My guest this episode is the distinguished Kumi Naidoo - a human rights and climate justice activist. Naidoo first began his journey at the age of 15 fighting against the then apartheid government in South Africa by organising school boycotts. He was arrested several times for civil disobedience and when the government imposed a state of emergency, he was forced to go underground and flee to the UK, where he became a Rhodes scholar.

He eventually returned to South Africa in 1990 when Mandela was released from jail, and went onto play a vital role in shaping the then African National Congress. His steadfast work in the human rights and justice sphere led him to become the first person from the global south to head Greenpeace International and later, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

From scaling oil rigs to protest against the fossil fuel industry to sitting down with the likes of Tony Blair, Angela Merkel and Putin, Naidoo has become one of the prominent voices in the climate justice movement. 

He continues to represent Africans Rising for Justice, Peace, and Dignity as a Global Ambassador and currently holds the position of Distinguished visiting lecturer at Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. 

In this conversation, we discuss the tragic human crisis unfolding in Palestine to climate urgency and how the climate crisis is interlinked with human rights.

To learn more about Naidoo's work, please visit: https://www.kuminaidoo.net

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

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What is it like to be a woman scientist in India? Why don’t we see enough of them? If you’re quick to point the superstar ones, sadly they’re not always the norm. In fact, research has shown that women in academia are expected to be much more competent than their male counterparts to be considered for the same role.

It’s this bias that got Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj to start ‘The Life of Science’ web portal to document stories of regular women in science, and the systemic bias they fight in their everyday lives. Having began their journey in 2016, it has now given rise to their book ‘Lab Hopping: A Journey to find India’s Women in Science’. Backed by research, it makes the reader come to terms with unsettling facts plaguing Indian academia, when it comes to gender and caste diversity. In our conversation, we bring some of these issues to light and what can be done to remedy it.

To learn more about The Life Of Science or order the book, visit: https://thelifeofscience.com/

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

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Artificial intelligence or AI is quite the buzzword these days. Many of us would not have missed the news pouring in about AI - sometimes it is promising and at times, it isn’t reassuring. But Ankush Sabharwal, founder and CEO of CoRover, believes AI is more than a buzzword. It is here to stay - simply because an average human is already relying on AI in ways that they don’t realise.

CoRover is a platform for conversational AI. The kind of AI Chatbot-as-a-service (CaaS) that we encounter through customer support with organisations. The company is also the brainchild behind AskSarkar, an app that helps citizens better access and resolve issues about government services; behind Indian Railways’ virtual assistant DISHA and also BharatGPT, our own version of ChatGPT that supports 12 Indian languages and over 120 foreign languages.

A graduate of BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta, Sabharwal has over 15+ years experience in the SaaS space and is a member of the invite-only Forbes Technology Council. He has appeared on many media outlets offering his opinion on the fast paced growth of AI.

To learn more about CoRover, please visit: https://corover.ai/

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

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How often have you shared a digital artwork on social media to simply convey your thoughts on an issue? 

The power of digital art to convey dissent or to protest has grown to become one of the most preferred ways to vent frustration or show solidarity. Its creation is not intended to sell (maybe that will soon change), but it does often cause one to react. A reason probably why many of these artists choose to be anonymous.

Smish Designs is a digital artist and illustrator whose work is a searing commentary on the socio-political events that happen in our country. Some of her designs have been used during protests such as the Hathras case and anti-CAA. In her first solo exhibition in 2021, Pati, Patni Aur Woke - her designs delved into the injustices often meted out to women in the institution of marriage as Smish asks if marriage is really a safe space for women?

But voicing one’s unfiltered opinion always comes at a cost - she has had to deal with threats, trolling, and even Instagram and Twitter taking down her posts. 

As she becomes one of the well-known voices in India’s protest art culture, stay tuned to this interesting episode as we talk about her art, staying anonymous, protecting her mental health, the prevalence of protest art in the age of social media, role of artificial intelligence and much more!

To learn more about her work, you can check her work on:

https://www.instagram.com/smishdesigns/?hl=en

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

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In many ways, Anjali Gopalan has been a torchbearer for the LGBTQIA+ community. She started Naz Foundation in 1994 to lead a dedicated fight against HIV/AIDS issues and defend those marginalised due to their sexuality. Naz Foundation is the original petitioner to challenge Section 377 criminalising homosexuality, an archaic law which was struck down by the Supreme Court four years back.

Honouring her persistent fight for equality, she has received the Knight of the Legion of Honour, one of the highest honours from the French Government in 2013, shortlisted for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, named one of Time magazine’s Most Influential People in the World in 2012 and received the Woman Achiever Award from the Indian Government in 2007.

Join us as we talk about many issues concerning the queer community such as the ongoing same-sex marriage petitions in the Delhi High Court, expressing gender at work, rainbow washing by corporates and the way forward for the Indian queer community.

To learn more about The Naz Foundation, please visit: https://www.nazindia.org/

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

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The Bombay Canteen is considered as one of the most popular restaurants in the country and its food most sought out. It has been adjudged as The Best Restaurant in India in 2018 by Conde Nast Traveller and was also included in its list of 100 places in the world to eat. And as the restaurant’s former Executive Chef, Thomas Zacharias’ constant innovation of the Indian food became its pièce de résistance. 

Through his latest venture, The Locavore, Chef Zacharias is keen to create a community around our rich Indian food legacy and in the process put the spotlight back on the best (and sometimes forgotten) regional dishes and cuisines. He’s among the forefront of people championing the cause of local ingredients and to ultimately, do good through food.

This is the 50th episode of Maharani Talks.

To learn more about The Locavore, please visit:

https://thelocavore.in

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

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As someone who has a keen interest in space, I’m very excited to finally feature Dr. Susmita Mohanty, spaceship designer and a serial space entrepreneur, who started India’s first private space startup, Earth2Orbit - at a time when the Indian space industry didn’t welcome private players. She had also previously founded MoonFront and LIQUIFER, worked briefly with NASA & Boeing and as a climate activist, visited both the Artic & Antarctica on invitation. 

A protégée of Arthur C. Clarke, she has been featured in numerous publications such as Fortune, Vogue and Bloomberg. 

Dr. Susmita has now started India’s first space think thank, Spaceport SARABHAI. As ISRO is solidifying its global presence and more private players are coming up in India, she shares interesting insights on how we need to steer the global space narrative to focus on explorations done in the Eastern hemisphere. 

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

MUSIC: Lights by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic

If you enjoy this podcast, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. It will take only a few moments of your time. https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/maharani-talks/id1514769199

Tech unions are considered a rarity in Silicon Valley. So, when Google employees announced the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), named after Google’s parent company, it ended up becoming a catalyst for white collar workers to stand up against injustices in the workplace. 

Raksha Muthukumar was one of the union’s earliest members and helped in its formation. A GeorgiaTech graduate, during her work stint with Google, she saw the growing discontent among employees over Google’s sexual discrimination practices, which led to the 2018 global walk out by Google employees, and over its ethical use of technology, which saw the forced exit of Dr. Timnit Gebru, a respected figure in ethical practice of AI.

In October last year, Raksha was named as one of the 18 tech activists to watch out for by Business Insider, along with the likes of Frances Haugen who exposed Facebook’s algorithm decisions. The union itself has been extensively covered by numerous publications such as Forbes, TechCrunch, and The New York Times. So what did it take to make it happen?

You can get in touch with Raksha at https://raksha.gay/

You can reach me at [email protected] or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

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Who make up the Indian newsrooms? Do journalists cover diverse voices? 

Priyadharsini is the founder director of The Blue Club (TBC), a grassroots media organisation that amplifies stories of women from marginalised communities and the LGBTQIA. TBC is solely led by a team of members from such discriminated communities.

An Oxfam India report in 2019 shows how badly skewed representation of varied communities is in our newsrooms. A case in point - the report states that of the 121 newsroom leadership positions across newspapers, TV news channels, news websites, and magazines under study, 106 are occupied by journalists from the upper castes. The need to lessen this lacuna and louden such oft-ignored voices is the objective of The Blue Club.

Priyadharsini is also a documentary filmmaker and has brought out films such as Go, Get Education, a short film based on the revolutionary 19th century feminist and social reformer, Savitribai Phule and #dalitwomenfight. It brings to light rape atrocities Dalit women face in Haryana and was screened at the 38th session of United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva.

While stating the Oxfam Report in the podcast, I mistakenly mention of the total number of newsroom leadership positions as 101, which is not correct. It is a total of 121 newsroom leadership positions as stated by the Report. The error is regretted.

You can reach me at Maharani Talks on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

To learn more about The Blue Club:

https://www.theblueclub.org

You can read more about the Oxfam India Report 2019 here:

https://www.oxfamindia.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/Oxfam%20NewsLaundry%20Report_For%20Media%20use.pdf

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If you enjoy this podcast, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. It will take a only few moments of your time. https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/maharani-talks/id1514769199

I’ve been of the opinion that death penalty is justified for those convicted of heinous crimes. But in doing so, am I completely isolating the perpetrator and their actions to this one crime? Does the onus of the death penalty fall majorly on those marginalised in our society?

My guest this episode is Dr. Anup Surendranath. He is the Executive Director of Project 39A and an Assistant Professor of Law at National Law University in Delhi. Project 39A’s Death Penalty India report is the first empirical research done on capital punishment, the way it is administered in India and about those who live on death row. The Centre also offers pro bono legal aid for these convicts.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The socio-economic and caste profile of those who often get the death penalty
• Understanding the mental health of convicts on death row
• Does death penalty really deter crimes? 
• Can our legal system support capital punishment?
• Prisoners convicted of terror activities
• If death penalty is abolished, will people lose faith in our judiciary?

To know more about Project 39A, please visit: www.project39a.com

You can reach me at Maharani Talks on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/

MUSIC: Lights by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic

If you enjoy this podcast, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. It will only take a few moments of your time. https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/maharani-talks/id1514769199