Laura Dockrill was just 14 years old when she first set eyes on her husband, Maccabees guitarist Hugo White. The pair quickly began an intense relationship, exchanging carefully curated mixtapes and letters doused in Body Shop perfume. Despite a longing on both sides, the teenagers never let their friendship spill over into romance. It is this tale…

In this episode, author and journalist Fiona McPhillips talks to Róisín Ingle about her new novel, When We Were Silent. It’s a thriller set in a Dublin convent school, where a culture of silence and abuse is rampant. The story was partly inspired by the 2020 podcast series about disgraced Irish swim coach George Gibney. In this wide-ranging convers…

I spoke to Sam Reich on this podcast back in the fall of 2020, when he was in his first year running Dropout, the subscription-based …By Sean L. McCarthy

I spoke to Sam Reich on this podcast back in the fall of 2020, when he was in his first year running Dropout, the subscription-based streaming platform he founded as a follow-up to CollegeHumor where he had worked for much of his adult life. Four years later, Reich and Dropout are ready to graduate to the big leagues, with one of their shows alread…

The Queen of Pop, Taylor Swift, is finally back in Dublin this weekend, bringing her Eras tour to more than 150 thousand fans at the Aviva Stadium over three nights. To celebrate the singer's return, we’ve gathered a panel of Swifties to talk about her music, stardom, and her dedicated fanbase. Writer, DJ, and disability activist Louise Bruton give…

Hank and John Green began influencing online viewing long before we tied the word influencer to social media, launching their Vlogbrothers YouTube channel on Jan. 1, 2007, …By Sean L. McCarthy

Hank and John Green began influencing online viewing long before we tied the word influencer to social media, launching their Vlogbrothers YouTube channel on Jan. 1, 2007, 17 years, 3.77 million subscribers and almost a billion views ago. Three years later, the brothers founded VidCon, the first and largest global gathering of YouTubers, growing si…

Last year, just 23% of all engineering graduates in Ireland were women, while female engineers currently represent just 12% of the profession. Orlagh Costello, an engineer, coach, and speaker, is on a mission to change this and to encourage more women into this very male-dominated industry. Ahead of International Women in Engineering Day on June 23…

At the age of 49 — three decades removed from an FBI drug bust that sent him to prison, and 24 years into his career …By Sean L. McCarthy

At the age of 49 — three decades removed from an FBI drug bust that sent him to prison, and 24 years into his career as an ex-con turned stand-up comedian — Ali Siddiq was still seeking his big break in show business. His debut special, It’s Bigger Than These Bars, found him back in a Texas jail performing for inmates, but it came and went on Comed…

According to psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Sabina Brennan, we all have the power to manifest our dreams into reality. However, it has nothing to do with wishful or magical thinking. Manifesting, she says, requires a change in the way we think and behave: it’s about learning how to harness the power of the brain. In her new book,The Neuroscienc…

When it comes to getting divorced in Ireland, many couples end up going through the Irish courts to settle their separation agreements. This process often involves one side battling against the other and can, in some cases, take years to finalise, costing anywhere from twenty to sixty thousand euros. According to divorce expert and author Michelle …

A regular on The Women's Podcast, journalist and author Caitlin Moran was in Dublin recently as part of her latest book tour. As someone who regularly discusses the problems of girls and women in public, Moran has often been confronted with the question: “But what about men?”. Indeed, the statistics on male misery are grim: boys are falling behind …

The local and European elections are taking place in just over two weeks time, on Friday June 7th. Since the beginning of the campaign, there have been a number of worrying incidents where election candidates have faced intimidation, harassment and abuse while out canvassing or hanging up party posters. Green Party Councillor Janet Horner and Socia…

Author, podcaster and fond friend of the show, Marian Keyes is back with her sixteenth novel ‘My Favourite Mistake’. It follows Anna Walsh, as she ditches her high-flying PR job and makes the move from the Big Apple to the wilds of Connemara. In this episode, Keyes talks to Róisín Ingle about abandoning the original idea for the book, in favour of …

In this episode, author Caroline Magennis talks to Róisín Ingle about her new book Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women. It’s a look beyond the often divisive conversation around choosing not to have children, and offers an alternative message of hope and celebration. We also hear from Margaret O’Connor, a Limerick-based psychotherapist and prese…

Zoë Coombs Marr is an Australian comedian who won Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2012, then returned four years later to …By Sean L. McCarthy

Zoë Coombs Marr is an Australian comedian who won Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2012, then returned four years later to win Best Show in Melbourne and receive a Best Show nomination in Edinburgh in 2016 for Trigger Warning, which she performed in drag character as a misogynistic male comedian named Dave. Coombs Mar…

It’s hard to believe the last time Wallis Bird was on the podcast was nearly five years ago in 2019. Since then, the Berlin-based musician has released two more albums, the latest of which, Visions of Venus, was released last month. It’s a creative collaboration with the German classical quintet Spark, and together they are showcasing 1000 years of…

Janine Harouni is a Staten Island native who began her stand-up comedy career in earnest only after moving to London, England, in 2012. Harouni experienced …By Sean L. McCarthy

Janine Harouni is a Staten Island native who began her stand-up comedy career in earnest only after moving to London, England, in 2012. Harouni experienced her first viral success as one-third of a sketch group called Muriel whose YouTube fame prompted deals with both the BBC and Quibi, and she’s also appeared onscreen in a recurring role on ITV’s …

Last November, Pastiche, a pop singer-songwriter from Malahide in Co Dublin was diagnosed with endometriosis, more than a decade after her first symptoms of the condition developed. While the diagnosis itself came as a relief, the 26-year-old was told she may face difficulties when trying to conceive later on. This ultimately led to her decision to…

Dave Merheje is an award-winning Canadian stand-up comedian and actor who co-starred in the Hulu series, Ramy, and recently co-starred on the big screen opposite …By Sean L. McCarthy

Dave Merheje is an award-winning Canadian stand-up comedian and actor who co-starred in the Hulu series, Ramy, and recently co-starred on the big screen opposite Daisy Ridley in the film, Sometimes I Think About Dying, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and is available now to buy or stream. As a stand-up, Dave won the Just For Laug…

Neal Brennan’s first big claim to fame came two decades ago when he co-created, wrote and executive produced Chappelle’s Show with his friend Dave Chappelle (with whom …By Sean L. McCarthy

Neal Brennan’s first big claim to fame came two decades ago when he co-created, wrote and executive produced Chappelle’s Show with his friend Dave Chappelle (with whom he’d previously collaborated on Half Baked). Since then, Chappelle has become both the biggest stand-up comedian in the world and a lightning rod for criticism. Brennan, meanwhile, h…

What does narcissism in mothers look like? According to psychotherapists Helen Villiers and Katie McKenna, the narcissistic mother can be “extremely critical, condescending, oppressive and very judgmental”, with devastating impacts for the entire family. They can also use covert or insidious tactics: taking on a victim role or using guilt tripping …

In this episode, Róisín Ingle talks to debut author Rebecca Ivory about her new collection of short stories Free Therapy. The book takes its name from the second story in the collection, but the theme of therapy is there throughout; Ivory’s own therapist even gets a mention in the acknowledgements. The collection takes us into the lives of people w…

Simone Gannon is a content creator, digital marketing expert and the new beauty writer at the Irish Times. Since the beginning of the new year, she’s been entertaining us with her weekly beauty column, where she experiments with the latest trends, imparts her wisdom on all things skincare and makeup and shares her favourite beauty buys. In this epi…

Rob Haze is a comedian from Atlanta who currently makes his living in Los Angeles performing stand-up and writing for comedy shows on TV — …By Sean L. McCarthy

Rob Haze is a comedian from Atlanta who currently makes his living in Los Angeles performing stand-up and writing for comedy shows on TV — among his credits are Sherman’s Showcase, the ESPY Awards, Kevin Hart’s year-in-review specials for Peacock, sketch comedy for Bleacher Report, stand-up on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and most recent…

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, so in this episode, we want to highlight the experience of two women living with the condition. Dearbhail Ormond is an entrepreneur and mother of one, with stage four endometriosis, who waited a staggering 18 years to get a diagnosis after seeing more than 20 doctors. Ormond tells Aideen Finnegan about her st…

It’s World Poetry Day today, so what better way to celebrate it than with one of our favourite poets and friend of the show, Jan Brierton. In this episode, Brierton, a self-described ‘accidental’ poet, joins Róisín Ingle to talk about her new book, Everybody Is A Poem. It’s s beautiful collection covering themes of love, loss, menopause, midlife, t…

Tilly Cripwell, a 22 year-old musician, who regularly performs beside the Molly Malone statue in Dublin, is on a mission to stop people from inappropriately touching the sculpture’s breasts. In this episode, Cripwell tells Róisín Ingle how she’s launched the ‘Leave Molly mAlone’ campaign with the aim of stopping this “misogynistic” tradition and to…

Cara Connors grew up in Chicago but began her comedy career in Toronto, where she studied with The Second City, created and starred in original …By Sean L. McCarthy

Cara Connors grew up in Chicago but began her comedy career in Toronto, where she studied with The Second City, created and starred in original series for CBC, provided social media humor for the series Workin’ Moms, and earned herself a New Faces slot with Just For Laughs. Since moving back to the states and settling down in Los Angeles, Connors h…

Caitlin Peluffo is a New York City-based comedian who played soccer in college and explored a degree and career in the art world before diving …By Sean L. McCarthy

Caitlin Peluffo is a New York City-based comedian who played soccer in college and explored a degree and career in the art world before diving into stand-up comedy. A decade later, Peluffo has performed on three different late-night shows on CBS — The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and most recently After Midn…

This International Women’s Day, we are turning our attention to the plight of Palestinian women and children. So far, more than 30,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the majority of which have been women and children. The UN and Human Rights Watch have called it a “war on women”, with an average of 63 women killed every si…

On International Women’s Day this year, March 8th, the Irish public will be asked to vote in two upcoming referendums. The first referendum concerns the definition of family as outlined in the Irish Constitution and proposes expanding the definition to recognise durable relationships. The second referendum proposes the removal of the reference to w…

Bill O’Neill is an actor and clown from Los Angeles whom you may recognize most readily from his frequent appearances in commercials as a Wendy’s employee. …By Sean L. McCarthy

Bill O'Neill is an actor and clown from Los Angeles whom you may recognize most readily from his frequent appearances in commercials as a Wendy’s employee. But O’Neill’s career goes back to his early teen years, when he scored a major speaking role in the 2008 film, Drillbit Taylor. A member of L.A.’s burgeoning clown community, he co-starred with …

In this episode, Kathy Sheridan is joined by British author and journalist Sarah Gristwood, who has just released her new book, Secret Voices: A Year of Women’s Diaries. It’s a captivating collection of diary entries from women, looking back over four centuries, to discover how their experience of everyday life has changed down the years and also h…

Zach Zucker is a clown-based comedian and actor who splits his time between Los Angeles and London, where he has become known as the ringmaster …By Sean L. McCarthy

Zach Zucker is a clown-based comedian and actor who splits his time between Los Angeles and London, where he has become known as the ringmaster for Stamptown, a variety show and production company he created that has helped develop and bring other shows from the United States, the U.K. and Europe to the Edinburgh Fringe and beyond. He also teaches …

Being a perfectionist may sound like a good thing, but don’t let the name fool you. A perfectionist’s life is far from perfect. If you are one, or you know one well, you’ll likely know of the debilitating effects that can come with a perfectionist’s constant quest for excellence. So why does it manifest and who is more likely to struggle with it? T…

Jason Sáenz is a comedian who grew up in Virginia, began performing improv in D.C., and became a fixture in New York City’s comedy scene …By Sean L. McCarthy

Jason Sáenz is a comedian who grew up in Virginia, began performing improv in D.C., and became a fixture in New York City’s comedy scene — where he wrote for a house sketch team at the Upright Citizens Brigade, performed stand-up, and went viral for his “Saenz Signs” — which eventually got him New Faces at Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival, and a…

In today’s episode, we’re dusting off our ‘cúpla focal’ and talking about the joys of Gaeilge with two Irish language innovators, Mollie Guidera, aka Múinteoir Mollie and comedian Áine Gallagher. But, don’t worry, you don’t need to have any Irish to enjoy this conversation. Guidera, an online Irish teacher tells Róisin Ingle how she discovered her …

Chris Grace is an actor who grew up in Texas, went to school in North Carolina and started his comedy career in earnest in New …By Sean L. McCarthy