A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State

In this podcast, I chat with Harsh Madhusudhan Gupta and Rajeev Mantri about their new book ” A New Idea of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State”. This book is a new beginning in rediscovering India as a modern ...

Media, Narratives, Data & the search for Truth?

In this podcast, Anuraag Saxena and Mohandas Pai talk about the importance of data-driven discourse. The discourse in India is totally devoid of data, in such a scenario how does one decipher what is true and what is false? To ...

How do we study Religion?

In this monologue, I give my views on how I think we can study religion. My focus will be specifically on the subject of religious language. How does one read texts? Do we take them literally? Do we take them ...

An analysis of the Establishment

This podcast is inspired by the pinned tweet of Rahul Roushan’s Twitter profile where he says ” Establishment is the bunch that systematically controls your thoughts through media and academics, controls your speech and actions, through the judiciary, and not ...

A journey into Libertarianism

In this podcast, Kushal has a chat about Libertarian philosophy and its principles with Brad Polumbo who is a Thorpe Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education. We try to understand the good, the bad & the ugly of libertarianism. ...

Same-Sex Marriage in India

In this 10th Episode of the Shastrartha, we discuss the subject on same-sex marriage in India. I try to understand this subject in the light of a recent PIL filed in the Delhi High court by Abhijit Iyer Mitra, Gopi ...

BCG Vaccination against Infection in the elderly

In this podcast, I chat with Dr Gobardhan Das once again about a potential BCG vaccine for treating COVID. This is in light of a new paper being published in cell.com titled “BCG VACCINATION AGAINST INFECTION IN THE ELDERLY” by ...

Pandemics and Policy Making

In this 9th Episode of Shastratha Harsh Gupta, Ramprasad and Dr Amit Thadani get together with Kushal Mehra to discuss COVID-19 from a multi-pronged perspective. We look at the medical, behavioural and economic aspects. How effective was the lockdown? Do ...

Are Social Media platforms consistent?

In this conversation, Anand Ranganathan speaks with Kushal about the double standards of social media platforms. A video of someone spitting on the Quran goes viral but Anand Ranganathan literally quoting a religious scripture gets his account suspended. What is ...

How do we criticize Religion?

In this conversation, we try to unpack what are the best strategies that should be adopted when one criticises religion. Is burning books alright? Should we spit on books? Should we desecrate murtis? Should that be illegal? Is there a ...