The podcast is geared towards public education and publicization of scholarship in the field. The podcast also features new initiatives and conversations with seasoned scholars.

This pertains to any strand of religiosity hailing from South Asian traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism) along with topics related to life in South Asia, e.g. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in India. Podcasts are cross-posted to pertinent podcasts channels on the New Books Network, e.g., New Books in South Asian Studies, New Books in Buddhist Studies, etc. This podcast used to be called “New Books in Hindu Studies” before it was rebranded in 2021 to create space for scholarly conversation across disciplines and subfields.

The podcast features a very wide array of disciplines, methods, and subfields. It’s a one-stop shop for virtually all recently produced scholarship pertaining to the study of Indian Religions.

The podcast is for the interested public, specialists, scholars, teachers, grad students, undergrads, etc.

The podcast is hosted by Dr. Raj Balkaran, scholar of Sanskrit narrative. He is a cordial and seasoned host, having produced over 250 such interviews featuring the work of over 200 scholars. This is a labor of love.

The podcast has featured over 200 guests, mostly scholars at the Western academy.

The podcast is published on the New Books Network, a consortium of 100+ subject-specific podcasts with collectively 3M downloads a month. The New Books in Indian Religions channel receives 50K downloads monthly. It is available on all podcast platforms, e.g. Apple Podcasts, and on the New Books Network website itself.

Interviews take place on Zoom. While only the audio is sent to New Books Network, it is useful to keep your camera on during the conversation for the sake of connection and visual cues. Here's the link for Raj Balkaran’s private Zoom room (no passcode required) for ready reference: https://zoom.us/j/3079194627

Interviews typically last 30-45 minutes and Raj will chat with you a bit before and a bit afterwards. As such, booking out an hour for good measure is recommended.

While the podcast features organic, collegial conversation, you’ll most likely touch on the following key questions:

• What is your book about?

• What are the main takeaways/conclusions of your book?

• What data are you looking at?

• What are your methods?

• How is your book structured?

• How did this project get started?

• Who would benefit from reading your book?

• What are you working on next?

There is no sort of censorship or editing out of content, but things like pauses, coughs, and interruptions will be edited out.

Just show up at the appointed day and time.

You won’t receive a reminder beforehand unless you request one.

Raj will typically contact you after the scheduled publication date. Feel free to indicate if you need the podcast out by a certain date. You can also subscribe to the podcast to receive a notification as soon as it’s been published.

Absolutely. The podcast is yours to share/promote wherever you’d like.

Yes absolutely, whether it’s yours or someone else’s.

Simply email Raj at raj@rajbalkaran.com and he’ll cover it.