Everything is Everything

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...

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 sha...

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...

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...

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 Packaging 00:13 Intro: Kaagaz Dikhaao! 00:50 Chapter 1: The...

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 Aja...

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 Packaging 00:13 Intro: The Contempla...

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: Banking 39:33 Chapter 2: Equity Markets 51:33 Chap...

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 t...

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 recycl...

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...

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 t...

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 de...

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 th...

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 fundament...

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 whi...

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 Aja...

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 remem...

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 .

Should the state have a role in amplifying innovation? If so, what should it do? Welcome to Episode 59 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit argue furiously about whether the state should spend its resources trying to make innovation happen. But while they disagree on the Why, they agree on what How and the What: the bluepr...

There is great natural beauty in India -- but we get tourism wrong. We allow beautiful places to become tourist traps. The local people do not benefit enough. We don't care about sustainability. It need not be this way. Welcome to Episode 58 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit, recording the last of The Bir Sessions,...

It is the moral imperative of every poor country to lift all its people out of poverty. And yet India, like so many other poor countries, has failed to do this. Development Economics carries much of the blame for this. Wrong beliefs and dangerous fashions within this field have mostly failed to help -- and sometimes caused much harm. Welcome to Episode 57 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podc...

Everyone is raving about India's digital public goods -- or its digital public infrastructure, aka DPI. But is the picture all rosy? What is the flip side of this technological achievement? Welcome to Episode 56 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit talk about how such a government monopoly cannot be a good thing. In th...

It is considered a truism that building infrastructure is always great for the economy. Roads, ports, airports & bridges always have huge positive externalities. But is this truism true? Yes -- and no. There is a good story; and there is a bad story. Welcome to Episode 55 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay talks about how inf...

Education in India is broken. It is a tragic waste of our potential. How can it be fixed? Why will pumping in more spending solve nothing? What is the link between education & development? Why do we need to redefine education? Welcome to Episode 54 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay give a comprehensive lay of the la...