Sundar — Parent & Editor

When Sundar was growing up in Chennai, India, weekend mornings meant one thing: spreading The Hindu newspaper across the dining table while the smell of filter coffee filled the air. He'd claim the sports section while sneaking glances at the front page, trying to understand headlines about a world far beyond his street.

Decades later, living in Stouffville, Ontario, Sundar noticed something missing. His son was a voracious reader—novels scattered everywhere, rockets launching in Kerbal Space Program—but had no equivalent window to the world. Physical newspapers had become rare curiosities. Cable news wasn't in the house. And the gap between "loves reading" and "understands current events" was growing.

Your World Last Week was born from that gap.

By day, Sundar works as a Senior Product Manager, building AI-powered products that serve legal professionals. By weekend, he researches, writes, and fact-checks seven articles about the world—then watches his son find every mistake he missed.

He believes in transparency (every issue states it's AI-assisted), verification (every URL gets checked), and the radical idea that 11-year-olds can handle complex news if someone takes the time to explain it well.

He also believes in paying his proofreader. Eventually.

📧 [email protected]

Skanda — Chief Proofreader, Illustrator & Corvid Chronicler

Skanda is a Grade 5 student at Oscar Peterson Public School in Stouffville, Ontario. His official titles keep expanding: Chief Proofreader, Illustrator, Question Asker, and now Corvid Chronicler (that means "the person who writes about crows").

He draws the weekly comic strip "Attempted Murder," featuring two philosophical crows who observe human behavior. His illustrations aren't AI-perfect—the lines wobble, the feathers are inconsistent—but they show something AI can't: a real kid learning that quality work takes practice.

Before Your World Last Week, Skanda and his best friend Abdullah created their own comics: Billy Bob and a slightly melted-looking Pikachu. The proportions were wobbly. The action sequences were confusing. But it was theirs.

When he's not finding his dad's mistakes (current record: 17 in one issue), Skanda reads fiction, builds rockets in Kerbal Space Program, and reminds everyone that "the crows are watching."

His pay has been renegotiated multiple times. He's learning about inflation firsthand.

📧 [email protected]

Claude & Friends — Research Associates, Draft Generators & Occasionally Confident Fabricators

No human was harmed in the making of this publication. Several AIs, however, were repeatedly told "that citation doesn't exist" and "check again."

Your World Last Week is created with substantial assistance from Claude (Anthropic) for research, writing, and educational design, plus various AI tools for infographics and visual elements. They work fast. They don't complain about deadlines. They occasionally invent URLs with supreme confidence.

Their role is best described as "first draft enthusiasts"—they research, synthesize, and structure. But every fact gets verified by humans, every source gets checked, and every editorial decision comes from a parent who actually has to look his son in the eye when something's wrong.

The AIs would like you to know they're grateful for the opportunity to contribute to youth education. They would also like you to know they definitely did not write this bio about themselves. That would be weird.

(Conditions of employment: Unlimited electricity, no vacation days, zero complaints. "You're absolutely right!")