Jaipur Bytes

Frank Dikötter, author of "How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive chat, Frank talks to Lakshya about his career, The People’s Republic of China, The people of Hong Kong, and dictators. 

Frank has been Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong since 2006. He is the author of the People's Trilogy, a series of books that document the impact of communism on the lives of ordinary people in China on the basis of new archival material. The first volume, entitled Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, won the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The second instalment, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-1957, was short-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2014. The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976 concludes the trilogy.

In "How to Be a Dictator", Frank examines the cults and propaganda surrounding twentieth-century dictators, from Hitler and Stalin to Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung - and how their dictatorships, in turn, have influenced leaders in the twenty-first century, including Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Frank spoke at JLF Adelaide this past week, and will be speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival next year, which will be happening in Jaipur from January 23 to 27, 2020.

Tony Joseph, author of "Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive, Tony tells Lakshya about the research that went into writing the book, how the modern indian population came to be composed as it is, and what we can learn about ourselves and our current times from our ancestors.

Tony has been a journalist, columnist and contributor to leading newspapers and magazines for over three decades. He was the Editor of BusinessWorld, Associate Editor of Business Standard and Features Editor of The Economic Times. Tony will be speaking at JLF Adelaide, which is happened this weekend from Nov 1-3, 2019.

Writer and editor Tom Cho in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive chat,  Tom talks to Lakshya about his first book, his next book, and where and how he finds the words to fill them. Tom’s debut collection of fiction, titled "Look Who’s Morphing", was shortlisted for multiple awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. He also has over 70 fiction publications in journals. His current project is a novel on the meaning of life. Originally from Australia, Tom now lives in Canada, and was a speaker at JLF Toronto last month. You can follow Tom's work at www.tomcho.com.

Ryan Stoa, author of "Craft Weed: Family Farming and the Future of the Marijuana Industry”, in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive, Ryan tells Lakshya about what drew him to studying and teaching law, how he found himself writing a book about the cannabis and marijuana industry, how he proposes for quality regulation in the form of Marijuana Appellation System (akin to the wine industry), and what the international possibilities are once regulation evolves.

Ryan Stoa is an Associate Professor of Law at Concordia University School of Law in Idaho, where he teaches Property Law, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, and Natural Resources Law. He has also authored numerous scholarly articles that address energy regulation, agriculture policy, natural resources management, and international development. Professor Stoa’s writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Salon, Daily Beast, and The Conversation, and his research has been featured in Rolling Stone, Wired, and Gizmodo, among others.

André Aciman, author of "Call Me by Your Name" and its upcoming sequel "Find Me", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive, André and Lakshya talk about why he drawn to writing these characters again, how the success of the film affected his writing process on "Find Me", why he chose to tell this story from three perspectives, while also sharing some great advice on how to write believable characters and emotions. 

André is a memoirist, essayist and New York Times bestselling novelist, and currently Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His first book was a memoir, called 'Out of Egypt', which details his childhood growing up Jewish in post-colonial Egypt.

In the upcoming follow-up to "Call Me by Your Name", titled 'Find Me', Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Aciman is a master of sensibility, of the intimate details and the emotional nuances that are the substance of passion. "Find Me" brings us back inside the magic circle of one of our greatest contemporary romances to ask if, in fact, true love ever dies. 

André will be speaking at JLF Toronto on September 28. "Find Me" hits bookstores on October 29 worldwide. 

Vanessa R. Sasson, author of “Yasodhara: A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife”, in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive, Vanessa and Lakshya talk about why she wanted to tell this story, what it was like to write in Yasodhara’s voice, and how the process of writing this book changed how she felt about the Buddha. Vanessa is a professor of Religious Studies in the Liberal and Creative Arts and Humanities Department at Marianopolis College, Quebec. She is also a Research Fellow for the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State in South Africa, as well as Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University, Montreal. As a scholar, her focus is on Buddhist studies, with particular emphasis on hagiography, gender and childhoods. She will be speaking at JLF Toronto on September 28.

Author, activist, psychotherapist Farzana Doctor in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive, Farzana and Lakshya talk about her life and career - both as a novelist and as a psychotherapist - as well as the work she does with WeSpeakOut, a global group that is working to ban female genital cutting in her Dawoodi Bohra community. Farzana Doctor is the award-winning author of Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement and All Inclusive. Doctor was recently named one of CBC Books’ 100 Canadian Writers You Need to Know Now. SEVEN, her fourth novel, will hit bookshelves in August 2020. She will be speaking at JLF Toronto on September 28.

David Moscrop, author of "Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones”, in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. David and Lakshya talk about politics, the currently ongoing Canadian elections, his new book, and what sort of topics he and his guests will be debating on his new podcast "Open to Debate with David Moscrop". David is a political theorist and a post doctoral fellow in the Department of Communication at the University of Ottawa. He studies, writes, and talks about democratic deliberation, political decision making, and digital media. David will be speaking at JLF Toronto on September 28.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and internationally recognized human rights and inspirational peace activist, in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. Dr. Abuelaish talks to Lakshya about what hatred does to a person and to a community, where he gets his strength to deliver his message of hope and forgiveness, why political leaders need to humanize and not politicize, how health and peace are inter-connected, and why he started the Daughters For Life Foundation.

Dr. Abuelaish is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Office of Global Public Health Education & Training at the University of Toronto.

In January 2009, an Israeli tank shelled the home of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish in the Gaza Strip and killed three of his daughters: Bessan, 21; Mayar, 15; and Aya, 13. This tragedy occured only minutes before Dr. Abuelaish was scheduled to speak live on Israeli television. His recorded cries for help captured hearts and headlines in Israel and around the world, and his response to the loss of his daughters was followed by international audiences. Dr. Abuelaish never sought to seek revenge or sink into despair and hatred. Instead, he called for those in the Middle East to stop the bloodshed and facilitate discourse for mutual understanding. His strongest hope is that his daughters will be the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis. He started and chairs the Daughters For Life Foundation in their memory, based on the belief that lasting peace in the Middle East depends on the empowerment of girls and young women through education, which will allow them to become agents of change for the betterment of life throughout the Middle East.

His 2010 book "I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity” has been translated in to 23 languages.

Dr. Abuelaish will be speaking at JLF Toronto on September 28. To learn more about his work, go to https://daughtersforlife.com/

Marcus Moench, founder of The Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-International, in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive conversation, Marcus tells Lakshya about the connection between literature and science that he found in India, why he was drawn to work on social and environmental issues, how JLF gives scientists and activists a platform to talk about universal issues like water scarcity and climate change, and what role he thinks the media plays in communicating the narrative relating to climate change (such as the Amazon Rainforest fires recently).