Pick of the Commonwealth Podcast

One thing that I particularly enjoyed doing on the old Media Network radio show was profiles of broadcasters around the world. Towards the end of the 1990's that was almost a monthly feature as we developed the Media Network Safaris series.

Although all that has now ceased, I see that the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association has a series of monthly podcasts that include interviews with their member broadcasters. I enjoyed listening to programme 56, in which producer Robin White travels to Guyana, right on the equator. The climate is hot and sticky...and so is the local politics.

The population is a mixture of black descendants of African slaves imported by the Dutch, descendants of Indian workers brought in by the British, and Guyana's original Amerindians, who have been marginalized.

Robin's guide in Georgetown is Julie Lewis, a famous broadcaster on the state run radio station. Julie has been blind since she was a child. She talks to Robin about her job on the national radio network, and shows him what it's like to get round Georgetown when you can't see.