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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Jason Deans

Ricky Gervais or Paul Wolfowitz- who is more iPod friendly?


World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz.
Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

So the Economist has launched a podcast featuring the scarily brainy World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, discussing priorities for world development in 2006.

Personally, I would prefer listening to Karl Pilkington talking about whether a chimp is allowed to win the lottery with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant on their Guardian podcast, but each to their own.

Or how about Wolfowitz joining Gervais and crew for a bit of podcast supergroup/dream team riffing? On the one hand the hawkish former Bush official and pro-Iraq war intellectual, on the other Gervais, who once told a TV awards ceremony: "war… or peace - it doesn't really matter".

And who's to say the Economist hasn't hit upon something here, giving podcast downloaders the chance of an intimate one-to-one with the thoughts of one of the world's most powerful figures for 10 minutes. Maybe Wolfo will be challenging Gervais and Chris Moyles for top spot in the podcast charts.

The point is, media organisations are still in the suck-it-and-see phase of podcast development, trying different things out. And if this is going to be an important new medium, rather than a passing fad, then why shouldn't it cover full range of audience tastes from comedy to intellectual discourse?

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