Episodes

  • 13: 'A Suitable Boy' and other stories, with Mira Nair

    13: 'A Suitable Boy' and other stories, with Mira Nair
    Jul 6 2019
    In the finale of the Stepwell podcast, Patrick French talks to the acclaimed director Mira Nair about why she shifted from documentary film-making to fiction, her adaptation of Vikram Seth's masterpiece 'a Suitable Boy' and whether film-making is a political act.
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    29 mins
  • 12: The Evolution of India's Right Wing, with Swapan Dasgupta

    12: The Evolution of India's Right Wing, with Swapan Dasgupta
    Jun 22 2019
    Author Swapan Dasgupta details the history of the Hindu nationalist movement in India, discusses figureheads like Savarkar and Deendayal Upadhyaya and talks about the current Indian right wing, represented by the BJP government.
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    32 mins
  • 11: The history of the present, with Maya Jasanoff

    11: The history of the present, with Maya Jasanoff
    Jun 8 2019
    On the latest episode of the Stepwell podcast, Patrick French and renowned Harvard historian Maya Jasanoff explore themes of globalisation, imperialism, identity and how these factors shape the modern world.
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    36 mins
  • 10: How Indian Democracy works, with Mukulika Banerjee

    10: How Indian Democracy works, with Mukulika Banerjee
    May 25 2019
    Patrick French talks to Mukulika Banerjee, the Director of the South Asia Centre at LSE, about why India votes, why the 2019 elections were radically different, how our voting system could be improved, whether India is part of the global trend of rising populist nationalism that can be seen in other liberal democracies, EVMs, electoral bonds and much more.
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    37 mins
  • 9: The need for interdisciplinary collaboration, with Simon Goldhill

    9: The need for interdisciplinary collaboration, with Simon Goldhill
    May 4 2019
    The Professor of Greek Literature and Culture from Cambridge University joins academician Patrick French to discuss how collaborative, interdisciplinary work can solve complex problems.
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    34 mins
  • 8: With every breath: Why music matters, with Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan

    8: With every breath: Why music matters, with Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan
    Apr 13 2019
    In this episode, Patrick French talks to the wonderful Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan about how their journeys into music started, what they have learnt along the way, their views on current methods of music production and how they honed their craft. Tune in now.
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    25 mins
  • 7: Conservatism in India, with Shruti Kapila

    7: Conservatism in India, with Shruti Kapila
    Mar 30 2019
    On this episode of the Stepwell podcast, Patrick French talks to Shruti Kapila, a Historian at Cambridge University, about how Conservatism can be seen as a disposition rather than an ideology. Kapila details how this disposition has influenced politicians in India for eras, from Gandhi and Tilak to present day Congress.
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    28 mins
  • 6: Cotton trade and the emergence of capitalism, with Sven Beckert

    6: Cotton trade and the emergence of capitalism, with Sven Beckert
    Mar 16 2019
    Join the historian and author of "Empire of Cotton" in conversation with Patrick French about how cotton trade, slavery and colonialism played a role in the emergence of capitalism.
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    39 mins