Separated at Birth? May 27, 2008
Posted by James Webster in : media , 3 commentsI’m not a huge fan of reality TV but I simply cannot avoid tuning into the BBC’s version of The Apprentice (for all the UK readers: don’t forget it’s on Tuesday night this week!)
However, I can’t help thinking that I have seen Sir Alan somewhere before… possibly on Australian children’s television in the 90’s?
Anyway, who would host an Australian version of The Apprentice? Eddie McGuire is one possible choice, but probably too overexposed in the media. Kerry Packer would have been excellent, alas he has passed away. Probably Gerry Harvey would be a better choice, given he shares Sir Alan’s ’self-made millionaire from working class roots’ background and has a reputation of being a rabble-rouser.
“I used to read The Economist…” April 6, 2008
Posted by James Webster in : media , add a comment“Now I just listen to The Economist podcast.” (with apologies to Larry Ellison).
To be honest I have not been able to get into the habit of reading The Economist every week and these days I only seem to pick up a copy if I am flying or catching a train somewhere. However I have been a subscriber to The Economist’s podcast feed for quite a while now. The ‘From the Paper’ podcast summarises a few of the key articles in the edition of the paper for the coming week. The Economist’s podcast range has since been expanded to include: ‘The World Next Week’ (produced jointly with the Council on Foreign Relations), analysing the coming week’s events in international politics; ‘Democracy in America’, looking at the 2008 race for the American presidency; and ‘Certain ideas of Europe’, which considers the latest developments in pan-European relations. It’s like getting my own weekly briefing from my personal foreign affairs adviser!
A couple of times recently the regular guy who reads ‘From the Paper’ must have been ill or on holiday and a substitute voice has been used. But those voices are just plain wrong! ‘Theatre of the mind’ has worked its magic to the extent that the internal voice I hear when I do happen to read The Economist newspaper is the same as that of the clipped, slightly aristocratic-sounding person behind ‘From the Paper’.
Once again, get The Economist podcasts here.
Via a colleague; Gresham College “is an independently funded educational institution” in London. Past lectures can be viewed online.