The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

You can learn life lessons by actually living life -- or you can take a short cut and learn them from those who have done the living for you. Prakash Iyer joins Amit Varma in episode 240 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his journey rising to the top of the corporate world, and then sharing the lessons he learnt. Also check out: 1. Prakash Iyer on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon and his own website. 2. How Come No One Told Me That? -- Prakash Iyer. 3. Some talks on YouTube by Prakash Iyer: 1, 2, 3, 4. 4. Luck is All Around -- Amit Varma. 5. The Answer is 42 -- Amit Varma. 6. The Numbers Game -- Amit Varma. 7. Poker at Lake Wobegon -- Amit Varma. 8. Range Rover -- The Archives of Amit Varma's poker column for Economic Times. 9. Air India Express ousts 'Sir' from cockpit, brings in 'Captain.' 10. Defending the Indefensible -- Episode 55 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Yazad Jal). 11. Where Are the Jobs? -- Episode 87 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Yazad Jal). 12. Metrics of Empowerment -- Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan). 13. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 14. Men Must Step Up Now -- Amit Varma. 15. Ranveer Brar's YouTube channel. 16. Brian Tracy on Amazon, YouTube and his own website. 17. Roshan Abbas and the Creator Economy -- Episode 239 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. How I Gained 1 MILLION Subscribers — Ali Abdaal. 19. My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers — Ali Abdaal. 20. Art & Fear -- David Bayles and Ted Orland. 21. Georges Simenon on Amazon. 22. Malcolm Gladwell on Amazon. 23. Dan Ariely on Amazon. 24. Fraudulent data raise questions about superstar honesty researcher. 25. Behram Contractor (aka Busybee) on Amazon. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

If you're a creative person, there is no better time to be alive. Roshan Abbas joins Amit Varma in episode 239 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his remarkable journey as a creator -- and to explain why the best is yet to come. Also check out: 1. Roshan Abbas on Twitter, Instagram and his own homepage. 2. Kommune on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 3. Speechless: What would you say if your life depended on it? A Pocket-Guide to Public Speaking -- Roshan Abbas and Siddharth Banerjee. 4. Always Kabhi Kabhi, directed by Roshan Abbas, on ErosNow, JioCinema, Amazon (DVD) and Amazon Prime (outside India).  5. A Road Less Travelled -- Roshan Abbas's TedX talk. 6. Roshan Abbas interviewed by Vishal Gondal, Varun Duggirala and Cyrus Broacha. 7. Tom Peters on Amazon -- and VUCA in Wikipedia. 8. A Creator of the Floating World -- Episode 218 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Varun Duggirala). 9. Dreamy Dutch Coffee -- Prahniika Borkar | The Storytellers 10. Storytelling and Conversation -- Episode 197 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Neelesh Misra). 11. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 12. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 13. How I Gained 1 MILLION Subscribers -- Ali Abdaal. 14. My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers -- Ali Abdaal. 15. Amit Varma's session on podcasting for Chalchitra Talks with Varun Duggirala & others. 16. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Indian agriculture: 1, 2, 3, 4. 17. Osho Jain on Instagram, and Prateek Kuhad and Ankur Tiwari on YouTube. 18. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 19. Twitter and Tear Gas — Zeynep Tufekci. 20. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 21. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 23. Biology - A Functional Approach -- MBV Roberts. 24. Confluence of Cultures -- Saiyed Anwer Abbas. 25. Amit Varma on the Getting Meta podcast, hosted by Deepak Gopalakrishnan. 26. An Adman Reflects on Society & the Self -- Episode 199 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ambi Parameswaran). 27. Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything -- Elizabeth Gilbert. 28. The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity -- Julia Cameron. 29. All You Who Sleep Tonight -- Vikram Seth. 30. Everybody Hurts -- REM. 31. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen, in which Amit Varma talks about his own creator journey. This episode is 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.

Indian sport has never been healthier. Joy Bhattacharjya and Nandan Kamath join Amit Varma in episode 238 of The Seen and the Unseen to share their inside view on what has happened behind the scenes to bring us here. Also check out:1. GoSports Foundation. 2. Building Sports Ecosystems -- Episode 126 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Joy Bhattacharjya). 3. Go!: India's Sporting Transformation -- Edited by Nandan Kamath & Aparna Ravichandran. 4. Great sporting nations are built on collaborative efforts -- Nandan Kamath. 5. Some print interviews of Nandan Kamath, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6. Nandan Kamath on sports governance (YouTube talk). 7. 87.58 for 1.3 bn: Will Neeraj Chopra's javelin hurl spearhead a turn in India's Olympic medal-hauling capabilities? -- Joy Bhattacharjya. 8. Winning medals wasn’t always so serious, whisky-swilling shooters and café-stopping runners were once Olympians too -- Joy Bhattacharjya. 9. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan & Ajay Shah). 10. A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold -- Abhinav Bindra and Rohit Brijnath. 11. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game -- Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 12. The Tamilian gentleman who took on the world -- Amit Varma. 13. The Girl From Haryana -- Amit Varma. 14. Relative Age Effect (Wikipedia). 15. Outliers: The Story of Success -- Malcolm Gladwell. 16. The Psychological Impact of the Partition of India -- Edited by Sanjeev Jain and Alok Sarin. Do follow Joy Bhattacharjya and Nandan Kamath on Twitter. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

The liberalisation of 1991 lifted more than a quarter of a billion people in India out of poverty. And yet, we often don't recognise their importance, and have gone backwards in the last decade. Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah join Amit Varma in episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss what life was like before 1991, where we had gone wrong, what we put right and what remains to be done. Also check out: 1. The 1991 Project. 2. The quest for economic freedom in India -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 3. Ideas and Origins of the Planning Commission in India -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 4. The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah). 5. The Economics and Politics of Vaccines -- Episode 223 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 6. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 7. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3. 8. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah 9. 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. 10. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 11. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s Father’s Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley). 12. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s newsletter. 13. The Dark Side of the Moon -- Pink Floyd. 14. Wish You Were Here -- Pink Floyd. 15. Free to Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 16. The Road to Serfdom -- Friedrich Hayek. 17. The Fatal Conceit --  Friedrich Hayek. 18. The Clash of Economic Ideas -- Lawrence H White. 19. Pandit's Mind -- The 1951 Time magazine cover story on Jawaharlal Nehru. 20. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 21. An Autobiography -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 22. The Discovery of India -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 23. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 24. Profit = Philanthropy -- Amit Varma. 25. India Unbound -- Gurcharan Das. 26. India Transformed: 25 Years of Economic Reforms -- Edited by Rakesh Mohan. 27. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 28. Understanding Indian Healthcare -- Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).  29. Modi's Lost Opportunity -- Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 30. Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist — Bruce Yandle. 31. Pigs Don’t Fly: The Economic Way of Thinking about Politics — Russell Roberts. 32. Raees: An Empty Shell of a Gangster Film — Amit Varma. 33. The White Man's Burden -- William Easterly. 34. The Tyranny of Experts -- William Easterly. 35. Planners vs. Searchers in Foreign Aid -- William Easterly. 36. We, the People -- Nani Palikhiwala. 37. India’s Agriculture Crisis — Episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand). 38. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State -- Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 39. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 40. Narendra Modi Takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma 41. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 42. Restaurant Regulations in India -- Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon). 43. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 44. On Inequality -- Harry Frankfurt. 45. Breaking the Caste Barrier: Intergenerational Mobility in India -- Viktoria Hnatkovska, Amartya Lahiri and Sourabh B Paul. 46. Intergenerational Mobility in India: New Methods and Estimates Across Time, Space, and Communities -- Sam Asher, Paul Novosad and Charlie Rafkin. 47. Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs -- Devesh Kapur, D Shyam Babu and Chandra Bhan Prasad. 48. Taking Stock of Our Economy -- Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik). 49. India's Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 50. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's books on Amazon. This episode is 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.

The task of a journalist is to document the present moment. And there have been plenty of crazy present moments in India in the last 40 years. Vir Sanghvi joins Amit Varma in episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his insights on how our society, politics and media have been transformed over the course of his career. He also looks inwards. Also check out: 1. A Rude Life -- Vir Sanghvi. 2. Vir Sanghvi's books on Amazon. 3. Vir Sanghvi's homepage, Twitter and Instagram. 4. Travelling in the Time of Covid -- Vir Sanghvi. 5. Biryani Was Always Meant for the Masses and Not the Kings -- Vir Sanghvi. 6. Don’t Think Too Much of Yourself. You’re an Accident -- Amit Varma. 7. The Great Gatsby -- F Scott Fitzgerald. 8. Kanti Bajpai on India vs China -- Episode 234 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game — Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 10. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 11. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 12. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 13. Private Truths, Public Lies -- Timur Kuran. 14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 15. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 16. The Business of Books -- Episode 150 of The Seen and the Unseen (w VK Karthika). 17. Newsman's English -- Harold Evans. 18. Pictures on a Page -- Harold Evans. 19. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid -- Richard Purden. 20. Persuasion -- The newsletter founded by Yascha Mounk. 21. Conversation and Society -- Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 22. Econ Talk — Russ Roberts’s podcast. 23. Conversations With Tyler -- Tyler Cowen's podcast. 24. Making Sense -- Sam Harris's podcast. 25. Politics and the Sociopath -- Amit Varma. 26. Public Opinion -- Walter Lippmann. 27. On Bullshit -- Harry Frankfurt. 28. The Facts Do Not Matter -- Amit Varma. 29. Religion, Food, Indian Society -- Episode 207 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shoba Narayan). 30. The Saffron Trail -- Episode 222 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nandita Iyer). 31. Imaginary Number -- Vijay Seshadri. 32. Sacred Games -- Vikram Chandra. 33. The Powers That Be -- David Halberstam. 34. Ramachandra Guha's books on Amazon. 35. Imagining India -- Nandan Nilekani. 36. Rebooting India -- Nandan Nilekani. 37. An Era of Darkness -- Shashi Tharoor (also published outside India as Inglorious Empire). This episode is sponsored by MapMyGenome. Use the code UNSEEN to get 50% off on their groundbreaking product, Genomepatri. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Back in the 19th century, women were supposed to stay home and learn cooking and needlework -- but some dared to fight the odds and get an education. Some even became doctors. Kavitha Rao joins Amit Varma in episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her new book on six pioneering lady doctors. Also discussed: the craft of writing and storytelling, and the endless possibility for late bloomers. Also check out: 1. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine -- Kavitha Rao. 2. Kavitha Rao's other books on Amazon. 3. I grew up as an Indian expat in Iran, before the revolution -- Kavitha Rao. 4. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen -- Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 5. Crossing Thresholds -- Meera Kosambi. 6. A Fragmented Feminism -- Meera Kosambi. 7. The Art of Narrative Nonfiction -- Episode 183 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Samanth Subramanian). 8. Following Fish -- Samanth Subramanian. 9. A Dominant Character -- Samanth Subramanian. 10. Killers of the Flower Moon -- David Grann. 11. The Squid Hunter -- David Grann. 12. David Grann in the New Yorker. 13. Our Colorful Past -- Episode 127 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 14. Kerala and the Ivory Throne -- Episode 156 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 15. The Deccan Before Shivaji -- Episode 98 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 16. Manu Pillai's books on Amazon. 17. Women in Indian History -- Episode 144 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 18. Ira Mukhoty's books on Amazon. 19. Young India -- Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 20. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World -- Snigdha Poonam. 21. Bad Blood -- John Carreyrou. 22. 52.. 23. Collision -- Bhavya Dore. 24. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 25. Yentl -- Directed by Barbra Streisand (Wikipedia link). 26. The Gate of Angels -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 27. The Blue Flower -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 28. The Bookshop -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 29. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World, hosted by Vasant Dhar, featuring Jonathan Haidt. 30. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 31. Superior -- Angela Saini. 32. Modeling Covid-19 -- Episode 224 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gautam Menon). Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

What exactly is going on between India and China? When cooperation would lead to a win-win game, why is there conflict? Kanti Bajpai joins Amit Varma in episode 234 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his Four Ps framework for understanding this conflict. Also discussed: academia, public intellectuals, how one learns, and why writing and teaching make you a better thinker Also check out: 1. India Versus China : Why They Are Not Friends -- Kanti Bajpai. 2. Roots of Terrorism -- Kanti Bajpai. 3. Kanti Bajpai on Amazon. 4. The China Dude Is in the House -- Episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 5. The Dragon and the Elephant — Episode 181 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Hamsini Hariharan & Shibani Mehta). 6. What Does China Want? — Episode 143 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 7. Understanding Terrorism -- Amit Varma's 2007 review of Alan Krueger's What Makes a Terorrist.8. Soft Power: The Means To Success In World Politics -- Joseph Nye. 9. The Future of Power -- Joseph Nye. 10. Roam Research. 11. Why India and China Are Not Friends -- Kanti Bajpai on The Grand Tamasha podcast, hosted by Milan Vaishnav. 12. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game -- Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 13. The Hedgehog And The Fox -- Isaiah Berlin. 14. Kishore Mahbubani on Amazon. 15. Imagined Communities -- Benedict Anderson. 16. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 17. The Mahatma and the Poet — The Tagore-Gandhi debates. 18. From Heaven Lake -- Vikram Seth. 19. Finding India in China -- Anurag Viswanath. 20. Strangers across the Border -- Reshma Patil. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Public policy may seem like a dull subject fit only for wonks, but it matters: our lives are deeply affected by what our governments do. Pranay Kotasthane joins Amit Varma in episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen to chat about his intellectual journey, his private beach and why public policy can be so stimulating. He also answers racy questions from the Twitterverse. If you share Pranay's interest in public policy, you should check out Takshashila's Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (GCPP). Also check out: 1. Anticipating the Unintended -- Pranay Kotasthane's newsletter (with RSJ). 2. Puliyabaazi -- Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra). 3. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal -- Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 4. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 5. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 6. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s Father’s Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley). 7. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? -- Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma). 8. Amit Varma's tweet thread soliciting questions for this episode. 9. Examples of Pranay Kotasthane's Mind Maps of books: 1, 2, 3. 10. Coggle. 11. The Lessons of History -- Will Durant. 12. Raj Comics. 13. The China Dude Is in the House -- Episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 14. A Case For Societism -- Pranay Kotasthane. 15. Pranay Kotasthane's Manthan talk on societism. 16. The Indian Dream Podcast episode with Amit Varma. 17. 8 things to unlearn before learning public policy -- Pranay Kotasthane. 18. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment -- John Stossel. 19.  Opportunity Cost Neglect in Public Policy -- Emil Persson and Gustav Tinghög. 20. Whose Money is it Anyway? -- Amit Varma. 21. The 4 Ways to Spend Money -- Milton Friedman. 22. Discover Your Inner Economist -- Tyler Cowen. 23. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 24. The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah). 25. Amit Varma's prescient 2017 tweet on the price caps on stents. 26. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen on GST with Devangshu Datta, Vivek Kaul and Shruti Rajagopalan. 26. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 27. Narendra Modi Takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma 28. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Demonetisation with Suyash Rai and Shruti Rajagopalan. 29. The Delhi Smog -- Episode 44 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 30. Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist -- Bruce Yandle. 31. Pigs Don't Fly: The Economic Way of Thinking about Politics -- Russell Roberts. 32. Raees: An Empty Shell of a Gangster Film -- Amit Varma. 33. Shubhra Gupta's review about which Tapsee Pannu kicked up such a fuss. 34. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 35. Wilson's Interest Group Matrix -- Charles Cameron from The Political Analyst’s Toolkit. 36. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch. 37. The Great Redistribution -- Amit Varma. 38. Behave -- Robert Sapolsky. 39. Robert Sapolsky's lectures on YouTube. 40. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan & Alex Tabarrok). 41. Taxes Should Be Used for Governance, Not Politics -- Amit Varma. 42. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 43. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 44. The Emergency -- Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gyan Prakash). 45. How the BJP Wins -- Prashant Jha. 46. The BJP's Magic Formula -- Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 47. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 48. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ashwin Mahesh: 1, 2. 49. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 50. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 51. Governing the Commons -- Elinor Ostrom. 52. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 54. Education in India -- Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 55. The Economics and Politics of Vaccines -- Episode 223 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 56. The Indian Conservative -- Episode 145 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jaithirth Rao). 57. How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time -- Hal Varian. 58. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 59. Modeling Covid-19 -- Episode 224 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gautam Menon). 60. Narratives on Exchange Rates in India -- Pranay Kotasthane. 61. Taking Stock of Our Economy -- Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik). 62. The Power Broker -- Robert Caro. 63. The Death and Life of Great American Cities -- Jane Jacobs. 64. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma (on the importance of reading). 65. Selling Solutions vs Solving Problems -- Lant Pritchett. 66. Policy Paradox -- Deborah Stone. 67. The Mahatma and the Poet -- The Tagore-Gandhi debates. 68. Factfulness -- Hans Rosling. 69. Humankind: A Hopeful History -- Rutger Bregman. 70. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis -- Eugene Bardach. 71. Essence of Decision -- Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow. 72. Banishing Bureaucracy -- David Osborne. This episode is 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.

The problem with the past is that it's over. How can we enter distant history and understand what happened? Language is one way. Peggy Mohan joins Amit Varma in episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her insights on what the evolution of our languages reveals about how we got here.  Also check out: 1. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages -- Peggy Mohan. 2. Peggy Mohan's books on Amazon. 3. Amit Varma's Twitter thread on episodes of The Seen and the Unseen about India. 4. Early Indians -- Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 5. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 6. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 7. The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 8. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish) (English) -- Gabriel García Márquez. 9. Songs of Kabir -- Translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. 10. Essential Kabir -- Translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. 11. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Translated by Ranjit Hoskote. 12. On Language -- Noam Chomsky. 13. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language -- Steven Pinker. 14. The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor -- Translated by WM Thackston Jr. 15. Guns, Germs and Steel: Jared Diamond. 16. Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism -- Niles Eldredge & Steven Jay Gould. (Also, criticism of it.) 17. Genesis of Ṛgvedic Retroflexion -- Madhav Deshpande. 18. Linguistics, Style and Writing in the 21st Century -- A talk by Steven Pinker. 19. Hindi Nationalism -- Alok Rai. 20. A House Divided: Origin and Development of Hindi/Hindavi -- Amrit Rai. 21. Hindustani Musalmaan - Hussain Haidry. 22. Hum Kagaz Nahin Dikhayenge -- Varun Grover. 23. The Emperor of All Maladies -- Siddhartha Mukherjee. 24. The Song of the Dodo -- David Quammen. 25. The Tangled Tree -- David Quammen. 26. Spillover -- David Quammen. 27. Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by Wondrium. Check out their series, The Story of Human Language. For free unlimited access for 14 days, click here. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Bollywood lost him, journalism wasted him, and thank goodness for that. Manoj Kewalramani, the foreign policy analyst also known as The China Dude, joins Amit Varma in episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his brilliant new book on post-Covid China, Smokeless War. Also discussed: Lokhandwala Cafes and the art of building narratives. Also check out: 1. Smokeless War: China's Quest for Geopolitical Dominance -- Manoj Kewalramani. 2. Eye on China -- Manoj Kewalramani's newsletter. (+ older archives at Pragati.) 3. The Takshashila Institution. 4. What Does China Want? -- Episode 143 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 5. Chinese Foreign Policy -- Episode 81 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 6. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal -- Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 7. The Dragon and the Elephant -- Episode 181 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Hamsini Hariharan & Shibani Mehta). 8. Keeping India Safe -- Episode 219 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sushant Singh). 9. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 10. Profit = Philanthropy -- Amit Varma. 11. Under the Dome -- Documentary by Chai Jing. 12. The Invention of China -- Bill Hayton. 13. China's Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy -- Peter Martin. 14. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prem Panicker). 15. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 16. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma (on Mao, sparrows, great leaps etc). 17. Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice — David Galula. 18. We Won’t Need To Fight A War If We Can Win The Peace — Amit Varma. 19. Policy Paradox – The Art of Political Decision Making -- Deborah Stone. 20. Homeopathic Faith (2010) -- Amit Varma. 21. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 22. Where Anna Hazare Gets It Wrong -- Amit Varma. 23. Sample SSR consipracy theory: He's alive! 24. NCovMemory repository in English. 25. Terminus 2049. 26. Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City -- Fang Fang. 27. COVID-19, China and Anatomy of Fang Fang Phenomenon -- Hemant Adlakha. 28. Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century -- Orville Schell & John Delury.  29. Media Politics in China: Improvising Power under Authoritarianism -- Maria Repnikova. 30. The China Questions – Critical Insights into a Rising Power -- Edited by Jennifer Rudolph & Michael Szonyi. This episode is 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.