Dear Abhinandan and NL Team,

Apologies for the length of this email in advance, I have a lot to say! 

My name is Harjant Gill. I’m an anthropology professor based in Washington DC, and also a long-time NL subscriber and supporter. I really admire the work that you do, and I continue to whole-heartedly support the mission of your organization: of proving independent new analysis and ad-free journalism. Shout out to Abhinandan for all his hard work!

With that said, my membership recently lapsed, and I am contemplating not renewing it. Here are some reasons why: 

The quality of your premier programming (Hafta and Awful & Awesome) has really deteriorated over the past few months. It seems like Abhinandan regularly goes on to host the two shows without adequately preparing to discuss the topics in depth. As a host, he often fails to provide proper context for listeners not tuned into local or regional news (especially your NRI audience who make a big chunk of your membership). As a result, conversations meander off topic and instead of bringing them back on track (as an effective host ought to do) Abhinandan ends up offering some anecdotal story from his past which adds little to our understanding of the subjects being discussed. 

Lately, errors and omissions are being made at a frequency that is alarming (for eg., in a recent episode of Hafta, Abhinandan proposed a discussion of “fake academic journals…” at the beginning of the show, yet never returned to the topic during the show). There’s also a lack of diverse perspectives on Hafta panel in Madhu’s absence, and regional politics is given far too much coverage—at the expense of other issues (economy, religion, gender, feminism, sexual minority rights, academia, popular culture, etc.). The last few episodes of A&A without Rajyasree were truly unbearable. The guests lacked the enthusiasm and energy that Rajyasree brings to the show, and the Skype phone-interview was suffering from technical issues.

If NL is incapable of producing a quality programme, I suggest that you don’t do it! It seems to me that in your enthusiasm to expand your programming, your team has allowed the quality of your premier programmes to deteriorate.

This is where Abhinandan might recite a long list of excuses, reminding us that NL needs more subscriber funding to fulfil these elusive promises of “making better programmes”, “develop the app player”, etc., etc. While I sympathise with him (making independent media is not cheap!) and I support his plea for more funds, I suggest that NL’s development team rethink its overall growth strategy. Rather than adding new shows to your line-up, I would like to see my subscription go towards addressing some of these chronic programming and technical issues that are resulting in poorer quality shows. If these are not addressed, you will continue to lose listeners and subscribers (like me).

There is no joy in writing this email. In the past, I have really loved your work and I still want NL to succeed, but lately, I find myself zoning out or turning off the podcast. As I mentioned earlier, I am still on the fence about renewing my subscription, which means that you still have time to address my concerns and convince me to renew. Thanks!

PS: During my last visit to India, in 2016, I spotted an Amway store in Chandigarh. Amway, if you don’t know already, is the largest Multi-Level-Marketing “company” in the US. It’s essentially a pyramid or a Ponzi-scheme that has been able to skirt the law through lobbying and political influence. I suggest you and your listeners listen to Season 1 of the podcast “The Dream”. You will learn everything you need to know about companies like Amway, and about why Americans keep falling for scammers and con artists like Jack Abramoff, Billy McFarland (aka The Fyre-bro) and of course Donald Trump. Episode 10 will blow your mind!

Harjant Gill