Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In episode three, host Anjali Alappat talks to Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, science fiction author, data scientist, and researcher. Yudhanjaya is the author of The Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne, Numbercaste, The Inhuman Peace, The Inhuman Race, and The Salvage Crew.  More recently he was awarded the Gratiaen Prize for Literature for his yet-to-be published book The Wretched and the Damned. Yudhanjaya has been nominated for a Nebula award in 2022, and in...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In Season 2, we continue our conversations with South Asian sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. In the second episode of this season, Anjali Alappat speaks with author and editor Tashan Mehta. Her debut novel, The Liar’s Weave, is a wonderful mix of myth and magic, chronicling the exploits of a teenage boy in 1920s India who has tremendous power and poor judgement — a potent mix. We discuss...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In Season 2, we continue our conversations with South Asian sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. In the first episode host Anjali Alappat chats with author, editor, lawyer and critic Gautam Bhatia. Gautam’s debut novel, The Wall (2020), and its sequel, The Horizon (2021), are filled with fascinating world building, complex characters, and fabulously convoluted plotlines. If you love twists...

In this episode, The Subverse explores the progression in the use of metals and its impact on the trajectory of human evolution,the role of fire and its symbolism in understanding artefacts, art history, culture, and dance. Susan Mathews speaks with Prof. Sharada Srinivasan, a professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore, India, who studies archaeological artefacts and metallurgy.  Through the study of artefacts, we can better understand the history of technology and...

In this episode, Susan Mathews speaks with Dr. Bharat Jayram Venkat about the unequal distribution of the effects of heat. For this, we travel to 19th and early 20th century colonial India where heat is a persistent problem for the British empire and a burgeoning climate science is sutured to racial difference. These histories inform contemporary crises as knowledges of heat continue to evolve in an unequal world. Dr. Bharat Jayram Venkat is an associate professor at UCLA’s Institute for...

In this episode, Susan Mathews is in conversation with Prof. Robert Romanyshyn—an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and an author of eight books including Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies (Frankenstein Prophecies). Romanyshyn’s special area of concern is the psychology of technology, especially in terms of the climate crisis and impact of digital media on our social structures. Much of his life’s work...

In Season 3 of The Subverse, we are journeying into ‘fire’. In this opening episode, we speak with Prof. Stephen J. Pyne, a fire historian, urban farmer, and emeritus professor at Arizona State University, U.S.A. Pyne has written over 40 books, most of which are centred around fire. In this conversation, we focus on his book The Pyrocene: How we Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next, published in 2021. Apart from being such a prolific scholar of fire, Stephen J. Pyne spent 15 seasons...

In part two of our Water and Caste series within the Stories from the Subverse, anti-caste intersectional feminist researcher-activist Swati Kamble speaks with four remarkable Ambedkarite anti-caste creators on how Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Mahad march inspired and shaped their lives, artistic journeys, and creative repertoires. We are introduced to Madhubani artist Malvika Raj, Padma Shri awardee and photojournalist Sudharak Olwe, artist Rajyashri Goody, and folk artist Shahir...

Stories from the Subverse, where we uncover hidden and marginalized stories through a more personal storytelling lens, returns with a two part series. Part one of this series has been conceptualised, scripted, and hosted by Swati Kamble, an anti-caste intersectional feminist researcher-activist. In part one, Swati guides us through the history of Mahad Satyagraha, the march for equality, dignity, and access to water, led by anti-caste leader and statesman, Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar on 20th...

Susan Mathews speaks with architect and planner Dilip Da Cunha. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and the recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship.  In 2017, Anuradha Mathur and Dilip Da Cunha founded a design platform called Ocean of Wetness. The organisation is dedicated to imaging and imagining habitation in ubiquitous wetness rather than on a land-water surface. Our chat was a wide-ranging one,...

We continue to explore relationality when it comes to water, and learn more from three women who have made water, and bodies of water, their life's work. The politics of kinship can be complicated, but how would we approach our bodies of water if they were kin?  In this episode we go deeper into what fascinates them about water - the flow of tides; properties like its solvency; its creative force; acoustic camouflage that can soothe us; and the thrill of bioluminescence. Not all memories are...

Water has played a central role as a resource and property in our dominant worldviews. It has made and unmade empires. In our nation-building, watercourses, waterways, oceans, rivers and freshwaters have all played leading roles, part of a continued and relentless drive to choreograph and subjugate our waters. But it is the indigenous, the subjugated, and the oppressed who seem to best recognise water’s power as both a life force and a catastrophic threat. For them, water is kin, creator, and...

In this episode, Susan speaks to Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a writer, independent scholar, poet, activist, and educator based in Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.  Her most recent book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, 2020, part of adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy Series at AK Press, flows from her previous works in a poetic continuum, with water playing a central role. In Undrowned, Alexis takes us through 19 thematic movements, lessons from marine...

In this episode, Susan Mathews speaks to Dr Kartik Shanker, who was inspired to begin a career in ecology by an ancient reptile, a sea turtle that crawled ashore late one night in Madras (now Chennai). As faculty at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, his focus is the ecology and evolution of frogs, reptiles, birds, plants, and marine fauna. His group works on evolutionary biogeography of different taxa, and on the ecology and behaviour of mixed...

Welcome to Stories from The Subverse, where we uncover hidden and marginalized stories through a more personal storytelling lens. In our first story we listen to Yuvan Aves—naturalist, educator, and writer who is certain to transport you, at least briefly, to Chennai’s beaches. Painting a vivid portrait of what a meaningful education should be, Aves is convincing in his point of view of why it’s crucial for a child’s learning to be rooted in real-world engagement and lived experiences.  ...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of assault and the depiction of traumatic events. Listener discretion is advised. In this episode we are in conversation with Indra Das, author, critic and editor. Indra’s work crosses genres and creates intricate worlds. His writing is...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of abuse, and the depiction of traumatic events. Listener discretion is advised. Today, we talk to Kuzhali Manickavel, author, editor and columnist. Kuzhali’s short fiction is beautiful, bizarre and haunting in the best way.Her short story...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. Today, we’re in conversation with SB Divya, author, editor and engineer with an encyclopaedic knowledge of sci-fi and speculative fiction. Divya’s work is a fascinating mix of her professional and personal backgrounds, with great science and even better storylines. Her debut novella, Runtime, was...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. In this episode, we’re talking to one of India’s best known Sci-fi and fantasy authors, Samit Basu. An incredibly versatile writer, Samit’s work has spanned mediums, with comic books,  film scripts and children’s and YA novels. Samit’s first novel, the Simoquin Prophecies, was published in 2003,...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. In this episode, we speak to Lavanya Lakshminarayan, award winning author and games designer. Her work is interesting, layered and tackles some really hard topics with ease. We discuss the books that set her on her writing journey, the importance of literary representation, access to technology,...

Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution. We begin the series with author, storyteller and Twitter sensation, Shiv Ramdas. Shiv's work explores serious and often historical themes in nuanced and deft ways. His debut work, India’s first mainstream Cyberpunk novel, Domechild was released in 2013. Shiv’s short fiction has been featured in...

At Dark ‘n’ Light we’re deeply interested in stories and the people behind them, and our podcast The Subverse is a fortnightly journey into weird and wonderful conversations with creators and thinkers.  Our new six part mini-series Arcx is all about literary inspiration, tracing its roots from conception to execution. We aim to arrive at the root of that inspiration, and find the spark that ignited ideas. We seek to peel away layers of perception, memory, and impressions  to find the story,...

Susan Mathews interviews Catarina de Albuquerque, Chief Executive Officer of Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), a global partnership which has positioned SWA as a vital contributor to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6. In a wide-ranging conversation, they speak of what human rights as a discourse brings to water and sanitation, the realities on the ground, and the backdrop in which the General Assembly recognised not only water as a right, but sanitation also in 2010....

From Asia’s mountain core flows ten great rivers that run through 16 countries, serving a fifth of humanity. The struggle for water in modern history is a global story, but nowhere has the search for water shaped or sustained as much human life as in India and China. In this episode, Susan Mathews speaks to Sunil Amrith, historian and writer, about his book Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons have Shaped South Asia’s History published in 2018. Unruly Waters tells the story of how...

In this episode, Susan talks to Sharanya Manivannan, who writes and illustrates fiction, poetry, and non-fiction for children and adults.  Sharanya's two most recent books are the graphic novel, Incantations Over Water, and the picture book, Mermaids In The Moonlight. Sharanya grew up in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and currently lives in India. Ila is the mermaid protagonist in her two recent books, and the stories are set in Mattakalappu (Batticaloa), on the northeastern shore of Sri Lanka. We...