The Podcast is envisioned as a compendium of thoughts and ideas which are explored through conversations on far ranging topics. These include, but are not limited to, film, television, books, podcasts, history, culture, photography, design, and just about everything else in the middle.
With an avid interest in the documentation and dissemination of knowledge as well as a being a podcast junkie, I have always wanted to start one of these – mostly about things I find fascinating, thought provoking and intellectually stimulating.
Here’s my take. New Episodes every Saturday!
Season 02
Design: Talking Practice with Sachin Ambekar
This time around I’ll be talking to a former colleague and a dear friend of mine who has co-founded his own architecture practice – S S Design Studio – in Gujarat. We’ll be discussing his time at architecture school, his post-graduation at CEPT University, a Scholarship to Switzerland, Design Education in the country and the rigours of architecture as a discipline.
A gold medallist at Gujarat University and a CEPT scholar, Sachin is passionately devoted to architecture and design theories.
The Refrain: Atmospheres & Soundscapes with Khwaab
Nishant Nagar, who goes by the moniker of Khwaab, is a Mumbai/Delhi based Music Producer and a Singer/Songwriter. With a unique dreamy texture in his work and a desire to create a new sound for Hindi Music supported by ambient electronica, Khwaab strives to paint a picture of his eclectic thoughts with his words and music.
Design: Education Against All Odds with Achyut Siddu
Achyut is an architect with an M.Sc in Design for Sustainable Development. Born and raised in India, the uncertainty of social impacts of any creation fascinated him. This continued interest led him to explore and participate at the Grassroots level – by empowering through design and ultimately giving back to those less fortunate.
The Refrain: Reviving Folk Music with Abhinav Agrawal
Abhinav Agrawal, 27, an ethnomusicologist, musician and social entrepreneur is also the Founder Director of the Non-Profit Organisation, Anahad Foundation. Abhinav worked towards creating and reviving the diminishing folk music industry in India by creating self-reliant models that generate livelihoods, pride and dignity for stakeholders connected to this art form.
The Sea: All Aboard with Kevin Woodward
Kevin is a second mate and a watch-keeping officer, also the ship’s Navigator. Other duties vary, but the second mate is often the medical officer, is in charge of maintaining distress signalling equipment and assists the Chief Mate with the Cargo operations.
In this episode, Kevin joins us to talk about his life at sea – how he joined the merchant navy, his work aboard vessels as well as the nitty gritty of the profession.
The Page: Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam with Shreya Desai
Shreya is an architect who loves consuming good food and literature. She’s always been a book nerd – with a popular blog on Instagram @papergrammer – but in the past couple of years couldn’t make or find the the kind of time for it.
This last year she’s been been reading a bit too much and sleeping too little.
Filmmaking: Lights. Camera. Action. with Swayam Khanna
Swayam is an aspiring filmmaker with a vision of bending the notions of mainstream/commercial works to bring out the actual power of cinema by subconsciously allowing ideas to percolate and using the power of the medium to entertain as well as educate, especially Indian society at large.
The Game: Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and The Premier League with Parth Saraswat, Ratik Sharma & Swadheet Chaturvedi
Ratik & Swadheet return to discuss the league and their team while Parth, a Chelsea fan joins us for the very first time as we look back at the start of the season, the squads, managers, the many ins and outs and discuss how we see the season unfold.
Policy: Impact Investments & Climate Smart Agriculture with Ashna Rustagi
Ashna joins us to discuss her work at a seed and early-stage venture fund that invests to improve access to sustainable energy and resource productivity solutions for the underserved in India that can lead to inclusive development and creation of communities that are resilient to climate change with a keen focus on Climate Smart Agriculture.
The Big Little Screen: Exploring Tenet with Manu & Yug
Manu and Yug, join us in a segment that has been cemented as the first recurring monthly talk show, where my guests and I discuss everything that has to do with all the latest films and tv shows. This time around we’ll be discussing Christopher Nolan’s Tenet as well as our fascination with the director, his process and style.
Urbanism: Dynamic Domains of Antarctica with Swadheet Chaturvedi
An Architectural Association graduate shares his journey as we discuss his thesis project Dynamic Domains of Antarctica. As an architect and urbanist, Swadheet wants to understand what it takes to convince stakeholders towards the long-term benefits of a climate sensitive policy system in sync with planetary health and more robust economic growth.
The Refrain: Voiceovers & Soundchecks with Shagun Trisal
Shagun Trisal is a singer, voiceover artiste and former lawyer, originally hailing from the capital city of New Delhi but now based out of Mumbai. He is the former frontman of Delhi-based metal/rock band Kraken, with whom he has won several competitions.
Bonus Episodes
Q&A and Season 2
This is going to revolve around some of the questions/ thoughts & comments that have come in. There’s a special something towards the end of the episode so make sure you stick around for that!
The Big Little Screen: One Strange Rock with Yug Aggarwal & Tarun Bhasin
Tarun and Yug, join us in a segment that has been cemented as the first recurring monthly talk show, where my guests & I discuss everything that has to do with all the latest films and tv shows. In this episode we talk about Nat Geo’s and Darren Aronofsky’s docu-series One Strange Rock.
The Big Little Screen: Mirzapur | Season 2 with Rahul Kapil
This time around Rahul Kapil & I will be covering Mirzapur – where we talk about the show, look back at the first season and dive deep into Season 2 of the podcast. And yes. Spoilers are real!
The Big Little Screen: The Social Dilemma with Sampada Srivastava & Swayam Khanna
In this episode Sampada, Swayam & I dissect the latest docu-drama that’s making waves on Netflix – The Social Dilemma.
Season 01
True Crime: Charles Sobhraj | Through the Eyes of The Serpent
The first podcast I ever tuned in to was Serial, which to be honest, is easily one of the best podcasts out there. Now into its third season, Serial set a benchmark has spurred a podcast revolution especially when it comes to True Crime as a genre. To kickstart the segment we’ll be exploring the life of Charles Sobhraj.
The Game: Manchester United, Arsenal & The Premier League with Ratik Sharma
Ratik returns to the podcast for the penultimate episode of the season where we talk about the League as well as the teams we support in Manchester United and Arsenal.
The Big Little Screen: I Know This Much is True with Sampada Srivastava & Swayam Khanna
Sampada, Swayam & I discuss one of my favourite shows of 2020.
Photography: Through The Lens with Nipun Prabhakar
Nipun Prabhakar is an independent photographer and architect based in Kutch and Delhi. He works on long term photo-documentary projects. Besides that, he designs, researches and documents the intersections of built environments and communities.
Tech: Creating, Learning and Sharing with Ratik Sharma
Ratik, has always been someone who loves technology. This love has materialized into various things over the years. As a kid, it was all about playing Pokemon crater or club penguin on the computer after school. As a teenager, he was jailbreaking people’s iPod devices, teaching himself Photoshop on the internet and running a (moderately successful) tech blog and YouTube channel to teach people what he knew.
Urbanism: Reading Cities & Their Stories with Tarun Bhasin
Tarun Bhasin is an alumnus of School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal. He is currently pursuing an M.Sc. in Building and Urban Design in Development from the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL. He is passionate about understanding the role of architecture in the public domain of the Global South, primarily India.
Adaptations: Normal People by Sally Rooney with Sampada Srivastava & Swayam Khanna
In this episode of the podcast we dive deep into the wondrous, messy, complicated and oh so relatable world of ‘Normal People‘. From Connell & Marianne’s love affair to the impeccable casting decisions and from the magical filming locations to the inspired musical score. There’s going to be a bit of everything. And yes we will be bringing up Connell’s chain that’s gone viral as well! What in the world was that about?
Storytelling: The Silhouette
This podcast began as a means to experiment with different ways of sharing content, improving on delivery as well as learning how to produce a show, record and mix sound – before the final product is put out for all of you to hear.
This third episode is just that.
I’m a huge fan of Lore – the extremely riveting and spine-chilling podcast by Aaron Mahnke – you should definitely check it out.
So this one here is a short story inspired by Lore and I hope to add to this as the show continues.
Potter: From Book to Screen with The Someday Lists
Potter has always been my go-to refuge whenever I’ve felt low as well as when I’ve been extremely happy! Don’t know if that makes sense but I always feel at home whenever I read the source material or watch the films. Harry Potter took the world by storm when it was released and encouraged millions of kids to read and dive headfirst into the magical world of the boy wizard.
Poetry: Reading ‘Keeping Quiet’ by Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was a Chilean Poet – Diplomat and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old, and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair (1924).