The Point Blank Show
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The Point Blank Show
The Point Blank Show is an excuse to spend sometime with people having immense insights and significant achievements. The guests on the show range from entrepreneurs, artists, business leaders, writer, sports personality etc. Each show attempts to bring out insights and often making us think about t...
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Patrick McGee on Apple in China
Patrick McGee, the Financial Times’ San Francisco correspondent, covers Apple and the U.S. technology industry. His book, Apple in China: The Capture...
Stephen Witt on the cult of Nvidia and its charismatic founder, Jensen Huang
Few people have had more access to Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s charismatic founder, than Stephen Witt. In his book The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvid...
Richard Overy on why humans go to war
Why do humans go to war? Is peace ever truly possible? In this podcast historian of the Second World War and expert on totalitarian regimes and milita...
Charlie English on the CIA's quietest operation
Charlie English is the author of "The CIA Book Club: The Best Kept Secret of the Cold War". In this episode he talks about a little-known chapter in C...
Carl Zimmer breaks down what’s really in the air
Carl Zimmer, acclaimed science writer and author of "Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe", joins the show to explore the unseen world...
Beyond Silicon Valley: Ludwig Siegele on China’s quiet AI revolution
Ludwig Siegele, senior editor AI Initiatives at The Economist talks about how Chinese AI companies like DeepSeek and Alibaba are disrupting the status...
Mike Brearley: On cricket, captaincy, character and the mind
In this episode, legendary cricketer and former England captain, Mike Brearley talks about his rich childhood memories, early influences, the art of l...
Clive Oppenheimer on volcanoes and a life at the crater's edge
Volcanologist, author and filmmaker Clive Oppenheimer's career has taken him to the edge. From dodging lava bombs at Stromboli to facing AK-47s in the...
Charles Piller on the broken science behind Alzheimer’s research
Investigative journalist Charles Piller unravels one of the biggest scientific scandals in recent history. Drawing from his book "Doctored: Fraud, Arr...
John Dykes unplugged: mastering the art of storytelling and performance
John Dykes has worn many hats: from features writer to one of the world’s most sought-after sports presenters. In this podcast, he shares insights and...
Simon Parkin on the siege of Leningrad and the scientists who refused to give in
In this episode, Simon Parkin unravels an extraordinary tale of courage and sacrifice during World War II. His latest book, The Forbidden Garden of Le...
Tits Up! Sarah Thornton on Breasts: their history, power, and perception
Sarah Thornton is a sociologist known for her writing on art, design, and society. Sarah’s latest book, Tits Up: What Our Beliefs About Breasts Reveal...
Inside the human mind with Guy Leschziner
Why do we behave the way we do? What’s going on in our brains when we take certain decisions? How hard-wired are we and what are the odds that we can...
Marcel Dirsus on how tyrants fall
Ever wondered how a dictator survives for decades? If you think he does so without a care in the world, as I did, you are in for a surprise. Tyrants a...
Sunitha Krishnan on her memoir, “I am what I am”
Sunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing and rehabilitating victims of human trafficking. Since 1996, her outfit, Prajwala, Asia’s largest...
Julie Sedivy on how languages shape us
In this podcast, Julie Sedivy’s passion for language shines through. As a linguist and polyglot, she delves into the science behind how we communicate...
Arik Kershenbaum on why animals talk
Do animals speak and if so why do they do so? What do they say? From the evolutionary standpoint what exactly is happening there? Dr Arik Kershenbaum...
Tabitha Stanmore on magic and witchcraft
Dr Tabitha Stanmore is a historian and an expert in medieval and early modern English magic and witchcraft. Her book, “Cunning Folk: Life in the Era o...
Sam Leith on childhood reading
Children’s world is by default a trippy one and books are rich fodder for the uninhibited mind. In “The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading”,...
Alison Taylor on doing the right thing
Alison Taylor is a clinical professor at NYU Stern School of Business. Her book, “Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent Wo...
Rooted in History: Unearthing the Stories of Twelve Trees with Daniel Lewis
There are around 3trn trees on Earth, 400 for every living person. And yet arguably the arboreal world is not talked about in as much detail as the an...
Sir David Spiegelhalter on the art of uncertainty
How did Barack Obama, former American president know for sure whether Osama Bin Laden was in that compound in Abbottabad? Are football matches largely...
Rollo Romig on Gauri Lankesh and the fight for free speech in India
Rollo Romig talks about his book "I'm on the Hit List: A Journalist's Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India". It releases in India today, January...
Charles Dallara on EuroShock: the tough negotiations that shaped Greece’s future
Charles Dallara is the author of "EuroShock: How the Largest Debt Restructuring in History Helped Save Greece and Preserve the Eurozone". The former m...
Timothy C. Winegard on how horses shaped human civilisation
Human history is also the history of the horse, says Dr Timothy C. Winegard in his superb book, “The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity”. He chart...
Ben Yagoda on the British invasion of American English
Ben Yagoda is the emeritus professor of English at the University of Delaware. Relying on his rich experience of having lived both in the US and the U...
Truth and lies with Alex Edmans
In his book “May Contain Lies: How stories, statistics and studies exploit our biases - and what we can do about it”, Dr Alex Edmans urges us to pause...
Dr Duvvuri Subbarao, former RBI governor on his life and career
In “Just a Mercenary? Notes from My Life and Career”, Dr Subbarao describes his eventful journey as a kid from Sainik School in Korukonda, some 50 km...
Gray Matters: Exploring the Brain with Dr. Theodore Schwartz
The human brain is a marvel of mysteries, holding answers that we are still uncovering. Dr Theodore Schwartz's book “Gray Matters: A Biography of Brai...
Lawrence Booth on Bazball
Bazball is a term that describes England cricket team’s aggressive brand of Test cricket championed by Brendon “Baz” McCullum. Lawrence Booth who writ...
Paul Seabright on religion, wealth and economics
What is religion? How is it intertwined with economics? Why do people who are below the poverty line feel the need to contribute some portion of their...
Marcia Bjornerud on how rocks share secrets of our planet’s past
In “Turning to Stone: Discovering The subtle wisdom of rocks”, Dr Marcia Bjornerud brings us the fascinating story of how rocks and stones “speak” to...
Andrew Leigh on economics and why it matters
In this podcast Andrew Leigh talks about economics to someone unfamiliar with the subject, all drawn from his book, "How Economics Explains the World:...
The future of our oceans with Helen Scales
What mysteries do the world underwater hold for us? Dr Helen Scales, a marine biologist, has dedicated her life to find out. Her most recent book “Wha...
Jean-Martin Bauer on world hunger and what we can do about it
Jean-Martin Bauer is the author of "The New Breadline: Hunger and Hope in the 21st Century". It’s a brilliant account of why hunger is ravaging the wo...
Nicola Twilley on how refrigeration has changed the world
Among the many things that we take for granted in the age of indulgence is refrigeration. In “Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Plane...
Untold stories of unsung Maths legends with Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell
What are the human stories behind mathematics? How did mathematicians collaborate over centuries to further its cause? “The Secret Lives of Numbers: A...
Nobel Laureate Thomas R. Cech on why Ribonucleic Acid rocks
Dr Thomas R. Cech shared the nobel prize in chemistry with Sidney Altman in 1989. Their work showed that RNA is not only a molecule that carries genet...
Carl Öhman on what happens to our data after we die
In his short and punchy book, "The Afterlife of Data", Carl Öhman writes about "What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care"...
Geoff White on digital transformation of money laundering
Geoff White is an investigative journalist who has covered financial crime for over two decades. His latest book is titled "Rinsed - From Cartels to C...