Ep 453: Srikrishna Ayyangar Examines Populism
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

Ep 453: Srikrishna Ayyangar Examines Populism

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 21, 20263 hr 25 min
  • Interview
  • Politics

Indian politics is deeply complicated, and existing frames don't do it justice. Srikrishna Ayyangar joins Amit Varma in episode 453 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the deep dives he has made in the field, including with innovative methods like set theory. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Srikrishna Ayyangar on LinkedIn, Amazon and NLSIU. 2. A Logic of Populism: India and Its States -- Srikrishna Ayyangar. 3. Administrative Analysis -- Christopher Hood. 4. The Burden of Democracy -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 5. The Republic of Apathy (2007) -- Amit Varma. 6. Manish Sabharwal is a Good Ancestor...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 1 of 12 · 0:00

.

Yes, we acknowledge the world is complex, but we have stories about it that make it

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B212:26
  • B230:22
  • B273:07
  • B2102:42
  • B2118:15
  • C1132:45
  • B2168:29
  • C1180:06

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 28%A2 35%B1 21%B2 14%C1 3%
  • 83% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 191 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 696 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Perhaps the funniest feature of the human condition is that we think we know everything. Yes, we acknowledge the world is complex, but we have stories about it that make it simple. Our ancestors were fools.

0:16

Those who lived in violent times might even have been bloody fools. But we know it all. Now, I am pretty sure that every generation so far has believed exactly this, that they are at the cutting edge of scientific knowledge and ethical progress and blah blah blah.

0:29

think about it for a second and it is obvious that they were wrong and we are wrong. To the people of a hundred years later, we are ignorant primitives who think they know but actually they hardly know and hardly think. This is also true when it comes to the area of today's episode, political science. I predict that all our theories and frameworks about politics will seem incomplete at best and

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (205 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy