UX and qualitative researcher. Fiction writer. Cultural decoder. Still figuring it out.
I’m Radhika Venkatarayan – writer, researcher, and chronic overanalyser of things that probably don’t need this much analysis.
This site is where I gather my work, words, and the questions I’ve stopped trying to resolve neatly.
What I Write
I write fiction that explores identity, ambition, family, and fate, set in the rhythms of Indian domestic life, told with absurdity and tenderness. My work has appeared in The New York Times, Out of Print, Punch Magazine, New World Writing, Little Old Lady Comedy, and more.
My debut novel The Seventh House is complete and looking for its people. If you’re an agent or editor, I’d love to hear from you.
My series How I Did Not Meet Your Father — 11 episodes, now complete — is part-memoir, part-satire on modern love, arranged marriage, and near-misses.
I’m currently writing The Algorithm Thinks I’m Rich, a non-fiction book on how algorithmic systems misread identity, and what that reveals about whose lives get counted, decoded, and delivered to correctly.
In 2025 I launched The Empire Laughs Back, a South Asian humour magazine publishing satire, parody, and comic essays from the subcontinent and diaspora. Think of it as a WhatsApp group that never sleeps, but instead of dubious cures for maladies, we forward jokes. We’re open to pitches.
What I Do
By day I’m a Staff UX Researcher at Pulse Labs, working on AI trust and safety. Over two decades I’ve helped teams understand how people think, adapt, and make decisions: across generative AI, e-commerce, CPG, media, automotive UX, and digital culture. My focus is translating human nuance into product direction, especially in markets that algorithms persistently misread.
I teach digital ethnography and research storytelling at MICA, speak at conferences about culture and emotional infrastructure, and am pursuing a part-time PhD, because apparently I enjoy having no free time.
What You’ll Find Here
Depending on why you’re here:
If you want to read: the blog has essays on culture, technology, identity, and everything that refuses to sit still. The recurring series How I Did Not Meet Your Father and How to Not Write a Novel are good places to start.
If you want to work together: I take on occasional 1:1 sessions with researchers, writers, and founders. For research consulting or speaking, reach out directly.
If you’re an agent or editor: the novel is The Seventh House. Get in touch.
Also Me
I love kitsch, crafts, stories in all forms, and the faint chaos of DIY. In another life, I’d be a stand-up comic with a sharp eye and terrible stage lighting.
I still hum 2000s Hindi soap intros and advertising jingles that haven’t aired in decades. That brief career in TV writing? Let’s call it method research.
I live in Bangalore, but dream of a city by the sea. If home is where all our attempts to escape cease, I haven’t found mine yet.
Get in Touch
Want to talk research, writing, something in between, or adjacent? Email me at radhika [dot] venkatarayan [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on LinkedIn, X, or Medium.
To pitch a piece for The Empire Laughs Back, write to telbsubmissions [at] gmail [dot] com
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