Coronavirus has a lot of people worried. Till now it has infected at least one lakh people in 90 countries and claimed the lives of over 3,400 so far. But to put things in perspective, 770,000 people still die every year from AIDS and related illnesses, and around 15,00,000 of tuberculosis. So why is this new coronavirus causing so much panic? In this episode, Sandip talks to Dr. Gagandeep Kang, one of India's leading clinical scientists, about the myths around the virus, why she is hopeful for a vaccine, how climate change affects the spread of such viruses and more.

The Sandip Roy Show

45: Getting a coronavirus reality check, with Dr Gagandeep Kang

At a time when chess meant cold war rivalry between names like Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov, it was Viswanathan Anand that had put India on the world chess map. He became the first Grandmaster from India in 1988. He's a five time World Chess Champion, the first sportsman to win the Padma Vibhushan and has even had a minor planet named after him. In this episode he talks to Sandip about how he deals with losing, why he admires John McEnroe, his autobiography 'Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion's Life' and more. Bonus: Audio postcard from the Kolkata Book Fair.

44: Viswanathan Anand on being a bad loser and why he admires John McEnroe

The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have come as an unexpected challenge for the government, especially the speed with which they have flared up, and have ignited debates about citizenship and secularism. But journalist and writer, Kapil S Komireddi says these ideas have not come to be contested just because of this one act. He says that the idea of secularism was incrementally worn down over 70 years by those who profess to be its guardians. In this episode, Sandip talks to him about how it came to be, the role of Indian historians in inadvertently contributing to it and his latest book, Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India.

43: How Congress helped the BJP come to power, with Kapil Komireddi

In this episode, Sandip talks to Katherine Eban, an American journalist, whose bestselling book, Bottle of Lies, documents and exposes global fraud, large-scale data fabrication and unsafe practices inside Indian drug plants, including one of the biggest Indian pharmaceutical companies - Ranbaxy.

42: What Ranbaxy and Indian Pharma don't want you to know, with Katherine Eban

After nearly 70 years of Independence, the protests that have been happening across the country have led to impassioned debates about the idea of citizenship, secularism and the place of Muslims in India. In this episode, Sandip talks to writer, translator and literary historian, Rakhshanda Jalil, about her collection of essays about identify, culture and literature called But You Don't Look Like A Muslim.

41: 'Oh, but you don't look like a Muslim!' with Rakhshanda Jalil

Sandip Roy looks back at what has been a tumultuous decade. From Obama to Trump, from Facebook to TikTok and from the great Indian weddings to the great Indian smog, we've been through a lot. In this episode, we revisit some of the best conversations Sandip had with this year's guests, including Amitav Ghosh on climate change, Prannoy Roy on WhatsApp's influence on Indian elections, Harsh Mander on mob lynchings, Paro Anand on children growing up in conflict areas and Anjali Gopalan on animal rights.

40: The Best of Sandip Roy Show 2019

10,000 kms and 100% unplanned. Rajat Ubhaykar has a travel book like no other. From Kanyakumari to Kashmir and all the way to Imphal, he has travelled everywhere by trucks. To be accurate, he has hitchhiked on trucks, relying on the kindness of strangers. In this episode, Sandip talks to him about his travels, what he learned about truckers in India, the insights his rides gave him about how corruption works and his new book, 'Truck de India!: A Hitchhiker's guide to Hindustan'.

39: Trucking through India - A Hitchhiking Adventure with Rajat Ubhaykar

On 15th August 1947, India woke up to life and freedom, but not to technology.  Over the decades, India's political leadership has had a complicated relationship with scientific innovations. Some, like Mahatma Gandhi, distrusted machines while others, like Madan Mohan Malaviya, were technocrats. Arun Sukumar, a Junior Fellow at Fletcher School, Tufts University and the head of the technology initiative at the Observer Research Foundation of New Delhi joins Sandip to discuss his book "Midnight's Machines: A Political History of Technology in India". They discuss pivotal moments in India's tech history, how Prime Minister Modi sold Indians "a lethal cocktail of faith and technology", and the danger technology poses as well. Tune in.

38: The politics of India's relationship with technology, with Arun Sukumar

We live in a time when there is a plastic bag for almost everything and almost everything comes in a plastic bag. By 2050 the weight of plastic in the ocean is expected to be greater than the weight of the fish in it. In this episode, Sandip talks to Bharati Chaturvedi, founder-director of the environmental research and action group, Chintan, about the myriad ways in which plastic affects our lives and how we can realistically fight it.

37: Our plastic addiction and what we can do about it, with Bharati Chaturvedi

When the East India Company (EIC) arrived in India more than 400 years ago, India produced one-third of the world's GDP and Britain was responsible for only about three percent of it. EIC was a private company which eventually came to rule almost all of India. But how did it do that? In this episode, Sandip talks to writer and historian William Dalrymple about its rise, why people mistake it for the Raj and his latest book, The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, And The Pillage of Empire.

36: William Dalrymple on how a private company came to rule India

These days, the word 'sedition' is often used interchangeably with 'anti-national'. And it seems that everyone from cartoonists, university students and journalists to anti-mining activist, maoist and tribal rights activists, are being booked for sedition - something that presumably shakes the very foundation of a state. In this episode, Sandip talks to writer and Supreme Court lawyer Chitranshul Sinha about what exactly is the sedition law, how it originated and why it still exists in the 21st century.

35: Why the sedition law still exists, with Chitranshul Sinha

Last Tuesday marked the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. As expected it was marked with lots of patriotic fervor, earnest speeches and even a New York Times op-ed (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/opinion/modi-mahatma-gandhi.html) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where wrote, "How do we ensure the ideals of Gandhi are remembered by future generations? I invite thinkers, entrepreneurs and tech leaders to be at the forefront of spreading Gandhi’s ideas through innovation." But how much can we be innovative about a man we have put on a pedestal? Can children today even relate to him in a way that does not feel like homework? In this episode, Sandip talks to Bal Sahitya Puraskar winner Paro Anand, whose latest book, Being Gandhi, in a lot of ways tries to address just that.

34: On being Gandhi and why he still matters, with Paro Anand

It's not like we Indians don't like sex - we just don't like talking about it. Or atleast, we don't like talking about it too much. And sex for pleasure? "Chee, chee!" But what do you do when you want to find out about it? For the last 4 years, there's been a place online that has everything about sex that you wanted to know but were afraid to ask - Agents of Ishq. In this episode, Sandip talks to writer, columnist and filmmaker Paromita Vohra, who founded the platform. They discuss everything from how ideas of sex and love are evolving, and why sex education is important for a good sex life, to the shame in not being sexually 'cool' and the problem with the 'consent is like a cup of tea' video.

33: Sex and other pleasures, a chat with Paromita Vohra

One a year ago, on September 6th, a five judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court read down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, making gay sex legal in the country. It was a big moment for the queer community. One newspapers called it 'Independence day 2' and another 'Love at First Right'. But what has really changed in the past year? In this episode, Sandip talks to Parmesh Shahani, the head of Godrej India Culture Lab, about the kind of changes the corporate world has seen since then. They discuss the factors that decide whether a company is going to be inclusive or not, the work that needs to be done in this sector and the many ways companies can gain by hiring from the queer community.

32: How much corporate India changed a year after 377, with Parmesh Shahani

Unlike many other illnesses, depression can be an invisible one. According to the national mental health survey, 150 million Indians suffer from depression which requires immediate intervention. And yet, we don't talk about it. Perhaps because we don't know how to talk about it. In this episode, Sandip talks to Amrita Tripathi, the founder-editor of the Health Collective, who has recently co-written a book with psychologist Arpita Anand called 'Real Stories of dealing with Depression', which tries to open up conversations about depression and tell us that we are not alone in dealing with it or trying to help some about one who has it.

hubhopper

The Sandip Roy Show

hubhopper