Imagined Tomorrow

Show notes:

In this episode, we imagine a future where you can travel to space from India. Whether you want to go around the earth for three days, walk on the Moon, or live on Mars for an artistic experiment - you can book a spaceflight from India and go where your heart (and wallet) takes you. We hear from some kids about how they picture this future. We hear from a space architect who tells us what commercial space travel might look like in the future for people in general and those in India. And a space lawyer tells us how we can travel responsibly.

Also - stay till the end. There’s a surprise!

Imagined Tomorrow is created and hosted by Shreya Dasgupta. Intro and outro music is by Abhijit Shylanath. Abhishek Madan is the official feedback-provider of script and sound. Get in touch via Twitter, or email [email protected]. Transcript on https://www.imaginedtomorrow.com/

Guests (in order of appearance):

Nikshep Raman, 11 year-old space sci-fi enthusiast.

Priyoti, 9-year-old travel enthusiast.

Dr. Susmita Mohanty, space architect and founder of India’s first private space company, Earth2Orbit.

Deepika Jeyakodi, space lawyer.

Brief appearance:

Dr. Abhijeet Borkar, an astrophysicist who will hear from in the bonus episode.

Episode music

Interlude music bits from Pixabay. Includes pieces by GioeleFazzeri, Jacques_Barrette, Lesfm and Skilsel

Episode artwork

From Pixabay by 愚木混株CDD20.

If you want to delve further:

Will space missions include more average people? Read here

SpaceX takes 4 passengers to orbit—a glimpse at private spaceflight’s future. Read here

Why We Need Astronauts With Disabilities. Read here

Video: Watch Elon Musk Reveal SpaceX's Most Detailed Plans To Colonize Mars

NASA eyeing inflatable space lodges for moon, Mars and beyond. Read here

India’s private space sector is rising, but wait for Bezos-like ‘joy rides’ will be longer. Read here

From allowing private players, to regulating satellite use, why India needs a space law. Read here

Mission ISRO with Harsha Bhogle. Listen here

Killer asteroids – we’ve seen Hollywood movies explore this apocalyptic scenario many, many times. In most films, though, India rarely features in the story. If we do, we come and go in seconds, with our cities ablaze, while the West saves the world.

This episode explores a future where a big asteroid is hurtling toward India. If this were indeed the case, how would scientists know if an object from outer space was coming our way? Have asteroids struck the Indian region in the past? And if something does come speeding towards India in the future, can we do something about it?

Experts we spoke to for the episode:

Dr. Varun Bhalerao, an astrophysicist at IIT Bombay.

Dr. Dwijesh Ray, a planetary geologist at the physical research laboratory in Ahmedabad.

Dr. Angela Stickle, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, USA.

Dr. Abhijeet Borkar, an astrophysicist at the Astronomický Ústav AV in Prague, Czech Republic.

People who helped make this episode:

Imagined Tomorrow is created and hosted by Shreya Dasgupta. Theme music, sound design and editing by Abhijit Shylanath. Abhishek Madan is the official reel-maker and feedback-provider.

Nihira Ram co-wrote the fiction piece.

Abhijit Shylanath voiced the fictional news reporter.

Parni Ray and Parvathy Nair supported the production process in the initial months of uncertainty.

Get in touch via Twitter, or email [email protected].

India-related pop culture:

There's one Indian short film by Director Arati Kadav that's a love story set against the background of a space rock about to hit Earth. It's called 55 km per sec.

Transcript and references:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSiUt9fzy34KqVFOL5DOyku5WldEUD2-B4nPhFcKCYkHbvJ8WrVPrWJr2Fym7QExfMSxU6_65zWSg-K/pub

Disclaimer:

The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in the fictional story of S2E1 of Imagined Tomorrow are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Show notes:

In Episode 6, we explored if we could travel to space from India. In this bonus episode, we hear what the future of the internet could be like - in our solar system. Will we be able to watch Netflix on Mars, stream Youtube videos, chat with family and friends on Earth and livestream?

Episode features Dr. Abhijeet Borkar, an astrophysicist at the Astronomy Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Imagined Tomorrow is created and hosted by Shreya Dasgupta. Intro and outro music is by Abhijit Shylanath. Abhishek Madan is the official feedback-provider of script and sound. Get in touch via Twitter, or email [email protected].

Episode music

Interlude music bits from Pixabay. Includes pieces by nojisuma and ZakharValaha.

Episode artwork

Imagined Tomorrow logo by Abhishek Madan.

If you want to delve further:

How one stupid tweet blew up Justine Sacco’s Life. Read here

First live tweet from space.

NASA extends the World Wide Web out into space. Read here

The internet in space? Slow as dial up. Read here

NASA Laser Communications Innovations: A Timeline. Read here

NASA Beams Mona Lisa to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the Moon. Read here

Nokia selected by NASA to build first ever cellular network on the Moon. Read here

SpaceX will build Starlink-like constellation around Mars, its president says. Read here

Transcript on Imagined Tomorrow

Show notes:

**This is a deep dive bonus content for episode 4. This episode gets very geeky, so if you haven’t already, please listen to episode 4 before moving ahead with this one :)**

Antibiotic resistance is a problem of many countries and many bugs. So we hear from someone who has a bird’s eye view of this issue. Dr. Hanan Balkhy of the World Health Organisation.

Imagined Tomorrow is created and hosted by Shreya Dasgupta. The episode was co-edited by Abhishek Madan. Intro and outro music is by Abhijit Shylanath. Get in touch via Twitter, or email [email protected].

Guests:

Subject experts

Dr. Hanan Balkhy, a professor of pediatric infection diseases and Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance at the World Health Organization

Episode music

Interlude music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi on Pixabay.

Episode artwork

Imagined Tomorrow logo by Abhishek Madan.

For further reading:

Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA (Available on Amazon)

Scoping Report on Antimicrobial Resistance in India. Read here.

Science journalist Priyanka Pulla has written some excellent stories on antimicrobial resistance:

· The superbugs of Hyderabad. Read here.

· Living in a world of emerging microbial resistance. Read here.

· India’s Hospitals Have an Infection Problem. Could Accreditation Be the Way to Go? Read here.

· The growing peril of drug-resistant superbugs. Read here.

· Explainer: Why Is Multi-Drug Resistance a Problem? Read here.

· How India got blindsided by a deadly mucormycosis outbreak. Read here.

WHO’s Aware tool

WHO’s priority bacteria list.

Show notes:

In this episode, we imagine a post-antibiotic future for India - where bacteria have learned to fight our entire arsenal of antibiotics. This future is rather dystopian, but don’t worry, we have experts who will tell us how we can avoid getting to this future. We hear of solutions for the social problems we need to crack, and we have an expert whose small company in Bangalore is developing a whole new class of antibiotics.

Bonus episode coming soon!

Imagined Tomorrow is created and hosted by Shreya Dasgupta. The episode was co-edited by Abhishek Madan. Intro and outro music is by Abhijit Shylanath. Get in touch via Twitter, or email [email protected].

Guests:

Subject experts

Dr. Jyoti Joshi, a medical doctor and the South Asia head of the Center For Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy or CDDEP.

Dr. Prashanth N. Srinivas, a medical doctor and public health researcher at the Institute of Public Health, Bangalore.

Dr. Anand Anandkumar, CEO and MD of Bugworks, a Bangalore-based company that is developing a new class of antibiotics.

Others

Dumma (Maya Sengupta): My incredibly talented maternal grandmother, who tells me stories of her childhood, when she hadn’t even heard of antibiotics.

Episode music

Interlude music pieces by Alfred Castro, Oleksii Kaplunskyi, Zakar Walaha on Pixabay.

Episode artwork

Image of a carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae by NIAID, used under CC By 2.0 license.

For further reading:

Scoping Report on Antimicrobial Resistance in India. Read here.

More on Bugworks’ research

Explainer: Why Is Multi-Drug Resistance a Problem? Read here.

Thumbs-up to pneumococcal vaccine rollout across India. Read here.

Too much too often: Antibiotics in Indian crops can make them ineffective. Read here.