Thinking People

We talk about ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2,’ and the film’s engagement with ideas of ambition, work, and the changing nature of the media industry. We ask: does the film justify a sequel twenty years after the much-loved original? Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠ ⁠Sourav Das⁠⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Multiverse Concept⁠⁠⁠⁠ )

We talk about Dua Lipa—not the disco-revivalist pop artist, but the 21st century celebrity whose career is forging an alternative path to stardom. Who is she, where does she stand in the pop music landscape, and what does she tell us about fame and life in the 2020s? Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠ ⁠Sourav Das⁠⁠ Photo Credit: @dualipa on IG Music: Aksheya...

In this episode, we’re joined by our producer, Sourav Das, to explore how AI is weaving itself into our lives—shaping how we work, what we consume, and increasingly, how we think. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠ ⁠Sourav Das⁠⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Multiverse Concept⁠⁠⁠⁠ )

We talk about cricket—the sport, the religion, the institution. We trace its position in India’s history, politics, and collective imagination and ask: what does cricket really tell us about India? Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠ ⁠Sourav Das⁠⁠ Photo Credit: Srinu. Mallampalli (Wikimedia Commons) Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Multiverse Concept⁠⁠⁠⁠ )...

We talk about what it means to live and work in Mumbai—its contradictions, much-discussed “spirit,” and the struggles and ambitions that underpin life in the city. This episode is a part of our ongoing “Living in” series in which we explore how life is changing across India’s cities. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠ ⁠Sourav Das⁠⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka...

We end the year with the movies, books, and tech that stayed with us in 2025. Our producer Sourav Das joins this wide-ranging conversation about our year-end recommendations, from our favourite movies—90s’ classics with undeniable onscreen chemistry and other hyper-specific genres—to the desk worker’s perfect mouse. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠ ⁠Sourav...

We break down Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ song-by-song, talk about its hits and misses, and discuss how the album’s themes relate to broader cultural discourses. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠ ⁠Sourav Das⁠⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Multiverse Concept⁠⁠⁠⁠ )

Recorded just before The Life of a Showgirl dropped, this episode is our look back at Taylor Swift’s first 11 studio albums - from Debut to The Tortured Poets Department . We talk about our personal favourites and dive into the storied discography of arguably the biggest pop artist, songwriter, and business mind of the 21st century. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Productio...

We discuss ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ the coming-of-age TV series that has captivated the minds and hearts of millennial women all summer. We talk about the sweet spot the show has created for itself – one that lives at the intersection of beloved tropes, a resurgence in appointment viewing, and the added flavour of 2020s dialogue and character development.  Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠...

We unpack Materialists and its sharp take on love, dating, and desire. Is it a rom-com? What is its central message about love and dating? Do love stories need to have a message? Join us as we explore what happens when a film is hyper-aware of the discourses it's both drawing from and contributing to. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠Sourav Das⁠ Music: Akshe...

We think about how every aspect of our lives—social, work, and personal—is dependent on tech platforms today. We ask ourselves: can we renegotiate our relationship with technology? Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠Sourav Das⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠⁠ The Multiverse Concept⁠⁠⁠ ) Social Media: Ayushi Bindra

We unpack why Severance the TV show of the 2020s, what sets it apart from other prestige TV, and the questions it poses about our lives – what is work, who we are, and how do we perform our different selves? -- Hosts:⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠Sourav Das⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka⁠⁠⁠ The Multiverse Concept⁠⁠⁠) Social Media: Ayushi Bindra

We explore almost two decades of social media use and our evolving sense of “self” against the backdrop of wider technological and socio-cultural transformations. In Part 2, we go back to 2016 to understand the evolution of social networks into social media, and the political and commercial behemoths they are today. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠Sourav Das⁠ M...

We explore almost two decades of social media use and our evolving sense of “self” against the backdrop of wider technological and socio-cultural transformations. In Part 1, we go back to 2006 to offer a millennial perspective on social media use and relive what it meant to be the first generation to come of age online. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠Sourav Da...

We talk about what makes Sally Rooney one of the zeitgeist defining English language authors of the 21st century and what her popularity says about modern love, intimacy, desire, and relationships. Guest: Ash Shah (Screenwriter and Fiction Writer). Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Photo: ⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠Sourav Das⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠⁠ The Mult...

We unpack the cult of ‘me time’ and our changing relationship with time five years after the pandemic, why we choose to spend most of it alone, and what makes up our diet of social interactions today. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Artwork: ⁠ ⁠⁠ ⁠Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠⁠ Production: ⁠Sourav Das⁠ Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠⁠ The Multiverse Concept⁠⁠⁠ ) -- References: The Anti-...

Hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sanaya Chandar unpack pop music fandom in 2024, how fans now feel an outsized sense of ownership over artists and their choices, and how this affects their relationship with the music at the heart of it. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠⁠ Sanaya Chandar⁠⁠⁠ Artwork: ⁠Sripradha Ganesh⁠ Production: Yash Hirave ( ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠ LinkedIn⁠⁠ ) Music: Aksheya Chandar (aka ⁠⁠ The...

In this episode, hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sanaya Chandar dissect the Ambani wedding and its transformation into a major media event in 2024. They explore how the wedding relates to power, privilege, and class dynamics in India, the motivations behind it, and what it reveals about the wedding industrial complex and the space it occupies in the Indian psyche. Guest: Chirag Thakkar (Associate Publishe...

In this episode, hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sanaya Chandar explore ‘Bollywood’ – the industry, its stars, why it feels like it’s fallen into a crisis of ideas over the past few years, and how an uncertain future for the industry’s megastars might signal major shifts in how we think about it. Guest: Swapnil Rai (Assistant Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Media at the University of...

In this episode, hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sanaya Chandar explore what it means to live in Delhi, what makes the city what it is (the bad and the good), why people move here, and what, despite all odds, makes them stay. Hosts:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ketaki-sharma/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanaya-chandar/ Artwork:https://www.behance.net/sripradhag873c Production: Yash Hirave (https://www.insta...

In this episode, hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sanaya Chandar explore the evolution of rom-coms and the forms of escapism they have traditionally offered, why we love “love stories,” and how these films inform expectations and hopes regarding our relationships. Guest: Shakuntala Banaji (Professor of Media, Culture and Social Change, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and...

In this episode, hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sanaya Chandar make sense of the building blocks of an independent life for women in India, from laundry baskets to bank accounts. They talk about how they negotiate desires for independence with the demands it places on them and how being financially independent affects their own perceptions and ambitions for themselves.  Hosts: ⁠⁠ Ketaki Sharma⁠⁠ , ⁠⁠ San...

Thinking People is a podcast that makes sense of how our everyday lives are responding to dynamic shifts in popular media and technology. In each episode, hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sanaya Chandar pause to think about how we live, who we are, and the patterns underlying our sociological and interpersonal relationships.  Life moves fast, tune in to think about it.

What do streaming content dumps, social media, and erratic attention spans mean for our ability, capacity, and desire to read? In this episode, we discuss how we read in the attention economy and the forms and stories that cut through the noise. Guest: Chirag Thakkar (Commissioning Editor, Penguin Random House India)     ‘ Spiralling Into ’ is DIWTPod’s series in which hosts Ketaki Sharma and Sana...

Introducing ‘ Spiralling Into ,’ DIWTPod’s new series in which we spiral down the rabbit hole over emerging pop culture themes in music, TV and film, technology, and society.  This episode dives into all things Taylor Swift—the artist and the celebrity . We explore what it means to be a Swiftie, listening to Taylor Swift in India, and as we always like to ask: what does that say about ourselves?  ...