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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 435: A Primer on China

    Ep 435: A Primer on China
    Jan 12 2026
    China looms large in our modern world -- and yes, is misunderstood, or not understood at all. Manoj Kewalramani joins Amit Varma in episode 435 of The Seen and the Unseen to put together a primer on China, from ancient times through all the kingdoms through Mao and Deng to Xi and this present moment. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Manoj Kewalramani on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Scholar, Amazon, Takshashila, Substack and his own website. 2. The Takshashila Institution. 3. The Great Power Show on Spotify, Apple and Substack. 4. Tracking People's Daily -- Manoj Kewalramani's Substack Newsletter. 5. Eye on China -- Anushka Saxena's Substack newsletter (formerly written by Manoj). 6. China in the Changing Geo-economic Landscape -- A Takshashila course on China that begins later this month. 7. The China Dude Is in the House -- Episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 8. What Does China Want? — Episode 143 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 9. Chinese Foreign Policy — Episode 81 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 10. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 11. The Dragon and the Elephant — Episode 181 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Hamsini Hariharan & Shibani Mehta). 12. Keeping India Safe — Episode 219 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sushant Singh). 13. Kanti Bajpai on India vs China -- Episode 234 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. The History of Indian Cricket -- Mihir Bose. 15. The Invention of China -- Bill Hayton. 16. When Marx Met Confucius. 17. Red Roulette -- Desmond Shum. 18. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. 19. China's New Red Guards -- Jude Blanchette. 20. Factional Model-making in China -- Olivia Cheung. 21. America against America -- Wang Huning. 22. The Lying Flat Movement. 23. China Media Project. 24. Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag — Episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Wealth and Power -- Orville Schell and John Delury. 26. Rethinking Chinese Politics -- Joseph Fewsmith. 27. The Party's Interests Come First -- Joseph Torigian. 28. Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion -- Joseph Torigian. 29. John Fairbank, Alastair Iain Johnston and Vijay Gokhale on Amazon. 30. The Long Game -- Vijay Gokhale. 31. China Talk -- Jordan Schneider. 32. Sinica -- Kaiser Kuo. 33. The Third Revolution -- Elizabeth Economy. 34. End of an Era -- Carl Minzner. 35. Hrithik Roshan on Dhurandhar. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a 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. 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: ‘A Maze’ by Simahina.
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    3 hrs and 48 mins
  • Ep 434: An Ode to Meanderness

    Ep 434: An Ode to Meanderness
    Dec 29 2025
    Enough serious talk about economics and geopolitics. As the year draws to an end, it's time to sit and chill with friends -- and let the mind meander. Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 434 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about friendship, horses, second acts -- and more! (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram, her podcast, Ideas of India and her own website. 2. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, Puliyabaazi and the Takshashila Institution. 3. Emergent Ventures India. 4. The Takshashila Institution. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. 6. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 7. Shruti Rajagopalan Remembers the Angle of the Light -- Episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 10. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 11. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 12. 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). 13. Long Distance II -- Tony Harrison. 14. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Poetic Feminism of Paromita Vohra — Episode 339 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Heart of Disruption -- Episode 86 of Everything is Everything (on Amit's heart issues). 17. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto). 18. How I Reversed My Type 2 Diabetes -- Episode 9 of Everything is Everything. 19. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 20. The Art of Reading -- Episode 120 of Everything is Everything. 21. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Inside the Hearts of Men and Women -- Episode 118 of Everything is Everything. 23. Understanding Human Sexuality -- Episode 126 of Everything is Everything. 24. Kavitha Rao Chases Chatto and Roy -- Episode 416 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. The Life and Times of the Takshashila Institution -- Episode 433 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane). 27. I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City -- Harry Nilsson. 28. After Virtue -- Alasdair MacIntyre. 29. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 30. The Black Paintings -- Francisco Goya. 31. From Strength to Strength -- Arthur Brooks. 32. Songs of Surrender -- U2. 33. Creep -- Radiohead. 34. Choo Lo -- The Local Train. 35. Second Act -- Henry Oliver. 36. BR Ambedkar's Grammar of Anarchy Speech in Hindi on Puliyabaazi. 37. Mohak Mangal, Veritasium, 3Blue1Brown, Jared Owen, Van Neistat and vlogbrothers. 38. We're here because were here -- The vlogbrothers video Amit mentions. 39. Mathematica -- David Bessis. 40. A Sixth Of Humanity — Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. 41. In Praise of Floods -- James C Scott. 42. Seeing Like a State -- James C Scott. 43. Against the Grain -- James C Scott. 44. A Passion for Cycling -- Episode 53 of Everything is Everything. 45. Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process -- Henrik Karlsson. 46. On agency -- Henrik Karlsson. 47. Notes on the Synthesis of Form -- Christopher Alexander. 48. Anaximander -- Carlo Rovelli. 49. Divya Prakash Dubey: Ek Jeevani -- Episode 399 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Ibnebatuti -- Divya Prakash Dubey. 51. Divya Prakash Dubey and Terry Pratchett on Amazon. 52. His Dark Materials -- Philip Pullman. 53. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma. 54. Amit's backscratcher. 55. Notebook LM. 56. Learn LM by Ashish Kulkarni. 57. Bojack Horseman on Netflix. 58. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a 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. 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. ...
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    2 hrs and 55 mins
  • Ep 433: The Life and Times of the Takshashila Institution

    Ep 433: The Life and Times of the Takshashila Institution
    Dec 15 2025
    India's policy ecosystem was once a desolate landscape, stuck in bad ideas of the past. One institution shook it all up. Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 433 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe their journey building the Takshashila Institution. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Nitin Pai on Twitter, LinkedIn, his own website and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 3. The Takshashila Institution. 4. Takshashila's courses and Open Takshashila. 5. The Liberal Nationalism of Nitin Pai — Episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Nitin Pai: 1, 2, 3. 8. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. 9. The archives of The Acorn, Nitin Pai's blog. 10. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das -- Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Assembling India's Constitution -- Rohit De and Ornit Shani. 12. The Overton Window. 13. Nitin Pai's 2011 FAQ on Anna Hazare and the Lok Pal bill. 14. Arthashastra and History of the Peloponnesian War. 15. Distance From Delhi -- Various Takshashila authors. 16. The Age of the Partial Outsider — Janan Ganesh. 17. The Prestige -- Christopher Priest. 18. Everything Evolves -- Mark Vellend. 19. Humankind -- Rutger Bregman. 20. A Sixth Of Humanity -- Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a 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. 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: ‘Lighthouse’ by Simahina.
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    3 hrs and 49 mins
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