The Subverse
The Subverse, presented by Dark ‘n’ Light is a podcast that uncovers the hidden and marginal in stories about nature, culture and social justice. From the cosmic to the quantum, from cells to cities and from colonial histories to reimagining futures. Join Susan Mathews every fortnight on a Thursday for weird and wonderful conversations, narrated essays and poems that dwell on the evolving contingencies of life.
- Update frequency
- every 12 days
- Average duration
- 40 minutes
- Episodes
- 67
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Of Relationality and Water: Stories of Kinship, Care, and Belonging Part 2
We continue to explore relationality when it comes to water, and learn more from three women who have made water, and bodies of water, their life's work. The politics of kinship can be complicated, b…
Of Relationality and Water: Stories of Kinship, Care and Belonging Part 1
Water has played a central role as a resource and property in our dominant worldviews. It has made and unmade empires. In our nation-building, watercourses, waterways, oceans, rivers and freshwaters …
How to Breathe, and Other Survival Lessons From Marine Mammals
In this episode, Susan speaks to Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a writer, independent scholar, poet, activist, and educator based in Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
Her most recent book Und…
Sea turtles, Island fever and Magical mysteries: the adventures of an evolutionary ecologist
In this episode, Susan Mathews speaks to Dr Kartik Shanker, who was inspired to begin a career in ecology by an ancient reptile, a sea turtle that crawled ashore late one night in Madras (now Chennai…
Wild Learning: Yuvan Aves on nature as a classroom
Welcome to Stories from The Subverse, where we uncover hidden and marginalized stories through a more personal storytelling lens.
In our first story we listen to Yuvan Aves—naturalist, educator, and …
Arcx - Indra Das
Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution.
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Arcx - Kuzhali Manickavel
Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution.
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Arcx - SB Divya
Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution.
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Arcx - Samit Basu
Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution.
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Arcx - Lavanya Lakshminarayan
Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution.
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Arcx - Shiv Ramdas
Arcx is all about literary inspiration. In this six episode mini-series, we talk to six South Asian sci fi, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, tracing their ideas from conception to execution.
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Announcing Arcx on The Subverse
At Dark ‘n’ Light we’re deeply interested in stories and the people behind them, and our podcast The Subverse is a fortnightly journey into weird and wonderful conversations with creators and thinker…
Floating on a Bed of Rights: Water, Sanitation, and Legal Currents
Susan Mathews interviews Catarina de Albuquerque, Chief Executive Officer of Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), a global partnership which has positioned SWA as a vital contributor to the achievemen…
Subduing Unruly Waters: Learning from South Asia’s Environmental History
A story made of water: of incantations, mermaids, and moonlight
In this episode, Susan talks to Sharanya Manivannan, who writes and illustrates fiction, poetry, and non-fiction for children and adults.
Sharanya's two most recent books are the graphic novel, Inca…
A River Dammed: Oral Histories From the Narmada River Valley
In this episode, Susan Mathews talks to Nandini Oza about archiving oral histories around the struggles against dam projects in the Narmada River valley. The former President of Oral History Associat…
From the stars to the tidepool: water as the matrix of life
Art as resistance: the future of activism in a changing climate
A chorus at dawn: using bioacoustics to quantify ecological restoration
In this episode of The Subverse, we talk about soundscape ecology, the study of sounds and bioacoustics, which is the study of species vocalisations. Susan talks to Pooja Choksi, a PhD candidate at …
Brutal Beauty: neoliberalism as an aesthetic project
In this episode, Susan speaks with Jisha Menon whose book ‘Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India’ was recently published by Northwestern University Press in October 2021. Jisha is a…