The "Real Returns Show" Podcast

Shaking off the busyness of typical Exeter day, Drona Gaddam ’27 settles into his dorm room in Abbot Hall and within minutes he’s interviewing Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Milgrom about the theories and practices of sellers and bidders at auctions.

Conversations with experts in the fields of economics, finance and policy amid a school day has become routine for Gaddam. Several times each term he produces The Real Returns Show, a podcast that seeks to translate often complicated current economic events into layman’s terms. The show is broadcast on YouTube and Spotify and syndicated on Radio Nyra, a streaming network catering to people of Indian and South Asian descent living in North America. The network boasts more than 100,000 weekly listeners.

Gaddam, a native of Columbus, Ohio, says he became fascinated with economics as a middle schooler. He grew curious about the behavior of certain economic measurements during COVID. “There was a point in the pandemic, from a public health perspective, when things weren’t getting better, but somehow the financial and economic markets were starting to rebound,” he says. “I thought that was an interesting contradiction and one that I spent a lot of time researching.”

Gaddam’s dad encouraged him to turn this personal research into something he could share with the world, especially people like his parents, who are first-generation immigrants.

“I saw that the South Asian immigrant community didn’t have the same access to become literate in economics or had a more difficult time navigating the economic or civic systems in this country,” he says. “Being able to provide insights while also making it palatable for a broader audience has always been a crucial focus.”

After arriving at Exeter, Gaddam assembled a small team of like-minded Exonians to build on the vision. To date, Gaddam, Lake Zhou ’27, David Liu ‘27, Kaylee Gong ’28 and Gaddam’s childhood friend Jake Lifer have researched, produced and promoted over 150 episodes, interviewing the likes of former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Randal Quarles and Nobel laureates Milgrom and Oliver Hart.

Gaddam credits the Harkness pedagogy for giving him the confidence to interface with some of the most well-respected economists in the world.

“I approach these conversations with nuance, asking questions — pushing deeper when called for— to get to the core of a topic, which is really what a Harkness discussion is too,” he says. “I always have the table in mind.”

Perhaps it’s no wonder that in the show’s early days, Gaddam booked Exonians Jeff Kreisler ’91 and Alvin Liu’03 as two of his first guests.

“Having those initial interviews showed me I could do this, and the rest has snowballed from there,” he says. “When I send an email to invite a guest to the show, I still get this feeling that the likelihood of this person responding is crazy. But when they do, and we start a dialogue, you realize these are normal people who are easy to talk to.”

Gaddam says he hopes to market elements of the show as educational materials to spark conversations in economics classes everywhere — including a pilot program at the Academy this school year.