BrownCast
The Brown Pundits podcast: conversations on the subcontinent, its history and its arguments.
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- 1Araingang: 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.
- 2Browncast: 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.
- 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.
- 4Browncast 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.
- 5Browncast: 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.
- 6Browncast 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.
- 7Episode 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.
- 8The 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.
- 9Brownpundits 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.
- 10Episode 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.
- 11Browncast: Major Amin on Current Events
16 Jul 2024 · with Omar Ali · 1 comment
Omar Ali talks with regular guest, military historian Major Agha Humayun Amin, but not about military history. They discuss the Trump assassination attempt, the war in Ukraine, Gaza, Pakistan and India, with Amin admiring Trump.
- 12BrownCast 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.
- 13BrownCast Podcast episode 23: Dr. Jeffery Long on Hinduism, history and politics
13 Mar 2019 · with Razib Khan · 80 comments
The hosts talk to Jeffery Long, a religious studies professor at Elizabethtown College and Vedanta practitioner, about the nature of Hindu philosophy, its interaction with Islam, the astika and nastika schools, and his impressions of Tulsi Gabbard, whom he has met.
- 14Browncast Episode 110: Kala!
17 Jul 2020 · with Razib Khan · 69 comments
In Browncast Episode 110, Razib, Mukunda and Suraj discuss being dark-skinned and South Asian: prejudice from Punjabis towards Tamils, whether 'black Madrasi' is insulting, Indian American attitudes to social justice, immigrant children's values, and colour fixation in mate choice.
- 15Brown Pundits podcast, the Browncast episode 1
14 Oct 2018 · with Razib Khan · 66 comments
The first Brown Pundits podcast, the Browncast, has been submitted to iTunes and Stitcher, and the post gives links for subscribing, with updates confirming that it is now available on both platforms, so readers can follow the podcast that way.
- 16Chariots 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.
- 17Questions 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.
- 18Browncast: 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.
- 19BrownCast 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.
- 20Brown 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.
- 21Browncast Episode 105: Mongolian Nazis, Antifascists, and the American Scene
3 Jun 2020 · with Razib Khan · 12 comments
In Browncast Episode 105, Razib talks to Tasmania-based writer Richard Alexander about the American protests and riots, Antifascism and, as the title promises, Mongolian Nazis, offering a view of the American scene from someone watching from outside the United States.
- 22Episode 6: North India from 200 BC to 200 AD
11 Mar 2022 · with Maneesh Taneja · 11 comments
Shrikanth and Maneesh are joined by Jay Vardhan Singh to continue the History of India series with North India from 200 BC to 200 AD, taking in Bactrians in central India, descendants of Ashoka, and Kalyan, a suburb of Mumbai.
- 23Browncast 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.
- 24BrownCast Episode 11: Indian Numismatics with Mohit Kapoor
31 Jan 2019 · with X.T.M · 11 comments
Zack talks to the numismatist Mohit Kapoor about the history of coinage in India: the earliest coins, Roman trade, Iranian influence, what makes a coin Indian, what coins reveal about wealth and kingship, and the Mughal-English overlap in the last third.
- 25The 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.
- 26Browncast Ep 42: American Arranged Marriage
26 May 2019 · with Razib Khan · 9 comments
A BrownCast episode with Amit, an Indian American doing a medical residency, who after dating troubles chose an arranged match, a process the host found more flexible and voluntary than most Americans might imagine, though the host began mildly sceptical.
- 27BrownCast Podcast episode 21: A conversation with Thomas Chatterton Williams, a cosmopolitan in Paris
8 Mar 2019 · with Razib Khan · 8 comments
The hosts talk to Thomas Chatterton Williams, a Paris-based writer and author of Losing My Cool, about being a writer, cosmopolitanism, race and identity, the nation-state, and the prospects for France in the twenty-first century. The host says the conversation is hard to summarise.
- 28Pakistan Crisis: The Arrest of Imran Khan
11 May 2023 · with Omar Ali · 7 comments
A BrownCast in which the host and Maneesh discuss the arrest of Imran Khan, giving background to the crisis, what is happening now and what to expect, with links to articles and to Shahzeb Khanzada's Pakistani TV analysis.
- 29Episode 18 – The Maratha Empire
21 Jan 2023 · with Nachiketa · 6 comments
In BrownCast episode 18, Prathamesh Godbole and Amit Paranjpe discuss the Maratha empire, from its origins as an Adilshahi jagir to the largest power in the subcontinent before the British, including Shivaji, Sambhaji and the Peshwas; Omar Ali adds a postscript on Panipat.
- 30Browncast: 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.
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