Stepwell Radio

What happens when AI becomes smarter than the humans who created it? Are we building the future, or putting our own humanity at risk? Tune in to 404: Humanity Not Found, as we explore the future of AI, its risks, and how much control we're willing to give away.

Ghosts, zombies, and spirit possessions. Folklores and tales of the paranormal, often shaped with and encountered by religion. What makes one’s experiences spooky or comfortable? Join us as we attempt to discover the interactions between religion and the paranormal on Ex(o)rcise Caution!

From the freedom of the wild to the harsh realities of captivity, and finally, the hope of rescue. 🐘 The Elephant in the Room is a story of loss, resilience, and second chances—and a reminder that the power to change a life comes with the responsibility to protect it.

DCEU versus DCU. James Gunn's inherent style of making misfits into heroes that are extremely iconic versus Snyder's style of making movies a bit darker. We discuss tonal shifts and how different movies should connect to each other to form a coherent universe.

One was adored by millions, the other trusted by a whole city, and both were hiding something far darker behind the smile.

Chirps. Trills. Calls. We've always known them as "background noise." But songbirds learn their songs, pass them down, and shift them depending on where they live. Different regions, different dialects. If bird communication runs this deep, with geography and generations of culture behind it, what exactly have we been tuning out? Tune in to know whether the birds are just singing, or...

Some rooms weren’t built with us in mind. We walked in anyway, did the work, and stayed. Not to prove a point, but because the work is ours too.

Behind the pastel silks and powdered wigs of 18th century France, a few lived in excess while many went hungry. Beauty was the display, and the gap was the story. We’ll be talking about all of this, so tune in.

Fathers. Sons. Husbands. Surnames. We inherited the rules before we were old enough to question them. But inheritance can run through daughters. Homes can follow mothers. Families can exist without marriage at the centre. Khasi. Mosuo. Nair.

Your trust means the world to you. They promised to guard it. Then you gave your donations, service, the cards of your faith. But who’s holding the deck? Tune in as we ask what happens when belief passes through institutions, and whether the custodians of your trust are really keeping it, or just shuffling it.

"Tonight’s the night” is the catchphrase of the famous serial killer, Dexter Morgan. Find out how the public turned a serial killer into a relatable character, what a meme means and how people end up perceiving certain media.

Long before glass and steel, faith was shaped by hand, in stone, brick, and fire. From the sun-drenched carvings of the Solanki dynasty to the rock-cut shrines rising from the Pallava shores, Indic temple architecture is a living record of devotion, power, and craft. This is Religion in India: stories through brick and kiln. Every temple you’ve walked past has a story about its walls.

Every culture has feared colour, controlled colour, or weaponised colour, just differently. Rome made purple treason. India built caste rules around who could wear what. The West built a whole design philosophy around avoiding it. Who gets to decide what a colour means everywhere?

War doesn't just cost lives and money…it costs land. Military bases, border walls, testing ranges: built without environmental review, impossible to challenge, and left behind long after the mission ends. Forests cleared, water poisoned, migration routes severed—all filed under "national security," where nobody's allowed to ask questions. We call it defense. The ecosystems footin...

Story of Earth captured through a Golden record. Images, sounds, music and greetings to something, we don’t even know truly exists. Floating in space, we don’t know when it will reach it’s destination but it still carries an essence of humanity so far away.

Poaching’s down, but that’s not the threat anymore. A government is quietly signing away the rhinos’ flood refuge for a hotel pool. Farmers who’ve worked that land for generations are branded encroachers. This is profit dressed up as progress, and no one’s calling it out. We break down exactly how it’s happening.

The Stepwell Radio and The Ahmedabad University Library are delighted to present a special World Book Day 2026 edition of Voices from the Bookshelf, featuring distinguished scholars Aparajith Ramnath, Neeraja Sankaran, and Rahul Sarwate. This engaging conversation moves beyond academic obligations to rediscover the joy of reading as a deeply personal and creative act. The panel reflects on how boo...

This show looks at how everything happening right now—wars, trade tensions, rising inequality—might not be random, but part of a bigger pattern. It explores how global power is shifting, and how democracy today often exists more in form than in reality, with decisions shaped by elites and strategic interests.  Instead of a dramatic collapse, the show suggests we’re living through a transition into...

Somewhere between right and wrong, the most honest stories live. We grew up on perfect heroes—clean choices, clear morals, predictable endings. But the characters that stay with us? They lie. They fail. They cross lines they can’t uncross. This episode dives into why anti-heroes feel more real than the “good guys”—and why their flaws make us uncomfortable in a way that’s hard to look away from. Be...

Trekking has always been more than just reaching the summit—it’s about the journey, the people, and the stories you collect along the way. But is that changing? In this episode, we dive into a thought provoking question: is trekking culture slowly being westernised? We explore the contrast between traditional Indian trekking styles—simple, immersive, and deeply connected to local culture—and a mor...

Ever thought about what we call “classical” and whether it’s really as ancient or untouched as it seems? Society often presents traditions like Bharatanatyam as timeless and unchanging, passed down intact from a distant past. Tradition, however, can’t be reduced to simple inheritance; and neither is the question of who shapes it a new one. Join us as we trace Bharatanatyam’s journey from temple ri...

What do we really mean when we talk about  intelligence ? Is it an inherent trait, a measurable ability, or a concept shaped by society itself? In this episode, we trace the evolution of intelligence as an idea beginning with the early 20th century work of Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon, who designed intelligence tests to support children’s learning, not define their potential. Over time, however...

We’ve traded intuition for instructions and aesthetics for reality. This week, we’re looking at how "finishing" became the enemy of "learning" and how "beautifcation' of food and standarization of education interlap. From the sterile precision of modern recipes and supermarket food to the transactional nature of the 4-year degree, we discuss why the obsession with the...

We like to believe that every purchase we make is logical and well thought out but is it really? In this episode, we step into the world of behavioural economics to uncover why people often buy things they don’t actually need. Challenging the idea of the “rational consumer,” we explore how our decisions are shaped not just by price or utility, but by emotions, habits and subtle psychological trigg...

What if the "flaw" you noticed this morning wasn't really yours to notice? We live in a world where images, ideals, and ideas about perfection surround us constantly, be it in our social media feeds, in ads, or in the quiet suggestion that who we are right now isn't quite enough. This episode asks: Where do these feelings come from? Blending psychology with the world of marketing...