Most of my listeners and viewers are already aware that I began my Web 2.0 "career" as a podcaster (and here). I'll still occasionally record an audio piece when I have something interesting to say (hehe) though these days I remain an avid supporter of others' online works. Lately, my show selection is limited by the amount of time I have available to listen to longer-form material in light of how much of it I've lately been devoting to perfecting my video craft. Being thusly hogtied, I try to remain abreast of a compact A-List of shows which never fail to deliver, like Ian Kath's Your Story Podcast (YST).

I had the amazing good fortune of finally making Ian Kath's acquaintance during the Summer of 2008 as part of his European Swingthrough. Ian's a sensational guy and an intellect par excellence who started off as my Twitter friend (yes, it happens!) and who I now consider the genuine article.

I can't say enough good things about YST, though.

I've watched how Ian's come into his own after forty-six episodes of his show, and if you've never caught one of them before then prepare to be blown away. I've enjoyed observing (or rather, hearing) Ian find his spoken rhythm, having been there with him from the outset. His mastery of delivering genuine Q&A and the facility with which he unhesitatingly interviews his guests speaks volumes to his mastery of podcasting. The proof is in the engaging answers he elicits from his guests. You can almost feel how Ian establishes a rapport with his guests throughout the course of a show, and his knack for maintaining this level of sympatico for the duration is indeed a special gift. Other Aussie podcasters like the sometimes-controversial yet always educational Cameron Reilly have convinced me there's something unique to Aussies, what with their advertising-rein public broadcaster -- the Australian Broadcasting Corporation -- and their geographical distance from the rest of civilization, which make them such skilled conversationalists. If that could ever be bottled, then I'd want to be the first in line to swig a taste of it.

But back to podcasts...

The mark of a good one is if it moves you in some way. Ian's Episode 46 indeed did, although this time it rubbed me wrongly so I'm up early here in Prague banging out these lines because I couldn't sleep thanks to it.



Doug Gresham, his latest guest, and a relative of late storyteller C.S. Lewis -- yes, that C.S. Lewis, author of The Narnia Chronicles -- bothered me. After one hour and five minutes of show material I was disturbed by the man's smugness and self-righteousness, and I was ready to throw my computer out the window. When it was over, I kept tossing and turning thinking about how I was going to frame this morning's entry, such was the level of my discomfort. Hopefully what I'm about to say makes some sense.

So that my remarks don't seem entirely out of context, Doug is (in his own words, always suspect, if you ask me) quite well-off. The Narnia blockbusters have landed him healthy profit-sharing windfalls while he apparently maintains several abodes around the world as he jetsets for his executive producer's and other creative responsibilities during the various international Narnia shoots. I suppose his wealth affords him a considerable degree of clout plus the security of knowing he can occasionally spout off about complicated matters that mere mortals might think twice about before pontificating on. Eager Doug seemed to harbour no such hesitations during the show, however. He spoke fervently and passionately about his ideas which he claims find their wellspring in his devout Christian faith. Full disclosure: I can tolerate fundamentalist Christianity, yet Doug's smug responses to Ian's otherwise humble questions bore such a high level of faux-expertise bombast that I nearly shut off the podcast mid-way through, like I said above. It would have marked the first time I didn't make it from pole to pole at YST, yet I soldiered on...

Something tells me a man of Faith -- even the occasional preaching man like Sir Doug, who once helmed his own faith ministry in Ireland -- should learn to be more humble. Getting your pesonal Jesus-on by doing your own sort of "sermonizing from the Mount" is offputting in the extreme. I found myself questioning why Doug's continual need to call attention to himself by shooting back absolutist type knee-jerk responses to Ian's questions, statements that left no quarter for equivocation. I also resented how Doug -- unlike some of Ian's past guests -- kept cutting the poor guy off in his zeal to steamroll over Ian's very next question with even more ultra-irrational quasi-religious hooey about the righteousness of his Cause, and that's saying a heap seeing that I myself am a religious person.

Heapful kudos to Ian for keeping it all together, as is his wont. Doug's episode resembled less a run-of-the-mill chinwag "between blokes" and more of Doug waiting to pounce like a puma atop Ian's very next question, more audacious debate than friendly banter. The basic idea of a podcast is that folks convene to conversate. Doug failed on this count because he kept wanting to get his preach-on.

Like the next guy, I hardly mind a good contretemps. It helps to refine my own beliefs about a subject by clarifying my views on things, so Doug's combative stance on the majority of softballs Ian lobbed his way -- yes, it was that obvious -- didn't offend me. I wouldn't need a "Doug" to agree with me always -- and neither, it seems, would Sir Doug, given his oft-repeated reminders about how he was raked over the coals during his American sojourn for his utterances about potentially-divisive topics like the US' education system or its stance on abortion. If everyone's ego were paper-thin, our world's more monumental endeavours might never have gotten off the ground for fear of cracking eggs. Mavericks are good for society, but is Doug a maverick, or is he rather an overly-opinionated unswerving blowhard who's somehow been tremendously lucky -- yes, lucky -- in life through his many creative projects (= money) and as such can evangelize about life and The Afterlife, devil-may-come what effect his sometimes caustic views might leave upon his listenership? What Doug doesn't seem to grasp, IMO, is that a preachy, finger-stabbing, utterly-convinced-beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt speaking style isn't for all and sundry.

My verdict? Doug only humours Ian during the show because if he wouldn't permit Ian to at least have a couple of words in edgewise we might otherwise think he's missing a few cards in the proverbial deck of fifty-two. If he didn't stop to inhale now and again, we'd all eventually just tune out. Doug's (apparent, not independently verified) wealth has somehow convinced the man he has a right to keep up this abrasive approach because, I suppose, were this not the true way to be "then the Good Lord wouldn't have blessed me with all this Bounty," or some similar self-righteous spinmeistering.

Lest you think I'm another one of those gadfly, dandruff-flecked, shadowboxing, can't-get-a-date-if-my-life-depended-on-it boozy journo types with a stack of bones to pick who enjoy sinking tobacco-stained fangs into a good upturning of the established Tammany Hall pecking order...guess again, Frankie.

Doug's money doesn't phase me in the least and it's not that which I resent -- God bless him for (allegedly) having scads of the stuff, evidenced by the engaging cinematic product he helps churn out for the global filmgoing public, though his oft-reminded Maltese jetsetting lifestyle at once reminds me of the good upbraiding Denzel Washington's American Gangster protagonist, Frank Lucas, would give to his on-screen brother for committing the sin being "the loudest man in the room...who is the weakest link the chain." What bothers me, rather, is that I believe a man like Sir Doug with ample means must also be a man with ever-plentiful humility, not a black-and-white believing chatterbox. A man of Doug's stature must be a contemplative person whom others won't instantly dismiss within five minutes of having met him, not some inflexible motormouth.

So FAIL, Doug. Big FAIL. You forgot that this was Ian's bag, not yours.

But I'll keep listening...