Ep 299: The Reflections of Samarth Bansal
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma
The First Principles of Journalism
I care a lot about journalism, which is why we are even having this conversation. Like if newspapers die, let them die. Journalism and news are not the same. News is a subcompetent of journalism. And I think if you make that distinction, it just gives a better frame to think about the solutions. So at least now after giving all this, you know, with theory, what matters is what I do. But base level pay, what have you understood? So that's a common problem and it's not an India problem. That's a global problem about the idea of news itself.
What should a newsroom report on? Does journalism know its own purpose? Do we? What ethics should we live by, and why? Samarth Bansal joins Amit Varma in episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about living the examined life, and asking the fundamental questions. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Samarth Bansal on Twitter and his own website. 2. The Interval -- Samarth Bansal's newsletter. 3. Truth Be Told -- Samarth Bansal's Food and Fitness newsletter with Shashank Mehta and others. 4. Journalists refer to themselves as storytellers. Is that a mistake? -- Samarth Bansal. 5. Why the event-oriented structure of news doesn't help in understanding how the world works -- Samarth Bansal. 6. A different way to think about Indian media -- Samarth Bansal. 7. Sugar-coated conspiracies: How ‘publication bias’ amplifies half-truths -- Samarth Bansal. 8. How I approach and manage my freelance journalism career -- Samarth Bansal. 9. Thoughts and observations on data journalism in India -- Samarth Bansal. 10. Why I am relearning statistics -- Samarth Bansal. 11. The Wire’s TekFog investigation: A futile search for evidence -- Samarth Bansal. 12. Indian pollsters are doing fine. Here is how forecasts work -- Samarth Bansal. 13. Lessons learnt from my 52-week workout streak -- Samarth Bansal. 14. The pursuit of truth with Samarth Bansal -- An interview by In Old News. 15. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Chandrahas Choudhury’s Country of Literature -- Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 19. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 20. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 22. Strangers Drowning -- Larissa MacFarquhar. 23. Larissa MacFarquhar on Getting Inside Someone's Head -- Episode 58 of Conversations With Tyler. 24. Dil Dhadakne Do -- Zoya Akhtar. 25. Kapoor & Sons -- Shakun Batra. 26. Why are India's housewives killing themselves? -- Soutik Biswas. 27. Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho -- Jagjit Singh's ghazal from Arth. 28. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence -- Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. Amit Varma's tweet on winning the Asian Championships of Match Poker. 30. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 31. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Dead Poets Society -- Peter Weir. 33. Amusing Ourselves to Death — Neil Postman. 34. Deep Work — Cal Newport. 35. Ira Glass on the Creative Process. 36. The Parable of the Pottery Class. 37. Behave -- Robert Sapolsky. 38. The Biology of Good and Evil -- Robert Sapolsky speaks to Sam Harris in episode 91 of The Making Sense Podcast. 39. Robert Sapolsky's biology lectures on YouTube. 40. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 41. The Overconfidence Game -- Episode 6 of Against the Rules with Michael Lewis. 42. Men Explain Things to Me -- Rebecca Solnit. 43. ‘Let Me Interrupt Your Expertise With My Confidence’ — New Yorker cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein. 44. Free Will on Wikipedia, Brittanica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 45. Free Will -- Sam Harris. 46. The Blind Watchmaker -- Richard Dawkins. 47. The CBS 60 Minutes documentary on the Indian Institute of Technology. 48. Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. 49. A Student's Guide to Startups -- Paul Graham. 50. Paul Graham's essays. 51. Coursera and Udacity. 52. The Last Lecture -- Randy Pausch. 53. The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. 54. The Blank Slate — Steven Pinker. 55. The Moral Animal -- Robert Wright. 56. Ezra Klein Interviews Noam Chomsky. 57. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. Tamasha -- Imtiaz Ali. 59. The Turn of the Tortoise -- TN Ninan. 60. Bad Blood -- John Carreyrou. 61. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on Demonetisation). 62. Enabled by technology, young Indians show what it means to be a citizen -- Amit Varma. 63. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Aakar Patel: 1, 2. 64. Adults in the Room -- Yanis Varoufakis. 65. Larry Summers at Harvard, Wikipedia, Twitter and his own website. 66. India's 50 Most Powerful People of 2009 -- List by Business Week including, heh, Amit Varma. 67. The theory of the interlocking public. 68. CRISPR gene editing. 69. Genetic Engineering -- Episode 165 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shambhavi Naik). 70. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz -- Brian Knappenberger. 71. I Hate the News -- Aaron Swartz. 72. Everybody Loves a Good Drought -- P Sainath. 73. Why everyone hates the mainstream media -- Andrew Potter. 74. Income Tax department raids Dainik Bhaskar premises across the country -- The Hindu. 75. Apar Gupta and Internet Freedom Foundation. 76. The Revolt of the Public -- Martin Gurri. 77. The best stats you've ever seen -- Hans Rosling. 79. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 80. Introduction to the Human Brain -- Nancy Kanwisher. 81. Future Shock -- Alvin Toffler. 82. The Trial of the Chicago 7 -- Aaron Sorkin. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! Episode art: ‘Reflection’ by Simahina.
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