The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

VCs have a crazy job description. They need to understand society, figure out what people will want tomorrow and bet on the future. Sajith Pai joins Amit Varma in episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his frames of looking at the world -- and what he has learnt about media, entrepreneurship and this country of ours. Also check out: 1. The Indus Valley Playbook -- Sajith Pai. 2. Understand Startups, Metrics and Valuations -- Twitter thread by Sajith Pai. 3. India2, English Tax and Building for the Next Billion Users -- Sajith Pai. 4. India1, Avocado Startups & Product-Market Fit -- Sajith Pai. 5. Indo-Anglians: The newest and fastest-growing caste in India -- Sajith Pai. 6. MERIT colleges, national track India, & privilege blindness -- Sajith Pai. 7. Deconstructing Indian Startups & VCs -- YouTube talk by Sajith Pai. 8. India's Start-Up Ecosystem -- Episode 171 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand). 9. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years — Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 10. An Adman Reflects on Society & the Self -- Episode 199 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ambi Parameswaran). 11. Essays -- Paul Graham. 12. Ali Abdaal on reaching one million subscribers and staying patient for the long haul. 13. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 14. The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. 15. Finite and Infinite Games -- James Carse. 16. It Happened in India -- Kishore Biyani. 17. TikTok and the Sorting Hat -- Eugene Wei. 18. The Art of Narrative Nonfiction (+ JBS Haldane) -- Episode 183 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Samanth Subramanian). 19. Lessons in Investing (and Life) -- Episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Deepak Shenoy). 20. The tweets by Benedict Evans and Pomp. 21. VCs should play bridge -- Alex Danco. 22. The only thing that matters -- Marc Andreessen. 23. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Check out their course, Introduction to Machine Learning. For free unlimited access for a month, click here. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

India's financial system has been in crisis for more than a decade -- and it affects all of us. Tamal Bandyopadhyay joins Amit Varma in episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen to make sense of all the turbulence. Also check out: 1. Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy -- Tamal Bandyopadhyay. 2. Tamal Bandyopadhyay's books on Amazon. 3. Tamal Bandyopadhyay's website. 4. Tamal Bandyopadhyay's columns in Mint and Business Standard.5. India's Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 6. The Fight of the Central Banker -- Episode 193 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Viral Acharya). 7. The Importance of Finance -- Episode 125 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 8. Zombie Firms and Creative Destruction -- 118 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 9. Easy Money -- Episode 56 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 10. IL&FS and the Indian Financial System -- Episode 91 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul and Ashutosh Datar). 11. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on public sector banks and NPAs.. 12. What Really Happened? — Lawrence H White on the 2008 Financial Crisis. 13. Politics and the English Language -- George Orwell. 14. Lady Chatterley's Lover -- DH Lawrence. 15. Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and its Lessons -- Ben S Bernanke, Timothy F Geithner and Henry M Paulson Jr. 16. Code Name God: The Spiritual Odyssey of a Man of Science -- Mani Bhaumik. 17. Ispat Bhi Hum Banate Hain -- The Tata Steel commercial. (Also this.) 18. Complan Boy and Girl (w Shahid Kapoor and Ayesha Takia). 19. Maltova Mum. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

Our agriculture needs reform -- but we should be wary that our attempt to get there is not at the cost of our democracy. Ajay Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his insights on the process, content and implication of the farm bills. Also discussed: knowledge assimilation, public health, how we tackled the pandemic and what we can do going forward. Also check out: 1. Ajay Shah's homepage. 2. The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 4. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3. 5. The State of Our Farmers — Ep 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi). 6. India's Agriculture Crisis -- Episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand). 7. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Agricultire: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 8. We Must Save Our Farmers — Amit Varma. 9. The Indian State is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer — Amit Varma. 10. A Tale of Two Satyagrahas — Amit Varma. 11. Economic Freedom in Agriculture -- Ajay Shah. 12. India: An Agricultural Trade Powerhouse -- Ajay Shah. 13. Enabling a National Market for Food -- Anirudh Burman, Ila Patnaik, Shubho Roy & Ajay Shah. 14. Feeding the Hungry in the Pandemic -- Episode 210 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ruben Mascarenhas). 15. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the pandemic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 16. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma. 17. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. Analysing the 2021 budget -- Ajay Shah. 19. The Theatre of the Budget (2020) -- Episode 159 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah and Vivek Kaul). 20. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State -- Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 21. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 22. India's Water Crisis -- Episode 60 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vishwanath S aka Zenrainman). 23. The Delhi Smog -- Episode 44 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 24. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen on GST: 1, 2, 3. 25. Pratap Bhanu Mehta on the farm bills & what followed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

A virus can kill you -- and so can hunger. The lockdown last year led to an explosion of hunger around the country. Where the state failed, civil society stepped in. Ruben Mascarenhas joins Amit Varma in episode 210 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his initiative, Khaana Chahiye, that fed lakhs of people in Mumbai. Also discussed: activism, local politics and the clash between principles and the will to power. Also check out: 1. Khaana Chahiya. (also on Twitter.) 2. Litmus Test Project. 3. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 4. Participatory Democracy -- Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 5. Cities and Citizens -- Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh.) 6. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the pandemic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 7. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 8. Reforming Urban Governance -- Episode 48 of The Seen and the Unseen (w V Ravichandar). 9. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 10. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 11. AAP and Down -- Mayank Gandhi and Shrey Shah. 12. Politics and the Sociopath (2014) -- Amit Varma. 13. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan) 14. Education in India -- Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 15. Our Unlucky Children (2008) -- Amit Varma. 16. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) -- Amit Varma. 17. Where Anna Hazare Gets It Wrong (2011) -- Amit Varma. Also, registration is now open for Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

A shocking case of violence against women in India is explored, along with the complexities of the story and journalistic process. The impact of digital media, AI, and algorithms on society is discussed. Personal journeys towards journalism and writing are shared, as well as the power of narrative nonfiction. The importance of detail in writing and the exploration of gender roles in village life are highlighted. The changing perception of mobile phones and the lack of resources in the police system are examined. Reflections on the Indian Constitution and the real India are also offered.

Is the stock market an engine of our economy or a casino disconnected from reality? Does it require deep thinking or mad gambling? Deepak Shenoy joins Amit Varma in episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the lessons he has learnt about the markets -- and about life. Also check out: 1. Capitalmind, Deepak Shenoy's investment research and wealth management company, 2. The Capitalmind Podcast. 3. Cats in the Cradle -- Ugly Kid Joe (Also, the Harry Chapin original.) 4. Midnight in Chernobyl -- Adam Higginbotham. 5. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 6. Poker and Stock Markets -- Episode 47 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand). 7. Luck is All Around -- Amit Varma. 8. Range Rover -- Archives of Amit Varma's poker column for the Economic Times. 9. Variants of chess on chess.com. 10. The Dichotomy of Markets -- Deepak Shenoy. 11. Brave New World -- Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar). 12. Alpha Zero -- Episode 51 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devangshu Datta). 13. The New World Upon Us -- Amit Varma. 14. Trading Places on Wikipedia. 15. Our Unlucky Children -- Amit Varma. 16. The State of Financial Advice in India -- Episode 4 of the Capitalmind Podcast. 17. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 18. Indian Society: The Last 30 Years -- Episode 137 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Santosh Desai). 19. An Adman Reflects on Society & the Self -- Episode 199 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ambi Parameswaran). 20. Doris 'Tanta' Dungey at Calculated Risk. 21. Invest Like the Best -- Patrick O'Shaughnessy's podcast. 22. Market Wizards & The New Market Wizards by Jack D Schwager. 23. What Goes Up -- Eric J Weiner. 24. The Scam: From Harshad Mehta To Ketan Parekh -- Debashish Basu & Sucheta Dalal. 25. The Intelligent Investor -- Benjamin Graham. 26. Rich Dad Poor Dad -- Robert Kiyosaki. 27. The books of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Steven Pinker, Philip Tetlock, Nate Silver and Per Bylund. 28. Buffet and When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein. 29. Books we Like: On Investing, Trading & More -- The Capitalmind team. This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Check out their course, The Art of Investing. For free unlimited access for a month, click here. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

God is a controversial subject, but we can all agree that food exists, and is often divine. Shoba Narayan joins Amit Varma in episode 207 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her explorations of religion and food in India. Also check out: 1. Food and Faith: A Pilgrim's Journey through India -- Shoba Narayan. 2. Shoba Narayan's books on Amazon. 3. Shoba Narayan's website and columns. 4. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 5. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 6. The God of Small Feasts -- Shoba Narayan. 7. Meenakshi Ammal's Cook and See: Volumes one, two and three. 8. Vikram Doctor's columns and KT Achaya's books. 9. Harold McGee's books. 10. Fuchsia Dunlop's books. 11. Michael Pollan's books. 12. The Man Who Ate Everything -- Jeffrey Steingarten. 13. Feast: Food of the Islamic World -- Anissa Helou. 14. Feast and Fasts: A History of Food in India -- Colleen Taylor Sen. 15. The Suriani Kitchen -- Lathika George. 16. A Godless Congregation -- Amit Varma. 17. The Big Questions -- Steven E Landsburg. 18. Diana Eck's books. 19. Writers at Work in the Paris Review & and Amazon (1, 2, 3). 20. The Paris Review interview of Ernest Hemingway. 21. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 22. Caste, Gender, Karnatik Music -- Episode 162 of The Seen and the Unseen (w TM Krishna). 23. The Making Sense Podcast by Sam Harris. 24. Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion -- Sam Harris. 25. Early Indians -- Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 26. Kerala and the Ivory Throne -- Episode 156 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 27. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 28. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

Finally, 2020 is behind us. It changed our world, the way we live our lives, and how we relate to each other and to ourselves. Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok join Amit Varma in episode 206 of The Seen and the Unseen to take stock of the year gone by, with each of them picking five lessons they feel 2020 holds for us. Because they can't count, though, they end up with more than 15 -- here they are, below. (Listen to the episode for the elaborations and arguments.) The Lessons: 0. Don't take anything for granted. (Amit) 1. Don't make the mistake of Omission, Commission, Distinction. (Alex) 2. We should pay more attention to tail risks. (Shruti) 3. Art and Entertainment can be intimate and personal. (Amit) 4. People care more about narratives to explain the world than the world itself. (Amit) 5. We should think more about inter-generational tradeoffs, and consider lowering the voting age. (Shruti) 6. Software is eating the biological world. (Alex) 7. Science is not the problem. The problem is economic illiteracy. (Shruti) 7.5. We should move from collectivized decision-making to respecting individual choice. (Alex) 8. We need to rethink education. Not just the delivery of it, but how we think of education itself. (Amit) 9. A bigger problem than state capacity is state will. (Alex) 10. Politicians don't always behave in a rational, self-interested way. (Shruti) 11. Politics is driven only by tribalism. (Amit) 12. The internet is even better than we thought. (Alex) 13. Markets don't solve everything. (Shruti) 14. We should worry more about computer viruses. (Alex) 15. We should take a closer look at how we relate to other people. (Amit) 15.5 Be like dogs. Live in the moment. (Shruti) Also check out: 1. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 2. Previous episodes with Shruti and Alex. 3. Previous episodes on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4. 4. The Omission-Commission Error is Deadly -- Alex Tabarrok. 5. Asteroid Deflection as a Public Good -- Alex Tabarrok. (And some other Marginal Revolution posts on asteroids.) 6. The Day the Dinosaurs Died -- Douglas Preston. 7. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. 8. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. The YouTube channels of Samay Raina and ChessBase India. 10. Only Fans. 11. 1000 True Fans -- Kevin Kelly. 12. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 -- Li Jin. 13. Marginal Revolution University. 14. ParentData -- Emily Oster's newsletter on Substack. 15. Profit = Philanthropy -- Amit Varma. 16. Modern Principles of Microeconomics -- Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok. (And Macroeconomics.) 17. Collective Action Kills Innovation -- Alex Tabarrok.18. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 19. The Case Against Education -- Bryan Caplan. 20. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 21. Khaana Chahiya. 22. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). This episode is sponsored by the podcast, Think Like an Economist, hosted by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

Pandemic, lockdown, masks, vaccine, state failure, state overreach: India's been here before, and it's been worse. Chinmay Tumbe joins Amit Varma in episode 205 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how 40 million lives were lost in the subcontinent between 1817 and 1920 in the cholera, plague and influenza pandemics -- and the lessons we need to learn from them. Also check out: 1. Age of Pandemics -- Chinmay Tumbe. 2. India Moving -- Chinmay Tumbe. 3. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 4. Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India's Modernity -- David Arnold. 5. Cholera and Colonialism in British India -- David Arnold. 6. Smritichitre: The Memoirs of a Spirited Wife -- Lakshmibai Tilak (translated by Shanta Gokhale). 7. The British in India: A Social History of the Raj -- David Gilmour. 8. The Great Escape -- Angus Deaton. 9. The Birth of the Modern World -- CA Bayly. 10. Eric Hobsbawm's books on Amazon. 11. Harsh Mander's Near-Death Covid Experience In Delhi's Hospitals -- Natasha Badhwar. 12. Fighting Fake News -- Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 13. Plague Ports -- Myron Echenberg. 14. A Life Misspent -- Suryakant Tripathi aka Nirala. This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Check out their course, An Introduction to Infectious Diseases. For free unlimited access for a month, click here. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

Indian cooking is often treated as a mystical art -- but it is the science behind it that should fill us with wonder. Krish Ashok joins Amit Varma in episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen to speak about Masala Lab, his effort at explaining this great art from scientific first principles. Every meal of yours can now be a romantic adventure filled with the ecstasy of insight -- whether you cook it, eat or or do both while playing the violin. Also check out: 1. Masala Lab -- Krish Ashok. 2. Krish Ashok's website, blog, YouTube, Soundcloud & columns. 3. The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 4. Neurogastronomy -- Gordon M Shepherd. 5. Hot Ones (the spicy wings show) on Wikipedia and YouTube. 6. The Botany of Desire -- Michael Pollan. 7. Ganesh Bagler's homepage, Wikipedia, academic papers and YouTube Channel. 8. Shukto (Ekla Cholo Re). Bloody hell! 9. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat -- Samin Nosrat. 10. Nisha Madhulika on YouTube. 11. The Ketchup Conundrum -- Malcolm Gladwell. 12. Toddy Chicken -- Vahchef. 13. The Food Lab -- J Kenji López–alt. 14. Modernist Cusine -- Nathan Myhrvold. 15. Modernist Cusine at Home -- Nathan Myhrvold. 16. Bong Eats on YouTube. 17. Saffron Trail -- Nandita Iyer's blog. 18. Salu Kitchen on YouTube. 19. Madras Samayal on YouTube. This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Check out their course, Cooking Across the Ages. For free unlimited access for a month, click here. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.