About Us

One of us lives where the sun rises, the other where it sets. One works inside government, shaping public policy. The other builds models, wrangles data, and somehow still finds time to design this website. One is a Laura Bush Fellow, the other a Fulbright Scholar. One steers bureaucracy, the other steers dashboards — both powered by coffee, curiosity, and too many late-night voice notes.

We met at IBA, where we earned our MBAs before collecting a few more degrees — three master’s each (we like a good syllabus). Towheed is a Senior Civil Servant and public policy expert with a master’s from Texas A&M. Shakil is a CFA Charterholder, data scientist, financial analyst, educator, and probably editing this page right now.

This podcast is where our contrasts become conversation — and where overeducation finally meets its destiny.
Get to know us better below.

Towheed Elahi

Laura Bush Fellow. Senior Civil Servant. Public policy thinker navigating the complex machinery of governance from the inside out. Towheed brings to the podcast a sharp eye for systems, a global perspective shaped by his master’s from Texas A&M, and the ability to turn bureaucratic labyrinths into plain-language insight. With years of frontline experience in the civil service of Bangladesh and a shared academic history at IBA, he offers grounded, often piercing takes on power, policy, and the big picture — all delivered with the calm of someone who has read the memo and drafted it.

Shakil Ahmad

Fulbright Scholar. CFA Charterholder. Business Intelligence expert with over a decade of experience making sense of financial data, one dashboard, SQL query, and Excel formula at a time. Shakil has led revenue forecasting, cohort modeling, and financial storytelling at companies that move the web — all while quietly mentoring others to do the same. He builds models that don’t just report numbers, but explain why they matter. Between Lines and Lands is where he finally gets to talk about the bigger questions behind the numbers — and maybe a few good books, too.

Get to Know Shakil

🎙️ About the Podcast

🟣 What is Between Lines and Lands?

Between Lines and Lands is a podcast where two lifelong learners unpack books and ideas through honest, cross-cultural conversation. It blends deep reading, economic insight, and playful banter into episodes that question what we think we know — and how we know it.

Created by Shakil Ahmad, with co-host Towheed Elahi, the show explores topics that live between disciplines: where public policy meets personal ethics, where economics meets lived experience, and where literature reveals the systems we live under.

Each episode starts with a book, an idea, or a real-world puzzle. What follows is a conversation that:

  • Dissects arguments from both sides

  • Connects academic ideas to everyday life

  • Makes space for ambiguity, contradiction, and reflection

We’re not here to lecture. We’re here to wonder aloud — sometimes seriously, sometimes sarcastically — about how the world actually works.

📘 Sample Topics

  • Why Squid Game exposes the illusion of free markets

  • What Ha-Joon Chang gets right — and wrong — about capitalism

  • Why truth feels powerless when people prefer comforting illusions

  • When betrayal becomes logic, and cruelty becomes care

📡 Who is it for?

If you’ve ever:

  • Questioned a policy after watching a show

  • Found footnotes more interesting than headlines

  • Wanted intellectual depth without academic pretension

…this podcast is for you.

🧠 TL;DR

 

Q: What is Between Lines and Lands about?
A: It’s a podcast where two friends — a civil servant and a financial analyst — explore books, economics, and ideas through reflective, funny, and challenging conversations that connect theory to real life.