E55: Kumi Naidoo - How human rights and climate justice go hand in hand
My guest this episode is the distinguished Kumi Naidoo - a human rights and climate justice activist. Naidoo first began his journey at the age of 15 fighting against the then apartheid government in South Africa by organising school boycotts. He was arrested several times for civil disobedience and when the government imposed a state of emergency, he was forced to go underground and flee to the UK, where he became a Rhodes scholar.
He eventually returned to South Africa in 1990 when Mandela was released from jail, and went onto play a vital role in shaping the then African National Congress. His steadfast work in the human rights and justice sphere led him to become the first person from the global south to head Greenpeace International and later, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
From scaling oil rigs to protest against the fossil fuel industry to sitting down with the likes of Tony Blair, Angela Merkel and Putin, Naidoo has become one of the prominent voices in the climate justice movement.
He continues to represent Africans Rising for Justice, Peace, and Dignity as a Global Ambassador and currently holds the position of Distinguished visiting lecturer at Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
In this conversation, we discuss the tragic human crisis unfolding in Palestine to climate urgency and how the climate crisis is interlinked with human rights.
To learn more about Naidoo's work, please visit: https://www.kuminaidoo.net
You can reach me at maharanitalks@gmail.com or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/
MUSIC: Lights by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic
7 Nov 2023
E54: Aashima Dogra, Nandita Jayaraj - How can women in Indian science no longer be the exception but the norm?
What is it like to be a woman scientist in India? Why don’t we see enough of them? If you’re quick to point the superstar ones, sadly they’re not always the norm. In fact, research has shown that women in academia are expected to be much more competent than their male counterparts to be considered for the same role.
It’s this bias that got Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj to start ‘The Life of Science’ web portal to document stories of regular women in science, and the systemic bias they fight in their everyday lives. Having began their journey in 2016, it has now given rise to their book ‘Lab Hopping: A Journey to find India’s Women in Science’. Backed by research, it makes the reader come to terms with unsettling facts plaguing Indian academia, when it comes to gender and caste diversity. In our conversation, we bring some of these issues to light and what can be done to remedy it.
To learn more about The Life Of Science or order the book, visit: https://thelifeofscience.com/
You can reach me at maharanitalks@gmail.com or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/
MUSIC: Lights by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic
26 Jul 2023
E53: Ankush Sabharwal - Are we ready for AI?
Artificial intelligence or AI is quite the buzzword these days. Many of us would not have missed the news pouring in about AI - sometimes it is promising and at times, it isn’t reassuring. But Ankush Sabharwal, founder and CEO of CoRover, believes AI is more than a buzzword. It is here to stay - simply because an average human is already relying on AI in ways that they don’t realise.
CoRover is a platform for conversational AI. The kind of AI Chatbot-as-a-service (CaaS) that we encounter through customer support with organisations. The company is also the brainchild behind AskSarkar, an app that helps citizens better access and resolve issues about government services; behind Indian Railways’ virtual assistant DISHA and also BharatGPT, our own version of ChatGPT that supports 12 Indian languages and over 120 foreign languages.
A graduate of BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta, Sabharwal has over 15+ years experience in the SaaS space and is a member of the invite-only Forbes Technology Council. He has appeared on many media outlets offering his opinion on the fast paced growth of AI.
To learn more about CoRover, please visit: https://corover.ai/
You can reach me at maharanitalks@gmail.com or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maharanitalks/
MUSIC: Lights by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic
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