Latest Natgeotravellar Podcast Episodes
The Satyagraha for the Soul of Odia Cuisine
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - July 20, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn this episode of we delve into the little-known Salt Satyagraha in Odisha, which took place before Gandhi's famous Dandi March. Join us as we explore the fight to save the soul of Odia cuisine, uncovering the historical significance of salt and its impact on the region's traditional dishes. Di...
The story of Milk from the Highlands of Tibet
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - July 13, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsBy some counts, at its peak, the Mongol Empire stretched nearly 31 million square kilometres, an area of land roughly the size of the African continent. But what did this Empire led by Genghis Khan eat during the long conquests over highland passes and treachrous mountains? And what could it hav...
Cycling through Asia and Europe ft. Pritam Sukumar
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - June 29, 2023 00:30 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsHe quit his cushy job at Amazon and travelled from 2015 to 2019. He has jumped into lakes and seas in Argentina (more than a few times), watched soaring condors while trekking in the South of Chile (well, one condor but a really majestic one), walked from the end of Switzerland to the end of Fra...
The Legendary Biryanis of Tamil Nadu
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - June 22, 2023 00:30 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings1957 - Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. A humble betel nut seller decides to start a 4 seater Biryani hotel, with a recipe from his wife. Over 60 years later, that tiny hotel is a sprawling business valued at over 860 crores. So what is so special about the Biryani from Dindigul? Or for that matter of that...
How Sangam Landscapes shaped Tamil Food
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - June 15, 2023 00:30 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings27 Women poets, 102 anonymous and a total of 473 poets over centuries created a body of work, which came to define Tamil culture. And then most of it falls into oblivion for much of the second millennium AD. They were preserved by and rediscovered in the monasteries of Hinduism, particularly tho...
How the Ice Age shaped Indian food
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - June 01, 2023 00:30 - 7 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn the evolution from primates to humans, we lost our hair and developed a layer of fat. But as science is discovering now, we also lost our ability to synthesis a few compounds which were critical for the long term survival of humans. But what if I told you that the last Ice Age had a lot to do...
How India developed a tense relationship with Alcohol
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - May 25, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsThis week, we travel through time, through stories of Lord Buddha, and verses of Arthashastra to modern times, and understand how India developed a tense relationship with Alcohol. Till then Check out the other episodes, Anne Frank, Lootera and Endless Life of Trees The Trees that built Ven...
HDFC Investverse | Balancing Your Work, Finances, and Hobbies
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - May 23, 2023 00:30 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsDo you wish to buy a new car? Or build the house of your dreams? But don’t know how to plan for your goals financially. Well, worry no more we got you. In today’s episode of Investverse, an investor education initiative by HDFC MF, Anupam will be in conversation with Utsav Mamoria, a consumer...
Vedic Vices: The Story of 'Chakna'
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - May 18, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsThe 1949 Prohibition Act in the Bombay Province gave rise to a clandestine alcohol operation in the city called Aunty Bars. Apart from serving locally brewed alcohol, they also saw hawkers selling snacks, which eventually came to be known as Chakna. But Chakna is not a modern invention, and in f...
Colonial Tamil Nadu's Coffee Puranam
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - May 11, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsWould you believe me if I said that Tamil Nadu once hated filter coffee? If this sounds absurd, this week we travel in time to colonial Tamil Nadu and discover the story uncover the story of how the state went from hating to loving coffee Till then Check out the other episodes, Anne Frank, L...
How food, caste and class defined Tamil worship rituals
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - May 03, 2023 18:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsEvery year in early January, thousands of people, barefoot walk about 160 miles to the town in Tamil Nadu. They are devotees of the Tamil god Murugan, and carry a specific food item with them. Similarly, in the peak of summer, another set of men take the same journey, but carry a different food ...
How Buddhism shaped Sri Lankan food
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - April 27, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings543 BC, Lord Buddha had left the earth, and his body was cremated in a sandalwood pyre at Kushinagar, in modern-day Uttar Pradesh. His left canine tooth was retrieved from the funeral pyre by his disciple, Khema. Over the decades, it changed hands and found itself in Kandy, Sri Lanka. So importa...
How caste made foods taboo : The story of cooking dogs.
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - April 20, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsEach year, Yulin in the Guangxi province of China catches the worlds attention for its dog meat festival, and receives harsh criticism. Closer home, activists have been trying to ban the dog meat among the tribes of Nagaland, even though the tribes enjoy protection under section 371A of the cons...
Catalonian Human Pyramids, Dahi Handi and Marathi Sants
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - April 13, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsOn 16 November 2010, UNESCO declared this among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This is usually seen in the Catalonian region of Spain, the Balearic islands and Valencia. This also has a sibling 7000 kms away on the coast of India. This week, we travel from Cat...
The war influenced cuisine of Tamil Eelam
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - April 06, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsThe midnight of 1st June 1981 is etched into the history of Jaffna. The city witnessed a one of its kind of violence, which was not just physical, but imaginative - aimed to strike at the heart of the city’s soul. And what eventually led to change the fate of a people. This week, we travel to no...
The famine induced cuisine of North Korea
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - March 30, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings27th April 2018 The supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un stepped over the De-militarized Zone (or DMZ) boundary line and entered South Korea. It was the first time since the 1950 Korean War that a North Korean leader had entered South Korean territory. As a symbol of peace, the Kim Jo...
Genetics, Milk and the Great Indian Sweet Divide
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - March 23, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn the legends of the Puri Jagannath temple, an irate goddess Laxmi is placated by Lord Jagannath by offering her a sweet. Its the same sweet which led to a battle between Odisha and West Bengal with each claiming to be the original inventor of it. But the presence of the sweet itself is a testa...
Rashomon and the Kaavad storytellers of Rajasthan
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - March 16, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn the early 19th century, the Maharaja of Travancore levied an absolutely bizzare tax: Any woman who had come of age and had breasts had to pay a breast tax, and bare her breasts to anyone who was of a higher caste to them. This was one amongst the hundreds of taxes the lower castes had to endu...
Malaria, Leeches and Wayanad Ramayanas
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - March 09, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings"Banasura Hill in Wayanad is one of the tallest mountains and is named after Banasura, son of the great demon king Mahabali and himself a legendary king with a thousand arms. But what could he have to do with the fact that Malaria is endemic in Wayanad? Meanwhile, the entire district is known to...
Integral Calculus, Women Circumnavigators and Bougainvillea
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - February 23, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings1756, France - A 27 year old man publishes two volumes on integral calculus. His work is recognized by his peers, he gets elected to the Royal Society in London, but his career as a mathematician also ends with those two volumes. A few decades later, a man circumnavigates the globe, but does not...
Egyptian Pharaohs, Incense Trade Routes and Agarbatti
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - February 16, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings1470 BC - A five-ship caravan by Egyptian Pharoah Hatshepsut undertakes a unique voyage, possibly the first plant-collecting mission masterminded by a woman. The voyage is successful as the touring party returns with 31 live plants of a certain species. Over 4000 kms away, in a port once conside...
An Empty Chair, Stalinist Russia and Rave Idli
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - February 09, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratings1939, Edinburgh. The 7th International Congress of Genetics was being held, but it was not just another scientific conference. It was held after a gap of 4 years, and the most discussed subject had nothing to do with genetics. Everyone was discussing an empty chair. A few decades later, the prim...
Black Death, Bahubali and the World's Most Expensive Spice
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - February 02, 2023 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsAfter its arrival in Crimea in 1347, it rapidly spread through Constantinople, Spain, France and southern England. By 1350, it devastated Northern France, the British Isles, Germany and the Scandinavian region. It then crept up to Russia, touching Moscow in 1353. It killed an estimated 30% to 65...
Living Fossils, National Identities and 200 MM year old trees
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - January 26, 2023 00:30 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsThis week, we travel from the Wollemi National Park in Australia to the Xingdoushan Nature Conservation Area in China to uncover the story of two living fossils, and how trees can shape national identities. Till then Check out the other episodes of "Ireland Untravelled" Lost Treasures, Dynam...
The tree that built New Zealand
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - January 12, 2023 00:30 - 7 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsSometime around early 1880, Edward Morse, an American zoologist and archaeologist, travelled through Japan. On a train ride between Yoko-hama and Tokyo, he noticed something odd - A shell mound. This discovery revolutionised the field of anthropology and archaeology in Japan. About 1500 kms away...
European Impressionism, Japanese Nationalism and Cherry Blossom Trees
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - January 05, 2023 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn the autumn of year 1280, Kublai Khan, the only non-Han to rule China convened a meeting at his summer palace in Shangdu, Inner Mongolia. He wanted to mount and attack on Japan, and eventually did so in 1281. Seven hundred years later, Japan was fighting another war it was losing quickly - Wor...
Elm Trees, National Revolutions and Modern Paper
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - November 17, 2022 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn 1765, colonised America was hit by a British stamp tax. A group of local businessmen in Boston calling themselves the Loyal Nine began meeting in secret to plan a series of protests against the Stamp Act. They gathered under a large tree to protest against the act. Only a few years later in 1...
The Trees that built Venice
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - November 10, 2022 00:30 - 8 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn 1964, the directors at the National Library of Spain in Madrid made a startling discovery. Owing to an error in the printed catalogue, two hitherto unknown notebooks belonging to a famous inventor were discovered. In Milan, a physicist discovers an interesting hypothesis about trees in the no...
Anne Frank, Lootera and Endless Life of Trees
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - November 03, 2022 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsOn May 18, 2016, students in Islington, north London, gathered to attend a tree-planting ceremony. It had a small plaque explaining that the tree had been planted “in the hope that the young people of Islington will live in a society of mutual understanding and respect for diversity”. The guest ...
Udta Punjab, Falcons and Mahabharat War Formations
Postcards From Nowhere with Utsav Mamoria - October 27, 2022 00:30 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsIn 1634, on Baisakhi day, a Sikh hunting party set their hawk or Baaz upon the royal Baaz of the Mughals. The Sikh Baaz prevailed, and the Mughal Baaz was captured. Angered by this action, Emperor Shah Jahan from Lahore sent 7,000 soldiers under Mukhlis Khan to attack. The outcome of the war sha...
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