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 will never try to sell you a penis scented candle. 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
"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s." In Donald Trump’s America you can render unto Donald Trump what is God’s as well.
On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at the gangsterism that is taking over Britain and America and how the media fail to challenge it.
Trump is intimidating and seizing power in America while Nigel Farage is being elevated by a media that knows what it’s doing.
The consequences of this ...
‘Northern Ireland,’ Margaret Thatcher said once, ‘is as British as Finchley’
But what if Britain is as Northern Irish as Ballymena?
On Free State today we look at what unites the right wing Tories and the unionist parties. Is it the racism? Is it the punching down on minorities? And what is it about the genocide in Gaza that they admire so much?
In Britain Operation Raise the Colours is distracting people with arguments ab...
First there was the music. Keith Donald was always looking to escape.
Music offered the first exit. Then came drink.
Keith Donald was abused as a child by his headmistress. He found that jazz had the power to transform his existence.
As a teenager he began to play music wherever he could. He played for a band on the Twelfth and toured the country with showbands.
On Free State today Keith Donald talks about the music and the mayhe...
Why does Michael Flatley want to be president? Why would anyone want him to be president?
On Free State today, Joe and Dion reluctantly engaged with the Irish presidential debate.
They look at Michael Flatley and Heather Humphreys as candidates and ask if the country can do better than this.
Is Joe in listening mode? What are his own intentions? Dion tries to put Joe on the spot
Vladimir Putin & the antidote to Donald Trump (TINY HANDS, SO TINY) and terrible hair (NOT HIS OWN).
Volodymyr Zelensky put on suit for his meeting with Donald Trump in the White House. During his row with Trump and JD Vance last February, a reporter asked him why he wasn’t wearing a suit.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov turned up wearing a CCCP sweatshirt, an obvious challenge to Trump. A challenge he failed. Easy to bully Zelensky. Not Russia.
This time Zelensky didn’t take any chances. But is there another way of handling...
Would you vote for an AI politician or Simon Harris? Or a robot or Donald Trump?
Thomas R Weaver’s dystopian fiction Artificial Wisdom: A Novel imagines a world where by 2050 people are choosing between a human and an AI politician?
On Free State we talk to him about the reality of AI and what science fiction can tell us about the world in 25 years’ time.
People would never vote for AI to rule them we believe, but is that realis...
When you go out to get a pint of milk, do you bring your essential survival kit in case of attack from rampaging gangs or immediate societal breakdown? If not, why not?
On Free State today, Joe and Dion are afraid and have recorded from their panic rooms. Maybe they have been watching too much Fox News.
Last week the channel asked ‘What Happened to Dublin?’ and rolled out questionable statistics about rising crime in the city.
We look...
“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.” These words were published on Anas Al-Sharif’s X account after his death. Sharif was a journalist with Al Jazeera and he was killed by Israel while in a tent for journalists outside a hospital in Gaza.
The headlines said that ‘global outrage’ was mounting over the killing of Sharif and six others, but what does that mean?
How is that outr...
‘I probably need to start with the s***,’ Tim MacGabhann writes in his memoir.
On Free State today, Tim MacGabhann talks about the shit and the salvation.
His book is a story of addiction and recovery, a life trying to find something and then finding it in the place he didn’t think it would be.
It’s a story of replacing the s*** with something better.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy ...
When Muhammad Ali visited Ireland in 1972, the country was a different place.
Nobody believed the greatest sportsman the world has ever seen would fight in Dublin except the men who made it possible.
On Free State today Dave Hannigan tells talks about his book The Big Fight - When Ali Conquered Ireland. It is a tale of men with dreams from Kerry and Brooklyn who made it happen. It is also a story of how Ali responded to the unconditi...
As Dion celebrates a personal milestone, on Free State today Joe and Dion look at how to live without drink.
They consider how dark it can get for those on the other side and what helps people become free.
Joe reflects on those he has seen struggle with alcohol and those he has seen create a new and rewarding life for themselves.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the summer of 1976, the world was a different place.
In Ireland and Britain, it was a summer of a heatwave. But were there cultural and political changes brought about by the long hot summer of 1976?
On Free State today John Williams, author of a new book Heatwave - the Summer of 1976, Britain at Boiling Point, is our guest. John tells us how that summer changed a country and how the heatwave brought people to the brink in w...
Have you locked yourself in a panic room? Have you got your tinned foods and toilet rolls in for when the Russians invade? If not, why are you so complacent? Why don’t you understand the threats Ireland faces in the modern world? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how Ireland is being told to be afraid.
Is there anything to fear or are the warnings designed to create opportunities for the defence industry?
Their com...
After Sunday's All Ireland final proved yet again why David Clifford is Superman in shorts, Joe wonders can any team stop a new Golden Years style reign for the Kerry footballers? On Free State today he also looks back on Knockmore Juniors' win over the weekend and explains why the All Ireland final can never quite measure up to the winning feeling with your club.
Producer Cormac O'Malley drops into the hot seat while Dion is aw...
As a young reporter Phoebe Greenwood worked as a war correspondent in Gaza. She inhabited the world of fixers where journalists stayed at the Al Deira hotel and Israeli government spokespeople provided statements that contradicted what reporters had witnessed.
Greenwood was there during the 2012 conflict and now she has written a novel, Vulture, which is described as a satire, but might as easily be described as the truth.
On Free St...
How do you stop a genius? How does a genius thrive?
David Clifford is the greatest Gaelic football who has ever lived but will that be enough on its own to bring Kerry an All-Ireland?
On Free State today, Joe explains the different type of genius that is Jimmy McGuinness. McGuinness has taken advantage of the new rules, the way he took hold of the old but can the spirit of Clifford be contained in Croke Park?
Joe and Dion also l...
Did Cork lose the All-Ireland hurling final at half time or was defeat guaranteed long before?
On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at what a sporting humiliation does to a team and if they can ever recover.
Joe identifies failings in the Cork management that led to the defeat on Sunday but it doesn’t end there. He looks at the strike action when Cork were marshalled by Donal Óg Cusack, the consequences of which are still being fel...
One of Ireland’s great writers Joseph O’Neill is today’s guest on Free State.
O’Neill’s novels Netherland and Godwin have reflected the centrality of sport in people’s lives. He talks about why sport matters so much and why in Ireland it matters even more than that. He reflects on his own upbringing and how he was raised in Holland before becoming a barrister and practising law in London. He has lived in New York for a generation an...
The Fairground Park pool in St Louis Missouri was the largest pool in America when it was built in 1919. It had enough room for 10,000 swimmers. All of them white.
But when integration came to Missouri, rather than allow all races to swim, the Fairground Park pool closed.
This phenomenon was explored by writer Heather McGhee and on Free State today, Joe and Dion examine the drained pool politics of unionism and the Orange order...
Jim McGuinness isn’t a pragmatist. He is, Joe says, a pragmatic extremist.
On Free State, Joe and Dion look at the clash between genius and control.
Through the history of sport, geniuses have always made their own way and systems have been devised to stop them. Will this be the case when David Clifford’s Kerry play McGuinness’s Donegal?
We look at how McGuinness saw the opportunity in the new rules before anyone else and what t...
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.