A list of good reads
- We highly recommend two very good analyses of the end of Westland Books. The Signal offers a hard-nosed look at the publisher’s failing business model. Mint Lounge offers a more sympathetic take, assigning the blame on its big name authors—especially Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi—whose book sales have been falling in recent years.
- This Al Jazeera column offers an insightful analysis that links the Spotify controversy (explained here) and the resignation of CNN chief Jeff Zucker. What they share in common: profiting from polarisation.
- Fifty Two has the fascinating account of MN Roy—a communist revolutionary who was on top of the colonial British intelligence services’ most wanted list. This is a Netflix series waiting to happen.
- Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic offers a rare, balanced take on the hype around Web3, crypto, metaverse—that whole future of the internet thing that is in the centre of a polarised debate between true believers and naysayers.
- Madeline Potter’s thread offers an eye opening string of facts on ‘gypsies’—who originated in North India—and have been persecuted for centuries in Europe.
- SportsKeeda offers a scathing takedown of the BCCI’s criminal indifference toward women’s cricket.
- Lachmi Deb Roy in Outlook magazine reports on public statues of women in India—and the pervasiveness of the male gaze.
- Article 14 put together a detailed analysis of 13,000 people charged with sedition between 2010-2021—which speaks volumes about how this colonial-era law has been misused.
- The New Yorker has a must-read interview with Robert Capron, who was cast as Rowley Jefferson in ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’—who reveals the damage done by playing the stereotype of the ‘fat kid’.
- The Guardian has an excellent follow-up on the Gujarati family that died on the Canadian border—and tells the bigger story about Indian illegal immigration.
- Drift Magazine questions the core premise of TED talks—which claim that all complex problems have a solution. All we need is enough people to pay attention.
- Aperiodical offers a mathematician’s guide to Wordle—which he correctly compares to the old colour-code game Master Mind.
