Today's episode is with Vijayendra Mohanty (Vimoh to his friends). Vimoh describes himself as "An Indian creator. He writes essays, produces podcasts, and makes videos. His areas of interest are media, culture, and creativity. He is a comic book writer and has authored a ten-issue comic series called Ravanayan and is presently writing several new titles. In addition, he has been the co-creator of the YouTube channel Epified." You can find links all of his work here. I was apprehensive about this one as I've never done a podcast on Skype but thankfully it came out well. Our discussion takes us to some interesting places including the comic book business, growing up as a creative kid in pre-liberalization India and the nature of evil. Grab the episode here. Enjoy. PS: In case you are wondering where I seem to have disappeared off to again, I'm currently covering from an injury that has left me effectively one handed for a while. I'm literally typing all of this with one hand and it categorically SUCKS. Pro tip: Never go sprinting on a path that is infested with monkeys. It's a great way to ruin both your ligaments and your vacation. Until next time.

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LVS#11 A conversation with Vijayendra Mohanty

 This is a Q and A episode. Topics discussed include my (very condensed) take on the elections, Computex 2019, E3 2019, Robert Pattinson's selection as the next Batman etc. I know a bunch of you are still wondering about my continued silence about the elections, but I wont be doing an episode on it without a guest. I see no value in me covering old ground without the benefit of someone with a different view checking me now and then. An election focused episode will happen, but this isn't it. Also, unless y'all explicitly tell me to use your names/handles (to identify who the sent in a question), I wont. It is just safer to assume that people want to be anonymous. As always, thank you for listening.

LVS#10: Q and A

At long last I managed to get a guest on for the show. Siddharth Singh and I sat down for a conversation surrounding his book "The Great Smog of India". As the title suggests, the book deals with the air pollution crisis in India. This is one of those books that makes one reach for the highlighter and it frequently makes the reader go "No wait, that can't possibly be true. Can it?!"   To quote from the back of the book : "It isn't that the scientific community and policymakers don't know what causes air pollution, or what it will take to tackle the problem. It is that the problem is social and political as much as it is technological, and human problems are often harder to overcome than scientific ones. Each sector of the economy that needs reform has its underlying political, economic and social dynamics that need to be addressed to make a credible impact on emissions. With clarity and compelling arguments, and with a dash of irony, Siddharth Singh demystifies the issue: where we are, how we got here, and what we can do now. He discusses not only developments in sectors like transport, industry and energy production that silently contribute to air pollution, but also the 'agricultural shock' to air quality triggered by crop burning in northern India every winter. He places the air pollution crisis in the context of India's meteorological conditions and also climate change. Above all, and most alarmingly, he makes clear what the repercussions will be if we remain apathetic." Even with a 90 minute conversation we only touched on parts of the book. That should give you an idea of how much info is packed into those 228 pages. You can reach Siddharth here. Enjoy!

LVS#9 A conversation with Siddharth Singh (The Great Smog of India)

 Now that I'm back from my little trip (and feeling soooo much better), we can expect to go back to the usual schedule. This episode is a little longer, considering I had to make up for my absence for most of April. Topics include the AAP/Atishi scandal, Avengers Endgame and the GoT finale (sigh). Also a reading of "Blindspot", the first article from the "Nazi Rhymes" series I wrote for Newscentral 24/7.  A big thank you to everyone that sent me "get well soon messages". You guys are the best! :)  PS: Still working on the sound quality issues. I understand that some episodes sound terrible when listening through speakers. Till the time I fix this thing for good, I suggest listening using earphones/headsets. Hopefully this one sounds a little better.  Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lexvalidus/message

LVS #8 Atishi Marlena, Endgame and GoT

As India goes into full on election mode, it might be worth remembering a couple of things before you go in to cast your ballot. This episode is coming out a little later than planned as I've been sick for the last fortnight (a sore throat that turned into a full blown case of tonsillitis). 

LVS #7 The Bridge

Trying out something different for this one. I decided to do a reading of my post on Keith Flint's suicide. Honestly, it felt weird reading my work out loud but considering how many people thought it mirrored their feelings, it made sense to give it a shot. If this works out, I might end up doing this for some of the more popular posts I've written over the years (assuming they are still relevant).  The second half is a brief review of Captain Marvel and my views on the storm of feminism surrounding the film (though the meat of this discussion will be in a future episode).

LVS #6 Kieth Flint, Captain Marvel and ... feminism?

This episode talks about Pratab Bhanu Mehta's excellent speech at the India Today Conclave this year. To be precise, it talks about some of the questions asked of him (and of most liberals by extension). Also, updates on the Brookings Institute panel on the IPKF Sri Lanka operations in the 80s. Plus my views on the Netflix movie "Triple Frontier". (More at Lexvalidus.com )

LVS #5 Asking Better Questions (P.B. Mehta at the India Today Conclave 2019)

Yes, it has been a while. This episode will explain why. The move to Anchor is bringing some major changes to the show. Since hosting will no longer be a concern, you should be hearing from me more often.  Expect the next episode to drop by the end of this week. As for the older (Season 1) episodes, they will be transferred over soon (you can still get them on iTunes etc for now). Also, yes the sound quality on this is , erm, sub-par.  Sorry, I'm rusty. I did try to re-edit but it seems to be making it worse. I don't expect it to happen again.

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