Life is lived in the arena.Official profile
Podcast host, interviewer, Ready Set Digest writer, and speaker behind Ready Set Do.
One night in the ER gave me a very dumb kind of clarity: I was scared, sure, but I was more annoyed that I still had not started the podcast I kept talking about. (Not my finest moment. Definitely an honest one.)
Ready Set Do came out of that night. I wanted a show about the ugly beginning, the part where someone is making a career change, moving to a new country, launching a side project, or building online for the first time and nobody can hide behind a polished success story yet.
I host the show between Chicago and Kolkata, write Ready Set Digest, and show up on other podcasts and speaker pages when the conversation fits. The guests have included engineers tied to SpaceX and Microsoft, recruiters with Amazon and TikTok on the resume, founders building AI startups, creators who started from zero, and people figuring out what to do when the old plan stops working.
You'll find more about me at namanpandey.me. This page is the Ready Set Do version of that story.
About Naman
I care less about the polished postgame speech. I care about the part where someone is still paying for the choice they made six months ago and can tell you what it actually felt like.
Every episode is another crack at the same question: what does it take to begin before you feel ready?
Founders, engineers, recruiters, artists, guides, and people you would never see in the same room somehow end up here.
Other podcasts, other rooms, same obsession with the first move.
What I keep coming back to
Recent activity
If Google or a human lands here and wonders what I have been doing lately, this is the cleanest answer.
Episode 130
At one point, that was Bharath Vemula's job search math. Today he's a Meta engineer working on the company's model training stack.
Open episodeEpisode 129
Updated to 3,750 characters total, chapters included, so you have about 250 to spare. Akash prepared full time for India's UPSC civil services exam for two years.
Open episodeEpisode 128
A week before we recorded this, my nephew asked why I'd started posting on LinkedIn. He'd just finished college and started his first job, so I gave him the textbook answer about networks and opportunities.
Open episodeEpisode 127
Shrey Shah never applied to Microsoft. Microsoft executives watched him give a talk on AI coding workflows, then reached out.
Open episodeEpisode 126
Trust and Safety in Hyderabad first, then the Bay Area, then most of the back half inside YouTube — finance, then analytics, then managing YouTube inventory and monetization. Two months later a friend referred her to a company she actually wanted.
Open episodeEpisode 125
Should an international student still move to the US for a master's right now? That's the question sitting in thousands of inboxes and WhatsApp groups this admissions cycle.
Open episodeReady Set Digest
These are the latest essays and build notes from Naman's Substack, connected here so the same person, show, and publication reinforce each other.
Sep 19, 2026
a poem
Read articleSep 16, 2026
A beginner course in 10 lessons, with small projects you can actually finish
Read articleSep 7, 2026
Twenty instructions, written from the model’s side. No metaphors. No encouragement.
Read articleSep 7, 2026
Use this order: define the problem, break it down, widen perspective, pressure-test the answer, check evidence, then make the call.
Read articleInvite Naman
I made a page for this so neither of us has to improvise the basics in DMs. It covers what I talk about, what fits this show, and where to reach me.
Around the internet
Different app, same show. Pick the one you already open without thinking.
Podcast
If you just want to listen, start here.
Open appearancePodcast
Same show. Different app. No grand speech needed.
Open appearanceVideo
This is where the faces, clips, and full conversations live.
Open appearanceProfile
This is where I think out loud in public.
Open appearanceWriting
This is where my essays, field notes, and tactical breakdowns live.
Open appearancePlaylist
If you already live inside YouTube, this is the easy button.
Open appearancePodcast database
Find Ready Set Do on Podchaser.
Open appearanceNaman goes on other podcasts too
You should not have to scroll half a mile to find this. Here is the short version, and the full trail lives on its own page.
Podcast appearance
Aakash and I got into the messier side of AI product work, how PMs think when the tools keep changing under their feet, and why most people still overcomplicate the first move.
Open appearancePodcast appearance
This one gets into the double life a lot of ambitious people know too well: the day job paying the bills, the other thing pulling at you after hours, and what happens when you stop treating that second life like a hobby you have to apologize for.
Open appearanceWhat keeps coming up