Episode notes
This week on Hafta , Newslaundry ’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by journalist Nikhil Inamdar and Sudipto Mondal, executive editor of The News Minute . Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey, with assistant production by Ashish ,Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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This week on Hafta , Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Shardool Katyayan are joined by AFP ’s chief US correspondent Shaun Tandon and Aditya Ramanathan, research fellow at Takshila Institution. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey with Production assistant by Saif Ekram. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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28 Feb 2026 · 20 min
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This week on Hafta , Newslaundry ’s Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, and Anand Vardhan are joined by academic and columnist Fahad Zuberi and Kallol Bhattacherjee, the foreign affairs editor of The Hindu . Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters. Produced by Amit Pandey & Priyali Dhingra Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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21 Feb 2026 · 17 min
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This week on Hafta , Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Shardool Katyayan are joined by Amba Kak, a tech policy expert and researcher, and Alex Travelli, the South Asia business correspondent for The New York Times . Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters. Produced by Ashish Anand & Amit Pandey. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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14 Feb 2026 · 21 min
Chota Hafta 576
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardhan are joined by filmmaker Sudhir Mishra and senior journalist Arati Jerath. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and subscriber letters. Produced by Amit Pandey Assistant production by Ashish Sound design by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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7 Feb 2026 · 2 hr 15 min
Hafta 575: The Naravane book row, WaPo layoffs, and TM Krishna on ‘making democracy a culture’
This week on Hafta , Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by musician and author T.M. Krishna and defence analyst Ajai Shukla for a conversation that spans Parliament flashpoints, billionaire ownership in journalism, and the deeper cultural fight over India’s national symbols. The panel opens with a discussion around the furore in Parliament over former Army chief General M.M. Naravane’s yet-to-be-released memoir this week. Questioning Om Birla’s claim that the Opposition was planning an attack on PM Narendra Modi, Manisha says, “It’s…
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24 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 35 min
Hafta 573: Funding the Davos circus while the net tightens on press freedom in Kashmir
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by journalist and entrepreneur Govindraj Ethiraj. The discussion opens up with the recently concluded World Economic Forum held in Davos. Abhinandan sharply questions the performative nature of Indian participation at the forum, criticising chief ministers for announcing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Indian companies on foreign soil. “We are funding the circus,” Jayashree remarks bluntly, calling Davos a “clown show” driven by optics rather than outcomes. Govindraj also agrees…
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17 Jan 2026 · 16 min
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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by Chander Shekhar Luthra, a veteran sports journalist, and Suhasini Haidar, diplomatic affairs editor of The Hindu . Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey, with assistant production by Saurav Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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10 Jan 2026 · 16 min
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This week on Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Raman Kirpal are joined by Ishaan Tharoor, a foreign affairs columnist at The Washington Post and Advocate Vrinda Grover. Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters . Produced by Amit Pandey, with assistant production by Ashish Anand. Sound by Anil Kumar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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3 Jan 2026 · 15 min
Chota Hafta 570
This week on Hafta, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Jayashree Arunachalam and Anand Vardhan are joined by Kallol Bhattacherjee, Senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu . Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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27 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 43 min
Hafta X South Central: Highs & lows of media in 2025, influencers in news, Arnab’s ‘turnaround’
For this special year-ender episode, Newslaundry ’s Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande and The News Minute ’s Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna are joined by columnist and media critic Santosh Desai. The conversation begins with a wrap of the Indian media ecosystem this year. Santosh says, “Institutions are struggling to retain credibility and resist pressure.” Dhanya argues that mainstream media exerts significant influence over people, but on social media, the results vary. Discussing the state of the media more specifically in Karnataka, Pooja notes that although it's “heavily…
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