Wildlife matters: Prerna Singh Bindra

Prerna has been at the forefront of the battle to conserve India’s wildlife for about 15 years. She was a member of the National Board for Wildlife and its core Standing Committee and her work has contributed to the creation of new Protected Areas. She is a widely published journalist, wrote the critically acclaimed ‘The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis,’ and has co-edited ‘Wild treasures: Reflections on Natural World Heritage Sites in Asia.’ Prerna is a dog’s best friend, loves books, reveres trees and has a soft spot for elephants. She lives in a city, but her heart, she says, resides in the forest..

Do #BlackLivesMatter in India? Mauktik Kulkarni

Mauktik is a neuroscientist, globetrotter, author, entrepreneur and a film-maker. After backpacking through more than 50 countries, he has become a teller of tales of creative writing, start-ups, traveling and film making. He has written two books and writes for various media outlets. He has seen successes and failures in healthcare, e-commerce and media ventures, and is always up for new adventures. Before becoming a storyteller, he got a bachelors in Electronics & Telecom Engineering from the Univ. of Pune, masters in Biophysics & Computational Biology from the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and another masters in Neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins University.

Offline, off-grid, and into the Amazon: Uma Muthuraaman

Uma was born and raised in Chennai. She lives with her family in Cologne, Germany. Her early years in India and later Singapore gives her strong Asian roots while the last 16 years in Europe give her a unique way of seeing and interpreting this universe. Uma is on a quest to find the purpose of life. She works as a marketer and analyst. She loves to travel, write (mostly about unsung heroes and un-acclaimed places), photograph, and debunk ridiculous Asian stereotypes!

Art in the digitalverse: Dipti Rao

Dipti is a Project Director with the Art X Company, is based in Bangalore, and enjoys working across several creative disciplines. From festival production to stage management, curation, and programming, she continues to explore the many facets of arts management. She is interested in the impact of the arts, the stories that data tells, and in things that help bring cultures and diverse things together. Dipti has been part of the teams at OML Entertainment and the British Council in Mumbai and The Courtyard and Jagriti Theatre in Bangalore and continues to seek unconventional experiences in the creative industry.

Alternative sexual lifestyles: Asmi

Asmi is an active BDSM practitioner, a lifestyle coach based in India, a writer and a vocal, empowering person, who experiments actively with BDSM, feminism, LGBT, sexuality and erotica. She is very active in several real-world BDSM communities and has close connections with a wide spectrum of other practitioners, both in India and globally. Asmi has authored a series of three books about various aspects of BDSM, available on Kindle; and also contributes to various initiatives in the sexuality and SRHR space.

Odissi, a way of life: Samhita K.

Samhita is trained in music (Carnatic) and dance (Bharatanatyam, Odissi), is a disciple of Manasi Raghunandan, and is a key member of Abhivyakti Trust. She has won a Karnataka state scholarship and the Adi Guru Pankaj Charan Das national award, has sung for AIR, and performed for the ICCR and Sangeet Natak Akademi, amongst others. She is a senior faculty at a leading academic school at Bangalore. She is also a freelance nature photographer, is closely associated with People for Animals, and is trained in handling and rescuing snakes. She dreams of creating course materials for classical dance that reach out to non-dancers in search of mental and physical health.

Interview and host like a boss: Chhavi Sachdev

Chhavi is one of India’s earliest podcasters and one of few radio journalists; Her work is featured regularly on the BBC World Service and podcast production credits include Tall Tales Takeaway, Books & Beyond with Bound, and Tata LeaderCraft. Her company, Sonologue, provides turnkey podcasting solutions, production services, consulting, and coaching: since 2011, she has trained independent podcasters and even CEO’s on how to sound good on the air.

The truth about improvisation: Nasir Engineer

Nasir is the cofounder of Improv Comedy Bangalore and the founder/ festival director of Bengaluru Improv Festival, India’s first and only international Improv festival. He has performed and curated over 100 improv shows all across India and taught the art of improvisation to hundreds of people including corporates of brands such as Google, Uber, IBM, Philips, Paperboat etc.

The ‘Still Dicovering’ project: Namitha and Anant

Namitha is a trained Carnatic and Kathakali singer. Her passion for the Kathakali art form since childhood enhanced her affinity towards its music. Anant’s desire to make experimental music is what he brings through in the nuances of music production. The duo evolved a signature sound in 2018, multi-genre, but influenced strongly by Kathakali and Carnatic music, and formed the band ATA. They love what they do because of the learning over the years, and like to create music without inhibitions.

Do we need a Supreme Court? Alok P. Kumar

Alok is Senior Resident Fellow and Team Lead, Vidhi Karnataka. His areas of research include Judicial Reforms, Constitutional law, Urban Development, and Law and Technology. He writes a monthly column for the Economic and Political Weekly and has published in the Indian Journal of Constitutional Law and National Law School of India Review apart from media outlets such as The Hindu, Indian Express, Scroll, Quint and Caravan. He has practiced in the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court from the chambers of Mr Mohan Parasaran. He also co-hosts the Ganatantra podcast on IVM Podcasts.