What’s A Man?: Masculinity in India

Hosted and developed by Dr. Deepa Narayan, a former Senior Adviser at the World Bank, one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s 100 most influential global speakers, and author of the groundbreaking book Chup. The work addresses Dr Narayan’s view that gender equality will never be achieved without addressing men and follows her research for Chup which addressed issues around women in India and the inequalities they faced. What’s A Man? is developed as an evolving piece of research and is based on interviews with over 250 educated middle and upper-class boys and men from across India. Throughout the podcast, Dr Narayan further addresses these issues with a series of engaging guests including mythology writer, Amit Tripathi; Sushant Digvikar, a gay man, drag queen, singer and actor; retired army General HS Panag; Vishal Talreja, co-founder of NGO Dream a Dream; comedian Neville Shah; and veteran Bollywood actor Dalip Tahil amongst others. Broken down into thematic topics, each episode discusses a new subject or idea, from what it means to be a man, to bodies, sex, or power. The podcast throws light on how gender equality issues cannot be addressed by removing men out of the equation but rather understanding the struggles men may face in having to adhere to society’s expectations of what it means to be a man.