Hello NL team! 

I am currently a subscriber of NL and if you give a quick shout out to my friend Prabhanjan Kulkarni who is on the fence about subscribing I am sure we can convince him to join in…

Thank you for bringing to us every week the NL Hafta. I am passionate about wind energy and work closely with the technology. I currently live and work out of Portland Oregon and I eagerly wait for Saturday mornings here, when I can catch up on Hafta and Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap podcasts.

I have been following Hafta and have binge heard all the episodes starting from #1 and by now I enjoy all the inside jokes that get cracked around on the episodes.

I love when the podcast trends towards a more philosophical discussion. In connection to that, I wanted to bring up the discussion that occurred towards the end of Hafta #84, where Abhinandan asked everyone if they believed in God. What I thought was interesting is Abhinandan’s point of view of coming to believe in a higher power “because something happened” in one’s life to convince him of a higher power…

I sometimes think that I have believed in a higher vague power precisely because “nothing too terrible” has happened to me or my near and dear ones. Nor am I aware of any close shaves I may have had (like the one’s Anand and Deepanjana mentioned) for me to start believing, which I think is such a contract to Abhinandan’s point. Just thought it might be interesting to mention that… My two bit suggestion to the NL team is to have a podcast just occasionally to purely contemplate/ have philosophical discussions on a topic. 

I had a follow up question on the deep dive sessions that NL was planning to conduct for subscribers only.. Do you have any updates on that?

Again thank you for bringing to us intelligent and sensible (yet not snooty) conversations about the country, the world and life 

Best Regards
Thank you
Shruti Ladge

Hi Newslaundry,

I have been following you for the last 3.5 years, long before NL Hafta started. I am 31 and for the past 15 years or so been active follower of news. I have grown up on NDTV/Aaj tak/Dainik Bhaskar only to realize in my late 20s that how one-sided agenda peddling news can become. I now live in NYC but the developments in India interest and excite me. I work in sales. 

Why do I provide this preface? Because a lot of other people may feel what I felt when I saw Madhu’s Clothesline (the better/funnier episodes written by Ranjan :)). It was almost the first time, I saw that Indian news sources, historically considered authority, were being taken to cleaners, if I may use the word from your dictionary. This was refreshing for two reasons, a) we learned something knew b) at least the people in the know like Madhu/Abhinandan also saw through this absurdity like we did. My interest and respect only grew after I binged on all NL interviews, Can you take it and Cleaners. 

NL Hafta, arguably your best property, has been so great that I have stopped going to any Indian news source because I get news and sensible analysis with a great diverse panel, all in one place. You elevate the level of debate, the panel is smart, educated, knowledgeable, respectful & debates are spirited (hat tip to Abhinandan). I can provide specific examples on how some of Anand, Abhinandan, Madhu and Manisha’s views have personally shaped/changed my perspective but I am sure others have done that before me. In sum, Newslaundry, helps foster critical original thinking, which this generation of followers most desperately need. On a two hour long drive, I had my friend listen to Hafta (Mihira’s episode) for the first time, and he was blown away that such podcasts exist and immediately decided to add your podcast in itunes but did not subscribe. 

Why did I write all of this? Because in the last Hafta when Abhinandan talked about your cash burn, it had an effect on me, that you might cease to exist, which will be most unfortunate. The effect was so profound that it made me write this. You must continue to exist, because when this initial wave of news hysteria dies, when print media’s influence further withers, you will be a force, a very credible one. 

My general opinion is Newslaundry is massively under promoted. I think of myself as fairly active on all social media but it took me 1 year or so to find you. It’s almost like an underground activity but you do employ and engage people of high prominence. Here are my suggestions – take it or leave it:

1. Promote Newslaundry – 

• Every one of your panelist has a Twitter account & I assume a fairly strong social network, though I don’t see any one of them regularly retweeting Hafta. Most of you have over 10k followers. Amplify Hafta promotions. 
• Have your guests tweet Hafta when they join it. For eg. Ashok Malik, Haritosh all have certain appeal and following. 
• Repeat tweet Hafta throughout the week until the next one appears. 
• Promote by paid tweet

2. Invite people from all walks of life 
It makes discussions interesting, and tap into their social networks to promote. Tease about how the guest & the topic 24 hours ahead of time on all social media platforms and have the guest do it as well. 

3. Partner with a radio channel or put the podcasts on saavn/gaana/spotify

4. Invite more people from the ideological right
Hafta, barring Anand who I would consider a rationalist (except post-pregnancy views) & centrist, most of you are on left. 

5. Make more videos. At least add video recordings of Hafta sometimes. 

6. Put all the archives for Hafta behind a paywall, just keep last 2-3 episodes for free. This is what Marc Maron does. Leaves people to crave for more. Other deep dives should be behind a paywall. You lure with Hafta & keep with other goodies. 

7. Make membership easy. Add PayTM integration. 

Finally, your cause is noble and but don’t give away everything for free with an assumption that people are noble (most are greedy). There is a price on all fine things from soul satisfying wine & food, to good books and great films. Tons of great critical analysis & 100 minutes of weekly Hafta with a such a fantastic panel! Criminal to keep it free. I would be embarrassed if I did not pay! 

Fine wine on me when any of you are in New York!


Cheers, 
Piyush Khandelwal
Proud subscriber & donated a mic once.

Hi Newslaundry Team

I am Khalid Sayeed from Kolkata and recent listener to your Podcast Hafta.

To Begin with,I am not subscriber yet and would like to give sometime to become subscriber .I am just evaluating my choice to support you people for running independent platform  like Newslaundry.

My Choice is pretty clear that I want to listen to news which is actually helpful me to understand Current Politico-socio-economic Eco system.This helps me to exercise my ballet and form any opinion on party and its leader.

Till Now,my choice is aligning with your ideas except for the mentioned point which I thinks need improvement.

1:Criticism of News Channels: Most of the Time you guys are criticising Media channels like NDTV, TimesNow, CNN-IBN…

My take on this is if you analyse garbage ,nothing coming out of it and it will be still garbage.

You will agree that in current day, news report are being fabricated through Google search and YouTube videos and there is no comprehensive coverage of any issue.Most of the time, news media are towing the line of Government and that too without any ingenuity.

I have seen channels like Sudarshan TV, India news which are kind of Nadir in TV journalism. I don’t know who watches them but I am sure what they will be: A zombie who shares information in social media that fake Photoshop images and false nationalist.

My humble appeal to you is, please analyse event which needs to be in news media but not got enough coverage or presence as they are sleazy enough.

2:Balanced approach backed by solid data:

I have been noticing you are analysing the news without any data and with your own assumptions/preconceived notions.It is very predictable for me after listening three Podcast what Abhinandan  view on it and how Ranga uncle spin the data in his favour. 

To be very frank, I feel there is lack of method in your approach except Madhu Trehan. She is the only sane voice in the podcast and I would like more of her participation.

BTW do you do Homework before discussing on any news or is it just spontaneous?

3:Diversified panels:

I wanted more panels with different background. I see there is lack of it, for example I have never listen to any journalist with Muslim background.

That will bring balanced view on Islam and Muslim issues.

Few suggestions are Hilal Ahmed, Nadim Asrar, Shoaib Daniyal etc.

Similarly when you’re discussing Christian issue like you had last week on Mother Teresa to bring some journalist/columnist. who has some background on Christianity

My opinion on panels are based on last three Podcast”

Abhinandan Sekhri:

Talks much, listen less, without substance, can be manipulated by Ranga Uncle any time.

Ranga Uncle:
Spin master, Right winger, half-baked truth propagator, called him scientist but lacked scientific aptitude of data analysis.

First form an opinion, then search for data to back up.

Only tells you “Selective Truth”

Madhu Trehan:
Respect…….., Need more participation in discussion

Deepanjana Pal:
Balanced,saner voice in panel…. easily bullied by the above two gentleman.

Manisha Pande: 
Genuinely honest, right kind of approach for journalism (unlike Ranga uncle)

Should be leading the discussion instead of Mr. Sekhri.

Thanks for patience,
Mohd Khalid Sayeed