
Shortcast over Coffee
Conversations with heroes from all walks of life
Latest episodes

Sep 12, 2023 • 1h 5min
Conversations : Talking Public Policy with Dr Ajay Shah
My guest today is Dr Ajay Shah. Ajay is a prominent Indian economist and researcher who has made significant contributions in the field of public policy. He is a Senior Research Fellow and Co-Founder of XKDR Forum, an independent research organization. He co-hosts the podcast Everything is Everything on YouTube with veteran writer Amit Varma.
He graduated with a BTech in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Bombay and a PhD in Economics from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. His past experience includes Professorship at the National Institute for Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, and Consultant, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi (2001-2005).
About Dr Ajay Shah
https://xkdr.org/
https://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/
Everything is Everything : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RHpE-B89Qg&ab_channel=amitvarma
Dr Shah's research https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2C0fkiUAAAAJ&hl=en
Reach out the host at https://www.instagram.com/bala.deva06/
00:00 Introduction
00:00 Introduction
1:43 Ajay about XKDR
10:26 Meeting demand and supply in research
14:52 Philanthropy in India
21:00 Funding for Research in India
23:14 Climate change and electricity generation
40:17 States championing solar energy
45:19 on Indian Courts
47:35 Govt Contracting
54:27 Indian Corporations and Research
1:03:00 Conclusion and Remarks

Sep 10, 2023 • 50min
Conversations : Talking Standup Comedy and IFC with Srijan Kaushik
Today my guest is stand-up comedian Srijan Kaushik. Srijan has been creating waves in stand-up comedy circles with his poker-faced delivery of hilarious jokes. Not only that, he has an MBA from the Indian School of Business, one of India's premier institutes for management, and works full-time for the international Finance Corporation, a private arm of the World Bank. We will touch on all this and more in this episode, so let's get into it without further delay. The advertising revenue from this episode will go to The Ocean Cleanup. Check out their organization at www.theoceancleanup.com.
About Srijan
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC47V0gb3xW1ttnlDCJknQNg
https://www.instagram.com/srijan.kaushik/?hl=en
Reach out to the host at https://www.instagram.com/bala.deva06/?hl=en

Sep 8, 2023 • 54min
Conversations : Talking Childhood Trauma and Psychedelics with Dr Vidita Vaidya
My guest today is neurobiologist Dr. Vidita Vaidya, a professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1998 and did postdoctoral research at the Karolinska Institute and Oxford University before joining TIFR in 2000.
Dr. Vaidya is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences, India. She has received the National Bioscientist Award (2012), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (2015), the J.C. Bose Fellowship (2021), and a Nature award for excellence in mentoring (2019).
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Vaidya about moving back to India to set up her lab at TIFR, her research on early childhood trauma, and the potential use of psychedelics as therapeutics.
About Dr Vaidya
https://www.tifr.res.in/~dbs/faculty/V_Vaidya.html
Reach out to the host https://www.instagram.com/bala.deva06/

Sep 8, 2023 • 4min
Tales from the Past: Birth of the Tamper Proof Seal
Today’s is a Tales from the Past episode. Tales from the past unearths fascinating and little-known stories from history. In each bite-sized episode,
I'll take you on a journey through time to highlight intriguing events, people and anecdotes you likely never learned in school.

Sep 7, 2023 • 59min
Conversations : Talking Astrophysics and Chandrayaan with Dr Annapurni Subramaniam
Today we have with us Dr. Annapurni Subramaniam, the director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
Dr. Subramaniam received her Ph.D. in Physics - Astronomy in 1996 from the Indian Institute of Science. She has contributed significantly to research on the Magellanic Clouds, among numerous other areas. She is also an accomplished violinist.
In our conversation today, we will be talking about Dr. Subramaniam's career and meteoric rise from humble beginnings, the past, present and future of astronomy, India's moon mission Chandrayaan, and astrology.
About Dr Subramaniam
https://www.iiap.res.in/people/personnel/purni/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurni_Subramaniam
https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/13515/
Reach out to the host at : https://www.instagram.com/bala.deva06/

Sep 6, 2023 • 6min
Tales from the Past: Cecil Rhodes
Today’s is a Tales from the Past episode. Tales from the past unearths fascinating and little-known stories from history. In each bite-sized episode,
I'll take you on a journey through time to highlight intriguing events, people and anecdotes you likely never learned in school.

Sep 5, 2023 • 1h 6min
Conversations : Learning the Carnatic Violin ft GenNext Talent Kamalakiran Vinjamuri
Today we have with us an exceptional young violinist, Kamalakiran Vinjamuri. Though only in his early twenties, he has already gained recognition for his prodigious talent and moving performances. Kamalakiran initially trained under his father, the renowned violinist Subhash Vinjamuri, before taking lessons from the legendary violinist A. Kanyakumari. Kamalakiran has toured internationally, including performances at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall in New York. He represents the next generation of talent continuing the rich legacy of Indian classical violin. In this episode, we go through his experience learning the violin from the great guru A. Kanyakumari and some technical aspects to look for while learning the violin, among many other things.
Know more about Kamalakiran here
https://www.instagram.com/kamalakiran/
The 12 year old prodigy : http://tinyurl.com/ymnc2dyy
https://www.richmondfolkfestival.org/2022-folklife-performers/2022/9/6/kamalakiran-vinjamuri
Guru A.Kanyakumari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Kanyakumari
http://tinyurl.com/3bsr8xb4
Reach out to the host here : https://www.instagram.com/bala.deva06/

Sep 4, 2023 • 6min
Tales from the Past: War of Currents
Today we are starting a new series called Tales from the Past - that unearths fascinating and little-known stories from
history.
In each bite-sized episode, I'll take you on a journey through time to highlight intriguing events, people, and anecdotes you likely never learned in
school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currents

Sep 1, 2023 • 37min
The History of Coffee : From First to the Third Wave with Dr Edward Fischer (Part 1)
If you are a coffee connoisseur, this episode is just for you. Not many people start their day without a cup of coffee, it maybe drip coffee from a nearby convenient store or a fancy white chocolate mocha.
I sit down with Social anthropologist and the author of the book Making Better Coffee Dr. Edward Fischer to discuss the history, evolution and waves of coffee culture. This is part 1 of a two part episode. In this part we focus on the history and evolution of coffee culture. Dr. Fischer is a professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and his research focuses on political economy, wellbeing and social economy. He is a highly cited researcher and expert in his field who also co-founded the social enterprise Mani+ that develops and produces locally sourced complementary foods to fight malnutrition.
Dr Fischer's works:
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520386969/making-better-coffee
https://as.vanderbilt.edu/anthropology/bio/ted-fischer
Third Wave Coffee:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_coffee
Reach out to the host
Instagram: @bala.deva06

Sep 1, 2023 • 53min
Ricky Pond the Dancing Dad on his Life and Love for Dance
This episode is not quite a shortcast, as we are joined by internet
sensation Ricky Pond, more popularly known as the dancing dad! In this
episode, we are going to go through Ricky's early education, career, his
love for dance, and many other things.
Ricky Pond
https://www.instagram.com/ricky.pond/
https://www.tiktok.com/@rickypond?lang=en
@OfficialRickyPond on Youtube
Reach out to the host https://www.instagram.com/bala.deva06/
#bollywood #bollywoodsongs #thedancingdad #dancingdad