Jack Of All Knowledge Divyanshu Dembi

In this episode, I am speaking with Bhargavi Zaveri Shah. She is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in law at the National University of Singapore. Her core research interests are the working of central banks and courts in developing countries. She has also done a lot of work on financial regulation, bankruptcy law, regulatory governance and the land market, all in the Indian context. In the conversation, we speak about a range of fascinating topics such as her journey from law to finance, and how she left her law firm job to dedicate herself to public policy research, legal education, and the justice system. We speak at length about her data-backed scholarship on analysing various debt resolution fora and how it can help litigants make better and more equipped choices in the justice system. You can find links to her work here:

Bhargavi's Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=bDvivMIAAAAJ&hl=en

Bhargavi's articles on the LEAP blog: https://blog.theleapjournal.org/2015/12/author-bhargavi-zaveri.html#gsc.tab=0

Bhargavi's research on future of court metrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28800jhftMg&t=1s&ab_channel=xKDR

Bhargavi is present on twitter @bhargavizaveri

Roshan Abbas doesn't need much introduction. He's an enigma of creativity and a brilliant person. It was a pleasure to pick out his brains for an hour. The episode features timeless wisdom, poignant stories from his life, advice for creators and curious individuals, and much more a reflection of the great human being he is. Roshan is on Twitter as @roshanabbas

Ajay Shah and I speak about a range of issues - how to better our state capacity, what battles are worth for the state to take up, how to improve our governance models, how to align incentives in the governance institutions, what is the role of the modern state, how to bring out better outcomes for the society, what are in fact better outcomes and much more.



Ajay's work can be found at: https://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/

In this episode, I'm speaking with two of my favorite writers about a host of issues. From choosing which college to go to, to understanding what good parenting is, we talk about everything that makes the human brain go tick. We speak extensively about being curious, keeping your learning self alive, how to learn better, how to accumulate knowledge etc. It is a thoroughly enjoyable conversation, and I hope you enjoy listening to this as well!

This podcast was recorded with the help of Emergent Ventures grant from Mercatus Center, George Mason University.

I'm talking to Amit Varma, host of the immensely popular podcast seen and the unseen; on a range of issues. We talk about his creative process, the making of seen and the unseen as an oral history project, politics, conversation & disagreements, policy etc. 

In the 15th episode of Jack of all knowledge, I'm talking to Shruti Rajagopalan - senior research fellow at Mercatus center, George Mason University and fellow at classical liberal institute NYU law. She is also the lead of Indian vertical of Emergent ventures (a grant making initiative) at GMU. She writes prolifically and also hosts the popular podcast Ideas of India. She's by far, one of the most brilliant people I know - with deep expertise in areas of law and economics. She did her undergraduate degree in economics from Hansraj college, DU and then went to do her LLB from CLC, DU. She then do her masters in law and economics as an Erasmus scholar and then did her PhD in economics from GMU.

We talk about her intellectual and personal journey, her interests, research and how she looks at the world. We also talk about intersection of law and economics, what does it mean to think like an economist, how to critically look at economics, and much more. This conversation is one of the best I've had on the podcast - I hope you enjoy this episode.

Links:

1. Mercatus center: https://www.mercatus.org/

2. Ideas of India: https://www.mercatus.org/tags/ideas-india

3. Emergent ventures: https://www.mercatus.org/emergent-ventures

4. Econ4everybody: https://econforeverybody.com/

5. Fast grants: https://fastgrants.org/