This episode features a conversation with Manjula Menon, a writer with backgrounds in astrophysics, engineering, and management consulting, whose work weaves together literature, science, and philosophy. The discussion ranges across her relationship with writing, her engagement with both Western and Indian philosophical traditions — particularly around consciousness and selfhood — and how the death of her husband, philosopher Prof. Anand Vaidya, has deepened and transformed her approach to these questions. She explores the contrast between Nyaya and Advaita Vedanta accounts of consciousness, the hard problem of consciousness in Western philosophy, and the role that fiction and myth play in making philosophical ideas felt rather than merely argued. Throughout, she reflects on learning to hold skepticism and openness together, sitting with questions that may never resolve, and finding philosophy less as a discipline that delivers answers than as a companion that structures wonder.
Explore Manjula’s work below:
https://manjulamenon.com
