Afleveringen
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There is a man who steals the electricity bills of everyone in his apartment block. Why? Can he find love and redemption? Two young Sikhs take a stand defending a bridge. Why? What do they really want? Two great chess players take each other on. Are they playing the game on the board, or some other game? There is a child in the mail. What? A child in the MAIL?
Welcome to Episode 79 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay lay out four more stories that should be films. Great fun -- and much to think about!
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: More Stories!00:54 Story 1: Collector of Bills23:04 Story 2: The Khalsa Bridge38:13 Story 3: Two Chess Stories48:02 Story 4: Postal Boy
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Nuclear power has been given a bad name. It is the safest form of energy, and a huge leap forward in solving for climate change. What's more, with small modular reactors becoming feasible, it may end up being far cheaper than it used to be as well.
Welcome to Episode 78 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay put forward the case for nuclear electricity -- and Ajay describes in detail how India should think about it. They allay all the typical fears -- and then make a case for freedom, not for action.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: What's in a Name?00:50 Chapter 1: The Broad Case for Nuclear Energy04:15 Chapter 2: A Historical Perspective: Why Nuclear Stumbled09:06 Chapter 3: Let’s Talk About Safety18:29 Chapter 4: Small Modular Reactors30:33 Chapter 5: The Indian Story37:27 Chapter 6: Our Nuclear Energy Dream40:50 Chapter 7: The Five Conditions for Success49:20 Chapter 8: An Argument for Freedom52:09 Chapter 9: Recommendations
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
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Many of the objects we grew up with have disappeared with time -- and overall, progress is a damn good thing. But many of these lost objects also represent a different way of doing things and of living life, and some of that would have been worth holding on to.
Welcome to Episode 77 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay share objects from their past -- and what they represented then and mean now.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: What's in the Bag?06:33 Chapter 1: Mixtapes12:01 Chapter 2: Letters by Hand22:02 Chapter 3: Playboy26:45 Chapter 4: Diary31:06 Chapter 5: Old Books33:52 Chapter 6: Address Book39:20 Chapter 7: Filofax and Recipes43:10 Chapter 8: Visiting Cards45:09 Chapter 9: STD Booths50:34 Chapter 10: Maps53:10 Chapter 11: Landline Phones57:37 Chapter 12: Cash
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Hinduism contains multitudes -- and is contained by multitudes. Any simple story you tell about it is bound to be false.
Welcome to Episode 76 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay put together a potted history of Hinduism that goes beyond simple narratives and acknowledges its complexity. They also try to make sense of the historical circumstances and incentives that shaped it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Not a Name, But a River03:32 Chapter 1: The Early History17:09 Chapter 2: The Role of Religion20:07 Chapter 3: The Puranic Period29:35 Chapter 4: The Arrival of Islam34:43 Chapter 5: The Open-Source Epics37:56 Chapter 6: The Missionaries46:20 Chapter 7: Colonialism52:18 Chapter 8: The Movements Within Hinduism58:14 Chapter 9: Arriving at Hindutva1:05:43 Chapter 10: The Question of Caste1:11:09 Chapter 11: Hinduism Today1:14:45 Chapter 12: Recommendations
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The study of humanity is the study of humanity. Everything is everything. And yet, different disciplines of study have imprisoned themselves in silos, refusing to learn from each other.
Welcome to Episode 75 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss a great paper from Biju Rao that talks about what economists can learn from anthropologists and sociologists -- and how only a multidisciplinary approach can reveal the world.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: How We Read and Why09:08 Chapter 1: Economics, Anthropology, Sociology: The Sad Divergence18:01 Chapter 2: Cognitive Empathy22:43 Chapter 3: The Importance of Words24:27 Chapter 4: Process Matters26:22 Chapter 5: The Power of Participation28:32 Chapter 6: The Incentives Within Academia49:06 Chapter 7: Learn the Thumri54:12 Chapter 8: Recommendations
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Which Indian hasn't experienced a KYC nightmare? And yet, we have normalised it. We should instead fight it. India's KYC is not just the worst such measure in the world, it is also an infringement on our rights.
Welcome to Episode 74 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Kaagaz Dikhaao!00:50 Chapter 1: The Curious Tale of Lal Bihari Mritak04:55 Chapter 2: The Nightmare of KYC09:26 Chapter 3: The Importance of Financial Privacy21:24 Chapter 4: The History of KYC34:02 Chapter 5: Why India Has the Worst KYC38:58 Chapter 6: Why Aadhaar Didn’t Solve This41:55 Chapter 7: Don’t Take Blindly From the USA44:29 Chapter 8: Recommendations
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Should alcohol be banned? What about recreational drugs? Gambling? Hate speech?
You may disapprove of certain things, but if they do not infringe anyone's rights, then turning them into crimes tends to backfire. We should think hard about what we classify as crimes -- and also examine our own morality.
Welcome to Episode 73 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: How Do We Wow Them Today?01:02 Chapter 1: What Are Victimless Crimes?03:47 Chapter 2: Why We Should Not Punish Victimless Crimes07:10 Chapter 3: Alcohol14:19 Chapter 4: Drugs20:32 Chapter 5: Gambling25:03 Chapter 6: Prostitution30:30 Chapter 7: Homosexuality34:37 Chapter 8: Self-Harm39:10 Chapter 9: Hate Speech40:47 Chapter 10: The German Cannibal and our Moral Intuitions47:36 Chapter 11: State Capability58:31 Chapter 12: Recommendations
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Songs, albums, books, films are the way they for a reason -- and those reasons are outdated. The dominant forms of creative expression evolved because of constraints that no longer apply. We should free our minds and look beyond them!
Welcome to Episode 72 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: The Contemplative Atom02:29 Chapter 1: Understand Form05:57 Chapter 2: The Sound of Birds09:51 Chapter 3: How Music Was Shaped By Form26:26 Chapter 4: Form and Writing37:48 Chapter 5: The Audio-Visual Medium44:52 Chapter 6: A Golden Age For Creators56:42 Chapter 7: Recommendations
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Finance is the lifeblood of every economy. India's financial system has taken decades to evolve to where it is today -- and we still have a long way to go. What has this journey been like? What can we learn?
Welcome to Episode 71 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma & Ajay Shah.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 02:56 Chapter 1: Banking39:33 Chapter 2: Equity Markets51:33 Chapter 3: Other Financial Firms57:31 Chapter 4: Currency Controls1:07:58 Chapter 5: Bankruptcy1:18:40 Chapter 6: Monetary Policy1:22:52 Chapter 7: Household Finance1:27:32 Chapter 8: Financial Surveillance 1:29:26 Chapter 9: Systemic Risk1:41:40 Chapter 10: The Problems of State Power1:46:43 Chapter 11: The Policy Process1:48:21 Chapter 12: DPI1:51:02 Chapter 13: Still Central Planning1:55:13 Chapter 14: Recos
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India's system of competitive entrance exams is broken. There is too much pressure on kids and their families -- and we don't even get the best outcomes.
Welcome to Episode 70 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss what's broken about the system. What can we do to make the current system work better? What can we do to attack the root cause and build a better world for the generations to come? Listen in!
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: A Multiple Choice Question!01:03 Chapter 1: The Problem With Competitive Exams03:56 Chapter 2: The Meritocracy Lie11:39 Chapter 3: Coaching Classes are Not the Problem15:47 Chapter 4: Ajay’s Three-Part Solution26:36 Chapter 5: Free the Colleges!34:02 Chapter 6: The Lottery Proposal43:24 Chapter 7: The Root Cause49:00 Chapter 8: Ajay’s advice For Parents and Students 50:38 Chapter 9: Recommendations
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The specialisation of our species is storytelling -- and yet, some people say, we are really just telling the same stories again and again.
Welcome to Episode 69 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit discusses the classic book by Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots. Booker asserts that there are just seven storylines we recycle again and again -- and all of literature & Hollywood & Bollywood & Tollywood & Lollywood draw on these. What are they? Can there be more? Why should we never feel constrained as storytellers? What do Jaws, Sholay and the Russia-Ukraine war have in common?
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: What Is That Orange Ball in the Sky?03:31 Prologue: Finding the Tropes11:22 Chapter 1: Overcoming the Monster14:41 Chapter 2: Rags to Riches18:40 Chapter 3: The Quest24:05 Chapter 4: Voyage and Return27:55 Chapter 5: Comedy34:56 Chapter 6: Tragedy40:38 Chapter 7: Rebirth43:25 Chapter 8: A Tragic Ending to the Episode
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Inflation is a tax on the poor. High and variable inflation can shatter the fine interplay of incentives and information within an economy. And, as Milton Friedman famously said, inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.
The state is responsible -- and the central bank's one job should be to keep inflation in check.
Thankfully, we got that right with inflation targeting.
Welcome to Episode 68 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Ajay talks about why inflation can be such a problem, and Inflation Targeting is an elegant way to keep it under control. Ajay was in the policy community in India that made it happen. Here's the inside story!
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Ajay Loves Bumper Stickers!00:55 Chapter 1: A Basic Guide to Inflation05:40 Chapter 2: What Do You Measure?13:25 Chapter 3: Why Inflation Matters30:02 Chapter 4: Introducing Inflation Targeting36:45 Chapter 5: Inside the Boiler Room42:05 Chapter 6: The India Story1:01:23 Chapter 7: Recommendations
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
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In the last episode, Amit and Ajay spoke about how the state should never mess with the price system. Well, the exchange rate is the most important price -- and the state shouldn't try to control that either!
Welcome to Episode 67 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Ajay sheds light on one of his pet peeves -- people's obsession with the exchange rate. It doesn't matter if the rupee is 'strong' or 'weak', he argues -- these terms mean nothing. All mature economies have learnt to leave the exchange rate to the market -- and so should we. A freely fluctuating exchange rate guarantees macroeconomic stability.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Ajay Loves Bumper Stickers!05:47 Chapter 1: The Exchange Rate is the Most Important Price21:48 Chapter 2: The Evolution of Exchange Rates27:46 Chapter 3: The Three Rooms in the House33:52 Chapter 4: Fluctuating Exchange Rates are Great!42:57 Chapter 5: The India Story1:08:47 Chapter 6: Recommendations1:11:04 Chapter 7: Life Lessons
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How do people in society fulfil each other's needs while being self-interested? No human person or committee could coordinate all this -- but the miraculous, decentralised system of prices do exactly this.
And when you mess with prices, you harm society. Always.
Welcome to Episode 66 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay describe how all interventions in the price system end badly & harm the poor -- from price caps to rent control to the minimum wage to MSPs to import tariffs. Don't mess with the price system!
By the way, Amit and Ajay have launched their online course LIFE LESSONS. Click here to sign up: https://lifelessons.co.in/
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: The Gravity of Gravity02:10 Chapter 1: The Miracle of Prices11:53 Chapter 2: Price Caps32:18 Chapter 3: Rent Control39:20 Chapter 4: Minimum Wage53:06 Chapter 5: Minimum Support Prices57:54 Chapter 6: Import Tariffs1:01:55 Chapter 7: Why Don't We Learn?1:11:46 Chapter 8: Recommendations1:13:21 Life Lessons!
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
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There was a time when India's pensions system grew to become a threat to the country. Then we fixed it -- kinda. And now it's going to hell again.
Welcome to Episode 65 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Ajay takes us through the history and evolution of pensions, why the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) was such a catastrophe, how there was a bipartisan consensus on the New Pension Scheme (NPS), and how this field is on fire again. And of course, why it matters -- because it does!
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Who Will Stop the Bleeding?02:45 Chapter 1: Why We Are Doing This Episode05:46 Chapter 2: The Origin of Pensions18:21 Chapter 3: The Evolution of Pensions31:37 Chapter 4: The Old Pension Scheme40:19 Chapter 5: The New Pension Scheme55:38 Chapter 6: The Political Process1:09:16 Chapter 7: What Went Wrong?1:28:27 Chapter 8: What About the Unified Pension Scheme?1:34:29 Chapter 9: Structural Reforms vs Parametric Reforms1:41:25 Chapter 10: Recommendations
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
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The world is at war -- and not all of it is in the obvious ways. There is a war around technology, and using technology, and the US and China are at the heart of it.
Welcome to Episode 64 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Ajay and Amit discuss the contours of the global tech wars playing out on the geopolitical stage. It is fundamental, it is fierce and it affects us all.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: But a Distant Memory?04:37 Chapter 1: What is This Great Drama?07:19 Chapter 2: How This War is Playing Out13:00 Chapter 3: It All Goes to Hell. Why?38:31 Chapter 4: What Can Happen Next?54:14 Chapter 5: Recommendations
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
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We often assume that all knowledge is recorded, and every generation builds on the knowledge of past generations. This is not true. Much knowledge is lost -- and some is regained.
Welcome to Episode 63 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss precious knowledge of remarkable things that we lost over time -- some of which we are slowly regaining!
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: The Witch Casts a Spell13:08 Chapter 1: Silphium/Silpheon20:00 Chapter 2: Dhaka Muslin29:11 Chapter 3: Fogbank36:43 Chapter 4: Artemisinin49:07 Chapter 5: Reconstructing Germany and Japan After WW2
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In academia and research, the pursuit of knowledge very often culminates in a paper. But even outside that field -- within any field, in fact -- knowledge must be pursued, parsed, processed and put down on paper. Everyone should know how to do this, even if you never want to write a paper in your life.
Welcome to Episode 62 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Ajay distills his experience of many decades of writing papers into a masterclass that will help you not just be a better writer, but a better thinker.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Chapter 1: The Sociology of How This Machine Works15:29 Chapter 2: The Elements of a Paper20:24 Chapter 3: What Makes for a Good Paper?25:59 Chapter 4: Put the Reader First34:39 Chapter 5: The Structure of a Paper47:21 Chapter 6: The Act of Writing55:38 Chapter 7: Getting It Out There1:01:11 Chapter 8: Ajay’s Insights About Writing Papers1:06:39 Chapter 9: Recommendations
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
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The people who change the world are people who go against the grain. And yet, challenging conventional wisdom, or living an unconventional life, can make you an Outlaw.
Welcome to Episode 61 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss a group of people who were ignored or reviled in their lifetimes -- and who we now remember as pathbreakers.
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Firms are awesome. They are the source of a country's prosperity. And so, some people make the blunder of assuming that you should run a country like a company.
This is a terrible mistake.
Welcome to Episode 60 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
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