Season 1
Trade Winds
Centuries ago, the global economic order was inverted. Trade across the Indian Ocean set off conquest and European colonialism. Season 1 takes place on the Indian sub-continent and spans 1 CE to the 20th century.
Chatrooms
Interview-style episodes with our experts
Chatroom 12: The Evolution of Indian Blues, or Bidesia
In the late 1800s, the British took Indians to Fiji to work on plantations. There, they would sing bidesia, lamenting for a lost homeland.
Chatroom 11: When Technology Meets Ayurveda
The influx of technology such as pocket watches beginning in the 1860s transformed India’s traditional medical systems
Chatroom 10: Encounters with India’s Maneaters
We are increasingly sharing space with predators and wild animals. We learn how to co-exist from Nayanika Mathur
Chatroom 9: Disease Goddesses and Scapegoats
In India, a rich tradition of Disease Goddesses assigned a female deity to each illness. She was believed both to cause and protect from the disease.
Chatroom 8: A Disease Sleuth in Bangalore
We follow British scientist Ronald Ross as he stops a cholera outbreak in 1895 Bangalore.
Chatroom 7: An Ancient Pandemic Story
A Sanskrit scholar narrates a tale from one of the oldest Ayurvedic texts, Charaka-samhita, that has surprising resonance with our current lives
Chatroom 6: You’re being tracked – Pandemic capitalism
A public health vacuum left by governments over decades is being filled by tech companies, which have stepped up surveillance
Chatroom 5: Ayurveda & Science
Can the great divide between traditional and allopathic medicines ever be bridged? We talk with biologist Annamma Spudich about Ayurveda
Chatroom 4: The water carriers of Calcutta, and other matters
Colonial cities lack proper water and sanitation — and sometimes employ water carriers. We speak to Pratik Chakrabarti
Chatroom #3: The Most Ancient Medicine
Folk Healing is the most ancient form of medicine. G. Hariramamurthi has visited more than 12,000 villages across India to document folk medicine practices
Chatroom 2: When Plague Hit Bombay
An old draconian law from 1897, when plague hit Bombay, has been reinstated for Covid-19. Interview with historian Tarangini Sriraman
Chatroom 1: Medicine at the Border
What should nations do, other than shut down borders, when a pandemic hits? We speak to historian Alison Bashford