Simblified

Well, it's the end of another year (wait, what, already?). The Simblified gang looks back at how the last 12 months have been for them, personally. That's right - no Simblification, no news, no breaking down tech jargon, none of that. It's just an unscripted, personal conversation between the 4 hosts, with some help from audience questions. The four of us and everyone at IVM podcasts wish you a ha...

So what is the creator economy, exactly? Is it just some fancy new term applied to something that always existed, or is it actually a new paradigm, as some VCs might say? Our Simblified quartet gets together to talk about it, their advice for creators, examples of content that they've come across, and some ideas for content you (yes, you dear listeners!) can explore. You can thank us later. Also,...

When Social Purpose Organizations get down to do their work, they sometimes find themselves having to beg people to change. Suman Srivastava, author of 'Don't Beg. Inspire.' begs to differ! Join your Simblified hosts in their conversation with Suman about the book, the principles of nudge theory, and lots of fun and wisdom. Links: Dan Pallota's Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_...

Elon Musk decided to ask his Twitter followers if he should sell his shares to pay the tax due on the vesting of his stock options. And it looked as if this was prompted by the Biden Administration's proposed 'Billionaire Tax' Join your Simblified hosts as they try to find out how distressing it is for billionaires to contemplate losing some of it to taxes and what could happen if they really do....

Simblified correspondent Srikeit is on ground in our nation's capital to give a first-hand account of Delhi NCR's politics news-channels patriarchy intense air-pollution. Join the Simblified trio (Chuck got lost in the smog) as we break down the complex causes, effects, politics and cricketing mishaps caused by the haze in Delhi. Add one part news, one part bad jokes, one part Wikipedia research,...

What goes on behind the scenes to bring you an ad when you visit a website? And how does Google control every touch point? Some litigators in the US got together to file an antitrust motion against Google, and in the process simplified all of real time buying for ads. Chuck, Naren, and Tony got together to marvel at this well-oiled machine. References: Antitrust filing against Google: https://stor...

On Oct 28, Facebook announced a rebranding and spoke about its ambitions for becoming a Metaverse company. We did an episode on this last week, and this week, we're going to look at a few possible implications. Will our houses get smaller? WTF is a virtual world builder? Will NFTs finally make sense? All this and more and Chuck and Tony put on their speculative hats... Or should we say headsets. A...

On Oct 28, Facebook announced a rebranding and spoke about its ambitions for becoming a Metaverse company. What does it mean? What do they want to do? Do we all need to buy Oculus devices now? Tony and Chuck explore this topic and take a look at what the company is already doing. The first of a 2-part look at the Metaverse. References during the show: Shaan VP's tweet thread: https://twitter.com/S...

The Simblified quartet get together to discuss the phenomenon of Sportswashing illustrated by the recent Saudi takeover of Newcastle United Football Club. We highlight how political soft power is gained and human rights violations are masked by simply owning a team of a few men running after a ball. Join us for an episode on a complex and controversial topic that even triggered an outburst from th...

Mixed martial arts, that elegant sport on which contestants try their hardest to maim each other with their bare hands and legs, has gained immensely in popularity over the last decade or so. But what is it, really? How did it start? Why is it so popular? Is it even safe? Join your Simblified hosts as they ask these questions and more to Sidd Rao, a national level Kickboxer and one of the coolest...

One of our own, Srikeit, is coming back to India after spending 2 years revolutionising the advertising landscape in Kuala Lumpur. The Simblified folks ask him about the differences between the two countries - workwise, cultural, infrastructure, and all that. The actual title of this episode is "Cultural differences between Malaysia and India for make benefit glorious audio show of Simblified" but...

If you're seriously toying with the idea of quitting your job, you're not alone. The Great Resignation is a global phenomenon causing a major spike in employees across industries quitting en-masse. The Simblified gang gets together to discuss the key reasons for these mass resignations, the irreversible changes that the job market is encountering and how employers are bending over backwards to ret...

Good ol' pal Berty joins us for the second successive episode on Simblified! This time, we speak about another of his passions - vinyl records! In a day and age was streaming is the de facto mode of consuming music, it might seem strange that vinyl sales are increasing 100% year on year! Berty tells us why he loves vinyl and supplements his Spotify listening with it. The physical feel, the additio...

One of the smartest people we know joins us on the show! Berty Ashley is a good friend and a quizzer, music nerd and... Molecular biologist who by day works with a private organization called DART, helping to solve rare diseases, putting all us PPT-makers in our place! Jokes apart, the work Berty and his team does is fascinating and this is a conversation we've been thinking of having for months n...

Amazon launches gaming. Facebook launches hardware. Everyone launches a Clubhouse clone. So all platforms are trying to be like each other. Join the Simblified gang as they get into the why. This is a freewheeling discussion that goes off in a bunch of different directions and we had a blast recording it! Add one part news, one part bad jokes, one part Wikipedia research, one part cult references...

Sep 15 is Engineer's Day here in India! So the three engineers of the show (Chuck, Naren, Tony) get together (Srikeit was barred from participating as he doesn't have relevant qualification) to talk engineering! With a focus towards manufacturing and what Naren does (he confirms he is not indeed that Hindustani singer from Indian Ocean though the rest of us still have our doubts). We talk about fu...

The government of India recently announced a direct cash transfer program called the eRUPI (or e₹UPI), if you want to be pedantic). So, what's this all about and how is it different from all the other cash transfer benefits in the past? As with many such ideas, it sounds great on paper but it all depends on implementation. Naren leads the way as he's the only one among us who read up on this, and...

Globally, most people are born in August - including two of Simblified's hosts. So on the august (hehe) occasion of Chuck's birthday, the Simblified gang gets together to delve into this inexplicable yet universal commemoration of human ageing. Join us for a very fun episode where we deconstruct birthday rituals, cake, party hats and share the incredible story of how just singing the birthday song...

The Metaverse has existed as a concept and in parts for years together. But we took notice when Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that he wants Facebook to be known as the Metaverse company. The gang got together to Simblify what the metaverse is, what the future of work, life, and the internet might be, and also to pretend they understand words like interoperability and portability. Add one part news, o...

Over the last few weeks, the ruling party over at China has cracked down on its biggest internet sectors - EdTech, ecommerce, gaming and more. This has predictably sent stocks tumbling and spooked investors, but the supporters of this decision claim the party is right in doing so. So the Simblified gang get together for an (actual serious!) discussion about this. The good and the bad, the ramifica...

The Simblified boys are off this weekend (hard at work researching the next episode, promise!) so here's a nice dig into the archives. While Trump is being a bit of an arse trying to alienate everyone, China is busy making friends. Specifically, it's going out and building ports and roads and stuff everywhere. How nice of them! Or... Is it? China's 'infrastructure diplomacy' comes with a huge term...

Chuck has gone and started another podcast. This one is called Getting Meta. It's a show on productivity, mental models, habits and how to live better. So in this episode, Chuck becomes a guest on his own show as the rest of the Simblified panel, Tony, Naren and Srikeit, ask him about Getting Meta, the guests, the learnings and stuff. It's a strangely personal episode and while there's the usual a...

The world as we know it today runs on silicon-based chips. Your phone, computer, amplifier for planar magnetic headphones, Xbox... Even cars, machines that control other complicated machines in factories, planes and more. All run on chips. But who makes these? Yes, you might have heard of names like Intel and Qualcomm who do make chips... Or do they? Join the Simblified gang as they talk about sem...

This week we delve into the world of Clubhouses, Spaces, Greenrooms or whatever Zuckerberg decides to call Facebook's audio chat iteration (our vote is for Zucker Bakar). To make our chat extra special, we also invited Clubhouse-fiend and Newslaundry minion Meghnad - together we discuss why Indians love audio chat, how it works and what this means for the future of podcasts. You can follow Meghnad...

The lads get together to discuss vaccine passports - don't worry, linking to aadhaar isn't mandatory (yet). We simblify what they are, where they're being used and how they've been around for decades. Join Tony, Naren and Srikeit as we delve into all the vaccine passport pros, cons and puns! Add one part news, one part bad jokes, one part Wikipedia research, one part cult references from spending...