Our brains are hardwired to think in ways suited to a pre-historic world -- which is why there are so many fallacies in our thinking! Welcome to Episode 45 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss five foundational fallacies, and speak about how we can improve our thinking if we learn to recognise them and avoid them. Who can object to becoming a better thinker! This episode was first published on YouTube on May 3, 2...
Jun 07, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Imagine a world without maps. What is out there? How do you reach that place? What does the world look like? Maps brought us from darkness into light. Welcome to Episode 44 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit speak about the evolution of maps, from the laborious survey work pioneered by the legendary George Everest to the miracles of modern technology, which gives us a real-time high-definition picture of the world. Als...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 44
We are surrounded by stories that need to be told, must be told, will blow your mind! Welcome to Episode 43 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay continue the series of talking about stories that should be films. Amit builds fiction based on IIT aspirants and vloggers, as well as a real life story about the Delhi of the 1800s, a Delhi in churn. Ajay tells us about missing plutonium up on Nanda Devi, how a navy was once 'd...
Jun 07, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Populism is on an upsurge across the world. It is a danger to democracy and civilisation. But what does that term even mean? Welcome to Episode 42 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay break down what political scientists mean by 'populism' -- it's isn't simply what is popular! They discuss the populist playbook as laid out by Jan-Werner Muller in his great book 'What is Populism?' You might find it sounds familar, no mat...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 42
We think of papers as boring -- but they contain ideas, and ideas change the world Welcome to Episode 41 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit take us through four papers -- actually, three papers and one essay -- that shaped the way they think, and how millions of others think as well. The power of a great idea is that it can help explain the world better than before -- and all progress is built on better understanding. ...
Jun 07, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Our power sector is stuck in an old world. Climate change and the needs of future generations demand that we shift from our traditional sources of power. But how? Welcome to Episode 40 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay takes us through the history of the power sector, the problems it faces, the remarkable progess in renewables, and the way forward. (Spoiler alert: the price system!) Amit expresses his enthusiasm for nuclear po...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Good things happen to us when we give them the chance to do so. The more we put ourselves out there, the more we are likely to get lucky. But Exposure is pointless without Excellence. Welcome to Episode 39 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit shares his fascination with the phrase, the Surface Area of Serendipity. And together, Ajay and Amit explore the delicate balance between excellence and exposure that is required to be both ...
Jun 07, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Understanding the foundations of poker can help you understand the foundations of life. How to think about the world -- and how to find peace. Welcome to Episode 38 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit shares his learnings about the foundational principles of playing poker in a special presentation made for this show. Then Amit and Ajay discuss the life lessons that one can draw from poker. This episode was first published on You...
Jun 07, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Once upon a time, Indian firms thought local. Then they started thinking national. Do they need to think local again? Welcome to Episode 37 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit discuss the great waves in the evolution of Indian firms. Until the 1980s, firms thought local, and the branch manager of a firm was like a regional satrap. In the 90s, technology enabled them to nationalise and bring in best practices and process...
Jun 07, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 37
How do we bring about change? How should we think about changing the state, changing society, changing ourselves? Welcome to Episode 36 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit discuss discuss theories of change in different contexts, with one common theme: we need to play the long game. This episode was first published on YouTube on March 1, 2024. For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here ....
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 36
We are monkeys -- and yet, we don't spend enough time in nature. We should go hiking more! Welcome to Episode 35 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay talks about his lifelong love for hiking, which emerges naturally from his love for nature. He tells hiking stories, and gives us all tips on how to get into hiking -- and how the hiking mindset can help us live better lives. This episode was first published on YouTube on February 2...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Family Firms get a bad rap -- but the professional CEO is often not the solution, but an added problem. The modern firm has evolved to solve this. Welcome to Episode 34 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay gives us a masterclass in the different ways in which is family firm can be structured, and the incentives those structures bring with them. He takes us through the four stages of its evolution, from a one-person business to th...
Jun 07, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 34
We tend to think of the government as the solution to all our problems. But governments are people. And people respond to incentives. Welcome to Episode 33 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay talk about a branch of economics that they both love: Public Choice Theory. This is the study of how politicians, bureaucrats, special interests and voters all respond to incentives -- and why this often goes against the interest o...
Jun 07, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Unix is the backbone of the world's technology. It is also a way of living that can help us discover purpose and beauty. Welcome to Episode 32 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. This is the long-awaited episode in which Ajay explains to the world, with an incredible screencast, how to use Unix. But before that, Ajay and Amit discuss the history and philosophy of Unix -- and why it contains life lessons that are priceless. This episode was first publ...
Jun 07, 2024•2 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Is the Indian military well-equipped for the challenges that face India? What's wrong with it -- and how do we fix it? Welcome to Episode 31 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this conversation, Ajay uses an analysis by cult YouTuber Perun to launch an educational deep dive into how we should think about the Indian Armed Forces. This episode was first published on YouTube on January 26, 2024. For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click her...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Are we slaves to the things that own us? To find ourselves, do we need to lose the mess around us? Do we need to declutter? Welcome to Episode 30 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this conversation, Amit and Ajay share their philosophies towards decluttering -- and towards things. What should we buy? What should we give away? Do we need... stuff? Can Bengalis run? This episode was first published on YouTube on January 19, 2024. For magnificent, ...
Jun 07, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 30
They are grand. They are intimate. They're incredible stories, and they need to be told! Welcome to Episode 29 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. This week, carrying on from episode 23's dream of presenting stories that should be films, Amit and Ajay talk about the hardest decision of WW2, a couple that drifts apart because they hear the world differently, air raids into Japan, the making of a nation and a man who refused to flee. The fate of the wo...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 29
India did not become completely free in 1947. For decades after that, a group of people worked behind the scenes to reform our oppressive state and expand our freedoms -- especially our economic liberty. Welcome to Episode 28 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. This week, carrying on from episode 23's dream of presenting stories that should be films, Amit and Ajay lay out the plan for what could be an incredible web series -- the story of a silent Fr...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Vaccines are a modern miracle. Individual freedom is a value we shoud cherish. We love both! Welcome to Episode 27 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit rave about how beautiful vaccines are -- and ask the thorny question, should the state step in to produce vaccines, & coerce people into getting them? They use the toolkit laid out in the previous two episodes to dig deep into when state coercion is justified. Spoiler...
Jun 07, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 27
What is the duty of the state? It's limited. When should it intervene? Only at specific times. In this episode, we lays out a framework for looking at this question, with freedom as a default. Welcome to Episode 26 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. This episode was first published on YouTube on December 22, 2023. For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here .
Jun 07, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 26
What do we mean when we use the words 'the state'? Why did it evolve? What should its limits be? What have we normalized about it that should terrify us? Are we all part-time slaves? Welcome to Episode 25 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay talk about how the existence of the state is itself an act of violence -- a necessary one, as we need it to protect our rights. But we should consider, whenever we recommend governme...
Jun 07, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Our universities are broken. The academy is a circlejerk. Our intellectuals have failed us. To nurture a Knowledge Society, we need to rethink how we make knowledge, how we diffuse it, and how we use it to make the world a better place. Welcome to Episode 24 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. This episode was first published on YouTube on December 8, 2023. For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here ....
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 24
The nonviolent resistance of a supposedly warrior tribe. The fat frogs who played a pivotal role in World War 2. The fierce will of a child widow who remakes herself and her world. The crucible of democracy, the soldiers who had to kill their own, the author whose book was lost, the young man who went missing. Welcome to Episode 23 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay share seven great stories that they think should be f...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Firms tend to grow, and even innovate, along predictable paths. But sometimes a firm does something truly audacious, involving a leap of imagination that seems to come out of thin air. Today's episode is about three such great leaps. Welcome to Episode 22 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay discusses three great leaps by three great firms: Sun Microsystems, Google and Amazon. Amit talks about how such leaps of imagination are mo...
Jun 07, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Human progress is enabled by the world of finance -- a world that seems dreadfully complicated from the outside. But once you understand its historical context, and how it evolved, everything about finance makes sense. Welcome to Episode 21 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay demystifies finance by giving us a guided tour of its history -- from primitive times to limited liability companies to banking to modern finance to deriva...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 21
We've been taught for generations that India's biggest problem is its population. This is a lie. Our population is our greatest strength. People are brains, not stomachs. Welcome to Episode 20 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit discusses the origin of the flawed belief that population is a problem -- and states his case for why population density is the greatest driver of prosperity. Most problems ascribed to population are act...
Jun 07, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 20
To truly understand cricket, or life for that matter, we need to learn from poker. We need to understand the concept of Expected Value. We also need to learn from economics, and understand Opportunity Cost. Welcome to Episode 19 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit shares what he learnt about cricket from being a professional poker player and understanding economics. Amit and Ajay then apply those concepts to life itself. Never a...
Jun 07, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 19
India's farmers are suffering. Indian agriculture has been in crisis since we gained Independence. Why? What can we do about it? Welcome to Episode 18 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss the many complicated problems of Indian agriculture, breaking them down one by one. Spoiler alert: the oppressive hand of the state is at the heart of it all. Us city slickers take some of our freedoms for granted -- but our far...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Humanity should not be divided. Globalization is a powerful force for good. But it is has ebbed and flowed. Are we retreating to a more insular world -- or does globalization continue, but in a modified form? Welcome to Episode 17 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay talks about the first two waves of globalisation -- and then explains the term he has coined, 'The Third Globalization.' We still live in a globalised world, he expl...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 17
The Soviet Union functioned under the delusion that you don't need freedom of any sort to grow as a society. The China model functions under the delusion that economic properity is all you need, and it can be directed from above. The Soviet model broke. The China model is breaking. Freedom matters. Welcome to Episode 16 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Ajay and Amit discuss how economic freedom, social freedom and political freedo...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 16
