Harriet Alexander.
38. Never Talk About TURMERIC on Social Media -- Abby Philips.
39. Abby Philips's video on Arsenic Album.
40. Clinical outcomes, histopathological patterns, and chemical analysis of Ayurveda and herbal medicine associated with severe liver injury -- Abby Philips and others.
41. Abby Philips's paper on Herbalife products causing fatal acute liver failure.
42. Paper about Herbalife®-related patient death removed after company threatens to sue the journal -- Elizabeth Bik. (Also, her tweets: 1, 2.)
43. Retraction Watch on the controversy.
44. The Jaslok study on the harmful effects of Giloy, commonly used in Ayurveda.
45. Subsequent studies on the harm that Giloy does from New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Delhi again, Delhi one more time, Lucknow, Mumbai and a large multicenter study.
46. As COVID Surged, India Had a Silent Outbreak of Giloy-Induced Liver Injury -- Banjot Kaur.
47. Blankets -- Craig Thompson.
48. Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir -- Tom Hart.
49. Robot Dreams -- Sara Varon.
50. The Complete Maus -- Art Spiegelman.
51. Bone -- Jeff Smith.
52. V For Vendetta -- Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
53. Cinema Paradiso -- Giuseppe Tornatore.
54. Tigertail -- Alan Yang.
55. The Town -- Ben Affleck.
56. I Saw the Devil -- Jee-woon Kim.
57. The Roundup -- Lee Sang-yong.
58. Memories of Murder -- Bong Joon-ho.
59. The Night Of and True Detective.
60. Pink Floyd, Def Leppard and Metallica on Spotify.
61. Bon Jovi, Manowar and Savatage on Spotify.
62. Sleep -- Savatage.
63. The Police, Sting, Cyndi Lauper and Imagine Dragons on Spotify.
64. The master thread by Abby Philips of his Twitter mega threads.

This episode is sponsored by MapMyGenome. Use the code UNSEEN to get 25% off all their products, especially MedicaMap.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Good Doctor' by Simahina.

As 2022 draws to a close, it's time to chill. Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas join Amit Varma in episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen to share wit, wisdom and life lessons that are priceless. There is cricket, there is singing, there are great bad jokes -- never has insight been so much fun!

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Roshan Abbas at Instagram, Twitter and his own website.
2. Vikram Sathaye at Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
3. Roshan Abbas and the Creator Economy — Episode 239 of The Seen and the Unseen.
4. Kommune on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
5. Speechless — Roshan Abbas and Siddharth Banerjee.
6. What the Duck With Vikram Sathaye -- Vikram Sathaye's talk show on YouTube.
7. How Sachin Destroyed My Life -- Vikram Sathaye.
8. Vikram Sathaye's breakout performance at the 2004 Ceat Cricket Awards.
9. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri.
10. The Loneliness of the Indian Man -- Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja).
11. Pu La Deshpande.
12. Roam Research.
13. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia.
14. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty).
15. Parkinson's Law — C Northcote Parkinson.
16. Bhimsen Joshi on Spotify and YouTube.
17. Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder -- Arnold Schwarzenegger.
18. Papa Kehte Hain -- Mahesh Bhatt.
19. Ghar Se Nikalte Hi -- Song from Papa Kehte Hain.
20. Tarkash -- Javed Akhtar.
21. Vijay Tendulkar and Satyadev Dubey.
22. Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega, directed by Tim Burton & others.
23. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly.
24. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin.
25. The BarberShop with Shantanu.
26. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen.
27. Stage.in.
28. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho.
29. Sunandan Lele on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.
30. Atomic Habits — James Clear.
31. The Love Fools on Instagram, Zomato and Facebook.
32. Behave — Robert Sapolsky.
33. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel.
34. Seinfeld -- Created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.
35. 3 Deewarein (Nagesh Kukunoor), Satta (Madhur Bhandarkar) and Dil Vil Pyar Vyaar (Anant Mahadevan).
36. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma.
37. Vijay Gokhale on Amazon.
38. The Evolution of Cricket — Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle).
39. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma.
40. Nudge -- Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.
41. Japan fans clean up the stadium after defeat to Croatia.
42. Euphoria on Hotstar/HBO.
43. Why I'm Hopeful About Twitter -- Amit Varma.
44. Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don't Have To -- David Sinclair.
45. The Lifespan Podcast by David Sinclair.
46. Huberman Lab.
47. Muse: EEG-Powered Meditation & Sleep Headband.
48. Factfulness — Hans Rosling.
49. Genepath Diagnostics.
50. Abby Philips on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Google Scholar.
51. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes.
52. The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet — Nina Teicholz.
53. The Obesity Code — Jason Fung.
54. Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker.
55.The Swimmers -- Sally El Hosaini.
56. Khakee: The Bihar Chapter -- Created by Neeraj Pandey.
57. Bihar Diaries -- Amit Lodha.
58. Angad Daryani of Praan on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
59. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube.
60. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon, Twitter, Google Scholar and his own website.
61. Anatomy of the Vertical Invader -- IMRB International.
62. Josh Talks and The Lallantop.
63. The full Cristiano Ronaldo Interview With Piers Morgan.
64. Anumita Nadesan on Spotify, YouTube and Instagram.
65. Kusha Kapila on Instagram and YouTube.
66. I Boiled My Buttocks for a Week -- Amit Varma.
67. Propah Lady -- Puma commercial directed by Reema Sengupta.
68. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen.
69. Glimpses from the event with Zakir Hussain and Sachin Tendulkar.
70. Phineas Gage.
71. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident — Amit Varma's column on Chris Cornell's death.
72. Why We Choke — Amit Varma.
73. Garden -- The app for staying in touch.
74. A Creator of the Floating World — Episode 218 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Varun Duggirala).
75. The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron.
76. Coverage of the Bawraas by YourStory, Times of India and Hindustan Times.
77. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen.
78. Monsoon Wedding -- Mira Nair.
79. How to Be Successful -- Sam Altman.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Time For Adda' by Simahina.

Borders and nation states can sometimes seek to divide communities -- but isn't that a bit like cutting water with a knife? Saaz Aggarwal joins Amit Varma in episode 308 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her work chronicling the history and culture of the Sindhi people -- and her own rich life as a writer and artist.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Saaz Aggarwal on Amazon, Instagram, LinkedIn, Scroll, Open and her own website.
2. Sindh: Stories from a Vanished Homeland -- Saaz Aggarwal.
3. Sindhi Tapestry: Reflections on the Sindhi Identity -- Saaz Aggarwal.
4. The Amils of Sindh: A Narrative History of a Remarkable Community -- Saaz Aggarwal.
5. Losing Home: Finding Home -- Saaz Aggarwal, with illustrations by Subhodeep Mukherjee.
6. The Six Sigma Dabbawalas of Mumbai -- Samatvam Academy.
7. That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen — Frédéric Bastiat.
8. Frédéric Bastiat's writings at Bastiat.org and Amazon.
9. Remembering Frédéric Bastiat (2007) — Amit Varma.
10. Autobiography of Malcolm X -- Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley.
11. A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold -- Abhinav Bindra with Rohit Brijnath.
12. Odyssey: My Journey Through Life -- Nandlal P Tolani with Saaz Aggarwal.
13. Veda Aggarwal's website.
14. Comparative Advantage.
15. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. 'Indian languages carry the legacy of caste' — Chandra Bhan Prasad interviewed by Sheela Bhatt.
17. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
18. Vipassana meditation at Dhamma.org.
19. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe.
20. India = Migration — Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe).
21. Rekhta.
22. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen.
23. Stage.in.
24. Nanak Was Here — Episode 166 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amardeep Singh).
25. Songs of Kabir -- Kabit, translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra.
26. Doorway To Sindh -- Aruna Madnani's project.
27. In defence of suit, boot — Chandra Bhan Prasad.
28. The Good Lion -- Ernest Hemingway.
29. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
30. Eye Cosmetic 'Surma': Hidden Threats of Lead Poisoning -- K Goswami,
31. Nandita Bhavnani on Amazon and YouTube.
32. Toba Tek Singh -- Sadat Hasan Manto.
33. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra).
34. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra.
35. Beyond the Rainbow -- Murli Melwani.
36. Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Roth, Douglas Adams, Leslie Thomas and PG Wodehouse on Amazon.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Tapestry' by Simahina.

***

Errata: Contrary to what I said in the introduction to this episode, It was Saaz's mother and not Saaz who was born a Bijlani. Apologies! -- AV

Indian society, the Indian state and the Indian economy are all complex beasts that defy simple narratives. Suyash Rai joins Amit Varma in episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe how he has tried to make sense of it all -- and how he tries to make a difference.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Suyash Rai at Carnegie India, Twitter and The Print.
2. Ideas and Institutions -- The Carnegie India newsletter co-written by Suyash Rai.
3. Interpreting India -- The Carnegie India podcast sometimes hosted by Suyash Rai.
4. Carnegie India's YouTube Channel.
5. Demonetisation -- Episode 2 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai).
6. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai).
7. Suyash Rai on GDP growth: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
8. Suyash Rai on public finance: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
9. Suyash Rai on the financial system: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
10. Suyash Rai on changes in state-capital relations in recent years: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
11. Suyash Rai on the judiciary: 1, 2.
12. Suyash Rai on utopian laws that do not work in practice: 1, 2, 3.
13. Suyash Rai on Demonetisation: 1, 2, 3, 4.
14. Paper Menagerie — Ken Liu.
15. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life -- Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. Conquest and Community: The Afterlife of Warrior Saint Ghazi Miyan -- Shahid Amin.
17. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
18. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha).
19. The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society -- CG Jung.
20. A Memoir of Mary Ann -- By Dominican Nuns (introduction by Flannery O'Connor).
21. Nathaniel Hawthorne on Amazon and Wikipedia.
22. Flannery O'Connor and "A Memoir of Mary Ann" -- Daniel J Sundahl.
23. GK Chesterton on Amazon and Wikipedia.
24. Alasdair MacIntyre on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica.
25. The Moral Animal -- Robert Wright.
26. Gimpel the Fool -- Isaac Bashevis Singer (translated by Saul Bellow).
27. George Orwell on Amazon and Wikipedia.
28. Frédéric Bastiat on Amazon and Wikipedia.
29. Reflections on Gandhi -- George Orwell.
30. Interview of Harshal Patel in Breakfast With Champions.
31. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel.
32. The Facts Do Not Matter — Amit Varma.
33. The Hippocratic Oath.
34. Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart -- Gerd Gigerenzer, Peter M Todd and the ABC Research Group on 'fast and frugal heuristics').
35. 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 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul).
52. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
53. Against Sainte-Beuve and Other Essays -- Marcel Proust.
54. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta).
55. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
56.  The Aristocratic Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville -- Suyash Rai.  
57. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma.
58. Ronald Dworkin on Amazon and Wikipedia.
59. Immanuel Kant on Amazon, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
60. Beware of the Useful Idiots — Amit Varma.
61. Don't Choose Tribalism Over Principles -- Amit Varma.
62. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
63. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do And Why They Do It -- James Q Wilson.
64. The Moral Sense -- James Q Wilson.
65. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen.
66. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama.
67. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama.
68. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama.
69. Going from strong as in scary to strong as in capable -- Suyash Rai and Ajay Shah.  
70. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia -- Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
71. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy.
72. Utilitarianism on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
73. Practical Ethics -- Peter Singer.
74. Reasons and Persons -- Derek Parfit.
75. The Repugnant Conclusion.
76. Governing the Commons -- Elinor Ostrom.
77. A Pragmatic Approach to Data Protection -- Suyash Rai.
78. Technology and the Lifeworld -- Don Ihde.
79. Postphenomenology -- Don Ihde.
80. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh.
81. Looking at Lucas's Question After Seventy-five Years of India's Independence -- Suyash Rai.
82. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
83. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra.
84. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
85. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah).
86. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah.
87. Douglass North and Albert O Hirschman.
88. The Intellectual Odyssey of Albert Hirschman -- Suyash Rai.
89. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma.
90. Democracy in America -- Alexis De Tocqueville.
91. Tocqueville and the Nature of Democracy -- Pierre Manent.
92. The Populist Century -- Pierre Rosanvallon.
93. The Theory of Populism According to Pierre Rosanvallon -- Suyash Rai.
94. After Virtue -- Alasdair MacIntyre.
95. Philosophy of Technology -- Don Ihde.
96. Technology and the Virtues -- Shannon Vallor.
97. Nihilism and Technology -- Nolen Gertz.
98. Lant Pritchett on Amazon, Google Scholar and his own website.
99. Harnessing Complexity -- Robert Axelrod and Michael D Cohen.
100. Mahabharata, Odyssey, Divine Comedy and Rashmirathi.
101. Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar on Spotify.
102. Andrei Rublev -- Andrei Tarkovsky.
103. Andrei Tarkovsky, Luis Buñuel, Akira Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray.
104. Mission Impossible, Bad News Bears and Anand.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Past and the Future' by Simahina.

Society cannot be designed in a top-down way. Central planning was a historic blunder that harmed India -- even though it was conceived by great men with good intentions. Nikhil Menon joins Amit Varma in episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the flawed genius PC Mahalanobis, the planning commission, and his own life as a scholar.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Nikhil Menon on Amazon and University of Notre Dame.
2. Planning Democracy: How A Professor, An Institute, And An Idea Shaped India -- Nikhil Menon.
3. The Evolution of Everything -- Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley).
4.  The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek.
5. Sherlock Holmes, Ramayana and Mahabharata.
6. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai).
8. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
9. The Decline of the Congress -- Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
10. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel).
11. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel).
12. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul).
13. The Discovery of India -- Jawaharlal Nehru.
14. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
15. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chandra Bhan Prasad).
16. John Locke on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
17. John Dewey on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
18. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla).
19. Friedrich Hayek on Wikipedia, Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Econlib.
20. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism -- Friedrich Hayek.. 
21. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek).
22. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah).
23. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
24. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
25. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia -- Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
26. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
27. On Exactitude in Science (Wikipedia) — Jorge Luis Borges.
28. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz).
29. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon).
30. Angus Deaton, John von Neumann, Albert Einstein and Howard Aiken.
31. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen.
32. Les Misérables -- Victor Hugo.
33. Hardy Boys on Amazon.
34. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
35. Love in the Time of Cholera -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
36. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie.
37. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
38. Shahid Amin and Sunil Kumar.
39. 300 Ramayanas -- AK Ramanujan.
40. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.)
41. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander.
42. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi).
43. John McPhee on Amazon.
44. Mumbai Fables -- Gyan Prakash.
45. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash.
46. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen.
47. Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital -- Rotem Geva.
48. A People's Constitution — Rohit De.
49. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati.
50. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
51. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha.
52. Roam Research.
53. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia.
54. Linda Colley on Amazon and Princeton.
55. Gandhi as Mahatma -- Shahid Amin.
56. Tanika Sarkar, Neeladri Bhattacharya and Janaki Nair.
57. The Great Man Theory of History.
58. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen.
59. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta).
60. Milton Friedman on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Econlib.
61. The Man of System — Adam Smith (excerpted from The Theory of Moral Sentiments).
62. The Idea of India — Sunil Khilnani.
63. The Rocking-Horse Winner -- DH Lawrence.
64. Taylor Sherman and Niraja Gopal Jayal.
65. Kamyab Hum Karke Rahenge -- Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi on central planning.
66. Naya Daur -- BR Chopra.
67. Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein -- Song from Hum Hindustani.
68. Char Dil Char Raahein -- KA Abbas.
69. Jhootha Sach (Hindi) (English) -- Yashpal.
70. Marxvaad Aur Ram Rajya — Karpatri Maharaj.
71. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma.
72. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
73. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S).
74. Circe -- Madeline Miller.
75. The Song of Achilles -- Madeline Miller.
76. The Thursday Murder Club -- Richard Osman.
77. Only Murders in the Building.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'Central Planning' by Simahina.

She's been a journalist for half a century, wrote the definitive book on the Emergency, and is revered for her political insight. Coomi Kapoor joins Amit Varma in episode 305 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life, Indian politics and the state of our media.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Inside Track -- Coomi Kapoor's column in the Indian Express.
2. The Emergency: A Personal History -- Coomi Kapoor.
3. The Tatas, Freddie Mercury & Other Bawas: An Intimate History of the Parsis -- Coomi Kapoor.
4. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma.
5. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty).
6. Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From — Tony Joseph.
7. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph).
8. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen.
9. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled — Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujatha Anandan).
10. Men Must Step Up Now — Amit Varma.
11. The #MeToo Movement — Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair & Nikita Saxena).
12. Arun Shourie,on Amazon and Wikipedia.
13. Kuldip Nayar on Amazon and Wikipedia.
14. The Nagarwala Case.
15. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. Vinod Mehta on Amazon and Wikipedia.
17. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra.
18. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
19. The Turkman Gate Massacre (but read Kapoor's book for the full details!)
20. An Incomplete Life -- Vijaypat Singhania.
21. The Decline of the Congress — Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
22. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
23. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati).
24. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash.
25. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen.
26. All the Light We Cannot See -- Anthony Doerr.
27. Gangubai Kathiawadi and Darlings.
28. Panchayat.

Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Episode art: 'The Inside Track' by Simahina.

Food is more than just sustenance for the body. Food contains stories, memories, emotions, and the ingredients of the self. Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage join Amit Varma in episode 304 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe their journeys in food, from starting cult restaurants like Bombay Canteen and O Pedro, to setting up the pathbreaking Bombay Sweet Shop, to now taking that deeper dive into the role food plays in our society.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
1. Sameer Seth (LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter) and Yash Bhanage (LInkedIn, Instagram and Twitter).
2. Hunger Inc on LinkedIn and its own website.
3. Bombay Canteen on Instagram and its own website.
4. O Pedro on Instagram and its own website.
5. Bombay Sweet Shop  on Instagram and its own website.
6. Choco Butterscotch Barks -- Amit Varma's favourite dessert of all time.
7. Enthu Cutlet.
8. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor).
9. A Scientist in the Kitchen — Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok).
10. Religion, Food, Indian Society -- Episode 207 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shoba Narayan).
11. Restaurant Regulations in India — Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon).
12. Haruki Murakami on Amazon.
13. Setting the Table -- Danny Meyer.
14. Sameer Seth's Instagram post on Floyd Cardoz.
15. Varun Grover Is in the House -- Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. Will Guidara on Wikipedia, Instagram, Twitter and TED.
17. The boys behind The Bombay Canteen are hungry for more -- Shrabonti Bagchi.
18. Shoe Dog -- Phil Knight.
19. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time — Amit Varma.
20. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri.
21. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly.
22. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin.
23. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen.
24. Stage.in.
25. The Fat Duck -- Heston Blumenthal's restaurant.
25. Tesouro by Firefly.
26. Chef's Table and Masterchef.
27. Saransh Goila and Ranveer Brar on YouTube.
28. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty).
29. Barkha Cardoz's talk on Floyd Cardoz at The Welcome Conference.
30. Roshan Abbas and the Creator Economy — Episode 239 of The Seen and the Unseen.
31. Creativity, Inc -- Ed Catmull.
32. Delivering Happiness -- Tony Hsieh.
33. Talk Like TED -- Carmine Gallo.
34. Yash Bhanage's Instagram prank on his head of marketing.

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: 'Sustenance' by Simahina.