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The Shy Nobel Laureate: Har Gobind Khorana and 'Total Synthesis'
12 oktober 2026 · 35 min
What happens when a bureaucratic blunder wrecks a young scientist's career plans, and the wreckage turns out to be the making of him? And why would a man who helped crack the language of life spend decades insisting that his greatest triumph was only a detour?In this episode of The Rearview, we trace the life of Har Gobind Khorana, only one of four Indian origin scientists who were awarded a Nobel Prize. He was born in pre-Partition Punjab, the son of a village tax clerk. A scholarship took him from Lahore to Liverpool, Zürich and Cambridge. Friendships, family and a wife who kept his world running took him on to Vancouver, Madison and MIT. Lees meer
What it means to build molecules from scratch, why that mattered to biology and what did Khorana achieve that others in a celebrated scientific race did not? We also ask how he related to the country he left, whether "brain drain" fits his case.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy & Sobhana K Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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Where Have The Birds Gone? with Asad Rahmani
21 september 2026 · 54 min
Common birds are no longer common. Rural landscapes now host fewer Black Drongos and Indian Rollers; Nightjars call less frequently from the edges of forests; Black-shouldered Kites perch less often on telegraph wires; Eagles are scarcer in the skies; and Harriers patrol protected grasslands in dwindling numbers as they search for insects. Lees meer
What is causing this disappearance?
Renowned ornithologist and former Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) director Dr Asad Rahmani’s latest book, ‘Where Are the Birds Gone?’, investigates the alarming long-term decline of bird populations across the Indian subcontinent and the reasons behind it.
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair & Jacob Koshy
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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Part 2 | The Bomb, the Faith, and the Country That Disowned Abdus Salam
7 september 2026 · 23 min
Can a man work at the very frontier of physics and still hold a deep religious faith — and did Abdus Salam ever feel the two were at war? Did the world's first Muslim science laureate help build Pakistan's atomic bomb? Lees meer
Behind the hundred-hour weeks, Salam was someone who recited Ghalib and Rumi mid-calculation, laughed first at his own jokes, and worked best arguing at a blackboard. We look at whether he "flamed out" after the Nobel (he didn't — he was still swinging for the biggest prize in physics), and at a private life more unusual than most of his colleagues realised: two marriages, two families, and a British scientist he met at a disarmament meeting.
Then his greatest creation, which wasn't a theory, but a place. Denied the resources to build a great institute at home, Salam built one abroad instead, a haven where scientists from poor countries could work alongside the best in the world. We ask what it cost him to succeed everywhere except in the one country he built it for.
At the centre of the episode sits the question that still starts arguments: Salam's real role in Pakistan's nuclear programme. The official story says he opposed the bomb. A more recent, uncomfortable body of evidence says otherwise. We lay out both cases and the moment in 1974 when a single act of parliament changed everything, and set him against the country he had served.
Around that turning point cluster the threads we follow to the end: his friendships and rivalries across the Indian border; the famous name he's wrongly linked to; the faith he refused to soften even as his homeland punished him for it.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producer: Shiksha Jural
Video: Jude Weston
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Part 1 | Abdus Salam: Nobel Laureate, Physicist and Heretic
31 augustus 2026 · 38 min
What does a borrowed cow have to do with a Nobel Prize? And how did a committed atheist set a devout Muslim on the path to becoming one of the great physicists of the twentieth century? Lees meer
This is the story of Abdus Salam born in 1926 in Jhang, a mud-walled town in the Punjab, the son of a poor schoolteacher who studied by the light of an oil lamp. In 1979 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first Muslim ever to win a Nobel in the sciences, the first physicist from the subcontinent since C.V. Raman in 1930, and — to this day — Pakistan's only science laureate.
What did he win it for? For showing that two of the fundamental forces running the universe — electricity-and-magnetism, and the "weak" force that powers the Sun and makes atoms radioactive — are secretly one and the same thing wearing two different disguises. And he did that work not in America, where his co-winners sat inside the biggest networks in physics, but as an outsider in Britain: at Cambridge, and then at Imperial College London.
In this first episode, we trace how a teenage prodigy set exam records across the entire province and casually one-upped the legendary Ramanujan. How his uncle signed over a small plot of land — enough to keep a cow — so his schoolteacher father would count, on paper, as a "farmer," making Salam eligible for a scholarship reserved for farmers' sons. That, plus an English-literature student's last-minute cold feet, is what carried him to Cambridge in 1946.
We meet the tutor who redirected his life: Fred Hoyle — the famous astronomer, champion of a universe with no beginning, and an avowed atheist — who nudged this deeply religious young man off the safe civil-service track and into physics. Salam called it the most important conversation of his life. For him there was never a contradiction: he saw physics itself as a form of worship, a way of reading God's handwriting in nature.
Then we follow him to the summit — a turban in Stockholm, the Quran quoted at the …
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The Mathematics and Loneliness of DD Kosambi w/Prof. Ram Ramaswamy
10 augustus 2026 · 1 uur
Did Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi solve the Riemann Hypothesis - one of mathematics's greatest puzzles? Was Kosambi, who wrote one of the most influential books on studying Indian history, ignored by both mathematicians and historians? Is he India's Alan Turing? Lees meer
This week we interview Prof Ram Ramaswamy, whose biography of the remarkably eclectic DD Kosambi: DD Kosambi, One Life, Many Worlds, gives a dispassionate, scholarly and insightful look into this mathematician and historian who was also a Sanskrit scholar and avowed Marxist. Ramaswamy, who's taught at JNU, IIT Delhi and is a former Vice Chancellor at University of Hyderabad, has unearthed rich archival material to investigate the motivations, frustrations and sources of inspiration that shaped one of India's greatest polymaths.
Host: Jacob Koshy
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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Part 3: How El Nino Choked Civilisations and Stirred Revolution
27 juli 2026 · 15 min
Could a warm patch of water in the Pacific have influenced both the French Revolution and some of India's deadliest famines? In this concluding episode of the series, Jacob and Sobhana trace the extraordinary historical reach of El Niño, revealing how a climate phenomenon thousands of kilometres away has left its imprint on societies, economies and even moments that changed the course of history. Lees meer
The episode revisits the devastating El Niño of 1877–78, when simultaneous droughts across India, China and Brazil unfolded as the world was becoming the first truly globalised economy. It explores intriguing links between climate extremes and events such as the 1789 Skull Famine in India and the years leading up to the French Revolution, while weighing the evidence with appropriate historical caution.
The conversation also asks why modern India no longer experiences famine despite repeated El Niño-driven monsoon failures. Instead, the impacts are now felt in subtler but still powerful ways: food prices, rural incomes, reservoirs, electricity generation and the wider economy.
Finally, the hosts explain why forecasting the Indian monsoon remains one of science's greatest challenges. El Niño is only one player in a complex system, joined by the Indian Ocean Dipole and the Madden–Julian Oscillation. As this year's monsoon unfolds, the episode shows why meteorologists are watching every signal—and why a distant Pacific Ocean still shapes life at the Indian dinner table.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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Part 2 : El Niño: From Titanic to Monsoons—The Climate Story That Changed Everything
20 juli 2026 · 16 min
What do the Titanic and a pair of ship's cooks have to do with one of Earth's greatest climate mysteries? In this episode, two remarkable stories become the gateway to understanding El Niño—one suggesting how the climate phenomenon may have quietly influenced history, the other showing how cooks aboard a research vessel spotted the signs of a major El Niño before the scientists themselves. Lees meer
In the second part of our series, we narrate the scientific detective story that finally united two seemingly unrelated discoveries: the warming of the Pacific Ocean known as El Niño and Gilbert Walker's mysterious Southern Oscillation. Listeners follow the breakthrough that revealed these were not separate phenomena but two parts of the same global climate engine, transforming our understanding of weather across the world.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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Part 1: El Niño: How a Warm Patch of Pacific Water Came to Rule India’s Monsoon
13 juli 2026 · 21 min
How can a patch of warm water thousands of kilometres from India determine whether its farms flourish or fail? And how did a mathematician help uncover one of the greatest hidden connections in the planet’s weather? Lees meer
In the first episode of this three-part story, we trace the strange history of El Niño and the centuries-long struggle to predict the Indian monsoon. The journey begins off the coast of Peru, where fishermen gave a deceptively tender name—the Christ Child—to warm waters that devastated their rich fisheries.
From there, we travel to nineteenth-century India, where catastrophic famines made forecasting the monsoon a matter of life and death. Early meteorologists chased sunspots and elusive cycles, while an Australian astronomer glimpsed something extraordinary: droughts thousands of kilometres apart seemed to occur in step.
The breakthrough came with Gilbert Walker, an eccentric Cambridge mathematician fascinated by birds, flutes, ice-skating and boomerangs. With the painstaking calculations of Indian clerks—including the remarkable Hem Raj—Walker uncovered a vast atmospheric seesaw across the Pacific: the Southern Oscillation.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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India's Dinosaurs | Part 3: The day it all ended
29 juni 2026 · 31 min
What if we told you that one of the most extraordinary dinosaur fossils ever found was in India — a snake caught mid-strike, coiled around dinosaur eggs, frozen in time for 67 million years? Lees meer
In this series, The Rearview, we have travelled from the earliest dinosaurs to the giants that walked the Indian subcontinent when it was still adrift and to the discoveries that continue to reshape what we think we know. From India’s own titanic long-necks and the fearsome Rajasaurus, to the astonishing fossil boom in China that is rewriting the global dinosaur story.
In this final episode, we ask the biggest questions of all: how did it end? The rock from space, or the fire from below? Tune in for answers and more.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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India's Dinosaurs | Part 2: The Coal That Found a Lost Continent
22 juni 2026 · 31 min
What does coal have to do with a lost supercontinent? And how did one tiny Punjabi town give India both its dinosaur hunters and one of the greatest actors in its cinema? Lees meer
In 1840s Bengal, the East India Company wasn't hunting prehistory — it was hunting fuel for its steamships. But the men sent crawling through Indian coal seams kept stumbling onto something stranger: fossil plants that matched Australia's, tusked reptiles that matched South Africa's, and polished boulders that meant central India had once lain buried under glacial ice. Piece by piece, a cadre of young Irish geologists and Central European specialists drew the map of Gondwana — the vanished half of the planet, named for a forest region of the Narmada — and never quite got the credit.
Then the story turns personal. Follow the thread from India's first weatherman to the remarkable Sahni dynasty of Bhera: a patriarch who built himself from nothing, a palaeobotanist felled days after Nehru laid his institute's foundation stone, and a grandson who bent to tie his shoelace and found a nest of dinosaur eggs.Coal, ice, eggs, and a family that produced scientists and film stars alike. The map that explains India's dinosaurs — drawn by men looking for fuel.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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The Story of India's dinosaurs | Part 1
15 juni 2026 · 38 min
What did the world's greatest anatomist mistake a dinosaur bone for? And how did the man who hunted India's most feared serial killers end up discovering Asia's first dinosaur fossils? Lees meer
The first episode of Rearview opens in a cold Oxford study in 1677, where a scholar turns over a colossal bone and confidently declares it the thigh of a Roman war-elephant. That sets the tone for two centuries of outrageous confident error: bones mistaken for whales, fish, rhinoceroses, and — in one glorious near-miss — awarded the scientific name Scrotum humanum. The reason everyone got it so spectacularly wrong turns out to have nothing to do with stupidity, and everything to do with a the, yet unknown concept of 'deep time.'
The episode then traces the two rival Englishmen who finally cracked it — a chaotic, bear-keeping Oxford clergyman and a Sussex country doctor whose wife may, or may not, have found the decisive tooth by a roadside — before crossing four thousand miles to the Narmada valley, where a thug-hunting East India Company captain accidentally dug up the earliest dinosaur bones ever found in Asia, and left behind, almost incidentally, a thread that leads to Mowgli.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Francis Weston -
Visvesvaraya, Cauvery and Karnataka’s Water Legacy
1 juni 2026 · 31 min
When people speak of Sir M. Visvesvaraya, they usually remember him as one of India’s greatest engineers. As Diwan of Mysore in the early twentieth century, he championed ambitious infrastructure projects that he believed would modernise the princely state and drive economic growth. Lees meer
Among his most significant achievements was the Krishna Raja Sagara, or KRS, dam across the Cauvery River. Visvesvaraya strongly supported the project because Mysore needed reliable water storage and electricity. One important motivation was to provide power for the Kolar Gold Fields, then among the most important mining centres in India. The dam helped transform Mysore’s economy by supporting industry and expanding access to electricity.
But the KRS dam’s impact went far beyond mining. The vast reservoir enabled large-scale irrigation across parts of present-day Karnataka. Farmers increasingly cultivated water-intensive crops such as sugarcane and paddy, bringing prosperity to many regions but also creating a growing dependence on Cauvery waters.
That agricultural transformation had long-term consequences. As irrigation expanded upstream in Karnataka, concerns grew downstream in what is now Tamil Nadu, where farmers also depended on the river. Competing demands eventually evolved into one of India’s most enduring inter-state water disputes. More than a century later, debates over sharing the Cauvery continue, linking today’s politics and agriculture to Visvesvaraya’s vision of development through engineering.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Recorded and produced by Jude Francis Weston
Edited by Shiksha Jural and Jude Francis Weston
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Forgotten Heroes | Part 3: Yellapragada Subbarow - The forgotten alchemist
18 mei 2026 · 48 min
In the annals of modern medicine, few scientists have saved as many lives while remaining as profoundly overlooked as Yellapragada Subbarow. Born in colonial India and later working in the United States, Subbarow’s research laid the foundations for breakthroughs that transformed global healthcare—from treatments for parasitic diseases and cancer to advances in antibiotics and nutritional science. Yet, unlike many scientific luminaries, his name rarely entered the public imagination. Lees meer
This episode—the third instalment in our series on forgotten Indian scientists with Anand Ranganathan and Sheetal Ranganathan—revisits the extraordinary life and legacy of a man whose discoveries quietly reshaped twentieth-century medicine. We trace Subbarow’s journey from hardship and intellectual struggle in India to pioneering biochemical research in America, exploring both his scientific triumphs and the institutional barriers that often obscured his contributions.
The conversation delves into the medicines and scientific pathways linked to Subbarow’s work, asking why some innovators become household names while others fade into obscurity. At once a biography, a history of science, and a meditation on recognition, this episode restores to view one of the most consequential Indian minds of the modern era.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana Nair
Producer and editor: Jude Francis Weston
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Forgotten Heroes | Part 2: How India gave the world the first blood pressure drug
4 mei 2026 · 39 min
What did Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill have in common, besides shaping mid‑20th mid‑20th‑century history? Both suffered from hypertension, a condition Western medicine did not recognise as a disease until well into the 1940s. High blood pressure was seen as an inevitable companion of aging, something to be endured rather than treated. Doctors advised lifestyle changes, less salt, more rest, and, at best, mild sedatives. Lees meer
Long before this shift in medical thinking, Indian practitioners were using the roots of Sarpagandha to treat manic disorders. Drawing on this traditional knowledge, Ram Nath Chopra, the father of Indian pharmacology, demonstrated that the herb could also bring down blood pressure. His work marked a turning point. Building on Chopra’s research and clinical trials by Indian doctors, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Ciba isolated the active alkaloid responsible for Sarpagandha’s hypotensive effect. The result was Reserpine, the world’s first effective drug to control hypertension.
In this episode of The Rearview, the second in our “Forgotten Heroes” series, we trace Chopra’s remarkable journey and examine how a British army doctor working in India quietly transformed global medicine and laid the foundations of India’s modern pharmaceutical industry.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Guests: Anand Ranganathan and Sheetal Ranganathan
Producer and editor: Jude Francis Weston
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Forgotten Heroes | Part 1: How two Indian mathematicians were denied credit for inventing fingerprinting
20 april 2026 · 36 min
Hem Chandra Bose and Aziz Ul-Haque were the experts who played a pivotal role in developing the Henry Classification System for cataloging finger prints. This was during the early 20th century, when both were police inspectors, part of the colonial Bengal Police Service. This was a unique system that enabled the identification of any person, by employing 10 identifying characteristics of their fingerprints such as whorls, ridges and the like. Routine as this sounds today, this was the first time that such a system was conceived to create a criminal database that could then be used to track repeat offenders. Much like Aadhar-based fingerprinting systems strengthen Digital Stack systems like the UPI, this approach was revolutionary and was adopted by Scotland Yard and eventually part of plot points in the Sherlock Holmes- stories. However nearly all credit for developing this was usurped by Edward Henry, Inspector General, Bengal Police under whom Haque and Bose worked. Lees meer
This and a lot more in the three part series of The Rearview Podcast.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Guests: Anand Ranganathan and Sheetal Ranganathan
Producer and editor: Jude Francis Weston
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India's First Computers | Part 3: How software won
6 april 2026 · 27 min
India’s computing story unfolds in two distinct phases. In the decades after Independence, the country set out to build its own computer hardware. But from the 1970s onwards, that ambition quietly gave way to something else: software. Lees meer
In this concluding episode of the series, we trace how and why that pivot happened. During the 1960s, American universities began partnering with the Indian Institutes of Technology and other academic institutions, drawn by India’s deep pool of technical talent. Instead of manufacturing machines locally, these collaborations imported IBM computers and focused entirely on software and programming.
This shift marked the beginning of India’s transformation into the world’s back office for software engineering. We examine how India came to dominate global software labour—and ask the big, unresolved question: why did the country give up on building computer hardware altogether?
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair & Jacob Koshy
Producer and editor: Jude Weston -
India’s First Computers | Part 2: TIFRAC & IBM’s Double Game
30 maart 2026 · 37 min
In the mid-1950s, while the world was still reeling from the dawn of the atomic age, a group of visionary scientists in a makeshift barracks in Mumbai were chasing a different kind of power: computational sovereignty. This episode dives into the incredible story of TIFRAC (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator), India’s first indigenous digital computer. Spearheaded by Homi Bhabha and R. Narasimhan, TIFRAC wasn’t just a machine built from vacuum tubes and ferrite cores; it was a bold statement that a newly independent nation could master the most complex technology of the era. Lees meer
But the road to innovation was far from smooth. As India moved toward self-reliance, global tech giants were watching. We explore the shadowy “help” offered by IBM, which dominated the global market at the time. While IBM sought to establish a monopoly by leasing refurbished machines and pushing proprietary systems, the Indian government and TIFR scientists smelled a “technological trap.”
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Guest: Dwaipayan Banerjee, Associate Professor of Science at MIT
Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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India’s First Computers | Part 1: A Historian’s Tragedy
23 maart 2026 · 35 min
In the first of a 3-part series, we discuss the origins of India’s quest, first to procure and then to build a homegrown computer in India. Coming very close to the Indian independence, this is the period that is more closely associated with the birth of India’s nuclear programme. Dr Banerjee’s book: Computing in the Age of Decolonisation narrates this history and begins with the story of DD Kosambi, better known in India’s intellectual history as the father of Marxist historiography. As a graduate in mathematics from Harvard University, Kosambi was primarily a theorist in mathematics and sought to apply this knowledge to building a homegrown computer. However in this first part we explore how these plans came to naught. Lees meer
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Guest: Professor Dwaipayan Banerjee, Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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PC Mahalanobis: India’s First Data Cruncher
11 maart 2026 · 41 min
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) was a Bengali statistician and institution-builder who became one of the most consequential figures in twentieth-century Indian science. Trained as a physicist in Calcutta and Cambridge, he discovered statistics almost by accident through an encounter with Biometrika, and went on to found the Indian Statistical Institute in 1931 out of a small laboratory at Presidency College, Calcutta. Lees meer
His most enduring scientific contribution was the D² statistic — a measure of distance between populations that emerged from his early anthropometric work on race mixture in Bengal and his critical re-analysis of Risley’s colonial survey data. He enjoyed close professional relationships with founding fathers of the statistical field - Karl Pearson and R.A. Fisher, though his dealings with Pearson were marked by a significant dispute over publication.
Through the ISI he shaped Indian statistical practice across sampling, agricultural experiments, and economic planning, exercising powerful influence over the National Sample Survey and the Planning Commission.
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair & Jacob Koshy
Producer: Jude Weston
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India's First 'Lady Doctors'
23 februari 2026 · 37 min
This podcast explores the lives of India’s first female doctors, framing their struggle not as a technological quest, but as a profound social rebellion. Beyond merely practicing medicine, women like Drs. Kadambini Ganguly, Anandibai Joshi, Rukmabai Raut and Jamini Sen, navigated a "structural trap" of colonial prejudice and domestic conservatism. The narrative highlights the contradictions of the era: progressive male allies who nonetheless didn't condemn child marriage, and nationalists like Tilak who viewed female education as "insubordination." Ultimately, the theme centers on agency versus institutional erasure, celebrating these women for their scientific contributions—such as implementing antiseptic protocols—while reclaiming their stories from historical obscurity. Lees meer
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Producers: Shiksha Jural and Jude Weston
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The Vaccine Man: The Ukrainian who helped save India from cholera and plague
9 februari 2026 · 50 min
Waldemar Mordechai Wolff Haffkine (1860–1930), born in Odessa (then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine), was a pioneering Jewish bacteriologist who spent more than two decades working in India. Barred from academic positions in Russia due to antisemitic restrictions, he fled first to Switzerland and then to Paris, where he worked at the Pasteur Institute. Lees meer
In 1892, Haffkine developed the world’s first effective cholera vaccine, boldly testing it on himself before beginning wider trials. In 1893, he travelled to India, where he conducted successful large-scale field tests.
When bubonic plague struck Bombay in 1896, Haffkine urgently created the first plague vaccine in a modest laboratory, again testing it on himself before launching mass inoculation campaigns. His vaccines proved highly effective in curbing both cholera and plague, earning him the reputation of a “saviour of mankind.”
Despite his monumental achievements, Haffkine remains little known today. One of the few visible reminders of his legacy is Mumbai’s Haffkine Institute, which continues to bear his name.
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair and Jacob Koshy
Producer and editor: Jude Weston -
TAILSPIN: How the 1974 'peaceful test' retarded nuclear power with Jairam Ramesh | Part 2
26 januari 2026 · 47 min
In Part 2 of the the history of India’s nuclear programme, we discuss the impact of the 1974 nuclear test on India’s civilian nuclear programme. Lees meer
Whether the consequent technological embargo dealt a body blow to Homi Bhabha’s three phase programme that was premised on sufficient uranium to tide India over until it could extract its vast reserves of thorium? Why electricity from nuclear reactors have been insufficient and whether the SHANTI bills encouragement of small modular reactors and private sector nuclear plant operators is viable.
Guest: Jairam Ramesh
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Recorded by Tayyab Hussain and Aniket Singh Chauhan
Produced and edited by Jude Weston
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SLOW BURN: India’s Chequered Nuclear Past with Jairam Ramesh | Part 1
12 januari 2026 · 41 min
India’s nuclear programme has been shaped by idealism, secrecy, ambition, sanctions, and strategic anxiety. In this two-part series, we trace its evolution from the pre-independence period to the passage of new legislation—the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025, also known as the SHANTI Act. Lees meer
Along the way, we explore India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s close relationship with Homi Bhabha, often called the father of India’s nuclear programme. One a democrat and the other the sultan of Indian science. 21-years separated the two and yet their camaraderie evoked envy in many.
Was the secrecy that Bhabha demanded and Nehru conceded to necessary? Tune in for answers to these and many questions.
Guest: Jairam Ramesh
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Recorded by Tayyab Hussain and Aniket Singh Chauhan
Produced and edited by Jude Weston
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India’s First Bio-Startup: The Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Botanic Garden
1 december 2025 · 32 min
Spread out over a sprawling 109 hectares (270 acres), the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, previously known as the Calcutta Botanic Garden, was among the first experiments commissioned by the East India Company to create a ‘ nursery’ for exotic plants that could be studied for commercial use. Lees meer
Situated in Shibpur, Howrah, just across the Hooghly River from Kolkata, the Garden boasts over 12,000 specimens. The progenitor of plantations and cash crop in India, the various brands of Darjeeling tea and Indian cotton owe their origin to experiments conducted here.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Shot, produced, and edited by Jude Francis Weston
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Death of the Indian Science Congress
17 november 2025 · 40 min
The Indian Science Congress (ISC)—the first-ever conclave of India’s scientific community—was inaugurated in 1914. It was conceived by two British chemists, Professor J. L. Simonsen and Professor P. S. MacMahon. The inaugural session was held from January 15 to 17, 1914, under the presidency of Ashutosh Mukherjee, then Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. The event brought together 105 scientists from across India and abroad. For nearly a century, the ISC attracted luminaries from India and the global scientific community. Yet, questions lingered: Was it more pomp than purpose? Lees meer
Critics often argued that the Congress remained a platform for exchanging ideas rather than fostering a scientific temperament among the masses or inspiring students. The 109th edition, scheduled for 2024, never took place. In September 2025, the government formally replaced the ISC with the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC)—a clear pivot toward innovation-driven forums.
In this episode, we trace the journey of the Indian Science Congress—from its cradle to its grave.
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair & Jacob Koshy
Recorded by Tayyab Hussain
Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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India's Tryst with Cloud Seeding
5 november 2025 · 28 min
On October 28, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur flew a small plane in the vicinity of Delhi firing a chemical cocktail into clouds in the hope that it could make them rain. This was the first time that cloud seeding was attempted in India as a measure to control air pollution. The rain, the logic went, would make the air borne particulate matter settle. This however was a failure. Lees meer
India has a history of experimenting with cloud seeding thanks to the importance of agriculture and rains. But the history of the science suggests it was of immense interest to militaries.
What were the lessons from its early history and what have India's experiments with cloud seeding revealed? The hosts dive into these questions and more. Tune in!
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair and Jacob Koshy
Recorded, edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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Half Cooked: How solar cookers became a tech disaster in free India
21 oktober 2025 · 26 min
The solar cooker was the first indigenously developed technological device in Independent India that a generation of scientists and Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, imagined would be an example of technology development. The promise was that millions of Indian villagers would use solar cookers to make their meals. It was breathlessly championed by the National Physical Laboratory, Delhi - a CSIR lab. Very soon however, its poor sale and lack of public acceptance led to a loss of morale among scientist and a fear of state-sponsored technology development. Lees meer
Tune in to this episode to hear why solar cookers were the God That Failed in India.
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair and Jacob Koshy
Recorded, produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston
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Proof: How Ramanujan Tamed Maths’ Toughest Monster
6 oktober 2025 · 46 min
Many of us are familiar with the name Srinivasa Ramanujan and his black and white photograph. He was one of India’s brightest mathematicians. In this episode we dive into his life - from struggling to pass college in Tamil Nadu to reaching the hallowed halls of Cambridge. Ramanujan’s notebooks scribbled with theorems that he discovered continue to frustrate whole generations of mathematicians, who were forever underestimating the sheer density of mathematical riches they contained. Lees meer
This is also the story of the unusual and profound relationship he had with British Mathematician G.H. Hardy. Hardy, who recognised and honed his genius. The two couldn’t have been more different. Hardy, a confirmed atheist while Ramanujan believed that his unique mathematical abilities were God given. Hardy drilled into him the importance of proof. The two worked together for seven-years at Cambridge. Ramanujan died on 26 April 1920 at the age of 33.
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair and Jacob Koshy
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston -
RAMAN VS SAHA: Indian Science's First 'Clash of Civilisations'
22 september 2025 · 57 min
This episode looks at two of the stalwarts of colonial-era scientists: CV Raman and Meghnad Saha. While Raman - the first and only Indian physics Nobel Laureate - is better known, Meghnad Saha came from a very different background that probably motivated his attitude towards using science for the larger public good. This was different from Raman, who was largely apolitical, and saw science in its purest sense of unravelling the mysteries of the universe. Lees meer
These scientists crossed paths in Calcutta but eventually, distraught by the politics of the place, Raman moved to Bangalore - first to the Indian Institute of Science and eventually setting up his own Raman Research Institute.
Hosts: Sobhana K Nair and Jacob Koshy
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston
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How Nuclear Fission Almost Blew Kerala Away from India
8 september 2025 · 30 min
On June 3rd, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, revealed that India will be divided into two -- India and Pakistan. Eight days later the State of Travancore, which occupied 7662 square miles in present-day Kerala announced that it would stay independent. The Dewan of Travancore, Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyar, argued that, like Belgium or Thailand, Travancore can exist independently of the two dominions. His ambitions were powered by the extensive Monazite reserve of India. Lees meer
Monazite is a reddish-brown phosphate mineral that contains rare-earth elements, primarily cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and thorium, often with small amounts of uranium. In the atomic age with all countries, especially the US, looking for sources of nuclear fuel, this was a credible bargaining chip. Homi J. Bhabha, the father of Indian Nuclear Science, also believed in the potential that Monazite held. He believed that this could be utilised for producing nuclear power to meet energy needs of the country. Decades later, Monazite has not lived up to its promise.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston -
Sawai Jai Singh II - The Royal who was an Astronomy Geek
25 augustus 2025 · 47 min
‘Sawai’ Jai Singh II (1688-1743) is largely remembered today for establishing the foundations of Jaipur. His life-story is mostly told through a political lens - as is that of most rulers in medieval India - via conquests and loyalty (or disloyalty!) to the extant Mughal empire. However Jai Singh was a scholar of considerable talent and devoted considerable time, energy and resources to astronomy. Lees meer
He developed and improved astronomical tables that tracked planetary motion as well as important stars. He is best known for building a series of observatories or ‘Jantars’-- called ‘Jantar Mantar’-- in Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura among others. Though they are in disuse, they are still testimony to the fact that some Indian medieval rulers contributed to advancing science and led quests to unearth new knowledge about nature. There is also the abiding mystery of how a man as scholarly as Jai Singh completely missed the news in 16th and 17th century of the emerging Scientific Revolution
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
For more episodes of The Rearview:
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Unravelling Malaria's Deadly Secret
11 augustus 2025 · 48 min
Ross an army surgeon was born in Almora on May 13 1857, three days before the Great Indian Rebellion. On August 20, 1897, discovered the Malarial parasite in gastro-intestinal tract of a female Anopheles mosquitoes and eventually established the transmission cycle, while serving as army surgeon in India. Lees meer
This groundbreaking discovery laid the foundation for the methods to combat the disease that killed millions and continues to affect many. He won the Nobel prize in 1902 for it. He was the first British and the first Indian born person to win the Nobel. Tune in to hear his story.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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Measuring India | Part 2: George Everest and Measuring the World’s Highest Peak
28 juli 2025 · 46 min
With William Lambton having completed the Great Trigonometric Survey upto Central India, it fell to his successor, George Everest, to take up the mantle. Unlike his predecessor, who commanded a fierce loyalty among his subordinates, George Everest could be tempestuous and irritable, but he brought his own pioneering innovations to the question that inspired the Survey: How does one accurately map the shape of the Earth. Lees meer
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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Measuring India | Part 1: William Lambton and the Trigonometrical Survey
14 juli 2025 · 40 min
Mount Everest has been an enigma for centuries. While an object of worship historically, it presented itself as a tantalising puzzle to the measurement-obsessed surveyors of the East India Company. However this puzzle presented itself in the way it did, only because of an ambitious enterprise that sought to answer a much more fundamental question: What is the exact shape of the earth? Lees meer
In the first of a two-episode deep dive, we look into the exploits of William Lambton, who pioneered India's first 'Big Data' exercise called Great Trigonometrical Survey of India.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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Jayant Narlikar Vs Big Bang
2 juni 2025 · 53 min
‘Our whole universe was in a hot dense state and then 14 billion years ago expansion started it .’ Lees meer
This episode is about a scientist and one of the giants of cosmology who would have disagreed with the BareNakedLadies theme song to the Big Bang Theory. Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, who passed earlier this month, was, as a scientist, best known for advancing alternate interpretations to the mainstream consensus that the Universe began as Big Bang. But there is much more to him - institution builder, science writer, astrology-debunker and passionate advocate of everyone honing a scientific temper.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
Listen to more Rearview podcast episodes:
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India’s First Generation of Women Scientists
19 mei 2025 · 49 min
This week, we explore the lives of three Indian scientists, Kamala Sohoni, Anna Mani, and Janaki Ammal, who were the first women to get doctorates in science in India, making them the first women scientists in India. Spanning meteorology, botany, and nutritional sciences, they had long careers in prominent scientific departments – even heading some of them – at a time when these were overwhelmingly male bastions. Drawing on their published works, we explore their experiences as women scientists, their views on sexism, and whether they worked to improve working conditions for other women scientists. Lees meer
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Recorded, edited, and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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The Great Himalayan ‘Golmaal’
5 mei 2025 · 35 min
Science isn’t always the noble pursuit of truth. Ambition and greed can sometimes corrupt even promising scientists. This episode delves into one of the all-time great hoaxes perpetrated by Indian palaeontologist and geologist, Vishwajit Gupta, of Panjab University. Over decades, he passed off fossils from different parts of the world as ‘Himalayan fossils’ and was widely commended by an unsuspecting scientific community, until Australian geologist John Talent ripped apart his facade. Gupta’s fraud was similar to what is considered the greatest hoax in science ever, namely, Piltdown Man. Lees meer
How did Gupta carry out his crimes, and how did Talent expose him? Listen in
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Audio edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston
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The Tragedy of Dr Subhash Mukherjee
21 april 2025 · 40 min
In this episode we dive into the life of Dr Subhash Mukherjee, an obstetrician and gynaecologist from erstwhile Calcutta, who should have been one of India’s most famous and decorated doctors but whose life too a very tragic turn. Dr Mukherjee pioneered techniques in what was then, the fledgling science of In Vitro Fertilisation but his work was ridiculed and denigrated by the establishment, so much so, that it influenced his unfortunate decision to end his life.
Why didn’t Mukherjee get the credit he deserved? How did the world eventually learn of his genius. Listen to the Rearview to find out. Lees meerThe Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston -
Father of India’s Nuclear Program - Part 2
7 april 2025 · 39 min
Homi Bhabha, back from England, and embroiled into the scientific institutions of colonial India begins work on his vision of setting up independent scientific institutions. How did he manage to carve out a virtually uninhibited line of communication with Jawaharlal Nehru? How did he get a free hand to shape the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research? Why In spite of resources and patronage, has the nuclear story in India nit achieved its potential? Lees meer
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston -
Father of India’s Nuclear Program - Part 1
24 maart 2025 · 33 min
In this episode of The Rearview, we delve into the early years of Homi Jehangir Bhabha, considered the Father of India's atomic energy program. How he gave up a promising career as a theoretical physicist, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in physics, and was as accomplished a musician and artist as he was a scientist. Lees meer
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston -
Salim Ali: The Birdman of India
10 maart 2025 · 45 min
In this episode of The Rearview, we chronicle the life of Salim Ali, India's foremost ornithologist and conversationalist. His childhood aim was to be a renowned hunter but the feathered beings charmed him off this ambition. During his lifetime, he carried out extensive bird surveys of the subcontinent - from the far reaches of Afghanistan to the icy plateau of Tibet, Bhutan, Pakistan, and India. His books are still used as field guides for both amateur and professional birders. Later in his life he tirelessly campaigned to conserve India's varied ecosystems - from the Silent Valley to the Bharatpur wetlands.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Recorded by Aniket Singh Chauhan and Jude Francis Weston
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston. Lees meerReferences:
AIR Archives Radio Autobiography of Dr. Salim Ali
The Fall of a Sparrow
The Book of Indian Birds -
J. B. S. Haldane: The Eternal Rebel - Part 2
6 januari 2025 · 48 min
JBS Haldane was an avowed communist fired by a belief, shared by several intellectuals in the early 20th century, that scientific progress had the potential to shape society. However, Haldane's support for Communism was tested, particularly by the controversial Soviet biologist, Trofim Lysenko, the most influential scientist in the Joseph Stalin regime. Eventually, Haldane was disillusioned by being constantly hounded by the British Secret Service. The episode concludes with his eventual passage to India where he played a key role in setting up biostatistics research at the Indian Statistical Institute.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by: Jude Francis Weston Lees meer -
J. B. S. Haldane: The Eternal Rebel - Part 1
23 december 2024 · 55 min
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane a British-born scientist who moved to India at the age of 65-years. He was a pioneer in the field of population genetics, the man who bridged the gap between Darwinian and Mendelian theories, a scientist without science degree, and a Marxist, a public intellectual who made science accessible to his generation and a forever rebel.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by: Jude Francis Weston Lees meer -
Vikram Sarabhai: India’s Rocket Man
9 december 2024 · 53 min
00:00 Introduction
02:59 Vikram’s early life
05:00 Gandhi and Tagore
07:11 ‘The Retreat’
09:30 Vikram’s parents
13:00 Time in Cambridge
16:51 Mrinalini Sarabhai
20:33 Homi J Bhabha
24:15 Sarabhai group
29:50 Interesting anecdote
32:41 Atomic Energy
45:02 Vikram Sarabhai's stand on nuclear bombs
52:17 End. Lees meerVikram Sarabhai was the founding chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Though he died relatively young at the age of 52, Sarabhai influenced not ony space but also India's atomic energy programme. While very much a product of his times, he was one of the rare Indians, who despite being born into wealth and privilege, chose to direct his resources and abilities to nurturing public scientific institutions. Some of these were so ahead of their time, that their public impact has only begun in the last two or three decades.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
References/credits:
Elton John - Rocket Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtVBCG6ThDk
ISRO and Vikram Sarabhai during it's early years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2S_9RRbK0Q
Mrinalini Sarabhai 1972 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_CDj25Dh1k
Rocket Boys Trailer | SonyLIV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOD-78_0pPU
The Martian -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKd6-ugozkA
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by: Jude Francis Weston
Listen to more Rearview podcast episodes: -
Copouts at Climate Talks
25 november 2024 · 38 min
The 29th Conference of Parties (COP) just concluded in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the last 29 years of COP, there have been several dramatic moments, with Presidents crashing meetings, delegates slashing their hands, tears and several sleepless nights. The world though has come a long way from climate change cynics to making incremental changes to contain the catastrophe headed our way. But it hasn't exactly been a linear journey. For every two steps ahead, the world has often moved ten steps backward. Come with us as we take you through the roller coaster history of COPs.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
References:
Despite Repeated Warnings - Paul McCartney
US President offers alternative to Kyoto accord
1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment
Trump decides to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement
Floods of tears as climate change 'hard man' breaks down at summit
President Obama at Copenhagen Climate Change Conference
Venezuelan Climate Envoy Recalls 'Bloody Palm' Incident
12-year-old protestor disrupts event at COP28 UN Climate Summit
Climate activist Thunberg hits back at Trump over anger management taunt Lees meerHosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Guest: Priscilla Jebaraj
Recorded, produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston -
Indian Standard Time
11 november 2024 · 48 min
India has nearly 30 calendars at the time of Independence and they seemed one too many. This prompted Jawaharlal Nehru to task a committee chaired by the physicist, Meghnad Saha, to reform India’s calendars and come up with a rational, scientific calendar that accurately charted the festivals while being scientific. How did various clocks in India reconcile and become Indian Standard Time and because time is ultimately fixed for arbitrary reasons, what happens when our body clocks go out of whack.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Lees meerReferences:
The Doors - Break On Through
Pink Floyd - Time
Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
Apna Time Aayega from Gully Boy
Susan Maughan - Time Is Such a Funny Thing
Coldplay - Clocks
Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes?Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston -
The Return of the Cheetah
28 oktober 2024 · 36 min
In September 2022 Government of India brought the first batch of Cheetahs from Namibia to the Kuno National Park, in an effort to reintroduce Cheetahs, which disappeared from Indian Forests for nearly 70-years now. But it was not the first time the African Cheetahs were coming in. Listen in to know more.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston
Intro music by Jacob Koshy Lees meer -
The Life and Times of Jagadis Chandra Bose
14 oktober 2024 · 49 min
It is that time of the year when a select few individuals across the globe get calls at unearthly hours from Sweden to tell them that they won the world's most coveted award. In this episode of The Rearview, we dive into the story of Jagadis Chandra Bose inventor extraordinaire, scientist, teacher, philosopher, pioneering science fiction writer - and alongside Mahatma Gandhi, arguably pretty high up on the long list of people who should have got the Nobel Prize but didn’t. This despite his groundbreaking work in plant physiology and radio waves.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston
Intro music by Jacob Koshy
Music - Lorne Balfe - "Nobel Prize" Lees meer -
Forecasting the monsoons
30 september 2024 · 48 min
The annual southwest monsoons are an inseparable part of India's economy and cultural ethos. Thanks to this, there's a long historical association with trying to forecast its arrival, distribution and impact across the country. The India Meteorological Department, the official forecaster of the monsoon, has its inception in India's colonial past and through the decades has evolved multiple methods and approaches to predicting the monsoon.
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by: Jude Francis Weston
Music by Jacob Koshy Lees meer -
The Gender Question in Sport
16 september 2024 · 43 min
Prominent among the controversies at the Olympics this year was a boxing match between Algerian Iman Khelif and Angela Carini, from Italy. The bout, which lasted all of 46 seconds, was won by Khelif and was memorable despite having little to do with pugilism. Accusations flew that she had won because she was a man and, by implication, had cheated. While Khelif was eventually vindicated, this incident was just another pit stop in the long and fractious controversy surrounding sex determination and elite sport.
Are the biological categories of ‘men’ and ‘women’ sacrosanct? Is the dispute about ‘woke’ ideas contesting for publicity? How accurate is the science on sex-determination? What is the origin-story of these controversies?
The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.
Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair
Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston
Podcast music by Jacob Koshy Lees meer