Spreading the words

I’ve had a flurry of passive activity in recent days: I’ve added a whole bunch of new followers/followees on Twitter, and they’re nearly all connected to fellow podcaster, Tim Corrimal.

Tim recently changed his personal podcast, re-branding it The Tim Corrimal Show and focusing primarily on politics. Through that, I’ve heard about a whole bunch of liberal/progressive folks with whom I’ve traded Twitter “follows” and in some cases (like Laffy from The Political Carnival, mentioned in my previous post), I’ve found new sites to read, too (thanks, Tim!).

I think this is important. Different perspectives can lead to new insights and new understanding, regardless of whether I agree with the specific post or not. This learning, stretching and growing is a good thing, something not practiced often enough by the folks at the far ends of the spectrum who prefer to surround themselves only with those who agree with them on everything.

So something like Tim’s revamped show is important because it brings together diverse people to share their views and perspectives, generally from a liberal perspective. These are people who listeners like me might never have encountered otherwise. I believe that encouraging people to talk about politics is always good.

We’re planning on having crossover episodes of 2Polticial Podcast and The Tim Corrimal Show, where one half will be one podcast, the second half the other (Tim and I did this with our personal podcasts in the past). I’m looking forward to it. And I’m also looking forward to interacting with the people I’m meeting through all this.

We of the centre-left have nowhere near the “media-mass” of the right, with it’s countless well-visited websites, 24-hour TV and talkradio and numerous print publications. Meeting and cross-promoting each other doesn’t begin to counter that or rebalance the debate, but it’s a start. “Spreading the words” is a good thing.