Opinion | World’s Most Powerful Conversation: PM Modi in Lex Fridman’s Podcast

You can call it an interview, a podcast, or even a masterclass. But to me, it felt like India, talking to the world. Yes, I have heard world leaders speak. But never like this. And certainly not with this much soul. This was not just a podcast. This was the World’s Most Powerful Conversation.
The world may not have paused, but my thoughts surely did, the moment I stumbled upon the conversation that felt like a historical bookmark — Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting across from none other than Lex Fridman. It was not just a podcast, it was a prism through which I re-saw India, its past, its promises, and the man leading it all. I watched the podcast twice. Not because it was hard to understand, but because it was too easy to miss the depth if you were not listening with your heart. Every word spoken carried weight, and every pause held memory. I have seen many interviews, some staged, some hollow, and some too diplomatic to mean anything. But this one was raw, honest, and deeply philosophical. It was not a tête-à-tête between a leader and a host; it was a global citizen trying to decode the mind of a statesman who has risen from the dust of the streets to the echelons of power.
“AI can never replace human intelligence.” This line has stuck with me. PM Modi was not just making a statement on artificial intelligence — he was reasserting belief in human capability, something I as a Kashmiri could deeply relate to. We have seen how machines have replaced minds, and yet, here was a leader reiterating the supremacy of imagination over imitation. He said India will not just be a participant in AI’s growth, but a must for its completion. “The world’s AI journey will remain incomplete without India,” he remarked, and at that moment, I did not hear a nationalist, I heard a realist. He did not just speak like a tech-savvy statesman. He spoke like someone who knows the smell of wet earth after rain, someone who still walks barefoot through people’s struggles. It is rare, perhaps even unheard of 0that a sitting Prime Minister uses a global stage to remind people that India does not just want a seat at the table, it wants to re-design the table entirely.
Then came the moment that made me feel like history was breathing through the screen. Lex Fridman brought up the 2002 Godhra riots, a subject so politically charged that most would shy away. But Modi did not flinch. Instead, he called it a “tragedy of unimaginable magnitude.” He acknowledged the pain, reminded how Gujarat had suffered over 250 riots before 2002, and emphasized the need for constructive criticism, one rooted in facts, not prejudice. It was, in my opinion, not a defence, but a democratic submission — “Criticism is the soul of democracy,” he said. It reminded me of a conversation I once had with a professor in Srinagar. He told me, “True leadership is not about how loudly you speak, but how calmly you listen when the world screams.” That day, Modi listened, even when the past was echoing. What also stood out to me was when Modi spoke of decision-making. Lex asked him how he handles pressure when high-stakes choices are on the table. And there, Modi let us in on something no book ever told us, his travels. “I’m perhaps the only politician in India who has stayed overnight in 85–90% districts of this country,” he said. Suddenly, his decisions seemed less about command and more about compassion. Because when you sleep under someone’s roof, you do not forget their ceiling. There is a different kind of humility that comes from lived experiences. It is easy to call yourself the leader of 1.4 billion people. It is harder to sleep among them, listen to their grief, learn their dialects, and still carry that weight with grace. What we saw in that podcast was not just a summary of Modi’s policies, it was a glimpse into the philosophy behind them.
As someone from Kashmir, I often crave political discourse that does not feel alien. For once, here was a leader who did not sound scripted. His belief in India’s youth, his trust in technology, his reflections on philosophy, and his fierce defence of unity — all bundled into one of the most unfiltered dialogues I have witnessed in recent times. You can call it an interview, a podcast, or even a masterclass. But to me, it felt like India, talking to the world. Yes, I have heard world leaders speak. But never like this. And certainly not with this much soul. This was not just a podcast. This was the World’s Most Powerful Conversation.

The Writer is a student activist and can be reached at soulofkashmir1@gmail.com