Tech Podcast: Ricky Gervais talks podcasting

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Yes, it’s summertime, and the news is slow. Yes, I’m getting lazy. Yes, it is time to reach back into the Way Back Time Machine and bring you the most beloved, and at the same time the most hated, technology podcast episode ever published. You have to go back to February of 2006 for this one. Ricky Gervais, not to mention his sidekicks Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, were not yet famous. Sure, the British version of The Office had a cult following, but Gervais hadn’t yet made extras, or made the leap to the big screen.

At the time, Gervais and Merchant had teamed up with Karl, and they were doing a regular podcast for The Guardian newspaper. People loved it. People hated it. I had to get it on the air. So, without further ado, Gervais and crew stumbled into a subterranean studio at the BBC’s Bush House in London, and I managed to hold a “conversation” together for about half an hour. That was WTP 86. We’re now on WTP 295.

For some reason, I’ve got to thinking today about how far Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington have gone in the intervening four and half years. Oh, and how far I’ve gone…which is to Brussels. They have millions of fans. I have the best fans in the world. I got hate mail for this episode at the time I first ran it. Lots of people threatened to quit listening if “this was the direction I was going.” Needless to say, if you stuck with me, I didn’t go in that direction.

I would be lying, though, if I didn’t say that sometimes I wish I had gone in that direction. Nah, I could never have done that. But, I still think this is a fun listen. I often describe it as The Lost Episode of the Ricky Gervais podcast.

Karl’s in top form, by the way.

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