In this episode, I talk with Amitava Kumar about his 2024 novel My Beloved Life, an absorbing, exceptionally moving novel that traces the arc of a man’s life, an ordinary life made exceptional by the fact that he has loved and has been loved in turn ..read more

In this episode, I talk to the award-winning writer Yashica Dutt about her book "Coming Out as Dalit." The book exposes the blurred lines between caste and race, for both are fabrications meant to preserve the power of a few and require the ideological purchase of the many. And for women, for whom 'purity' is a measure of status and value, the traps of caste are even more sinister, even deadly ..read more

In this episode, I talk to the award-winning writer Yashica Dutt about her book "Coming Out as Dalit." The book exposes the blurred lines between caste and race, for both are fabrications meant to preserve the power of a few and require the ideological purchase of the many. And for women, for whom 'purity' is a measure of status and value, the traps of caste are even more sinister, even deadly ..read more

In this episode, I talk with four highly accomplished and widely published, US-based South Asian scholars, professors, creative writers, and performance artists - Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Dr. Shreerekha Pillai Subramanian, Dr. Shoba Rajgopal, and Dr. Pramila Venkateswaran - about their contribution to the June 2022 special double issue of the Journal of International Women’s Studies and WAGADU (A transnational journal of women’s and gender studies ..read more

In this episode, I talk with the Indian filmmaker, Shaunak Sen, about his Academy Award-nominated best Documentary film "All That Breathes," which tells the story of two brothers who've devoted their lives to protecting and rehabilitating birds in northern Delhi ..read more

In this episode, I interview Mohsin Hamid, the award-winning British Pakistani novelist about his latest 2022 novel The Last White Man. Set in an unspecified city and country, this magic realist novel is about a white man who wakes up one morning to find himself changed to a darker skin color and a different, unfamiliar appearance ..read more

In this episode, I talk with the award-winning Hindi language writer Geetanjali Shree, about her latest novel Tomb of Sand which won the 2022 International Booker Prize ..read more

In this episode, I talk with India's acclaimed and award-winning actress, writer, and painter Deepti Naval about her memoir "A Country Called Childhood" where she talks about growing up in Amritsar, India, her life as a student of art in New York, her return to India as an actor, a career which she combines with poetry and painting ..read more

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Tanmeet Sethi, an integrative family medicine physician, and clinical associate professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Our conversation focused on her debut book, Joy is My Justice, which explores cultivating and practicing joy in the face of oppression and day-to-day hardships ..read more

In this episode, I speak with the award-winning film director Kanu Behl, about his film Agra, his second feature film, which had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Director’s Fortnight. Written by Behl and Atika Chouhan, Agra is an exploration of sexual dynamics within a family and the deep dystopian fractures created in modern India fast shrinking into pigeon-holed spaces. Kanu's first feature film Titli was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival ..read more