Episode notes
What is the Indian reader willing to pay for, and what do they expect for free? This panel moves past the familiar lament and into the mechanics of the business. They explore what it actually takes to run a news organisation outside the influence of advertisers, owners, and the state. Subscription models, donor funding, collaborative structures, and open access: each approach comes with its own compromises, its own pressures, and its own relationship with the reader. The conversation will examine how different kinds of journalism, from daily news to long-form investigation and data-driven…
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BIC TALKS
Bangalore International Centre · Arts & Books · English
Bangalore International Centre (BIC) is a non profit, public institution which serves as an inclusive platform for informed conversations, arts and culture. BIC TALKS aims to be a regular bi-weekly podcast that will foster discussions, dialogue, ideas, cultural enterprise and more.
More from BIC TALKS All episodes →
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7 Jul 2026 · 54 min
425. Bangalore Raani
In SheThePeople's signature style, this is a session of wit and grace. Bangalore Raani is a vibrant celebration placing female voices precisely where they've always belonged: centerstage. Unapologetic and electric, this dialogue brings together women whose presence, choices, and courage bring Bengaluru to life. In this edition, Shaili Chopra is joined by mother and daughter, Yasmin and Kubbra Sait. Through candid storytelling that moves from ambition to reinvention, relationships to those small everyday rebellions that shift culture, the conversation flows freely: sometimes hilarious, always…
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5 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
424. Does Bangalore Offer a Healthy Life to us Citizens
Once known as a garden city and a pensioner's paradise, Bengaluru has undergone extraordinary economic and demographic change over the past three decades. While growth has brought opportunity, it has also reshaped everyday life in ways that go far beyond traffic and waste. This second edition of The Bengaluru Debates turns a critical lens on our city to ask whether it still supports healthy lives for its citizens. Public health research increasingly shows that the roots of urban ill-health lie not only in hospitals or clinics, but in planning, infrastructure, and governance. Air quality,…
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25 Jun 2026 · 59 min
423. The Realms of Dharma and of the Mahabharata
Dharma is difficult to translate, and even harder to understand. In this talk, scholar Frederick Smith draws on nearly five decades of study to illuminate how the concept of dharma moves, shifts, and comes alive across the subcontinent. By tracing regional retellings of the Mahabharata, he reveals how different communities have interpreted its moral tensions. Turning to modern literature such as U.R. Ananthamurthy's Samskara, he connects these ancient debates to contemporary questions of responsibility, community, and moral action. With clarity and depth, Smith examines how ideas of dharma…
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22 Jun 2026 · 25 min
422. Eye of the Cyclone
Overwhelmed? Disoriented? Exhausted? In this reflective session, Dr. Shyam Bhat draws on his expertise in psychiatry and integrative medicine to unpack the rising sense of disorientation shaped by hyperconnection, constant noise, and emotional overload. He explores how these forces fracture our inner clarity, and offers practical ways to rebuild a steadier sense of purpose. Drawing from both clinical experience and contemplative traditions, Dr. Bhat charts a path toward reconnecting with our values and rediscovering direction in an increasingly fast-paced world. A gentle invitation to pause,…
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16 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
421. Adoor, Jaya, Shabana, Girish… How India's Finest Filmmakers Were Made
What does it take to shape a filmmaker? How do you 'make' a Jaya Bachchan or an Adoor Gopalakrishnan? Radha Chadha's new book The Maker of Filmmakers: How Jagat Murari and FTII Changed Indian Cinema Forever takes us through the life and legacy of her father Jagat Murari, and the iconic film school he built. With uncanny consistency, FTII produced top talent: Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Subhash Ghai, Shatrughan Sinha, Girish Kasaravalli, Mani Kaul, and many other cinema legends. His alumni became the big names of Bollywood, spearheaded the Indian New Wave,…
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24 May 2026 · 1 hr 39 min
419. Science, Stewardship and Solidarity
Madhav Gadgil (1942-2026) was the country's pre-eminent ecologist, whose work and writing had a profound influence in shaping environmental policy and action in India. Educated in Pune, Mumbai and Harvard, Professor Gadgil spent more than three decades at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, where he founded the Centre for Ecological Sciences. In the course of his rich and varied career Professor Gadgil conducted fieldwork in most of India's states, acquiring an unparalleled knowledge of the country's cultural and ecological diversity. He authored numerous scientific papers that…
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19 May 2026 · 46 min
418. Ghost-Eye
Narratives illuminate what often lies just out of sight. In this exciting conversation, Amitav Ghosh discusses his latest book, Ghost-Eye , with writer Anjum Hasan, tracing the hidden histories and environmental undercurrents that shape human lives. Moving between folklore and the contemporary world, the discussion explores how landscapes remember, how ecological forces linger beneath the visible, and how storytelling can recover what modern life trains us to ignore. Hasan's thoughtful questioning bring out the novel's deeper concerns: the fragile relationship between people and place, the…
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12 May 2026 · 51 min
417. Who Owns India's Past?
Just outside Madurai, beneath the scorching southern sun, the excavations at Keeladi have unsettled long-held ideas about India's ancient history. Since its discovery in 2014, the site has emerged as one of the country's most contested digs: celebrated by some as evidence of a thriving urban civilisation in South India, and questioned by others as political mythmaking. In her book The Dig , journalist and author Sowmiya Ashok traces this journey from serendipitous find to cultural flashpoint, traveling from Iron Age Tamil Nadu to Harappan Rakhigarhi, revealing how battles over the past shape…
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5 May 2026 · 57 min
416. The Trial that Shook Britain
A courtroom drama that shook an empire. In 1945, three Indian National Army officers stood trial for treason against the British Crown. Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Dhillon were convicted. Then something unexpected happened; events that would accelerate the transfer of power and expose cracks in both British authority and Congress strategy. While Congress built its reputation on passive resistance, at this critical moment it applauded and capitalized on the INA's use of force. What does this contradiction reveal about the final phase of India's independence struggle? How did a…
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23 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
415. Why Doesn't Patriarchy Die?
This conversation will shift your understanding of power, and of possibility. In this session Rahila Gupta will examine how male dominance persists across radically different societies from theocracies to democracies, dictatorships to socialist states. Her co-authored book Planet Patriarchy asks what makes patriarchy so resilient, and where feminism is not just surviving but genuinely thriving. In conversation with Ashwini Jaisim, content strategist and editor, the session centres on a revelation: a little-known women's revolution in Rojava, Northeast Syria. Here, women are building a…
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