What a Wonderful World | Episode 2 | Watching the Wheels

We live in a magical world, but we normalize the good stuff & aren’t grateful enough. And sure, the world still has much that is messed up, and we must fight for progress — but it’s good to take inspiration from the distance we have already travelled! Welcome to episode 2 of Watching the Wheels, hosted by Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane. In this episode, our hosts share stories from their lives as well as data about the world to discuss the many ways in which our lives are better. They also acknowledge the distance left to travel, and because they are foolhardy, they even make projections into the future. Lol, peeps are gonna laugh at them 30 years from now, if not today only. Enjoy! :) TABLE OF CONTENTS 00:00 Hype the Episode! 01:13 Intro 03:02 Main Course: What a Wonderful World! 1:34:16 Infinite Game: Actors Born Abroad USEFUL RESOURCES 1. Amit on Twitter: https://x.com/amitvarma 2. Shruti on Twitter: https://x.com/srajagopalan 3. Pranay on Twitter: https://x.com/pranaykotas 4. Pranay’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/stores/author/B... 5. Get Down and Shruti — Shruti’s Substack: https://srajagopalan.substack.com/ 6. The Seen and the Unseen — Amit’s podcast: https://seenunseen.in/ 7. The India Uncut Newsletter -- Amit's newsletter: https://indiauncut.substack.com/ 8. Ideas of India — Shruti’s podcast at Mercatus: https://open.spotify.com/show/6kK8CBI... 9. Puliyabaazi — Pranay’s Hindi podcast: https://www.puliyabaazi.in/ 10. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay’s newsletter with RSJ: https://publicpolicy.substack.com/ 11. Shruti on Instagram:   / shruti.rajagopalan   12. The Art of Clear Writing -- Amit's writing course: https://indiauncut.com/clear-writing/ 13. Life Lessons -- a course taught by Amit Varma & Mohit Satyanand: https://lifelessons.co.in/ 14. Emergent Ventures India: https://shrutiraj.com/emergent-ventur... 15. Takshashila Institution: https://takshashila.org.in/ 16. The 1991 Project: https://www.the1991project.com/ 17. The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. — Max Roser: http://ourworldindata.org/much-better... 18. Our World in Data on literacy: https://tinyurl.com/ud6m42ye 19. Our World in Data on working hours: https://tinyurl.com/223pms5k 20. Chris Freiman on leisure hours: https://x.com/cafreiman/status/207882... 21. Our World in Data on life expectancy: https://tinyurl.com/4uvnpkk8 22. Our World in Data on Child Mortality: https://tinyurl.com/mpmmkzpf 23. Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future — Johan Norberg: https://amzn.in/d/01Dt5B0t 24. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates — Amit Varma: https://tinyurl.com/mstpwae5 25. The Human Progress piece on India: https://tinyurl.com/35wa8n9j 26. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs — Episode 46 of Everything is Everything:    • Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs | Episode 46...   27. Vaccine Nation — Ameer Shahul: https://amzn.in/d/05jG13vR 28. Jared Owen on YouTube:    / @jaredowen   29. Factfulness — Hans Rosling: https://amzn.in/d/037JsJ2T 30. Humankind: A Hopeful History — Rutger Bregman: https://amzn.in/d/05agvXfk 31. Pranay Kotasthane & Madhav Kanchiraju on empathy and compassion: https://tinyurl.com/2a2mbm58 32. John Collison’s quote on the world as a museum of passion projects: https://x.com/collision/status/152945... 33. Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy — Tim Harford: https://amzn.in/d/06iT8ezC 34. Our FSI Problem -- Episode 11 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok):    • Ep. 11: FSI (Floor Space Index)   35. Gig Work is AWESOME! — Episode 124 of Everything is Everything:    • Gig Work is AWESOME! | Episode 124 | Every...   36. Vasant Dhar's Lifetime in Artificial Intelligence — Episode 432 of The Seen and the Unseen:    • Ep 432: Vasant Dhar's Lifetime in Artifici...   37. Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI — Vasant Dhar: https://amzn.in/d/03rvyJB5 38. The Moral Animal -- Robert Wright: https://amzn.in/d/3fZzJ07 39. On Inequality -- Harry Frankfurt: https://amzn.in/d/6X8ro5G 40. Sell the Tiger to Save It (2006) — Barun Mitra: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/op... 41. The Better Angels of Our Nature — Steven Pinker: https://amzn.in/d/0fHdMXLw Produced by Amit Varma Edited by Nomsita MS Haritashya:   / nomsitaharitashya   Video consultants — Swapnalok Studio:   / swapnalokstudio