Bollywood and the Politics of Meat The New York Times 

Sohini Chattopadhyay explores how a section of Bollywood is propagating the narrative of a vegetarian, animal-worshipping Hindu nation. She cites Manikarnika and Padmavat as examples of such films but also notes how new films such as Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaz and Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk have tried to challenge this false discourse.

– Snigdha Sharma

Why Billionaires Won’t Save Us Netflix

We often talk about how the ultrarich acquire their money but rarely do we hear about how they spend it. This episode of Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act helps you understand how Big Philanthropy is shaping the world around us. The top one percent among America’s wealthiest one percent people are changing policies and shaping discourse purely by spending money in their areas of interest. Often, they do this to hide their offences and distract people. 

– Meghnad S

Glenn Greenwald, the Bane of their Resistance New Yorker 

A very engaging profile of the American journalist and author Glenn Greenwald and his work over two decades by Ian Parker. The essay masterfully lays out why Greenwald takes the positions he does, looking beneath the usual drivers of ‘principles’ and ‘politics’. 

– Ayush Tiwari

First Flight Film Tour 

I recently attended a screening of four Indian animated short films – Wade, Mother, Beyond Borders, and Watchmaker – in Delhi. At the event, each of the directors gave detailed presentations on the making of their films. The films will be shown again later this month in Kerala, with another round of screenings planned for next year in Guwahati. I would highly recommend you attend a screening to see what Indian animation can actually be, instead of the mindless content we get on TV. The films are going on the festival circuit soon, so they won’t be released online for at least another year. The screenings are the only way you can get to see them for now. 

– Anish Daolagupu

The Intruders The Caravan

Nishant Kauntia’s story is about the writers featured in Hans, India’s most prestigious Hindi literary magazine, founded by Munshi Premchand. It reflects on how the magazine has continued to find emerging writers and promoted a generation of women and Dalit writers.

– Ishani Singh

The Good Girls Revolt Amazon Prime

The 10-episode Season 1 of this series is set in the 1960s, when in news organisations, women were mostly “attached as researchers” with male reporters at one third of the salary. Then, they revolted.

– Raman Kirpal

Cambridge Analytica: How did it turn clicks into votes? The Guardian

How secure is our data online and how is it manipulated and turned into a political messaging weapon? Alex Fern has the whistleblower Christopher Wylie explain through the example of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

– Veena Nair

In the Dark APM Reports

In October 1989, Jacob Wetterling, 11 years old, was kidnapped from his home in Minnesota and murdered. The search for Wetterling was one of the largest for a missing person in the history of the United States. His abduction remained a mystery for nearly 27 years until September 2016, when the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension recovered human bones from a pasture around 30 miles from the site of the abduction. Dental reports confirmed they were Wetterling’s. Madeleine Baran of APM Reports explains how law enforcement agencies mishandled one of the most notorious child abductions in the US. The case led to a federal law that requires all states to maintain registries of sex offenders.

– Anukriti Malik

Women are increasingly unhappy. This comic explains why Vox

Aubrey Hirsch has an illustrative piece on why women are increasingly feeling unhappy despite the many gains of the past 50 years and more, and what’s making them unhappy.

– Abhishek Mitra

Women under ISIL: The torturers Al Jazeera

This feature is about a few women who were compelled to join the Islamic State. They speak about the emotional turmoil they had to endure when they were made to torture other women as well as the the brutally rigorous IS training.

– Anusuya Som

Follow This Netflix

A docuseries by BuzzFeed that features reporters probing topics, ranging from bizarre internet fads such as ASMR videos and men’s rights activists to safe injection spaces for opioid users.

– Pramey Nigdikar

Your tongue is still yours Financial Times

If you switch between languages for the private and the public sphere, read this piece. Written by a Pakistani woman based in the US, it’ll resonate with Indians, too. Here’s my favorite part from the article: “An entire generation in Pakistan, across many levels of class and education, can appreciate complex poetic constructs such as these. Rashq-e-Qamar – a lover so beautiful she is the envy of the moon. Mehrab-e-dil – the direction the heart faces in prayer. Diaspora gets a bad rep, but we’re all pretty into the whole qawwali thing, swaying and clapping to intricate poetry packaged into market Sufism and agented by the holy trinity of God, lover and Coke Studio. But ask us to complete a job application or hold a meaningful political debate in the national language, and we’re stumped. Emotionally, we’re fluent in Urdu – native proficiency. Technically, we haven’t shown up to class.”

– Chitranshu Tewari