12: Childhood – The TV Shows & Movies that Moulded Us

Growing up in the 80s in India was quite the experience. You had just 2 TV channels, would rent VCRs to watch movies on VHS tapes, and absorb every bit of entertainment because there was (relatively) so little of it available. Then satellite TV came, you grew up, and decades later revisited those childhood shows, […]

#11: Tolerance – Should we argue, or just Unfriend each other?

We live in an increasingly polarized world where facts and opinions get tangled up with emotions and identity. How do we navigate all this? Should we be fighting for our beliefs? Or is it smarter to just ‘unfriend’ people and move on? In this episode, Susheel and Rohan explore what ‘tolerance’ looks like (or perhaps […]

#10: Stress in the Time of COVID-19: Why We’re Stressed & How We Can Cope

The pandemic is stripping us of many of our coping strategies for stress. We’re in lockdown, we’re getting crazier deadlines, and there’s a virus spreading in our community. But do we need to be spiralling out of control? In this episode, Susheel and Rohan explore these issues and then invite neuropsychologist Anirudh George to share his take on them.

#9: The Fear of Missing Out [FOMO]: An Amusing (But Very Real) ‘Lockdown’ Anxiety

The COVID-19 lockdown has us swinging between paralyzing anxiety and a gnawing feeling that we should be ‘doing more’ with our newly gifted time at home. But what exactly are we afraid we’re missing out on? And will we really be happier once we find it?    00:00 – Opening question: How do you make […]

#8 Minimalism: “How Many Things Am I Allowed to Own?”

Is minimalism just about getting rid of stuff? And if you want to be a minimalist, are you allowed only 1 spoon, 1 bowl and 2 t-shirts? In this episode, we debunk some of these mainstream myths, explore what minimalism could be about instead, and offer some real-world examples of how it can change your […]

#7: COVID-19: Sweden’s Response [Good, Bad, or Ugly?]

“Why has Sweden’s response to COVID-19 been so much less restrictive than the rest of the world’s? Has their strategy worked? And, should India act similarly?” In this episode, Dr. Prathap Tharyan returns to answer these questions posed by a friend of the show. And he unpacks the issues involved in his trademark systematic, comprehensive, […]

#6: Sliding Doors Mini 1 – NVidia RTX Voice

As a demonstration of what machine learning and AI can be used for in daily life, NVidia has released the beta version of their RTX Voice application. What this app does is truly amazing. It filters out all audio except for human voice that is spoken into a microphone this means that in most cases, […]

#5: COVID-19: Facts Only, Please

The COVID threat is both new and old. The coronavirus and the way  it infects is novel, but we’ve seen pandemics before. So, what have we  learned from them? And can we distill those lessons into actionable  solutions for the COVID challenge? Dr Prathap Tharyan (Adjunct Professor, Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Christian Medical College, Vellore)  talks […]

#4 Communities: “Build It and They Will Come”

How do communities form? What keeps them together? And why do they split?  Referencing  events discussed in the first episode of the season, Susheel recollects  his behind-the-scenes experiences of Parkour’s birth and growth in  Chennai. And over the course of the conversation, he captures a basic  truth about many young communities: They form without structure […]

#3: Joe Rogan: The Beginner’s Guide [Is He a Bigot? Or an Enlightened Explorer?]

Joe Rogan is an American comedian, mixed martial artist, UFC commentator, and podcaster with a cult following. In 2019, his ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ (JRE) podcast was averaging 190,000,000 downloads a month — giving him a greater reach than even American mainstream media! But is Joe (as writer Theodore Kupfer asks) a “weed-smoking DMT-obsessive, whose most cherished […]