Let's Talk About

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup wraps up, this episode turns the lens on the domestic game – and finds it in crisis. In the latest episode of Let’s Talk About Indian Football, Abhinandan Sekhri speaks to Johnson K, founder of Sportfolio Productions and creator of an independently produced documentary series on India’s regional football cultures, about why the beautiful game here can’t get out of its own way.Most Indian players are staring at contract uncertainty as clubs baulk at committing long-term to a league whose future is anyone’s guess. Abhinandan lays out a familiar chargesheet too – federation mismanagement, overpaid “prima donna” players, and a shortage of grassroots coaching – as reasons Indian football struggles to hold its own against the international game fans watch on television.The conversation turns to why some cities sustain fierce football loyalty while others can’t fill stadiums despite thriving grassroots leagues. Fans in Kolkata, Kerala and Bengaluru show up in large numbers compared to Mumbai and Delhi because, according to Johnson, you’re not just going there for the football, you’re going there for the story. Ultimately, it’s identity, not just footballing quality, that draws crowds.The two also take aim at scheduling negligence, particularly for youth and women’s football, which is played in blistering afternoon heat, and compare the ISL’s threadbare shoulder programming with Doordarshan’s more thoughtful coverage of the second-division IFL.Watch this interview. 

This episode of Let's Talk About: Indian Football cuts through the lazy excuse that India is strictly a cricket nation. The domestic game has massive pockets of fierce fan devotion, yet remains trapped by its own failings. Abhinandan Sekhri sits down with Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, former AIFF Secretary General and current AFC Executive Committee member, alongside Anuj Gupta, president of the Delhi Soccer Association, to diagnose why the sport isn’t capitalising on its potential in India.Prabhakaran argues India’s failure stems from a narrow approach to youth development that prioritises short-term talent scouting over building a lasting sporting culture. He notes that up to age 11, Indian children match their global counterparts in technical terms, but there is an immediate structural drop-off thereafter. Making matters worse, standalone academies function like “kirana shops” that are isolated from any real competitive calendar, he argues. Gupta sharpens the point with the age window that matters most: “After 12, there’s only a few percent improvement you can do. We have lost the ability to develop talent after the age of 12.” For him, India’s academies simply haven’t focused hard enough on the 6-12 age bracket, and the ones that exist rarely have the best coaches training there.On the economics of the sport in India, Prabhakaran rejects the idea that the country lacks demand. With roughly 300 million fans, he remarks, “Football has a bigger story to tell, and we are failing to communicate that.” Ultimately, both agree the money and passion already exist, but what’s missing is a federation-led push to organise and amplify it.Listen this interview.

NL TeamFour months after Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the moon, Newslaundry dives into the tricky questions that lie behind it. What are the benefits of a moon mission? Do we need a space programme at all? What does it take to run the Indian Space Research Organisation?Welcome to Let’s Talk About: ISRO and Chandrayaan, where host Abhinandan Sekhri sits down with EK Kutty, former director (project planning program management) at ISRO, and Jayaram Kolangara, former deputy director at ISRO. They’re joined by subscribers too who got to ask questions during a live Zoom session.Tune in for a free-wheeling chat on ISRO’s role in development communication, the future of space travel, the efforts of people behind the scenes at ISRO, and a lot more.Produced by Chanchal Gupta, edited by Chanchal Gupta and Samarendra K Dash.ReferencesIndia in Space: Between Utility and Geopolitics by Marco AlibertiChristopher Nolan’s InterstellarRobert Zemeckis’s ContactAlfonso Cuarón’s GravityAdam McKay’s Don’t Look UpWhy Civil Rights Activists Protested the Moon LandingThe Moon Landing was Opposed by Majority of US List of 6 manned moon missions: People who stepped on the moon after Neil Armstrong How Many Times Has the US Landed on the Moon?

शराफत की दुनिया का किस्सा ही खत्म, अब जैसी दुनिया वैसे हम… फिल्म जज्बा के इस आमफहम डायलॉग को इरफान ने जिस कविताई के साथ अदा किया वह करोड़ों हिंदुस्तानियों के दिलों में उतर गया. लगभग इसी बहते हुए अविकल झरने की तरह अपनी अदायगी से इरफान हम हिंदुस्तानियों की दुनिया का हिस्सा बने थे. फिर  29 अप्रैल 2020 को अचानक वो हमारी इस दुनिया से अलग हो गए. यह सिर्फ इरफान के परिजनों, दोस्तों, रिश्तेदारों या उनके प्रशंसकों के लिए दिल तोड़ने वाली खबर नहीं थी बल्कि फिल्मों से जुड़े, फिल्मों में दिलचस्पी रखने वाले हर शख्स के लिए एक बड़ा झटका थी. इरफान तिरपन की कच्ची उम्र में हमारे बीच से चले गए. इरफान न्यूरोएंडोक्राइन नाम की एक असाध्य बीमारी से घिर गए थे. यह बीमारी दुर्लभ किस्म का कैंसर है, जिस पर दुनिया में बहुत कम खोजें और रीसर्च उपलब्ध हैं. लेकिन इस कच्ची उम्र में इरफान ने बहुत ही पकी उम्र वाले मुकाम हासिल किए. इरफान ने लगभग हर तरह का किरदार निभाया. न सिर्फ निभाया बल्कि उसे जीया भी. मार्च 2020 में आई फिल्म 'अंग्रेजी मीडियम' इरफान की आखिरी फिल्म थी.  न्यूरोएंडोक्राइन ट्यूमर की बीमारी के बारे में खुद इरफान खान ने साल 2018 में ट्विटर के जरिए  जानकारी दी थी. उनका ट्वीट कुछ इस प्रकार था- "जीवन में अनपेक्षित बदलाव आपको आगे बढ़ना सिखाते हैं. पता चला है कि मुझे न्यूरोएंडोक्राइन ट्यूमर है. इसे स्वीकार कर पाना मुश्किल है. लेकिन मेरे आसपास जो लोग हैं, उनका प्यार और उनकी दुआओं ने मुझे ताकत दी है. कुछ उम्मीद भी बंधी है. फिलहाल बीमारी के इलाज के लिए मुझे देश से दूर जाना पड़ रहा है. लेकिन मैं चाहूंगा कि आप अपने संदेश भेजते रहें.”इरफान की मौत के बाद उनके बेटे बाबिल ने उनकी आखिरी याद को कुछ इन शब्दों में साझा किया था- 'उनकी मौत से दो तीन दिन पहले मैं अस्पताल में था. वो होश खोते जा रहे थे. अंतिम पलों में उन्होंने मेरी ओर देखा, मुस्कुराए और कहा- मैं मरने वाला हूं, मैंने उन्हें कहा ऐसा नहीं होगा, वो फिर मुस्कुराए और सो गए.' इरफान ने मौत को भी हंसते हंसते ही गले लगाया. लेट्स टॉक अबाउट में न्यूज़लॉन्ड्री के कार्यकारी संपादक अतुल चौरसिया ने फिल्म समीक्षक शुभ्रा गुप्ता और अजय ब्रह्मात्मज के साथ इरफान के सफर, शख्सियत, अदायगी, कला, फन और जीवन के अन्य पहलुओं पर लंबी बातचीत की है. तो आनंद लीजिए.. 

With Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s retirement and LK Advani’s poll rout, the 2014 Lok Sabha election paved the way for a new power duo to take over the BJP. It was after the RSS greenlighted Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate.Welcome to the final episode of Let’s Talk About: BJP, which focuses on the ascendance of Modi, and his journey from a Sangh pracharak to Raisina Hill. With subsequent image makeovers, he managed to recast himself as a “saviour” of the Indian security state and win a landmark mandate for his party in the 2019 polls.

In the 90s and 00s, the BJP emerged as a pole in the coalition era as Atal Bihari Vajpayee forged new partnerships in power. However, as prime minister, his own jugalbandi with LK Advani saw fault lines. These were years of a series of minority governments – a trend only reversed by Narendra Modi’s decisive victory in 2014.Welcome to the third episode of Let’s Talk About: BJP, which takes us through NDA governments, disagreements within the BJP in the wake of the Gujarat riots, the UPA’s scam taint, the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption protests, and the emergence of Modi.To listen to the full podcast, subscribe to Newslaundry.

In the sociopolitical landscape of the ’80s and ’90s, the BJP found itself at a crossroads, trying hard to consolidate its support base while navigating between Gandhian socialism and Hindu nationalism under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani.Welcome to the second episode of Let’s Talk About: BJP, which looks at events that helped the party recast itself within the Indian polity, from Indira Gandhi’s assassination, to the Mandal Commission, the Shah Bano case, Advani’s Rath Yatra and the Babri demolition.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is today the most dominant political force in India, with two consecutive landslide victories in the Lok Sabha and a march to power in several states. But what’s the backstory behind the BJP’s enduring rise, and who are the faces who cemented its formidable organisation?Welcome to the first episode of Let’s Talk About: BJP, a series tracing the BJP’s origins, and the antecedents of its ecosystem, from the pre-independence era to the Jana Sangh and the birth of the party in 1980.This is a sneak peek into the first episode. To listen to the full podcast, subscribe to Newslaundry. Pay To Keep News Free.