SynTalk

SynTalk

f(q) = Is soil a definitive sign of life? (#TCAFG) SynTalk is a freewheeling interdisciplinary talk show with a philosophical approach to understanding the world from a long term perspective.

  1. #TNATP (The Narrator And The Proscenium) --- SynTalk

    1 DAY AGO

    #TNATP (The Narrator And The Proscenium) --- SynTalk

    Are you a narr-actor or a spect-actor? Are you best placed to narrate your own story? Why do those things not get talked about? Do narrations create selves? Can one perceive differently than one sees? Are certain narrators to be privileged? Are we all born into a narrative structure? Do spectators change the events? How does one live in a world with competing truths? What if ‘facts’ are absent / silent? How do we cover up and fabulate? Who experiences guilt and anxiety? What comes in between speech and silence? Does history (or power) stutter? Could rituals & folk tales be narratives? Which stories become narratives? Who counts as a human being? Is (historical) truth immaculate? What do history books in Congo talk about? What have sugar / rubber / oil done to the world? Do structures come out of processes? What happens when something false is retold? Who is the narrator of the narrator? How do the spectres speak? Do you listen to the Other? How is global politics done when things are unclear? Are spectators, actors and narrators increasingly mingling around us? So then: where are we? What time is it? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from literary studies & psychoanalysis (Dr. Arka Chattopadhyay, IIT Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar), political studies (Dr. Aparna Devare, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad), & history (Prof. Saurabh Dube, El Colegio de México, Mexico City). Listen in...

    1h 13m
  2. #TTEHOW (The To-Each-Her-Own World) --- SynTalk

    15 FEB

    #TTEHOW (The To-Each-Her-Own World) --- SynTalk

    How standard are you? What does it mean to be an Individual? Are you a Hutterite? Must charities be voluntary? What about orphans? Should the State tell us what to do? What might absence of State lead to (in various domains)? Is self sacrifice a virtue? Are welfare states justified in the real world? What does one need to be autonomous? Does anyone have a right to demand that other people support them? Why do most (all?) constitutions partially claw back the freedom of expression provision? How are responsibilities and rights related? What would Ayn Rand make of conscience? Is the imagined unit of Constitutions a rational Individual? Do you have personal Laws? Has the Self become modern? What does it mean to be autonomous? Is personal autonomy always embedded? Do you need the right to rebel? Does free market (read: freedom) help cultivate individual virtues? Is free trade good? Why do libertarians think that all taxation is theft? Does barter scale? How does one accord sovereignty / autonomy to local life arrangements? Do you assert your individuality only via the legal route? &, what if you want to die? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from philosophy (Prof. Neera Badhwar, ex-The University of Oklahoma, Norman), sociology (Prof. Chandan Gowda, Vidyashilp University, Bangalore), & legal studies (Prof. Sitharamam Kakarala, NALSAR, Hyderabad). Listen in...

    1h 15m
  3. #TPLOD (The Plunge Lines Of Diversity) --- SynTalk

    20/12/2025

    #TPLOD (The Plunge Lines Of Diversity) --- SynTalk

    Has it always been the Anthropocene? Do you care about the ‘powerless’ Nicobar? How old is biodiversity? Why does anyone want to be a conservationist? What is the kind of variety that we wish to preserve? What is a unit of diversity? Do different parts of the world think differently today about the ‘species vs habitat’ question? Is agency distributed throughout nature? What did Tibbles do? Are there variations even within individuals (of a taxonomic group) in an environment? What purpose do sacred groves serve? Is conservation always great for local communities? Must conservation efforts also be calibrated? Can diversity be ‘understood’ via experience? How do diversification, adaptation and extinction contribute to evolution? Do the (internal) processes of organic life themselves lead to diversity? What is it like to lose things without knowing about them? How do differing aesthetic and moral impulses influence us? Are you afraid of change? Do you like manicured lawns? What does natural selection act on? How do we classify the world? What choices do we have? What is diversity for? &, could one even think a 1000 years into the future? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from evolutionary biology (Dr. Anand Krishnan, JNCASR, Bangalore), philosophy & biology (Prof. Sahotra Sarkar, UT Austin, Austin) & conservation studies (Dr. Pankaj Sekhsaria, IIT Bombay, Mumbai). Listen in...

    1h 24m
  4. #TRAP (The Rhythms And Perturbations) --- SynTalk

    06/12/2025

    #TRAP (The Rhythms And Perturbations) --- SynTalk

    Are our brains log-normal? Why is breathing rhythmic? Why is there a hum in the universe? Do our hearts beat chaotically? Are the (stock) markets random and ‘unbounded’? What is a market? How is Mercury perturbed? What has sleep-wake cycles? Must you go up and down with the sun? What causes whirlpools in a smooth flowing river? Where do rhythms reside? Is there an equivalent of homeostasis in the markets? What is your sigh rate just now? Are you depressed? Could you move fast, vocalize, eat and breathe at the same time? Why do we hyperventilate when we are anxious? Is there phase lock-in between (say) moving and (quantized) breathing? What role do feedback loops or self organization play in regulating complex systems? Do risks become more systemic in a complex & connected world? Why are flight transportation systems more easily perturbed than bio-physical systems? In general, are emergent systems less easily perturbed? How is degeneracy different from redundancy? How do certain monks (?) go without breathing for a few hours? Do order and disorder lie on the same continuum? &, must we always build bottom-up? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from neuroscience (Dr. Sufyan Ashhad, NCBS, Bangalore), econophysics (Prof. Anirban Chakraborti, JNU, New Delhi) & philosophy (Rev. Fr. Dr. Mathew Chandrankunnel, JIS University, Kolkata). Listen in...

    1h 15m
  5. #TEOR (The Effects Of Rights) --- SynTalk

    06/09/2025

    #TEOR (The Effects Of Rights) --- SynTalk

    Are you a born criminal? Is genocide ever justified? Is meritocracy a ‘garbage’ concept? What are the entitlements that you have by virtue of being a human being? Do rights exist because the State exists, & vice versa? Are rights sometimes anti norms? Do nomadic and sedentary societies think differently of rights? Are rights always a product of struggle? Are you 42 and a communist? Are all rights inter-related? Can the right to dignity be limited? What gets transmitted across generations? Are the normative social structures of the past in our prefrontal cortex today? Does reservation come under the framework of equality? What are a prisoner’s rights? Does it suit us to have certain sections of people stigmatised? Must social, political & economic rights go hand in hand? Can societies be changed without economic incentives? Is West Africa still scarred by slave trade? Can historical recompensation be done forever? Do you have a present bias? When are gender points a good idea? What makes rights effective - is this scale dependent? Why is Geneva Convention not always enforceable? Which rights are non-derogable? &, what are the rights of the next generation today? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from economics (Prof. Sujoy Chakravarty, JNU, New Delhi), history (Prof. Ajay Dandekar, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR) & law (Prof. Arvind Narrain, NLSIU, Bangalore). Listen in...

    1h 16m
  6. #TEST (The Entangled Sweet Tooth) --- SynTalk

    30/08/2025

    #TEST (The Entangled Sweet Tooth) --- SynTalk

    How many meals do you have time for? Why do sweets make you happy? Does fruit sugar (fructose) need insulin? Why does sugar spike? Are oranges and grapes differently sweet? Has sugar always been a transnational commodity? How did Europe get sugar? How did the first sweet shops come up? How did we end up milking animals? Is time the fourth factor in nutrition? Are apples autochthonously sweet? Do sweet making techniques travel easily? What travels first – people or food? What does grinding do to grains? Where do you get your samosas and croissants? Does your tea have blood in it? Is your diet carbohydrate heavy? Might you crave ‘more’ food if you consume less sweets? What has the relatively recent non-seasonal abundance done to human bodies? Have our metabolic systems evolved to fight abundance as well as scarcity? Do all blood pressure patients need to restrict salt? How important is the sensation of sweetness? What exactly do sugar-free sweets do? What is monk fruit’s future? Is greater industrialization of our food systems inevitable? &, would sweets continue to embody the spirit of indulgence (& excess) in the future? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from endocrinology (Dr. Hemraj B. Chandalia, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai), culinary anthropology (Dr. Kurush F. Dalal, Gyaan Factory, Mumbai) & sociology (Dr. Ishita Dey, South Asian University (SAU), New Delhi). Listen in...

    1h 8m
  7. #TGIP (The Goddesses In Particular) --- SynTalk

    04/01/2025

    #TGIP (The Goddesses In Particular) --- SynTalk

    How do you look at women? Do Goddesses follow Gods? Is the ultimate Reality an ‘It’? What’s the relationship between matter and energy? Are dualities necessarily conflictual? Is Eve inferior to Adam? Where do the Cosmos and the Body intersect? How did the sacred geography of the subcontinent evolve? Do Goddesses have an influence on the lives of men (& kings) & women? Where/how did patriarchy exist? How did Ramabai become Pandita Ramabai? What did the colonial encounter do to the archetypes of Goddesses? How did the early literary women appropriate the Goddesses? Is (only) education responsible for empowerment? Is Vishnu’s primal inner energy essentially female? Who is capable of hedonistic bloodlust? What invoked the wrath of Nanda Devi? Are male and female in a union like speech and meaning? What is evil? Or, dirty? Did women have a voice in pre-Colonial ‘India’? What are your models for feminism? How do courtesans become poet saints and Goddesses? How did the tribal women of India ‘transform a priest’? What might indigenous feminism look like? &, what is the future of the several goddesses & the little (folk) traditions? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from cultural studies (Prof. Sachidananda Mohanty, IIAS, Shimla), Dr. M.D. Muthukumaraswamy (folklore studies, Chennai) & Sanskrit studies (Dr. Bihani Sarkar, Lancaster University, Lancaster). Listen in...

    1h 17m
  8. #TDAG (The Dead And Gone) --- SynTalk

    26/10/2024

    #TDAG (The Dead And Gone) --- SynTalk

    Do you have neanderthal DNA? Is your body your identity? What makes the knowledge of death possible when no one alive has experienced it first hand? How does dying feel? What are your schemas for understanding death? Is death the default, & it is life that happens occasionally? Does a cell know when it ought to die? When is an organism dead? When can we not dream? Can (certain) tissues and organs regenerate? What are the biochemical reactions a response to? What does oxygen do? Does the concept of death make control over others possible? Can we reverse death itself? What is the 'location' of a person? Do all cells come from other living cells? Or, can cells be created artificially from scratch? Is the body inferior to atman? Intrinsically, is everything conscious? Why do we see matter around if it's all one consciousness? Is Higg's boson dead? Do the cells need to divide to avoid death? Is dying like falling in deep sleep, & do we therefore die everyday? How does structure and order reproduce? What did you inherit from your mother at birth? Can dead mammoths be resurrected? &, will we have the power to create varied artificial life in the future with genome writing? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from philosophy of science (Prof. G. Nagarjuna, IISER, Pune), theology (Swami Narasimhananda, Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Kozhikode), & genomic sciences (Prof. Binay Panda, JNU, New Delhi).

    1h 16m
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Ratings & Reviews

4.2
out of 5
20 Ratings

About

f(q) = Is soil a definitive sign of life? (#TCAFG) SynTalk is a freewheeling interdisciplinary talk show with a philosophical approach to understanding the world from a long term perspective.

Information

  • Creator
    SynTalk
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    205
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    SynTalk