The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma Amit Varma

As a journalist, she always went deep. As an author, she has peeled off layers of Bengaluru -- and Indian society. Malini Goyal joins Amit Varma in episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her insights -- and the values that shape her work.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Malini Goyal at Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Economic Times.
2. Unboxing Bengaluru: The City of New Beginnings -- Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash.
3. Unboxing Bengaluru -- The website.
4. After Hours With India Inc -- Malini Goyal's podcast.
5. Bindra's Wishlist (2005) -- Amit Varma.
6. Reforming Urban Governance -- Episode 48 of The Seen and the Unseen (w V Ravichandar).
7. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. .
8. Malini Goyal's piece on Alang.
9. India's first social media election -- Malini Goyal.
10. Malini Goyal's four-part story on India's liberalisation children: 1, 2, 3, 4.
11. Malini Goyal's series on Hyderabad.
12. ‘Wet Streets Cause Rain’ — Michael Crichton explains Gell-Mann Amnesia.
13. Maruti 800 to Alto 800: A 30-year journey -- Malini Goyal.
14. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma’s column on poker for The Economic Times.
15. How large corporations go about picking CXO-level honchos -- Malini Goyal.
16. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare).
17. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
18. Shaili Chopra and the Sisterhood -- Episode 325 of The Seen and the Unseen.
19. Israel, a startup oasis in the middle of a war zone -- Malini Goyal.
20. The Romantic Idiot -- Samarth Bansal.
21. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen.
22. Aella's tweet about the slutcloud.
23. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ashwin Mahesh: 1, 2, 3.
24. The Pursuit of Happyness -- Gabriele Muccino.
25. Personal History -- Katherine Graham.
26. Open: An Autobiography -- Andre Agassi.
27. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography -- Walter Isaacson.
26. Einstein: His Life and Universe -- Walter Isaacson..
27. Alice Munro, Kazuo Ishiguro and Roald Dahl on Amazon.
28. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman.

Amit’s newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free!

Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.

Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Episode art: ‘There is More Here’ by Simahina.

When he travels, he's a man of reflection. When he creates, he's a man of action. Utsav Mamoria joins Amit Varma in episode 376 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his philosophy towards travel, creating and living.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out
1. Utsav Mamoria on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
2. Postcards From Nowhere -- Utsav Mamoria's podcast.
3. The 6% Club..
4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy, Abhijit Bhaduri and Gaurav Chintamani..
5. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. Getting Meta. -- Chuck Gopal's podcast.
7. The legendary Simblified.
8. Sabbaticalling -- Episode 85 of Simblified (w Utsav Mamoria).
9. The Untravel Show -- Abhishek.Vaid's YouTube show.
10. Chuck Gopal interviews Utsav Mamoria.
12. Horizon -- Barry Lopez.
13. Imaginary Cities -- Darran Anderson.
14. Invisible Cities -- Italo Calvino.
15. The Hiking Episode -- Episode 35 of Everything is Everything.
16. I Play to Play -- Amit Varma.
17. Unboxing Bengaluru -- Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash.
18. Lords of the Deccan -- Anirudh Kanisetti.
19. Anirudh Kanisetti's podcasts.
20. Are You Just One Version of Yourself? -- Amit Varma.
21. Don't Get Into a Box -- Amit Varma.
22. Shoveling Smoke -- William Mazzarella.
23. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen.
24. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. The Stanford Prison Experiment.
26. Imagined Communities — Benedict Anderson.
27. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years — Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai).
28. Santosh Desai is Watching You — Episode 356 of The Seen and the Unseen.
29. Dhadak Dhadak -- Song from Bunty and Babli.
30. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen.
31. The Language of Food -- Dan Jurafsky.
32. Bihar Review -- Kumar Anand's twitter account on Bihar.
33. Interior design for 10 crore kids.
34. Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain -- Episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen.
35. Amadeus -- Miloš Forman.
36. Arctic Dreams -- Barry Lopez.
37. The Art of Travel -- Alain De Botton.
38. The School of Life.
39. Robert Macfarlane and Pico Iyer on Amazon.
40. Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell.
41. Marginlands -- Arati Kumar-Rao.
42. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan.
43. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan).
44. Tarana Husain Khan, Sadaf Hussain and Krish Ashok on Amazon.
45. The Language of Cities -- Deyan Sudjic.
46. Italo Calvino on Amazon.
47. When Breath Becomes Air -- Paul Kalanithi.
48. Coke Studio Pakistan.
49. Kabir, Kabir Cafe and Songs of Kabir.
50. The soundtracks of Qala, Udaan and Lootera.
51. Ud Jayega Hans Akela -- Kumar Gandharva.
52. Spotlight -- Tom McCarthy.
53. Grave of the Fireflies -- Isao Takahata.
54. My Neighbour Totoro -- Hayao Miyazaki.
55. Woman in the Dunes -- Hiroshi Teshigahara.
56. Departures -- Yōjirō Takita.
57. Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Majid Majidi, Tahmineh Milani and Yasujirō Ozu.

Amit’s newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free!

Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.

Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Episode art: ‘Travel’ by Simahina.

To reform India, you must reform the Indian state. Karthik Muralidharan joins Amit Varma in episode 375 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his much-awaited new book that has finally released -- and the chapters on it that deal with our bureaucracy.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Karthik Muralidharan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar, UCSD and CEGIS.
2. Accelerating India's Development -- Karthik Muralidharan. 
3. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
4. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
5. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen.
6. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah.
7. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah).
8. Brave New World -- Vasant Dhar's podcast.
9. To Kill A Mockingbird -- Harper Lee.
10. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything.
11. The Elusive Quest for Growth -- William R Easterly.
12. The White Man's Burden -- William R Easterly.
13. The Tyranny of Experts -- William R Easterly.
14. Thomas Sargent's speech at Berkeley.
15. Front-line Courts As State Capacity: Evidence From India -- Manaswini Rao.
16. The Argumentative Indian -- Amartya Sen.
17. BR Ambedkar's speech to the constituent assembly in 1949.
18. State Building -- Francis Fukuyama.
19. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything.
20. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything.
21. When Should the State Act? -- Episode 26 of Everything is Everything.
22. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything.
23. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen.
24. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything.
25. The Political Economy of Bureaucratic Overload -- Aditya Dasgupta and Devesh Kapur.
26. Red Tape -- Akhil Gupta.
27. Paper Tiger -- Nayanika Mathur.
28. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya.
29. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya).
30. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande -- Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen.
31. Annie Hall -- Woody Allen.
32. The withering trend of public employment in India -- CP Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh.
33. The Colonial Constitution — Arghya Sengupta.
34. Arghya Sengupta and the Engine Room of Law — Episode 366 of The Seen and the Unseen.
35. Active and Passive Waste in Government Spending -- Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat and Tommaso Valletti.
36. Lagaan -- Ashutosh Gowariker.
37. List of Soviet and Russian leaders by height.
38. Bureaucratic Indecision and Risk Aversion in India -- Sneha P, Neha Sinha, Avanti Durani and Ayush Patel.
39. A Theory of Misgovernance -- Abhijit Banerjee.
40. Premature load bearing: Doing too much too soon -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock.
41. Sense and Sensibility -- Jane Austen.
42. Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen.
43. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Montek Singh Ahluwalia).
44. India’s Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane).
45. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
46. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap -- Yuen Yuen Ang.
47. Pritika Hingorani Wants to Fix Our Cities -- Episode 361 of The Seen and the Unseen.
48. Gangaajal -- Prakash Jha.
49. Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India -- Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus and Sandip Sukhtankar.
50. Amitabh Bachchan on Twitter.
5

Economics and public policy touch all our lives, and have humanitarian consequences. But isn't it damn boring? No! Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 374 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk policy and comics -- and how they came together in their book, We the Citizens.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

I strongly recommend that you check out the courses and the output of the Takshashila Institution. What they do is nothing less than a great public service to India.

Also check out:
1. Khyati Pathak on Twitter, Instagram, Substack and her own website of comics.
2. Anupam Manur on Twitter, LinkedIn and the Takshashila Institution.
3. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution.
4. We, The Citizens: Strengthening the Indian Republic -- Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane.
5. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane and Khyati Pathak's podcast (co-hosted with Saurabh Chandra).
6. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s newsletter.
7. Missing In Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley.
8. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Raghu S Jaitley).
9. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen.
10. The Semiconductor Wars -- Episode 358 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Abhiram Manchi).
11. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
12. Protectionism -- Episode 59 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Anupam Manur).
13. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen.
14. Toan Truong's Twitter thread on learning how to learn.
15. Harvard’s CS50 course.
16. A Bushel is equal to "2 kennings, 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons."
17. A trade deficit with a babysitter (2005) — Tim Harford.
18. 1984 -- George Orwell.
19. The Double ‘Thank-You’ Moment — John Stossel.
20. There’s no speed limit -- Derek Sivers.
21. A Deep Dive Into the Indian Military -- Episode 31 of Everything is Everything.
22. A Deep Dive Into Ukraine vs Russia — Episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
23. The State of the Ukraine War -- Episode 14 of Everything is Everything.
24. The Economics of Arms -- Keith Hartley.
25. The Indian Armed Forces — Episode 175 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon).
26. India in the Nuclear Age — Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon).
27. Guns vs Butter.
28. This Passing Moment -- Amit Varma on Opportunity Cost.
29. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek.
30. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration -- Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith.
31. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything.
32. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
33. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah).
34. India’s Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane).
35. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything.
36. The Overton Window.
37. Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box -- Episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen.
38. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face -- Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen.
39. Radical Markets -- Eric Posner and E Glen Weyl.
40. Karejwa -- Varun Grover, Ankit Kapoor and Sumit Kumar.
41. Parsai -- Mansi Sharma and Sumit Kumar.
42. So Below -- Sam Wallman.
43. Manjula Padmanabhan is a Forever Outsider -- Episode 372 of The Seen and the Unseen.
44. Irfan, the Keeper of Memories -- Episode 368 of The Seen and the Uns

He's an entrepreneur who thinks deeply about the world, and some of his ideas could make your brain explode. Deepak VS joins Amit Varma in episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his thoughts on entrepreneurship, education, morality, life and the old hag who sits on your chest.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Deepak VS at Twitter, LinkedIn and his own website.
2. Tilt.
3. Everything flows: Looking back on six years of Tilt -- Deepak VS.
4. Deepak VS on why incubators are broken.
5. Y Combinator.
6. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin.
7. The Double ‘Thank-You’ Moment — John Stossel.
8. 4chan.
9. Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance -- Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck.
10. Nomsita MS Haritashya on Instagram.
11. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
12. Tim Minchin on Wikipedia, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and his own website.
13. In a Silent Way — Episode 316 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gaurav Chintamani).
14. Gaurav Chintamani on Instagram..
15. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin -- Episode 405 of the Lex Fridman Podcast.
17. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything.
18. Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking on Amazon.
19. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward — Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen.
20. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel.
21. Angad Daryani at Praan, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter..
22. Ship of Theseus.
23. Dangerous Dave.
24. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Ludwig Wittgenstein.
26. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges.
27. Anatomy of a Folly -- Amit Varma.
28. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky.
29. The Expanding Circle — Peter Singer.
30. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil — Hannah Arendt.
31. The Ethics of Vegetarianism -- An interview with Peter Singer where he talks about oysters.
32. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol — Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen.
33. Essays — Paul Graham.
34. Free Will -- Sam Harris.
35. Determined: Life Without Free Will -- Robert Sapolsky.
36. Behave -- Robert Saponsky.
37. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas -- Ursula K LeGuin.
38. The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant — Nick Bostrom.
39. Vitalik Buterin Fights the Dragon-Tyrant — Episode 342 of The Seen and the Unseen.
40. Pour Some Sugar on Me -- Amit Varma.
41. The Last Lecture -- Randy Pausch.
42. Poker and Life -- Episode 38 of Everything is Everything.
43. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen..
44. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen featuring Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
45. Lucid Dreaming.
46. Sleep Paralysis.
47. The Night Hag.
48. Devangshu Datta Traded His Corduroy Pants — Episode 348 of The Seen and the Unseen.
49. The Brothers Karamazov --  Fyodor Dostoevsky.
50. House of the Dead -- Fyodor Dostoevsky.
51. Titus Andronicus -- William Shakespeare.
52. Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track -- Richard Feynman.
53. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
54. Quichotte -- Salman Rushdie.
55. We -- Yevgeny Zamyatin.
56. PG Wodehouse on Amazon and Wikipedia.
57. Storm -- Tim Minchin.
58. The Egg -- Andy Weir.
59. Lifespan -- David Sinclair.
60. Ash Jogalekar's tweet on Chandrasekhar, Fermi and von Neumann.
61. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything.
62. Suyash Rai Embraces India’s Complexity -- Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen.

Amit’s newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India

She's a comic-strip artist, a playwright, a science fiction author -- a creator who doesn't fit into any box. Manjula Padmanabhan joins Amit Varma in episode 372 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life and learnings.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Manjula Padmanabhan on.Amazon, Wikipedia, Instagram, Substack and her own website.
2. Getting There -- Manjula Padmanabhan.
3. Harvest -- Manula Padmanabhan.
4. Escape -- Manjula Padmanabhan.
5. The Island Of Lost Girls -- Manjula Padmanabhan.
6. Blood and Laughter: Plays -- Manjula Padmanabhan.
7. Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities -- Manjula Padmanabhan.
8. My Friend Sancho -- Amit Varma.
9. Why We Sleep -- Matthew Walker.
10. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
11. The Looking-Glass Self.
12. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen.
13. Escape With Manjula Padmanabhan (2008) -- Amit Varma.
14. Comedy Vs Mortality -- Amit Varma.
15. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains — Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. How Not To Boil An Egg -- MFK Fisher.
17. Journey To Ixtlan -- Carlos Castaneda.
18. Anton Chekhov on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon.
19. The classic Derek Guy tweet..
20. Make Me a Canteen for My Soul — Episode 304 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage).
21. Deham -- Govind Nihalani.
22. Watchmen -- Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
23. Amartya Ghosh on Spotify.
24. Declutter -- Episode 30 of Everything is Everything.
25. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams.
26. Ursula K Le Guin, Ken Liu and Ted Chiang on Amazon.
27. Blue Apron.
28. Penelope Fitzgerald on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon.
29. Wordle and Words With Friends.
30. The House of Doors -- Tan Twan Eng.
31. The Gift of Rain -- Tan Twan Eng.
32. Fire On The Ganges -- Radhika Iyengar.
33. Amarcord -- Federico Fellini.
34. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola.
35. The Obscure Object of Desire -- Luis Buñuel.
36. All That Jazz -- Bob Fosse.
37. Star Wars -- George Lucas.
38. Popcorn Essayists: What Movies Do to Writers -- Edited by Jai Arjun Singh.
39. The 400 Blows -- François Truffaut.
40. The Magus -- John Fowles.
41. Through the Looking-Glass -- Lewis Carroll.
42. The Beatles and Pink Floyd on Spotify.
43. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie --  Luis Buñuel.
44. The Phantom of Liberty --  Luis Buñuel.
45. Jean-Claude Carrière on Wikipedia and IMDb.
46. The Mahabharata -- Peter Brook.
47. The Unbearable Lightness of Being --  Philip Kaufman.
48. I Vitelloni -- Federico Fellini.

This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off.

Amit’s newsletter is explosively active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free!

Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube.

Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

Episode art: ‘Outsider’ by Simahina.