Desi Academia Podcast

We are joined once again by Ajay and Harsha, as we discuss the major tech breakthroughs of 2025 and the major theme of this progress: AI. Recommendations and References:⁠It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbotThe MIT List Anthropic Coverage:Trump orders government to stop using Anthropic in battle over AI useTrump Orders Government to Stop Using Anthropic After Pentagon StandoffAnthropic boss rejects Pentagon demand to drop AI safeguardsAnthropic refuses Pentagon’s new terms, standing firm on lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillanceOpenAI Coverage: OpenAI: "Our agreement with the Department of War"OpenAI’s Sam Altman announces Pentagon deal with ‘technical safeguards’ Previous Episodes with Harsha and Ajay:S11E1: Pivoting from a PhD- navigating an alternative career path with Harsha Supplementary Materials 4: Tech Wrap 2024 with Ajay and HarshaS4E1- Conversation around Drug discovery Ft. Harsha

This is Desi Academia Podcast's Golden Jubilee, and we are so glad you have been with us on this journey! For this special episode, we bring on friend of the podcast Saurabh, and talk to him about his academic journey as a mathematician. He takes us through his remarkable journey as a researcher in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Israel, and Switzerland. Saurabh tells us about what it mean to “encounter infinity” through mathematics, what is it like to understand the world by asking ‘if this certainty was weakened, would the theorem still hold true’, and what it's like to ask great questions without thinking about applications.We talk about how Saurabh found his passion for teaching, his pivot to industry, his experiences with the political realities of all the places he inhabited, and how he finds joy in his work.Recommendations:SaurabhBook: Everybody Loves a Good Drought The WirePowderCapernaumEl secreto de sus ojos Argentina 1985“AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself”“AI may upend online studies critical to social science”VatsalWhat Noam Chomsky’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein says about progressive politicsMeghPleurebisTed LassoHumans in the LoopMurtagh

In this episode of DAP, Vatsal and Megh are joined by a friend of the pod, Dr. Rituparna Patgiri. She shares her experiences teaching sociology to STEM graduates. Most importantly, she shares her teaching and mentorship philosophy. We discuss the different roles of a teacher, what it takes to teach sociology, and how to distinguish between opinions and empirical studies. Recommendations: Recommendations:MeghAlgospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam AleksicTV show: Boots, NetflixRituparnaTV show: The social dilemmaRituparna's co-edited book: Food, Culture and Society in India: Social, Political, Economic and Cultural Perspectives The Attention Economy Arushi BhandariVatsalKaren Hao- interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8enXRDlWguUSuperboys of Malegaon

We continue this season with another friend-of-the-pod Professor Indranil Dutta, as we discuss Megh's dissertation defense and thesis writing experience, and the value of a supportive research experience. Recommendations:MeghThe Rosie ProjectIndranilTV show: OrbitalParts UnknownKitchen ConfidentialVatsalAnthony Bordain’s ‘No Reservation’

Have you ever wondered what it's like to explain your research to an immigration and customs officer? Today, Manan and Sumaira join us to discuss their work on trans-continental poetry and periodicals respectively, what it means to study the history of Islamic communities and literary traditions in Western Academia, the different aims and focii of sociology, anthropology, literature, religious studies and Islamic studies, and what it means to impart all this knowledge and passion in college classrooms.RecommendationsSumairaIdea of the Muslim WorldOttoman History PodcastWhen only God can see: the Muslim Faith of Political Prisoners Walaa Quisay & Asim QureshiThe Writings of Sharjeel Imam, Gyanendra Pandey, Papihah GhoshAdul Manān Bhat Genealogies of Religion Talal AsadThe Venture of Islam, Marshall HodsonPolitics of Piety,Saba MahmoodWhat is Islam? Importance of being Islamic, Shahab AhmedThe work of IqbalMeghBecoming Young Men in a New India, Shannon PhilipAfter I Was Raped: The Untold Lives of Five Survivors Urmi BhattacheryyaVatsalOzarc, Netflix

Join us in this episode of DAP as we talk about the research of Professor Deepak Modi. Prof. Modi is an independent researcher at the ICMR National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health. To conclude this pride month, he gives us a masterclass on the biology and genetics of human reproduction and fertility. We talk about his cutting edge research that involves 'organs on a chip' to evaluate safety of drugs during pregnancy, molecular pathways he discovered that play an important role in fertility, doing 'wet-lab' research in India and much more!RecommendationsDeepakUterex, Biological basis of sexualityEmperor of all maladies, Siddhart MukherjeeThe gene machine, Venky Ramakrishnan‘Science is about doing what everyone has done, but seeing what no one has seen’HarshaThe last lecture, Randy PostVatsalWar, Bob WoodwardMeghBehind the graduate mental health crisis in science https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-024-02457-zwhat OnlyFans' billions reveal about the market value of male desire: https://maalvika.substack.com/p/what-onlyfans-billions-reveal-aboutTouch grass podcastBoring Bedtime stories

Its pride month 2025 and DAP is back with a new episode. In this episode we are joined by Dr. Ketaki Chaukhani. Dr. Chowkhani is an Assistant Professor at Manipal Centre for Humanities where she teaches India’s first ever course on Singles Studies. Join us in this riveting conversation where she explains what is single studies or "singleism" and her research that attempts to understand boyhood, sexuality and society. Recommendations Dr. Chaukhani's selected works: 1. https://www.theswaddle.com/marriage-is-letting-us-down-should-there-be-a-right-not-to-marry2. Her book: The Limits of Sexuality EducationLove, Sex, and Adolescent Masculinities in Urban IndiaDr. Ketaki Chaukhani:Bella de PauloVatsalFlop showMeghPushpa 2Rebecca Watson, violencehttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/11/25/should-a-country-speak-a-single-language

In this special episode, the hosts of Small India Radio (SIR) Podcast Group: Raj, Nishant, Megh, Vatsal, Richa, and MV; talk about their professional experiences in education and workplaces. We talk about how we got here: our degree choices and motivations, experiences growing up in different parts of India, exposure, and moving away from home. We discuss the impact of Liberalisation and 2014, creating reliable knowledge sources and reading, visiting India, the thoughts of moving back, and the impact of education systems and degrees on our lives. Check out our sister podcasts!Bharatiya Junta Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cEQfIblu88FzyHGdVCG0ePCCI podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oGfaWZ5cbsc18sfeP8g3o

In this special episode, friends of the podcast Ajay and Harsha join Megh to discuss the MIT Tech review, 2024. We discuss major innovations in GenAI, biotech, astronomy, and sustainable technology.We also consider the impact of the defunding of scientific bodies in the US and the deregulation of BigTech, and whether the innovations of 2024 will have a chance to scale.Recommendations and References:Google CEO Sundar Pichai on AI-powered search and the future of the web: https://www.theverge.com/24158374/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-ai-search-gemini-future-of-the-internet-web-openai-decoder-interviewMIT Technology Review- 10 Breakthrough Technologies: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/03/1109178/10-breakthrough-technologies-2025/Hugging Face Pleias 1.0 models: https://huggingface.co/blog/Pclanglais/common-modelsAI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/28/ai-empathy-humansCan LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas? A Large-Scale Human Study with 100+ NLP Researchers: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.04109 All That Glitters is Not Novel: Plagiarism in AI Generated Research: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.16487 Patal Lok S2

This episode, we are joined by Professor Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal (@ranjodhd), from the Digital Humanities Lab, University of Basel. We learn about his transition from engineering to literature, and how his foundation in STEM education contributes to his work in science and technology studies. We discuss his work on how science is shaped by narratives and capital, and how technical experts and scientists invent many means to express what they observe and find. Our conversation leads to a discussion of the technical aspects of science communication, building video games for research, and the impact of social media on how science is transmitted and popularised. Recommendations Ranjodh A Professor Doctor Von Legal Smith, Alexander McCall Smith Pentiment, video game Megh Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives Vir Das, Wanted (live) Neural Networks, by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, Théo Lepage-Richer, and Lucy Suchman Vatsal “On contemporary Image Making” by Prof Dhaliwal "Incorporation of photosynthetically active algal chloroplasts in cultured mammalian cells towards photosynthesis in animals"

In this episode, we are joined by recent PhD graduate Dr. Ishaan Bhat (@Doctor_Woah) who shares his experience dissertating in European academia. Ishaan walks us through his specialisation in image recognition and ML/DL algorithms, his interdisciplinary collaboration with medical doctors, and his doctoral research on uncertainty estimation and improving reliability in predictions made by image recognition algorithms. We also chat about his dissertation defence experience. We cover the unique challenges and joys of applied research, the complications of working with protected data, and the importance of open science, reproducibility, and code+paper style publications. Recommendations Ishaan The Good Research Code Handbook: https://goodresearch.dev The Wager , by David Grann Megh Honey Singh's interview by Lallantop Movie: Sarfarosh The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India, by Shailaja Paik Vatsal A scientific fraud. An investigation. A lab in recovery: https://www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-society/a-scientific-fraud-an-investigation-a-lab-in-recovery/ Podcast: Gastropod

In this episode of DAP, Megh and Vatsal are joined by Dr. Harish Prakash. Dr. Prakash is an assistant professor at GITAM University, and his research interests include ecology and animal behavior. Join us in this fun conversation, where we take a deep dive into his academic journey and his motivations. We tackle questions like why the study of ecology is essential, his research involving studying bats in the wild ecosystems of India, and much more. Recommendations Harish Resident Alien Letter to an ecologist Hugh Wilson An environmental history of India, Micheal H fisher https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/an-environmental-history-of-india/20102711CAD02F7D3CC090D2E283E006 Malayalam movies- Avesham, Brahmoyugam, Manjumel Boys, Premalu Megh Dr. Fatima: the Sokal Affair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESEFUaEA7kk Importance of stupidity in science: https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/121/11/1771/30038/The-importance-of-stupidity-in-scientific-research Book: Magnifera Indica:a biography of the mango Vatsal Tartrazine makes skin see through: https://www.sciencealert.com/incredible-experiment-reveals-a-way-to-make-skin-transparent