Wolfson alumna releases new podcast

Dr Maryam Aslany, Wolfson alumna (matriculated 2012) and former JRF (2019), has released a seven-part podcast that tells a series of real-life stories drawn from India’s cotton-growing regions. Harvest: The True Cost of Cotton was co-written with author Rana Dasgupta (Wolfson Visiting Scholar, 2021–23) and is based on Maryam’s long-term field research in India.

The series was produced by Amazon Audible and Plan B Entertainment, the Hollywood company behind The Departed, 12 Years a Slave, and Moonlight.

“Harvest” takes listeners directly into the human dramas arising from the crisis of the global countryside. Opening with the murder of a young cotton farmer, the series unfolds into stories of debt, migration, resilience and creativity – revealing how the struggles of small farmers in India connect directly to global supply chains and the clothes we wear.

Maryam describes the project as “a way of turning years of research into a story that speaks beyond academia.”