Samanth Subramanian
@samanthsubramanian.bsky.social
Words in the Guardian, the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and others. Books on fish, Sri Lanka, and JBS Haldane. Newsletter: http://samanth.substack.com
Our new magazine @equatormag.bsky.social is officially out in the world.
Sign up for preview emails, donate, and get tickets to our launch event: www.equator.org.
Sign up for preview emails, donate, and get tickets to our launch event: www.equator.org.
September 15, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Our new magazine @equatormag.bsky.social is officially out in the world.
Sign up for preview emails, donate, and get tickets to our launch event: www.equator.org.
Sign up for preview emails, donate, and get tickets to our launch event: www.equator.org.
Out in the US and UK in less than six months! Pre-order here, pretty please — it makes a world of a difference to sales. And please RT / spread the word!
www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Beneath-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Beneath-...
April 29, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Out in the US and UK in less than six months! Pre-order here, pretty please — it makes a world of a difference to sales. And please RT / spread the word!
www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Beneath-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Beneath-...
…and Copenhagen, where I met Ture, who started in the cable business in the 1960s and is still on ships scouting ways to land cables in Greenland. (The older man is on the right, to be clear.)
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…and Copenhagen, where I met Ture, who started in the cable business in the 1960s and is still on ships scouting ways to land cables in Greenland. (The older man is on the right, to be clear.)
…and Kuala Lumpur, where friendly cable executives showed me their landing stations and fed me chicken and rice by the Straits of Malacca’s shipping lanes…
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…and Kuala Lumpur, where friendly cable executives showed me their landing stations and fed me chicken and rice by the Straits of Malacca’s shipping lanes…
…and Southampton, to examine a core of soil drilled out of the Pacific seabed…
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…and Southampton, to examine a core of soil drilled out of the Pacific seabed…
…and various landing stations, their refrigerated rooms full of servers and batteries…
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…and various landing stations, their refrigerated rooms full of servers and batteries…
…and Taiwan’s outlying Matsu island, which suffered an outage of a cable deliberately sabotaged by a Chinese ship (or so the government thinks)…
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…and Taiwan’s outlying Matsu island, which suffered an outage of a cable deliberately sabotaged by a Chinese ship (or so the government thinks)…
…and Cornwall, at the beach where the world’s first subsea telegraphic cable landed in the mid 1800s…
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…and Cornwall, at the beach where the world’s first subsea telegraphic cable landed in the mid 1800s…
…and Côte d’Ivoire to watch a ship land a branch of the world’s longest subsea cable...
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…and Côte d’Ivoire to watch a ship land a branch of the world’s longest subsea cable...
…from places like Vava’u in Tonga (I know — the hardship) where an underwater volcano severed its only cable for close to 1.5 years…
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
…from places like Vava’u in Tonga (I know — the hardship) where an underwater volcano severed its only cable for close to 1.5 years…
Always a blessed relief to hold the manuscript of a NEW BOOK in your hand. This one, on the fragile undersea cables that carry our data, took 2 years of research…
February 27, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Always a blessed relief to hold the manuscript of a NEW BOOK in your hand. This one, on the fragile undersea cables that carry our data, took 2 years of research…
A 2024 wrap: elephants, Indian voters, AI writers, beautiful batting, cyber-forensics, ceiling fans, a cement company’s shady deal with ISIS, Alfonso Cuaron, sports gambling, kaplan-maplan, undersea cables.
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-stor...
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-stor...
December 23, 2024 at 4:03 PM
A 2024 wrap: elephants, Indian voters, AI writers, beautiful batting, cyber-forensics, ceiling fans, a cement company’s shady deal with ISIS, Alfonso Cuaron, sports gambling, kaplan-maplan, undersea cables.
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-stor...
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-stor...
“Question 7,” Richard Flanagan
December 7, 2024 at 12:56 PM
“Question 7,” Richard Flanagan
Digging around in the PG Wodehouse archive at Dulwich College, I found this cricket scoresheet: one short of a perfect ten!
November 27, 2024 at 6:03 PM
Digging around in the PG Wodehouse archive at Dulwich College, I found this cricket scoresheet: one short of a perfect ten!
And it was SUCH a pleasure to spend time with Devy—a wry and learned man, a man who worked in a bauxite mine as a teenager to make ends meet, and who grew up firmly believing that the essence of India is its polyglot nature [4]
November 18, 2024 at 12:12 PM
And it was SUCH a pleasure to spend time with Devy—a wry and learned man, a man who worked in a bauxite mine as a teenager to make ends meet, and who grew up firmly believing that the essence of India is its polyglot nature [4]
In my reporting, I learned about the original Linguistic Survey of India, conducted by an opium agent in the British Raj. I talked to speakers of Rathwi and Chandgadhi. I found out about Majhi and Bhujel, one language dead and the other revived [3]
November 18, 2024 at 12:12 PM
In my reporting, I learned about the original Linguistic Survey of India, conducted by an opium agent in the British Raj. I talked to speakers of Rathwi and Chandgadhi. I found out about Majhi and Bhujel, one language dead and the other revived [3]
In the world's most populous country, no one knows how many languages are living, and how many have died. This has preoccupied Devy for 40 years -- as has the politics of language [2]
November 18, 2024 at 12:12 PM
In the world's most populous country, no one knows how many languages are living, and how many have died. This has preoccupied Devy for 40 years -- as has the politics of language [2]
The FT has a robust new entry in the age-old travelogue genre best described as “Once you get past the rubbish and the chaos, what a charming place this poor country is.”
December 4, 2024 at 7:19 PM
The FT has a robust new entry in the age-old travelogue genre best described as “Once you get past the rubbish and the chaos, what a charming place this poor country is.”
A few weeks ago, I published a @gdnlongread about Lafarge's alliance with (and payments to) ISIS, all so it could keep selling cement in wartorn Syria. Here's a peep backstage.
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
December 4, 2024 at 7:19 PM
A few weeks ago, I published a @gdnlongread about Lafarge's alliance with (and payments to) ISIS, all so it could keep selling cement in wartorn Syria. Here's a peep backstage.
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
Terrific opportunity for historians and to work @Archives_NCBS and -- here are the magic words -- with funding!
December 4, 2024 at 7:19 PM
Terrific opportunity for historians and to work @Archives_NCBS and -- here are the magic words -- with funding!
"Benefit from standard legroom
December 4, 2024 at 7:19 PM
"Benefit from standard legroom
Become a journalist! The perks are great!
December 4, 2024 at 7:18 PM
Become a journalist! The perks are great!
An old, forgotten piece in a new newsletter, about the woman who quit her job and started living her days in a library.
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
December 4, 2024 at 7:18 PM
An old, forgotten piece in a new newsletter, about the woman who quit her job and started living her days in a library.
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
samanth.substack.com/p/multi-storie…
People send me undiscovered snippets of JBSiana — and I LOVE it! This 1929 photo, sent by my indefatigable friend William deJong Lambert from a session in a Philadelphia archive, probably shows Haldane before / after a swim in the Cam. It reminded me of this glorious story:
December 4, 2024 at 7:18 PM
People send me undiscovered snippets of JBSiana — and I LOVE it! This 1929 photo, sent by my indefatigable friend William deJong Lambert from a session in a Philadelphia archive, probably shows Haldane before / after a swim in the Cam. It reminded me of this glorious story:
Il Cinema Ritrovato is balm for the soul. (The Bologna gelato helps too.
December 4, 2024 at 7:18 PM
Il Cinema Ritrovato is balm for the soul. (The Bologna gelato helps too.