BrownCast
The Brown Pundits podcast: conversations on the subcontinent, its history and its arguments.
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- 1Brownpundits Browncast episode 100: Creating a New Medina, Venkat Dhulipala
11 May 2020 · with Omar Ali · 5 comments
In Browncast Episode 100, the hosts talk to historian Venkat Dhulipala about his book Creating a New Medina, on state power, Islam and the quest for Pakistan in late colonial India, and the ideology of Pakistan.
- 2Araingang: Pakistani American nationalist and internet troll
29 Nov 2020 · with Razib Khan · 223 comments
In this BrownCast episode, Akshar, Mukunda and Razib discuss Pakistani and Indian nationalism with Araingang, a well-known Pakistani American nationalist online, covering Savarkar's influence, Pakistan's focus on West Asia and the inchoate nature of Pakistani nationalism.
- 3Episode 19 – The Rajputs
11 Mar 2023 · with Nachiketa · 3 comments
Episode 19 of the BrownCast, on the Rajputs, with a reference list including C. V. Vaidya's early history of the Rajputs, Andre Wink's Al-Hind volumes, and works on the Hunas and early medieval India, but no summary of the discussion itself.
- 4Episode 10: North India – before and after Harsha
12 May 2022 · with Nachiketa · 0 comments
Gaurav and Jay join Maneesh in the History of India series to discuss North India before and after Harsha: political splintering after the Guptas, the Kumbha Mela, declining trade, urban decay and the decline of Buddhism, with Xuanzang and Banabhatta as storytellers.
- 5Browncast Episode 30: Philippe Lemoine on philosophy, politics, French immigration & The European Union
14 Apr 2019 · with Razib Khan · 2 comments
On Browncast Episode 30, philosopher and data scientist Philippe Lemoine discusses his path from computer science to philosophy of science, his hard-headed analysis of migration into France, and his sanguine view of the European Union.
- 6Browncast: Both sides of the Aryan debate
29 Jan 2022 · with Nachiketa · 33 comments
A spin-off from the History of India series: Nachiketa hosts Kushal Mehra, Kartik Mohan, Razib Khan and Mukunda for a good-faith discussion of the Aryan question, bringing both sides of the AIT/OIT debate together, with a separate blog post stating his own position.
- 7Browncast: Dr Edward Luttwak on Israel and the Grand Strategy of Iran
2 Oct 2024 · with Omar Ali · 1 comment
Omar Ali and Amey talk to Edward Luttwak, described as famously pro-Zionist, about the Iran and Israel clash and each side's strategy, giving the pro-Israel view of the crisis, with a Scribebuddy transcript that follows unedited.
- 8BrownCast Podcast episode 20: Conversation with a middle-class Dalit
6 Mar 2019 · with Razib Khan · 85 comments
The host talks to a university-educated, middle-class Dalit in Gujarat, who describes everyday slights rather than daily oppression in urban India. The host notes this seems far from Jim Crow, and that the guest saw America as having largely solved its race problem.
- 9BrownCast Podcast episode 13: The British Indian Army
6 Feb 2019 · with Omar Ali · 22 comments
Omar talks to Major Agha Humayun Amin and Dr Hamid Hussain about the British Indian Army: the East India Company's army, the 1857 mutiny, the army afterwards, and the role of British officers in the Pakistani army and in the capture of Gilgit and Baltistan.
- 10Browncast Episode 94: Amey and Amit, Indians, not South Asian
14 Apr 2020 · with Razib Khan · 245 comments
BrownCast episode 94 with regular guests Amey and Amit, two right-leaning, American-ish people of Indian origin, whose main objection is to terms such as 'South Asian' and who discuss what the label means and does not mean.
- 11Chariots and Aryans
1 Jul 2020 · with Razib Khan · 63 comments
Responding to a video claiming chariot evidence undermines the Aryan migration theory, Razib Khan argues it changes little for him, since steppe people reached Europe in wagons and genetics, not chariots, is what shows steppe-related ancestry in Pakistan and India.
- 12Browncast: Introducing History of India series
12 Dec 2021 · with Nachiketa · 60 comments
Introducing the History of India series, which promises unconventional yet authoritative voices and a view free of ideological baggage. In episode one Maneesh Taneja talks with Omar Ali, Shrikanth Krishnamachary and Gaurav Lele, taking a 30,000-foot view of early Indians, the origins of idli and dosa and more.
- 13Browncast: Bangladesh Planned Elections Discussion
30 Nov 2025 · with Omar Ali · 14 comments
In this BrownCast episode Omar Ali and Maneesh Taneja talk with Bangladeshi academics Shaifq ur Rahman and Jyoti Rahman about the country's current political churn and its planned elections. The episode is available on Libsyn, Apple, Spotify and other platforms.
- 14Browncast: Vishal Ganesan; The Hindu Case Against Hinduism?
3 Feb 2025 · opened by Omar Ali · 0 comments
Hosts Amey and Dr Omar Ali talk with lawyer Vishal Ganesan about his essay on Frontier Dharma and what being Hindu means in the diaspora. He argues that mainstream media and academic portrayals of Hindus are distorted by a lens from 18th and 19th-century missionary narratives.
- 15🇮🇳Op Sindoor: A Podcast on Pahalgam, Pakistan, and the Limits of Peace
10 Jun 2025 · with X.T.M · 101 comments
X.T.M reflects on the first half-hour of the BrownCast episode on Op Sindoor, covering the Pahalgam massacre, Modi and Nawaz Sharif's failed diplomacy, the civil–military cycle in Pakistan, and India's shift away from strategic restraint after Uri and Pulwama.
- 16Questions for Vagheesh
9 Sep 2019 · with Razib Khan · 62 comments
The author announces a podcast recording with Vagheesh Narasimhan, first author of the 2019 South and Central Asia ancient DNA paper, and invites reader questions.
- 17The Middle Path: Towards a Liberal Conservatism in India (Part 1)
23 Aug 2020 · with London Observer · 29 comments
In the first of three posts, the author answers Slapstik's 'Indian woke wears saffron', arguing that the Bhakti movement was no rupture from earlier Dharmic traditions, that Congress had indigenous-minded leaders as well as liberal modernists, and that India's Dharmic consciousness shows cultural continuity.
- 18Brown Pundits – Episode 6, Chinese history, pop culture and strategy, with Tanner Greer
23 Dec 2018 · with Razib Khan · 15 comments
Episode 6 of BrownCast features Tanner Greer of The Scholar's Stage, who lived in China for several years, on Chinese history, pop culture and strategy. The host says Greer brings a practitioner's contemporary perspective that the previous week's discussion lacked.
- 19The Pandits who read Brown Pundits
8 Jun 2026 · with X.T.M · 9 comments
X.T.M reports on the 2026 reader survey: thirty respondents, a May audience of about 61,000 visits, and a readership described as bound by shared interests but almost entirely male, forward-caste and tilted in politics.
- 20Browncast episode 76: Sham Sharma and Mukunda Raghavan
18 Dec 2019 · with Omar Ali · 8 comments
BrownCast episode 76: the hosts talk to YouTuber Sham Sharma, host of the Sham Sharma Show, and returning guest Mukunda Raghavan of Meru Media, covering Indian civilisation, Hindutva, Muslims, Dexter Filkins and other topics that come up.
- 21Episode 7: South of India from 200 BC to 500 AD
25 Mar 2022 · with Maneesh Taneja · 4 comments
Maneesh talks with Jay and Shrikanth in the History of India series, which crosses the Vindhyas into the Deccan, about South India from 200 BC to 500 AD, with long attention to Sangam literature; Mani Ratnam's film Iruvar also makes an appearance.
- 22The 100th Browncast with Amey the Maratha
13 Sep 2023 · with Razib Khan · 2 comments
The 100th BrownCast: Razib Khan and Amey talk about Sri Lankan genetics, the absence or presence of casteism in the USA, American immigration policy, and how William Dalrymple triggers Amey's Maratha pride, with a request for positive reviews on Apple and Spotify.
- 23Browncast episode 81: An Israeli in the world
3 Mar 2020 · with Razib Khan · 102 comments
BrownCast episode 81, in which Razib talks to his old friend David Boxenhorn, an American Jew who moved to Israel, about diversity and discrimination in Israeli society, anti-Zionism versus anti-Semitism, and how international geopolitics bears on Israel.
- 24Browncast Ep 41: An Indian Muslim on Maharajah Modi
25 May 2019 · with X.T.M · 48 comments
A BrownCast episode, part two of episode 38, discussing the ramifications of Modi's re-election for India with Jahanara, a Cambridge student with experience of the Delhi education system, with the hosts disagreeing respectfully but enjoying one another's views, and a third part planned.
- 25Episode 11: Palas, Prathiharas and early Islamic invasions
27 May 2022 · with Nachiketa · 35 comments
In BrownCast episode 11, Maneesh and Gaurav talk with Jay and Omar Ali about North Indian power struggles from 700 to 1200 CE, the tripartite contest of the Palas, Rashtrakutas and Pratiharas for Kannauj, and the Arab and Turkic invasions that laid the foundation of Islamicate rule.
- 26The Jahanara debate & how Desis must dress
30 May 2019 · with X.T.M · 34 comments
The author compares Pakistani, Iranian and Hindi pronunciations of the name Jahanara, argues Urdu grew from a Hindustani standard once called Hindi, notes how much of India's medieval history is in Persian, then comments on how public figures dress.
- 27Browncast 72: Conversation with Salman Rashid
18 Nov 2019 · with Omar Ali · 11 comments
BrownCast episode 72: the hosts speak with Salman Rashid, an ex-army man turned travel writer with ten books, about Partition, Pakistan, history, Alexander the Great and whatever else comes up. The episode is part of the BP Podcast series.
- 28Browncast: An Ex-Muslim Bangladeshi convert to Buddhism speaks
9 Jul 2021 · with Razib Khan · 9 comments
In a BP podcast, the host talks to 'Alex', a Bangladeshi freethinker who went from Islam to Buddhism, about Bangladesh's economic and social situation and the oppression of tribal people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
- 29Browncast: Omar Ali on Pakistan, Myths and Realities
5 Oct 2021 · with Omar Ali · 5 comments
Reversing roles, Maneesh Taneja interviews Omar Ali on Pakistan's ideology, Partition, why the army rules and how India-Pakistan relations may evolve; errata correct the Indian army's share of Muslims at Partition to about a third and note that Pakistan teaches Gandhara as Buddhist.
- 30The Diaspora Saved The Mullahs. Pahlavi Helped.
23 May 2026 · with X.T.M · 4 comments
X.T.M reports a BP live call with an Iranian guest, Farhad, who argues Reza Pahlavi's 2022 intervention saved the Islamic Republic. The post says it does not endorse this and that diaspora politics is the deeper sickness.
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