In this inaugural kind-of episode, Fintan is the guinea pig; or maybe he's the hamster, and I'm Richard Gere, if you believe those scurrilous long-dormant rumours.

I'm just slipping this out quietly on a weekend because it's kind of our proof of concept thing – the new podcast offshoot, and I want people to understand the format before we use actual, real people in it.

So this is Dessert Island Discs, where our guests are stranded on a tropical island and all their basic needs are taken care of. They now have to choose the luxury items that come with them (or that wash up on the beach, maybe).

They get to choose:

• 3 albums
• 3 movies
• 3 books
• One song (not on the albums)
• One pet
• One object/thing
• One dessert
• One piece of advice for their younger selves, and they choose when to receive it

Our guests are top-level gambling industry execs, thought leaders and any other buzzwords we can come up with while we think outside the box on this one.

Some guests will drop things from the list because they don't apply – maybe they didn't have a pet, or don't read for pleasure. But mostly, it's what's up there.

Fundamentally, this is about people, not about work.

Dessert Island Discs bears absolutely no relation to any shows anywhere else with similar-ish names that have been running for many decades, and you're a fool and a communist if you think it does.

Love some feedback on the idea, suggestions for guests, that kind of thing; remember, this episode zero is just so you can see what it's all about. Also thinking we might do this as audio-only. Who knows?