Ep 251: Amit Schandillia, History Communicator

History is often told in such a boring way that it might as well not have happened. And then, there are those who bring it so alive that the present seems so much clearer. Amit Schandillia joins Amit Varma in episode 251 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about how his historical storytelling made him a Twitter sensation -- and why both history and storytelling matter in these times. Also check out: 1. Select Twitter threads by Amit Schandillia: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 2. Amit Schandillia on Storytel. 3. Nina’s Journey -- Nina Markovna. 4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Srinath Raghavan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 7. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 8. Who We Are and How We Got Here -- David Reich. 9. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 10. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan.

11. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 12. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati. 13. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi) 14. Churchill's Secret War -- Madhusree Mukerjee. 15. Churchill and the genocide myth -- Zareer Masani. 16. Churchill: Walking with Destiny -- Andrew Roberts. 17. The Expanding Circle -- Amit Varma. 18. A History of European Morals -- WEH Lecky. 19. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress -- Peter Singer. 20. Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America -- John McWhorter. 21. John McWhorter interviewed by Bill Maher and Vasant Dhar. 22. PN Oak on Wikipedia. 23. Tawaif -- Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 24. The Seen and the Unseen episodes with Ira Mukhoty, Parvati Sharma and Rana Safvi. 25. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kavitha Rao). 26. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 27. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 28. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 29. Archive.org, Google Books, Jstor and ResearchGate. 30. The Big Deal About Blogging -- Amit Varma. 31. The Book Club -- Amit Varma's old show on Storytel. 32. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 33. Typefully. 34. Sake Dean Mohamed at Internet Archive and Wikipedia. 35. The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 36. Public Opinion -- Walter Lippmann. 37. The World Outside and the Pictures in our Heads -- Walter Lippmann. 39. Irfan Habib on Amazon. 40. Pilgrim Nation: The Making of Bharatvarsh -- Devdutt Pattanaik. 41. History of Western Philosophy -- Bertrand Russell. 42. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 43. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 44. Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire -- Alex von Tunzelmann. 45. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich -- William L Shirer. 46. Hardcore History by Dan Carlin. This episode is sponsored by Intel. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.