The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

In 1947, few people gave us 75 years. Bloody hell, here we are! And it is up to us now to make this country the best version of itself. Karthik Muralidharan joins Amit Varma in episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss one of our problem areas: the Indian state. Can we fix it? Yes we can! (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Karthik Muralidharan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and UCSD. 2. Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS) 3. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 4. Understanding Indian Healthcare -- Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 5. General equilibrium effects of (improving) public employment programs: experimental evidence from India -- The paper on NREGA by Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus and Sandip Sukhtankar. 6. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 7. The Citizenship Battles -- Episode 152 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 8. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 9. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 10. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah). 11. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism -- Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pramit Bhattacharya). 12. The Paradox of Narendra Modi — Episode 102 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shashi Tharoor). 13. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia -- Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Montek Singh Ahluwalia). 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 and Abhijit Bhaduri. 15. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes. 16. The Big Fat Surprise — Nina Teicholz. 17. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 18. The Macroeconomist as Scientist and Engineer -- N Gregory Mankiw. 19. The Gated Republic -- Shankkar Aiyar. 20. Despite the State — M Rajshekhar. 21. The Power Broker— Robert Caro. 22. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs. 23. India’s Security State -- Episode 242 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Josy Joseph). 24. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 25. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 26. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 27. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama. 28. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama. 29. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama. 30. Computer Nahi Monitor -- Episode 5 of season 1 of Panchayat. 31. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India -- Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Courts Redux: Micro-Evidence from India -- Manaswini Rao. 33.  The Checklist Manifesto -- Atul Gawande. 34. Annie Hall -- Woody Allen. 35. The Politics Limerick -- Amit Varma. 36. The Decline of the Congress -- Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 37. The Burden of Democracy -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 38. A Theory of Clientelistic Politics versus Programmatic Politics -- Pranab Bardhan and Dilip Mookherjee. 39. Power and Prosperity — Mancur Olson. 40. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 41. Premature load bearing: Evidence, Analysis, Action -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 42. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 43. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society -- Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 44. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 45. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha. 46. Participatory Democracy -- Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 47. Cities and Citizens -- Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 48. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic -- Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 49. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. The Tamilian gentleman who took on the world -- Amit Varma on Viswanathan Anand. 51. Running to Stand Still -- U2. 52. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 53. India’s Founding Moment — Madhav Khosla. 54. The Ideas of Our Constitution -- Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 55. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia -- Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Pitfalls of Participatory Programs -- Abhijit Banerjee, Rukmini Banerji, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster and Stuti Khemani. 57. Our Parliament and Our Democracy -- Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 58. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 59. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 60. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Abhinandan Sekhri). 61. The Tiebout Model. 62. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 63. Taxes Should Be Used for Governance, Not Politics -- Amit Varma. 64. The Effects of Democratization on Public Goods and Redistribution: Evidence from China -- Nancy Qian, Gerard Padró i Miquel, Monica Martinez-Bravo and Yang Yao. 65. Sneaky Artist Sees the World -- Episode 260 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nishant Jain). 66. Science and Covid-19 -- Episode 221 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Anirban Mahapatra). 66. Centrally Sponsored Government Schemes -- Episode 17 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane.). 67. India's states can be laboratories for policy innovation and reform -- Karthik Muralidharan. 68. Clientelism in Indian Villages -- Siwan Anderson, Patrick Francois, and Ashok Kotwal. 69. Patching Development -- Rajesh Veeraraghavan. 70. Opportunity, Choice and the IPL (2008) — Amit Varma. 71. The IPL is Here and Here Are Six Reasons to Celebrate It (2019) — Amit Varma. 72. Climate Change and Our Power Sector -- Episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshay Jaitley and Ajay Shah). 73. The Delhi Smog -- Episode 44 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 74. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 75. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 76. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 77. Objects Speak to Annapurna Garimella -- Episode 257 of The Seen and the Unseen. 78. Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers 1947-1963 -- Edited by Madhav Khosla. 79. To Raise a Fallen People -- Rahul Sagar. 80. The Progressive Maharaja -- Rahul Sagar. 81. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 82. India: A Sacred Geography -- Diana Eck. 83. Unlikely is Inevitable — Amit Varma. 84. The Law of Truly Large Numbers. 85. Political Ideology in India -- Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his podcast, Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

She's skated down tekdis, played volleyball for her state, run through deserts and wrestled a bear with her bare hands. Ok, not the last one. Shruti Jahagirdar joins Amit Varma in episode 289 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss women's sports in India, fitness, nutrition and a world without limits. Also check out: 1. Shruti Jahagirdar on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. 2. Halomi Fitness, Shruti Jahagirdar's startup. 3. The Evolution of Cricket -- Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle). 4. Building Sports Ecosystems -- Episode 126 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Joy Bhattacharjya). 5. The State of Indian Sport -- Episode 238 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Joy Bhattacharjya and Nandan Kamath). 6. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on sport with Ram Guha, Prem Panicker, Sharda Ugra, Ayaz Memon, Snehal Pradhan and Pradeep Magazine. 7. Wait But Why by Tim Urban. 8. This Ramesh Nagdev was a blazing bat -- Makarand Waingankar. 9. Chak De! India -- Shimit Amin. 10. The Sporting Spirit — George Orwell. 11. Allah Ke Bande -- Kailash Kher. 12. Kusha Kapila and the B-Plus Baccha.. 13. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 14. Atomic Habits -- James Clear. 15. Barefoot in the Park -- Neil Simon. 16. Tiger Muay Thai. 17. Former British Boxing Champ Julius Francis knocks out troublemaker. 18. Gimme Mo -- Mohit Satyanand's newsletter. 19. The Bell Hooks quote posted by Shruti Jahagirdar. 20. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 21. The Mary Oliver quote posted by Shruti Jahagirdar. 22. The Case Against Sugar — Gary Taubes. 23. The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet — Nina Teicholz. 24. The Obesity Code — Jason Fung. 25. Nina Teicholz on The Joe Rogan Experience. 26. Wheat Belly -- William Davis.. 27. The Four Quadrants of Conformism -- Paul Graham. 28. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 29. The Diabetes Code -- Jason Fung. 30. Hikikomori. 31. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 32. Everything is Illuminated -- Liev Schreiber, based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. 33. The White Balloon -- Jafar Panahi. 34. Majid Majidi on Wikipedia and IMDb. 35. Panchayat, Season 2. 36. Schitt's Creek. 37. This is Us. 38. The Playbook- A Coach's Rules for Life. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his podcast, Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

To immerse yourself in literature is to immerse yourself in the world. Chandrahas Choudhury joins Amit Varma in episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen to chat about reading, writing, friendship, Mumbai and the guests at his fantasy dinner table. Also check out: 1. Chandrahas Choudhury on Instagram and Amazon. 2. The Middle Stage -- Chandrahas Choudhury's blog. 3. My Country Is Literature -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 4. Days of My China Dragon -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 5. Clouds -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 6. Arzee The Dwarf -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 7. Bamana Arzee -- Chandrahas Choudhury, translated by Sindhubala Choudhury.  8. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Two Men Who Left Third Man Alone -- Amit Varma and Chandrahas Choudhury. 10. The Curse of Knowledge. 11. Eunice De Souza on Amazon. 12. House of the Dead —  Fyodor Dostoevsky. 13. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 14. The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist -- Orhan Pamuk. 15. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 16. Jai Arjun Singh Lost It at the Movies -- Episode 230 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 18. How Fiction Works -- James Wood. 19. Marcel Proust and Karl Ove Knausgaard on Amazon. 20. Six and a Third Acres -- Fakir Mohan Senapati. 21. Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? -- AK Ramanujan. 22. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 24. Cuckold -- Kiran Nagarkar. 25. Robert Bly on Amazon. 26. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 27. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Georges Simenon on Amazon. 29. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 30. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree — Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 31. Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay on Amazon. 32. The Business of Books -- Episode 150 of The Seen and the Unseen (w VK Karthika). 33. The Bear Came Over the Mountain -- Alice Munro. 34. Against Rang De Basanti -- Chandrahas Choudhury. 35. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 36. A Godless Congregation -- Amit Varma. 37. Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek. 38. The City -- CP Cavafy. 39. Junoon on Spotify. 40. Verrier Elwin on Amazon. 41. The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin: An Autobiography. 42. Suite Francaise -- Irène Némirovsky. 43. Taking Stock of Our Republic — Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

She helped generations of women in India find a voice. She expanded the worldview of countless people. She confronted the horrors of our past and the fissures of our present. Urvashi Butalia joins Amit Varma in episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life and learnings. Also check out: 1.  Urvashi Butalia at Zubaan and Amazon. 2. The Other Side of Silence -- Urvashi Butalia. 3. Zubaan Books and Kali for Women. 4. Turning the Page for Feminism -- Nilanjana Roy on Urvashi Butalia. 5. Episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Mrinal Pande, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare, Shrayana Bhattacharya, Mukulika Banerjee, Manjima Bhattacharjya and Nilanjana Roy. 6. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 8. Tales from the Kathasaritsagara -- Somadeva (translated by Arshia Sattar). 9. The Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account. 10. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Will to Change — Bell Hooks. 12. Men Must Step Up Now -- Amit Varma. 13. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow -- Washington Irving. 14. Mahadevi Varma and Sheila Bhatia. 15. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 17. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 18. The Verdict: Decoding India's Elections -- Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala. 19. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 20. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 21. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Abhinandan Sekhri). 22. Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on Status of Women in India (1974). 23. The Kavita Krishnan Files -- Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist -- Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Kamla Bhasin on Wikipedia. 26. Division of Hearts -- Satti Khanna and Peter Chappell. 27. Heer Ranjha. 28. Kumar Gandharva sings Nirgun Bhajans. 29. Reshma sings Bulle Shah. 30. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on Spotify. 31. Ek Onkar -- Harshdeep Kaur. 32. Chaudhvin Ka Chand -- Guru Dutt. 33. Pyaasa -- Guru Dutt. 34. A Question of Silence -- Marleen Gorris. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

He wrote about cricket for decades -- and also turned his piercing gaze on society and himself. Pradeep Magazine joins Amit Varma in episode 286 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and how it changed him. Also check out: 1. Pradeep Magazine on Twitter, Amazon and Hindustan Times. 2. Not Just Cricket: A Reporter's Journey through Modern India -- Pradeep Magazine. 3. Not Quite Cricket: The Xplosive Story of How Bookmakers Influence the Game Today -- Pradeep Magazine. 4. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 5. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 6. Some of Satyajit Ray's masterpieces: Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha, Agantuk and Ghare Bhaire. 7. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 8. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll. 9. Adam Smith and John Locke. 10. The Art of Cricket -- Donald Bradman. 11. Ray Robinson and Neville Cardus. 12. Rahul Bhattacharya, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan and Anand Vasu. 13. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket -- Bill Frindall. 14. Rashomon -- Akira Kurosawa. 15. Sourav Ganguly and the Politburo -- Amit Varma. 16. Opportunity, Choice and the IPL (2008) — Amit Varma. 17. The IPL is Here and Here Are Six Reasons to Celebrate It (2019) — Amit Varma. 18. The Sporting Spirit -- George Orwell. 19. War Minus The Shooting -- Mike Marquesee. 20. Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. 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! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

Our real heroes are often backstage. Montek Singh Ahluwalia joins Amit Varma in episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his learnings and the liberalisation of 1991. Also check out: 1. Backstage: The Story behind India’s High Growth Years -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 2. Breaking Through: A Memoir -- Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 3. The M Document -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia's legendary note from 1990. 4. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 5. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 6. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Principles of Economics -- Alfred Marshall. 8. Alexandre Dumas on Amazon. 9. Gurbani and Heer Ranjha. 10. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 12. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 13. The Cantillon Effect: Because of Inflation, We’re Financing the Financiers -- Jessica Schultz. 14. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 15. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama. 16. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama. 17. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama. 18. James Buchanan on Amazon. 19. Jawaharlal Nehru's speech about our "tryst with destiny." 20. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 21. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 22. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 23. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 24. The Beautiful Tree — James Tooley. 25. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 26. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 27. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 28. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 29. Narendra Modi Takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma 30. Minoo Masani, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Isaiah Berlin, John Hicks and Ian Little. 31. Spontaneous Order. 32. The Evolution of Everything -- Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 33. Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai on Amazon. 34. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 35. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 36.  The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mrinal Pande). 37. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 38. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 39. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 40. Managing Climate Change: A Strategy for India -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Utkarsh Patel. 41. Mahabharata. 42. Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio de Sica, Federico Fellini and Roman Polanski. 43. Amit Varma's tweet on velociraptors and turkeys. 44. The James Bond films. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

A lifetime spent reading, writing and reflecting teaches you a lot. Nilanjana Roy joins Amit Varma in episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about books, feminism, family, memory and the state of the world.  Also check out:1. Nilanjana Roy on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Financial Times, Business Standard and her own website. 2. The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading -- Nilanjana Roy. 3. The Wildings -- Nilanjana Roy. 4. The Hundred Names of Darkness -- Nilanjana Roy. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discuss reading and writing with Sara Rai, Amitava Kumar, VK Karthika, Sugata Srinivasaraju, Mrinal Pande, Sonia Faleiro, Vivek Tejuja, Samanth Subramanian, Annie Zaidi and Prem Panicker. 6.  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. 7. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 8. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 9. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 11. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 12. The Ranga-Billa Case. 13. Sarojini Naidu on Amazon. 14. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 15. The Mahatma and the Poet — The letters between Gandhi and Tagore, compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 16. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Margaret Mascarenhas on Amazon. 18. The Web We Have to Save -- Hossein Derakhshan. 19. The Country Without a Post Office -- Agha Shahid Ali. 20. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 21. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 22. The Silence of Scheherazade -- Defne Suman. 23. Silver -- Walter de la Mare. 24. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 25. George Saunders and Barack Obama on Amazon. 26. A life in 5,000 books -- Nilanjana Roy. 27. Surender Mohan Pathak, Ibne Safi and Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Amazon.  28. The Power Broker — Robert Caro. 29. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs. 30. JRR Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett on Amazon. 31. Forget reading Thomas Piketty. Try a bit of Terry Pratchett -- Robert Shrimsley. 32. Fifty Shades of Grey -- EL James. 33. Ankur Warikoo, Aanchal Malhotra, Manu Pillai and Ira Mukhoty on Amazon. 34. Mahashweta Devi and Naiyer Masud on Amazon. 35. The former homes of Hurree Babu and Putu the Cat. 36. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Om Namah Volume -- Amit Varma. 38. Salman's Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie's Substack newsletter. 39. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel. 40. The Hidden Life of Trees -- Peter Wohlleben. 41. An Immense World -- Ed Yong. 42. The Twitter thread by Sergej Sumlenny that Nilanjana mentioned. 43. The Inheritance of Loss -- Kiran Desai. 44. The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 45. Pather Panchali --  Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. 46. Gora -- Rabindranath Tagore. 47. William Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Geoffrey Chaucer and Krishna Sobti on Amazon. 48. The Cult of Authenticity -- Vikram Chandra. 49. Meenakshi Mukherjee: The Death of a Critic -- Nilanjana Roy. 50. Field Notes from a Waterborne Land: Bengal Beyond the Bhadralok -- Parimal Bhattacharya. 51. Patriots, Poets and Prisoners: Selections from Ramananda Chatterjee's The Modern Review, 1907-1947 -- Edited by Anikendra Sen, Devangshu Datta and Nilanjana Rao. 52. The City Inside -- Samit Basu. 53. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 54. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 55. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Manjula Padmanathan on Amazon. 57. The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy. 58. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Lawrence Alma-Tadema. 59. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Natalie Merchant. 60. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 62. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 63. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 64. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 65. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 66. The Kavita Krishnan Files — Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 67. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist -- Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 68. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Translated by Ranjit Hoskote. 69. Lal Ded's poem on wrestling with a tiger. 70. Anarchy is a likelier future for the west than tyranny -- Janan Ganesh. 71. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 72. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 73. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 74. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 75. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 76. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 77. Manohar Malgonkar, Mulk Raj Anand and Kamala Das on Amazon. 78. Kanthapura -- Raja Rao. 79. India’s Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 80. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 81. Alice Munro on Amazon. 82. The Bear Came Over the Mountain -- Amit Varma's favourite Alice Munro story. 83. The Median Voter Theorem. 84. The Ice Cream Vendors. 85. Mohammad Zubair’s Twitter thread on the Dharam Sansad. 86. The Will to Change -- Bell Hooks. 87. Paul Holdengraber, Maria Popova, Rana Safvi and Rabih Alameddine on Twitter. 88. The hounding of author Kate Clanchy has been a witch-hunt without mercy -- Sonia Sodha. 89. Democrats have stopped listening to America’s voters -- Edward Luce. 90. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck -- Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 91. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 92. GN Devy. 93. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 94. Alipura -- Gyan Chaturvedi (translated by Salil Yusufji). 95. Tomb of Sand -- Geetanjali Shree (translated by Daisy Rockwell). 96. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya -- Akshaya Mukul. 97. Ashapurna Devi, Agyeya, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chugtai, Qurratulain Hyder, Amrita Pritam and Girish Karnad on Amazon. 98. The Adventures of Dennis -- Viktor Dragunsky. 99. Toni Morrison on Amazon. 100. Haroun and the Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie. 101. The Penguin Book Of Indian Poets -- Edited by Jeet Thayil. 102. These My Words: The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry -- Edited by Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo. 103. The Autobiography of a Goddess -- Andal (translated by Priya Sarrukai Chabria and Ravi Shankar). 104. Ghachar Ghochar — Vivek Shanbhag (translated by Srinath Perur). 105. Amit Varma talks about Ghachar Ghochar in episode 13 of The Book Club on Storytel. 106. River of Fire -- Qurratulain Hyder. 107. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas -- Ursula K Le Guin. 108. The Left Hand of Darkness -- Ursula K Le Guin. 109. Mother of 1084 -- Mahashweta Devi. 110. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 111. The Collected Essays of AK Ramanujan -- Edited by Vinay Dharwadker. 112. The Collected Poems of AK Ramanujan. 113. Folktales From India -- Edited by AK Ramanujan. 114. The Interior Landscape: Classical Tamil Love Poems -- Edited and translated by AK Ramanujan. 115. The Essential Kabir -- Translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. 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! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

If leaders are to be judged by their actions, PV Narasimha Rao was our tallest leader. Vinay Sitapati joins Amit Varma in episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how Rao showed  conviction and political skill in going against the tides of the day to enable the 1991 reforms, which brought hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty Also check out: 1. Half-Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao Transformed India -- Vinay Sitapati. 2. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi -- Vinay Sitapati. 3. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 4. The Insider -- PV Narasimha Rao. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India -- Dhirendra Jha. 7. Ascetic Games and Ayodhya: A Dark Night. 8. How the BJP wins: Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine -- Prashant Jha. 9. The BJP’s Magic Formula -- Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 10. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 11. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 12. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 15. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Clash of Civilizations? (the article) -- Samuel Huntington. 17. The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order -- Samuel Huntington. 18. Cut the Clutter with Shekhar Gupta. 19. Headley And I -- S Hussain Zaidi and Rahul Bhatt. 20. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 21. Abhijit Bhaduri Breaks the Algorithm -- Episode 279 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 23. Amit Varma's tweet on winning the Asian Championships of Match Poker. 24. The Blue Bedspread -- Raj Kamal Jha. 25. The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda's Road to 9/11 -- Lawrence Wright. 26. Modi’s Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 27. India’s Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 28. The Alchemy of Finance -- George Soros. 29. Sturgeon's Law and Survivorship Bias. 30. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Libertarian -- Amit Varma. 31. Ancient India: Culture of Contradictions -- Upinder Singh. 32. Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History -- Romila Thapar. 33. Romila Thapar, DD Kosambi and Irfan Habib. 34. A Culture of Discrimination Or A Culture Of Emancipation? -- Aravindan Neelakandan on Romila Thapar. 35. The Wire -- David Simon etc. 36. Dekalog — Krzysztof Kieślowski. 37. The Fissures of Modern Hinduism -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivers the DD Kosambi Memorial Lecture. 38. Upinder Singh, Nayanjot Lahiri and Iravatham Mahadevan on Amazon. 39. The Power Broker -- Robert A Caro. 40. Robert A Caro on Amazon. 41. The World Is What It Is -- Patrick French. 42. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. 43. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 44. Sex tape: Andhra Governor N D Tiwari resigns. 45. Bad liver and a broken heart -- Sunil Murthy on Leela Naidu. 46. The Law of Truly Large Numbers. 47. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. 48. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln -- Doris Kearns Goodwin. 49. To the Brink and Back: India’s 1991 Story -- Jairam Ramesh. 50. Brideshead Revisited -- Evelyn Waugh. 51. Brideshead Revisited, the TV series. 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! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

He's been an academic who's studied the country, and a businessman who's created wealth and jobs. Now he wants to help India achieve its potential. Naushad Forbes joins Amit Varma in episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings -- and the roadmap that can help India lift its citizens. Also check out: 1. The Struggle And The Promise: Restoring India's Potential -- Naushad Forbes. 2. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. PG Wodehouse on Amazon. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 7. The Great Redistribution -- Amit Varma. 8. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 9. Tony Joseph's episode of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 11. Two-and-a-Half Bengalis Have an Economics Adda -- Episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswaro Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya). 12. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 13. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 14. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 15. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 16. The Beautiful Tree -- James Tooley. 17. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 18. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 19. Black Beauty -- Anne Sewell. 20. Enid Blyton and Gerald Durrell on Amazon. 21. Leave it to Psmith -- PG Wodehouse. 22. Survival In Auschwitz -- Primo Levi. 23. Homage to Catalonia -- George Orwell. 24. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 25. Marginal Revolution. 26. Econ Talk — Russ Roberts’s podcast. 27. Conversations With Tyler — Tyler Cowen’s podcast. 28. Deirdre McCloskey on Amazon. 29. Manmohan Singh's budget speech on July 24, 1991. 30. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch. 31. The oddest entry in Business Week's 2009 list of the 50 Most Powerful People in India. 32. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 33. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 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. James Buchanan on Amazon. 38. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Public Choice: A Primer — Eomonn Butler. 40. Wonder Woman, the God of War and Public Choice Economics -- Amit Varma and Kumar Anand. 41. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 43. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 44. Becoming Modern -- Alex Inkeles and David H Smith. 45. The Overton Window. 46. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty — Albert O Hirschman. 47. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha. 48. Wealth And Poverty Of Nations -- David S Landes. 49. The Uncommon Reader -- Alan Bennett. 50. On Liberty -- John Stuart Mill. 51. Patriots and Partisans -- Ramachandra Guha. 52. Democrats and Dissenters -- Ramachandra Guha. 53. 1984 -- George Orwell. 54. The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph -- Albert O Hirschman. 55. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin on Spotify. 56. Brahms: Second Piano Concerto in B Flat. 57. Beethoven: The Piano Concertos. 58. Beethoven: Symphonies 1 to 9. 59. Schubert: Impromptus. 60. The Philadelphia Story -- George Cukor. 61. Casablanca -- Michael Curtiz. Check out Amit’s online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

He grew up in Cairo, spent many years writing on the Middle East, saw the Arab Spring coming, and was bureau chief of the Economist in South Asia. Max Rodenbeck joins Amit Varma in episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his experiences in journalism, the lessons he learnt in India, and the troubling ways in which it resembles Egypt. Also check out: 1. Max Rodenbeck on Twitter, The New York Review of Books and Wikipedia. 2. Cairo: The City Victorious -- Max Rodenbeck. 3. Selected stories on India by the Economist: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 4. The Power of Arabic -- Max Rodenbeck. 5. The Father of Violent Islamism -- Max Rodenbeck. 6. How She Wants to Modify Muslims -- Max Rodenbeck. 7. Bin Laden’s Death: Why the Arab World Shrugs -- Max Rodenbeck. 8. The Long Wait -- Max Rodenbeck. 9. Max Rodenbeck interviewed on What I Did Next. 10. Top Gun -- Tony Scott. 11. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 12. Once Upon a Time in the West -- Sergio Leone. 13. Creature Features. 14. Godzilla and Creature From the Black Lagoon. 15. Agatha Christie on Amazon. 16. Tintin on Amazon. 17. Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. 18. Enid Blyton on Amazon. 19. The Golden Age of Murder -- Martin Edwards. 20. $41,754,153! -- Brandon Sanderson. 21. Brandon Sanderson's record-breaking Kickstarter campaign ends with $41.7 million -- K Holt. 22. Brandon Sanderson on Amazon and YouTube. 23. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 24. Gell-Mann Amnesia. 25. A Nile Journal -- Thomas Gold Appleton. 26. Lawrence Wright on Amazon. 27. Roam Research — and Zettelkasten. 28. US-Bangladesh blogger Avijit Roy hacked to death -- BBC. 29. Inside Bangladesh’s killing fields: bloggers and outsiders targeted by fanatics -- Emma Graham-Harrison and Saad Hammadi. 30. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 31. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 32. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee -- Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee.) 33. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 34. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 35. Nehru’s Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 36. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 37. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 38. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 39. The Generation of Rage in Kashmir — David Devadas. 40. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 41. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 42. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 43. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 44. Njáls saga. 45. Honoré de Balzac on Amazon. 46. The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee -- Honoré de Balzac. 47. Michael Pollan on how coffee enabled the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. 48. The Lives of Others -- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. 49. Yol -- Şerif Gören and Yılmaz Güney. 50. Baden Powell on Spotify. 51. Le Bureau. 52. The Anchoring Effect. 53. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. This episode is sponsored by Paradigm Shift, a new podcast by Microsoft India, produced by ATS Studios and hosted by Harsha Bhogle..Listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or any podcast app of your choice. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.