Simblified

Eating very less? No. That's extra diet. Ooh, more parliament in Japan? No, that's extra Diet. Something a factory worker says about aluminium going through a cast? No, that's extrude it. Send a criminal back to the country where he committed that crime? Ah, now we're talking. Sort of. In this shortie (where Chuck forgot to insert all the above jokes), the trio looks at what extradition means, why...

We were too lazy to record this week, so here's a rebroadcast of an old episode - one of our favourite interviews, with someone who, for some reason, decided to go and do a PhD in mathematics. He tells us what he does, why maths as a career, and makes SEVERAL poor jokes along the way. Ep. 19: We have a very unique guest on the show - one of our closest friends - Mohan Krishnamoorthy (@mohank). He'...

Virtual Reality is big - and that's, well, reality. Don't take our word for it, take CES' - look at the sheer number of products being revealed each year at the tech extravaganza by giant companies. And if you don't want to take their word for it, then how about taking the word of someone who's worked in this nascent industry? Joining the Simblified trio this week is Vyaas Shenoy - son of Narendra...

In 2006, NASA sent a space probe with the ambitious idea of photographing Pluto. Not just did it do that, it also crossed something called Ultima Thule, the furthest body ever visited by something man-made. This is a spectacular feat of engineering (almost as good as the IVM folks managing to make this podcast sound decent after all our rambling). So why space exploration? Why Pluto? What next? Ca...

Happy new year! Unless, of course, you're one of those cultures that celebrates your new year in March, April, August, October... Yes, the "Jan 1" thing is a relatively recent phenomenon thanks to Roman Calendars (thanks, Julius, as Asterix would say). On this shortie, the Simblified trio look at New Year cultures around the world and some things people around the world do to bring it in, apart fr...

Hey! It's the first Simblified episode of the new year - but it's the same format as the last two. We pick topics out of a hat, and talk about what happened in 2018, and what 2019 holds. It's part punditry, part talking out of a hat, literally. This is also the latest that we've ever recorded an episode, so apologies for the yawns (ours, not yours!). The Simblified trio is joined by the sagacious...

Enjoyed our last episode? You'd better, because you're getting more of the same. The Simblified recap of a tumultuous year continues with part 2 of... well, you'll find out. Happy New Year! The Simblified trio is joined by the sagacious Tony Sebastian, who co-authors a weekly satirical newsletter, The Third Slip (along with Chuck) as they pick topics out of a hat (headphone case actually) and talk...

Well, that's been a fun year, hasn't it? Who can say bad things about a year where we had rising populism, climate change neglect, growing legitimacy for idiot rulers... As long as we have an internet-connected toilet bowl at the end of it! The Simblified trio is joined by the sagacious Tony Sebastian, who co-authors a weekly satirical newsletter, The Third Slip (along with Chuck) as they pick top...

The past weeks saw an uncharacteristically public spat between the Government and the RBI over who calls the shots over banking and money supply. The RBI doesn't want to pump in money into the economy. The government desperately needs it to. Join your simblifiers as they wade through deep waters to fish out the truth Disclaimer: This episode was recorded before RBI governor Urjit Patel's sudden re...

For a fire that had the most innocuous sounding name - its official name is Campfire - the recent forest fire that hit northern California was devastating. Join your simblifiers Naren, Srikeit and Chuck as they take a closer look at how devastating it was and why NEW TO SIMBLIFIED? It's an Indian podcast - probably the best to come from Malad West - that takes things that happen around us, and dec...

No this episode is not about Simblified listeners. Rather it's about a bunch of Indians who live in the North Sentinel island in the Andamans. They've recently been in the news for re-acquainting a Christian missionary with God when he tried to convert them. We attempt to simblify this 21st century stone age community's habits, language and of course, the so-called civilised world's rather uncivil...

Every year, thousands... Lakhs, actually, of people look forward to IIT Bombay's annual cultural festival in December, Mood Indigo. It's a massive show that sees engineering students (and then some) from all over briefly forgetting Fermat and Mass Transfer and focusing on rock shows, events and informals. As one can imagine, pulling off an event of such scale is a huge process that starts way back...

Everyone remembers the Golden Indipop era fondly. Starting with Baba Seghal & Alisha, through to its peak of Silk Route & Sonu Nigam's pre-Bollywood excursions, to Bhangra-fuelled anthems, to an arguably inevitable decline. Everyone has a kvlt favourite (ours is Paisa by Agosh!). To talk about Indipop - why it came about, how it grew & matured (and, well, immatured) and why we don't have a 'scene'...

In the last episode, we Simblified climate change (spoiler alert if you haven't heard it: It's real. Climate change, not our episode. Though... That's also real but shockingly less terrible for the world). This week, we look at various techniques that have been discussed for removing carbon from the atmosphere. We've all thought putting a giant vacuum cleaner in public places should do the trick,...

Enjoy yourselves, we've got till about 2040 for that. After that, says the most comprehensive climate change study yet, we're pretty dang screwed if we can't contain rising temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. People from Mumbai might scoff at a mere 1.5-degree rise, but unlike cheap engineering colleges, every degree here matters. The Simblified trio breaks things down for you...

The humble booger has been the theme of juvenile jokes (some of which we crack as well), but nasal mucus is quite a fascinating thing. Join your Simblified hosts as they embark on the discovery of... snot. NEW TO SIMBLIFIED? It's an Indian podcast - probably the best to come from Malad West - that takes things that happen around us, and deconstructs them in language you can understand, often surmo...

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 terms-and-conditions-apply. The Simblified trio unravel all this on the latest episode, while making several bad jokes along the way. NEW T...

Ever wonder why JNU is such a big issue when there is never any proof? Or why so much conversation about Trump's inauguration crowd sizes when obviously the grounds were empty? We live in an era of deception and blatant lying by those in power. In these bleak times, our Simblified trio attempt to understand the new vehicle of the post truth era - Firehosing. We attempt to understand the modus oper...

in this shortie, your hosts simblify the magical processes by which wounds heal themselves. Excepting of course the wounds that your brain might suffer because of the terrible jokes. But we've tried to keep those to a minimum. NEW TO SIMBLIFIED? It's an Indian podcast - probably the best to come from Malad West - that takes things that happen around us, and deconstructs them in language you can un...

As the petrol price is about to raise its bat to the pavilion as it nears its much-awaited century, Indians must be wondering... Hey, if oil around the world is getting cheaper, why are we paying more? (The more bhakt-oriented among us might argue that this is our way of swimming against the tide). In truth, oil prices worldwide are not as straightforward as your economics professor would like - t...

It's submerjan time! The annual festival celebrated in the name of the Hindu pachyderm-headed God, Ganesha involves dunking decorated idols into water bodies. And while it's likely that the average Simblified listener is more likely to be listening to a podcast than throwing Gods into the Sea (good name for a novel!), it's a good time to look at the trend of 'eco-friendly Ganeshas'. Does a more or...

On 6 September, India took a massive step forward when the regressive Section 377 (a law that has its roots in the 14th century!) was scrapped, giving members of the LGBTQ community recognition. It's not the end of the battle, and there's a long way to go before they have other rights the rest of us take for granted - such as unions & marriage - not to mention acceptance by society at large and bi...

Football (or Soccer as the ingrates across the Atlantic call it) sees some ridiculous amounts of money thrown around. Like PSG paid €198 million (over 1700 crore INR) for Neymar but despite spending the annual GDP of a smallish country for a bloke who can kick a ball somewhat well, they can only make the transfer during a specific window of 3 months - which is the football transfer window. Join th...

Woohooo! We collectively raise our podcasting bats towards the crowd, who we affectionately call the MBA of Simblified listeners (to recall the collective term). For we have reached our century! To celebrate, we did a live recording at Doolally, Khar on Aug 25! What's more shocking is that people actually turned up to see us make total arses of ourselves! It was a fabulous couple of hours, and you...

A surprising amount of energy is spent just keeping the engine of life inside you going. And a fair bit of that is used up just digesting food. Your Simblifiers go into how our body spends this energy, how other creatures spend it, and whether we can have negative calorie foods - that is foods that will use up more energy being digested than they contribute after being digested. NEW TO SIMBLIFIED?...