The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

How did one of the greatest nonviolent movements in history emerge from within the supposedly violent Pathans of the wild frontier? Why do poor people in India vote even though there seems to be no point to it? Why does an ancient garment like the sari endure -- but democracy seem in peril? Mukulika Banerjee joins Amit Varma in episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the questions that kept her up at night -- and the lessons they hold for us. Also check out:1. Mukulika Banerjee at LSE, Google Scholar, Amazon and Twitter. 2. The Pathan Unarmed -- Mukulika Banerjee. 3. Why India Votes -- Mukulika Banerjee. 4. Cultivating Democracy -- Mukulika Banerjee. 5. The Sari -- Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller. 6. Muslim Portraits: Everyday Lives in India -- Edited by Mukulika Banerjee. 7. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Thomas Hardy on Amazon. 9. Maxim Gorky, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov on Amazon. 10. The Proposal -- Anton Chekhov. 11. Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew on Amazon. 12. The House of the Dead -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 13. An American Werewolf in London -- John Landis. 14. The Emergency: A Personal History -- Coomi Kapoor. 15. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 16. India’s Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 17. The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett. 18. Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Faith Is A Battle -- DG Tendulkar. 19. Kabuliwala -- Rabindranath Tagore. 20. Kabuliwala (1961 film) -- Hemen Gupta. 21. 'That Killed Cat Lives With Me' -- Isaac Asimov's quote. 22. The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock -- TS Eliot. 23. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 25. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 26. 'Tell a Sanghi/Bhakt at a job interview...' -- SirKazamJeevi's tweet. 27. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 49 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 28. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 29. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 30. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 31. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Modeling Covid-19 -- Episode 224 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gautam Menon). 33. Can the Subaltern Speak? -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. 34. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 35. Nehru’s Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 36. Mahanagar -- Satyajit Ray. 37. Everybody Lies -- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 38. The Truth About Ourselves -- Amit Varma. 39. Electoral Politics in the Time of Change -- Yogendra Yadav 40. The Economics of Voting -- Amit Varma on Rational Ignorance. 41. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking -- Amit Varma on Lal Bihari Mritak. 42. Well Done, Abba -- Shyam Benegal. 43. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 44. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 45. Women in Rajniti and Lokniti -- Mukulika Banerjee (Go to page 19 to read). 46. Nick Hornby on Amazon. 47. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 48. Collective Effervescence on Wikipedia. 49. The Manchester School of Anthropology. 50. Desert Island Discs on BBC. 51. Deshe Bideshe (Bengali) (English) -- Syed Mujtaba Ali. 52. Uday Bhawalkar performs Raag Bhairav. 53. Dhrupad by Ustad Mohiuddin Dagar. 54. Songs of the Earth -- Soumik Datta. 55. Messengers -- Soumik Datta. 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! Illustration by Khyati Pathak.

We live in times when all Indian Muslims are forced to be aware of their Muslimness. Hussain Haidry joins Amit Varma in episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his art and these difficult times we live in. Also check out: 1. Hussain Haidry on Twitter, Instagram and IMDb. 2. Hindustani Musalmaan -- Hussain Haidry. 3. Lat -- Hussain Haidry. 4. 10 Poems recommended by Hussain Haidry -- Chalchitra Talks. 5. Being Muslim in India -- Episode 216 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ghazala Wahab). 6. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 7. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 8. Nida Fazli and Dushyant Kumar at Rekhta. 9. Maximum City -- Suketu Mehta. 10. Shantaram -- Gregory David Roberts. 11. A Fine Balance -- Rohinton Mistry. 12. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 13. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 14. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 15. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 16. Private Truths, Public Lies -- Timur Kuran. 17. Muslim Portraits: Everyday Lives in India -- Edited by Mukulika Banerjee. 18. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s Father’s Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen (w RSJ). 19. Mohammad Zubair's Twitter thread on the Dharam Sansad. 20. Malevolent Republic -- Kapil Komireddi. 21. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 23. Arvind Kejriwal's tweet after the abrogation of Article 370. 24. The tweets by Atishi Marlena and Raghav Chadha. 25. Sangham Sharanam Gachchami -- Vijai Trivedi. 26. Ranga Hari on Amazon. 27. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 28. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma. 29. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 30. Hussain Haidry's Twitter thread on blocking. 31. Alishan Jafri on Twitter. 32. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Aadha Gaon -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 34. Chai Coffee -- Hussain Haidry. 35. You're Missing -- Bruce Springsteen. 36. Hussain Haidry interviewed by Ravish Kumar. 37. Imtiaz Dharker on Amazon. 38. Dugg Duggi Dugg -- Song from Jugni. Lyrics by Shellee, music by Clinton Cerejo. 39. Qarib Qarib Singlle on Spotify. 40. Tanha Begum -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rochak Kohli. 41. Mukkabaaz on Spotify. 42. Haathapai -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 43. Blond Balma -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 44. Tu Kahaan Hai -- Song from Tripling. Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Nilotpal Bora. 45. Patang -- Song from Tripling. Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Nilotpal Bora. 46. Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Vishal Dadlani. 47. Bandar Baant -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Bandish Projekt. 48. Bahut Hua Samman -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 49. Ankahi Kahaniya -- Amnibus film that includes Madhyantara, with a screenplay by Hussain Haidry, and directed by Abhishek Chaubey. 50. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie -- Luis Buñuel. 51. Laakhon Mein Ek, Season 2 -- Written by Hussain Haidry. 52. लोहे के स्वाद -- Hussain Haidry. 53. Talkhiyan -- Sahir Ludhianvi. 54. Sahir Ludhianvi, Nida Fazli, Ahmad Faraz, Jaun Eliya, Rahat Indori, Waseem Barelvi, Munawwar Rana, Abbas Tabish, Rehman Faris, Azhar Faragh, Ameer Imam, Naeem Sarmad, Nomaan Shauque, Ali Zaryoun, Tehzeeb Hafi and Umair Najmi on Rekhta. 55. Fahrenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury. 56. Rangeela -- Ram Gopal Varma. 57. Ghulam -- Vikram Bhatt 58. On the Waterfront -- Elia Kazan. 59. Get Out -- Jordan Peele. 60. Fandry -- Nagraj Manjule. 61. Where is the Friend's Home? -- Abbas Kiarostami. 62. Soiyega Mat - Hussain Haidry. This episode is sponsored by The Desi Crime Podcast. You’ll find them on all podcast apps. The illustration for this episode is one-off offering by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram, Substack and episode 260 of The Seen and the Unseen. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

India is in bad shape. Bad economics is one reason why. Economists Rajeswari Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya join Amit Varma in episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen to take stock of the mess. You don't like dissent? Too bad. We're Bongs, and you cannot shut us up. Also check out: 1. Shrayana Bhattacharya on Twitter, Instagram and Google Scholar. 2. Rajeswari Sengupta on Google Scholar and her own site. 3. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 4. Twelve Dream Reforms -- Episode 138 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan, Rajeswari Sengupta & Vivek Kaul). 5. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 6. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh -- Shrayana Bhattacharya. 7. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 8. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 9. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 10. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 11. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 12. The State of Our Economy (Nov 2021) -- Episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand.) 13. Taking Stock of Our Economy (May 2021) — Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik). 14. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) — Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand). 15. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 16. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 17. Everything That Was Broken -- Mary Oliver (from Felicity). 18. I Boiled My Buttocks for a Week -- Amit Varma on how we normalize everything. 19. Dekalog -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 20. What the Economy Needs Now -- Various authors. 21. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 22. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain and Deepak Shenoy. 23. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 24. Our Parliament and Our Democracy -- Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 25. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 26. Emergent Ventures. 27. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 28. On Inequality -- Harry Frankfurt. 29. We Must Save Our Farmers — Amit Varma. 30. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 31. Intent to Implementation : Tracking India's Social Protection Response to COVID-19 -- Shrayana Bhattacharya and Sutirtha Sinha Roy. 32. On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. 33. Modi’s Lost Opportunity — Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 34. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 35. What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been — Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian). 36. The Median Voter Theorem. 37. The 'bloated and grotesque' tweet by @mrjohndarby. 38. ASER, CMIE and SWAN. 39. The Billion Prices Project. 40. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. In Bollywood, women get screen time but very little talk time -- Mohua Das. 42. A Woman, Thinking -- Paromita Vohra. 43. Lost in the Shallows -- Amit Varma on Dear Zindagi. 44. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Mrinal Pande’s pieces for Pragati on women in Indian agriculture: 1, 2. 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!

He's that Blackstratblues guy. He's done rock, blues, sessions work for Bollywood, and you can't put him in a box. Indie music legend Warren Mendonsa joins Amit Varma and guest co-host Chuck Gopal in episode 273 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his career, how he only aims to make music that makes him happy, and the common thread that binds us all. Also check out: 1. Warren Mendonsa on Instagram and Twitter. 2. Blackstratblues music and community. Also, on YouTube and Spotify. 3. Anuva's Sky and Ode to a Sunny Day. 4. The therapy that is Blackstratblues -- Deepak 'Chuck' Gopalakrishnan. 5. Warren interviewed by Chuck and Varad Wategaonkar: Part 1 & Part 2. 6. Warren Mendonsa: The Universe Has The Blues -- Interview by Michael Limnios. 7. 2018 interview of Warren by EveryoneLovesGuitar. 8. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Ted Gioia on Music as Cultural Cloud Storage -- Episode 79 of Conversations With Tyler. 10. The Great Man Theory. 11. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 12. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 13. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 14. What is Internet? -- Bill Gates on the David Letterman Show. 15. Why Old Music is Killing New Music -- Rick Beato. 16. The viral TikTok video  by doggface208 featuring Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams.' 17. The Volkswagen commercial featuring Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon.' 18. The Time a Stiff Caught Fire -- Keith Yates on Billy Joel. 19. PSP 12" -- Zero. 20. Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale. 21. Derek Trucks talks guitar and plays incredible slide. 22. Turbo Killer -- Carpenter Brut. 23. Afrique Victime -- Mdou Moctar. 24. Tinariwen on Spotify. 25. Dungen on Spotify. 26. The Dungen albums, Ta Det Lugnt and 4, with the song Mina Damer Och Fasaner. 27. Josh Fix on Spotify. 28. This Town Is Making Me Angry -- Josh Fix. 29. The Formula Behind Every Perfect Pop Song -- Seeker. 30. Why We Choke -- Amit Varma (on the Yips). 31. This is Your Brain on Music -- Daniel Levitin. 32. Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality -- TED Talk by Anil Seth. 33. What Colour Is Your Raindrop -- Tajdar Junaid. 34. Dastaan -- Tajdar Junaid. 35. 10 Things I Wish I Knew when I started playing Guitar -- Warren Mendonsa. 36. This Is Spinal Tap -- Rob Reiner. 37. Monty Python's Life of Brian. 38. Masala Lab on Instagram. 39. Krish Ashok on Spotify and Apple Music. 40. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 41. Bill McClintock on YouTube. 42. Derek Trucks and Michael Landau on Spotify. 43. Nadia - Nitin Sawhney with Jeff Beck live. 44. Where Were You? -- Jeff Beck. 45. Arinjoy Sarkar and Rudi Wallang on YouTube. 46. Achint on Instagram and YouTube. 47. Tejas, Komorebi, Rohan Rajadhyaksha and Sandunes. Also, do check out Chuck Gopal's specially curated playlist of Indian rock and metal for listeners of The Seen and the Unseen. (Here's a YouTube version.) This episode is sponsored by The Desi Crime Podcast. You'll find them on all podcast apps. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

Our freedom fighters didn't just fight the British. They also grappled with each other in the marketplace of ideas and actions. Shruti Kapila joins Amit Varma in episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe how so many of our founders were also innovative political philosophers -- and how we still fight their battles today. Also check out: 1. Shruti Kapila at Cambridge, The Print and Twitter. 2. Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age -- Shruti Kapila. 3. An Intellectual History for India -- Edited by Shruti Kapila. 4. Political Thought in Action: The Bhagavad Gita and Modern India -- Edited by Shruti Kapila and Faisal Devji. 5. The Death and Life of Great American Cities -- Jane Jacobs. 6. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 7. Nehru’s Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 8. Tryst With Destiny (Text) (Video) -- Jawaharlal Nehru's speech at Independence. 9. Jawaharlal Nehru on Amazon. 10. Carl Schmitt on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 11. Junoon (1978) on IMDb and Wikipedia. 12. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 13. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 14. Hindutva -- VD Savarkar. 15. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 16. Malevolent Republic — Kapil Komireddi. 17. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 18. The Multitudes of Our Maharajahs -- Episode 244 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 19. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 20. Sigmund Freud on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 21. An Anthropologist Among Historians -- Bernard S Cohn. 22. The Birth of the Modern World -- CA Bayly. 23. CA Bayly on Amazon. 24. Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar on Amazon. 25. Hilary Mantel on Amazon. 26. Song of Myself, 51 -- Walt Whitman. 27. Indian Unrest -- Valentine Chirol. 28. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 29. Shrimad Bhagwad Gita Rahasya -- Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 30. The Indian War of Independence, 1857 -- Veer Savarkar. 31. Hind Swaraj -- Mahatma Gandhi. 32. Meatless Days -- Sara Suleri. 33. Rohinton Mistry and Salman Rushdie on Amazon. 34. Aguirre, the Wrath of God -- Werner Herzog. 35. Masaan -- Neeraj Ghaywan. 36. Khayal Gatha -- Kumar Shahani. 37. Mirzapur on Prime Video. 38. Paatal Lok on Prime Video. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

Deepak Shenoy wants to ask Amit Varma about the creator economy. Amit wants to talk to Deepak about finance and his new book. Episode 271 of The Seen and the Unseen is a crossover episode with the Capital Mind Podcast in which Amit and Deepak get a jugalbandi going. Also check out: 1. Deepak Shenoy on LinkedIn and Twitter. 2. Money Wise: Timeless Lessons on Building Wealth -- Deepak Shenoy. 3. Capitalmind, Deepak Shenoy’s investment research and wealth management company. 4. The Capitalmind Podcast and YouTube channel. 5. Lessons in Investing (and Life) -- Episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Deepak Shenoy). 6. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal and Nishant Jain. 8. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- James Thurber. 9. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne (on Wikipedia and YouTube). 10. The Truman Show -- Peter Weir. 11. Losing My Religion -- REM. 12. With or Without You -- U2. 13. Conversation and Society -- Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 14. Econ Talk (by Russ Roberts) and Conversations with Tyler (by Tyler Cowen). 15. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prem Panicker). 16. The Connell Guide to How to Write Well -- Tim de Lisle. 17. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 20. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll. 21. When Harry Met Sally -- Rob Reiner. 22. Dil Dhoondhta Hai Phir Wohi Fursat Ke Raat Din -- Bhupinder Singh. 23. Dave Barry on Amazon. 24. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years -- Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 25. Gurpriya Sidhu's tweet thread on sitting alone at cafes. 26. Self-Esteem (and a Puddle) -- Amit Varma's post with Douglas Adams's puddle quote. 27. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus -- John Gray. 29. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 30. $800,000 to Zero - The FASCINATING History of DaVinci Resolve -- Alex Jordan of Learn Color Grading. 31. Casey Neistat and MrBeast on YouTube. 32. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 33. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 34. Sinocism -- Bill BIshop's Newsletter. 35. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 36. Blueprint for Armageddon -- Episode 50-55 of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. 37. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok. 39. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel. 40. AR Rahman on Spotify. 41. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 42. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health -- Amit Varma. 43. Dave Chappelle on Netflix. 44. Ideas of India -- Shruti Rajagopalan's podcast. 45. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 46. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 47. Dunbar's Number. 48. Poker and Stock Markets -- Episode 47 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand). 49. So it’s now 20,000, is it a big deal? -- Deepak Shenoy's famous ghazals post from 2007. 50. Hoshwalon Ko Khabar Kya -- Jagjit Singh, from Sarfarosh. 51. Tum Ko Dekha Toh Ye Khayal Aaya -- Jagjit Singh, from Saath Saath. 52. La Pila De Sharab Ai Saqi -- Jagjit Singh. 53. How I Made $4,790,000 in 2021 -- Ali Abdaal. 54. The Power of Imagination — Mohammed Salim Khan. 55. Don't Get Fooled By Success (2005) -- Amit Varma. 56. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. Zerodha Varsity. 58. The Motley Fool. 59. The YouTube Channels of Rachana Ranade and Ishmohit Arora. 60. Stock Market For Beginners (Hindi) -- Pranjal Kamra. 61. Everything You Need to Know About Finance and Investing in Under an Hour -- William Ackman. 62. Liar's Poker -- Michael Lewis. 63. Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist -- Roger Lowenstein. 64. When Genius Failed -- Roger Lowenstein. 65. Peter Lynch on Amazon. 66. Market Wizards & The New Market Wizards by Jack D Schwager. 67. The Complete TurtleTrader: How 23 Novice Investors Became Overnight Millionaires -- Michael W Covel. 68. Invest Like the Best — Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s podcast. 69. Books we Like: On Investing, Trading & More — The Capitalmind team. 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!

Things are bad -- so bad that he's written two books about it. Aakar Patel joins Amit Varma in episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss politics, the media and his reasons for being hopeful in spite of all the doom and gloom. Also check out: 1. Aakar Patel on Twitter, Amazon, Deccan Chronicle, Business Standard and the Times of India. 2. Our Hindu Rashtra: What It Is. How We Got Here -- Aakar Patel. 3. Price of the Modi Years -- Aakar Patel. 4. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 5. The Tank Man video. (And the Wikipedia page.) 6. August Landmesser, who may have been the man who didn't salute. 7. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Amit Varma's Twitter thread on Westland shutting down. 9. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty -- Albert O. Hirschman. 10. Selected episode of The Seen and the Unseen on the economy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 11. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 12. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 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. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 16. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma on Demonetisation. 17. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 18. India's Undeclared Emergency -- Arvind Narrain. 19. The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State — Josy Joseph. 20. India’s Security State -- Episode 242 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Josy Joseph). 21. Colours of the Cage: A Prison Memoir -- Arun Ferreira. 22. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 23. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 24. Integral Humanism -- Deendayal Upadhyaya. 25. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind -- Gustave le Bon. 26. Crowds and Power -- Elias Canetti. 27. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 29. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 30. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century -- Francis Fukuyama. 31. The Origins of Political Order -- Francis Fukuyama. 32. Political Order and Political Decay -- Francis Fukuyama. 33. The Great Man Theory of History. 34. Modi’s Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 35. My Country, My Life -- LK Advani. 36. Modi’s Lost Opportunity -- Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 37. A Rude Life — Vir Sanghvi. 38. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati. 40. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 41. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 42. Excerpts from Narendra Modi's interview by Madhu Kishwar. 43. Obituary of a Culture -- Ashis Nandy. 44. The Second Coming — William Butler Yeats. 45. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 46. Joy Das's tweet thread about Indian Muslims being called Pakistanis. 47. Television Price Controls -- Episode 27 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashok Malik). 48. Fighting Fake News -- Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 49. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Aakar Patel's tweet on protests as a craft. 51. Here Comes The Groom: A Conservative Case for Gay Marriage -- Andrew Sullivan. 52. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 53. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Kumar Gandharva on Spotify. 54. The Histories -- Herodotus. 55. Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Julius Caesar on Amazon. 56. Baburnama: A Memoir -- Babur. 57. The Life of the Bee -- Maurice Maeterlinck. 58. Edward O Wilson on Amazon. 59. NASASpaceflight on YouTube. 60. Ludwig van Beethoven on Spotify. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

A lifetime in diplomacy gave Nirupama Rao an inside view of the making of the first draft of history. She joins Amit Varma in episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her life lessons -- and what still keeps her buzzing every day. Also check out: 1. Nirupama Rao on Twitter, Substack, Instagram and her own website. Her bio and work are here. 2. The Fractured Himalaya -- Nirupama Rao. 3. A Life in Diplomacy -- Nirupama Rao's talk at Claremont McKenna College. 4. Selected episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on China: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5. Selected episode of The Seen and the Unseen on Foreign Policy: 1, 2. 6. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. The Glass Cliff. 10. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting -- Episode 31 of Brave New World (hosted by Vasant Dhar). 11. The Confidence Gap — Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. 12. Democracy in Pakistan — Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Hamsini Hariharan.) 13. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 14. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 15. Nehru’s Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (with Tripurdaman Singh & Adeel Hussain.) 16. Talking South Asia: Can Identity Be Crafted Through the Medium of Music? -- A conversation between Nirupama Rao and Ali Sethi. 17. The Tirukkural -- Tiruvalluvar. 18. Collected Poems -- AK Ramanujan. 19. I Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer -- Joan Baez. 20. Joan Baez, Maria Callas, Renée Fleming and Marian Anderson on Spotify. 21. The Collected Tintin. 22. Ekla Chalo Re. 23. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 24. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. In Praise of Shadows -- Junichiro Tanizaki. 26. Some Prefer Nettles -- Junichiro Tanizaki. 27. The Book of Tea -- Kakuzo Okakura. 28. MS Subbulakshmi on Spotify. 29. The Country without a Post Office -- Agha Shahid Ali. 30. The Lark Ascending -- Vaughan Williams. 31. Norma -- Vincenzo Bellini. 32. Casta Diva -- Maria Callas. 33. Connais-Tu Le Pays -- Ambroise Thomas. 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!

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not just a seminal moment in world history, but a teachable one. Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai join Amit Varma in episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss concepts and frameworks of foreign policy that can help us make sense of this turmoil. If this subject interests you, consider signing up for Takashshila's GCPP: Defence & Foreign Affairs course. Registration is open for the May Cohort. Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 2. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 3. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 4. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Hamsini Hariharan.) 5. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6. Understanding Foreign Policy — Episode 63 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai). 7. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane’s newsletter (with RSJ). 8. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane’s podcast (with Saurabh Chandra). 9. Selected episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on China: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 10. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The End of History? -- Francis Fukuyama's essay. 13. The End of History and the Last Man -- Francis Fukuyama's book. 14. The Great Man Theory of History. 15. Russia's War on Ukraine: A Roundtable -- Bari Weiss speaks to Niall Ferguson, Walter Russell Mead and Francis Fukuyama. 16. Around the halls: Implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine -- Brookings roundup of expert views, including from Marvin Kalb. 17. Modi’s Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 18. The Median Voter Theorem. 19. Social Theory of International Politics -- Alexander Wendt on constructivism in international relations. 20. Hindutva -- VD Savarkar. 21. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel, discussing Hindutva among other things). 22. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 23. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 24. Whole Numbers and Half Truths — Rukmini S. 25. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 26. Why I am a Hindu -- Shashi Tharoor. 27. The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of A Nation -- Granville Austin. 28. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 29. Three Conundrums -- Anticipating the Unintended  #159 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 30. Through The Looking Glass --  Anticipating the Unintended  #160 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 31. No man is an island entire of itself... --  Anticipating the Unintended  #161 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 32. The Overton Window. 33. India's Strategies for a New World Order -- Anirudh Kanisetti, Anupam Manur, Pranay Kotasthane and Akshay Alladi. 34. The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence -- Daniel Drezner, Henry Farrell and Abraham L Newman. 35. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 36. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. The Idiot -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 38. 'Stop the war.' 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin -- Sam Copeland. 39. Alexander Grischuk's emotional press conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Watch from 4:20.) 40. Power and International Relations -- David A Baldwin. 41. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers -- Paul M Kennedy. 42. The Power of Nations: Measuring What Matters -- Michael Beckley. 43. The game theory concept of Chicken. 44. India in the Nuclear Age -- Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 45. National Power After AI -- Matthew Daniels and Ben Chang. 46. Why liberal democracies have a distinct edge on cyber capability -- Nitin Pai. 47. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh.) 48. Can Democracy Survive in the Information Age? --  Eric Rosenbach and Katherine Mansted on the Authoritarian Information Paradox. 49. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 50. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek.) 51. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas -- Natasha Dow Schüll. 52. Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Checking, Scrolling, Clicking and Watching -- Adam Alter. 53. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks -- Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. 54. The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium -- Martin Gurri. 55. Social media are turbocharging the export of America’s political culture -- The Economist. 56. America in South Asia -- Episode 93 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 57. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War -- Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 58. The India-Pakistan Conflict -- Episode 111 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 59. Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy -- Richard Hanania. 60. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. The Lessons of History -- Will and Ariel Durant. 62. Fallout of the Ukraine-Russia Conflict + -- A constantly evolving note by the Takshashila Institution. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

Indian mainstream media tends to see our country with the gaze of a privileged North Indian man. That is changing. Dhanya Rajendran joins Amit Varma in episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her journey in setting up The News Minute, and in deepening our journalism and the conversations we have. Also check out: 1. Dhanya Rajendran on Twitter, Instagram and The News Minute. 2. Support The News Minute. 3. Cut the Clutter. 4. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The death of Savita Halappanavar. 6. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 7. Some regional publications: Newsmeter, The Cue and Truecopythink. 8. 7 Indians are hostages in a conflict between Houthi rebels and Saudi coalition in Yemen -- Sanyukta Dharmadhikari. 9. The Story of an Income Tax Search -- Dhanya Rajendran on Instagram. 10. TV Newsance -- Manisha Pande -- YouTube Playlist. 11. 10,000 people charged with sedition in one Jharkhand district -- Supriya Sharma for Scroll. 12. Manju and the Mommy Wars: Why should women conform to 'ideal mother' stereotype? -- Sowmya Rajendran. 13. Superforecasting -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 14. The Mallu Analyst on YouTube. 15. Get Roast with Gaya3 on YouTube. 16. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 17. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma on Demonetisation. 18. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Tweets on the Bharat Biotech court case by Siddharth Varadarajan and Dhanya Rajendran. (See who got trolled more!) 20. Does India take its national symbols too seriously? — Jan 2008 episode of We the People. 21. Our Hindu Rashtra -- Aakar Patel. 22. Price of the Modi Years -- Aakar Patel. 23. Whole Numbers and Half Truths -- Rukmini S. 24. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 25. Malare -- Song from Premam. 26. Missing: Half the Story: Journalism as if Gender Matters -- Kalpana Sharma and others. 27. The Anatomy of Hate -- Revati Laul. 28. The Seasons of Trouble -- Rohini Mohan. 29. Notting Hill. 30. And once again, support The News Minute! 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!