Politics attracts a particular kind of creature — which is why accidental politicians, who never meant to be in that game, are a curious breed.

Welcome to Episode 108 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit and Ajay relate the stories of five inspiring accidental politicians — and discuss the pros and cons of their situation!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Absolute power is pretty cool!01:24 Chapter 1: Mark Carney11:16 Chapter 2: Václav Havel30:52 Chapter 3: Jawaharlal Nehru44:36 Chapter 4: Manmohan Singh57:37 Chapter 5: Volodymyr Zelenskyy1:10:01 Chapter 6: The Pros and Cons of Accidental Politicians1:31:57 Chapter 7: Recommendations

For full show notes, please click here.

Ideological labels can be damn confusing. What do we mean by liberal, conservative, socialist, nationalist, left, right? They even seem to mean different things to different people!

Worry not. We are here to lift the fog!

Welcome to Episode 107 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, on popular demand, Amit and Ajay break down the meanings of some commonly used labels and isms.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Labels Are Dangerous!02:36 Chapter 0: Important Clarifications09:32 Chapter 00: What We Believe14:32 Chapter 1: Liberal25:18 Chapter 2: Conservative39:33 Chapter 3: Marxism53:40 Chapter 4: Socialism1:06:13 Chapter 5: Communism1:09:54 Chapter 6: Statism1:13:18 Chapter 7: Libertarian1:17:19 Chapter 8: Left and Right1:21:51 Chapter 9: Nationalism1:30:03 Chapter 10: Some Other Terms1:36:47 Postscript: Selected Readings

For the full show notes, click here!

It is difficult to even know what happened in the past, leave alone predicting the future. But one day, when our brave hosts were asked what the world will look like in 2050, they decided to have some fun.

Welcome to Episode 106 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit and Ajay make 15 predictions about 2050 in full humility, likely to be wrong, but hey, that will give us a mea culpa episode in 2050! Too much fun, this episode is, as they talk about trends and specifics. Watch!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: ‘The Great Tragedy of My Life’03:25 Chapter 1: The Future of the Past15:29 Chapter 2: Setting It Up17:30 Chapter 3: Our Entertainment Will be Auto-Generated by AI24:28 Chapter 4: Technology Will Give Us FEELING on Demand29:35 Chapter 5: We Will Deepen Our Connections With Both Machines and People40:46 Chapter 6: Relationships Will Be Remapped48:07 Chapter 7: We Will Have Truly Global Cities58:34 Chapter 8: Gene Editing Will Be Commonplace1:02:08 Chapter 9: Energy Will Be Cheaper1:07:07 Chapter 10: Brain-Machine Interfaces Will Flourish1:12:27 Chapter 11: There Will Be Mining in the Asteroid Belt1:14:57 Chapter 12: Warfare Will Be Fully Robotic1:24:39 Chapter 13: Meat Will Be Grown in Labs1:30:11 Chapter 14: Transport Will Be Radically More Efficient1:35:26 Chapter 15: Reproduction Will Happen Inside Machines1:37:50 Chapter 16: There Will Be Unexpected Demographic Developments1:44:16 Chapter 17: Climate Change Will Remain a Problem1:51:26 Chapter 18: Recommendations

For full show notes, please click here.

Last week, we spoke about how manufacturing in India has been hobbled by the state for decades, and continues to be in a bad way. But does that mean the state should now direct its focus on it?

No!

Welcome to Episode 105 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In the second of a two-parter, Ajay lays out his argument for why the state should not pick winners, not just within a sector but also among sectors. State coercion makes everything worse!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: ‘Development economists are a creepy bunch.’02:42 Chapter 1: The Traditional View11:06 Chapter 2: Mugged by Reality22:17 Chapter 3: What’s the New Model?32:24 Chapter 4: What Happened to the Bombay Dream?45:10 Chapter 5: Let’s Talk About Food, Baby!51:21 Chapter 6: Some Lessons54:11 Chapter 7: Recommendations

For full show notes, please click here!

Manufacturing in India was hobbled by the state for many decades after Independence — and is still not in great shape. Why is this so? How can we move forward?

Welcome to Episode 104 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In the first of a two-parter, Ajay lays out the grim reality today, and Amit gives a historical perspective. In the next episode, we discuss why Industrial Policy would be the worst way to tackle this.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: The Travails of the Indian Businessman05:12 Chapter 1: The Hard Facts about Indian Manufacturing09:07 Chapter 2: The Difference Between Manufacturing and Services28:43 Chapter 3: A Historical View43:47 Chapter 4: The Problems with Indian Manufacturing TODAY1:08:05 Chapter 5: The Union and the State1:09:49 Chapter 6: Recommendations

For full show notes, click here.

Admit it, our last episode, You Should Start a Business, blew your mind. You couldn’t wait to get going! You wanted more!

Welcome to Episode 103 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma & Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit shares more gyan on starting a business. You have no excuse left now! Incorporate!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 A Bumblebee Among the Social Butterflies02:53 Chapter 0: Setting the Stage05:02 Chapter 1: Be a Generalist10:13 Chapter 2: Practice First-Principles Thinking12:17 Chapter 3: Focus on the Customer18:50 Chapter 4: Focus on Product, Not Marketing23:15 Chapter 5: Choose a Mission Bigger Than Yourself28:12 Chapter 6: Think Long-Term40:12 Chapter 7: Choose Your Partner Well48:15 Chapter 8: Choose Your Employees Well53:11 Chapter 9: Hard Work is Non-Negotiable1:01:57 Chapter 10: Optimise for Truth-Telling1:10:55 Chapter 11: Embrace Simplicity1:15:20 Chapter 12: Have Professional Pride1:18:03 Chapter 13: Be Guided by Your Inner Scorecard1:19:55 Chapter 14: Recommendations

For the full show notes, please click here.

Welcome to Episode 102 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

There are many good reasons to start a business. In this episode, Amit and Ajay take you through a few of them — and then Amit elaborates on the mindset you need to get started.

This is Part 1 of a grand two-parter. If you don’t start a business after this, you are doomed! Start! Now!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Eh, Chhoti Ladki!06:34 Chapter 1: Why You Should Start a Business19:19 Chapter 2: The Detachment Argument24:01 Chapter 3: Prioritise Love Over Like28:52 Chapter 4: Don’t Listen to Naysayers34:30 Chapter 5: Be Internally Driven46:57 Chapter 6: Have a Bias for Action

For the full show notes, please click here!

When we think about state intervention, the first principle we consider is whether it is necessary. But we should also think about whether it is possible — and how easy or hard it is. How do we figure this out?

Welcome to Episode 101 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay lays out the metrics by which we can judge the difficulty of a proposed state intervention. Monetary policy is easy. Financial regulation is hard. Let’s understand why!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: The Light Has Gone out of Our Lives03:52 Chapter 1: Is This Easy or Is This Hard?06:51 Chapter 2: Metrics for Intervention15:49 Chapter 3: Some Concrete Examples28:52 Chapter 4: The Hacking Mindset32:02 Chapter 5: The Important Things are the Hard Ones40:32 Chapter 6: Recommendations

For the full show notes, please click here.

We’ve reached episode 100 — HURRAY! — and it’s time for another session of Ask Me Anything. Amit and Ajay take questions from gentle readers about a variety of subjects, from Ajay’s love of suffering to Amit’s (dubious) haircare. (The two are not related.) Mad fun, watch!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Under the Banyan Tree03:38 The Questions Begin!1:40:10 NOT the Last Bow

For full show notes, please ⁠click here⁠.

Regulation always has the potential to go wrong. But in India, it’s been worse than in much of the world. It has become a tool of oppression of the worst kind.

Welcome to Episode 99 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit talks about the theory of regulation in general — and Ajay delivers a masterclass on how the Indian state turned it into a horror film.

Despite that, the episode begins and ends with good news!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: Good News!05:45 Chapter 1: The Theory and History of Regulation22:16 Chapter 2: Getting the Terms Right27:03 Chapter 3: Why Set Up a Regulator?36:14 Chapter 4: Where India Went Wrong46:36 Chapter 5: What is Wrong with the Regulatory State?47:52 Chapter 6: How Can We Fix This?53:52 Chapter 7: The Wonder That Was FSLRC1:01:56 Chapter 8: The Ecosystem of Ideas (and Ideas People)1:18:37 Chapter 9: Recommendations

For full show notes, please ⁠click here⁠.