Hey there carers,

Thank you for sticking with us thus far and we hope you continue to do so in the foreseeable future as well. We will be taking a very short break till the first week of May and will go back to our regular schedule of a new episode every Monday thereon. In the meantime, we hope you get a chance to listen to some of our older episodes. Just like in life, we have grown and improved from Episode 1 last year. We hope you get to see that too. See you back in May!

This episode starts at a party, takes a hard left into pseudoscience, and ends with us aggressively side-eyeing half of modern psychology.
We're talking about bullshit psychological theories, the ones that sound legit, get repeated everywhere, and somehow survive despite having little to no actual scientific backing.

From Stockholm Syndrome to the five stages of grief, we break down how these ideas became mainstream, and why they probably shouldn't have. Along the way, we take detours into things like left-brain vs right-brain nonsense, the Mozart effect, primal therapy, and the particularly chaotic world of marketing psychology, where "science" is often just a very expensive rebrand of common sense.

This episode is peak comedy commentary meets scientific frustration, packed with quirky insights, offbeat learning, and just enough research to make you question every "fun fact" you've ever confidently repeated. Like most of our episodes, this starts as one of those seemingly random topics and slowly turns into something more uncomfortable: a reminder that just because something sounds scientific… doesn't mean it is.

Important links:

1. Stockholm syndrome - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

2. Five stages of grief - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief

3. An Empirical Examination of the Stage Theory of Grief - https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/205661#google_vignette

4. Cautioning Health-Care Professionals: Bereaved Persons Are Misguided Through the Stages of Grief - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5375020/

5. Inkblot Test - https://www.kansashistory.gov/kansapedia/inkblot-test/17670

6. Rorschach test - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test

7. Controversial psychology tests are often still used in US courts - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2233956-controversial-psychology-tests-are-often-still-used-in-us-courts/

8. Insights from an inkblot - https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/insights-from-an-inkblot/article5335329.ece

9. Rorschach Inkblot Test: an overview on current status - https://ijip.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/18.01.075.20200804.pdf

10. Learning styles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles

11. Roundup on Research: The Myth of 'Learning Styles' - https://onlineteaching.umich.edu/articles/the-myth-of-learning-styles/

12. Belief in Learning Styles Myth May Be Detrimental - https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/05/learning-styles-myth

13. Did an honesty researcher fabricate data? - https://www.npr.org/2023/07/28/1190663435/did-an-honesty-researcher-fabricate-data

Don't Know, Do Care is the brainchild of Ashmita, Sandy, and Prakhar, three friends from different backgrounds and interests. Ashmita works in sustainability, Sandy's an entrepreneur (puke) who'd rather not be, and Prakhar works with Sandy and is just trying to make sense of it all.

Three mildly confused friends, one weirdly specific topic each week. We don't know much, but we care just enough to talk about it for up to an hour each week.

Don't Know, Do Care is produced by "Ghar Pe Productions", edited by Prakhar and Sandy, critiqued (thoroughly) by Ashmita, and enjoyed mostly by our friends. Thanks for giving us a listen!

Summer is objectively the worst season. It's hot, sticky, mildly unbearable… and yet, somehow, we all tolerate it for one reason: mangoes.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into India's favourite fruit, not just as food, but as a full-blown cultural phenomenon. From its origins in South Asia and its journey through Portuguese trade, to the fact that India produces nearly half the world's mangoes, this is a story that's way bigger than just something you eat after lunch.

We talk about the absurd variety of mangoes across the country and how these names come from places, people, and occasionally very random backstories. We also get into why mango season is so painfully short, and why no amount of branding ("Har Mausam Aam") can override the very specific weather cycle these fruits need to actually taste good.

But mangoes don't just stop at food. We explore how they became a symbol of luxury during the Mughal era, inspired the ambi pattern in fashion, and somehow went from royal gardens to being sucked directly from the seed in Indian households.

This episode is classic comedy commentary meets offbeat learning, packed with quirky insights about history, agriculture, culture, and the very real emotional attachment we all seem to have with this fruit. It's lighthearted education wrapped in one of those seemingly random topics that turns out to be much deeper than expected. Because at the end of the day, mango isn't just a fruit. It's a season, a personality trait, and for some of us… a lack of self-control.

Don't Know, Do Care is the brainchild of Ashmita, Sandy, and Prakhar, three friends from different backgrounds and interests. Ashmita works in sustainability, Sandy's an entrepreneur (puke) who'd rather not be, and Prakhar works with Sandy and is just trying to make sense of it all.

Three mildly confused friends, one weirdly specific topic each week. We don't know much, but we care just enough to talk about it for up to an hour each week.

Don't Know, Do Care is produced by "Ghar Pe Productions", edited by Prakhar and Sandy, critiqued (thoroughly) by Ashmita, and enjoyed mostly by our friends. Thanks for giving us a listen!

Every year, the Oscars announce their winners… and millions of people immediately react with some variation of "wait, that movie won?" In this episode, we dig into how the Oscars actually pick winners, and why the result often feels confusing, underwhelming, or completely disconnected from what audiences loved that year.

We break down the preferential ballot system used for Best Picture, where Academy members rank films instead of voting for just one. The result is a slow elimination process that tends to reward consensus rather than passion. Then there's the money. Studios routinely spend tens of millions of dollars on Oscar campaigns, designed to keep their film top of mind for busy voters. At that point, the Oscars start looking less like an award show and more like a carefully managed political campaign.

The result is a system that doesn't necessarily reward the most innovative or beloved film. Instead, it rewards the movie that feels respectable, timely, and broadly acceptable to thousands of industry voters. By the end of this episode, the Oscars will stop feeling mysterious. They'll start feeling… oddly predictable. And once you see the system, it becomes very hard to unsee it.

Important links:

1. What is preferential ballot voting? Here's how a movie wins 'Best Picture' Oscar - https://www.nbclosangeles.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/preferential-ballot-voting-movies-best-picture-oscars/3640385/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

2. How are Oscars winners decided? Here's how the voting process works - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/how-are-oscars-winners-decided-heres-how-the-voting-process-works?utm_source=chatgpt.com

3. Academy Awards - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards?utm_source=chatgpt.com

4. Oscar bait - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_bait?utm_source=chatgpt.com

5. Oscar season - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_season?utm_source=chatgpt.com

6. Oscar academy demographics - https://criticalmediaproject.org/oscar-academy-demographics-2/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

7. T-shirts, thongs and perfect twerking: Anora spent $18m on marketing – three times its budget - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/06/anora-spent-18m-on-marketing-three-times-its-budget?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Don't Know, Do Care is the brainchild of Ashmita, Sandy, and Prakhar, three friends from different backgrounds and interests. Ashmita works in sustainability, Sandy's an entrepreneur (puke) who'd rather not be, and Prakhar works with Sandy and is just trying to make sense of it all.

Three mildly confused friends, one weirdly specific topic each week. We don't know much, but we care just enough to talk about it for up to an hour each week.

Don't Know, Do Care is produced by "Ghar Pe Productions", edited by Prakhar and Sandy, critiqued (thoroughly) by Ashmita, and enjoyed mostly by our friends. Thanks for giving us a listen!

Every year around International Women's Day, corporations suddenly remember that women exist. They post inspirational graphics, run aggressively mediocre ad campaigns, and pretend a century of labour struggles, suffrage movements, and fights for basic rights can be summarised in a pastel Instagram tile.

This episode starts with that frustration and then moves somewhere much more interesting: the history of women-led movements in India that actually tried to change material conditions for women. Along the way, we also talk about the uncomfortable reality that feminism has always struggled with class and caste divisions. Even progressive movements have often been led by relatively privileged women, leaving the most marginalised communities to fight for representation inside the movement itself.

This episode mixes comedy commentary, offbeat learning, and quirky insights into the history of socialist-feminist organising in India. It's lighthearted education only in the sense that we try to keep the tone conversational while discussing extremely serious issues, everything from caste violence to climate displacement and gender-based violence globally.

And if International Women's Day is going to mean anything at all, it probably has to start there.

Important links:

1. Bharat Stree Mahamandal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Stree_Mahamandal

2. Women in Modern India, Volume 4 by Geraldine Forbes - https://books.google.co.in/books?id=hjilIrVt9hUC&dq=Bharat+Stree+Mahamandal&pg=PA70&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Bharat%20Stree%20Mahamandal&f=false

3. Mahila Atma Raksha Samiti - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahila_Atma_Raksha_Samiti

4. A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia by Bina Agarwal - https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Z3pdP30OnEUC&pg=PA439&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

5. Dalit Mahila Samiti - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Mahila_Samiti

6. The Dalit Women's Movement in India: Dalit Mahila Samiti by Jahnvi Andharia with the ANANDI Collective - https://www.awid.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/changing_their_world_-_dalit_womens_movement_in_india.pdf

7. 137 women and girls killed every day by intimate partners or family members in 2024 - https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2025/November/137-women-and-girls-killed-every-day-by-intimate-partners-or-family-members-in-2024.html

8. Facts and figures: Ending violence against women - https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/facts-and-figures/facts-and-figures-ending-violence-against-women

Don't Know, Do Care is the brainchild of Ashmita, Sandy, and Prakhar, three friends from different backgrounds and interests. Ashmita works in sustainability, Sandy's an entrepreneur (puke) who'd rather not be, and Prakhar works with Sandy and is just trying to make sense of it all.

Three mildly confused friends, one weirdly specific topic each week. We don't know much, but we care just enough to talk about it for up to an hour each week.

Don't Know, Do Care is produced by "Ghar Pe Productions", edited by Prakhar and Sandy, critiqued (thoroughly) by Ashmita, and enjoyed mostly by our friends. Thanks for giving us a listen!

This episode, we dive into the deeply unhinged saga of the Opium Wars; the time Britain decided that if China wouldn't buy enough British goods, it would simply get millions of Chinese people addicted to opium and then declare war when China tried to stop it.

From the Treaty of Nanjing and the forced cession of Hong Kong, to extraterritorial rights and humiliating indemnities, this episode unpacks how gunboats and capitalism worked hand in hand. We also zoom out to India, where peasants were trapped in coercive opium contracts, pushed into debt cycles, and forced to prioritise poppy cultivation even during famine. Empire, it turns out, was extremely organised.

As always, this isn't a dry history lecture. It's comedy commentary layered over uncomfortable facts, offbeat learning about trade policy turned military aggression, and quirky insights into how "free markets" somehow keep arriving on warships. If you've ever heard someone romanticise the British Empire as a civilising force, this episode exists to ruin that narrative, politely, but thoroughly.

Important links:

1. The Opium Wars in China - https://asiapacificcurriculum.ca/learning-module/opium-wars-china

2. How Britain's opium trade impoverished Indians - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49404024

3. The paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, USA on the Opium Wars - https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w11355/w11355.pdf

4. Extract from Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History - https://bodiesandstructures.org/bodies-and-structures-2/patna-the-coastal-opium-trade.2

Don't Know, Do Care is the brainchild of Ashmita, Sandy, and Prakhar, three friends from different backgrounds and interests. Ashmita works in sustainability, Sandy's an entrepreneur (puke) who'd rather not be, and Prakhar works with Sandy and is just trying to make sense of it all.

Three mildly confused friends, one weirdly specific topic each week. We don't know much, but we care just enough to talk about it for up to an hour each week.

Don't Know, Do Care is produced by "Ghar Pe Productions", edited by Prakhar and Sandy, critiqued (thoroughly) by Ashmita, and enjoyed mostly by our friends. Thanks for giving us a listen!