Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria

If you’re even remotely interested in mental health, you’d have heard about the benefits of journalling. While it may seem like an obvious thing today to put your feelings down on paper, the positive impacts of the practice wasn’t discovered until the turn of the millennium. In this episode, we explore the story of how a failed musician led to the discovery of psychological benefits of journalling, and how a couple of friends in search of a novel business idea gave (new) life to the famed Moleskine notebook, which embodies the idea of an elegant journal. I invite you to think about what could result from each of us broadening our horizons, and diving deep into something that intrigues and excites us. I started doing that recently, on my Substack. And it's been thoroughly rewarding. Check out my recent deep-dive: Why are we missing awe in life? If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn

Happy New Year! In the first episode of 2025, we travel back to Florence in the medieval ages, and how the adoption of double-entry system of accounting inadvertantly led to the rise of sketching, and thus, more realistic art. How are you documenting your intellectual journeys this year? Here is how I am doing mine—through longform reflective writing and sketching: Why are we so tired all the time? Why we understand time wrong If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn

Did you know that no other animal really laughs? The closest to laughing is the "play sounds" that some apes make when tickled. So then how come humans laugh? And why did we evolve to wield and perceive humour, as a species? In this episode, we trace the origins of the funny bone, and discuss why we often don't need impeccable jokes to make us laugh. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

In this episode, we explore the connection between language and the perception of colour, and why colours may not be as black and white as we imagine them to be. For instance, the sky wasn’t observed to be blue from the beginning of time. In fact, there was no ‘blue’ just two millennia ago. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

In this episode, we trace the unexpected origins of video games—in the notorious Japanese crime syndicate, the Yakuza. Tune in to find out how a lost Portuguese ship that stumbled on Japanese shores actually sowed the seeds, which when combined with domestic isolationist policies and the enterprising spirit of Japanese entrepreneurs, led to this innovation. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

In this episode, we travel to medieval Japan to trace the origins of Kodawari, or the Japanese pursuit of perfection, that is still proudly held by artists, artisans, fashion designers, and chefs in the country. Does this mean that everything is perfect in Japan? What if the secret lies in having a collective great sense of what could be perfected and what shouldn’t be expected to be perfect? If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

In this episode we talk about the magnificent elusive creatures who can hold their breath for over a hundred minutes, who possess a sound-based navigation system that’s better military systems, and whose evolution has confounded marine biologists and palaeontologists alike: whales! 🐳 Whatever we know about whales today, we’ve learnt with much difficulty, over centuries, with experts of various disciplines putting tiny pieces of puzzles together across space and time. What could we discover if we look at ourselves with this kind of curiosity, sustained interest, and resolve? If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

Today, we explore the disappearing art of Buddhist papermaking in India, which is only practised by less than 10 Tibetan households in a remote village in Arunachal Pradesh. Invisible to the observer, each plain sheet of paper, painstaking handmade over several days, carries inscriptions preserving the Monpa tribe's history, memories of migration, and their religious and ecological roots. We ask ourselves what we can do as travellers, to extend the life of dying local traditional artforms. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC Music Credit: Lama Tashi

In this episode, we discuss the artistry behind something we across everywhere around us that we don’t pay attention to: fonts. We trace the history of the couple in mid-18th century whose carefully hand-cut “type punchers” gave rise to elegant letters in printing fonts, and the clean and spacial aesthetic used in book production even today. Just as these simple fonts were created by complex contours that were hand-crafted, and shaped by years of varied experience, the places we travel to have so much history and complexity, waiting to be uncovered by those who are curious and patient-enough to seek them. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out episodes of To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

In this episode, we go back to a time when Science was considered blasphemy, reading was synonymous to reading the scriptures, and a University meant a religious guild, and trace the history of a reference system so simple, yet monumental: the index. We discuss how we could all benefit from having an index of our lives—important memories and learnings—in our head. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out episodes of To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

In this episode, we discuss the fascinating story of Onesimo Pena, Frans Haartman, Jemboa Tran, and Corlis Benefideo—exceptional writers and cartographers; who were actually the same person. And an American student who was obsessed with this man and his work, and ended up discovering this truth, hunting down the elusive author and meeting him. If you’ve not come across this man’s name in history, that is because he does not exist in the real world. He is part of Barry Lopez’s compelling short story, The Mappist—which made me think. Corlis Benefideo believes that we’re all lighting candles in the pitch dark of this miraculous world. What are your candles that you will never extinguish for anyone? If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn I now have a YouTube show! Check out the first two episodes of To Your Heart's Content where my co-host Deepak Gopalakrishnan and I interview a broad range of people who are in the business of Content—from musicians to marketers and artists: https://www.youtube.com/@TYHC-6PC

As climate change leads to harsher weather conditions and calamities across the world, the ways we travel are definitely bound to get affected. Will tiny island nations be safe for travel in a few decades? What about resorts on secluded hilltops? In today's episode, we discuss how climate stress could impact the world's biggest pilgrimages like the Haj and Kumbh Mela. Would we see a time when the time and the way these are held is governed by what climatic conditions allow, rather than religious decree? If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out: https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=64962d49821d4d6c

The more you look at the iconic painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the more you find in it. Starting off with the explicit nuances of the art that you missed, and then moving on interpretations and meanings to draw from it. In today's episode, we look back into the life of Hokusai, the Japanese artist behind the famed painting who changed his name 30 times in his long-spanning career; and what his work and approach to art can teach us about living our lives better—all versions of it. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out: https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=852d0217e4d2420e

In a game of finding the common connection, you get: war, imperialism, wealth, and resistance. Would you guess the answer to be books? In this episode, we go back to a time when libraries were treasures that emperors and elites boasted of, and learn the surprising reason why these prized possessions got neglected after a certain point in history. We find the truth in the maxim Knowledge is Power, and discuss the unfading popularity of biblioclasm as a means of oppression, and as an aid in ethnic cleansing. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out: https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=04ee832982324d4e

In this episode, we understand the difference between Indian and Western narratology by taking a closer look at Ramayana; what makes the epic quite literally timeless and why our ancient stories usually fail the "history test". If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out: https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=a439556531bc4ecf

I'm sure we've all owned, or seen a copy of a guidebook to a country or a tourist destination. While internet itineraries might have replaced the physical guidebooks today, the concept of 'tourist guides' are still very much around. Did you ever wonder why and when making these guides became a thing? In today's episode, we travel back to a time when Rumi lived in Konya, Turkey, and uncover the enchanting story of an Indian fakir who disappeared without a trace one day. We discuss why guidebooks often leave out such stories, and trace their problematic origins in Eurocentricity. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out: https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=9a36b9a609284db8

A baby girl who was miraculously brought back to life after being struck by lightning; a tween girl who obsessively dug up the skeletal remains of a 200-million years old 'fish lizard'; and the woman who ran a fossil-shop that was visited by the King—we dive into the story of Mary Anning's extraordinary life as an unheralded female paleontologist in 19th Century England in this episode. We also contemplate on how many accomplished women's histories we fail to pay attention to when we travel, because they have either been erased, or overshadowed by men. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out: https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=3eb0b09dc044461a

In today's episode we talk about a 19th century canals and railways surveyor in England who was obsessed with rocks, fossils, and maps. And how this obsession made the industrial revolution possible, helped make an English professor in the 1990s a successful Champagne baron, and the police partner with geologists to solve a murder mystery nearly 200 years later! If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌postcards.pfn My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=ebc9d3040dbf4ea3

This is not your usual episode of Postcards from Nowhere. But it has everything to do with the show - the genesis of the show almost 5 years ago, and it has led to one of the most significant milestones in my life - The 6% Club. To get the entire story, just tune in. Check out The Six Percent Club: https://www.thesixpercent.club/ Follow Deepak Gopalakrishnan aka Chuck on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chuckofalltrades/?hl=en Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckofalltrades/ Deepak runs a wonderful newsletter called Things of Internet. It’s a digital marketing and branding newsletter, with occasional forays into interesting online things. Ideal for marketers and agency folks, enjoyed by the curious and trivia-hungry. Each issue has updates, links to articles, content recos and more! Check it out here https://thingsofinternet.substack.com/ Follow Utsav Mamoria on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42/ My second podcast, Smartphone Nation, won the Hindustan Times Podmasters award for Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) earlier this year. If you want to understand how Indian startups in the Impact space are changing the lives of India’s Next Half Billion, please check it out https://open.spotify.com/show/3rs9XhIkizxobxHhPfKVN9?si=6c0091b3eb304bba

Hi, I'm Utsav Mamoria and I'm back with another episode of Postcards from Nowhere after a brief hiatus. In this episode, we talk about how Greenland's ice sheets act as time capsules that give us glimpses not only of climate history, but also human history. And the concept of Deep Time, as a reminder for us to slow down and focus on a place's present and its people when we travel. If you liked this episode, do consider rating the show on Spotify or Apple podcasts. You can reach out to me on Instagram: @‌whywetravel42 (https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42 )