As our cities are growing, our citizens are growing apathetic. Can we reassert our rights and reform our governance? Ashwin Mahesh joins Amit Varma in episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen for a wide-ranging conversation on urban governance, citizenship, education and much more. Also check out: 1. Participatory Democracy -- Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 2. Ashwin Mahesh's website. 3. A New, Urban India -- Ashwin Mahesh. 4. The Publicly Managed City -- Ashwin Mahesh. 5. The tweets by Sabyasachi Kar and Naval Ravikant. 6. Tiago Forte's Second Brain, & videos on Roam Research by Thomas Frank & Ali Abdaal. 7. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 8. Our Unlucky Children (2008) -- Amit Varma. 9. The Element -- Ken Robinson. 10. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 11. Reforming Urban Governance -- Episode 48 of The Seen and the Unseen (w V Ravichandar). 12. Is India a Flailing State? -- Lant Pritchett. 13. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 14. Prisoners of Geography -- Tim Marshall. 15. The Importance of Cities -- Episode 108 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Reuben Abraham & Pritika Hingorani.) 16. The Power Broker -- Robert Caro. 17. The Death and Life of Great American Cities -- Jane Jacobs. 18. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 19. What a Long Strange Trip It's Been -- Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian). And do check out Amit's online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.