A conversation with the tech journalist and writer Vauhini Vara on the ways in which language can be used to serve our purposes, independent from, and in opposition to, the goals of powerful big tech companies.

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the multi award-winning tech journalist, editor and writer Vauhini Vara about her new book, Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age (Harper Collins India, June 2025).

In Searches, Vauhini Vara explores how big tech companies have shaped and exploited human language and communication for their gain. We let this happen, she argues, because we also benefit from the convenience of these products. It’s an exchange that makes us complicit in technological capitalism: we’re both victims and beneficiaries. Vauhini also enacts this through her own digital footprint: from Google searches, Amazon reviews to ChatGPT dialogues.

Searches is a meditation on how language can be reclaimed: how we use it to assert ourselves, to resist, and to imagine alternatives beyond the interests of power. 

This episode is now available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/mkh87l2Wo5c

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2mSdhcWRM1gsBx2ly7fWof

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vauhini-vara-on-big-tech-and-our-digital-selves/id1464880116?i=1000715072342

Let’s keep the conversation going – please share your thoughts on the episode or on 'Searches'. If something resonated with you – or even challenged you – leave us a comment here on Youtube or send me an email (shwethas[at]himalmag[dot]com).

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