Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning
Free State is a podcast for the curious that stimulates, provokes, challenges and entertains, while never taking itself too seriously. Free State covers topics from sport to politics, love to loss, the human condition and how to fix the world, with guests from across the planet including Nigerian princes, former Prime Ministers, ex convicts, footballers, boxers and extraordinary people from every walk of life. Free State is presented by Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning. Brolly is a barrister, an original thinker with a fascinating backstory, who donated a kidney to a stranger and then led a crusade to transform organ donation on the island of Ireland, and Fanning is an award-winning interviewer and author. They are not motivational gurus or life coaches. They are two people from very different worlds, with one core belief uniting them - this is not a high performance podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibited betting on baseball, basketball, American football and most other sports in nearly every US state.
In 2018, the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, opening up America to a stampede of betting.
On Free State today we look at how the gambling industry achieved such prominence and how they made gamblers feel that the problem wasn’t them it was you.&nbs...
‘I have come to sell a product called soccer.’ The former FIFA president Joao Havelange announced himself in 1974 with these words. They have been the model for the expansionist, grasping FIFA that has existed to this day.
But maybe what matters was not the product but everything but the product?
On Free State today we look at why the World Cup matters and why it might be everything that Donald Trump’s America is no...
There are no atheists in the foxholes and in the darkness of the night there is nobody who won’t find consolation in the World Cup.
On Free State today Joe talks about his own World Cup journey. Joe and Dion look at why the tournament captivates and what it tells us about communities as opposed to the leaders of those communities.
At a time when Elon Musk had become the world’s first trillionaire, we look at the hatred he...
How have Donegal got themselves in this mess? Has Jim McGuinness’s obsession with Kerry blinded him to the other threats.
On Free State today, Joe examines why some counties accumulate All Irelands and others fail, while Dion surprises him with his knowledge of Roscommon’s football history.
Joe and Dion also look at how the Belfast Riots happened.
For months the PSNI were warned that houses were being identified and ...
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Belfast has burned this week. The horrific knife attack on Monday night shocked everyone. But nobody was surprised by what came next. In Belfast, In Glasgow and around Britain, people came out on the street. Some were there to protest, others were there to intimidate. In Belfast, the intimidation took over.
On Free State today, Joe and Dion consider the riots in Belfast and whether there is a difference there than in other places. J...
The FAI have decided to move Ireland’s game against Israel to a neutral venue. But is this a pragmatic move or another attempt to avoid making a principled decision?
On Free State today Joe and Dion talk to Sinead Gibney of the Social Democrats about why this is a cop out.
Would there be consequences for Ireland if they refused to play the game or would it lead to others following?
Sinead Gibney explains why this is a mora...
John Kampfner doesn’t believe there is a better way, he believes there is only one way for western democracies to survive.
On Free State today he talks about what democracies have to do to survive. They - we - are drinking in the last chance saloon he says. He explains why there has to be a reckoning and why so many politicians do not have the capability to change.
He speaks about his new book Braver New World which we have dis...
Have you been watching Love Island? As part of his deep research for the podcast, Dion has and on today’s Free State he shares his concerns about Fitzy and the world he has walked in to.
Joe encouraged Dion to watch it but hasn’t done so himself but he marvels at the Love Island universe and what it contains.
Yet it is the universe of the late great Frank McGuigan that holds his attention. Joe recalls a player of preterna...
Aziz Abu Sarah’s older brother Tayseer was like a father to him. Azis was ten years old when his brother died after he had been tortured and beaten in an Israeli jail. Aziz says his brother’s death sent him to his own prison where all he wanted was revenge.
Maoz Inon’s parents were killed by Hamas on October 7th. A couple of days later, he and his family released a message. “For the death of our parents on Oc...
Sally Hayden is a fearless journalist. She has covered war and conflict around the world. She lives in Lebanon where, early in her new book, she notes that ‘in the past fortnight, Israel has killed more than one thousand people’.
Her book opens with a quote from Elon Musk: ‘The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy.’
On Free State today Sally Hayden explains her journey to disprove Musk&rsquo...
What do Sinn Fein stand for? What do they believe? And do the other left wing parties believe they believe it?
On Free State Joe and Dion look at the state of Sinn Fein following the recent by-elections. Does it tell us something about the scrutiny Sinn Fein are under that there is more analysis of them than of Fianna Fáil which got a comically low vote?
Dion and Joe disagree about what Sinn Féin’s intentions are when they talk...
What do great art and great sport have in common? Why do the moments that transport us to another dimension in sport and art have such power?
On Free State today, Dion reflects on the spiritual experience of seeing Paul Simon and Joe reflects on writing Kerry off.
What does the game between the All Ireland champions and Donegal tell us about the summer to come? And what does it tell us about Jack O’Connor? Has he been found out...
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Do you feel like lower value human capital or do you believe you should be on Love Island?
Who declares who is of value and who isn’t? Will the future belong to those who refuse to be defined by what the tech overlords decide they should be?
On Free State we look at how the climate emergency is being accelerated by data centres and why nobody has the will to stop them.
And we provide a major update on the poten...
Bertie Ahern says he rejects ‘racism in all its forms’. So what is it if not racism when a former Taoiseach says ‘we can’t be taking in people from Congo and all these places’?
On Free State today we ask how do you talk about immigration and not get mistaken for a racist? Is it best not to say things that a racist might say to begin with?
Ahern defended himself by saying ‘I don’t think there ...
When Israel’s contestant in the Eurovision appeared on stage in Vienna on Tuesday night, a lone voice shouted ‘stop, stop the genocide.’ The Israeli contestant kept singing and nothing stopped.
On Free State today we look at why the Eurovision became a key part of Israel’s propaganda war.
We examine the money that was spent ensuring Israel’s entries got votes and we ask why.
We also look at some of ...
There was a huge response to last week’s episode on Universal Basic Income.
On Free State, Dion and Joe look at the arguments made in the emails and comments.
But as they go through the comments, the atmosphere changes and Free State reaches another crossroads…
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A study after the covid pandemic established that in care homes controlled by private equity firms the death rate was more than 50 per cent higher than in other homes.
On Free State today we look at how private equity is capitalism cannibalising itself. Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class, is on with us to talk about how this happened, how governments retreated from the public realm and left private equity take over the ...
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