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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 425: The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das

    Ep 425: The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das
    Aug 25 2025
    He reached the top of the corporate world -- and then gave it up to become a writer, with books that probed our deepest questions, and influenced millions of people. Gurcharan Das joins Amit Varma in episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life and learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Gurcharan Das on Amazon, Wikipedia, Twitter, LinkedIn, Times of India and his own website. 2. Another Sort of Freedom -- Gurcharan Das. 3. India Unbound -- Gurcharan Das. 4. The Difficulty of Being Good -- Gurcharan Das. 5. Kama: The Riddle of Desire -- Gurcharan Das. 6. Three Plays: Larins Sahib, Mira, 9 Jakhoo Hill -- Gurcharan Das. 7. A Fine Family -- Gurcharan Das. 8. The Elephant Paradigm -- Gurcharan Das. 9. India Grows At Night -- Gurcharan Das. 10. The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal -- Gurcharan Das. 11. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. 12. Rashomon -- Akira Kurosawa. 13. Toba Tek Singh -- Sadat Hasan Manto. 14. Imagined Communities -- Benedict Anderson. 15. A Treatise of Human Nature -- David Hume. 16. Tales from the Kathasaritsagara -- Soma Deva (translated by Arshia Sattar). 17. What These Labels Mean -- Episode 107 of Everything is Everything. 18. Economic Facts and Fallacies -- Thomas Sowell. 19. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression -- Amity Shlaes. 20. In Search of Lost Time -- Marcel Proust. 21. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 22. War and Peace -- Leo Tolstoy. 23. Pedro Páramo -- Juan Rulfo. 24. Don Quixote -- Miguel De Cervantes. 25. The Great Books of the Western World -- Edited by Mortimer J Adler. 26. The Double 'Thank You' Moment -- John Stossel. 27. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Episode 37 of Everything is Everything. 28. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Nature of the Firm -- Ronald Coase. 30. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 32. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 34. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. The 1991 Project. 36. The Future of War -- Episode 112 of Everything is Everything. 37. Perpetual Peace -- Immanuel Kant. 38. The Bhagawad Gita. 39. Four Quartets -- TS Eliot. 40. Walden -- Henry David Thoreau. 41. Essays on the Gita -- Sri Aurobindo. 42. Sri Bhagavadgita Rahasya -- Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 43. Many Threads of Hinduism -- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya. 44. Bourgeois Dignity -- Deirdre McCloskey. 45. The Makropulos Case -- Karel Capek. 46. The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality -- Bernard Williams. 47. Don't Punish Victimless Crimes -- Episode 73 of Everything is Everything. 48. The Mahabharata. 48. Plato, Aristotle and Karl Marx. 49. Charulata -- Satyajit Ray. 50. The Apu Trilogy -- Satyajit Ray. 51. The Calcutta Trilogy -- Satyajit Ray. 52. Shatranj ke Khiladi -- Satyajit Ray. 53. Duvidha -- Mani Kaul. 54. Cinema Paradiso -- Giuseppe Tornatore. 55. Amarcord -- Federico Fellini. 56. Stolen Kisses -- François Truffaut. 57. Last Year at Marienbad -- Alain Resnais. 58. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis -- Vittorio De Sica. 59. The Prince -- Niccolò Machiavelli. 60. The Leopard -- Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa. 61. The Leopard -- Luchino Visconti. 62. Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Kishori Amonkar and Mallikarjun Mansur on Spotify. 63. The plays of Anton Chekhov. 64. The short stories of Anton Chekhov. 65. Four Major Plays -- Federico García Lorca. 66. The Great Gatsby -- F Scott Fitzgerald. 67. Waiting for Godot -- Samuel Beckett. 68. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 69. The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 70. The Stranger -- Albert Camus. 71. The Black Paintings -- Francisco Goya. 72. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 73. Virasat-e-Khalsa. 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: ‘Two Birds’ by Simahina.
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    7 hrs and 54 mins
  • Ep 424: Gitanjali Babbar and the Didis of GB Road

    Ep 424: Gitanjali Babbar and the Didis of GB Road
    Aug 11 2025
    Trained as a journalist, but driven by a desire to make a difference, she spent over a decade working with sex workers in Delhi to understand and improve their lives. Gitanjali Babbar joins Amit Varma in episode 424 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her learnings about GB Road -- and our strange and twisted society. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Gitanjali Babbar on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. 2. Kat Katha (also on Facebook and Instagram.) 3. Donate to Kat Katha. (Alternate link). 4. Select talks by and interviews of Gitanjali Babbar: 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. The Fat Girl -- Andre Dubus. 6. Aashayein -- song from Iqbal. 7. Talks on the Gita -- Vinobha Bhave. 8. The Forty Rules of Love -- Elif Shafak. 9. Tu Jhoom -- Naseebo Lal and Abida Parveen. 10. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar -- Mansoor Khan. 11. Saathiya -- Shaad Ali. 12. Anurag Garg on Amazon. 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 Street’ by Simahina.
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    3 hrs and 55 mins
  • Ep 423: Minar Pimple's Life in Social Work

    Ep 423: Minar Pimple's Life in Social Work
    Jul 28 2025
    He founded the iconic organisation Yuva 50 years ago when he was in his early 20s, pioneered social work in India, and went on to drive change for the UN and Amnesty. Minar Pimple joins Amit Varma in episode 423 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his learnings and the ceaseless tumult in our society. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Minar Pimple at Yuva and Instagram. 2. An ISDM case study of Yuva. 3. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. India’s MSME Landscape — Some Useful Frameworks -- Episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sudhir Sarnobat and Narendra Shenoy). 5. The Atheism Episode -- Episode 83 of Everything is Everything. 6. Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Friedrich Engels. 7. The Communist Manifesto -- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 8. The Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. 9. Paulo Freire and Saul Alinsky. 10. Towards a Philosophy of Social Work in India -- Sugata Dasgupta. 11. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 13. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 14. The Gate of Angels -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 15. The Moral Animal -- Robert Wright. 16. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 17. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World — Snigdha Poonam. 18. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 19. Adolescence — Created by Stephen Graham & Jack Thorne. 20. The Mayor of Casterbridge -- Thomas Hardy. 21. All My Sons -- Arthur Miller. 22. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Salil Tripathi and the Gujaratis -- Episode 409 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community — Salil Tripathi. 25. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 26. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 27. The Case for Nuclear Electricity -- Episode 78 of Everything is Everything. 28. Pyaasa -- Guru Dutt. 29. Samna -- Jabbar Patel. 30. Phule -- Anant Mahadevan. 31. Long Walk To Freedom -- Nelson Mandela. 32. Why I am an Atheist -- Bhagat Singh. 33. Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule -- Edited by GP Deshpande. 34. IPTA Mumbai. 35. Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi on Spotify. And here are the episodes mentioned by Amit in the introduction: 1. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 2. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us — Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Ajay Shah Brings the Dreams of the 20th Century -- Episode 402 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 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: ‘Praxis’ by Simahina.
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    9 hrs and 25 mins
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