Development Drums

I’ve been hearing a lot recently about Development Drums, a new podcast hosted by Owen Barder. As a newcomer – and maybe a convert – to podcasting (listening, that is, not recording), I thought I’d give it a listen. I found myself listening over and above my housemate’s accordion playing, which added a certain je ne sais quoi.

The podcast is intended to be a weekly development update and news roundup, something which, so far at least, it seems to be doing pretty well. The first episode featured conversation with Simon Maxwell of the ODI on various matters, including the global governance of aid regimes. The second episode – a great improvement on the first – included Adrian Wood discussing the capping of aid and Peter DaCosta on power sharing in Zimbabwe.

With both episodes so far clocking in at over an hour long, I did find them a little arduous to sit through in full. Perhaps two, half hour, episodes per week might work better. On the other hand, perhaps I’m just not hardcore enough. As the podcast develops and grows, bringing in a greater degree of listener involvement/interactivity would be interesting, though not to the degree of soliciting text messages every five minutes, as you’d get on the radio. Using the participants to answer listener questions, for example, might be an option. (I’m now envisaging some kind of international development version of Gardener’s Question Time, and rethinking.)

Development Drums is a very useful creation and I suspect it will become indispensable listening for me. I’m beginning my formal studies of development politics next week and I’ll be recommending it to my colleagues, if it isn’t already known to them.

In short, this is what podcasting was invented for. More power to their elbows and all that…