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Two By Two Fri, 19 Dec 25 |
An abridged, narrative version of the latest episode of Two by Two, The Ken’s premium weekly business podcast. |
Good Morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
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“Are you expecting me to disagree? Yes, yes, of course, it was great. We never do anything but great.”
This is Rohin being Rohin in the year-ender episode of Two by Two. And honestly? It’s the most unfiltered I’ve heard them be all year.
Fifty-two weeks. Forty-eight episodes. Through rain, power cuts, guest cancellations, schedule clashes, and everything in between, Two by Two showed up every single week in 2025. But here’s the thing: we are always victims of favouritism, so there might be some episodes we like more than others. And this week, Rohin and Praveen sat down to see which ones make the cut for them. And mind you, it wasn’t an easy task. As PGK put it “even the no’s are secret yes’s”.
The format was simple but brutal: they each got 10 points to award across 48 episodes. One point per episode. No take-backs. No going back once they moved forward. And they hadn’t discussed their choices beforehand. They literally showed up in the studio and started speed-running through the entire year.
The first episode they reviewed? PGK immediately spent a point.
Rohin Dharmakumar: You’re like one of those guys who’s going to lose all his points within the first 10–15 episodes and be like, ‘Damn, damn, damn, should have held onto them.’
PGK laughed it off then. Halfway through the conversation, he wasn’t laughing anymore.
The three episodes they both said yes to
Out of 48 episodes, there were only three that both Rohin and Praveen independently chose for their top 10. Add them to your TBH (to-be-heard) list, because these are the creator-certified best of 2025:
Episode 26: Zomato, Swiggy and the rise of the 10-minute dark cafe
Three guests in-studio, all talking over each other, with completely different perspectives: Gaurav Saria (restaurant owner), Thomas Fenn (NRAI), Ramchander Raman (who had literally just ordered from a dark cafe before the episode).
Episode 47: Who broke Bengaluru and how do we fix our cities?
Pravar Chaudhary of Bengawalk joined, and Praveen called him “wonderful” three times in one sentence. This episode was personal, investigative, and deeply Namma Ooru.
Episode 50: In an AI age, India does not have an open-source strategy
What made this episode special?
Rohin Dharmakumar: It was very nice because one was a practitioner, Kailash Nadh, and the other was Pranay Kotasthane who looked at it from a policy stand, structural stand.
The ones that almost made it
There were episodes they loved but couldn’t justify spending their remaining points on. One such episode was the Jane Street episode with Anand Kalyanaraman and Mayank Bansal, which was an investigative story where the reporter and the source came on the record together.
Praveen Gopal Krishnan: I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again… an investigative story of this nature where your source would come on the record.
Or the bro-ification episode that made some men write in saying “Why did you record this?” while women said “Thank you for recording this.”
By the time they reached the final five episodes of their review, both Rohin and Praveen were down to exactly one point left each. The tension in the studio was real.
My personal favourite
I’ve only been here for the last six episodes, so I can’t claim a top 10. But if you’re asking?
Episode 59: What happens when Indian consumers discover what they’re consuming?
This was the first Two by Two episode I ever heard, and it’s the embodiment of what the podcast stands for: the unearthing of new things, the hosts learning in real-time, lots of debate, multiple perspectives, and genuinely having fun.
Munaf Kapadia and Arjun Anjaria came on to reimagine food labels in India. One trusted the label, one didn’t.
Also, if you listen to the year-ender episode, there’s a moment where Praveen mentions how I subtly pushed him to add Episode 59 to his top 10. I was successful.
So grab your pen and paper or open your notes app. You’ll want to track which episodes they picked, which ones they regretted skipping, and honestly? Just enjoy hearing two people who’ve spent a year making podcasts together do a reflective rapid-fire.
Their top 10 lists? You’ll have to listen to the entire episode to find out. But I’ll tell you this: they’re surprisingly different. And that’s exactly what makes Two by Two work.
With 48 episodes in the books, this is the perfect starting point for anyone looking to catch up on the defining business stories of 2025.
Have your own “vibe-based” arguments about our list? We’re all ears. Reach out at [email protected] or leave a comment.
Until next year,
Uddantika
P.S. Rohin coined “Swipto” during this episode (Swiggy + Zepto merger speculation) and immediately declared he was “putting his points on Swipto” as the word for 2026. You heard it here first.
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