Vasundhara Sirnate

Sumit and I bring this podcast into the world with our best energy and with tons of gratitude. We hope people will understand why we became journalists and also why the very essence of journalism is so much bigger than any individual. ✊🏼

who started India’s first newspaper and Ritika Prasad whose grasp of early media history and technology was brilliant. You will meet all of them in our first season.

Along the way we made new friends. We are grateful to Aparajita Das our historian on all things Mughal, Callie Wilkinson the wonderful historian who told us so much about early newspapers and the East India Company’s army, Andrew Otis who wrote the first biography of the forgotten Irishman who

We read books, combed through digital archives in various countries, hounded some brilliant historians to talk to us. We also went on a wild goose chase in Ireland trying to find birth records of the man who started the first newspaper in India, James Augustus Hicky.

So we went back in time - to the late 1700s when this story began.

Sumit Chaturvedi and I went on a long journey based on our personal exchanges over the years where we often talked about the deteriorating Indian journalism landscape. What we realized is that our profession needed to be reminded of its brilliant institutional history.

Introducing Reality Scribes Podcast Episode · Reality Scribes · 11/04/2025 · 4m

It took us two years to get here!! Today, we are finally officially announcing the release of our podcast Reality Scribes. Our first episode will release on April 19, 2025. In the meantime, here is our trailer.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/r...

Words have consequences and Vance doesn’t seem to understand that.

He won’t be Trump’s successor by a long shot.

The Vance-Zelensky exchange is one for the ages. First, he is a Veep, he should not be addressing the President of another nation in that arrogant tone. Second, his idea of “diplomacy” is to drag someone into a room and beat them over the head with aggressive verbiage.

The wildest thing was Zelensky being berated for not wearing a suit. Come on, he was dressed in what ordinary Ukrainians are wearing on the frontlines. He was showing solidarity with his people who are in a war. That’s what he’s been seen in ever since this whole war started.

'Complete, utter disaster' - Lindsey Graham reacts to Zelensky meeting The US senator, a formerly staunch supporter of Ukraine, suggested President Volodymyr Zelensky should resign.

Every would-be dictator needs his Goebbels

www.bbc.com/news/videos/...

The point is relevant. Zelensky knows that Russia thinks ceasefires can be violated because there is no feasible way to impose costs. That’s what he was trying to explain. But he was at a disadvantage with language. This was really the worst moment in global diplomacy I’ve seen.

Zelensky was making a valid point about Putin not sticking to ceasefires when Vance snapped.

I think what Zelensky was trying to say is that the best predictor of future behaviour is relevant past behaviour. I think Trump and Vance should have listened instead of snapping.

Trump is capitalism in human form, stripped of its disguises. The violent seizure of other people's resources, the exploitation of other people's catastrophes, the predatory gleam in the psychopath's eye.
#Gaza
#Genocide

Word of the moment: Broligarchy

Pin this, save it, we’ll need it.

“When a prison camp opens in your town…when a DREAMer is disappeared from your classroom…when the President destroys what’s left of the Constitution…They will all say they didn’t know this was coming. And I want the American people to know that they did.”

AOC 🔥🎯

Many Trump-supporting Indians I know in the US are in a state of panic because they didn’t read the writing on the wall wrt birthright citizenship. I hate to say it, but I told you so. I really did but you all fought me on WhatsApp about how Trump was the right guy.

What struck me about the CEO shooting incident is that he was shot by a wealthy guy. How expensive is healthcare in the US that even a relatively wealthy guy feels it’s out of reach? And if this is the case, how on earth are poor Americans getting healthcare?

😂

I just read Mangione’s alleged “manifesto”. 😳

If this is the right document, then he’s implying his “act of war” is a form of self-defence against insurance companies that gamble on people’s lives. It won’t hold up in court, but it’s a helluva argument.

Totally agree! I’m glad you posted the song or I would have missed it! 😊

Oh wow! Congratulations 🎉❤️✊🏼

Glad to see Twice shining! MTS has certainly opened herself up to a whole new world and seems to be happy doing collabs with Asian artists. I have a bias, but I do like RM, MTS’ “Neva Play”, specifically RM’s verse. I wonder what you think about that one. ❤️

South Korea defies return to martial law The country's president backed down overnight from an attempt to impose military rule.

On South Korea's brief return to martial law overnight and an attempt to impose military rule that was as inept as it was, thankfully, short-lived: www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

2. Labour will win in 2029 only if it has made a discernible difference to people’s lives, on crucial fronts such as housing and the NHS. That means, for example, major new provision of social housing alongside effective rent controls, and huge new public capital investment in the NHS, schools etc.

The meaning crisis, and how we rescue young men from reactionary politics In the recent US election, male voters overwhelmingly voted for Trump – because he offered them the illusion of meaning in a world where their position is uncertain

"How do you make ‘strong’ men? According to the right, it’s by making them cruel. “Owning the libs” isn’t just entertainment and sport, it’s important psychological training for the civil war they believe is to come."

www.skeptic.org.uk/2024/11/the-...

A critical piece of reporting that highlights how indigenous people with protected land rights are being out maneuvered out of their rights by the state. Of course, the people benefitting are capitalists.

t.co/HFJAtv27Tz

“In 2015, the Parsa coal block was awarded to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RVUNL), a PSU which also owns the PEKB block. The operation and development of the mine was later contracted to private conglomerate Adani Mining through a competitive bidding process.”

Modern South Asia Workshop

Call for Papers for the Yale Modern South Asia Workshop, to be held June 7-8, 2025. Travel, accommodation, and meals will be provided to all selected candidates for the duration of the Workshop in South Asia.

macmillan.yale.edu/southasia/mo...