Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday became the latest world leader to feature on American technology, science and geopolitics podcaster Lex Fridman’s YouTube channel.

Recent guests on Fridman’s show – which has 4.6 million subscribers – have included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Argentinian President Javier Milei.

Since Donald Trump was elected US president in November, heads of state from across the world have granted interviews to American podcasters and journalists seen as favoured by the US Right, reportedly as a means to reach Trump’s conservative support base.

The strategy has borne fruit for some. In November, Milei became the first world leader Trump met after his presidential victory. The Argentine even participated in the Conservation Political Action Conference in the US.

On Monday, Trump posted a YouTube link of Modi’s three-hour chat with Fridman on social media platform, Truth Social.

Modi is the first Indian public figure to be interviewed by Fridman, though people of Indian origin working in US tech companies have appeared on the podcast before. The video had been viewed over one million times on YouTube within 24 hours of its release.

It garnered the attention of television channels and newspapers almost immediately in India. Modi’s comments on the improvement in India-China relations and the close historical ties binding the two countries drew a large chunk of the coverage in India.

Also generating headlines were Modi’s expression of appreciation for the “respect” Fridman had shown to him after the podcaster claimed that he had fasted for 45 hours in the run-up to the interview to help him get “into the right mindset” and reach a “spiritual level”.

The show used an Artificial Intelligence dubbing tool that allowed Hindi-speaking Modi to be understood by English speakers, in a voice very similar to his own. In addition, it allows Hindi speakers to comprehend Fridman’s questions.

Fridman is a computer scientist by training and regularly speaks about developments related to artificial intelligence in his videos. His research work drew the attention of American billionaire Elon Musk, who has also appeared on Fridman’s podcast before.

He frequently distinguishes his interviewing style from that of traditional journalists by emphasising the role of empathy in his approach. In an otherwise-critical piece published in the American magazine Current Affairs in January, 2023, its editor-in-chief Nathan J Robinson expressed appreciation for Fridman’s “relentless positivity and good cheer”.

“Fridman makes much of his willingness to interview those on all sides, and presents himself as curious and neutral,” Robinson wrote. “[He] presents himself as both a passionate intellectual (his profile picture shows him in front of a blackboard with an equation on it) and an exponent of the Love Everyone philosophy.”

This reputation wins Fridman a lot of popularity among US President Donald Trump’s supporters, granting him access to those in his inner circle, and even making it possible for him to interview the man himself.

His Trump interview was released at the peak of the American presidential election campaign last September and has been viewed over 7.5 million times since then.

Earlier, Trump administration officials such as health expert Jay Bhattacharya, controversial environmental activist Robert F Kennedy Jr and the former US military officer-turned-politician Tulsi Gabbard have been invited to Fridman’s podcast.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner have also been interviewed by Fridman.

On Monday, India’s Opposition seized on snippets of Modi’s interview with Fridman to highlight the prime minister’s alleged flip-flops. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, who handles communications for the party, criticised Modi for seemingly echoing Trump’s attacks on multilateral organisations during the interview.

“Mr. Modi clearly is going out of his way to keep Mr. Trump in good humour,” he wrote on X. “He says international organisations, from which India has benefitted immensely, have become irrelevant. This is the US President's language.”

The Fridman-Modi meeting had been in the works for months. Fridman first mentioned it in a post on X on January 19, saying that the podcast would be recorded “at the end of February”.

Indian podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia was one of the top commenters on this post. “Gotta get you on my podcast, Lex!” he wrote.

Allahbadia is currently embroiled in a contentious obscenity case for an off-colour joke he cracked on a comedy show.

In January, Modi had been featured on entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath’s podcast. A Scroll analysis has previously shown that during the 2024 General Election, even journalists who were granted interviews by the prime minister did not factcheck him. This trend is likely to continue as more podcasters interview politicians.

As Robinson wrote in his Current Affairs piece, “Examining the Fridman podcast is an excellent way to see how the posture of neutrality actually fails to adequately challenge falsehoods and toxic beliefs.”

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