Books, systems, and the questions that unlock them.
Abhishek sits down with journalists and authors whose books explain large systems from the inside — undersea cables, Arctic geopolitics, Apple's rise in China. The questions stay patient and plainly worded, letting each guest walk through mechanism and consequence rather than headlines.
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Point Blank runs inside Indicast, an Indian podcast network with a deep back catalogue, and it has settled into a format that rewards attention. One host, Abhishek. One guest, almost always a journalist or author with a book worth talking through. The openings are unusually specific — publications the guest has written for, prizes the book has collected, the exact claim the book makes. That framing does real work, because it means the conversation can start at the second question rather than the first. From there the pattern is consistent: state a broad premise, ask how the mechanism actually operates, then chase the practical consequence. Samanth Subramanian traces the ownership of undersea cables from state-owned communications departments through the private investors of the late nineties to the four American tech giants now funding most new construction, and explains why data being the lifeblood of those businesses makes that shift logical rather than sinister. Adam Weymouth, who once canoed 2,000 miles across Alaska tracking king salmon, follows a wolf roughly 2,000 kilometres from Slovenia and arrives somewhere unexpected — a patchwork of pasture and forest that needs both farmers and wolves, and a set of political decisions that determine whether either survives. Kieran Mulvaney, who covers climate, wildlife and boxing with equal seriousness, describes an Arctic warming four times faster than the rest of the planet in terms of when winter starts and whether the snow comes at all. Philip Coggan explains trade wars using specialization, economies of scale and a self-deprecating aside about being the worst woodworking student his teacher ever had. Sir John Kay argues that companies obsessed with meeting the market's next-quarter expectations are running themselves badly, and that some have already stopped. Patrick McGee walks through Apple's rise in China and the compromises embedded in it, including the human cost inside product teams when a deadline is physically impossible. The through-line is not a single subject but a habit of mind. Abstractions get converted into things a listener can picture — a cable across the Atlantic, a pin factory in 1776, a closing local school. Jargon gets rephrased in plain speech, usually by the host asking for it directly. History is used as a comparison engine rather than decoration. The episodes are guest-heavy by design, and the interviewer is comfortable disappearing for long stretches while an expert thinks aloud. It ends the way it begins, without ceremony: thanks, a note about the book, and out.
Made for: Listeners who read long-form journalism and want the author's own account of how a complicated system works — trade, climate, technology, corporate power. Suited to anyone who prefers a long patient conversation with one expert over a panel talking past each other.
What sets it apart: Where most author interviews stay at the level of the book's thesis, this one keeps asking for the mechanism underneath — who owns the cable, what sets the milk price, why the quarter matters — and the guest is given room to answer at length. The Indian vantage point on global business and technology stories adds a framing that other shows rarely offer.
Indicast is India's longest running and most popular Indian podcast network. This is the mother feed of all the shows produced by Indicast including a current affairs new show, a business news show, a tech show from an Indian perspective, a bollywood movie review show and a conversational interview show. Expect a good discussion with few laughs in our special India focused content. Individual show feeds are available at http://www.theindicast.com
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Abhishek uses author interviews to reveal the historical choices beneath today's technology, trade, infrastructure, and environmental pressures.
Abhishek conducts book-centered conversations that connect present-day systems to the decisions and histories beneath them. The format gives guests room to explain mechanisms, while his follow-up questions keep large subjects tied to concrete consequences.
Abhishek starts with a cricket catch, then gets you to Adam Smith's pin factory.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear look at the seabed cables, corporate ownership, and economic stakes beneath the internet.
This single-episode review follows journalist Saman Subramanian into the hidden physical layer of the internet: the undersea cables that carry what most people experience as seamless connection.
A wolf's route becomes a sharp look at Europe's farms, forests, and politics.
The episode follows Adam Weymouth's route after a wolf traveling roughly 2,000 kilometers from Slovenia, and that journey gives the conversation its spine.
Arctic warming, shifting seasons, and the local signs that make the change hard to miss.
Kieran Mulvaney frames Arctic reporting as part of a wider regional story, linking long-term visits to the Arctic with changes that start and end winter differently.
A clear trade-war conversation that turns economics into something easy to follow.
Philip Coggan uses a trade-war conversation to make a large, thorny subject feel legible. The opening nod to India's 1983 win over the West Indies gives the piece a human entry point, and the move from Adam Smith to specialization to Scotland making whiskey and buying wine gives…
Sir John Kay challenges business orthodoxy, from quarterly earnings to the wartime logic behind GDP.
Sir John Kay starts from a useful tension: the ideas taught in business classrooms often sit uneasily beside how companies actually succeed. The discussion moves through profit, efficiency, shareholder value, customer reputation, quarterly earnings, GDP, and the wartime roots of…
A clear look at Apple's rise in China and the geopolitics around it.
Patrick McGee uses Apple's rise in China to push the story past product design and into manufacturing, compromise, and geopolitics. The strongest stretch is the one that stays close to the hardware itself: the candy-colored iMac that slipped months behind schedule, the prototype…
Everest's fame gets reframed by the way height is measured.
Indicast #239 turns Everest's fame into a crisp question of measurement. Aditya and Abhishek move from the usual sea-level ranking to other baselines: Chimborazo reaches farther from Earth's center, while Mauna Kea rises higher from its underwater base.
A calm tree history that folds climate, ecology, and memory into one grounded story.
Daniel Lewis treats trees as records of the world, and the episode keeps returning to that idea without forcing it. Tree rings open onto the past, then the discussion widens to public health, carbon cycles, and human societies.
Documentary storytelling on ecology and Indigenous land stewardship, hosted by Mendel and Adam.
BBC World Service reporters explain climate mechanisms and policy from the Amazon to Delhi to the Alps.
Soil life, climate repair, practical regeneration.
Coastal science, patiently and beautifully reported.
Climate justice from the ground up.
Historian Daniel Lewis discusses his book 'Twelve Trees' on the Point Blank Show.
Hosts Aditya and Abhishek open with personal anecdotes before diving into Joshimath's sinking crisis, where land subsidence threatens 25,000 people.
Abhishek speaks with Saman Subramanian about The Web Beneath the Waves, his book on the fragile undersea cables that carry 95% of international data traffic.
Adam Weymouth tells Abhishek why he followed a wolf named Schloutz for roughly 2,000 kilometers from Slovenia across Europe in The Lone Wolf.
Kieran Mulvaney tells Abhishek how a 2003 cabin in Alaska led from a short boxing project to 20 years covering the sport, while his book Arctic Passages traces the Arctic as a place of ice, people, and power.
Philip Coggan argues that Donald Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs were a “Ruination Day” mistake, citing a 2025 U.S.
Sir John Kay, the economist and Financial Times columnist behind The Corporation in the 21st Century, argues that "almost everything we are told about business is wrong." He says large companies do not maximize profits in any simple sense, and he points to Goldman Sachs, ICI, Boeing, and Bear Stearns as concrete examples of what happens when firms mistake shareholder value for purpose.
Financial Times correspondent Patrick McGee discusses his book Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company, revealing that Apple has trained 30 million workers in China since 2008, a figure he says exceeds California's entire labor force.
Historian Daniel Lewis discusses his book '12 Trees' and what trees reveal about our planet's past, present, and future.
An interview with neurosurgeon Dr.
Alex Edmans discusses his book 'May Contain Lies' and how to critically evaluate evidence and overcome biases.
Marine biologist Helen Scales discusses her love for the ocean and her latest book on the future of the world's seas.
An interview with authors Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell about their book 'The Secret Lives of Numbers', which explores the global history of mathematics and its unsung heroes, recently shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize.