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The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

By: Amit Varma
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 The Seen and the Unseen, hosted by Amit Varma, features longform conversations that aim to give deep insights into the subjects being discussed. Timeless and bingeworthy.All Rights Reserved Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Ep 420: Siddhartha Basu Is in the Hot Seat

    Ep 420: Siddhartha Basu Is in the Hot Seat
    Jun 16 2025
    Circumstance made him a legend of the quizzing world, but Siddhartha Basu is a man of many parts. He joins Amit Varma in episode 420 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about life, India, the art of asking questions and the answers he has found. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Siddhartha Basu on Wikipedia, Twitter, Instagram and IMDb. 2. Tree of Knowledge, DigiTok. 3. Quizzitok on YouTube. 4. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 5. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 6. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen featuring Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 9. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 12. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism — Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 13. How to Become a Tyrant -- Narrated by Peter Dinklage. 14. What Is Populism? -- Jan-Werner Müller. 15. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 16. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- Richard Fleischer. 17. The Hedgehog And The Fox — Isaiah Berlin. 18. Trees of Delhi : A Field Guide -- Pradip Krishen. 19. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. Stage.in. 22. Dance Like a Man -- Mahesh Dattani. 23. How Old Are You? -- Rosshan Andrrews. 24. The Mehta Boys -- Boman Irani. 25. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- James Joyce. 26. Massey Sahib -- Pradip Krishen. 27. Derek O'Brien talks to Siddhartha Basu -- Episode 6 of the Quizzitok Podcast. 28. Kwizzing with Kumar Varun. 29. Ivanhoe, Treasure Island and Black Beauty. 30. Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, James Joyce, TS Eliot and Vivekananda. 31. Ramayana and Mahabharata -- C Rajagopalachari. 32. Paradise Lost -- John Milton. 33. Morte d'Arthur -- Alfred Tennyson. 34. Death of a Salesman -- Arthur Miller. 35. Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Mukul Kesavan, Rukun Advani, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Jhumpa Lahiri, I Allan Sealy, Arundhati Roy and William Dalrymple. 36. The Trotter-nama -- I Allan Sealy. 37. The Everest Hotel -- I Allan Sealy. 38. The Life and Times of Altu-Faltu -- Ranjit Lal. 39. Mr Beast on YouTube. 40. The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar — Episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Ramki and the Ocean of Stories -- Episode 415 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Adolescence -- Created by Stephen Graham & Jack Thorne. 43. Anora -- Sean Baker. 44. Jerry Seinfeld on the results of the Seinfeld pilot. 45. Scam 1992 -- Hansal Mehta. 46. Dahaad -- Created by Reema Kagti & Zoya Akhtar. 47. The Delhi Walla -- Mayank Austen Soofi. 48. Flood of Fire -- Amitav Ghosh. 49. The Shadow Lines -- Amitav Ghosh. 50. The God of Small Things -- Arundhati Roy. 51. Shillong Chamber Choir. 52. The Waste Land -- TS Eliot. 53. Omkara, Maqbool and Haider -- Vishal Bhardwaj. 54. A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens. 55. William Shakespeare and Henry James. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Your Time Starts Now’ by Simahina.
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    4 hrs and 10 mins
  • Ep 419: India's MSME Landscape -- Some Useful Frameworks

    Ep 419: India's MSME Landscape -- Some Useful Frameworks
    Jun 2 2025
    Firms are the means of economic progress. India's micro, small and medium enterprises have been hobbled for decades, and flounder even today. Sudhir Sarnobat and Narendra Shenoy join Amit Varma in episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss this landscape -- and Sudhir's brilliant new venture that aims to tackle this. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sudhir Sarnobat on Twitter and LinkedIn. 2. Naren Shenoy on Twitter, Instagram and Blogspot. 3. How Frameworks — Sudhir Sarnobat’s new venture. 4. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World -- Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 7. You’re Ugly and You’re Hairy and You’re Covered in Shit but You’re Mine and I Love You -- Episode 362 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 8. The Teaching Learning Community. 9. Ascent Foundation. 10. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything. 11. Other episodes of Everything is Everything on firms: 1, 2, 3, 4. 12. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran -- Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Restaurant Regulations in India — Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon). 14. Restart -- Mihir Sharma. 15. Backstage — Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 16. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Devil's Dictionary -- Ambrose Bierce. 18. The Bad and Complex Tax -- Episode 74 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 19. They Stole a Bridge. They Stole a Pond -- Amit Varma. 20. Bihar real estate brokers build illegal bridge on river. 21. The Globalisation Episode -- Episode 95 of Everything is Everything. 22. Is Globalization Doomed? -- Episode 96 of Everything is Everything 23. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 24. The Case for Nuclear Electricity -- Episode 78 of Everything is Everything. 25. अंतू बरवा -- Pu La Deshpande. 26. Testaments Betrayed -- Milan Kundera. 27. The Double ‘Thank You’ Moment — John Stossel. 28. Marginal Revolution University. 29. The Bankable Wisdom of Harsh Vardhan — Episode 352 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown -- Denis Diderot. 31. Good to Great -- Jim Collins. 32. Economics in One Lesson -- Henry Hazlitt. 33. The Goal -- Eliyahu Goldratt. 34. The Toyota Way -- Jeffrey Liker. 35. Start With Why -- Simon Sinek. 36. The Lean Startup -- Eric Reis. 37. The Hard Thing About Hard Things -- Ben Horowitz. 38. Romancing the Balance Sheet -- Anil Lamba. 39. Connect the Dots -- Rashmi Bansal. 40. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel. 41. Acquired, Lenny's Podcast, EconTalk, Work Life, Rethinking, The Knowledge Project, How I Built This, Everything is Everything, HBR Podcast, Ideacast, Deep Questions. 42. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 43. Can We Build Switzerland in India? -- Episode 58 of Everything is Everything. 44. Dwarkesh Patel and Hannah Fry. 45. Habuild. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Battleground’ by Simahina.
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    4 hrs and 40 mins
  • Ep 418: What Just Happened Between India & Pakistan?

    Ep 418: What Just Happened Between India & Pakistan?
    May 19 2025
    Why did the attacks in Pahalgam happen? What took place in the skirmishes after that? What have we learnt about geopolitics and our military preparedness? Pranay Kotasthane and Aditya Ramanathan join Amit Varma in episode 418 of The Seen and the Unseen to try to clear some of the fog of war. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Aditya Ramanathan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and the Takshashila Institution. 3. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane’s podcast (with Saurabh Chandra & Khyati Pathak). 4. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s newsletter. 5. All Things Policy -- The Takshashila Institution's podcast. 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. The India-Pakistan Conflict -- Episode 111 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 8. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Hamsini Hariharan). 9. India in the Nuclear Age -- Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 10. All previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 11. Aditya Ramanathan's piece on how India's air defence system performed. 12. Aditya Ramanathan's analysis of Operation Sindoor. 13. 9/11 and Pakistan’s Economy (2006) -- Amit Varma's post on 'Al Faeda'. 14. Action Produces Information -- Brian Armstrong at Startup Archive. 15. Khushi Mukherjee on India, Pakistan and PoK. 16. The Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition, 1969-1970 -- Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov. 17. Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks -- Barry R Posen. 18. The People Next Door: The Curious History of India-Pakistan Relations -- TCA Raghavan. 19. The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan: Post-Partition Statehood in South Asia -- Atul Mishra. 20. Husain Haqqani on Amazon. 21. Empires of the Indus -- Alice Albinia. 22. Network for Advanced Study of Pakistan (NASP) Fellowship. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Fog of War’ by Simahina.
    Show more Show less
    2 hrs and 30 mins
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Lant Pritchett is an economist’s economist. Comes across as more insightful about emerging markets, India and the Indian political economy than most Indian economists.

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Developmental Economics 101

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