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
‘We recognise sometimes its signature is written in pencil’
With these words Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney declared a trade war with its unreliable neighbour, the United States.
On Free State today, we look at why so few want to assert what Carney stated so baldly, that America under Donald Trump cannot be trusted.
This is a reality the world knows but the leaders instead of acknowledging it, run from it as...
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James McClean’s return to Derry hasn’t worked out as anticipated.
But beyond the headlines, what was at stake when he was on the receiving end of abuse on social media, in the English media and from the football grounds of England?
On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at how McClean was reduced to caricature and how the outrage machine shaped it.
We also have some Free State news. On Sept 3rd, Free State will b...
On August 14, Jason Arday was found unresponsive at his home in Battersea in London.
In a statement, his family said they were "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son".
They added that the “campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone."
On Free State today, we look at the life and death of Jason Arday. A man who made ...
Darragh McGee understands sport. As a Donegal man he understands the hold and the importance sport has across this land. So as an academic when he went to investigate the betting industry, he didn’t expect to discover all that he learned about its hold on so many individuals and on society.
On Free State today. Darragh McGee talks to Joe and Dion about his book Imitation Games - How Gambling Hijacked Sport. He explains why the...
David Hearn was once an Olympic canoeist. He was facing ten years in a federal prison for allegedly vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC before all the charges were dropped.
‘It’s a relief, but there’s a detachment to that relief of extreme concern for other people and for our country,’ Hearn said,
On Free State today we explain why the story of the Reflecting Pool is a perfect exa...
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July was the driest July on record in Ireland and the second hottest since 1900.
Most of us have enjoyed this summer but should we just now accept our Mediterranean climate and whistle past the climate graveyard.
On Free State today we look at how climate and migration became weapons to protect the elites and sustain inequality.
Dion and Joe look at the way the events in Ceuta were seized upon. It provided a backdrop f...
In the 1980s, there were 21 days when the temperature in London reached 30 degrees. In 2026 there have been 24.
In Greece, two died in a midair collision between helicopters fighting wildfires. France has seen the greatest civilian evacuation outside wartime as people flee the danger areas.
And yet people will take issue with what they are seeing.
On Free State we look at the movement that turned climate science into a climate d...
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Can you put a price on what we watched at Croke Park on Sunday? What would you sell a Mayo victory in the All Ireland for?
We know that what we watched affects us in ways that money can’t buy but Gianni Infantino thinks he can sell the essence of sport.
On Free State today Dion and Joe look at why sport is so important and why men like Infantino are a danger to the things that are most important in our lives.
Everybody wants to know how Mayo did it, but when something like this happens what is more important is why Mayo did it.
Why did these players play without fear? Why did the world weep along with Mayo people on Sunday when they won the All Ireland?
On Free State today we look at why Mayo were able to do what they did against Kerry.
In a county that has been waiting for so long, Joe and Dion look at how Andy Moran didn’t run from...
Will the world have changed thanks to the World Cup? Or did the world change while the World Cup was taking place and people were too busy watching the World Cup to notice.
On Free State today, the great novelist Joseph O’Neill talks to Dion about what he learned watching the World Cup and how the authoritarian US regime prospered during the tournament as other authoritarian regimes prospered in the past.
He talks us through hi...
Mayo have been denied in All Irelands in every way possible - balls bouncing over the bar, the referee blowing up early, own goals... they've also taken a few pastings along the way, but what will they do with the freedom they will have on Sunday?
Somehow Mayo have reached an All Ireland final this year against all odds, but does that make this year different? Does everything change because it would be one of the most stunning shock...
Did the World Cup final hit different from the million dollar seats or was the best thing about them the helicopter that flew you back to New York City?
On Free State, today we ask who mourns the end of Gianni Infantino’s dance with Donald Trump and the depraved nature of football today?
Dion does and he explains why football still matters despite the decadence at the top of the game. Things get heated as they discuss it and Di...
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
England lost at the semi final stage again but what does how players are shaped for professional football tell us about how they perform?
England lose when they play a team more cunning than them but they have a system designed for obedience.
Kids will be dreaming of playing in a World Cup but what is the reality of professional sport.
On Free State today we look at how the attritional nature of succeeding in sport can break so ...
And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make. It made sense for Paul McCartney and it makes sense when we consider why we engage with whatever gives us pleasure in life.
On Free State today we look at the meaning of sport. Why winning doesn’t matter as much as how sport makes you feel. Does this mean Mayo can win the All Ireland? Does it matter?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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